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Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:15 pm
by Fireball
Redfive wrote:[Hey, it wasn't me that jumped through your monitor and told you to put down your granola bar and wheat grass juice to respond. Feel free to apologize to yourself though ;)
Go fuck yourself.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:16 pm
by msduncan
Fireball1244 wrote:
msduncan wrote:Democrats hide behind calling out 'discrimination' and 'racism' to try and prevent asking voters for their ID. do they do this? Because they can then bus ineligible individuals to the polls to get their chosen candidates in. To their credit they are trying to get all of these ineligible voters legalized en mass with this immigration bill, but in the meantime they are relying on having the pollsters ill equipped with having any tools to determine if the person standing in front of them is a US citizen or not.
Show one shred of evidence of this. I already posted why I oppose these laws *as written*. You clearly don't care about the reality. You can't even argue the facts I raised.

Are you calling me a liar? Are you accusing me of a crime?

I'm accusing you of nothing worse than politician speak -- using high emotion smoke and mirrors for political gain. Nothing criminal about that. It's the way our politics work in this country.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:18 pm
by malchior
msduncan wrote:This voter suppression bullshit you are hearing out of Fireball and Democrats is just that -- bullshit.
All you have to do to see the depth of the complete ignorance of your claim is to look at Texas voting maps or many other voting maps in the south. They are ridiculous. I agree that some of *BOTH* sides arguments are sometimes over the top but the gerrymandering is plain as day. It is indisputable. And if you follow that up with whose "voice" is minimized by it...you have to wonder why the maps were drawn the way they were.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:18 pm
by Fireball
msduncan wrote:
Isgrimnur wrote:And I have yet to see any documentation to see mass loads of illegals being used to rig votes. So right back at ya, there, msd.

Enlarge Image

Give me a single reason why asking someone for their ID when casting a vote to elect individuals that determine policy, security, national interests, taxes, etc of this country is a bad thing?
It's not. An ID can mean many things, though. For decades American citizens have been using their voter registration card and a myriad of other forms of IDs to vote. What is the issue now is that Republicans want to invalidate the forms of ID that have been acceptable before and require a very specific form of ID that they know working class people are far less likely to have, and the requirements for acquiring are daunting for people who work 60 hour workweeks in jobs with no security and live hand to mouth. Address those issues, and I'm all for photo IDs. As are most Democrats.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:25 pm
by LawBeefaroni
msduncan wrote:Ok i'll say it. Democrats hide behind calling out 'discrimination' and 'racism' to try and prevent asking voters for their ID. Why do they do this? Because they can then bus ineligible individuals to the polls to get their chosen candidates in. To their credit they are trying to get all of these ineligible voters legalized en mass with this immigration bill, but in the meantime they are relying on having the pollsters ill equipped with having any tools to determine if the person standing in front of them is a US citizen or not.

This voter suppression bullshit you are hearing out of Fireball and Democrats is just that -- bullshit.
It's not bullshit. It's one side's way of manipulating the polls: keeping certain voters out. It's been done and it works. Like you pointed out, the other side likes to pack the polls with voters. That's been done and it works too.

It's just the result of political marketing that one side claims they are fighting descrimination and the other side claims they are fighting voter fraud. Both sides are just trying to win elections. Any collateral benefit is purely coincidental. Welcomed by the marketing experts but still coincidental.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:25 pm
by msduncan
Fireball1244 wrote:
msduncan wrote:
Isgrimnur wrote:And I have yet to see any documentation to see mass loads of illegals being used to rig votes. So right back at ya, there, msd.

Enlarge Image

Give me a single reason why asking someone for their ID when casting a vote to elect individuals that determine policy, security, national interests, taxes, etc of this country is a bad thing?
It's not. An ID can mean many things, though. For decades American citizens have been using their voter registration card and a myriad of other forms of IDs to vote. What is the issue now is that Republicans want to invalidate the forms of ID that have been acceptable before and require a very specific form of ID that they know working class people are far less likely to have, and the requirements for acquiring are daunting for people who work 60 hour workweeks in jobs with no security and live hand to mouth. Address those issues, and I'm all for photo IDs. As are most Democrats.
Ok. Let's dialog about how we could accomplish this. How can we offer a secure voter ID that is free and accessable to everyone?

How about phased in approach? Offer them at polling places during elections. Voter comes in to vote. Do you have a voter ID? No? Step into this line and we will get a free ID for you, then you can vote today. Next time you come in bring the ID with you and you go to the other line straight to the voting kiosk. People could also go get it down early so they dont have to wait that first time if they have the opportunity to do it.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:31 pm
by Isgrimnur
Your premise is wrong. In Texas, I either have to show my voter registration card or, if I don't have it, then I have to show my photo ID. So this idea that all I have to do is pretend to be someone with my name on the roll is bullshit.

Oh, and when the Texas Attorney General went on a witch hunt, he found very little, and nothing that would have been prevented by a voter ID law.
Several years ago, Abbott announced there was an “epidemic” of voter fraud in Texas and he launched an investigation. But his investigation and subsequent prosecutions failed to confirm any such epidemic. Abbott found 26 cases to prosecute – all against Democrats, all but one against blacks or Hispanics. Of those, two-thirds were technical violations in which voters were eligible, votes were properly cast and no vote was changed. None of the cases would have been affected by the voter ID requirement.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:35 pm
by malchior
msduncan wrote:How about phased in approach? Offer them at polling places during elections. Voter comes in to vote. Do you have a voter ID? No? Step into this line and we will get a free ID for you, then you can vote today. Next time you come in bring the ID with you and you go to the other line straight to the voting kiosk. People could also go get it down early so they dont have to wait that first time if they have the opportunity to do it.
We have a pretty good system in NJ. You can vote if you aren't registered or don't have your ID - they issue you a provisional ballot. You have to follow up within a certain amount of time or the vote is discarded. Pretty damn simple. However these voter ID laws almost always aren't so fair minded.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:35 pm
by LordMortis
I have no experience with voter suppression but gerrymandering in Michigan is becoming extreme. Of course, the backlash is that we're becoming a state that supports democrats more and more. Republicans set up the false dichotomy and they're going to be laying in that bed for a long time to come around here... Unless state democrats step up to the plate and take the sweep out as voter mandate of their agenda... We've been going back and forth through three governors with this game and it's the voters that lose.

The funny thing is that Engler wasn't so bad, maybe even pretty good, and he was a definite improvement over Blanchard but democratic hatred for him set a tone of escalation that has sacrificed the state's economy and the interest of her voters for ten years running.

http://www.bloomberg.com/infographics/2 ... seats.html" target="_blank

The result has been is an abnormally conservative and extreme "representative" support developing both in the state and federally that is driving us more and more blue. It's a disgusting lose lose situation. And it's going to go the other way once hatred for republican "representation" in state grows so big that no gerrymandering can save them. I fear their scorched earth tactics of the last two years is their own realization of this.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:38 pm
by Fireball
msduncan wrote:Ok. Let's dialog about how we could accomplish this. How can we offer a secure voter ID that is free and accessable to everyone?
First, you have to dramatically increase the number of license producing locations with distribution designed to match population density, not driver density. You need them to keep long hours and be open on weekends, not "normal business hours," at which the working poor are unavailable. You have to require businesses to give employees time off without threat to their jobs to get their IDs. You have to make it possible to request all materials necessary for the form through a widely distributed set of forms -- such as at every post office in the state. You have to provide every required document for free and in a guaranteed timely manner (it took *six months* for the State of Texas to produce a copy of my birth certificate for me). In Texas, in the decade long debates over "Voter ID," Republicans voted as a block to prevent any amendments to Voter ID laws to address these issues from being incorporated into the bills -- every time. They were unwilling to make it at all easier for working people to get these sorts of IDs.

And you have to waive some of the unreasonable requirements, like requiring people to go to an ID office to get a new ID every time they move their address. You have to have long grace periods for name changes related to marriages or divorces. You should accept valid student IDs for kids in college registered at their university addresses.

You need a graduated phase in process over a span of a couple election cycles. You need to interlink the muncipal utility and voter registration databases
How about phased in approach? Offer them at polling places during elections. Voter comes in to vote. Do you have a voter ID? No? Step into this line and we will get a free ID for you, then you can vote today. Next time you come in bring the ID with you and you go to the other line straight to the voting kiosk. People could also go get it down early so they dont have to wait that first time if they have the opportunity to do it.
Republicans in Texas voted against proposals for things like that. I'd be in favor of it, but the cost to Texas to having 8,000+ voter ID production locations on Election Day would be immense. I'd particularly be in favor of having such stations always present, so that folks who move between elections can bring in their ID and some proof of their new address and update their voter ID card on the spot. No way you'd get any Republican elected official to vote in favor of that.

The Carter Baker commission from the 2000 election had recommendations on how to improve American elections, including automated voting machines that produced human-readable paper ballots for counting, and a photographic voter ID system that would be flexible and free so as not to burden the working poor. The Republicans took both concepts, threw out the verifiable paper trails in the first, and all components meant to prevent hardship for the poor in the second, and refuse to budge from those positions.

The best idea? Switch to Oregon's system. It's more secure, it increases turnout, it prevents in-person voter impersonation.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:42 pm
by Fireball
Isgrimnur wrote:Your premise is wrong. In Texas, I either have to show my voter registration card or, if I don't have it, then I have to show my photo ID.
Not anymore. Now the photo ID will be required (and it *must* be valid, and your name on it *must* identically match your name on the voter rolls, and your address *must* be a perfect match, as well).

Also, before, if you didn't have a photo ID you could also show a number of other documents which, in certain combinations, would be considered proof of ID, the same as for proving your identity for employment.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:44 pm
by Redfive
Fireball1244 wrote:
Redfive wrote:[Hey, it wasn't me that jumped through your monitor and told you to put down your granola bar and wheat grass juice to respond. Feel free to apologize to yourself though ;)
Go fuck yourself.
Come on now you can do better than that! (can't you?)

I didn't buy your typical wall of text response and because of that I'm an uninformed conservative that can go fuck himself? Well, admittedly I did throw in the foo foo food comment, but you have to admit you had it coming after the apologizing-to-yourself-take-your-ball-and-go-home stunt.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:44 pm
by noxiousdog
Fireball1244 wrote:
Redfive wrote:[Hey, it wasn't me that jumped through your monitor and told you to put down your granola bar and wheat grass juice to respond. Feel free to apologize to yourself though ;)
Go fuck yourself.
You do more to want me to support Republicans than anything news, policy, or ideas ever could.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:45 pm
by LawBeefaroni
Let's back off the personal attacks and needling.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:46 pm
by $iljanus
Fireball1244 wrote:
Redfive wrote:[Hey, it wasn't me that jumped through your monitor and told you to put down your granola bar and wheat grass juice to respond. Feel free to apologize to yourself though ;)
Go fuck yourself.

Oh dear. Now that the pleasantries have been exchanged let's not proceed beyond this bit of interaction, shall we? Thanks!

Edit: Damn my slow middle-aged fingers. Yes what LawBeef said.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:50 pm
by noxiousdog
malchior wrote:
msduncan wrote:This voter suppression bullshit you are hearing out of Fireball and Democrats is just that -- bullshit.
All you have to do to see the depth of the complete ignorance of your claim is to look at Texas voting maps or many other voting maps in the south. They are ridiculous. I agree that some of *BOTH* sides arguments are sometimes over the top but the gerrymandering is plain as day. It is indisputable. And if you follow that up with whose "voice" is minimized by it...you have to wonder why the maps were drawn the way they were.
Gerrymandering isn't just a south issue.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:51 pm
by Rip
Why can't we shitcan the Obamaphone program and issue free IDs instead?

Using lack of financial ability as an excuse for not having an ID is ridiculus.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:52 pm
by Fireball
noxiousdog wrote:
malchior wrote:
msduncan wrote:This voter suppression bullshit you are hearing out of Fireball and Democrats is just that -- bullshit.
All you have to do to see the depth of the complete ignorance of your claim is to look at Texas voting maps or many other voting maps in the south. They are ridiculous. I agree that some of *BOTH* sides arguments are sometimes over the top but the gerrymandering is plain as day. It is indisputable. And if you follow that up with whose "voice" is minimized by it...you have to wonder why the maps were drawn the way they were.
Gerrymandering isn't just a south issue.
No, it's not. And it should be illegal. Every state should adopt the sort of non-partisan redistricting board system used in Iowa or California. If you want less polarization in Congress, that's the first step.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:54 pm
by Redfive
$iljanus wrote:
Fireball1244 wrote:
Redfive wrote:[Hey, it wasn't me that jumped through your monitor and told you to put down your granola bar and wheat grass juice to respond. Feel free to apologize to yourself though ;)
Go fuck yourself.

Oh dear. Now that the pleasantries have been exchanged let's not proceed beyond this bit of interaction, shall we? Thanks!

Edit: Damn my slow middle-aged fingers. Yes what LawBeef said.
Fair enough.

My last response may have come in after these requests, but that's because I had the board open between work calls so I will layoff the button pushing.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:54 pm
by Exodor
Rip wrote:Why can't we shitcan the Obamaphone program and issue free IDs instead?

Ugh. Really?

Image

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:59 pm
by Fireball
Rip wrote:Why can't we shitcan the Obamaphone program and issue free IDs instead?
The IDs are free. The documents required to produce them are not, and often require long trips to offices during work hours. A working class American who lives hand-to-mouth does not have the resources to take the extensive time off of work required to go to these offices during working hours, and a great many are in positions where they can never take time off work for any reason for fear of losing their jobs.

There's also no such thing as an "Obamaphone." You could call it a "Reaganphone," since the Lifeline telephone program was begun in 1984.
Using lack of financial ability as an excuse for not having an ID is ridiculus.
It is a very real issue for millions of Americans. But to repeat: these people *have* IDs. They just don't have photo IDs that meet the requirements laid out, by design, in the laws in question.

In the South, as I mentioned, it is often compounded by the fact that many black Americans born before the Civil Rights era don't have birth certificates, and hundreds of thousands of other Americans across the country cannot get copies of their birth records because they have been lost to fires, time, water damage or mismanagement.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:01 pm
by Redfive
Exodor wrote:
Rip wrote:Why can't we shitcan the Obamaphone program and issue free IDs instead?

Ugh. Really?

Image
Perhaps, but you have Obamaphone woman on Youtube calling it the Obamaphone--so it doesn't really matter where it started does it?

I'm with Rip, ditch it. If the funds absolutely, oh my god it's burning a hole in my pocket, must be spent, then use it to subsidize the states to implement these ID programs. Actually, I hate that idea too but since we're spitballing...

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:01 pm
by noxiousdog
I can vouch for the fact that getting a birth certificate can be a real pain in the ass.

On the other hand, the solution is to make those documents more readily available, not to pretend like it's an insurmountable hurdle.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:04 pm
by Fireball
noxiousdog wrote:I can vouch for the fact that getting a birth certificate can be a real pain in the ass.

On the other hand, the solution is to make those documents more readily available, not to pretend like it's an insurmountable hurdle.
Yes, I've said that in this thread.

But until those documents are free and readily available, requiring them as part of the process of being able to vote does represent an undue burden on the working poor.

And there's still the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans who either were issued no birth certificate because they committed the crime of being born black in the worthless South, or because their proof of birth documents have been destroyed, lost or damaged over the years for whom requiring a birth certificate for anything *is* an unsurmountable hurdle.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:05 pm
by Rip
Exodor wrote:
Rip wrote:Why can't we shitcan the Obamaphone program and issue free IDs instead?

Ugh. Really?

Image
OK ditch the whatever you want to call the stupid crony capitalism program for free phones and give free IDs instead.

Happy?

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:07 pm
by Rip
Fireball1244 wrote:
Rip wrote:Why can't we shitcan the Obamaphone program and issue free IDs instead?
The IDs are free. The documents required to produce them are not, and often require long trips to offices during work hours. A working class American who lives hand-to-mouth does not have the resources to take the extensive time off of work required to go to these offices during working hours, and a great many are in positions where they can never take time off work for any reason for fear of losing their jobs.

There's also no such thing as an "Obamaphone." You could call it a "Reaganphone," since the Lifeline telephone program was begun in 1984.
Using lack of financial ability as an excuse for not having an ID is ridiculus.
It is a very real issue for millions of Americans. But to repeat: these people *have* IDs. They just don't have photo IDs that meet the requirements laid out, by design, in the laws in question.

In the South, as I mentioned, it is often compounded by the fact that many black Americans born before the Civil Rights era don't have birth certificates, and hundreds of thousands of other Americans across the country cannot get copies of their birth records because they have been lost to fires, time, water damage or mismanagement.
Well don't you think it is about time we did something about it? I find it hard to fathom we can give pretty much anybody a free phone but getting everyone a photo ID is somehow unpossible.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:08 pm
by Rip
Fireball1244 wrote:
noxiousdog wrote:I can vouch for the fact that getting a birth certificate can be a real pain in the ass.

On the other hand, the solution is to make those documents more readily available, not to pretend like it's an insurmountable hurdle.
Yes, I've said that in this thread.

But until those documents are free and readily available, requiring them as part of the process of being able to vote does represent an undue burden on the working poor.

And there's still the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans who either were issued no birth certificate because they committed the crime of being born black in the worthless South, or because their proof of birth documents have been destroyed, lost or damaged over the years for whom requiring a birth certificate for anything *is* an unsurmountable hurdle.
So are they never going to be able to drive?

Sorry but you are really grasping trying to find an excuse NOT to get everyone a photo ID.

Why don't you want these people to have photo IDs? Do you hate them?

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:11 pm
by Fireball
Rip wrote:
Fireball1244 wrote:
Rip wrote:Why can't we shitcan the Obamaphone program and issue free IDs instead?
The IDs are free. The documents required to produce them are not, and often require long trips to offices during work hours. A working class American who lives hand-to-mouth does not have the resources to take the extensive time off of work required to go to these offices during working hours, and a great many are in positions where they can never take time off work for any reason for fear of losing their jobs.

There's also no such thing as an "Obamaphone." You could call it a "Reaganphone," since the Lifeline telephone program was begun in 1984.
Using lack of financial ability as an excuse for not having an ID is ridiculus.
It is a very real issue for millions of Americans. But to repeat: these people *have* IDs. They just don't have photo IDs that meet the requirements laid out, by design, in the laws in question.

In the South, as I mentioned, it is often compounded by the fact that many black Americans born before the Civil Rights era don't have birth certificates, and hundreds of thousands of other Americans across the country cannot get copies of their birth records because they have been lost to fires, time, water damage or mismanagement.
Well don't you think it is about time we did something about it? I find it hard to fathom we can give pretty much anybody a free phone but getting everyone a photo ID is somehow unpossible.
We don't give "pretty much anyone a free phone." Jesus Christ, stop blathering about unrelated right-wing paranoia memes. I'm sorry Saint Reagan started the Lifeline program.

Getting everyone a country a free ID isn't just issuing folks an ID once. It means issuing a free ID in a timely manner, with an up to date photograph, every time anyone in the country moves, anytime anyone in the country gets married, gets divorced, changes their name, etc. It'll cost a small fortune. If we want photo IDs for voting, which conceptually no one I know opposes, there will be significant costs *at the state level*, not the federal level, to achieve that goal without creative massive obstacles to poor people voting. Or we can do what the Republican legislatures across the country are trying to do, which is pass the requirements without addressing the resulting hardships and just shrugging and saying "it sucks to be you" as old people, poor people, college students and young women are denied their right to vote.

Of course, the most cost-effective, corruption-defeating, and democracy-enabling option would be to throw this discussion to the side and just have every state adopt the Oregon system.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:12 pm
by Exodor
Why are we so concerned with solving a voter fraud problem that doesn't actually, you know, exist?

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:13 pm
by malchior
noxiousdog wrote:
malchior wrote:
msduncan wrote:This voter suppression bullshit you are hearing out of Fireball and Democrats is just that -- bullshit.
All you have to do to see the depth of the complete ignorance of your claim is to look at Texas voting maps or many other voting maps in the south. They are ridiculous. I agree that some of *BOTH* sides arguments are sometimes over the top but the gerrymandering is plain as day. It is indisputable. And if you follow that up with whose "voice" is minimized by it...you have to wonder why the maps were drawn the way they were.
Gerrymandering isn't just a south issue.
Fair enough. As LM mentioned, Michigan is getting ridiculous too. The problem is that both sides are doing it but one side has managed to really up the game which will only intensify efforts to "correct it". PA and OH are particularly bad too if I remember correctly. Luckily this behavior has led to a general increase in the polarization issues also as ideological purity disputes inevitably crop up since the only diversity of opinion is in how narrow the focus can be. :grund:

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:14 pm
by malchior
Exodor wrote:Why are we so concerned with solving a voter fraud problem that doesn't actually, you know, exist?
Busloads of dirty immigrants are destroying our way of life. CAN'T YOU SEE THAT!

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:16 pm
by Fireball
Rip wrote:
Fireball1244 wrote:
noxiousdog wrote:I can vouch for the fact that getting a birth certificate can be a real pain in the ass.

On the other hand, the solution is to make those documents more readily available, not to pretend like it's an insurmountable hurdle.
Yes, I've said that in this thread.

But until those documents are free and readily available, requiring them as part of the process of being able to vote does represent an undue burden on the working poor.

And there's still the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans who either were issued no birth certificate because they committed the crime of being born black in the worthless South, or because their proof of birth documents have been destroyed, lost or damaged over the years for whom requiring a birth certificate for anything *is* an unsurmountable hurdle.
So are they never going to be able to drive?
No, the vast majority of the people we are discussing will never drive. They can't afford to own a car. They take public transit. Most of them don't have savings or checking accounts at banks. They don't travel by plane. They're not members at the library. Their lives are *totally* different than yours.
Why don't you want these people to have photo IDs? Do you hate them?
Wow, that's a snazzy attempt to turn this around on me. Golly gee, you shure is a smart one. Just one thing: point out when I've *ever* said that I don't want these people to have IDs? My position is and has always been this: I don't want a very specific sort of photo ID to be required to vote so long as that very specific type of photo ID is burdensome for the working poor to get. Remove the burden, and we're fine. But Republicans never support the steps needed to remove the burden.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:19 pm
by malchior
Rip wrote:So are they never going to be able to drive?
People in urban environments don't necessarily drive. My sister is almost 30 and has never driven a car in her life. Among the younger generation less of them are driving as well. It isn't so cut and dry an issue.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:25 pm
by Rip
Fireball1244 wrote:
Rip wrote:
Fireball1244 wrote:
Rip wrote:Why can't we shitcan the Obamaphone program and issue free IDs instead?
The IDs are free. The documents required to produce them are not, and often require long trips to offices during work hours. A working class American who lives hand-to-mouth does not have the resources to take the extensive time off of work required to go to these offices during working hours, and a great many are in positions where they can never take time off work for any reason for fear of losing their jobs.

There's also no such thing as an "Obamaphone." You could call it a "Reaganphone," since the Lifeline telephone program was begun in 1984.
Using lack of financial ability as an excuse for not having an ID is ridiculus.
It is a very real issue for millions of Americans. But to repeat: these people *have* IDs. They just don't have photo IDs that meet the requirements laid out, by design, in the laws in question.

In the South, as I mentioned, it is often compounded by the fact that many black Americans born before the Civil Rights era don't have birth certificates, and hundreds of thousands of other Americans across the country cannot get copies of their birth records because they have been lost to fires, time, water damage or mismanagement.
Well don't you think it is about time we did something about it? I find it hard to fathom we can give pretty much anybody a free phone but getting everyone a photo ID is somehow unpossible.
We don't give "pretty much anyone a free phone." Jesus Christ, stop blathering about unrelated right-wing paranoia memes. I'm sorry Saint Reagan started the Lifeline program.

Getting everyone a country a free ID isn't just issuing folks an ID once. It means issuing a free ID in a timely manner, with an up to date photograph, every time anyone in the country moves, anytime anyone in the country gets married, gets divorced, changes their name, etc. It'll cost a small fortune. If we want photo IDs for voting, which conceptually no one I know opposes, there will be significant costs *at the state level*, not the federal level, to achieve that goal without creative massive obstacles to poor people voting. Or we can do what the Republican legislatures across the country are trying to do, which is pass the requirements without addressing the resulting hardships and just shrugging and saying "it sucks to be you" as old people, poor people, college students and young women are denied their right to vote.

Of course, the most cost-effective, corruption-defeating, and democracy-enabling option would be to throw this discussion to the side and just have every state adopt the Oregon system.
I find myself wondering how it would compare to the money being wasted fighting voter ID laws. With all the money we waste on stupid shit crying about how much it would cost absurd. Crap we spend BILLIONS pushing people to vote. WHY? I could give a crap if people choose not to vote for whatever reason but now we need Obamacare exchanges to register people to vote.

One side screams that the other side doesn't want a lot of people to be ble to vote while the other side says their opponents want to make it so everyone can vote several times if desired and vote for their relatives if dead or unwilling. Seems like a Federal identification program is exactly what is needed.

Not that voting really means that much anymore as whomever gets elected will be more beholden to contributors than their constituents anyway. Votes don't win elections anymore anyway money and propaganda does.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:29 pm
by Rip
Well I support removing the burden.

In fact I support a national database of the current photo of EVERY single citizen no matter the cost. The fact that we can afford a database of every single phone cal or e-mai that every person sends but don't have one of who those people are and a picture of them is telling.

If we can issue social security cards we can do this.

Time for a new NEW DEAL!

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 5:31 pm
by Fireball
Rip wrote:Not that voting really means that much anymore as whomever gets elected will be more beholden to contributors than their constituents anyway. Votes don't win elections anymore anyway money and propaganda does.
You have clearly never worked in politics. Your cynical view of what we do is far afield from reality.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 6:10 pm
by Redfive
Fireball1244 wrote:
Rip wrote:Not that voting really means that much anymore as whomever gets elected will be more beholden to contributors than their constituents anyway. Votes don't win elections anymore anyway money and propaganda does.
You have clearly never worked in politics. Your cynical view of what we do is far afield from reality.

Cool, thanks for holding your nose and posting here amongst the unwashed, uneducated masses.

*insert the giant rollyeyes projectile vomiting a million more rollyeyes*

I've got to take my daughters to dance class and figure out another way to keep those pesky minorities from getting a leg up in life. In the mean time FB, please imagine me two inches from your face holding up a copy of today's decision and screaming 'SCOREBOARD!' at the top of my lungs.

Have a great night.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 6:16 pm
by Enough
Might need to start posting a bunch of dinosaur pics if this keeps up. :pop:

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 6:54 pm
by Redfive
Nah, I'm done. I actually regret my last post. Not for calling out the ridiculous, condescending behavior, but because I told the mods I'd stop.

Re: SCOTUS Watch

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 7:02 pm
by Exodor
Redfive wrote:Cool, thanks for holding your nose and posting here amongst the unwashed, uneducated masses.

*insert the giant rollyeyes projectile vomiting a million more rollyeyes*

I've got to take my daughters to dance class and figure out another way to keep those pesky minorities from getting a leg up in life. In the mean time FB, please imagine me two inches from your face holding up a copy of today's decision and screaming 'SCOREBOARD!' at the top of my lungs.

Have a great night.

Wow, Luke really changed after that first Death Star run.