Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

Who is more intelligent: U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann, or a turnip?

That’s the Twitter poll being taken right now. If you follow the account, you’re voting that a turnip is smarter than Michele Bachmann.

90 people have made that vote so far. Which side do you come down on? Does Michele Bachmann edge out the root vegetable?

Apparently, Mike Huckabee is preparing for a 2012 presidential campaign. If that’s true, I’d love to have a Huckabee supporter come here and explain what Huckabee is doing in the following photograph.

He appears to be tying up a woman with a lasso, as if she’s a prize heifer. Is this redneck bondage?

Reprinted in full, with permission, from Ballot Access News, the newsletter of highly respected ballot access expert Richard Winger.

Government-printed ballots in the United States were first created in 1888, and almost from the start, opponents of new and minor political parties started manipulating the ballot access laws to keep certain parties off the ballot.  The first such instance was in Nevada, when the 1893 legislature increased the petition requirement for new parties and independent candidates to 10% of the last vote cast, in a vain attempt to keep the Peoples (Populist) Party off the ballot.

But in over a century of struggle to avoid monopolization of the general election ballot to just the two major parties, there has never been a pressure group that worked in favor of restrictive ballot access laws, until very recently.  Leaders of the former New Alliance Party, who have renamed themselves several times, now call themselves IndependentVoting.org.  They hold themselves out as the leaders of independent voters, but they have become a pressure group working to limit choices on the general election ballot to just Democrats and Republicans.

IndependentVoting fund-raising pitches say that the organization’s goal is to enable independent voters to vote in major party primaries.  However, the bulk of IndependentVoting’s activity during 2010 has been to advance the goal of switching California to the top-two system.  This is ironic, because California had already been a state (ever since 2001) in which independent voters were already able to vote in all major party primaries for Congress and state office.

Compared to Republican and Democratic voters, independent voters are the most supportive voters for minor party candidates.  For example, see this poll taken in the North Carolina U.S. Senate race in 2010, which shows that Libertarian Party nominee Michael Beitler received the support of 12% of independent voters, whereas he received the votes of only 3% of the major party voters.  Other polls that give this much detail, from other states in 2010, showed similar results; see this example fromCalifornia.  Thus, when a new election system appears that removes minor party candidates from the general election ballot, that new system disproportionately injures independent voters more than it injures any other voters.

The California top-two proposal does more harm than just removing minor party candidates from the general election ballot.  It says write-ins can’t be counted in November for Congress and state office; it makes it far more difficult for a minor party to remain on the ballot for President; it discriminates against independent candidates by not letting themselves use the label “independent” on any ballot; and it vastly increases the number of signatures to get on the primary ballot for minor party candidates who don’t pay the filing fee.  Notwithstanding all these harms done to voting rights, IndependentVoting enthusiastically supports the top-two law in California, and expresses open hostility toward minor parties.  For example, see this cartoon, carried on a blog associated with IndependentVoting.

IndependentVoting communications have been dishonest.  IndependentVoting has repeatedly asserted that independents were not permitted to vote in major party primaries in California before the adoption of the top-two system.  IndependentVoting has also recently inaccurately claimed that the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 14, when the truth is that the court merely declined to expedite the case.  IndependentVoting also fosters confusion, by constantly referring to the California top-two system as an “open primary”.

Members of the New Alliance Party were once defenders of voter choice in the general election.  The New Alliance Party won ballot access lawsuits in Alabama, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington.  Activists from the New Alliance Party wrote the first bill in Congress to outlaw restrictive ballot access laws, introduced by Congressman John Conyers in 1985.  They worked hard for that bill, which was re-introduced in 1987 and 1989.  In 1990, the Rainbow Lobby, associated with the New Alliance Party, managed to get 40 co-sponsors for the bill, although it did not pass.  The New Alliance Party also filed many lawsuits against the Commission on Presidential Debates, trying to end the Democratic-Republican monopoly on presidential debates.  These cases did not win, but they came closer to winning than any other lawsuits on this subject, and one of the New Alliance debates lawsuits won a procedural victory on standing to file such lawsuits.

Minor parties are hoping to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to hear cases against the Georgia and Hawaii ballot access laws, and are also hoping to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case against Connecticut’s discriminatory law on public funding of candidates, which requires independent candidates to submit a petition of 20% of the last vote cast (in addition to raising the same number of small campaign contributions that major party candidates must raise).  IndependentVoting has shown no interest in supporting these efforts, and judging from the cartoon, supports the Connecticut discrimination against independent candidates in the matter of public funding.

With regards to all the tax cut coverage, right now I’m more interested in DADT.

Right now I’m watching CNN and it seems the Senate is now voting on a stand-alone bill regarding DADT. No news on what the result is yet.

The motion passed, 65-31, DADT is repealed. Now Obama has to sign it (due next week) and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has to certify it.

Basically, this is a repost of a thread I started on another forum. I know I should have some grand thing to say after my long absence, but…I’m not sure how I could have said it differently.

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To say I didn’t see this coming would be a lie. I saw it…because the Republicans have been doing this since Obama took office. But still, this reeks of a surprising amount of petulance as well as a willingness to fuck over the whole country just to get their way.

Republicans Want to Extend Their Tax Cuts, Will Hold Breath Until They Get Their Way

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans threatened Wednesday to block virtually all legislation until expiring tax cuts are extended and a bill is passed to fund the federal government, vastly complicating Democratic attempts to leave their own stamp on the final days of the post-election Congress.

“While there are other items that might ultimately be worthy of the Senate’s attention, we cannot agree to prioritize any matters above the critical issues of funding the government and preventing a job-killing tax hike,” all 42 GOP senators wrote in a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. The 42 signatures are more than enough to block action on almost any item he wishes to advance.

The threat does not apply to a new arms control treaty with Russia that is pending, since it would be debated under rules that differ from those that apply to routine legislation. President Barack Obama has made ratification of the pact a top priority.

But it does threaten Democratic attempts to lift the Pentagon’s ban on openly gay members of the military, and a separate item to give legal status to young illegal immigrants who attend college or serve in the military. The tax and spending bills are likely to be the last to pass before Congress adjourns for the year.

Most people have heard by now of the findings of a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life that American atheists know more about religion than religious believers do. The story that they didn’t hear coming out of that survey is that Christians have a more general ignorance as well, when compared to non-Christian Americans.

One of the particular manifestations of Christians’ ignorance is in the realm of politics. When I speak of the political ignorance of Christians in America, I’m not using the term “ignorance” to describe merely having opinions that I disagree with. I’m talking about ignorance of basic political facts. In the Pew Forum study, Christians demonstrated a much greater political ignorance than atheists did.

One of the political facts that the survey tested respondents on was the identity of the Vice President. An astonishing 42 percent of American Christians surveyed had no idea that Joseph Biden is Vice President of the United States. Only 17 percent of American atheists were ignorant of this fact.

The political implications of this finding are not reassuring. The rate of Christian identity in the United States is in decline, but Christians still make up the majority of voters in the nation. If so many of them can’t even remember who the Vice President of the United States is, then how can this large bloc of voters be expected to make intelligent choices in this year’s congressional elections, when less well-known facts are at stake?

Congressman Charlie Dent likes to adopt an anti-Europe posture when he’s talking in front of right wing voters in the 15th district of Pennsylvania. He frequently warns that Democrats are trying to lead America into a “European-style Welfare state”, adding the comment about Europe in order to cast Democrats as somehow unAmerican in character.

It turns out that Charles Dent has some rather strong European political connections himself, though. Just last Thursday, Congressman Dent had a special fundraising event arranged for him at 201 C Street, the home of an influential lobbyist. That lobbyist, David D. O’Brien, is the head of his own firm, which represents several European interests, including the embassies of European nations and Wartsila Defense, a company owned by a Scandinavian technology company.

Representative Dent may insult Europe with his words, but he’s happy to have cash slapped in his hand at parties arranged for him by the agents of European power elites.

“During the stifling hot summer of 1787 the framers of the Constitution were meeting at Independence Hall in Philadelphia…” So begins the U.S. Senate web site’s statement on Constitution Day. Yes, back in 1787, those legislators were hard at work on September 17.

So, how did America’s legislators honor that history of hard work? They took the day off.

Instead of working to uphold and defend the Constitution from the ongoing unconstitutional programs developed under George W. Bush, the House of Representatives went into recess – just four days after it had ended its summer recess. The Senate closed up shop, too.

What did all those senators and representatives do with their spare time? They used Constitution Day to go begging for money from corporate lobbyists.

I am endorsing Marcy Winograd in her race to represent California’s 36th District in Congress.  She is a true progressive who will stand up to the military industrial complex, the medical industrial complex, and other corporate interests in Washington.  Marcy is genuine in her concern for the people.

Today, I found a dollar for Ron Paul, and a dollar against Ron Paul. They’re the same dollar.

Who is Ron Paul? A loser.

Way to waste a vote! RonPaul2008.com

As you can see, this dollar bill is also against the eye at the top of the pyramid. That’ll stop the New World Order!