Wisconsin Republican lawmakers were "giddy" at prospect of suppressing the Democratic vote.

Courtesy of The Nation:  

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s Republican legislative allies were “giddy” at the prospect that a radical rewrite of voting laws would benefit their political prospects. 

So said a former Republican legislative aide who was in the room in 2011, when Republican members of the Wisconsin state Senate were scheming to enact one of the most rigid voter-identification laws in the nation. Recalling that top legislators talked openly about how the new law would impact prospective voters in the heavily Democratic city of Milwaukee, and on college campuses that have leaned Democratic in recent years—and that one legislator told his colleagues: “What I’m concerned about here is winning, and that’s what really matters here.… We better get this done quickly while we have the opportunity”—Todd Allbaugh told a hushed federal courtroom that the Republican legislators were visibly excited about what the voter-ID law could mean for them politically. 

“I’ve characterized it as giddy and that’s part of what bothered me so much,” Allbaugh said Monday, in testimony on the opening day of a trial before US District Judge James Peterson.

The trial is examining issues raised in a lawsuit brought by 10 Wisconsin voters and a pair of activist groups—the One Wisconsin Institute and the Citizen Action of Wisconsin Education Fund—charging that Republican legislators (most of whom were closely allied with Walker) enacted a number of laws that were designed to disenfranchise minorities, students, and other groups of prospective voters that often back Democrats. 

It's so nice when people enjoy their work, don't you think?

And nothing seems to please the Republicans more than taking away the rights of their fellow citizens, whether it be the right to choose, the right to free speech, or the right to vote.

This, this is why we need to turn out in large numbers, much like we did in 2008 and 2012, to vote in this next election.

Because while Democrats argue and fight like little children, the Republicans are throwing up roadblocks to make it ever harder for us to exercise our rights as citizens. 

President Obama suggests that maybe it's time for mandatory voting.

Courtesy of CNN:

"Other countries have mandatory voting," Obama said Wednesday in Cleveland, where he spoke about the importance of middle class economics, and was asked about the issue during a town hall. 

"It would be transformative if everybody voted -- that would counteract money more than anything," he said, adding it was the first time he had shared the idea publicly. 

The clout of millionaires and billionaires in campaign funding has been enormous, and many claim the uber wealthy have undue leverage in politics. 

"The people who tend not to vote are young, they're lower income, they're skewed more heavily towards immigrant groups and minority groups," Obama said. "There's a reason why some folks try to keep them away from the polls."

Well I for one am all for this idea.

But I can tell you right now that the Republican party will literally fight something like this with every resource at their disposal.

And the reason for that is because data shows that when more people vote Democrats tend to win, and it is only through low voter turnout that Republicans can remain in power.

That of course is why they are always coming up with ways to make voting harder for certain groups, or trying to disenfranchise voters over all.

They know that if we turn out in greater numbers their days are numbered as well.

So yeah, I think we need to think long and hard about making this happen.

Attorney General Eric Holder moves to protect voting rights in Texas in wake of recent Supreme Court decision.

Courtesy of the AP:  

Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday the Justice Department is opening a new front in the battle for voting rights in response to a Supreme Court ruling that dealt a major setback to voter protections. 

In a speech to the Urban League in Philadelphia, the attorney general said the Justice Department is asking a federal court in San Antonio to require the state of Texas to obtain approval in advance before putting future voting changes in place. 

This requirement to obtain "pre-approval" from either the Justice Department or a federal court before making changes to voting laws is available when intentional voting discrimination is found. 

It is the department's first action to protect voting rights following the Supreme Court's decision on June 25, "but it will not be our last," Holder said in prepared remarks. 

"Even as Congress considers updates to the Voting Rights Act in light of the court's ruling, we plan, in the meantime, to fully utilize the law's remaining sections to ensure that the voting rights of all American citizens are protected." 

Holder said that based on evidence of intentional racial discrimination presented last year in the redistricting case in Texas, "we believe that the state of Texas should be required to go through a preclearance process whenever it changes its voting laws and practices." 

In Texas, there is a history of "pervasive voting-related discrimination against racial minorities," Holder added.

Gee, ya think?

Of course this kind of aggressive move by the AG is only going to inflame the Teabaggers who will proclaim big government interference and overreach.

But considering the fact that the Supreme Court has arbitrarily decided that racism is dead, and has overturned critical aspects of the Voting Rights Act, it is unclear what choice the administration has at this point.

I swear that it seems there are forces attempting to divide us along racial lines and move us closer to another civil war every day.

The reality of voting in America now thanks to SCOTUS.

The SCOTUS decision rendered today should chill EVERY progressive to the bone.

Courtesy of Forbes:  

In a 5-4 decision along the ideological lines one might expect, the Supreme Court today cut out the heart and soul of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

While preserving the purpose and the intent of the momentous civil rights law—as set forth in Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (“VRA”) which proclaims that no American can be denied the right to vote based on their race or gender­—the Court struck down the sole method of enforcing the intent of the law. They accomplished this by declaring Section 4 of the Act, which sets forth the formula for determining which state and local governments must seek federal approval of any and all changes to their voting laws before placing the same into effect, to be unconstitutional. 

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Roberts stated, 

“In 1965, the states could be divided into two groups: those with a recent history of voting tests and low voter registration and turnout, and those without those characteristics,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. “Congress based its coverage formula on that distinction. Today the nation is no longer divided along those lines, yet the Voting Rights Act continues to treat it as if it were.” 

In other words, it is the opinion of the Court’s majority that the enforcement provisions of the Voting Rights Act worked so well that to continue enforcement under the existing scheme is unconstitutional. 

The logic of the majority represents a tragic irony given that the ruling comes at a time when minority voting rights are, once again, under severe attack as state governments under GOP control seek to rig the game in an effort to overcome the demographic and racial shifts in the electorate. These changes dramatically improve the opportunities for Democrats to gain elected office—particularly when it comes to the presidency.

I'm sorry but ANYBODY who does not recognize this as an attempt to undercut the new progressive direction the voting demographic has taken is either naive, lying to themselves, or a Republican hoping we won;t notice.

As anybody who watched the transparent and aggressive attempts to undermine the black vote in places like Ohio and Florida can attest, the need for this voting act is still clearly and obviously necessary.

So the Supreme Court sends the Voting Rights Act back to Congress for "adjustments."  This is the same Congress that could not reach an agreement on the color of the sky if somebody put a gun to their heads. 

The Court might as well have dropped it into a bottomless pit. 

What this proves, beyond any doubt in my mind, is that the Supreme Court is no longer a fair and reasonable deliberative body, that can reach decisions NOT based on partisanship and prejudice.

I am beyond worried about the upcoming decision on DOMA.

Texas Tea Party activist admits that the Republican party does not want black people to vote. Well duh!

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Audio posted by Democratic group Battleground Texas on Tuesday has Ken Emanuelson, a leading state Tea Party figure, answering a question about black voters at a May 20 Dallas County GOP event. 

“I’m going to be real honest with you,” Emanuelson said. “The Republican Party doesn’t want black people to vote if they are going to vote 9-to-1 for Democrats.”

Hey don't worry, later on he took it back.  

Later on Tuesday, Emanuelson backtracked on his remarks, clarifying that it "was a mistake" and nothing more than a "personal opinion." 

"I hold no position of authority within the Republican Party and it wasn’t my place to opine on behalf of the desires of the Republican Party," Emanuelson said, according to the Dallas Morning News. “What I meant, and should have said, is that it is not, in my personal opinion, in the interests of the Republican Party to spend its own time and energy working to generally increase the number of Democratic voters at the polls, and at this point in time, nine of every ten African American voters cast their votes for the Democratic Party."

Get it? This douchebag is not saying that the entire Republican party wants to keep blacks from voting, though they did everything in their power to restrict access in 2012, but just that he PERSONALLY does not see any reason to  increase voting access to an ethnic group that will not vote for his party.

So when he said "I'm going to be real honest with you" he was lying. Or was that when he was telling the truth, and NOW he is lying.

So confusing.

Ohio no longer even TRIES to hide their atttempts at voter suppression.

Courtesy of Think Progress:

Ohio has introduced a new tactic in their broader attempts to make it even harder for Democratic voters to get to the polls this year. Early voting stations in Ohio’s heavily Democratic counties will only be open between 8 am and 5 pm, while Republican counties have expanded their hours to allow voting on nights and weekends. This rule is the latest in a broader attack on voting rights in Ohio, which often comes down to a tiny margin of votes. 

Ohio Republicans are currently ensconced in a legal battle with the Obama campaign over another new rule that would limit early voting in the three day period before the election exclusively to military families. Mitt Romney falsely claims Obama’s lawsuit is meant to take away voting rights from military families, when in fact he is simply trying to restore voting rights to all Ohio residents. Early voting was introduced to mitigate Ohio’s notoriously chaotic elections, in which thousands of votes are tossed due to clerical errors and bureaucratic confusion.

Apparently the Ohio Republicans are damned and determined not to allow the President to win Ohio again, even if they have to disenfranchise millions of their citizens to do it. So much for the idea of fair elections.

It seems beyond obvious that the Republicans KNOW they cannot win this election on the merits of their candidate or his platform, and are instead doing everything in their power to keep as many Independents and Democrats away from the polls as possible while doing everything except driving Republicans to the polls to help them vote.

The GOP is using similar tactics all over the country, and have demonstrated that they consider democracy to be a failed concept and instead simply want to grab power any way that they can.