Why It's Important to Vote in Midterm Elections

Voting for president is important, fun, makes you feel good, etc.

But skipping the midterm elections can have disastrous consequences. After a record-breaking turnout in 2008 resulting in the overwhelming election of Barack Obama, millions of Progressives skipped the midterm elections of 2010. The result? A Regressive republican takeover of the US House and a loss of Progressive seats previously held by Democrats in the US Senate.

In addition, sitting back and allowing Regressives to load your state House and Senate with Republicans will result in horrendous laws and redistricting -- gerrymandering of voting districts that can make it almost impossible for the opposing political party to win for decades.

Just look at what happened in North Carolina. It now has a Regressive republican House, Senate and governor -- which means they can and will do anything they want, unopposed.

A quick look at some of the regressive, repressive bills that have sprung up since their takeover in North Carolina:

• Regressive republicans have introduced a bill to establish an official state religion. That one alone should have you terrified.
• Stooping slightly so as to allow the irony to fly right over their heads, they then introduced a bill to ban Sharia Law
• They've passed the country's most extreme abortion restriction bill
• They've cut funds for public education
• They've eliminated the estate tax, cut taxes for the rich, and shifted the tax burden onto the middle class and the poor in the state
• They've enacted the most restrictive voter suppression laws in the state, severely limiting registration drives, cutting voting hours, cutting early voting days, and allowing any "vigilante poll observers" from any district to challenge, on the spot on Election Day, any other North Carolina voter in any other district. This means any Klan member or Fox watcher can hang around any polling place to challenge -- create problems for -- any minority voter in any district.

Midterm elections are coming up in just over a year, in November of 2014. That's sooner than you think. These Regressives have all got to go, in every state.

The NRA is the Organization They've Been Warning You About

The NRA, which has screamed bloody murder that the government wants to "compile a huge database of gun owners which can be hacked," and is against any kind of background checks or registration, turns out to actually be the organization that compiles a huge database of gun owners which can be hacked!

NRA apologists now know the NRA has millions of names -- from NRA members as well as gun owners who never gave them permission to collect their data -- including lists they bought of people who bought guns in stores, online, "prospective gun owners," own a hunting license, taken a gun safety class, and those who simply subscribe to gun magazines.

How ironic that the organization that takes your money and tries to scare you about a big boogeyman collecting data on you, actually is the big boogeyman collecting data on you without your permission.  Asked by a reporter why they "need" all this info gathered without your permission, a spokesman replied, "that's none of your business."

Got that, NRA supporters? The NRA has a huge database with your name on it that can be hacked or sold and it's none of your business how they got your name or why they want it.

Suckers.

More from Buzzfeed, which broke the story.

Republican Jackass of the Week

Former South Carolina Senator and current president of the far rightwing Heritage Foundation, Jim DeMint.

In Tampa yesterday, he continued his crusade to convince other Regressive republicans to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, claiming "the law is not about getting better health care. You can get better health care just by going to the emergency room."

Pure genius. See? That's going to be the official healthcare program of the USA if Regressives have their way: just run to the emergency room and let somebody else pay for your treatment if you can't afford it. And who might that be? Taxpayers? The hospital? Everyone who pays insurance premiums?

All of the above.

Funny that the current president of the Heritage Foundation would be so against Obamacare, since Obamacare was almost entirely written by... wait for it... the Heritage Foundation back in 1989!

Yes, the Heritage Foundation was lobbying heavily to mandate coverage through regulated healthcare marketplaces, which is the essence of Obamacare. It was what Romneycare in Massachusetts was based on. Back then rightwingers claimed the individual mandate would "force people to take personal responsibility" for their healthcare and prevent people from just showing up at emergency rooms for all their medical needs.

But now, since President Obama is for it, their own plan is suddenly "socialized medicine," "government controlled health care," and whatever else they claim. Hey, just go to the emergency room!

Luckily, the Regressives are not going to have their way. Obamacare isn't going anywhere. It was legally passed in the House and Senate, it was signed by the President, it was endorsed by the current rightwing Supreme Court, and even Orange John, the Speaker of the House, put down the bourbon long enough to proclaim, "it's the law of the land."

Jim DeMint, our Republican Jackass of the Week.

Republican Jackass(es) of the Week

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory (R-what else?) decided to go ahead and sign a voter suppression bill that's designed to stop the rampant voter fraud going on in that state (which has hovered around 0.001% over the last 3 decades).

Yes, another attempt to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

It's Pat.

And yes, another attempt to disenfranchise minorities, the young and the elderly -- all those who traditionally vote for Democrats.

It imposes strict voter picture ID requirements, drastically cuts early voting by about a week, kills state-sponsored voter registration drives, and repeals same day registration.

I've yet to hear how cutting a week of early voting also cuts voter fraud. Do those one or two voters each year who are convicted of voter fraud always vote early? Do they spring for plastic surgery so they can match someone else's picture? Of course this is nonsense. But not to North Carolina's Regressive governor and legislature.

The state is offering "free IDs" at DMV locations -- free in this case meaning it will cost taxpayers an estimated $800,000 to furnish these IDs to the approximately 300,000 people without acceptable picture IDs. Of course, the people this bill targets -- the poor, the elderly, minorities and students -- will have to spend money and a whole day shlepping around town to obtain birth certificate copies and wait in line at the DMV for these "free" treats.

But there is some good news. Just hours after the governor signed this voter suppression bill, lawsuits were filed. The ACLU of North Carolina and the NAACP of North Carolina filed suit claiming the bill violates the Constitution's equal protection clause and what's left of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

This same governor recently signed bills that would reduce jobless benefits, reject the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, cut school funding, tighten restrictions for abortion clinics in the state, and loosen restrictions on concealed-carry permits in bars and restaurants. Excellent choice there, mixing guns and alcohol. What could possibly go wrong?

How do the residents of North Carolina feel about this guy? Not so good.

A recent PPP poll shows his approval rating badly underwater: 39% approve, 51% disapprove.

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, our Republican Jackass of the Week.

And Dishonorable Mention goes to Representative Paul Stam (R of course) also, coincidentally, from North Carolina.

This genius doesn't like new school testing requirements for children that June Atkinson, the superintendent of schools, has devised, so he stated she should "stick to her own knitting."

A tad misogynistic there, Paul?

Republican Jackass of the Week

Representative Steve King (R) of Iowa.

What? Again? He was our RJOTW just two weeks ago!

Well he's back again, shooting off his big stupid mouth with uncontrollable glee.

Last time he referred to immigrants as dogs and mules.  Now he's claiming climate change is not science, but "a religion."

On Wednesday he spoke at an event sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, a group with a purposely deceiving name, funded by the billionaire Koch brothers.  And despite the fact that 97% of scientists around the world agree on the science of human-caused climate change, King claimed that it's "more of a religion than science."

See? Being a Teabagger and Regressive republican representative in the land of corn somehow makes you inherently smarter than the vast majority of scientists and climatologists around the globe who have spent their lives studying the subject.

Right after denying climate change is real, he claimed that climate change is actually a good thing. The logic? Tons of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere is actually good for plants! It means more photosynthesis for plants.

See how that works? Say something scientifically unsound, contradict yourself two seconds later and you've got your bases covered.

"Climate change doesn't exist, but since it really does exist it's a good thing."

Perfect!

Perfectly appropriate to be our Republican Jackass of the Week.

Even Mitch McConnell's Campaign Manager Can't Stand Him

Hilarious!

Caught on tape in a recent phone call, the senior campaign manager for Senator Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky, admitted he's not much of a fan of old Mitch.

Senator McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, famous for stating in 2009 that his number one goal was to make President Obama a one-term president, and for being the chief obstructionist in the Senate, is the lowest-rated senator in the country. That's right -- number 50 out of 50. His approval rating is only 36%, while his disapproval rating is at 54%. That's called being "underwater" in political circles -- the same term used when you owe more on your house than it's worth.

In the phone call to someone at the Reformed Theological Seminary, McConnell's campaign manager Jesse Benton said he's basically just killing time waiting to work on Rand Paul's presidential campaign in 2016.

"Between you and me, I'm sorta holdin' my nose for two years, 'cause what we're doin' here is gonna be a big benefit to Rand in 2016."

Once this embarrassing quote went public, he backtracked big time:

"It is truly sick that someone would record a private phone conversation I had out of kindness and use it to try to hurt me. I believe in Senator McConnell and am 100% committed to his re-election. Being selected to lead his campaign is one of the great honors of my life."

Wow. I think I just got whiplash from that gear change.

Republican Jackass of the Week

This time it's the entire Republican-controlled House of Representatives, allegedly run by Speaker John Boehner.

Today's their last workday, if you can call it that, before their 5-week summer vacation. Usually at this time of year, they tend to scramble to get things done before running out the door.

But not Bourbon Boehner's Bunch.

Today, they'll waste more time and taxpayer money voting, for the FORTIETH TIME, to defund the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, despite the fact that even the rightwing Supreme Court admitted it was Constitutional, and Boehner himself referred to it as "the law of the land."

Since the Democratically-controlled Senate is not in a million years going to agree to kill off Obamacare, and the President is certainly not apt to sign a bill destroying his own signature health care plan, this is just another circus act to placate the far rightwing radicals in the Regressive republican party. Now they'll be able to go home to their gerrymandered districts and beam with delight in bragging about their vote that accomplished, yet again, absolutely nothing.

They're calling this 40th attempt to defund Obamacare the "Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act." Cute.

Another waste of time bill passed this week is called the "Stop the IRS Act," which would mandate the firing of any IRS agent who "takes official action for political purposes." Of course, not a single IRS agent has been found guilty of such a thing, despite months of interrogations from car-thief and insurance-fraudster Darrell Issa. Even the Bush-appointee who was in charge of the IRS during this fake scandal said there was no political motivation and the Obama White House had nothing to do with scrutiny of some rightwing groups.

Were any jobs bills passed? Any infrastructure bills passed? Budget plans? A way out of the sequester? Transportation bill? Housing bill? Immigration reform? Efforts to reduce gun violence? Background checks?

No.

They haven't accomplished a single priority demanded by Americans according to most polls.

John Boehner remains the weakest, least-accomplished Speaker of the House we've seen in decades, a so-called leader who can't control the fringe element of his own party. And his Congress remains the least productive in American history.

But hey, enough about that.
It's vacation time, right John?

George Zimmerman Stopped for Speeding in Texas

George Zimmerman was stopped by police for speeding in Forney, Texas Sunday afternoon, TMZ is reporting.

During the stop, he said he was headed "nowhere in particular" and told the officer he had a gun in his glove compartment.

Zimmerman was given a warning and told to "Have a nice trip," TMZ reported.

So... he's in the news again, huh?

Let's see: Recently this murderer got away with killing an unarmed teenager walking home from the store.

Then he mysteriously appeared on the scene of an accident, just blocks away from where he killed the teenager.  This story, by the way, was only reported by his buddies on the Sanford Police Department -- you know, the ones who let him go the night he murdered a kid, after not bothering to test him for drugs or alcohol. And there wasn't a single camera around to snap a picture.

In 2013. Right.

Now he's speeding through Texas, armed, with no destination in mind at all.

Of course he has to be armed. He needs to protect himself from some vigilante who may want to take the law into his own hands.

Get the irony there?

But let's give Old Georgie the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was speeding to help more invisible people get out of their invisible overturned vehicle.

Just as I predicted, he'll be in the news again and again. Guarantee he'll be in real trouble again very soon. And he'll go to jail for something else, just like OJ. Get out your crayons and mark this down.

North Carolina: New Champ in Voter Suppression Laws

They're at it again. This time it's North Carolina that's leading the nation in voter suppression laws.

Suppressing the votes of minorities, the poor and the elderly has been the Republican goal in many states over the last few years with varying results: in some states it seemed to work, while in others, like in Florida during the presidential election of 2012, blacks, hispanics, young people and retirees refused to give up, causing a backlash to these tactics -- as well as 7 hour waits at the polls.

Now that the Supreme Court has eliminated a major part of the Voting Rights Act (the part that mandates states with a long history of discrimination must first obtain federal permission to make changes to their voting laws), many of these rightwing red states are brazenly enacting the changes to their voting laws that were prohibited until the recent ruling.

And now North Carolina is enacting what's been called "the most sweeping anti-voter law in decades."

Among the changes:

Apparently signing voter suppression laws is fun.

• Requiring government-issued photo ID cards to vote (but disallowing student IDs, public employee IDs, or those issued by public assistance agencies)
• Banning same-day registering to vote
• Prohibiting paid voter registration drives
• Shortening the number of early voting days
• Allowing any "vigilante poll observers" to challenge anyone else's right to vote on the spot, and giving them new powers to do so
• Ending pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds

 Rightwingers who praise these new draconian rules that target mostly Democratic voters claim it's to end "voter fraud."

But guess how much voter fraud goes on in this state? One percent? Two percent? Three percent of the vote?

Not even close.

One-thousandth of one percent. That's right: 0.001%. In 2012, there were 121 allegations -- not proven instances, but allegations -- of voter fraud. That's out of 7,000,000 votes cast.

0.001%.

Rightwing Governor Pat McCrory said last week he'd sign the bill into law, as well as one that drastically limits the number of women's health clinics and abortion clinics. Both voting and having an abortion are legal, Constitutionally-protected rights. But that doesn't mean these far rightwing nutjobs will try to inflict their will on tax-paying Americans by throwing as many stumbling blocks in the way as possible.

So what if you're raped and want an abortion, and the closest clinic is now 300 miles away? So what if you'd like to vote, which is your right, in an upcoming election, but because you live in a minority area, there are half as many voting machines, half as many early voting days, and lines that are 9 or 10 hours long?

The only way to end this problem is to brave those long lines and vote out every Regressive Republican who wants to inhibit any of your Constitutional rights.

Republican Jackass of the Week

Iowa Congressman Steve King.

The guy can't stop putting his foot in his mouth -- and all the way down his throat.

Just last week he referred to legal immigrants coming to the US as dogs, where we should get the "pick of the litter."

Here's the quote: "You put out a beacon like the Statue of Liberty and who comes here?" he asked rhetorically. "You want a good bird dog? One that's going to be aggressive? Pick the one that's the friskiest... not the one that's sleeping over there in the corner. You get pick of the litter and you get a pretty good bird dog."

This week, according to Professor King, the vast majority of kids/young adults born to undocumented Mexican immigrants are unsuccessful in school and are nothing but drug mules.

In a recent interview in which he rejects a pathway to citizenship for those who were brought to the US as small children and know this country as home, he makes the hideous claim that "they aren't all valedictorians. For every one who is a valedictorian, there's another hundred out there that they weigh 130 pounds and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert."

Iowa Democratic party chairman Scott Brennan responded, "Steve King's comments are offensive, ridiculous, and go against the very values of respect and equality that Iowans hold dear. Yet, while Iowans grow weary of these comments from Steve King, he continues to be the face of the Republican Party and is consistently held up as their conservative standard-bearer. Republicans may try to rebrand themselves, but Steve King shows us their true stripes."

Even Orange Speaker of the House John Boehner (R) stopped sipping his bourbon long enough to call King's comments, "wrong."

"There can be honest disagreements about policy without using hateful language," he said in a statement.

Dogs and mules. That's what people are to Steve King.

We need to add one more animal to the list. A jackass.

Regressive Republican representative Steve King of Iowa, our Republican Jackass of the Week.

Republican Jackass of the Week

Meet Marsha Blackburn, Regressive republican from Tennessee, this week's Republican Jackass of the Week.

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!

And I don't even have to write this post myself this week since it was written so well on Rachel Maddow's blog. Thanks, Rachel!

Remember how, just a few months ago, Regressives in the House tried to vote down efficiency standards for the common light bulb? Well they're at it again...

From Maddowblog:

That the advanced light-bulb standards were successful in spurring innovation, lowering costs, and improving energy efficiency -- and were approved with bipartisan support -- is apparently irrelevant.

House Republicans are now moving on to ceiling fans.

The House fanned an old debate this week by adopting a provision that would block the Energy Department from setting energy efficiency standards for ceiling fans.

Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn offered the policy rider to the Energy-Water appropriations bill (HR 2609), saying companies such as Memphis, Tenn.-based Hunter Fans cannot afford burdensome regulations that would drive up the price of products.

Those rascally Obama administration bureaucrats and their burdensome regulations, they have a lot of nerve, don't they? What were they thinking creating these anti-business measures?

Oh wait, they didn't. The efficiency standards for ceiling fans were requested by the industry itself so they wouldn't have to deal with a patchwork of state-by-state regulations, and the standards were approved in 2005. For those keeping score at home, in 2005, there was a Republican White House, a Republican-run Senate, and a Republican-run House.

Republican Jackass of the Week

She's Jodie Laubenberg. She's a Regressive republican. And she's from Texas. Where else.

Over the last couple of weeks, thousands of Democratic, Independent, and even Republican Texas women have spoken out and protested the Republican-controlled Texas legislature, hell bent on inflicting a package of controversial, repressive anti-abortion restrictions on the women of that state. It was prevented from passing a couple of weeks ago thanks to a 13-hour filibuster made by Texas Democratic State Senator Wendy Davis.

But this week an abortion-restricting bill is being pushed by State Rep Jodie Laubenberg. The bill would force the closure of 37 out of the state's 42 women's clinics. And it would make no exception for victims of rape or incest to the proposed 20-week abortion ban.

Democrats in the state argued to include this important exception. But Laubenberg stated this wasn't necessary.

"In the emergency room, they have what's called rape kits, where a woman can get cleaned out," said the biology-impaired Republican woman.

Really, Jodie? You think rape kits "clean out" women, uh, down there? This suggests she actually believes rape kits offer an optional abortion procedure.

Completely false. And idiotic. Rape kits are designed to collect DNA, not magically perform abortions.

Hard to believe a woman would say something so far from the truth regarding a matter of her own biology.

Jodie now joins the ranks of Republican middle aged men who failed basic 9th grade biology -- including one who thought that pregnancy from rape was "intended by god," and another who thought that women can't get pregnant from rape because "the body has a way to shut that whole thing down."

Wow.

And she joins them in the Hall of Republican Jackasses.

Jodie Laubenberg -- our Republican Jackass of the Week.

Thoughts on the George Zimmerman Trial

A bunch of random thoughts, in no particular order:

• Trayvon Martin had no police record whatsoever. Vigilante George, however, was arrested for battery on a police officer, and had a restraining order against him. Hmm... WHO'S the violent one here?
•  Vigilante Killer Thug George Zimmerman had a record of calling the cops exclusively on young black males -- more than 50 times in the last two years. But of course we're not supposed to believe he's a racist.
• We're not supposed to believe George had an attitude against Trayvon simply by seeing him walking in the street. Zimmerman clearly profiled Trayvon and characterized him as a criminal based on nothing. He was recorded saying, "these assholes always get away," "he's looking for trouble," and "fucking punks!" all because he saw a black teenager walking home from the store and gabbing on the phone.
• A person who is actually a CrimeWatch volunteer knows he is not to be armed. But Zimmerman was. He knows he is not to get involved in chasing, pursuing or confronting anyone. That's the cops' job. He is to call police if he sees something suspicious -- nothing more. That's why it's called CrimeWatch. See? The word "watch" is right in there.
• The dispatcher told George not to follow Trayvon. He disobeyed, getting out of the car, and following Trayvon on foot.
• No real CrimeWatch volunteer is ever to be judge, jury and executioner on the street.
• George had almost a 100-pound advantage over Trayvon, was trained in martial arts, and was carrying a loaded weapon. Despite all this, we're supposed to believe he was the one yelling for help.
• George, the failed cop wannabe, referred to Trayvon many times as "the suspect." That's a term police use for someone they believe has committed a crime. George was not a cop. And Trayvon was not suspected of committing any crime whatsoever.
• Trayvon's friend on the phone stated that Trayvon was clearly creeped-out by this older guy following him and said "why are you following me?" and "get off me" later in the call. Phone records bear this out to the exact minute of the attack.
• On the Fox channel, with his lawyer sitting right next to him, George claimed he had never heard of Florida's "stand your ground" law. But George's professor stated, under oath, that he had covered the subject several times in George's class. This was one of the only classes in which George received an 'A'. 
• The defense wanted to use Trayvon's texts as evidence. Nothing that Trayvon could have texted at any time during his life would justify Zimmerman's stalking, confronting, and shooting Trayvon to death on the street. It's totally irrelevant.
• It doesn't matter who's on top at the end of a fight; what matters is who started it. If George started the fight, and I believe he did, it's too bad for him if he got the worst of it.
• The defense desperately wanted to be able to say that minute traces of marijuana were in Trayvon's system. Are they idiots? Are they the only people on Earth who don't know that pot doesn't make you aggressive and violent, but rather mellow and relaxed?
• The 2 drugs that Zimmerman was on conflicted with each other; one was Temazepam and the other was Adderall.
  According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the drug Temazepam is also known to cause “aggressiveness” and “hallucinations,” among other problematic symptoms.
  Zimmerman was also on the often-abused prescription drug Adderall, which is known to cause "worsening mental or mood problems (eg, aggression, anxiety, delusions, depression, hallucination, hostility)."
• The struggle and gunshot took place just a few yards from Trayvon's house -- proving that George pursued Trayvon and did not return to his truck as instructed.
• Remember the surveillance video at the Sanford police station that was taken a couple of hours after Zimmerman's alleged "beating of his life." He was calmly walking around the police department, not staggering, not very bloody at all, and most importantly, not lying in a hospital bed.
• Zimmerman was buddy-buddy with many on the corrupt Sanford PD, which knew he shot a kid on the street but refused to arrest him that night, and didn't arrest him for 6 weeks, until forced to.
• George claimed he was punched in the face "25 to 30 times." The expert witness said no way. His nose was bloody but wasn't broken. He was probably hit once. And if he was punched in the face 30 times, he'd have spent weeks in the hospital. Turns out, he was never even examined by emergency personnel for his wounds.
• The scratches on the back of his head were from it hitting the ground probably once, according to the expert under oath. Zimmerman claimed his head was "repeatedly slammed into the cement."
• Now we're told by the owner of the gym he attended 3 times a week for 8 months that poor George was weak, flabby, and couldn't defend himself. Interesting for a guy who had an 80 pound advantage over Trayvon, who was taking martial arts classes, and who had a loaded gun. And it doesn't say much about that guy's gym, now, does it?
• And finally, who was screaming for help? The person who had a gun pointed at him. The person pointing the gun never screams for help.

This being said, I have no confidence this Vigilante Killer Thug will be convicted of anything. The six rubes chosen for the jury in this tiny redneck town in Florida will never convict a white-looking guy for the shooting death of a black teen. I hope I'm wrong.

Republican Jackass of the Week

California State Senator Mimi Walters (R).

Meet another one of these very far rightwing fringe radicals who thinks she's going to take the country back to the Stone Age.

She's running for Congress next year, and one of her biggest financial supporters is Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, a millionaire pushing for strict biblical law in the United States.

That means stoning to death adulterers, juvenile delinquents, Atheists, and of course, their favorite targets, "the ho-mo-sexuals". The nutjob rightwing millionaire backing her is also director of the Discovery Institute, which, despite its scientific-sounding name, advocates for teaching creationism in public schools and obstructing actual science education.

Of course, ridiculous cult-based laws will never pass the US Congress or be signed into law by the President. But it just goes to show how far off the deep end this Regressive republican bunch is willing to go -- and who backs them up financially.

One more thing. Remember that these nutjobs who are always trying to inflict biblical laws or so-called christian values into our secular government are the same ones who are always passing laws in red states to keep Sharia Law out.

There has never been any attempt to inflict Sharia Law into any state or local government.

California's Mimi Walters, our Regressive republican jackass of the week.