Good morning!

What some people don’t realize is the importance of Governors in our government. Most of us think that the President is the chief executive that will have a greater effect on our daily lives, but it’s really the chief executive, a governor, that has power in so many different areas, that will.

Hear me out. Like the federal government, governors head state governments with executive, legislative and judicial branches too. The governor on a state level, acts like a president of his or her state, performing many of the same functions that the U.S. president does at the national level. They set policy, appoint department heads. They prepare and administer a budget, recommends legislation, and signs laws. In most states, the governor also plays an important role in appointing state and local judges.

Think of it this way:

1. The President controls the country.

The federal government has three branches of government – they are all equal.

1. The executive branch enforces and executes the law.
2. The legislative branch makes law.
3. The judicial branch judges whether the law is constitutional on a federal level.

2. The Governor controls the state.

The state government has the same three branches of government as above – they are all equal. (So does the city. A mayor is like the president on a city level.) These branches of government are called Congress. (except on a city level where there is only a Board of Supervisors – but we won’t get into that here.)

The U.S. government is a federal system and runs very, very few programs such as Social Security and Medicare. They also run national defense and the national parks programs. Almost everything else in the system is really run by state government, which is the reason why who is the position of governor of a state is a very big deal.

So what do I mean by everything else? Well I won’t get into all of the details except the ones that I feel are going to impact our future, which are three major areas:

• Governors have the power and have exercised it well when it comes to redistricting. When a state gains or loses a congressional seat, district boundaries are redrawn by the governor and the state legislature. These boundaries, some creating very odd shaped districts, are done intentionally so that the House incumbent has the ability to keep his or her safe in the coming elections. (Reps are elected every 2 years – in my opinion this should be 3-4 years.) In other words it’s like roping off an area of just your party people to ensure that you have the majority to win. This is known as gerrymandering. Gerrymandering can take place almost anytime; the politicians doing it just need to argue that a shift in population distribution justifies redrawing district lines. Usually, though, it takes place after the national census, which is every 10 years.

• Governors control the voting booth machines/hardware. It seems that whoever controls the voting machines wins. The repubs are not going to be fair when it comes to the elections. We all know this. If the repubs are controlling the voting machines, they will cheat and steal votes to win. They have done it before and they will do it again. Need I say more here?

• Governors control who can vote, how many days they have to vote, the places they can vote and the quality and quantity of voting machines that will be available at a polling place. When a governor takes advantage of their position and makes it difficult for a certain type of person or race to vote, it’s called disenfranchisement. We’re experiencing this right now in many states.

I bring this up because we have all been focusing on retaining control of the Senate, which is very important. But I don’t want to make the mistake of not showing the importance of maintaining the Dem governorships that we have and attaining more in this coming election. Because, historically, the sitting president’s party tends to lose four or five gubernatorial (governorship) seats in a midterm election. We do not want that to happen in November.

So it is not only important to vote in your senators but your governors as well. Controlling Congress on a federal level is good but if the repubs control it on a state level, we are not going to be in a good position for future elections, because they will cheat and steal their way to gain control in any way they can. And believe me they are working to do it on the state level too.

Here’s a write from CBS News. Its main points are not on what I have been mentioning above but it does show us where we need to focus in November when it comes to the gubernatorial elections, and how the repubs might get ahead in 2016 if we don’t pay attention and vote them out.

2014 governors races: Does the GOP’s future start here?

Readers: I HOPE this is clear. Are you with me on this? Blog me your thoughts.

Juan, Will et al: Do as much as you can to get them there. We really can make a difference if we all show up. A no show is a vote for the republicans. If they think that enough is not getting done now, they will really learn what that means if the repubs take control. Total apathy and being lazy is not acceptable. I do not want to hear people complain later on if they do nothing now. We have the power. If we lose we have only us to blame. Let’s give it our best efforts. OK? Helen said it well.

Pablo: I do not want to see what hitting bottom is like, and wake up to our plight. Young voters…women…OTWs, will feel it the worst.

Jessica: That’s what I say, Dems. Do something different for the midterms and show up in hordes and vote. It really can be that easy.

Thelma: I was confused by your comment. But now after seeing your second comment, I get it. Sickening, as well as crazy to think that way, right?

Howie: After reading your comment about the aliens, this is going to be a huge change for many aliens as well as humans that they are in relationship with.

How do I feel about your second comment, Howie? I am sickened too. I get so caught up in the happenings of the world that it is challenging to separate myself from it all. I can only imagine what Obama must be going through having to deal with all of this worldwide. The world is getting very small. It’s just too bad that we can’t create peace and all get along, and share this small planet.

I HOPE Israel is paying attention. What does Carr say about all of this? Is he usually amused with human behavior or does any other emotion arise as well?

Peace & Love…

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

A few topics to sink your teeth into, that I am just noticing. 

When you can’t get the cops to help you, ladies, take matters into your own hands. Social media might be the avenue.

#1 from the Huff Po:

Woman Tweets Photo Of Alleged Groper

SEATTLE (AP) — Police say a convicted sex offender is a person of interest in a groping incident involving a Seattle woman who turned to social media when she decided a police officer didn’t seem to care enough.

Police said late Wednesday on their website that the man is currently in jail for a violation of his state Corrections Department supervision.

The Seattle Times reported that Julia Marquand photographed the alleged groper with her cellphone after the incident last Sunday and filed a police report.

She says a female officer took down details but had to be persuaded to look at the cell phone photo. So Marquand posted the man’s photo on her Twitter and Facebook accounts, saying, “This dude groped me in Seattle yesterday. Cops didn’t want the pic.”

Within a few hours, Seattle police contacted Marquand and said her case had been assigned to a detective.

Police spokesman Drew Fowler said earlier that it wasn’t the tweet itself that caused police to re-evaluate Marquand’s case, but it alerted the department to a “deficiency” in the way her case was handled.

*****

#2 Need protection? If you really feel the cops aren’t on your side but they are actually against you, like we have seen in so many instances lately, this one company has come up with an idea that could further help prevent police brutality. Will it work?

Also from the Huff Po:

Company Makes Gun Tech That Could Help Prevent Police Brutality

Police may soon start using electronic guns that can track how, when and where the weapons are used, which could lead to greater accountability in investigations of police shootings.

The firearms technology company Yardarm Technologies has developed a new product that can record crucial information about when, where and how police officers use their firearms. This technology could be a welcome tool amid growing criticism of heavy-handed police tactics in the U.S., which were exemplified by the controversy around the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August.

Yardarm’s new system can recognize and record things such as when the weapon is unholstered, when a magazine is inserted, when the first bullet enters the chamber and when and (roughly) where the weapon is fired, company spokesman Jim Schaff told The Huffington Post. Soon, Yardarm plans to give the gun the ability to know the direction and angle of each shot, Schaff said.

Why is it important to know this information? The system can provide an objective record of an incident in which a police officer used his weapon, Schaff said, which could be helpful in an investigation. He added that it “goes both ways” — the data could also be used to exonerate an officer accused of misconduct, or to prosecute a criminal in a court of law.

“We’re there to show what happened, to make an accurate reporting of the event, so that it can be used as necessary after the fact,” Schaff said.

Earlier this month, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department and the Carrollton, Texas, Police Department began equipping some of their officers’ Glocks with the new technology, Yardarm stated in a press release Friday.

“We’re looking forward to what we believe law enforcement is heading towards,” Carrollton Police Sgt. Wes Rutherford told HuffPost. “We thought we might be interested in purchasing this in the future.”

Schaff added that the technology can be also be used to keep police officers safer. When an officer draws his weapon, for example, the gun will send an alert to the police command center and to nearby officers, alerting them to a potentially dangerous situation.

Yardarm does not manufacture an actual gun, but a two-inch long device that fits into the grip of an existing gun. That device detects the gun’s every movement through high-powered motion sensors known as accelerometers.

“It’s the same kind of sensor your iPhone uses to change the screen from vertical to horizontal when you turn the phone to the side,” Schaff said. “But ours is way more powerful.”

Currently, for the sensor to work, an officer must be carrying a smartphone. That’s because the device sends a signal through the officer’s phone and then on to Yardarm’s data servers in Washington and Texas, where the information is stored for future use.

The SENSOR can also detect, to a limited extent, where each shot is fired in relation to the shots that were previously fired. “If you fire a shot and then moved laterally ten feet and fired another, we’d know that you moved,” Schaff said. “But three feet? Maybe not.”

Rutherford noted that the sensor could be helpful in an event where an officer uses his gun on a civilian. “Whenever we investigate an officer-involved shooting, we look for every particular avenue that we can, to obtain the objective information, in order to piece together the whole puzzle of what happened,” he said. “So it could absolutely help, yes.”

One of the most recent major development in police officer accountability is the use of body-worn cameras by officers in several states across the country, a practice that has received greater attention after Brown’s killing. Studies have shown that when officers wear video cameras on their uniforms, they’re significantly less likely to use force in their interactions with civilians. Civilian complaints against officers have also been shown to drop when officers wear the cameras, suggesting that this kind of technology could save cities money by reducing litigation fees.

Dashboard cameras, which became popular in the 1990s, have also proven useful for providing an objective record of problematic encounters between civilians and police: Camera footage often helps cut through the he-said-she-said chatter that inevitably accompanies allegations of police misconduct.

But there is a welter of issues with police recording themselves on the job, includingprivacy concerns and the nation’s complicated patchwork of consent laws. Another problem is that video footage isn’t always as reliable as we think. “Sometimes there can be multiple gunshots and it will sound like one, because they cover each other up,” said David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh and a police accountability expert.

And even though dashboard cameras have been around for years, they still aren’t used in some places in the United States. Body-worn cameras, a much newer concept, are hardly used at all, though more cities are starting to consider them.

For as long as police officers have carried guns, advocates have bemoaned the lack of data and accountability regarding police shootings. To date, there is still no official data on how many people are shot by cops in the United States every year.

Gun tracking technology like Yardarm’s would add to the amount of data available to law enforcement officers and courts about controversial officer-involved shootings. Knowing where and when each shot is fired could bring greater transparency to investigations of these episodes.

In Brown’s case, the version of events recounted by Darren Wilson, the officer who shot him, has at times been at odds with accounts from witnesses. But it’s not clear that the sequence of events would be any less hazy if Wilson had been using Yardarm’s technology.

“Cameras and sensors on weapons would represent a quantum leap forward in policing and accountability,” said Kirsten John Foy, a civil rights advocate who is also the Northeast Regional Director of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. “But technology has its limitations as well. You can’t understand a person’s intent, a person’s mindset, or the circumstances which that officer felt made it necessary to use deadly force. It won’t record those things.”

“So I think we have to be mindful that policing is not just a science, it’s also an art form,” he added. “And there are other factors that have to be taken into account.”

This isn’t the first time Yardarm Technologies has attempted to develop a firearm to help address public safety issues. After the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Yardarm set out to create a consumer “smart gun” that could be remotely disabled using an app. But the company abandoned that plan when it realized how politically controversial the idea was. Compared to the consumer market, Yardarm encountered much less resistance marketing its technologies to law enforcement, Schaff told HuffPost earlier this year.

CORRECTION: This article originally suggested that Yardarm manufactures its own firearm. Rather it makes a small sensor that fits into an existing gun.

*****

#3 This one is shocking and sickening, but no surprise considering what has been heavily in the news lately.

From Think Progress.

Report: Black Male Teens Are 21 Times More Likely To Be Killed By Cops Than White Ones

Lesley McSpadden, right, the mother of 18-year-old Michael Brown, watches as Brown’s father, Michael Brown Sr., holds up a family picture of himself, his son, top left in photo, and a young child during a news conference Monday, Aug. 11, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. Michael Brown, 18, was shot and killed in a confrontation with police in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Mo, on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014.

CREDIT: AP PHOTO / JEFF ROBERSON

There’s a lot we don’t know about how many people have actually been killed at police hands in the United States, thanks to woefully inadequate transparency and federal record-keeping. But there’s one thing we do now know: Among those we do know were shot by police, black teens were 21 times more likely to be shot deadthan their white counterparts.

“The 1,217 deadly police shootings from 2010 to 2012 captured in the federal data show that blacks, age 15 to 19, were killed at a rate of 31.17 per million, while just 1.47 per million white males in that age range died at the hands of police,” a new ProPublica report explains, noting that if whites were killed at the same ratio there would have been another 185 white deaths, just during that three-year period, just of those in that narrow age range.

To arrive at this statistic, ProPublica analyzed the list of 12,000 police shooting deaths that were self-reported by agencies to the Federal Bureau of Investigation between 1980 and 2012. Because this data is self-reported and departments are not required to submit information, this data likely significantly undercounts the number of shootings. Florida departments, for example, haven’t submitted data since 1997 and New York City hasn’t submitted data since 2007. And the FBI asks only for “justifiable homicide”figures, meaning in those instances where the shootings are most overtly viewed as unjustified or the litigation is ongoing, departments are less likely to report.

Still, assessing available data may provide the best insight we have into how grave racial disparities in police violence are, particularly when it comes to young black men, who were stopped by NYPD officers in 2011 more times than the total number of young black men in New York City. Unsurprisingly, past analyses have also found disproportionate violence against blacks, including a 2007 investigation by Colorlines and the Chicago Reporter in 10 major cities. An NAACP report of Oakland, California, found that 37 of 45 police-involved shootings were of blacks, while zero were of whites. “Although weapons were not found in 40 percent of cases, the NAACP found, no officers were charged,” Mother Jones reported.

Studies of human and police behavior suggest that racial bias is baked into policing, particularly because individuals misperceive the threat posed by African Americans. Nonetheless, a 2012 poll after the George Zimmerman verdict found that that the gap between whites and blacks who think the justice system is biased was greater than ever.

*****

Readers: Notice a common thread here? Choose one to chat about or all three. Your call. Blog me.

Happy Sunday everyone! Go Giants!

Peace out. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

Christie Is Complaining Again

Chris Christie Joins Other Wealthy Conservatives In Bashing Minimum Wage

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie opened up yesterday about his feelings on the progressive efforts to raise the minimum wage and lift millions of hard-working Americans out of poverty: “I’m tired of hearing about the minimum wage,” he said. “I really am.”

Christie is the 4th-highest paid governor in America, earning $175,000 per year. And as the Chairman of the Republican Governors Association, these comments channel the views of a number of his colleagues or would-be colleagues: there is a growing list of other Republicans governors or candidates who oppose raising the minimum wage and sometimes even deny whether we need a minimum wage at all. Here are a few:

• Florida Governor Rick Scott (Net Worth: $133 million): In a gubernatorial debate Tuesday night, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) was asked whether he supports the concept of a minimum wage. “Sure,” he replied. But when asked what it should be, he responded, “How would I know — I mean, the private sector decides wages.” He may not have an answer for where the minimum wage should be, but he’s ensured that Floridians can’t decide for themselves. In 2013, he signed a bill that bans local cities and counties from passing their own higher wages or other benefits like paid sick days.
• Illinois candidate for Governor Bruce Rauner (Net Worth: Nearly $1 Billion): In a newly released radio interview, Rauner, who spends more on wine than most Illinois households spend on everything, admitted that he once favored eliminating the minimum wage entirely. His campaign asserts that “his past statements about the minimum wage were a mistake.”
• Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (Net Worth: Unknown): When asked whether there should or should not be a minimum wage, Walker responded that he “doesn’t think it serves a purpose.” A few weeks ago, Walker’s administration determined that the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour was a living wage, ignoring the workers who told him that it wasn’t.

In Kansas, a top economic adviser to Governor Sam Brownback went even farther, calling the federal minimum wage the “black teenage unemployment act” while speaking to Fox News.

BOTTOM LINE: So, Chris Christie, you are “tired of hearing about the minimum wage”? Try living on it. Hard-working women and men are trying to raise families on the minimum wage, and it is only getting harder and harder for them to make ends meet. A federal minimum wage of $10.10 could lift nearly 5 million Americans out of poverty and boost the economy by billions of dollars.

*****

Blog Me.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Wha’at??

Good morning!

Translation: “We’re trying to suppress all OTWs from voting but if somehow in all of our efforts to prevent you from voting, you are able to vote, then vote republican.”

Sickos. 

I realize that lately I have been posting a lot about voting. Well, just to let you know, I am going to continue to post a lot about voting. The midterms are less than 2 weeks away, and afterwards, you won’t hear a peep from me about voting. Well…that is unless you don’t get to the polls and we don’t accomplish our goals. And then you’re gonna hear me bitchin’. But hey, I’m not going to go there. I have faith that we can do this.

Paula: Speaking of wooing women and OTWs, here’s an excellent write that I found:

From New York Magazine:

Republicans Trying to Woo, or at Least Suppress, Minority Vote

Photo: Eva Hambach/AFP/Getty Images

This weekend, the Supreme Court, by its customary 5-4 partisan split, issued an emergency ruling upholding Republican-authored voter-identification laws in Texas. The Texas law, like other legislation resembling it elsewhere, imposes disproportionate burdens on poor and nonwhite voters — or, as the Republicans hope, non-voters.

Meanwhile, in what feels like unrelated news, Republicans continue to rack their brains for ideas to increase their share of the minority vote. Whatever could they do to convince these nonwhite Americans that the Grand Old Party has their best interests at heart? Rand Paul and Chris Christie, reports the Daily Beast, recently appeared at a Republican confab on Fifth Avenue, where they jostled to position themselves as the Party’s true hope for diversification. Earlier this spring, Paul tentatively questioned his party’s obsession with rooting out almost entirely imaginary voter fraud, but almost immediately retracted his heresy. (“I agree, there’s nothing wrong with [voter I.D. laws],” he told Sean Hannity. “To see Eric Holder, you’ve got to show your drivers license to get in the building. So I don’t really object to having some rules for how we vote.”) Christie has opposed measures to make voting easier, like same-day registration and early voting. They have a two-track approach to the minority vote: make it as hard as possible for them to vote, while simultaneously persuading those who do vote to vote for them.

The Republican Party’s strategy of making voting as difficult as possible is borne out of the correct observation that impediments to voting disproportionately ward off Democratic-leaning constituencies. It is true that anybody is legally entitled to obtain the identification needed to comply with Republican-mandated voting requirements. But poor voters are much less likely to have such identification in the first place, and voting restrictions create additional bureaucratic hassles that they are the least equipped to handle. A recent report by Richard Sobel, of Harvard’s Institute for Race & Justice, tallied the cost of obtaining the required voter identification — the costs include the direct fee in obtaining identification, plus transportation, plus time. The costs usually range from $75 to $175, an exorbitant expense for a low-income person in order to do an activity that carries no direct personal benefit.

The report aptly presents voting restrictions as a modern form of the poll tax, which was outlawed in 1964. Indeed, the costs of contemporary voter I.D. requirements, even in inflation-adjusted terms, is many times the level of the poll taxes that existed before they were outlawed in 1964.

Photo: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images

Republican efforts to restrict early voting have the same effect. Low-income workers have less flexibility in their jobs and less access to convenient transportation and child care. Extended weekend and evening voting hours ease that burden — which, like voting-identification laws, functions just like a poll tax. A boss or a manager or a married person or a retiree can more easily rearrange his or her schedule to make it to a polling station on a given Tuesday in November. A wage worker or a single parent might have a harder time.

Republicans tend to present voter-identification laws as a necessary deterrent to in-person voter impersonation, a virtually nonexistent crime. Whether Republicans genuinely fear vote fraud, or have used it as a cynical pretext, is an irrelevant question. Humans have a remarkable capacity to develop moral justifications for our perceived self-interest.

But the Republican crusade to limit early voting places conservatives in an awkward position. The conservative movement has invested enormous energy into the task of convincing their adherents that in-person fraud is pervasive, a feat they have accomplished through relentless fulmination on the subject, and sometimes by committing actual voter fraud. This massive propaganda campaign has supplied conservatives with ample reasons to justify to their satisfaction with the Party’s crusade for purported anti-fraud laws, like voter-identification requirements. It has left a relative dearth of justifications for restricting early voting, which matters just as much. Into this chasm steps National Review’s John Fund, a leading agitator for Republican vote-suppression policies, who has a column arguing against early voting as well. Fund’s column frets that early voting has made us “redefine ourselves as a nation of convenience voters and abandon one of the only remaining occasions on which Americans come together as a nation to perform a collective civic duty.”

Fund offers several reasons why more convenient early and weekend voting presents a danger to the Republic (as opposed to the Republican Party, whose partisan interest he does not mention).

1. The strongest argument Fund musters is to warn that letting people cast a vote early would prevent them from being influenced by late-breaking campaign developments, like news of George W. Bush’s 1976 DUI arrest. The counterpoint is that undecided voters who need every precious day of campaign news to make up their mind, after months and months of campaigning, can always choose to wait until the last moment before casting their vote, rather than being forced to do so by being given just one day.

There is actually a perfect solution that would address Fund’s professions of deep social commitment to a single national voting day while also addressing concerns about the inconvenience. You’d simply have to make Election Day a national holiday. Sadly, Fund — who does not mention this idea in his most recent article — has previously dismissed it on the grounds that creating a holiday on a Tuesday would lead to people skipping work on the preceding Monday. (It “might do little more than create a de facto Saturday to Tuesday four-day weekend,” he wrote, in 2005.) So that’s out, too.

Photo: Win McNamee/2013 Getty Images

2. Fund also argues that holding elections on a single date is a Constitutional requirement, or at least sort of Constitutional-ish:

The notion of Election Day isn’t just a tradition; it’s in the Constitution. Article II, Section 1 states that “Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the United States.” Congress codified this requirement in 1872 by setting a uniform presidential election date.

If you read this passage slowly, you will note the progressive deterioration of Fund’s argument. The first sentence asserts baldly that a single election day is “in the Constitution,” which sounds like, you know, a requirement. This raises the question of why Republicans have not mounted a successful constitutional law challenge against early voting.

The answer begins to reveal itself in Fund’s second sentence. It explains that the Constitution states that Congress “may” — but not must — set a uniform day for “choosing the Electors,” which is not the same thing as voting, anyway. (You could choose the electors on a single day after you count all the votes, which may be cast over a longer period of time.)

The final sentence points out, correctly, that there was no set day until Congress decided to create one in 1872, which is another way of saying that a single day when everybody votes is not in the Constitution at all.

3. Fund argues that voting shouldn’t be convenient because fast food is convenient and fast food can be unhealthy:

There’s no doubt that many people in our increasingly mobile and hectic society want voting to be as easy and convenient as buying fast food. But too much of anything can be bad — just ask someone who has gorged on drive-thru burgers and fries.

One really does not know what to say here. Yes, people want voting and fast food to be easy and convenient. They want this for everything. People also like access to potable water to be easy and convenient. Perhaps this is an actual principle for Fund, who may have once experienced an episode of hamburger-gorging so humiliating, it left him with the misplaced but genuine belief that society must deliberately make convenient tasks more onerous, and he will soon propose that we eliminate indoor plumbing and go back to hauling water from the well with jugs. Alternatively, he merely favors government regulations that impose difficulty and inconvenience upon the public in this one way that happens to benefit the Republican Party.

According to the Daily Beast, Christie and Paul want to reassure voters “who view the Republican Party through the lens of its anti-civil-rights past.” Actually, the Republican Party’s past record on civil rights is not so bad. It’s the present that is the problem.

*****

Readers: What do you have to say? Blog me.

Ella: Thanks for your list. This is a good one for all to read so that you can be wary of any information that doesn’t sound right about voting in their state. Everyone should not believe everything they hear and do their research to stay informed. And remember…there is no late voting after the 4th. If you don’t vote before or on Tuesday, the 4th of November, you have just kissed your vote goodbye and handed it over to the repubs.

John: In theory, the suggestion to pick up peeps and get them registered, sounds great. I HOPE people are doing just that. However, it doesn’t seem to be a very simple process getting an I.D. From what I hear, to get one you may have to go through a lot of red tape, depending upon your state. Not that it isn’t worth it, but some might have a very challenging time, especially if they are working. And most that don’t have an I.D. are working people.

If you read the above write, it is difficult enough for people to get time off just to cast their vote,  let alone run around from place to place working on getting their I.D. And many just can’t afford it. For many they probably didn’t think these laws would get passed and now that they have, they have even less time to run out and get an I.D., and right now time is of the essence.

Readers: All I can say, is that it is so important that everyone votes. I encourage everyone to register, and if needed, get that voter I.D. If someone who is challenged physically or financially to register or get that voter I.D., and you can help, that would be the best. The more we can do for others that can’t, the more we will all benefit. It will be worth your time and money, if you can help out in any way that you can. Thank you.

If you have questions about whether you need a voter I.D. in your state, click this title:  VOTER IDENTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS | VOTER ID LAWS for the latest. This was updated on October 21st, 2014.

Nate: Nicely stated. I HOPE people will read and heed.

This is a good place for me to end. I’ll catch up and comment on the rest tomorrow. Thanks again for being here with me.

Peace & Love: “Live it, Give it.”

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

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All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Good morning!

Cynthia: Great question. My thoughts exactly!

Readers: In case you don’t know what Cynthia and I are talking about, here’s the write from the Huff Po. It is Wednesday, hump day, and we all need a little break from the serious but important stuff. Although, this is still politics but the more humorous side of it.

♥♥♥

Readers: Oh, what I would’ve given to be voting alongside of our president. The kiss would’ve been sweet too.

Blog me. 

Now go vote. :) I just had to sneak that in.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"