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Purge Overkill - John Oliver & Florida's Voter Registration Law
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Florida sues federal government for the right to discriminate the vote

Florida Voter Purge Will Continue, Defying Federal Warning

Florida Voter Purge Will Continue, Defying Federal Warning:

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LP - Let the voters pick their politicians don't let the politicians pick their voters

Florida will defy a federal warning to stop purging people the state suspects aren't U.S. citizens from voter registration rolls.

Despite a Justice Department letter, objections from county elections officials and evidence that a disproportionate number are voters of color, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner's office planned to continue scrubbing the election rolls, a spokesman said Friday. Gov. Rick Scott (R) ordered the search for potentially ineligible voters.

“We have an obligation to make sure the voter rolls are accurate and we are going to continue forward and do everything that we can legally do to make sure that ineligible voters cannot vote,” said Chris Cate, a spokesman for Detzner. “We are firmly committed to doing the right thing and preventing ineligible voters from being able to cast a ballot. We are not going to give up our efforts to make sure the voter rolls are accurate."

Very good coverage on Ed Schultz on voter purge

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BREAKING: Federal Judge Blocks Florida Voter Suppression Law | ThinkProgress

BREAKING: Federal Judge Blocks Florida Voter Suppression Law | ThinkProgress:

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A federal judge blocked much of Florida’s year-old voter suppression law today as an unconstitutional infringement on speech and voting rights.

Last year, the Republican-held Florida legislature passed HB 1355, which imposed harsh new restrictions on third-party voter registration groups, requiring them to turn in completed registration forms 48 hours — to the minute — after completion, or face fines. Outside groups often register hundreds of people at a time and, before this law, had used a quality-control process that took days to ensure the accuracy of submitted forms. With the onerous restrictions now in place, some groups like the League of Women Voters were ultimately forced to cease registration drives in the Sunshine State.

In blocking the new law, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle wrote:

The statute and rule impose a harsh and impractical 48-hour deadline for an organization to deliver applications to a voter registration office and effectively prohibit an organization from mailing applications in. And the statute and rule impose burdensome record-keeping and reporting requirements that serve little if any purpose, thus rendering them unconstitutional even to the extent they do not violate the NVRA. [...]

The plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm if an injunction is not issued, first because the denial of a right of this magnitude under circumstances like these almost always inflicts irreparable harm, and second because when a plaintiff loses an opportunity to register a voter, the opportunity is gone forever.

Though state judges and the Department of Justice have already taken steps to prevent voter disenfranchisement, Hinkle’s decision is the first time a federal court has blocked one of the most recent round of state voter suppression laws.

Voters have already begun to experience the effects of new anti-voting laws. Minority voter registration is down significantly from the 2008 election. Among Latinos nationwide, voter registration has dropped five percent; for blacks, registration rates are down seven percent.

New York University’s Brennan Center, which studies voting rights issues, hailed the decision. “Florida’s law and others approved in the past year represent the most significant cutback in voting rights in decades,” said director Wendy Weiser. “Today’s decision will help turn the tide.”

Originally posted here: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/31/493196/judge-blocks-florida-voter-law/

Good Rachel Maddow Show: You can either get more votes or stop people from voting: Florida style

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Daily Kos: Florida begins MASSIVE voter purge in early bid to steal Presidency before elections

Daily Kos: Florida begins MASSIVE voter purge in early bid to steal Presidency before elections:

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This has EVERYTHING to do with the fact that Florida is a swing state. This has everything to do with stopping citizens from being able to vote. This has EVERYTHING to do with voter supression. Denying your countrymen their right to a vote, brought to you by the Republican Party.

. . . in this election, “Governor Scott wants to play the role of Katherine Harris.”

Katherine Harris, of course, was the Florida Secretary of State who helped George W. Bush "win" Florida and the Presidential election of 2000 after Bush v Gore was decided 5-4 by the Supreme Court in the most activist thing any American court had ever done at the time. According to ThinkProgress.org one estimate from 2000 said that 7,000 voters were wrongfully removed from the rolls of eligible voters, 88% of whom were African-American. Al Gore won 92% of the African-American vote in Florida in 2000

    I remember the before times when George W. Bush wasn't Presidenting yet and America had never heard of a hanging chad. If not for a few hundred votes in Florida and a few thousand more who were pushed off the voter rolls "by accident" this might be a very different country, a very different world. Am I alone in the thought that preventing your fellow countryman from having the right to vote is as Un-American as it gets?

More below the fold . 

LP: Of course nobody can forget Florida;s most recent history

Of course the only way we found out about it was through foreign news. Our news was busy focusing on voter fraud in the Ukraine. Thanks New York Times

Scott Brown's buddy Schilling begging R.I. for more money to help game company - The Boston Globe

Schilling asks R.I. for more money to help game company - The Boston Globe:

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Schilling praying for more tax payer money

Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling asked Rhode Island officials Wednesday for more public funds to bail out his ailing video game company, but Gov. Lincoln Chafee questioned whether the state should cut its losses in the firm, 38 Studios LLC. “How do we avoid throwing good money after bad?,’’ Chafee asked after an emergency meeting of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp., which provided $75 million in loan guarantees to woo 38 Studios to Providence. “The difficulty we face is protecting the taxpayers and looking ahead to the future-whether there’s viability that’s worth any further investment.’’ the governor added. ed.

The Alec-Koch Brother Politicians

The politicians of Alec: Scott Walker, Mitch Daniels, John Kasich, One of the New Hampshire house, Paul Lepage,  Chris Christie (the chubby one in the back), Rick Scott, Scott Brown

This was a secret filming of David Koch addressing his minions

I particularly like the one in the back, he'll never make it with that independence

From Huffington Post and the elections have consequences. Money turned away for high speed rail in Florida sent elsewhere. Thanks Gov Scott

Florida's High-Speed Rail Money Officially Sent To Northeast Corridor        

WASHINGTON -- Half a year after Florida Gov. Rick Scott rejected $2.4 billion in federal money to help build high-speed rail structures inside his state, the cash has been sent to other portions of the country. The U.S. Department of Transportation announced on Tuesday that roughly $745 million of Florida's portion of high-speed rail money had been "obligated" toward upgrades on heavily used Amtrak lines in the Northeast Corridor -- $449.94 million alone will be spent on upgrading electrical systems and tracks between Trenton, N.J. and New York City; another $295.78 million will be spent on alleviating traffic congestion on those lines. The remaining Florida funds will be spent throughout the country (not just in the more reliably Democratic northeast). Roughly $400 million is set to expand high-speed rail service in the Midwest; $336.2 million is set to be invested in state-of-the-art locomotives and rail cars for California and the Midwest; and another $300 million will be spent building the nation’s first 220 mph high-speed rail system in California. Those investments, however, have not yet been obligated, according to a Department of Transportation official. In addition, $400 million of Florida's high-speed rail funds has been rescinded by Congress. Rest Of Story here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/23/florida-high-speed-rail-money_n_934217.html

Everyone’s favorite government employee who hates other government employees Pt. 5

The fifth in our series of everyone’s favorite government employee who hates other government employees is none other than Florida Governor Rick Scott. Rick Scott has operated as a perfect tea party candidate, Robin Hood in reverse, robbing from the poor to give to the rich. Early on Scott managed to enrich himself through the country’s health care loopholes which allow rich businessmen, who don’t seem to know a lot about health care, to enrich themselves on health care. When Scott’s own company ran afoul of the law Scott was only saved by a sudden and an extreme case of amnesia.

Florida Governor Rick Scott came to this job as the CEO of Columbia/HCA hospital chain in his past. He made a vast fortune by being part of a company that downsized hospitals for profit. While he was with Columbia the chain was faced with 14 felony charges and was hit with 1.7 billion in fines. Four of its executives were indicted. Two of these were found guilty but their sentences were later overturned on appeal. One was acquitted and the jury failed to reach a verdict on the fourth. Scott was forced out as the CEO though no charges were filed against him. Democratic candidate Alex Sink said, “(Rick Scott) was forced to resign as the head of a company that pled guilty to massive amounts of systematic fraud, including 14 felonies, leading to a historic $1.7 billion fine.” (Politifact 11/3/2010)

In some of the funniest video, of his deposition at a civil suit about a contract, Governor Scott managed to make President Clinton look like a fount of truthfulness. He managed to invoke the Fifth Amendment, the one designed to incriminate yourself, 75 times. See below:

In order to buy the Florida governorship, which pays him his government check in the range of S132,000, Scott was willing to  pay near 74 million. Florida did not choose to put Mr. Scott in jail but instead, through the insight of the tea party, handed him control of the state where he could bring his management skills to the Florida executive office. Since that time Scott has taken an ax to Florida’s state budget. He has planned to cut property taxes by $1 billion over two years and corporate incomes taxes by nearly $1.5 billion, from 5.5% to 3%, with the idea of phasing out corporate income tax by 2018. To make up for this, as Florida is required to balance its budget,  Scott slashed billions in Medicaid assistance to the poor, he has gutted the budget of Department of Children and Families and he has taken $4.8 billion from the education budget over several years.  The net results are that Florida teachers will take an average pay cut of 2,335 a year to save the average Florida homeowner $44.72. (Liberaland 3/7/2011)

In this Scott is just another Republican candidate who ran as a pro-education candidate in the last election. I guess he never said he was going to save education by destroying. According to Dara Kam of the Palm Beach Post, “Every candidate who ran is this last election ran on the campaign saying ‘I support education.’ Nobody ran on campaign saying, ‘Elect me. I’m going to cut school by 10 percent.’ Including the governor.” (Ibid)

Since this Time Scott has absolutely gone to war with the most vulnerable in his state. Unfortunately Monty Python handled this Robin Hood in reverse better and with less real cost.

Scott has not supported the new health care bill and he and the legislature has sent the back $19 million dollars to the federal government that was to be used on Florida’s most vulnerable. In this he has parted ways with the governors of Texas, Indiana and Wisconsin who oppose the bill but have accepted the free federal money. Texas has accepted $276 million for a program that requires health insurance to retirees who are over 55 but don’t qualify for Medicare. Pennsylvania also signed up thousands of its own residents for low-cost health insurance to the uninsurable people with pre-existing conditions though they can’t be covered elsewhere.

In Scott’s case he has vowed to do nothing to help the most vulnerable until the Supreme Court rules on the law’s constitutionality.

Of late Scott’s own Republican legislature appears to have grown tired of him. He keeps ordering cuts in funding, only to reverse it. He has also vowed that Florida will not sue to recoup the tax money the state lost from the BP oil spill. Mike Fasano, Republican from New Port Richey said, “He sends mixed signals to Floridians –and to the legislature. His unpredictability is hurting him. And I think it’s pretty clear that few of us in the Senate are really concerned any more about what he wants us to do.” (Sun Sentinal 4/19/11)

Senator Don Gaetz, Republican from Niceville, said, “Any time you feint right and go left, there are those who are going to say he didn’t have his legs under him. But it’s pretty clear, he’s trying to find his way through a bramble he is not used to.”