GOP Working Overtime To Keep College Students from Voting

From the New York Times:

Political leaders should be encouraging young adults to participate in civic life, but many Republican state lawmakers are doing everything they can instead to prevent students from voting in the 2012 presidential election. Some have openly acknowledged doing so because students tend to be liberal.

And this too:

William O’Brien, the speaker of the New Hampshire State House, told a Tea Party group earlier this year that students are “foolish” and tend to “vote their feelings” because they lack life experience. “Voting as a liberal,” he said, “that’s what kids do.” And that’s why, he said, he supported measures to prohibit students from voting from their college addresses and to end same-day registration. New Hampshire Republicans even tried to pass a bill that would have kept students who previously lived elsewhere from voting in the state; fortunately, the measure failed, as did the others Mr. O’Brien favored.

Read more.

Nod to Eric Byler.

Washington Post: Growing Wealth Widens Distance Between Lawmakers and Constituents

From the Washington Post:

The growth of income inequality has tracked very closely with measures of political polarization, which has been gauged using the average difference between the liberal/conservative scores for Republican and Democratic members of the House.

“The proximity of these trends is uncanny,” according to a 2003 paper by researchers Nolan McCarty, Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal. “Remarkably, the trends of economic inequality and elite political polarization have moved almost in tandem for the past half-century.”

Excellent commentary on this from Eric Byler at Coffee Party USA.

Ron Paul’s Views Finding Support Among White Nationalists

Ron Paul with white Supremacists Don and Derek Black
Ron Paul with white Supremacists Don and Derek Black

Ron Paul says he “wouldn’t be happy” with support from the white supremacists, survivalists and anti-Zionists who have rallied to his support, but he will not disavow their support, saying, “They’re endorsing what I do or say — it has nothing to do with endorsing what they say.”

So Ron Paul will accept support from Neo-Nazis. He simply won’t endorse anthing they say, except, of course, that, for whatever reason, they support Ron Paul.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

The American Free Press, which markets books such as “The Invention of the Jewish People” and “March of the Titans: A History of the White Race,” is urging its subscribers to help it send hundreds of copies of Ron Paul’s collected speeches to voters in New Hampshire. The book, it promises, will “Help Dr. Ron Paul Win the GOP Nomination in 2012!”

Don Black, the director of the white nationalist website Stormfront, said in an interview that dozens of his members were volunteering for Mr. Paul’s campaign, and a site forum titled “Why is Ron Paul such a favorite here?” has no fewer than 24 pages of comments.

“I understand he wins many fans because his monetary policy would hurt Jews,” read one. Far right groups like the Militia of Montana say they are rooting for him as a stalwart against government tyranny.

Newt Gingrich Fails To Qualify For Virginia, His Home State’s Ballot

Newt Gingrich pointing
Are you perhaps to blame for Newt "The Buck Stops There" Gingrich's latest electoral problems?

Remember, if Newt Gingrich has a problem, someone else is to blame.

Remember that. The man who has already christened himself the GOP nominee for President of the United States commits no errors. He is infallible.

Case in point: Newt blames the State of Virginia for his failure to qualify for his home state’s primary ballot.

From the BBC:

Newt Gingrich, one of the leading US Republican presidential candidates, has said Virginia’s electoral system is flawed, after failing to qualify for the primary ballot in his home state.

Virginia party officials say he did not submit the required 10,000 signatures to appear on the 6 March ballot.

Mr Gingrich’s team vowed to pursue an “aggressive write-in campaign” – although Virginia does not permit this.

Gingrich critics say the setback shows serious lack of organisation.

Four other presidential Republican candidates – including Texas Governor Rick Perry – failed to qualify for the Virginia ballot.

Can you imagine this man as president? Newt “The Buck Stops There” Gingrich, man of a thousand excuses.

Newt, dude, you only had to get 10,000 good signatures.  Your campaign only submitted 11,050. Even local candidates here who only need two or three hundred signatures submit at least double the required number.

Was it really that difficult to find 10,000 good signatures in the entire state of Virginia? Or didn’t you really try?

Hint to Obama Haters: “Obamacare” is Paid For, Year-by-year

From Paul Krugman at the NYTimes (for those of you who work for Fox News and have no degrees in economics, he has a NOBEL PRIZE in economics):

I assume that this is coming from some right-wing source. But you know, the CBO has a web site, and it’s easy to check this; there’s a convenient summary of the estimates here. .And, well, the estimates say that the reform is fully paid for:

Oh, and it’s paid for year by year, too — whatever you may have heard about 10 years of taxes paying for 6 years of coverage, or whatever, they’re basically lies.

More here.

MSNBC: Government Tested AIDS Drugs on Foster Kids Without Federal Law Protection

Incredibly disturbing news from MSNBC:

Government-funded researchers tested AIDS drugs on hundreds of foster children over the past two decades, often without providing them a basic protection afforded in federal law and required by some states, an Associated Press review has found.

The research funded by the National Institutes of Health spanned the country. It was most widespread in the 1990s as foster care agencies sought treatments for their HIV-infected children that weren’t yet available in the marketplace.

The practice ensured that foster children — mostly poor or minority — received care from world-class researchers at government expense, slowing their rate of death and extending their lives. But it also exposed a vulnerable population to the risks of medical research and drugs that were known to have serious side effects in adults and for which the safety for children was unknown.

Read more and weep for the children.

NYTimes: U.S. Rejects Plan to Widen Availability of Morning-After Pill

Disappointing news from the New York Times:

In a surprise move, the nation’s health secretary stopped the Plan B morning-after pill from moving onto drugstore shelves next to the condoms, deciding Wednesday that young girls shouldn’t be able to buy it on their own.

The Food and Drug Administration was preparing to lift a controversial age limit and make Plan B One-Step the nation’s first over-the-counter emergency contraceptive, available for purchase by people of any age without a prescription.

But Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius intervened at the eleventh hour and overruled her own experts.

Plan B instead will remain behind the pharmacy counter, as it is sold today — available without a prescription only for those 17 and older who show an ID proving their age.

That this comes from this sometimes-perplexing Democratic administration is one thing. That the move comes in direct opposition to the administration’s own experts baffles me.

ABC: Gay Teen Jonah Mowry Says Bullying Made Him Stronger

From ABC News:

Jonah Mowry, the 14-year-old whose heart-wrenching four-month-old YouTube video described his despair at being bullied for being gay, resurfaced online Sunday, telling his supporters he is doing just fine.

Jonah, chewing gum and with a female friend by his side, says on a more recent YouTube video, “To the people who think nobody likes me … Everyone in my school loves me.”

This kid’s gonna make it.

Amen.

I Believe Herman Cain

Herman Cain ad
Herman Cain and his Mona Lisa smile. Sincere, or creepy?

I believe Herman Cain.

I believe Herman Cain has not a single clue that groping a woman without her permission, trying to kiss her without her permission, and other bawdy actions, qualify as sexual harassment.

Herman Cain does not believe he sexually harassed anyone.

Consider Cain’s remarks regarding attorney Gloria Allred, hired by Sharon Bialek, one of the women who came forward alleging sexual harassment by Herman Cain, “Let me put it to you this way: I can’t think of anything I would hire her to do,” Cain laughed, referring to Allred. “I can’t think of a thing.”

I believe there are other men and women like Herman Cain who believe likewise.

Heard a few of them today on Chicago’s  WBBM as the station reported Cain’s suspension of his presidential campaign. “Give-em heck, Herman!” someone called to the candidate as he made his announcement.

I believe there are people who don’t get it.

It’s a question of ethics, and we don’t get to write our own rules.

Can We Please Un-Elect Mark Kirk ASAP, Illinois?

Received the following pseudo-economic-concerned email from Mark Kirk today:

Illinois has 11 nuclear power plants, more than any other state in the nation. Currently, spent fuel is stored in dry casks and pools near urban areas and sources of drinking water. At the Zion Nuclear Station, 1,100 tons of waste is stored just yards away from Lake Michigan, the source of drinking water to millions of people. A nuclear waste contamination of Lake Michigan would be devastating to the Great Lakes region.

A continuation of the Yucca Mountain project would be an important step in finding a safe, permanent storage facility for our country’s nuclear waste and critically important for the State of Illinois. Click the image below to see a video on what I am doing to move nuclear waste out of Illinois.

Look, here is what I am doing to remove waste from Illinois.

Un-elect Mark Kirk.

Vote for his Democratic challenger. Whoever he or she is.

Mark Kirk is dancing with the far, far right, which, right now, controls his party.

And his party, the GOP, has put forward exactlyro, “0”, jobs bills.

None.

Zero.

Zilch.

And they have rejected every bill President Obama has proposed to increase the number of jobs in America.

Restore America to the center, center left.

Un-elect Mark Kirk.