The Funny Papers

Gary Huck, Tim Campbell, Nick Anderson, Michael de Adder, Ann Telnaes, Lalo Alcaraz, Matt Wuerker, Matt Davies, Jack Ohman, Christopher Downs, Muzej Karikature, Darrin Bell, Adam Zyglis, Dennis Goris, Mike Luckovich, Clay Bennett

The Funny Papers

Jack Ohman, Michael de Adder, Dave Whamond, Chris Britt, Ed Hall, Darrin Bell, Steve Sack, Pedro Molina, Nick Anderson, David Horsey,Clay Bennett, Jeff Stahler, Deb Milbrath, Mike Luckovich

Score One For The Resistance: Court Strikes Down Illegal Racist GOP Gerrymandering

In what feels like a huge victory for the resistance, a federal district court issued its ruling in the lawsuit over Texas’ Republican-drawn congressional map—above. And the court’s decision was a major victory for voting rights when it struck down several Texas districts for violating the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protections Clause due to the GOP’s illegal racial gerrymandering.

The court found that in several districts the GOP had diluted Latino voting strength so that Anglo—and by Anglo they mean ‘white’—candidates could win.  And since that is, and again I’ll say it, illegal, not to mention racist, a new map could be used in the 2018 elections; and these new, additional districts would be created where Latino voters could elect their candidate preference, and Democrats could gain seats.

Win; win.

The new map could change the illegal, er, invalidated 23rd District—which spans from El Paso to San Antonio—the 27th—it covers Corpus Christi and Victoria—and the 35th—which stretches from Austin to San Antonio—resulting in a Latino Democrat ousting a Republican.

Again ... win; win.

The court ruling also found that the GOP was racist when they redrew districts in the greater Dallas area, but did not specifically say that they would require Republican legislators to redraw the district to elect a Latino candidate; still the plaintiffs could press the court to impose such a requirement.

But it’s clear, to the court, and through their ruling, that they believe that the GOP intentionally engaged in racial discrimination in drawing their maps, and that finding could be grounds for placing Texas back under Justice Department “preclearance” for voting law changes under the Voting Rights Act.

The sad part is that this case began in 2011, and the litigants completed their arguments in 2014, so the plaintiffs were outraged, and rightly so, that the court took so long to rule because it allowed the GOP to continue this illegal racial gerrymandering for almost a decade; just think about how the outcomes of every election in the last six years was affected by their tactics.

Of course, the Republicans will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, but there have been a string of recent victories against GOP racial gerrymandering making it likely that the court will uphold all, or part, of this decision, meaning Texas could have a new congressional map for 2018.

And again, that means a change for the better, seeing the removal of Republicans from office in Texas, and adding more Democrats to the mix.

The resistance is winning ... and in Texas of all places.

Daily Kos

The Justice Department Is Investigating Voter Suppression In Arizona

If you don’t think there’s a problem with voter suppression in this country look no further than Arizona’s primary on March 22, 2016 … which is what the U.S. Department of Justice is doing.

The DOJ has notified officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, that it is investigating the chaos from the recent primary election when many voters waited in lines up to five hours long after the county cut the number of polling places from 200 in 2012 to just 60 last month; and that was down from 2008 when there were over 400 polling places in the county..

The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division sent a letter to Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell that included a 10-point list of items and information the federal government is requesting.

During the chaos, Purcell blamed the voters, even though she was the one who’d decided to cut the number of polling places in the county; in fact, the number of elections was cut so drastically, that there was just one polling place for every 21,000 voters. Additionally, some voters who say they had registered as Democrats were not allowed to vote normally because, oddly enough, their affiliation was listed as independent, and only those registered as Democrats or Republicans were allowed to vote in their respective party's primaries.

And Purcell didn’t expect chaos? Bitch, please.

Voters were still in line past 10PM — voting was set to close at 7PM in 20 of the 60 sites, so people stood in line for three hours to cast their vote.

The DOJ wants to know how county election officials determined how many polling places were needed, and why the number was cut by two-thirds, and whether or not the impact on minority voters were examined. If it widely known that limiting the number of polling locations disproportionately affects minorities and the working poor, who have a harder time finding transportation to polling locations and are less likely to have the time needed to wait in long lines.

Of course they weren’t “examined” because it’s Arizona.

NCRM

Alabama Passes Voter ID Law, Closes Most Driver's License Offices In Predominately Black Counties

The GOP is at it again …

In 2011, Alabama’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a voter ID law that requires a driver’s license or a form of government ID in order to vote.

And now, in 2015, driver’s license offices are being closed in eight of the 10 counties with the highest percentage of non-white voters, and soon driver’s license offices will be closed in every Alabama county where more than 75% of registered voters are black.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what Alabama is doing. They want to make sure black voters can’t vote; of course, it doesn’t hurt that these counties are also home to mostly other minorities as well, so the plan seems to be to keep the voters in Alabama white.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund notes that, according to the state's own analysis, “approximately 20 percent of registered voters, or 500,000 people, lack Alabama driver’s licenses or non-driver photo IDs" and says that the closures "very likely violate" the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution.

But, naturally, Terry Lathan, the chair of the Alabama Republican Party says something different:

“There have been quick and efficient plans to accommodate any registered voter in Alabama who needs a free photo voter ID. No voter will be denied that opportunity regardless of where they reside in our state. Most voters already have some type of government picture identification, but for those that don't they will find it easy to acquire one in Alabama.”

But if that’s the case, then why close offices in minority counties only? Why not in the predominantly white counties as well?

Oh yeah. Alabama. GOP. Racism. Voter suppression.

NCRM

Minute Rant: Anti-Latino GOP ... It's Not Just [t]Rump

Everyone is jumping on Donald [t]Rump’s behind these days for his racist and insensitive remarks that Mexicans — at least, most Mexicans because he thinks “some are good” — are here illegally and are thieves, rapist and drug dealers. Even members of his own party want him to keep quiet.

But at least we know that [t]Rump is a bigot because he says so right to our faces; the other members of the GOP Clown Car shroud their racism in silence.

See, the National Council of La Raza's Annual Conference and Latino Family Expo started last weekend and there was not one Republican candidate at the event.

Now, maybe the GOP hopefuls couldn’t get to the conference, except, well, it was held in Kansas City, Missouri, about three hours from Iowa where most if the Republican wannabes were campaigning all weekend and couldn’t be bothered to speak at a Latino event.

A spokesman for La Raza said that 17 of the announced or soon-to-announce GOP presidential candidates had been invited, and that every single one of them declined.

As for the Democrats? Both Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley accepted, and Bernie Sanders rearranged his schedule to attend.

And this is nothing new for the GOP; in fact, this is the second time in two months that the Republican field has snubbed an influential Latino group.

In June, long-shot GOP contender Ben Carson was the only Republican to speak at a conference of the National Association of Elected and Appointed Latino Officials, while the same three Democrats — Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley — all showed up.

I guess maybe the GOP candidates had prior engagements both times, because otherwise, how do we explain that the entire Republican field has no interest in speaking to Latino groups at all, anywhere, ever.

At least [t]Rump]s bigotry is out in the open.

NCRM

Mittsy Has A Bad Week

Mittsy's had a tough week. First, he basically told half of the country that he doesn't give a rat's ass about them; and then his wife took to the airwaves to chastise the GOP for picking on him because, and this is rich, "this is hard"; and then it was alleged that he went a little heavy on the self-tanner before speaking to a group of Hispanic voters on Univision.

Yeah. It's not good. And then this happened:

During a round table meeting with a teacher, Mittsy apparently rudely told her, when she tried to speak, that “I didn’t ask you a question.”

That teacher, identified as Cheryl, says: 

"When I was asked to speak with Mitt Romney it seemed like a very important thing to me, and I wanted to put a lot of careful thought into what I would say. So, I went to the round table discussion very optimistic and interested in hearing what he had to say. When he sat down, one of the first questions he asked was, he said “I understand there is a teacher here today, which one of you is a teacher?”

So, I raised my hand, thinking that’s a good thing, he’s interested in education, but it wasn’t a good thing. I felt like his view was a little old-fashioned and I was surprised by it. He went on to kind of lecture me about schools and how bad they are. He talked bad about the teacher’s union. He was talking about the importance of private schools and voucher systems.

At one point, I said to him, “I have an answer for that.” And he said, “I didn’t ask you a question.”

Now, to be fair, this could be a case of "he said-she said" but, well, let's see with whom we are dealing: a man who says one thing, then changes his mind, then changes it, back, then says he never said what he said, though he doesn’t remember ever saying anything.

Or Cheryl. Yeah, I'm Team Cheryl.

And then.....

When Mittsy spoke before that packed crowd at the Univision Forum, aka SprayTanGate, earlier this week, it now appears that the crowd wasn't all Univision audience.

Mittsy apparently bussed in local supporters “after exhausting the few conservative groups on campus” and his people threatened to “reschedule” the event if organizers did not allow the “rowdy activists from around southern Florida in order to fill the extra seats at their town hall.”

And then during the talk, Mittsy dodged questions as to whether or not he would maintain President Obama’s directive allowing young undocumented immigrants to stay in the United States on a temporary basis.

That’s Mittsy. He pads the audience with his minions, and the refuses to answer questions that are extremely important to his audience. See, he doesn't want the Latino community to know his true feelings on immigration because...

A] He hasn't had anyone tell him what to think yet, or....

2] He doesn't care about illegal immigrants because they are part of the 47%.

And, well, there's this....

Univision is now saying that, not only did the Romney campaign pack the hall with non-students because they couldn’t find enough supporters on campus for his townhall meeting, but when Mittsy didn’t like the anchor’s introduction, he refused to go on until it was r-taped.

A Republican present called it a “temper tantrum”.

While introducing Romney, Jorge Ramos noted that Mittsy promised them just 35 minutes, while the president offered up a full hour for his townhall meeting the following night. Ramos then introduced Mittsy but Mittsy wouldn’t come on the stage.

This is his idea of presidential.

But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a Mittsy Hissy Fit. Apparently, back in ’06, while still Governor of Massachusetts, Mittsy threw another tantrum after the GOP lost the Midterm Elections. He then spent 212 days of the next year campaigning for president rather than governing his state.

That’s his idea of leadership.

That’s Mittsy.

It’s been a bad week for him, but think how bad it would be for the country if he was elected president.

Romney Disrespects Teacher

Romney Threatened To Cancel Univision Forum

Romney Threw A 'Temper Tantrum'

The Height of GOP Stupidity, Part Nine: John Boehner Hopes Blacks and Latinos 'Won't Show Up' To The Polls

Down in Tampa, for the Republican National Convention, aka Hate-a-palooza, House Speaker John Boehner seems to have admitted that his party's strategy for winning in November doesn't suppose that the GOP can win over some black and Latino voters, but hopes they won't vote at all. 

Boehner wasn't talking about voter I.D. laws, which are being pushed by Republicans and criticized as disenfranchising minority and poor voters, but he did tell a luncheon hosted by the Christian Science Monitor in Tampa Monday that the Republican Party was counting on apathy from the Latinos and blacks who are choosing Democrats over Republicans by record margins in recent polls:

“This election is about economics… These groups have been hit the hardest. They may not show up and vote for our candidate but I’d suggest to you they won’t show up and vote for the president either.”

Not a big stretch for the GOP, if you remember that Doug Priesse, chair of the Franklin County, Ohio, Republican Party, allowed that restrictions on early voting hours and voter ID laws were meant to keep blacks from voting: 

"I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine… Let’s be fair and reasonable."

It seems pretty clear that this is the GOP. They aren't so much about winning the election on merit as they are about preventing the people who might vote for Barack Obama from doing so.

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