But someone has to correct these clowns.
Archives for June 2013
I guess I never realized that states have feelings, too
Within 24 hours of the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the law requiring nine states to submit voting law changes to the federal government for pre-clearance, five* are already moving ahead with voter ID laws, some of which had already been rejected as discriminatory under the Voting Rights Act.
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said the law requiring federal approval of voting changes “humiliates Arizona by making it say ‘Mother may I’ to the federal government every time it wants to change some remarkably minor laws.” (The state’s own law requiring voters to submit proof of citizenship was struck down 7-2 by the Supreme Court last week.)
It only took a few hours for TEXAS to move forward on its voter ID law, considered the strictest in the nation.
A court blocked the law in 2012 because it discriminated against Latino and black voters.
Ah, the “humiliation” of the State of Arizona-tough luck, citizens. Your rights came in a distant second to the emotional needs and hurt feelings of… your state. Is this loony, or what? Just crazy. Anyway. I’ll give you the rundown of what we do in Ohio to protect the rights of voters. I’ve never worried all that much about the feelings of the State of Ohio in all this, because I’m mean like that.
An election lawyer in Columbus runs the program. She is paid by the state Party. She then recruits 88 volunteer lawyers to head up the program in each county on the ground. In a rural county like mine it would stop there with one lawyer in a county, but in a more populous county the lead lawyer then recruits other lawyers. She sends us basic information on the Ohio statutes and rules that govern voting. Ohio Republicans often change voting rules in the weeks immediately prior to an election, so we get frequent updates. The lead lawyer will then offer training for the 88 county leads. There will be two or three training days offered, usually on a Saturday. I have been at this a while so I usually attend only the last training prior to the election.
The lead lawyer puts together a packet of the documents we have to file to act as observers. In the past we filed the “entries” individually in our respective counties, but now they’re all filed in Columbus, so we just print them out. We submit a paper copy in each polling place we enter on Election Day and then take an oath that is similar to the oath poll workers take. This is all pursuant to Ohio rules that govern polling places.
We start observation early in Ohio because we have early voting. I just pick days and blocks of time and go to the Board of Elections and observe. I listen to the poll workers and voters interact and if I observe that a poll worker is not following the rules I go and tell the supervisory staff at the Board of Elections. The staff member then corrects the poll worker. I never approach a voter or interact with voters in any way inside a polling place.
Sometime before Election Day, I determine which polling places I will visit. Again, I have been at this a while, so I know which polling places consistently have problems either interpreting the rules or following them. People here also call me with questions or problems they’ve observed or experienced. If I can’t solve a problem by appealing to the lead poll worker or the Board of Elections staff, I would then call the Board of Elections members. If they were no help and we needed a court to intervene I would then contact the lead lawyer in Columbus and she’d direct it from there. On election day, we’re in periodic contact with the lead lawyer using a “boiler room” set up that is separate and apart from the GOTV boiler room candidates and campaigns have running.
I know we’re not the only state that has a voter protection plan in place. It’s not that difficult to set up. Voting enthusiasts here put a lot of work into this after the 2004 election and we get better and more organized every cycle, because the volunteers return year after year. Ideally, we’d have a two-pronged legal approach to voter suppression in the states no longer protected by those VRA section(s) recklessly discarded by the Supreme Court. Laws and rule changes can be challenged pre-election through litigation, but we also need a comprehensive ground effort to respond quickly to individual voter and polling place issues and anything that has to be filed in a hurry. One does that by relying on local lawyers in each county or city.
I guess I never realized that states have feelings, tooPost + Comments (78)
Because It’s The First Friday Of The We Must All Gay Marry Now Epoch
Waaaay down at the near-death end of our man-on-grasshopper thread below, someone asked where all the Sesame Street love might be.
Answer: Onto the cover of The New Yorker.
Someone else (Different Church Lady, I believe) noted that the art in that post was not exactly the kind of old-mastery stuff y’all have come to expect from Tom Pretentious Art Douche Levenson, so here’s are a couple of possibly appropriately themed pic for those of you hooked on oil paints:
(Below the jump just in case anyone’s at a particularly picky work place.)
Because It’s The First Friday Of The We Must All Gay Marry Now EpochPost + Comments (137)
A Song for Issa
Do you remember how all-consuming the “Obama scandals” once were? This was a turn of events so dramatic it defined Obama’s entire second term — he was “waylaid by controversies,” or at least “seriously off track,” “beset by scandals,” enduring a “second-term curse,” the prospect of “endless scandals,” Republicans “beginning to write his legislative obituary,” and Washington had “turned on Obama.” A ritualistic media grilling of Jay Carney, featuring the ritualistic comparisons of him to Nixon press secretary Ron Ziegler, sanctified the impression of guilt.
It has come and gone, having left barely a trace. To be sure, the Obama scandals live on in the conservative world, where the evidence of deep corruption and venality grows stronger and stronger. But that is merely the confirmation of suspicions of “Chicago politics,” ACORN and so on, that predate recent events and don’t require any particular facts to survive.
If Darrell Issa ever does find a real scandal, that boy has cried wolf enough times that it probably won’t be believed outside the Fox bubble. And fuck even the liberal Jon Stewart for losing his shit over the IRS scandal.
What The Duck?
Following the various links and threads evoked by Anne Laurie’s awesome bit of cultural anthropology below, I stumbled on the LGM comment party that ultimately led to…
…
…
…
Wait for it…
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This:
I mean…
What?
I have no words.*
The LGM swarm has already had its way with this image. Your turn.
You’re welcome.
*Just kidding. It’s me remember?
Two thoughts:
1: I’m really not sure that these shut-ins fully grasp the concept of the carnivore**. Or maybe mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Whatever…if whoever drew that sees the kiss that way, I pity his/her partner(s).
2: Speaking of drawing. As one of the commenters over at LGM pointed out, that ain’t no photoshop. Someone carefully took implement in hand and chose every line and shade. I admire that.
Update: As many suspected, this is hoch-snark. The original images come from a 2010 series of drawings called “Summer of Love” by Saiman Chow. The fox-on-man image has had a prior moment in the sun as cover art for Ariel Pink’s single, Round and Round.
I don’t know if Chow put this panel together — if he did, kudos! If not — props to the so-far anonymous ridicule-meister.
**obviously, given the provenance, can’t blame the shut-ins here. Apologies to anyone for whom that particular offense rises above all the ridicule embodied in that image.
Late Night Open Thread: Again, with the Projection
Courtesy of several commentors, Americablog shares “the most unfortunate anti-gay logo and slogan in the history of politics“:
It’s official: Either their ad agency really hates them, or these guys just can’t stop thinking about gay sexual innuendo. Maybe both!
Details & video at the link (I’d almost managed to put the 2M4M campaign out of my memory… )
Late Night Open Thread: Again, with the ProjectionPost + Comments (64)
Open Thread
I was all over town today, and I flaunted my shit. I shook my money maker, had a spring in my step, and actually smiled when I talked to people.
And yet not one fucking person tried to gay marry me today. I would have said no, but you know, in our newly gayified nation, I thought my options would expand a bit and I would at least be the one to say no, not happening.
FML. Guess I need to work out and get better clothes.