Corporate Media Fail: Ignoring Clear Evidence Of Gov. Pence's Intent

Did you miss this annotated photo
the first time we shared it?


First, click on the image to enlarge it. Howie included it with his post "Mike Pence -- Pandering To The Worst Of The Republican Party Base," but it's worth a closer look, to see the kind of people Indiana Gov. "Mikey Pants" cavorts with at photo ops, but now doesn't want to talk about.

At this point you almost have to feel a little sorry for Indiana's hate-mongering right-wing extremists and their supremo, Gov. "Mikey Pants." They could be forgiven for having though that all signals were "go" for them to ratchet up the national upsurge of sneering-at-Jesus "Christian" hate-mongering, but somehow it all went kerplooey -- this in spite of a weird compulsion in the poltiical and media mainstream to insist that what Governor Pants and the Indiana GOP hate corps were doing was no grounds for fuss, just bizniz as usual. This time, however, it blew up in their faces. Of course the mainstream morons by and large switched seamlessly from their taunting defense of the Indiana "Christian" patriots to "What went wrong?" post mortems (h/t to the business community!).

Well, part of what went wrong is that the mainstream morons didn't know WTF they were talking about. As Noah reminds us here, the Indiana hate-mongers never tried to make a secret of what they were up to. -- Ken

by Noah

As you can see in the annotated photo above, Indiana’s Lester Maddox-wannabe governor, Mike Pence, when asked by the Indianapolis Star, refused to identify the goons and goofballs who stood behind him as he codified virulent homophobia into his state's legal structure. Instead, he has continued to lie about the anti-gay motives behind the legislation.

Identifying the perps would put the discussion of Indiana's Republicans to turn their state back to something resembling 14th-century England into a sharper, more honest context.

I have to ask: Why haven’t the identities of the miscreants behind Indiana’s attempt at making discrimination all nice and legal been a much bigger part of the story this past week? Given the pasts and the statements of Curt Smith, Eric Miller, and Micah Clark, these people and their beliefs are or should be a major part of the story. This is a major fail on the part of the nation’s corporate media. Period. "Liberal media"? What liberal media?

Republicans from "Jeb" Bush to "Ted" Cruz to Marco Rubio have all joined hands in claiming that Indiana's new pro-discrimination law has nothing to do with with Republican attitudes towards our fellow LGBT citizens. Nope. No hate here. Discriminate? Who, us? This picture puts the lie to it all. Obviously the intent of the Indiana law is clear, and no, it is not the same as the so-called "Religious Freedom" laws of other states, or even the federal one that Bill Clinton signed when he was president.

Then there's this. Pence in his own words, from his own website back in 2000 (as preserved by the long-remembering Wayback Machine) under the headline "The Pence Agenda: A Guide To Renewing The America Dream":

"Congress should oppose any effort to recognize homosexuals as a 'discreet and insular' minority ntitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities."

Republicans are feeling drunk with power and damn emboldened these days. They feel free to let their crackpot freak flags flap and fly. On the subject of the Indiana law, there has been some backtracking, but when frauds the likes of “Jeb” Bush and other typical bigoted repugs do a 180 and “clarify” their previously stated support for hate laws, I think we all know that their first statements reflect their true, inner thoughts; too late to take it back, cretins.

Maybe the silver lining in all this will be that while Republicans cheer about the law, they will continue to reveal themselves for what they are and what the society they envision would be like, and that's a pretty damn repugnant one. Wake up, voters! Wake up! Ask the questions the conservatives who run our media will not ask.


POSTSCRIPT -- AT LEAST SOME WINGNUTS DON'T FIB

Give Texas Sen. Rafael "Ted from Alberta" Cruz credit for saying honestly what's in his diseased brain. As Robyn Pennacchia points out in a post at "The Frisky," T-from-A is insisting publicly that "Not Letting Christians Discriminate Against Gays Is Like Force-Feeding Pork To Rabbis." What are you gonna do when those voices in your head are telling you that you've got a mandate straight from God to Hate Them Homos?

It's a real dilemma for the far-right-wingers. You can speak honestly, or you can sound as if you have the tiniest touch of sanity and decency. You can't do both. -- Ken

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For America's entertainment, the great Right-Wing Noise Machine is putting on its favorite show: FEAR-O-RAMA

With Tom Toles update (see below)


Living with the Great Right-Wing Noise Machine means we always get a show. Alas, the show they most enjoy giving us is an especially schlocky low-budget horror flick.

by Ken

If the Republicans pooled their lying carcasses to be carved up and sent to a lab for careful analysis -- and I mean the best lab, with the finest detecting equipment -- there is no chance that you would find anywhere in the rubble so much as a single honest cell. These are creatures so debased that they are now committed to going to their graves without ever publicly telling the truth about anything at all.

So now, naturally, they're bathing us in an orgy of fear. Of course fear is one of the things they always do best

There isn't anything in the universe that these scumbags could protect anyone from. Nothing. Of course while some of them are all bluster and bullshit, many of them are capable of being as violent or brutal -- or of having other people who will inflict violence and brutality -- as freely as you could please, and would probably be thrilled to experience the joy they apparently don't get from activities like stimulating reading and sex in doing so. But with all of that, I say again, there is nothing they could protect anyone from. They, are of course, are the life forms we are in most urgent need of protecting from.

But especially with an American public as brutally moronified at the Right has managed to make it over these last several decades, galactic-scaled fear sounds like a no-brainer, from people who have nothing else to offer anyway.

Here is Jeremy W. Peters' lead item from this morning's newyorktimes.com "First Draft on Politics" e-mail. (Sorry, I don't have an online link. What is claimed in the e-mail to be a link to this isn't. Which is too bad because I'm omitting the scads of links in it, which I would normally tell you can find onsite. Well, if you want to read more, I bet you know how to find it. [UPDATE: Okay, here's a link.])

G.O.P. Finds a Campaign Theme: ‘Be Very Afraid’

With four weeks to go, the election has taken a dark turn as conservatives use warnings about Islamic State militants, the Ebola virus and terrorist acts to send a message: The world is a scary place, and the Democrats can’t protect you.

Take a new Republican ad aimed at Representative Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona that warns of terrorists streaming across the Mexican border. “Evil forces around the world want to harm Americans every day,” it says. “Their entry into our country? Through Arizona’s backyard.”

Another one, against Senator Mark Udall in Colorado, plays a clip in which he says the Islamic State does not pose an imminent threat. “Really?” the announcer asks. “Can we take that chance?” An ad in another Arizona House race features the footage of the journalist James Foley right before his beheading.

The commercials play on Americans’ well-documented fears in a world grown more chaotic. A recent Associated Press survey found that 53 percent of Americans believed the risk of another terrorist attack inside the country was extremely or very high. In a new Pew poll, 41 percent said they did not have “too much confidence” or “no confidence at all” that the federal government could prevent a major Ebola outbreak in the United States.

National Republican leaders have heard those worries, too. Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana have criticized President Obama for leaving Americans vulnerable to an Ebola epidemic. The Daily Caller has christened him “President Ebola.”

In an interview with First Draft, Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said the constant stream of bad news at home and abroad allowed Republicans to raise questions about Democratic leadership.

“It’s the accumulation of ineptitude that’s hovering over Obama and, in turn, his lieutenants that are running for U.S. Senate,” Mr. Priebus said. “I think it’s a powerful message because No. 1, it’s true. And No. 2, it’s simple.”

This is, of course, just what I was talking about last night. Reince Priebus doesn't know anything about Obama's supposed "ineptitude." All he knows are the constellation of lies he and his chums yammer. In fact, I wonder whether he knows anything at all about Obama apart from the color of his skin. And Reince Priebus certainly doesn't know anything about what is or isn't true. (Confidential to Reince P: If it's in your head, the chances are overwhelming that it isn't true.)

But one thing you have to give him is that it is indeed simple. Even Reince P knows from simple.

And it will work. As a result of which the Americans who fall for it won't be a whit safer, except insofar as the decibel level of the fear-mongering subsides after these creeps have gotten from it what they wanted.

So sure, by all means be afraid. Of the right-wingers are in full fear-mongering yammer. They ought to scare you to death.


UPDATE -- WaPo's TOM TOLES IS ON THE CASE

[Click to enlarge]

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Confidential to Governor KrispyKreme: Uh, you do know, governor, that THERE WAS NO TRAFFIC STUDY?

"I don't know whether this was a traffic study that then morphed into a political vendetta or a political vendetta that morphed into a traffic study."

-- New Jersey Gov. Kris KrispyKreme,
at his press conference yesterday

by Ken

I wrote most of this post yesterday, then decided to hold my peace. (Howie covered this ground in his late post last night.) Today maybe not so much. Everyone is on poor Governor Krispykreme's case, and rightfully so, it seems to me, especially given how long it took the infotainment noozmedia to pay any heed to the story. What would have happened if the KrispyKreme Kronies hadn't been so loquacious in their e-mails?

But the same things that were nagging me yesterday are still nagging me today. It's not just the suspicion I share with just about everyone in the known world that the governor was doing a fair amount of fibbing in his curious press conference (as you know, in this department we take it as an article of faith that, absent proof to the contrary, every word out of the mouth of every Republican is a lie). It's more that he seems to be operating in a sort of alternate reality. Again, so is the whole of the modern-day American Right Wing. Stil . . . .

The first message I wanted to send to the governor, was just five words, which he might want to repeat after me. To wit:

There. Was. No. Traffic. Study.

Try to just get this whole traffic-study silliness out of your head, Guv, because it seems to be twisting all your brain circuits into confetti. There was no traffic study.

I didn't see the nearly-two-hour extravaganza myself, but I've been reading about it, and my takeaway is that "traffic study" is going to be the 2014 version of "hiking the Appalachian trail." I gather that the imaginary "traffic study" -- which is to say the one that was not conducted by anybody connected to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey -- figured prominently in the Krispyman's piece of performance art yesterday.

This is the "traffic study," you'll recall, that was invented by KrispyKreme kronies in the upper ranks of the PANYNJ as cover for the closing of three entrance lanes onto the George Washington Bridge as retribution by the New Jersey Governor's Office -- if not, just possibly, by the governor himself -- on uppity Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich. Or rather on the citizens of Fort Lee and many others caught in the resulting outward-spiraling traffic jams, as punishment for the mayor's weasely refusal to say either yes or no to the KrispyKreme Reelection Kampaign's suggestion that the Democratic mayor endorse the Republican governor.

Mayor Sokolich, by the way, has carefully explained that he never did say no. He just took great pains not to say yes. Apparently, though, you couldn't fool the KrispyKreme Kampaign, which seems to have intuited the message that if you're not with us, you're against us.

Here is the Washington Post's Alexandra Petri on the subject of the governor and traffic studies, one of her three favorite themes from the governor's, er, performance:

"I don't know whether this was a traffic study that then morphed into a political vendetta or a political vendetta that morphed into a traffic study,” Christie actually said at one point. . . .

The presser went on to develop into an elaborate vendetta against traffic studies or traffic study against vendettas, or whatever the appropriate terminology is. "I don't know what makes a legitimate traffic study. It's not my area of expertise. And so I wouldn't have a nose for that. I just wouldn't. I don't know what makes a legitimate traffic study.” No one ever saw the day when Chris Christie would have to stand in front of the people of New Jersey insisting he did not know how traffic studies worked. "I've been told that sometimes they're done live, sometimes they're done by computer model. I've heard that in the professionals who've testified for the Port Authority. But you'd have to go to them to ask them what a legitimate traffic study is. I probably wouldn't know a traffic study if I tripped over it.” Or if hundreds of commuters did.

"I don't know whether -- like I said -- I think I answered this before -- I don't know whether this was some type of rogue political operation that morphed into a traffic study or a traffic study that morphed into an additional rogue political -- I don't know.” It's not just vendettas any more. They could be anything! Your neighbor could be a traffic study!
All Christie knows is that now he is firmly opposed to traffic studies. "Listen. You think I'm suggesting any traffic studies anytime soon?. . . I think I'm out of the traffic study business for certain, never really in it and definitely don't want to be in it.”

I'm not going to go back over the history of this squalid affair. If you need brushing up on any aspect of it, ThinkProgress's "Progress Report" yesterday helpfully gathered "10 Must-Read Stories On The Christie Bridge Scandal," and I'll leave it to you, on the honor system, to polish off all ten. One fact of life you will come away with is that there was no traffic study. (Since yesterday, the quantity of reading material will have expanded exponentially.)

I think you'll enjoy Ms. Petri's other two takeaways from yesterday's festivities, which come closer to my own discomforts than most of the other commentaries I've read.

No. 2 is that "Chris Christie Has a Lot of Feelings." Or, if I may be so bold as to correct this, based on Ms. Petri's own reporting: Chris Has One Feeling -- Sad -- a Whole Lot." You really should look at her compendium of some of the kajillion times the governor told us how sad he is. ("Very," in case you were wondering.)

And No. 3 is "Who Are Any of These People?" "Another emergent theme of the press conference," Ms. Petri writes, "was that Christie was more sinned against than sinning, and that some of the people involved (cough, David Wildstein, uncough) who claimed to be friends from his school days were total losers whom he did not remember at all." Among the names the governor barely recognizes is this Mark Sokolich fellow -- sometimes known to the KrispyKreme kronies as "the little Serbian."

By the way, I know that the KKs have taken no little heat for their inability to distinguish between Serbs and Croats (Mayor Sokolich is in fact of Croatian descent). This is, of course, of enormous moment to all people of either Serbian or Croatian lineage, but given the well-documented geographical cluelessness of most Americans, getting that close seems to me almost a "win" for the KKs. I think it's fair to see this glass as half full.



BUT I KID . . .

Howie wondered day before yesterday whether Governor KrispyKreme was on the verge of resigning, and it still seems to me an eminently sensible course of action for the Krispyman.

It's hard to believe that the Bridge Scandal is going to go away quickly, even though I can think of one possible reason to believe that the governor may not be lying when he says he had no direct knowledge of what his minions were doing, and that is what he referred to as the "abject stupidity" of what they were doing. I mean, what's the point of punishing people if they don't know they're being punished? Oh, plenty of suffering was inflicted, but neither Mayor Sokolich nor the people caught in those traffic nightmares had any reason to suspect that they were suffering for the sins of the mayor. The mayor himself doesn't seem to have believed it until the smoking e-mails turned up.

And beyond the specifics of the Bridge Scandal, there's the potentitally immense "tip of the iceberg" problem. The pundits are discussing it so far in terms of how the revived "bully" image may hurt Governor KrispyKreme's presidential prospects. I say this is only the tip of the tip of the iceberg, particularly since I never though he had any presidential prospects.

More to the point is the danger to the Krispyman that evidence may begin to turn up of the larger pattern of bullying and corruption (don't forget the corruption) that have been part and parcel of the whole KrispyKreme administration in Trenton, and for that matter the KrispyKreme management of the U.S. attorney's office, where he was installed, after all, by Karl Rove, the modern-day godfather of political bullying.



ONE LAST THING: ABOUT THE GOVERNOR'S
IDEA OF ACCEPTING "RESPONSIBILITY"

The governor made a great show of announcing that even though he had nothing to do with the, um, thing that apparently was only sort of a traffic study, nevertheless he as the governor he is responsible. I wonder if he could perhaps clarify what in his mind "responsibility" consists of.

Yes, he fired the deputy chief of staff who who had the bad luck to be named in those dreadfully embarrassing e-mails. And he sent another person, said to be one of his closest advisers, into the wilderness. These were both people said to be extremely closely to the governor -- as were, for that matter, those schlepps Baroni and Wildstein, appointed by the governor to the Port Authority, who have already fallen on their swords. But let's take a closer look at this last case, the close adviser sent into the wilderness. This from a Washington Post report by Matea Gold and Robert Costa:

In Chris Christie's circle of advisers, few were as close to the governor as Bill Stepien. He managed both of the New Jersey Republican's winning campaigns for governor, helped shape Christie's tough-guy-on-your-side image and was expected to take a top role in an eventual White House bid.

But when Christie cut him loose Wednesday evening, the governor didn't so much as speak to him.

Christie's decision to oust Stepien and another top adviser implicated in the burgeoning scandal over George Washington Bridge lane closures demonstrated the blunt force that Christie is willing to use to contain a crisis, even if it means exiling members of his innermost circle.

It also showed how personal politics is for the governor. Christie expressed far more anger Thursday about his aides lying to him than about how they abused their power to cause days of traffic jams.

The removal of Stepien, in particular, stunned some New Jersey political insiders, who said the strategist has provided important counsel to Christie on both politics and policy.

"Bill has been loyal to Chris Christie for many years, and I think having to push him out was difficult for Chris, both professionally and emotionally," said former New Jersey governor Tom Kean Sr. (R), a longtime Christie associate.

"Bill Stepien was more than just another adviser," Kean said. "He was the key person who carried out what the governor wanted. He spoke with Christie's authority, and anyone who has dealt with him knows that."

Christie's abrupt dismissal of top aides was praised Wednesday by some Republicans, who said his decisiveness stood in contrast to President Obama's handling of controversies such as the botched rollout of his health-care Web site and the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of nonprofit groups for extra scrutiny.

"This will be, at the end of the day, a political benefit to Chris Christie," said GOP strategist Steve Schmidt. "This sends a very clear signal: If you screw up, you violate the public trust, there's not going to be an exercise in wagon-circling -- there's going to be an exercise in accountability."

Um, excuse me, Steve? Apparently this reads to you as "accountability." To me it looks an awful lot like scapegoating.

To-MAY-to/to-MAH-to? Maybe, but it's still not at all clear to me what Governor Krispykreme means when he says he takes responsiblity. All I'm seeing so far is the governor blaming anyone he can find within finger-pointing range.

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The House Rethuglicans march on -- and it's crunch time for pushback in Wisconsin

"This is supposed to be a hearing about state and municipal debt. I don't understand how repealing collective bargaining rights for public workers shows us anything about state debt."

-- Rep. Dennis Kucinich, to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker yesterday

by Ken

The House Rethuglican Mob continues to ride roughshod over decency and sense, this afternoon, this afternoon passing -- with four Republicans voting no and, thank goodness, no Democrats voting yes -- Paul Ryan's Path to Criminally Insane Thuggery. And even WaPo Fixman Chris Cillizza, fearless prophet of the conventional wisdom, is venturing: "Republicans go out on a political limb on budget," wondering if the included teardown of Medicare may not "come back to haunt some targeted Republicans in the 2012 elections." ("In a recent Gallup poll, just 13 percent of people favored a complete overhaul of Medicare. Just 18 percent said they supported major changes in the program.")

Of course it doesn't occur to our Chris to question anything else about the Rethuglican budget abomination, and by the end he's talking about the limb-climbing Republicans as having cast "principled votes," even astonishingly evoking the memory of Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky (who in 1993 as a freshman congresswoman from Pennsylvania provided the margin of victory for Bill Clinton's budget and was successfully targeted for defeat in 1994). Still, when you've got Mr. Orthodox seeing storm clouds concerning both your policies and your politics, you may have something to worry about.

Meanwhile, we always expected that criminal sociopath Darrell Issa's Oversight and Government Reform Committee would be in the vanguard of the House Rethuglican assault, and yesterday's show hearing supposedly on state and municipal debt was a prime example.

So more power to the easily malignable Dennis Kucinich for causing this minor blip, in which he elicited what in a rational world would be a pretty damning admission, as reported by Madison's Capital Times:

Walker admits during testimony that collective bargaining law doesn't save money

JUDITH DAVIDOFF | The Capital Times | Posted: Thursday, April 14, 2011 3:15 pm

Like a dog going at a bone, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, didn't stop until he got the answer he was looking for from Gov. Scott Walker during the governor's testimony Thursday before the House Oversight and Goverment Reform Committee.

Kucinich said he could not understand how Walker's bill to strip most collective bargaining rights from nearly all public workers saved the state any money and therefore was relevant to the topic before the committee, which was state and municipal debt.

When Walker failed to address how repealing collective bargaining rights for state workers is related to state debt or how requiring unions to recertify annually saves money -- one of the provisions in Walker's amended budget repair bill -- Kucinich tried one more time.

"How much money does it save, Governor Walker?" Kucinich demanded. "Just answer the question."

"It doesn't save any," Walker said.

"That's right. It obviously had no effect on the state budget," Kucinich replied.

Kucinich said it was clear the attack on collective bargaining rights was a choice and not a fiscal issue. "It's a political issue," he said.

Of course this being about as far as you can get from a rational world, being in point of fact the Never Never Land of the House Rethugllicans, once Kucinich's five minutes were up, the thug governor could simply brush it off and get on with his thuggery.


MEANWHILE, A REMINDER THAT THE WISCONSIN
GOP SENATORS' RECALL DEADLINE IS MAY 2

PvtJarHead provides an urgent reminder on DailyKos which begins:

Wisconsin Recall Deadline Approaches

For those who haven't been paying attention for the last month and a half... There is an effort in Wisconsin to recall the 8 Republican State Senators who have been in office for over a year. Two of those recall efforts have so far been successful. State Senators Dan Kapanke (R-32nd Dist.) and Randy Hopper (R-18th Dist.) have to defend their seats in a pending election sometime this summer.

The deadline for ALL OF THE REMAINING petition efforts to recall the other 6 eligible Republican State Senators is fast approaching. That deadline is May 2, 2011... JUST 17 DAYS AWAY!!

That's it! After that, we're shit out of luck... If enough signatures aren't collected by May 2nd, then we're stuck with the remainder of these ghouls until someone comes up with some other plan to free us from their tyranny.

The campaigns need all the volunteers they can get to collect signatures this weekend and next. . . .

For breakdowns of the situations of the six other senators in need of recall, see the full post. "Okay, what more do you need to know?" PvtJarHead concludes. "Get the hell out there and get to work, people!!"

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GOP Overreach-- Koch Bros Have Scott Walker Taking Away Voting Rights From Poor People

Libya's drug-addled dictator, Muammar Qaddafi, is either getting ready for an OK Corral type shoot-out/last stand or is getting ready to fly to Zimbabwe or Venezuela in front of the imposition of a no-fly zone... or, according to one rumor, has already been shot. The powers behind reactionary politicians, like the vampiric Koch Brothers, who have set up dozens of Scott Walkers and John Kasichs around the country to shill for their interests, deserve everything coming Qaddafi's way-- and more.

Earlier in the month, we saw in New Hampshire-- which, like Wisconsin, gave the keys to the car to the corporatist Republicans and their retarded sibling, the teabaggers-- a move to strip voting rights from college students in the state legislature. Yesterday Republican Greg Sorg's bill came under attack from Democrats and students, just as Wisconsin's overreaching legislature went down a very similar path-- taking away voting rights from people they suspect might vote for Democrats. These Republicans are, ironically, Stalinists (and there's a Koch relationship there as well).

Wisconsin Republicans are targeting seniors, college students and minorities with a new law demanding photo ID for voting, although these groups often include people who can't afford photo IDs. Mike Tate, Chairman of Wisconsin's Democratic Party:

"Without honest reasons, with total malice, the Republicans in Wisconsin's Senate today showed that Scott Walker's moment in history is about accruing all power to the state's shameful Republican party, and about nothing else. Not about creating jobs. Not about increasing our freedoms. Not about the better good for Wisconsin. The vote today, when Jim Crow finally came to Wisconsin, is a shameful episode in our state's long march toward progress. Without a single Democrat present, and in the same petulant manner as their godshead, Scott Walker, the Republicans have shown themselves for what they really are, pawns in the Koch Brothers plan to grind the less-powerful in Wisconsin, those working men and women who work for a living, underfoot."

And this morning Tate was still on a role, fuming about the GOP tactics in the state Assembly last night to ram through the union-busting bill Walker is demanding:

"Under cover of darkness, in a practice that Scott Walker denounced while he was campaigning for governor, the Republicans of the Wisconsin Assembly sold their soul. Upending seven decades of labor peace and putting Wisconsin up for sale to the likes of their Koch Brothers masters, they voted to sanction the most divisive piece of legislation in our state's history. Democrats tried bravely, and in vain, to amend this putrid piece of legislation to the benefit of the working families of Wisconsin. But the Scott Walker march to the bottom continues."

In yesterday's Capitol Times, Andrea Kaminski, Executive Director of Wisconsin's nonpartisan League of Women Voters, accused Republicans of playing partisan games with the bill.

The Republican members of a Senate committee on Tuesday passed an amended version of the voter ID bill. Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach was present by telephone, but committee Chair Sen. Mary Lazich did not allow him to ask questions or vote. The amended bill could be taken up on the Senate floor this week, although it may have to be stripped of its spending elements.

With all 14 Democratic senators out of state, the Senate does not have the 20-member quorum needed to pass a bill with fiscal impact. Lazich does not see the lack of a quorum as a hurdle. She said the appropriations for implementing the bill can be removed and instead put into the budget bill.

This is double-speak. For weeks proponents of this bill have been downplaying the very significant costs of implementing an ID program. Now they want to pretend there is no cost at all.
There is a reason why 20 senators are needed to pass a bill with fiscal impact-- to protect precious tax dollars from being wasted.

There is also a reason why voter ID is expensive. It is because without certain costly provisions, a voter ID law amounts to a poll tax. Poll taxes were widely used decades ago in Southern states to deny African-Americans the right to vote. Poll taxes eventually were struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. Case law has made it clear that voter ID laws need to make acceptable IDs available free of charge for all eligible citizens who do not already have one. The IDs must be readily accessible to all voters, without undue burden. At a minimum, Wisconsin would likely have to expand the number of ID-issuing offices and extend their operating hours to meet this requirement.

The courts have also made it clear that states must undertake substantial voter outreach and public education so that citizens understand the new law and the procedures for obtaining an ID. In addition, some courts may require states to ensure that all of the documents required to obtain a photo ID are free and easily available. (Brennan Center for Justice, “The Cost of Voter ID: What the Courts Say.”)

Without appropriations for free IDs, training of election officials and voter education, this bill is unconstitutional. There is no guarantee that these appropriations will be approved in the state budget. Ignoring the costs, or pretending they don’t exist, is irresponsible.

Ezra Klein, writing yesterday in the Washington Post chalks it up to Scott Walker-- a cat's paw for the Kochs and their ilk-- trying to "reshape the balance of power in Wisconsin... using the absence of the state's Senate Democrats to pass a law requiring photo identification from voters. Such laws tend to exclude groups of voters who move a lot, don't drive or can't afford the fees required to keep their identification current-- groups that just happen to overlap with traditionally Democratic constituencies. Here's NYU's Brennan Center for Justice on who tends to get excluded":

The impact of ID requirements is even greater for the elderly, students, people with disabilities, low-income individuals, and people of color. Thirty-six percent of Georgians over 75 do not have a driver’s license. Fewer than 3 percent of Wisconsin students have driver’s licenses listing their current address. The same study found that African Americans have driver’s licenses at half the rate of whites, and the disparity increases among younger voters; only 22% of black men aged 18-24 had a valid driver’s license. Not only are minority voters less likely to possess photo ID, but they are also more likely than white voters to be selectively asked for ID at the polls.

Rightists Stepping In It... People Watching

I've never been a big Bette Midler fan-- other than her amazing duet with Bob Dylan on "Buckets of Rain"-- but yesterday she was on CNN Headline News, Glenn Beck's old home, with Joy Behar. It was Behar's debut on the network and she and Bette spent some time talking about the serious consequences of ranting maniacs like Glenn Beck could have on the country's social fabric. Take a look:



Beck then went on the air to call her a cancer and make fun of her music and movies and wallow in victimhood. Meanwhile, the Beckoids over at Newsmax have taken down John Perry column calling for a military coup against Obama. I guess they're embarrassed by their publishing miscalculation.

And speaking of Beckoids, it looks like John Boehner and Eric Cantor decided to rein in Georgia kook Tom Price, understanding full well the impact of a resolution condemning Alan Grayson's perfectly reasonable remarks about the GOP health reform plan that corporate sadsacks Roy Blunt and then Paul Ryan failed to deliver. The prospect of videos of wild-eyed Republican extremists like Steve King (R-IA), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Paul Broun (R-GA), Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX) proving Grayson's while making up lies about how Democrats want to kill people with their health care plans probably looked decidedly unappetizing as the moment for a privileged motion drew nearer and Grayson seemed more and more reasonable and more and more likely to hold his ground. More Democrats like Alan Grayson is exactly what the country needs-- lots more. Please consider donating to the Blue America Getting Grayson's Back page where over 600 donors have already given more than $20,000 in just 24 hours.


UPDATE: Funeral Directors Endorse GOP Health Care "Reform"

Yesterday we mentioned that the funeral industry supports many of the Republicans who have been screaming the loudest over Alan Grayson's revelation of the GOP prescription for a health care plan: "either avoid getting sick or, if that fails, die and die fast." Turns out the Borowitz Report went into that today as well.

Congressional Republicans received key backing today for their health care plan, picking up support from the National Association of Undertakers.

The funeral directors' group, which represents undertakers, embalmers and hearse drivers across the country, gave the GOP plan a big thumbs up, saying in a press release, "Finally, a health care plan that works for us."

The endorsement from the undertakers' association was the second major endorsement in two days for the GOP plan, which yesterday picked up support from the National Association of Viruses and Bacteria. 

UPDATE: Alan Grayson's Not Done With The GOP Yet

Yesterday, Grayson kept up his attack, going on MSNBC and pointing out that the Republicans have not been good faith players in the health care debate. "America is sick of you, Republican Party; you're a lie factory, that's all you do... Why don't you work together with the Democrats to solve America's problems instead of making stuff up?"