Vegan My Way

justinspoliticalcorner:

Late last week, democracy scored two important victories over a Republican plan to rig future presidential elections by changing the way electoral votes are counted in several key blue states. Two Virginia Republican state senators spoke out against the plan, effectively killing it. And Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford (R) attacked the election-rigging scheme as trying to “change the rules of the game.”

In Michigan, however, which is the bluest of the six blue states where the election-rigging plan has been discussed, state House Speaker Jase Bolger (R) appears quite open to rigging his state’s electoral college votes to benefit Republicans.

In other words, Republican voters in Michigan are upset that Democrats win elections simply because there are more of them. And Bolger wants to fix that by giving the few Republicans more votes than the majority.

h/t: Ian Millhiser at Think Progress Justice

In 2012 Jase Bolger was involved in the recruitment of a phony Democrat, 22-year old Matt Mojzak, to run against then-Democratic Michigan state Rep. Roy Schmidt so that Schmidt would have no real opposition. In turn, Schmidt would switch his party affiliation to Republican immediately prior to the filing deadline, ensuring victory for now Republican Schmidt.

(via reagan-was-a-horrible-president)

Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, signaling that Republicans may revive last year’s battles over offsets to disaster aid relief, says he expects that any package to help Northeast states hit by the superstorm Sandy will have to including matching cuts in spending elsewhere in the federal budget.

“We always help communities during disasters,” he said Wednesday after having met earlier in the day with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is pushing for quick passage of an aid package. “The difference you have got now is that it is going to have to be offset.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he does not expect to have a confrontation with GOP members over aid.

“This is something that I think is important that we do as soon as we can. We want to make sure that the numbers are basically in the ballpark,” the Nevada Democrat said. “I’ve been told that the Republicans in the House agree that this is something that need not be paid for, and I hope that, in fact, is the case because if there were ever an act of God, an emergency, this is it.”

(Source: sarahlee310, via reagan-was-a-horrible-president)

Clearly violating the First Amendment, the law first surfaced in 2006. Since then the law, its sponsor Tom Riner (a practicing Baptist minister and the long-time Democratic state rep.), and the Kentucky state Supreme Court have refused to review the constitutionality of what became a 2008 homeland security law.

Currently everyone in Kentucky is potentially forced to assert that the safety of their state is dependent on “Almighty God” or face criminal charges, including up to 12 months in jail.

On November 13, 2012, American Atheists’ National Legal Director Edwin Kagin submitted a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS). American Atheists is asking SCOTUS to review the Kentucky Homeland Security law. The Circuit Court level ruled the law violated the First Amendment, but was reversed by the Kentucky state Court of Appeals.

The Kentucky Supreme Court refused to hear a motion for discretionary review to a state law that makes it mandatory that the Commonwealth and its citizens give credit to Almighty God for its safety and security.  This request was denied in a single line that said that “The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God as set forth in the public speeches and proclamations of American Presidents, including Abraham Lincoln’s historic March 30, 1863, presidential proclamation urging Americans to pray and fast during one of the most dangerous hours in American history, and the text of President John F. Kennedy’s November 22, 1963, national security speech which concluded: “For as was written long ago: ‘Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.’”

You should also know…

Tom Riner is devoted to his faith even when that directly conflicts with his job as state rep. He has often been at the center of unconstitutional and expensive controversies throughout his 26 years in office. In the last ten years, Kentucky has spent more than $160,000 in string of losing court cases against the American Civil Liberties Union over the state’s decision to display the Ten Commandments in public buildings, legislation that Riner sponsored. One case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 2005 that such displays inside courthouses in two counties were unconstitutional.

To go further…

Abraham Lincoln’s views on religion were complicated, growing up in a highly religious family, but never joining any church.

Kennedy’s Roman Catholic faith would allow him to make important national decisions as president independent of the church. 

And even more info on American Atheist vs. Kentucky Homeland Security.

During House debate on the anti-abortion bill, Democratic Reps Lisa Brown and Barb Byrum introduced an amendment that would have restricted access to vasectomies. Rep. Lisa Brown even used the word ‘vagina’ in her defense of abortion rights. But Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger (R) didn’t like hearing the word even though it’s the correct term to use, so he banned both women from speaking on the House floor, an action that has caused national outrage.

That’s not the end… On Friday, the spokesman for the House Speaker wrote a letter to the press in an attempt to whitewash the whole ordeal. But in that attempt, the spokesman portrays the two women as nothing but a pair of children throwing a fit on the House floor, even though video clearly proves that the two women were just doing their jobs and speaking for their constituents just as their male counterparts do. But according to the spokesman, the two women threw a “temper tantrum.”

The letter reads:

Just to be clear, despite the misinformation being spread by Reps. Brown and Byrum, and Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, there are two representatives not being recognized on the House floor today because of their actions yesterday. It has nothing to do with their gender, their religion or the topic they were discussing. All day today, we have had representatives of both parties, both genders and several different religions passionately debating important issues that will significantly impact the future of Michigan. I would urge you not to become too distracted by temper tantrums designed to score political points.

justinspoliticalcorner:

Eleven Democratic state party chairs are urging the national party to make marriage equality part of the 2012 Democratic platform at the national convention in September. The group Freedom to Marry announced Thursday that the 11 chairs are endorsing their campaign to get the issue in the platform at the convention, called ”Democrats: Say I Do.”

The language of the “freedom to marry” plank calls for “the full inclusion of all families in the life of our nation, with equal respect, responsibilities and protections under the law, including the freedom to marry.” 

The party chairs signing on Thursday are John Burton (California), Jay Jacobs (New York), John Walsh (Massachusetts), Ken Martin (Minnesota), Meredith Wood Smith (Oregon), Boyd Richie (Texas), Jake Perkinson (Vermont), Mike Tate (Wisconsin), Dwight Pelz (Washington), John Wisniewski (New Jersey) and Joan Wagnon (Kansas).

h/t: Pema Levy at TPM LiveWire

(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)