Pennsylvania, meet Jim Crow
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Pennsylvania, meet Jim Crow
Bill Clinton calls it like he sees it
Former President Bill Clinton weighed in on Republican efforts in several states to pass new restrictions on voting, comparing the measures to the Jim Crow laws of the past.
"There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today," Clinton said in a speech at a Campus Progress conference in Washington.
Tragically, one of the "new Jim Crow" states is right here in Pennsylvania. The Daily News had a good editorial on this today, nailing the insanity of the GOP's likely-to-pass "voter fraud" bill that tackles a problem that doesn't exist -- while disenfranchising thousands of voters, disproportionately the elderly and minorities:
THE VOTER-ID bill passed recently by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives purports to be a solution to a problem that simply doesn't exist: people voting fraudulently by showing up at the polls pretending to be someone else.
If the bill, which now goes to the state Senate, becomes law, most Pennsylvania voters would have to show government-issued picture IDs every time they vote. If a citizen doesn't have a state or federal ID or a passport, he or she would have to go to a driver's license office with a birth certificate, Social Security card and proof of residency, and pay $13.50 to get one. (Current law requires voters to show identification only the first time they vote in a new precinct.)
Actually, the real problem that voter-ID legislation is meant to solve is that poor people and the elderly - who are 11 percent less likely than other eligible voters to possess such identification - are known to vote overwhelming for Democrats.
As I noted here a couple of weeks ago, this plan is nothing more than a scheme for Republicans to take advantage of their current majority in Harrisburg and steal future elections, pure and simple -- destroying democracy in the name of saving it. Kudos to the 42nd president for calling this out.
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"Our voter turnout is ~20%." . . . . . . . There's the real scandal the righties don't want to address. Voter registration should be automatic (or eliminated altogether as in North Dakota), election day registration should be allowed, and election days should be national and state holidays. Only then will we see voter turnout like the majority of other western democracies or even our own more progressive states. Of all the rights our Tea Party confederates claim to cherish in the face of supposed fascism (only furthered by the anonymous power that corporate wealth can buy over the process), you'd think the unfettered right to vote would be paramount.
Republicans keeping people away from the polls? We don't need anyone to keep people away from the polls. In a one-party town, people are convinced that the Dems will win, no mather whether 90% of voters vote, or just 20%. Apathy here is a weapon which crooked politicians wield with expertise.— DonQ- The left never met bureaucracy or red tape it didn't like until the "burden" of proving who you are and whether you are entitled to vote.
Strict enforcement of the borders and immigration law (by BOTH parties) should have made this a moot point, but since they didn't, it is an issue and should be addressed.
PS. I wonder if you have to prove who you are to vote to certify union representation?— Wiseman6 - Comment removed.
- "Bunch of B.S." The elderly vote OVERWHELMINGLY Democratic??? Where did you get that??? That's as bad as when you Libs say that it was the Mormons who passed Prop. 8 in Cali when minorities voted 60%-40% Obama and 52%-48% Yes on Prop. 8!!! And then protest in front of a Mormon Temple and never in front of a Baptist church in the 'Hood!!!!— sarah89
- Hmmmmm.
--snip--
FRACKING FLUIDS POISON A NATIONAL FOREST — New Study Details Changes in Soil Chemistry and Devastation of Trees and Plants
Washington, DC — A new study has found that wastewater from natural gas hydrofracturing in a West Virginia national forest quickly wiped out all ground plants, killed more than half of the trees and caused radical changes in soil chemistry. These results argue for much tighter control over disposal of these “fracking fluids,” contends Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
The new study by Mary Beth Adams, a U.S. Forest Service researcher, appears in the July-August issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Environmental Quality. She looked at the effects of land application of fracking fluids on a quarter-acre section of the Fernow Experimental Forest within the Monongahela National Forest. More than 75,000 gallons of fracking fluids, which are injected deep underground to free shale gas and then return to the surface, were applied to the assigned plot over a two day period during June 2008. The following effects were reported in the study:
Within two days all ground plants were dead;
Within 10 days, leaves of trees began to turn brown. Within two years more than half of the approximately 150 trees were dead; and
“Surface soil concentrations of sodium and chloride increased 50-fold as a result of the land application of hydrofracturing fluids…” These elevated levels eventually declined as chemical leached off-site. The exact chemical composition of these fluids is not known because the chemical formula is classified as confidential proprietary information.
--snip--
Move along. Nothing to see here.— Talking point sleuth - Perhaps Mr. Bunch will be satisfied if the New Black Panthers check the voters' ID.— STS_PA
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