Increasingly, Republican state legislatures are trying to restrict voting so that only Republican voters can take advantage of their constitutional rights. Republican legislators in South Carolina have crafted a new voter identification law which disenfranchises minority voters. The AP’s analysis of the state’s 2,135 precincts reveals there are 10 precincts where almost all of the people impacted by the new law are minority voters. But they don't just want to stop some people from voting. They don't want those people to participate in the democratic process at all. Freshman Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) held a town hall meeting...but it was more of an intimate private party. Herrera Beutler told the approximately 24 people who ...
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You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a C.I.A. that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home. - Abbie Hoffman Those who produce should have, but we know that those who produce the most - that is, those who work hardest, and at the most difficult and most menial tasks, have the least. - Eugene V. Debs Do not accumulate wealth whilst millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of ...
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On Saturday Night Live, they have a long history of ridiculing politicians from Dan Ackroyd's famous impressions of Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter to Dana Carvey's popular George H.W. Bush to Fred Armisen's Barack Obama. With the Republican Presidential debates dominating news coverage, it makes sense for SNL to parody the campaigns of GOP candidates. Most people claim to be flattered when they are satirized on SNL. Except Rick Santorum. He thinks it is "bullying". "The left, unfortunately, participates in bullying more than the right does," Santorum said. "They say that they’re tolerant, and they’re anything but tolerant of people who disagree with them and support traditional values." That isn't "bullying". When Fox host Chris ...
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Some radical anti-abortion activists in Ohio have decided that Roe vs. Wade shouldn't really apply because...well, because they don't want it to. That's why. They support a bill which would severely restrict the abilities of a woman to use her legal right to an abortion. This potential law would outlaw abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is generally six to seven weeks into pregnancy. The bill grants no exceptions for rape, incest, or mental health of a woman. Abortion-rights groups say such a law would effectively ban abortions entirely because most women don't know they are pregnant that early in their pregnancy. "It's obviously an undue burden if you can't have an abortion even before you know you are ...
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Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is listed as a speaker for a "One Nation Under God" rally. The organization has a brief manifesto on the main page: We’ve lost sight of our great heritage as a nation founded on Biblical truth, and the consequences are dire: schools are failing, the divorce rate is climbing, and our society is rife with scandal and corruption. It’s time to reclaim our Biblical heritage and bring God back to the center of American life. Where do we start? Yes. There is a high divorce rate. But I don't think that Christianity is necessarily the solution. A Wyoming writer noted that the more religious an area, the higher the divorce rate: So with the help of a sociology prof friend, and state and national ...
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I have noted before that capitalism is largely based on greed and that Libertarianism is fundamentally selfish. Here is more fuel for my fire. Libertarians (and I realize that this is a simplification of the ideology) generally want to privatize most, if not all, government services. But when emergency services are fee based...this happens: Imagine your home catches fire but the local fire department won't respond, then watches it burn. That's exactly what happened to a local family tonight.... ...Each year, Obion County residents must pay $75 if they want fire protection from the city of South Fulton. But the Cranicks did not pay. When the Cranick family called 911, they offered to pay the subscription to save their ...
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Apparently, Colonial Williamsburg has become a gathering place for teabaggers. Not only do they like to pretend it is an older and simpler time...but they think they can ask their hero questions. "General, when is it appropriate to resort to arms to fight for our liberty?" asked a tourist on a recent weekday during "A Conversation with George Washington," a hugely popular dialogue between actor and audience in the shaded backyard of Charlton's Coffeehouse.
Standing on a simple wooden stage before a crowd of about 100, the man portraying Washington replied: "Only when all peaceful remedies have been exhausted. Or if we are forced to do so in our own self-defense."
The tourist, a self-described conservative activist named Ismael Nieves from ...
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In April of 2010, Jon Voight, the actor and father of Anggeline Jolie, had the following to say about President Obama: ...This will be the first president to ever weaken the United States of America. President Obama uses his aggression and arrogance for his own agenda, against the will of the American people when he should be using his will and aggression against our enemies. Every loving American for peace and truth and the security of our nation must come out and join the Tea Parties in their states... In June, Voight penned an open letter to Obama which included: You will be the first American president that lied to the Jewish people, and the American people as well... ...You have brought to Arizona a civil war, once again ...
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Earlier this month, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) declared April 2010 Confederate History Month. The declaration didn't mention slavery. McDonnell claimed: ...there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states. Obviously, it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia. McDonnell later apologized and added language denouncing slavery to his proclamation. But before that apology and even after, others have defended him. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) defended McDonnell. When asked What about the sensitivity of it? Because we heard from a number of African American politicians and just people on the street that were interviwed in ...
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In August of 1981, then-President Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers. In 1998, Washington National Airport was renamed Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Because irony is awesome. But the hagiographical actions of "Reagan Republians" didn't end there. And they continue to push to rename things in the honor of "The Great Communicator". They've already named an airport, an aircraft carrier, a courthouse, a medical center, at least two post offices, several schools and more than two dozen roads for him. A McDonald's in Alabama where he once ate even boasts a bust of him. Yet that's not enough for the most devout supporters of Ronald Reagan. A year from this coming Saturday would have been the former ...
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