If I hear the word "freedom" again I'm going to jump off a cliff (with the rest of the lemmings)
Dateline late June 25/early June 26 am, 2013
Funny. When the rabble of right wing/Christianist crazies fear that the Supreme Court might rule in favour of gay marriage -- something which doesn't affect those who are not gay and does not harm them in any way whatsoever, but merely offends their opinion of what other people should be doing -- they threaten to "disregard" the court's ruling and refuse to follow it. And they would, too. And their screams and tantrums would be heard at Arcturus. (Next day update, after Prop 8 & DOMA rulings: It's begun! :D)
Today the court arbitrarily destroyed one of the most fundamental laws maintaining what there is of democracy in this country (without even being overtly asked to, although who knows what's been going on behind the scenes?) the Voting Rights Act, which as recently as 2006 had 100% bipartisan support and was signed into renewal by George W. Bush, most unelected President of them all -- a law which affects millions of people in this country, and whose being overturned opens up a free-for-all of repressive laws and practices all intended to guarantee a Republican majority forever and allow the erasure, by the rich who own Washington, of the few sane policies still remaining from the 20th century. Thus pretty much wrapping up the process the Supreme Court began in 2000 by setting aside the voters in favour of anointing their own candidate as President. Will we hear cries from any opposition groups to "disregard" this current ruling? No. Everyone will bow their heads and watch the country slide into the ocean (or it slide over us thanks to global warming). The radical right can do whatever it wants, with impunity. If they are defeated by a huge effort (as happened with the extremely repressive abortion law in Texas tonight), they do not accept popular opinion or political defeat. They simply sneak the law through attached to something else or vote it in at a secret or unannounced special session or some such underhanded tactic. They are not shy about showing their contempt for democracy. They get and stay in power by manipulation of everything they can manipulate -- gerrymandering of districts to get their guys in and powerful opponents out, being one the main methods. They hit snags from time to time, but they ignore them, come back, and win by any means necessary. They are zealots, fanatics.
Democrats, and reasonable people in general, are incapable of coping with these tactics. They do not comprehend the fanaticism of this bunch. After 30 years of these people undermining and gradually destroying this country and indeed the world economy, people still don't get it.
By the way, if there were an actual government in this country instead of a clown car towing a broken-down oxcart, fixing at least part of the Voting Rights Act would be simple enough. Polling places must be based on population. Race, economic status doesn't enter into it. All areas must have equal access to polling places based entirely on population density, and waiting times to vote must be equal throughout the state. If there is a delay during an election, somebody has to get in there and fix it pronto. This would be entirely doable, of course.
Of course, theoretically population is how congressional districts are allocated, too, isn't it. Ho ho.
And if local governments want people to have identity cards to vote, then those must be issued automatically by the government for free, based on minimal ID records with broad criteria -- i.e., they are easy to get and inclusive. In fact, they should just be sent out along with those notices they send out of polling places and times (or do they not send those out in Southern states?) Better yet, just have a computerized database of voters in a district at the polling places themselves and accept any sort of evidence of identity, if there is any question of a person's identity when they come in to vote. Only if the same person tried to vote twice, even different locations, would it trigger the notification that some sort of error or hanky panky was going on, since the record of that person already having voted would be in the database. It's not hard to do. It is a lot easier to do than it apparently is to make electronic voting machines work properly.
Of course, the only reason for such laws is not to stop those who are not qualified to vote from voting -- a vanishingly minuscule problem -- but rather to weed out potential Democratic voters and to suppress turnout in general, which is always a factor favourable to Republicans.
Without a genuine legislative intention for fairness, of course, fairness doesn't happen. That is why democracy is dead in this country unless an awful lot more people smarten up. And, as Texas showed last night, even when they do smarten up they have a hell of a fight before them just to restore basic rights. (I'm surprised the Texas legislature didn't arrest all those protestors as "terrorists," as the Occupy people and other peaceniks always get labelled, but that will come soon enough if such insurrections of democracy continue.)
Funny. When the rabble of right wing/Christianist crazies fear that the Supreme Court might rule in favour of gay marriage -- something which doesn't affect those who are not gay and does not harm them in any way whatsoever, but merely offends their opinion of what other people should be doing -- they threaten to "disregard" the court's ruling and refuse to follow it. And they would, too. And their screams and tantrums would be heard at Arcturus. (Next day update, after Prop 8 & DOMA rulings: It's begun! :D)
Today the court arbitrarily destroyed one of the most fundamental laws maintaining what there is of democracy in this country (without even being overtly asked to, although who knows what's been going on behind the scenes?) the Voting Rights Act, which as recently as 2006 had 100% bipartisan support and was signed into renewal by George W. Bush, most unelected President of them all -- a law which affects millions of people in this country, and whose being overturned opens up a free-for-all of repressive laws and practices all intended to guarantee a Republican majority forever and allow the erasure, by the rich who own Washington, of the few sane policies still remaining from the 20th century. Thus pretty much wrapping up the process the Supreme Court began in 2000 by setting aside the voters in favour of anointing their own candidate as President. Will we hear cries from any opposition groups to "disregard" this current ruling? No. Everyone will bow their heads and watch the country slide into the ocean (or it slide over us thanks to global warming). The radical right can do whatever it wants, with impunity. If they are defeated by a huge effort (as happened with the extremely repressive abortion law in Texas tonight), they do not accept popular opinion or political defeat. They simply sneak the law through attached to something else or vote it in at a secret or unannounced special session or some such underhanded tactic. They are not shy about showing their contempt for democracy. They get and stay in power by manipulation of everything they can manipulate -- gerrymandering of districts to get their guys in and powerful opponents out, being one the main methods. They hit snags from time to time, but they ignore them, come back, and win by any means necessary. They are zealots, fanatics.
Democrats, and reasonable people in general, are incapable of coping with these tactics. They do not comprehend the fanaticism of this bunch. After 30 years of these people undermining and gradually destroying this country and indeed the world economy, people still don't get it.
By the way, if there were an actual government in this country instead of a clown car towing a broken-down oxcart, fixing at least part of the Voting Rights Act would be simple enough. Polling places must be based on population. Race, economic status doesn't enter into it. All areas must have equal access to polling places based entirely on population density, and waiting times to vote must be equal throughout the state. If there is a delay during an election, somebody has to get in there and fix it pronto. This would be entirely doable, of course.
Of course, theoretically population is how congressional districts are allocated, too, isn't it. Ho ho.
And if local governments want people to have identity cards to vote, then those must be issued automatically by the government for free, based on minimal ID records with broad criteria -- i.e., they are easy to get and inclusive. In fact, they should just be sent out along with those notices they send out of polling places and times (or do they not send those out in Southern states?) Better yet, just have a computerized database of voters in a district at the polling places themselves and accept any sort of evidence of identity, if there is any question of a person's identity when they come in to vote. Only if the same person tried to vote twice, even different locations, would it trigger the notification that some sort of error or hanky panky was going on, since the record of that person already having voted would be in the database. It's not hard to do. It is a lot easier to do than it apparently is to make electronic voting machines work properly.
Of course, the only reason for such laws is not to stop those who are not qualified to vote from voting -- a vanishingly minuscule problem -- but rather to weed out potential Democratic voters and to suppress turnout in general, which is always a factor favourable to Republicans.
Without a genuine legislative intention for fairness, of course, fairness doesn't happen. That is why democracy is dead in this country unless an awful lot more people smarten up. And, as Texas showed last night, even when they do smarten up they have a hell of a fight before them just to restore basic rights. (I'm surprised the Texas legislature didn't arrest all those protestors as "terrorists," as the Occupy people and other peaceniks always get labelled, but that will come soon enough if such insurrections of democracy continue.)