DOJ Tells Texas It's Still Waiting For Requested Data On Voter Photo ID

The U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) Civil Rights Division Voting Section Chief T. Christian Herren Jr. informed the Texas Secretary of State’s office that it has yet to provide the information the USDOJ requested at the end of September.

In a letter issued Wednesday, Herren informed the Texas Director of Elections, Ann McGeehan, that without the requested information the USDOJ is unable to determine if the voter photo ID law will “have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group.” The USDOJ must make that determination before the law may be implemented.

The letter from Herren restarts the 60 day clock on when the USDOJ has to make a decision about whether the law, which means the Jan 1, 2012 scheduled date of implementation is now jeopardy. If Texas does not return the requested information by Jan. 16, 2012, the USDOJ could reject Texas application for preclearance of SB14. Texas, then, would likely appeal the rejection through the courts.

GOP Plans To Raise Middle Class Taxes By Eliminating Itemized Deductions

Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who serves on the 12-member debt super congress committee described a $290 billion Republican super congress committee debt reduction plan that limit deductions for mortgage interest, charitable donations and state and local taxes while taxing for the first employer-provided health benefits. The Republican plan would also cut the top income tax rate for the wealthiest people from 35 percent to 28 percent, and drop the bottom tax rate from 10 percent to 8 percent. Progressive Democrats point out that such big reductions in top tax rates would result in large tax cuts for the rich, which would be paid for by eliminating tax breaks that primarily benefit the middle class.

The Occupy movement is a protest of policies that have given the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans 42 percent of the nation's wealth and tremendous political power over the last three decades, while the remaining 99 percent of American workers have seen their incomes decline and political power wane.

When the Supreme Court ruled in its "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" decision that the government may not ban political spending by corporations, it equated corporate money to personal free speech. The 1% who control corporations are now combining the "free speech" power of their corporation's treasuries with their personal wealth to buy media Ads, hire lobbyists and fund their choice of political candidates.

The only free speech option left to the other 99% of American citizens is to exercise their first amendment right to petition government by coming together in such places in such numbers that they demand the political voice the other 1% can simply buy with a stroke of a pen in their checkbook.

Meanwhile, the Congressional super congress committee only has one week left to come up with a plan that will cut more than $1 trillion from the federal deficit. A deficit created largely by massive millionaire tax cuts President Bush pushed through congress during the eight years he held the White House.

Republicans are opposed to raising revenues by raising taxes, even on the wealthiest Americans, who have seen their taxes dramatically cut over the past 14 years.

Republicans Want Personhood Amendment To U.S. Constitution

Republicans in the U.S. Congress and Republican presidential candidates want a federal Personhood Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that directly parallels the Mississippi Personhood Ballot Initiative 26 state constitutional amendment.

The New Progressive Movement

The New York Times

Occupy Wall Street and its allied movements around the country are more than a walk in the park. They are most likely the start of a new era in America.

Historians have noted that American politics moves in long swings. We are at the end of the 30-year Reagan era, a period that has culminated in soaring income for the top 1 percent and crushing unemployment or income stagnation for much of the rest.

The overarching challenge of the coming years is to restore prosperity and power for the 99 percent.

Thirty years ago, a newly elected Ronald Reagan made a fateful judgment: “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” Taxes for the rich were slashed, as were outlays on public services and investments as a share of national income. Only the military and a few big transfer programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans’ benefits were exempted from the squeeze.

Reagan’s was a fateful misdiagnosis. He completely overlooked the real issue — the rise of global competition in the information age — and fought a bogeyman, the government. Decades on, America pays the price of that misdiagnosis, with a nation singularly unprepared to face the global economic, energy and environmental challenges of our time.

Washington still channels Reaganomics. The federal budget for nonsecurity discretionary outlays — categories like highways and rail, education, job training, research and development, the judiciary, NASA, environmental protection, energy, the I.R.S. and more — was cut from more than 5 percent of gross domestic product at the end of the 1970s to around half of that today. With the budget caps enacted in the August agreement, domestic discretionary spending would decline to less than 2 percent of G.D.P. by the end of the decade, according to the White House. Government would die by fiscal asphyxiation.

Read the full article @ The New York Times

Republicans View Gov't Alternative Energy Investments as Unnecessary

Public support for increased federal funding on research into alternative energy technology, including solar technology, has decreased substantially since the early months of the Obama administration, with nearly all the decline coming from Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and The Washington Post, conducted Nov. 3-6 among 1,005 adults, finds that overall, 68% of the public favors increasing federal funding for research on wind, solar and hydrogen energy technology while 26% are opposed. From 2006 through early 2009, roughly 80% supported increased federal funding for alternative energy research.

Since April 2009, there has been a 30-point decline in the percentage of Republicans and Republican leaners supporting more federal funding for research into alternative energy technologies. Currently, 53% favor this policy, down from 82% in April 2009. There has been little change in opinions among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. Currently, 83% of Democrats favor increased funding for research into alternative energy technologies.

Two-thirds (68%) of Democrats and Democratic leaners say government investment in new energy is necessary. Most Republicans and GOP leaners (59%) say businesses will produce technology without government investment.

Support for government funding for alternative energy research has fallen since 2009, but this policy continues to draw more support than other ways to address America’s supply. Nearly six-in-ten (58%) favor more oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters and the same percentage favors allowing more mining and drilling on federally owned land.

More Americans continue to oppose (53%) than favor (39%) promoting the increased use of nuclear power. Only about four-in-ten (38%) favor government subsidies for ethanol production as a policy for addressing the U.S. energy supply. Nearly half (48%) oppose ethanol subsidies.

Greenhouse Gases Continues to Climb

NOAA's updated Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI), which measures the direct climate influence of many greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, shows a continued steady upward trend that began with the Industrial Revolution of the 1880s.

NOAA's Annual Greenhouse Gas Index is a gauge of the climate warming influence of greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere by human activities. The heating effect of additional greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased by 29 percent since 1990. (NOAA)

Started in 2004, the AGGI jumped 6 percent in 2010 reaching 1.29 — a figure far worse than what climate scientists predicted four years ago. Half of the increase is attributable to China and the United States. That means that by the end of 2010 the combined heating effect of long-lived greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere by human activities has increased by 29 percent since 1990, the "index" year used as a baseline for comparison.

"The increasing amounts of long-lived greenhouse gases in our atmosphere indicate that climate change is an issue society will be dealing with for a long time," said Jim Butler, director of the Global Monitoring Division of NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. "Climate warming has the potential to affect most aspects of society, including water supplies, agriculture, ecosystems and economies. NOAA will continue to monitor these gases into the future to further understand the impacts on our planet."

Point Of No Return For Climate Changing Greenhouse Gases

Washington Post: Based on everything we know about climate science, the basic game plan is that if we want to limit global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (so as not to risk the most dangerous and unpredictable impacts), we’ll need to prevent the amount of carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere from rising above roughly 450 parts per million. Currently, we’re at about 392 parts per million. So we’ve got some wiggle room, right? Actually, no...

Global Warming Driving Extreme Weather

For a world already weary of weather catastrophes, the latest warning from top climate scientists paints a grim future: More floods, more heat waves, more droughts and greater costs to deal with them.

A draft summary of an international scientific report obtained by The Associated Press says the extremes caused by global warming could eventually grow so severe that some locations become "increasingly marginal as places to live."

The report from the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change marks a change in climate science, from focusing on subtle shifts in average temperatures to concentrating on the harder-to-analyze freak events that grab headlines, hurt economies and kill people.

"The extremes are a really noticeable aspect of climate change," said Jerry Meehl, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. "I think people realize that the extremes are where we are going to see a lot of the impacts of climate change."

The report says scientists are "virtually certain" — 99 percent — that the world will have more extreme spells of heat and fewer of cold. Heat waves could peak as much as 5 degrees hotter by mid-century and even 9 degrees hotter by the end of the century.

Election Day Polling Locations in Collin Co.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 8, 2011, Texans will vote on ten amendments to the Texas State Constitution, plus local propositions, as may have been authorized by municipalities. Collin County is again taking part in the "Voting Center" pilot program with the Secretary of State. This program allows any voter registered in the Collin County to vote at any polling place through out the county, not just the precinct where they are registered.

Several cities in Collin Co. have authorized "special election" ballot propositions for their respective jurisdictions. Check the appropriate sample ballot style for your election precinct to see if your city has a "special election" proposition on your ballot. Don't know your precinct number? Find out how to locate your precinct number by clicking here.

Click here for information on the ten amendments to the Texas State Constitution.

Click here for November 8, 2011 Election Day Polling Locations in Collin Co.

Click here for background on Plano's Nov. 8 "Special Election" ballot propositions.

Want More People to Vote? Put More Information Online

Tomorrow is a big day in Ohio, where voters are expected to defeat a ballot measure called Issue 2 and, in so doing, overturn legislation that severely curtails the collective bargaining rights of public-sector employees. If they can figure out where to go to vote.

Introducing the Voting Information Project
Pew Charitable Trust

Forty-three percent of all voters under the age of 45 will look first for voting information online, according to new poll numbers from the Voting Info Project.

The Project is backed by the Pew Center on the States and a bipartisan team including people from the progressive New Organizing Institute and the Republican-leaning online communications firm Engage.

In addition, 57 percent of currently registered voters said they would look up what was on their ballot before voting, according to the project's poll results.

The Generation Gap And The 2012 Election

Not since 1972 has generation played such a significant role in voter preferences as it has in recent elections. In the last four national elections, generational differences have mattered more than they have in decades. According to the exit polls, younger people have voted substantially more Democratic than other age groups in each election since 2004, while older voters have cast more ballots for Republican candidates in each election since 2006.

The latest national polls suggest this pattern may well continue in 2012. Millennial generation voters are inclined to back Barack Obama for reelection by a wide margin in a matchup against Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate who has run the strongest against Obama in many polls. By contrast, Silent generation voters are solidly behind Romney.

In between the youngest and the oldest voters are the Baby Boom generation and Generation X. Both groups are less supportive of Obama than they were in 2008 and are now on the fence with respect to a second term for the president.

One of the largest factors driving the current generation gap is the arrival of diverse and Democratic-oriented Millennials. Shaped by the politics and conditions of the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies, this group holds liberal attitudes on most social and governmental issues.

Read the full story at Pew Research...

Record Number Of Americans In Poverty As Wealth Gap Grows

According to new figures released by U.S. Census Bureau, 49.1 million — or 16 percent — of Americans are now living below the poverty line. The numbers are an increase from 2010, when the previous record was at 46.2 million (16 percent). Americans 65 or older had the biggest jump in poverty, hitting 15.9 percent from the previous total of 9 percent.

The poverty rate isn’t the only economic figure setting an unwanted record, as the wealth gap between old and young Americans has also reached its widest ever. A typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than the average household headed by someone under 35, according to the Pew Research Center.

Those figures also include 37 percent of younger households with a net worth of zero or less, a demographic that has doubled since 1984.

Pew Research Center: Rising Gap in Economic Well-Being