VIRGINIA TO CANCEL VOTER REGISTRATIONS

Cross posted from thinkprogress:

With two months until Virginians decide which of two polar opposites — Terry McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli — will be their next governor, tens of thousands of voters could be removed from the rolls in a statewide purge.

Approximately 57,000 Virginians have been flagged as being registered in another state, and counties are removing some from the voter rolls without any notice or opportunity to rebut the claim. Before conservatives lose their marbles that this is clear and irrefutable evidence of voter fraud, it’s worthwhile to consider how voter registration works. Each state maintains its own roll rather than a nationwide system. When Joe America, who had been registered in Richmond, moves to Philadelphia and registers there, he’s not required to cancel his Virginia registration before enrolling in Pennsylvania. The process for removing registrations of people who have moved elsewhere varies from state to state, but generally involves periodic comparisons of lists between states to flag and remove people like Joe America who have moved elsewhere.

Clearly, given the decentralized 50-voter-roll system we currently have, there’s a need for the lists to be periodically cleaned up. But there are a number of issues that make Virginia’s current purge of up to 57,000 voters problematic.

First and foremost, as multiple county registrars explained, voters whose registrations are being cancelled aren't being given any advance notice. Rather than being mailed a warning letter asking if they still live in Virginia, they are being sent notices that their registration has been cancelled effective immediately. If the cancellation is in error, the letter says to contact the registrar and get it worked out. It’s not measure twice, cut once. It’s cut first and be ready with tape for the mistakes.

Second, according to at least one voter’s experience, the list contains some serious errors. One Accomack County voter, writing on the blog Blue Virginia under the pseudonym rodentrancher, detailed her experience having her registration wrongly cancelled. Though she’d lived and registered in South Carolina in 2009, she had moved to Virginia last year and re-registered there. Even so, her file was flagged as a duplicate and she received a letter last week informing her that her registration was cancelled. If she hadn't seen the letter, or had the foresight to call the county registrar who sent her a new registration form, she would have been effectively disenfranchised from the November election.

The list of 57,000 duplicate registrations was given by the state Board of Elections to county registrars in August. “We were told by the state board that this is a legitimate list and we should process them accordingly,” Patricia White, General Registrar of Accomack County, said. Still, as Don Palmer, Secretary of the Virginia Board of Elections, emailed, “the final decision is up to each of the 133 local registrars based on voter history and activity.” Palmer was appointed by Transvaginal Bob McDonnell in 2011.

Some county registrars are going over the list with a fine-tooth comb in an effort to prevent errors. “We’re not taking the list at face value,” Gary Scott, Deputy Registrar of Fairfax County.

Finally, the current purge is being conducted exceedingly close to the upcoming election. The deadline to register in Virginia is October 14, less than six weeks away. That leaves little room for error. A purge in March gives voters, campaigns, and the state eight months to ensure that people who were improperly unregistered are given their Virginia voting rights back. When asked why the Board of Elections didn’t conduct this purge at an earlier time, Palmer wrote that August “was the first opportunity” they had after reviewing “data from other states and insertion of primary election voter history.”

In the 2009 election, approximately two million Virginians cast a ballot. If all 57,000 registrations that were flagged are ultimately cancelled, that would represent approximately three percent of all votes, a potentially decisive factor in a close election.

This link can verify your registration. [all 50 states].

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

YOU AGAIN?

In the last few minutes of her MSNBC show Wednesday night, Rachel Maddow took a look at some of the architects of the Iraq War who have been coming out of the woodwork over the last few weeks to weigh in on the Syria debate. Maddow had a strong message for people like Donald Rumsfeld, who have questioned President Obama’s decision: “Your opinion is no longer required.”

Maddow argued that the reason President Obama is having such a hard time convincing Americans that we should intervene in Syria because Bashar al-Assad has used WMD’s is “because of of the way the other guys broke that argument by misusing it, by lying when they made it.” And now, “the Bush Administration is staging a real time reunion” to weigh in on Syria.

The host proceeded to show how nobody is asking former FEMA chief Michael Brown for hurricane advice or Lance Armstrong to give his opinion on steroid use in sports. “You would not seek their advice, their counsel, their wisdom on the thing that ended their careers,” Maddow said.

She concluded her show with this plea:

“If you’re an architect or a conspirator or one of the primary actors in the Iraq War–in arguably the grandest and most craven foreign policy disaster in American history–your opinion is no longer required on matters of war and peace. Please enjoy painting portraits of dogs or something. Painting portraits of yourself in the bathroom, trying to get clean. Please enjoy the loving comfort of your family and loved ones, and your god. But we as a country never ever need to hear from you about war, ever again. You can go now.”

YOU AGAIN

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

IOWA SLIPS A MICKEY ON ITS RESIDENTS

Right as the Labor Day weekend began, Iowa officials took steps to severely limit reproductive health access for women in the state. Although that move went largely unnoticed before the three-day weekend, it could end up having a huge impact on the future of abortion care for people across the country.

On Friday, Iowa’s Board of Medicine voted to eliminate the largest telemedicine abortion program in the country. That means doctors in the state won’t be allowed to use video technology to prescribe abortion-inducing drugs to rural and low-income women who don’t have the means to travel to the nearest clinic — even though they've been safely doing so for the past five years.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland has been operating its telemedicine abortion program since 2008, and there’s no reason it should have come under any kind of particular scrutiny this summer. Studies have repeatedly found that it’s a safe method of delivering reproductive care, and patients are just as satisfied after speaking with a doctor over a video conference as they are after making an in-person trip to a clinic. Nonetheless, the Board of Medicine has been considering banning the practice for the past several months — and the Friday vote makes it official.

“This decision is a political attack aimed at restricting access to abortion in Iowa. Proponents of this rule aren't against telemedicine technology; they are against safe, legal abortion and are unjustly targeting our system with no scientific information or evidence to back their claims,” Planned Parenthood of the Heartland’s president, Jill June, said in a statement.

Indeed, telemedicine technology is becoming increasingly common. An estimated 10 to 12 million Americans use it each year to remotely receive care from a medical professional, and the U.S. government now relies on the practice to treat chronically ill veterans. Of course, opponents of telemedicine abortion typically aren't opposed to the practice in general — they just don’t want it to be used for abortion. It’s yet another way that the anti-choice community is attempting to segregate abortion care from the rest of reproductive health services.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland has been somewhat of a pioneer when it comes to telemedicine abortion care. A few other Planned Parenthood affiliates have begun to offer the services, but Iowa has been home to the largest program. It’s been difficult to expand into other states largely because anti-choice lawmakers have worked to cut off the possibility. Over the past several years, states have rushed to enact bans on telemedicine abortions even if those services weren't actually offered yet — effectively curtailing the potential medical advances in abortion care before they've even had a chance to get off the ground.

That’s a serious problem because telemedicine programs may represent the next battleground for abortion rights. Iowa has touted its program as an effective way of restoring health care access for poor and rural women who don’t live in counties with Planned Parenthood clinics, and wouldn't be able to make the trip to the nearest one. That’s becoming an unfortunate reality for low-income women in states across the country. Thanks to a mounting pile of state-level restrictions on abortion, clinics are being forced to close their doors and patients are being forced to travel hundreds of miles to get the care they need. For many poorer women, that represents too big of an expense — and women’s ability to access an abortion is becoming directly proportional to her economic privilege. Telemedicine abortion services could help address some of those regional and economic disparities. But now that Iowa has moved to ban it, there may be little hope for the fledgling programs in other states.

In a public hearing last week, health care professionals condemned Iowa’s medical board for rushing to throw out a program that has been largely successful. Since 2008, Iowa’s telemedicine program has helped an estimated 3,000 rural women end a pregnancy within the first trimester. OB-GYNs suggested that the Board of Medicine — which has been stacked with anti-abortion members over the past two years — was simply pursuing a political agenda. Now that the Board has officially voted, critics say their worst fears have been confirmed.

“It’s extremely alarming that the Board of Medicine, which is duty bound to make evidence- based medical decisions, rushed to judgment without reviewing evidence gathered by their own staff,” June’s statement points out. “This undermines the concept and integrity of the Board of Medicine and health care in Iowa as we know it.”

This new Republican outreach program, that of choke and puke politics - hating and punishing everything non-white male, continues to be a huge success.[sarcastic]

NFTOS

STAFF WRITER

WHY UNIONS?

The sad reality this Labor Day is that many American workers aren’t enjoying the basic tenets of the American dream: a livable wage and benefits to match. Income inequality is skyrocketing, while worker wages stagnate and more and more people leave unemployment for low-wage, part time jobs.

There’s no coincidence here. As this video from the Economic Policy Institute outlines, the trend of declining unionization and rising income inequality mimic each other :

Another chart from the Center for American Progress backs up that point, showing how the income of the richest one percent has risen, as middle class incomes drop:

Across the country in the last few weeks, strikes by fast food workers have illustrated that fair workplace treatment is still out of reach for some Americans. The strikes have become a massive rallying cry for a union and a wage raise in a time when labor disputes and walk-outs are at an all-time low. This chart illustrates just how rare it is to see a strike like the fast food workers’:

But, like many workers, fast food employees could greatly benefit from the ability to collectively bargain. After all, their minimum wage jobs have actually become worth even less as time goes on. While those one percent of top earners are seeing a great spike in their incomes, the low-wage worker is feeling deflated. Their wages haven’t kept up with the US inflation rate, as this chart from Bloomberg News illustrates:

This evidence all amounts to a sad status quo for some American workers. And it’s something to remember each and every Labor Day, a day meant to celebrate the back-breaking work that makes this country run.

NFTOS

STAFF WRITER

MEET NEO NAZI RICHARD SCHMIDT

NEO NAZI NUTCASE RICHARD SCHMIDT

Federal agents were tracking Ohio resident Richard Schmidt’s imports of counterfeit sports jerseys when they stumbled upon his arsenal of 18 guns, more than 40,000 rounds of ammunition, and bulletproof body armor. Besides the arsenal, he had lists of Jewish and black leaders in Detroit, MI. He is also an ex-felon who killed a Hispanic man and wounded two others 24 years ago.

Yet before December, no one even noticed that Schmidt, 47, was amassing weapons illegally, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Instead, federal investigators zeroed in on his sports memorabilia shop around September 2011, tracking his shipments of knock-off jerseys from China for over a year before they discovered the cache of firearms.

Schmidt plead guilty to federal gun charges and the counterfeit racket last month, and will be sentenced in October. But many connected to the crime are still scratching their heads over how an ex-felon with ties to white supremacist groups was able to get his hands on so many guns.

“I can’t tell you how he got all those guns and ammunition,” U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach told the Plain Dealer. “It’s not that I won’t tell you; it’s that I can’t. This is somebody who should never have had one gun, one bullet. But he had an entire arsenal.”

Schmidt is technically banned from possessing a gun for the rest of his life. In 1989, he pulled a gun on three men during a traffic argument, killing one man and wounding the other two. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and served 12 years in prison.

Scott Kaufman, the head of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, was spooked after discovering he was on Schmidt’s list. “For a convicted violent felon to amass an arsenal with 40,000 rounds of ammunition with no red flags popping up is problematic,” he told the Plain Dealer. “No matter where you stand on the gun issue, it makes you wonder. The moment I saw my name in this guy’s notebook, I freaked out.”

Indeed, Schmidt might have been able to stockpile firearms so easily thanks to decades of hard work by the the gun lobby. Combating calls for stricter background checks on private gun sales, the National Rifle Association insisted the bill would create a national registry of gun owners which would be used to confiscate weapons and enact tyranny. This fearmongering has also hobbled federal law enforcement agents, who are forbidden from keeping any records of gun purchases. That means individuals like Schmidt can potentially avoid background checks when they purchase firearms, or they can obtain guns through a straw purchaser that law enforcement cannot track because any records revealing the purchaser’s activities would have been destroyed. It was luck that Schmidt was caught before he could wreak havoc — but Americans won’t get so lucky every time.

NFTOS 

STAFF WRITER

GOOD-BYE MARK KESSLER!

GUN HUGGER MARK KESSLER SENT PACKING FOR GOOD

Mark Kessler, the Gilberton Police Chief who became a sensation after his profanity-laden anti-libtard John Kerry-hating pro-gun YouTube videos went viral, had his suspension extended indefinitely by the Gilberton City Council on Friday.

Kessler was unable to meet with the city for a resolution due to his attorney’s scheduling conflict. The Council voted to keep Kessler’s suspension, but hoped to resolve the matter soon, so as not to keep paying an off-duty police chief.

KESSLER

At a previous council meeting, some of Kessler’s gun-toting supporters showed up; they were absent this time around.

In addition to angry speeches about the United Nations and the Second Amendment, Kessler is seen in his videos not only firing automatic weapons at pictures of Secretary of State John Kerry and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, but also at council vice-president Eric Boxer and council president Daniel Malloy.

Kessler maintained that his videos are political speech, but a movement has gathered 23,000 signatures to have him removed from office. “You can’t have a police chief that intimidates at least half of the population,” the group’s executive director Michael Morrill said.

Everyone say good-bye to Mark, you fifteen minutes of fame have expired asshat! Hopefully you are never ever a man of law again, whether it be Podunk chief of Gilberton Pa, department of one, or any other department.

I wonder who's WMD he'll use now, now that he doesn't have access to Gilmerton's arsenal?

Kessler and his kind are the reasons for stricter gun laws, the next headlines of Mark Kessler, mass murderer.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

MITCH "THE TURTLE" MCCONNELL THINKS WOMEN ARE STUPID

A press release distributed by Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) campaign at a “Women for Team Mitch” event on Friday brags about the Senate Minority Leader’s support for the Violence Against Women Act, even though McConnell voted against the measure in 1994, 2012, and 2013.

“Mitch was the co-sponsor of the original Violence Against Women Act — and continues to advocate for stronger polices to protect women. I am proud to call him my senator,” the document quotes a voter as saying.

Joe Sonka, a staff writer for Louisville’s Alt-Weekly first tweeted a copy of the release, hinting at the contradiction and noting that McConnell didn't address women’s issues at the event or take any questions from women. Former Congresswoman Anne Northup, a spokesperson for the campaign, also told Sonka that McConnell supported bills like the Lilly Ledbetter Act and Paycheck Fairness Act — both of which McConnell voted against — “make the workplace more difficult for women.”

McConnell has embellished often on his voting record in the past, insisting that he voted against VAWA because he sought a stronger version. During the event, McConnell’s wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, also claimed that her husband supports increasing cancer screenings and check-ups for women, even though he is campaigning on repealing the Affordable Care Act, which specifically increases women’s access to preventive medicine.

NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

RACIST GOP CIRCA 2013

GOP RACISTS DAVID MARSTERS

David Marsters, a conservative candidate for a town position in Sabattus, Maine, was surprised by a visit from the Secret Service after he posted an article on his Facebook about President Obama along with the words “Shoot the ni**er.” But even after the Secret Service visit, Marsters continues to defend his comment as freedom of speech — although he deleted the original posting.

“They didn't see no pictures of Obama with bullet holes in his head,” Marsters said. “It’s not a threatening statement, in my opinion. People take it out of context as a threat.” Marsters maintains his comment isn’t racist, because “white people are ni**ers, too.” In addition to subscribing to the conspiracy that Obama faked his birth certificate, Marsters has pushed for a town law to require a gun in every house.

Marsters told the Bangor Daily News that he is worried Obamacare will take his and his wife Mary’s health insurance away at a time she has been in and out of the hospital. “I’m pissed off at the system, OK,” he said. “We’re about to lose our benefits because of this asshole.”

Losing spousal insurance is a common myth about Obamacare. For example, the headlines blamed Obamacare when UPS recently announced it would cut 15,000 spouses of employees from insurance coverage. However, experts note that Obamacare simply provides an excuse for UPS to cut its overall health costs. Indeed, this type of cost-shifting was a trend long before Obamacare became law. UPS’ move actually only affects spouses who have jobs that provide coverage, which will become more common when Obamacare fully kicks in.

The health care law, in fact, is good news for Marsters’ wife. If either did lose insurance, they would be able to purchase individual plans on the statewide market, while subsidies could help reduce the cost. And because of Obamacare, insurance companies cannot discriminate based on Mary or Marsters’ pre-existing conditions.

Despite the vitriol surrounding the law, its individual provisions are actually quite popular among conservatives. Yet sometimes they only realize how Obamacare protects them when they or loved ones fall ill.

Congratulations David Marsters, you are today's asshat of the day!

NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

THAT AWKWARD MOMENT WHEN YOUR NOT A RACIST BUT YOU FAIL TO SPEAK AT THE MLK 50TH ANNIVERSARY

Watching the events of the day, these are the notes that I took - and my synopsis 50 years later.

Can you guess how many GOP speakers took part in today's celebration of the March on Washington?

The 50th anniversary of the March On Washington has given the country a chance to reflect on how far we have come, and yet how much further we still have left to go toward achieving Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream.

MSNBC yesterday discussed the great reluctance for all conservatives to recognize the reality that we have not solved all of the racial problems in America, and to often they label any discussion of the subject as “race baiting.”

Earlier this year, Justice [Supreme being] John Roberts demonstrated this sort of thinking in his opinion justifying the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act when he wrote, ”the conditions that originally justified these measures no longer characterize voting in the covered jurisdictions.” As we have seen in the subsequent months, there are many in said jurisdictions who would beg to differ - differ the ignorance and subjective discrimination from the Supreme Beings.

Julian Bond, chairman emeritus of the NAACP, and Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative discussed today the importance of conveying the lack of racial equity to these special tin foil hat patriots, once known as the conservatives. Bond noted this continued denial was evident even in today’s events commemorating the march, noting “what’s really telling is the podium behind me today, how many tea baggers will be there…They asked a long list of "conservatives" to come, and to all men and woman asked, they all said no…The fact that they seem to want to get black votes…they’re never ever going to get them this way.”

This current brand of the "conservative" is a disgusting lot! In reality, as long as they continue this path of ignorance - it will be an eternity before they ever occupy the oval office again!

RELATED:

Every Republican That Was Asked Refused to Attend March On Washington Event

Republican leaders asked to speak at March on Washington anniversary, declined

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

“Tell Them About the Dream, Martin.”

Mahalia Jackson Singing At Jackson Speech

We all know about the 1963 march on Washington where Martin Luther King, Jr. galvanized the multitudes with his “I Have a Dream” speech.

Most did not - nor do they now know how this great speech came to be, that is until now.

Clarence Jones, the adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. who co-wrote an early draft of the "I Have A Dream Speech," recounted the story Monday of how King delivered the most famous part of the speech spontaneously.

Jones was part of a Television Critics Association panel Monday about PBS's "The March." Denzel Washington provides the narration for director John Akomfrah's PBS film about the 1963 March on Washington. It airs on Aug. 27, the eve of the 50th anniversary of the march.

The day culminated in King's address to hundreds of thousands of people at the Lincoln Memorial, and millions watching him on television for the first time.

"Very few people know -- most people do not know -- that the speech that he gave was not the speech that he had intended to give," said Jones, author of the books "What Would Martin Say?" and "Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech That Transformed a Nation."

The speech might have turned out very differently if not for an exhortation from King's favorite gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson, Jones said.

"As he was reading from the text of his prepared remarks, there came a point when Mahalia Jackson, who was sitting on the platform, said, 'Tell them about the dream, Martin! Tell them about the dream," Jones continued.

"Now I have often speculated that she had heard him talk in other places talk and make reference to the dream. On June 23, 1963, in Detroit, he had made very express reference to the dream.

"When Mahalia shouted to him, I was standing about 50 feet behind him... and I saw it happening in real time. He just took the text of his speech and moved it to the left side of the lectern. ... And I said to somebody standing next to me: 'These people don't know it, but they're about to go to church.' I said that because I could see his body language change from the rear. Where he had been reading, like giving a lecture, but then going into his Baptist preacher mode.

"Had there been anyone else -- anyone else -- who had shouted anything to him -- I think he would have been a little taken aback. I'm not so sure he would have departed from the text of his speech. But Mahalia Jackson was his favorite gospel singer. When Mahalia said that it was almost like a mandate to respond."

To know that the greatest speech ever spoken was adlibbed, only makes the speech that much more phenomenal!

And now in the famous words of Paul Harvey......"now you know the rest of the story"

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

ROBERTS RULE OF ORDER

KU KLUX KOURT ROBERTS COURT

Voting has consequences, far beyond the eight years of a President. Supreme Court justices can reside for eons - the current sitting Supreme beings have proven that law has little relevance to their decisions made - where political ideology takes the forefront rather than case law. Often the case, historically speaking, the Supreme Court is well behind the times.

If Supreme Courts over time are arranged like boxes of chocolates, the Roberts Court defies the myth that you never know what you’re going to get.

The most basic requirement of any Supreme Court decision involving the application of the Constitution is to explain how the Constitution's text and meaning command the result the Court reaches. By that standard, Shelby County v. Holder is a colossal failure. In the majority opinion by Chief Justice Roberts, the Court struck down a core provision of the Voting Rights Act – a statute that has ensured protection of the right to vote for millions of Americans – without ever explaining what provision of the Constitution rendered this iconic, landmark statute unconstitutional.

In an interview with the New York Times’ Adam Liptak, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg offered a grim assessment of the Court where she so often finds herself leading a four justice dissent — the Roberts Court is “one of the most activist courts in history.”

As an historic matter, this is a pretty staggering claim. The Supreme Court in 1905 handed down a decision called Lochner v. New York that is now widely taught in American law schools as an example of how judges should never, ever behave. Lochner treated any law improving workplace conditions or helping workers to obtain an adequate wage as constitutionally suspect. And Lochner was hardly an anomalous moment in the Court’s history.

Thirteen years after Lochner the Supreme Court struck down federal child labor laws in a decision that is also widely taught as an example of inexcusable judicial activism. In 1895, the Supreme Court rendered the country virtually powerless against monopolies and other powerful combinations of corporate power, and then it held an income tax on the wealthiest Americans unconstitutional just a few months later. The Supreme Court has, with rare exception, been a largely malign force in American history.

There is, however, one important way in which the Roberts Court is distinguishable from the Courts that decided cases such as Lochner. Laws such as the Sherman Antitrust Act and the first federal ban on child labor arose as lawmakers with struggling with many of the negative side effects of the Industrial Revolution. The birth of the railroad and the dawn of mass production massively improved the American standard of living, but they also enabled monopolists to thrive and they resulted in mass exploitation of the working class. The Supreme Court in this era did not so much tear down established rights as it stood for a status quo that favored capital over labor and the rich over the rest of the nation.

The Roberts Court, by contrast, has actively rolled back existing laws protecting workers, women and people of color. The Nineteenth Century Supreme Court blocked America’s first meaningful efforts at racial equality, but the Roberts Court stole from minority voters rights that they had enjoyed for decades. The Lochner Court strangled basic protections for workers in their crib, but the Roberts Court takes fully matured protections for workers and carves them up a piece at a time. And, while Lochner Era courts acted out in the open, undermining human rights in published opinions. the Roberts Court pushes an alternative, corporate-run arbitration system that operates largely in secret.

None of this is to say that the world we live in now is worse than the world our great-grandparents lived in under the Lochner Court — if the Roberts Court’s goal is to bring us back to this era, they are currently shy at least one vote. Nevertheless, the Roberts Court is unusually willing to take from ordinary Americans rights they have enjoyed for a very long time. The Supreme Court has a long history of standing athwart history yelling stop. This Supreme Court, however, wants to shift history into reverse.

Conservatives like to make fun of decisions that abandon the Constitution in favor of penumbras and emanations, but that is all Chief Justice Roberts offers in the majority of his rulings.

With Roberts over seeing the Supreme Beings, with Scalia and the inept pubic hair conspirator Clearance Thomas on the bench, be scared, be very very scared!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

IT'S IN THEIR NATURE

SCORPION AND THE FOG, IT'S IN THEIR NATURE

On Face the Nation this Sunday, Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, warned his fellow Republicans that the continuing push to restrict voting rights is going to “backfire” and harm the Republican Party:

These kinds of procedures that are being put in place to slow the process down, and make it likely that fewer Hispanics and African Americans might vote I think is going to backfire, because these people are going to come out and do what they have to do in order to vote and I encourage that.

Powell went on to describe just how damaging these laws may be as the country’s demographics shift:

Here’s what I say to my Republican friends: The country is becoming more diverse. Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, African Americans are going to constitute a majority in a generation. You say you want to reach out, you say you want to have a new message, you say you want to see if you can bring some of these voters to the Republican side. This is not the way to do it. The way to do it is to make it easier to vote and then give them something to vote, they can believe it. It’s not enough to say just we have to have a new message. We have to have a substance to that new message.

Voting rights were an integral demand of the March on Washington 50 years ago, but the American Taliban has been pushing a variety of restrictions at the state level and are now emboldened by a Supreme Court ruling invalidating part of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Powell remarked that these state laws “in some ways makes it a little bit harder to vote,” such as requiring ID, restricting voting hours, and making it harder for students to cast a ballot.

Since the Supreme Court decision that struck down the section of the VRA that forced states with histories of disenfranchisement to get clearance from the federal government on changes to voting, at least six states have renewed their efforts to pass voting restrictions, including voter ID measures, redrawing districts so that minority voting blocks could have their power weakened, and others. North Carolina became the first to enact a law, with a measure that some have described as “the worst voter suppression law” in the country. It requires strict voter ID to cast a ballot, reduces the number of early voting days by a week, eliminates same-day voter registration during early voting, and makes other severe changes. Powell previously warned that North Carolina’s law is the kind that “turns people away” from the radical Party.

While proponents of these measures purport to be worried about rampant voter fraud, on Sunday Powell remarked, “Nothing substantiates that, there isn't widespread abuse.” In fact, zero of the 17 suspected fraud cases in Boulder, CO were found to exist, and there have been many failures for those attempting to find evidence of widespread voter fraud. A person is 39 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit fraud.

Voting restrictions aren't the only way the Talibangelicals are screwing up their effort to reach out to minority voters, however. They've voted to deport DREAMers, boycotted Spanish-language TV, argued for self-deportation, reacted poorly to the Trayvon Martin ruling, and used racially insensitive language, among other things.

The GOP is not going to change, it is their nature.

The Scorpion and the Frog:

A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the.
scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The
frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?" The scorpion.
says, "Because if I do, I will die too."

The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream,
the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of.
paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown,
but has just enough time to gasp "Why?"

Replies the scorpion: "Self Destruction, Its my nature..."

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

‘God Help Us’ If Ted Cruz Becomes President

Howard Dean excoriated Candy Crowley’s interview with Ted Cruz on CNN Sunday morning, calling it “a very long interview with very little content,” and saying “God help us” if Cruz ever became more than a U.S. Senator.

Cruz had pitched allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines as one of the policies he would put in place instead of Obamacare.

“I don’t want the Texas insurance commissioner being up here in Vermont,” Dean said. “We have had universal health insurance for all our kids for twenty years. They have 22% of their children uninsured in Texas. I don’t want anything to do with Texas’ health care system in Vermont and I don’t want our people buying Texas health insurance.”

“So these are crazy ideas from the far right,” Dean said. “He’s a slick spokesman and god help us if he gets to be anything more than the senator from Texas.”

Ted Cruz constitutes an important reminder that, before there was the Bolivar Movement and South American socialism, there were Hispanic macho strongmen, dictators, extremecon zealots and slick-grifting demagogues.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

50 YEARS AGO TODAY

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING "I HAVE A DREAM"

50 years ago today, Rev Dr. Martin L King Jr. led a march against injustice, an injustice that unfortunately still has a foothold today in this country, fifty years ago to the exact day, when the chains where to be broken, but yet still exist - courtesy and via of the GOP.

While I can' be at the march - as was my intent - I am there in spirit, for the hatred that my race has inflicted on another, is a source of both an embarrassment and shame for me - that white folk can hate another human - just for the color of their skin.

There is only one hate bigger than America's, and that was Hitler's towards the Jewish.

No amount of "I am sorry", no amount of apologies can erase the ignorance of the white folk in America, as we certainly hold the crown jewel of being the greatest race haters to ever troll the earth!

Now is the time to finish Dr. King's dream, the time to complete the work of Medgar Wiley Evers, its time to end the hate - because ones skin tone doesn't match yours!

Today women make 77 cents to the dollar of the male. Today, GOP run states are turning back the hands of time with concepts like radical voter suppression laws, Gerrymandering is at epidemic proportions within the American Taliban's plan, a priority in their "Southern Strategy".

Equal rights means equal rights, not partial rights, nor rights entrapped by smoke and mirrors.

The number of blogs I have written on race are a plethora - my stance is clear and concise, race is still a huge problem in these United States, we can choose to ignore its existence, or we can choose to kill this ugly beast once and for all!

We owe it to Dr. King to see this through!

Dr. King's speech; It was/is a monumental work, which will stand independently as one of the greatest speeches/oratories of all time.

In support of the march today, I leave you with the speech that rocked this country, and no doubt in this bloggers mind - the most profound of speeches ever given in the history of this world.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR's "I HAVE A DREAM"




I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

NORTH CAROLINA TAKES MAJOR STRIDES BACKWARDS

The state of North Carolina, a state which bleeds "Teahadists" [GOP] legislatively speaking, has ratcheted up its hate for everything non-white. Literally since the 2010 mid-terms, the state has gone to great lengths to punish those - those who are not pasty white GOPers.

North Caroline has taken the bold stance, that if we can't win a Presidential election honestly, we will cheat, lie and Gerrymander until we do win.

North Carolina’s new voter suppression law shows why the Voting Rights Act is still necessary.

Usually it takes years to judge when the Supreme Court gets something very wrong. Think of Justice Kennedy’s opinion for the court in the 2010 campaign-finance case, Citizens United, freeing corporations to spend money on elections. He wrote that the “appearance of [corporate] influence or access will not cause the electorate to lose faith in our democracy,” a point that remains hotly debated even as the amount of money in federal elections skyrockets.

But the conservative justices’ decision this past June in Shelby County v. Holder, striking down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, has already unleashed, at least in North Carolina anyway, the most restrictive voting law we've seen since the 1965 enactment of the VRA. Texas is restoring its voter ID law which had been blocked (pursuant to the VRA) by the federal government. And more is to come in other states dominated by Republican legislatures.

Rachel Maddow spent the day in Elizabeth City North Carolina, digging up the goods on the fecal matter that is the North Carolina GOP. The below six clips represent the entire hour long Maddow show.

This story needs to be exposed and viewed frequently, for if you think this is just a bunch of hillbilly rednecks out having fun, think again. The actions of this states Governor and the state legislature are both repugnant and shameful.

NORTH CAROLINA DARKNESS

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

MOST DIFFICULT

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

MEDDLING KIDS

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

DAMAGE TO VOTING RIGHTS

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

OLD WARS NEW WARS

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

ENDING CAMPUS VOTING

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Colin Powell just happened to be speaking in North Carolina, with the states Governor [Pat McCrory] in attendance. Powell condemned the state, the governor and his party saying: 

“These kinds of actions do not build on the base. It just turns people away,” said Powell, President George W. Bush’s former secretary of state. “What it really says to the minority voters is ... ‘We really are sort-of punishing you.’” 

Powell disputed arguments by McCrory and some legislative Republicans that voter fraud likely exists but is hard to detect. 

“You can say what you like, but there is no voter fraud,” Powell said. “How can it be widespread and undetected?”

POWELL

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The American Taliban, not only in North Carolina, but across these great United States, need to be taken behind the woodshed and enlightened.

The only way to rid this country of these putrid radical right wing nuts, is to vote them out of office. Until we do so, we rightfully get what we deserve.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

I THOUGHT RICK PERRY DESPISED "OBAMACARE"?

RICK PERRY PROVES HE'S NOT DONE WITH STUPID

Politico reported Tuesday evening that Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s administration is in negotiations with the Obama White House to accept about $100 million in federal money to implement an Obamacare Medicaid program to help elderly and disabled Americans.

Perry has been a heated opponent of the health law. He refused to accept $100 billion in federal funding to expand Texas’ Medicaid program under Obamacare, which could have helped 1.5 million poor Texans afford basic health benefits. As recently as April, Perry essentially called the expansion a joke. “Seems to me April Fool’s Day is the perfect day to discuss something as foolish as Medicaid expansion, and to remind everyone that Texas will not be held hostage by the Obama administration’s attempt to force us into the fool’s errand of adding more than a million Texans to a broken system,” said Perry.

Now, Perry is seeking federal dollars for Texas’ Medicaid program anyway.

The Affordable Care Act grants state funding to expand a program called Community First Choice, which aims to improve the community-based medical services available to disabled and elderly Americans. The wildly popular program is administered through Medicaid and could prevent thousands of disabled and older Americans from being uprooted from their homes and into a long-term care facility for their treatments. Approximately 12,000 Texans could take advantage of it in the first year alone.

Perry spokespeople emphasized to Politico that the governor’s support for the program — and the Medicaid funds that make it possible — shouldn’t come as a surprise and doesn’t change his position on the Affordable Care Act.

“Long before Obamacare was forced on the American people, Texas was implementing policies to provide those with intellectual disabilities more community options to enable them to live more independent lives, at a lower cost to taxpayers,” said the spokesperson in a statement. “The Texas Health and Human Services Commission will continue to move forward with these policies because they are right for our citizens and our state, regardless of whatever funding schemes may be found in Obamacare.”

Advocates for the poor and disabled who support expanding Community First Choice under Obamacare were apprehensive to even talk about the program’s relation to the health law out of fear that Texas officials would back out of their funding bid over political considerations.

“It would be worse than a shame if Texas’s moving ahead with [Community First Choice and Balancing Incentive Program] policies — both are from the ACA — was hurt as the result of scrutiny from a press inquiry,” one Texas advocate told Politico.

Maybe it's high time for two Americas. One for Texas and the haters of the US Government, and a separate one for people who don't leave their brothers and sisters out in the cold to die - to line the pockets of corporations.

Most Talibangelicals speak with a forked tongue, Perry is no different. It seems the only talent needed to be the governor is being able to talk out of both sides of your mouth and your ass the same time.

With regards to Perry's "intellectual disabilities" comment, is there a more intellectually challenged Governor in these United States than Perry? Me thinks not!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

"SPONGE BOB" TOSSES "MADAME TEN PERCENT" UNDER THE BUS

MADAME TEN PERCENT MCDONNELL AND SPONGE BOB MCDONNELL

Virginia is a tin horn dictatorship. Instead of a single “strong man” or “strong woman” we have an inbred cadre of state GOP legislators and crony politicians operating in a symbiotic effort to loot the commonwealth.

Many of our state GOP legislators are feeble minded - but cunning people who squirm to elected office through a blind obedience to their party. Many want elected office not because of a sense of duty, but because holding that office will elevate their social status and standard of living.

Take a look at the benighted governor of my state, Governor Ultrasound; "Sponge" Bob "transvaginal" McDonnell - who recently said in a live radio interview that his wife's office organized the 2011 event at the executive mansion for a company run by a donor whose relationship with Sponge Bob is now under investigation.

Maureen "Madame Ten Percent" McDonnell, wife of the embattled governor, is said to have traded thousands of dollars worth of Star Scientific stock supposedly without her husband’s knowledge. [Indonesia when iron-fisted Suharto was leader. His wife was known locally as “Madame Ten Percent” because in order for a foreign firm to get gas or oil or mineral rights, she needed a 10 percent payoff.]

BACKFILL:

In May, 2011, Jonnie Williams Sr., head of the troubled Star Scientific dietary supplement maker, gave Madam Ten Percent $50,000. Used $30,000 of it to buy 6,500 shares of Star stock without husband Bob’s knowledge. 

When the stock tanked, Madam Ten Percent sold it, only to repurchase more shares later, again without husband Bob’s knowledge. Why? Buying Star Scientific stock isn't exactly like purchasing Apple stock. 

None of this was clearly reported. Under Virginia law, stock holdings of a public official and a spouse of more than $10,000 must be filed in an annual statement of economic income. Gifts to immediate family members do not have to be reported. The stock holdings were apparently reported in such a vague way no one could easily make the link between the McDonnells and Star Scientific stock.

So, if I understand this correctly, husband Sponge Bob, cash strapped because his vacation properties weren't renting, did not know that wife, Madame Ten Percent was trading thousands of dollars worth of stock while also promoting the firm’s products? He also didn't know that a $6,500 Rolex was a “gift” from Maureen when it was really purchased by Williams?

MADDOW Video courtesy of MSNBC

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The above clip shows that Sponge Bob is willing to toss the love of his life under the proverbial bus to save his own political ass. This blogger gets a macabre feeling that the professional handlers and trouble shooters protecting Sponge Bob, have elected and decided that throwing Madame Ten Percent under the bus has less collateral damage than Sponge Bob himself taking the fall .

I am both agog and perplexed at the “coincidence” that Madame Ten Percent took the gifts intended for her husband and daughters and got money from the same company - bought and sold stocks from the same company, and Bob did not know.

At the end of the day this boils down to one of two things:

1. Did Sponge Bob use Madame Ten Percent for the illegal shenanigans, or

2. Did Madame Ten Percent use Sponge Bob for the illegal activities?

While all if this may be intoxicating - making for great fodder, whether who knew what, when and where, no matter which McDonnell had a hand in the illegal grafting, its time [ a third call from NFTOS] for Sponge Bob and Madame Ten Percent McDonnell to go!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

CREEPY GUN HUGGER IN WALMART

If you go shopping in Huntsville, Texas, you’re likely to run into a local preacher with an assault rifle slung across his back. Beginning last week, Pastor Terry Holcomb started posting videos of himself wandering into local businesses with an AR-15 Bushmaster rifle — the same weapon used to kill 20 children and six adults in the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting.

In one video, Holcomb wanders about a Walmart for several minutes before he is approached by two store employees and asked to leave. He argues briefly with those two employees until a manager approaches and threatens to call the police if he does not exit the store. Although Holcomb then agrees to leave the store, he refuses a request to stop videoing the engagement — at one point, his camera man claims the recording is for Holcomb’s “safety.”




Holcomb told a local news station that the purpose of his conspicuously armed visits to Huntsville businesses is to protest a Texas law which permits gun owners to openly carry long rifles but not handguns, which must be concealed and can only be carried by individuals with valid concealed carry permits.

Yet, while a legal regime that regulates handguns more strictly than assault rifles may seem counter-intuitive, it is entirely sensible to apply stricter regulations to handguns than to other firearms in light of the fact that handguns are so frequently used to commit homicides. According to the FBI, there were approximately 47,500 murders committed with a gun in 2001-2005. Almost 8 in 10 of these murders were committed with a handgun.

Yet, despite the unique danger presented to the public by handguns, the five conservatives on the Supreme Court gave them special protection under the Second Amendment. According to Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller, handguns cannot be banned because they are “the most preferred firearm in the nation to `keep’ and use for protection of one’s home and family.” Thus, the weapon that is most likely to be used in a gun murder is also the hardest weapon to regulate under this Supreme Court.

There's no discernible difference between this guy and the creep exposing himself in a different way to women and children. It's an emotionally stunted desire to shock and frighten others and give himself a false feeling of power, which is kind of concerning since he pretends to be a preacher - and the fact that this person can be considered a "preacher" says much, none of it good, about his flock........Jesus wept, them vomited!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West