"The Disgust Election"

[applegrove]

The Disgust Election

by Timothy Egan at the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/opinion/the-disgust-election.html?smid=re-share

"SNIP........................


This year, the Koch brothers and their extensions — just to name one lonely voice in the public realm — have operations in at least 35 states, and will spend somewhere north of $120 million to ensure a Congress that will do their bidding. Spending by outside groups has gone to $1 billion in 2012 from $52 million in 2000.

And it gets worse. At the same time that this court has handed over elections to people who already have enormous power, they’ve given approval to efforts to keep the powerless from voting. In Texas, Republicans have passed a selective voter ID bill that could keep upward of 600,000 citizens — students, Native Americans in federally recognized tribes, the elderly — from having a say in this election.


What’s the big deal? Well, you can vote in Texas with a concealed handgun ID, but not one from a four-year college. The new voter suppression measure, allowed to go ahead in an unsigned order by the court last Saturday, “is a purposefully discriminating law,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in dissent, “one that likely imposes an unconstitutional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of eligible voters.”

With the 2010 case, the court handed control of elections over to dark money interests who answer to nobody. And in the Texas case, the court has ensured that it will be more difficult for voters without money or influence to use the one tool they have.


.........................SNIP"

[bmac19gg]

1. all elections are disgusting....

....when you learn just how much money is being spent (yes by both sides) on them. I say create a special high percentage tax on dollars spent in the process of campaigning that in no way shape or form can be evaded or displaced and lock that money into a citizens college fund so nobody else get their hands on it.

And as for Texas voter ID law I just don't see the big deal because Texas will give you a free voter ID card if you show them one of 6 forms of ID including a social security card which the federal government will also give you for free. A person should be responsible for their identifying documents considering you use them for so many important things other than voting.

[arcane1]

2. If a social security card will get you a voter ID card, why not vote with a social security card?

[bmac19gg]

9. probably because theres no photograph

But it would cut down on a lot of that paperwork government loves so much.

[applegrove]

3. The elderly often can't get to the places that give you ID, the poor are uninformed.

Why not do what they do in Canada and ask send everyone a voting card that is from a enumeration but accept ID and a bill or some letter that has your name and address on it. Why not? Poor people often move from place to place. Enumeration doesn't work for them. You need a variety of ways people can be IDed otherwise you are stealing their vote. Which is the intentions of these laws. You are very naïve or very much a knave.

[Doctor_J]

7. you're at the wrong web site

If the Texas voter suppression law was really ineffective, they wouldn't have spent all of that time and money to pass it.

Back to Fox nation, idiot

[bmac19gg]

8. thats rude

I don't have cable tv so I don't know whats going on with Fox News but thanks for the name calling all the same. And government excels at wastes money and time on things that are ineffective sooooo you'll have to try again with something else if you want to bring me on board.

I think that considering both the Federal Government and Texas will provide you with all the identification you need to vote *for free* that this not constitute a poll tax and it appears that SCOTUS agrees. Furthermore I'm of the opinion that documents such as your birth certificate or social security card are of vital importance to many other areas of life and that having them is a matter of personal responsibility.

[J_J_]

4. they stole the money from US by inflating gas prices with oil speculation

First they bought a few congressional members,

January 21, 1993. Wendy Gramm makes first major move to deregulate oil speculation. “On the final day of the [George H.W.] Bush administration, January 21, 1993, [CFTC chairwoman] Wendy Gramm … approved the rule exempting key energy futures contracts from government regulation

December 12, 2000: Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX), after being lobbied by Koch and Enron, creates the infamous “Enron Loophole” vastly deregulating the oil speculation market

http://thinkprogress.org/report/koch-oil-speculation/

then they stole billions from us







now they are buying the rest of our government...

[RKP5637]

5. A democracy! LOL! Does anyone possibly seriously think the US is a democracy?

That started flying out the window in the 80's with disgusting Reagan. And now Citizens United. What a sham is USA, Incorporated. Give it a few more years and this will look like the best of years. Congressmen really should wear the badges of the corporations they represent and are indebted to for many reasons. Integrity has lost control, a lost word in USA, Incorporated.

So sad, so pathetic.

[Youdontwantthetruth]

12. It took a whole bunch of "Democrats" to elect that POS RR

and the last 2 'Democratic" presidents continued many of RR Economic Policies too....along with a number of Republican Pet Programs. Gutting Glass–Steagall, implementing NAFTA and Welfare Reform for just to name a few of the destructive policies supported by "Democratic" Presidents



The bigger problem is within not outside the Democratic Party.

[RKP5637]

13. Quite true! Democrats whine about what is occurring, but need to look inwardly. Democrats are

part of the problem too, but seldom hold a mirror up to look at themselves ask WTF happened.

[Youdontwantthetruth]

14. America does not want the truth

Just like the Germans did not want to know the truth about what was happening to the Jews.

It is easier to stick ones head in the sand or as I prefer up ones arse then it is to pay attention and deal with the real world and not fantasyland.

[RKP5637]

15. Exactly! Most Americans live in denial IMO. n/t

[Doctor_J]

6. I'd like to see the doj cuff Rick Perry and send him to Leavenworth

It might discourage some of the voter suppression

[davidpdx]

11. A pit with some hungry lions would be more fitting

Then again, the lions might decide they don't want to eat something that rotten.

[Laelth]

10. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth