Seasons Greetings With A Christmas Carol

As a holiday offering to all our readers we offer old radio broadcasts and a 1935 British movie of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.

Here are the 1938 and 1939 Campbell Playhouse radio broadcast productions of "A Christmas Carol" featuring Orson Welles and Lionel Barrymore. [Mercury Theatre Info]

1938 version featuring Orson Welles as Scrooge. Play starts at 5:30 minutes [MP3] 1939 version featuring Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge (My favorite) Play starts at 3:00 minutes [MP3]

Seymour Hicks plays the title role in the first sound version of the Dickens classic about the miser who's visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve. This British import is notable for being the only adaptation of this story with an invisible Marley's Ghost and its Expressionistic cinematography. This is the uncut 78 minute version from the Internet Archive.

Bill Maher:

New Rule: Someone needs to explain to the Republicans that Ebenezer Scrooge is supposed to be the bad guy. And before conservatives start whining about another "War on Christmas", they must admit they hate everything about Christmas. Because brotherhood, good will toward men, and especially charity make their skin crawl.

Now this week, Michele Bachmann proposed cutting huge holes in the federal safety net, demonstrating a total misunderstanding of the concept of a net. Here's what she said.

MICHELE BACHMANN (11/7/2011): Self-reliance means if anyone will not work, neither should he eat.

Merry Christmas to you too, crazy lady. Yeah, that's the first thing I think whenever self-reliance comes up: punishment by starvation.

Honestly, who could hear that statement, and not think of Scrooge, who in A Christmas Carol, suggests that if the poor don't want to go to the workhouse, they should get on with dying as a service to population control. Now if Herman Cain said that at a Republican debate, he would get a standing ovation. And say what you want about Ebenezer Scrooge, he never shoved Bob Cratchit's head into his groin and said, "Look, you want Christmas off or not?"

Newt Gingrich refers to Obama as the "Food Stamp President", because Obama doesn't want children to starve to death, fuckin' commie.

Mitt Romney says we should let all the people about to lose their homes, lose them. And they can just become renters. Ownership society? Meet "No pets, no waterbeds". Mitt said the same thing a few years ago when the automobile industry was tottering: "Let it die".

I find it ironic that Republicans have such disdain for the lazy, and yet their solution to every problem is "do nothing".

Their answer to wealth inequality? Do nothing.

Health care? Do nothing.

Climate change? Nothing.

Racism? Doesn't exist.

For a group of people so head over heels in love with self-reliance, they sure do recommend a lot of sitting on their ass.

If A Christmas Carol was performed by the Tea Party Dramatic Society, it would be a cautionary tale about how the hero, Scrooge, a blameless job creator, is turned into a socialist through the corrupting influence of Tiny Tim. And the play would end with a simple plaintive question from Mr. Scrooge: "Just how much of my wealth does Mr. Tim think he's entitled to?"

And that is the great Republican fallacy of this election, that our economic problems are due not to Wall Street's gambling, but because too many Americans are lazy. But there are 16 million unemployed, and we only created 80,000 jobs last month. The problem isn't laziness, it's math.

But this is where the Republican Party is now.

In favor of people dying, because they don't have health insurance.

In favor of letting people go unfed if they won't work.

And if they want to work, but are Mexicans, in favor of putting up a fence that electrocutes them.

Even Scrooge is thinking, "Look, I hate the poor, but I'm not a fucking psychopath."

But that's where this party is. It simply has no bottom...

Bill Maher Video:

Ayn Rand And The Politics Of Selfishness And Greed

Alternet / by Bruce E. Levine | December 15, 2011

How Ayn Rand Seduced Generations of Young Men and Helped Make the U.S. Into a Selfish, Greedy Nation. Thanks in part to Rand, the United States is one of the most uncaring nations in the industrialized world.

Ayn Rand’s “philosophy” is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society....To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.— Gore Vidal, 1961

Only rarely in U.S. history do writers transform us to become a more caring or less caring nation. In the 1850s, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) was a strong force in making the United States a more humane nation, one that would abolish slavery of African Americans.

A century later, Ayn Rand (1905-1982) helped make the United States into one of the most uncaring nations in the industrialized world, a neo-Dickensian society where healthcare is only for those who can afford it, and where young people are coerced into huge student-loan debt that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.

Rand’s impact has been widespread and deep. At the iceberg’s visible tip is the influence she’s had over major political figures who have shaped American society. In the 1950s, Ayn Rand read aloud drafts of what was later to become Atlas Shrugged to her “Collective,” Rand’s ironic nickname for her inner circle of young individualists, which included Alan Greenspan, who would serve as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board from 1987 to 2006.

In 1966, Ronald Reagan wrote in a personal letter, “Am an admirer of Ayn Rand.” Today, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) credits Rand for inspiring him to go into politics, and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) calls Atlas Shrugged his “foundation book.” Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) says Ayn Rand had a major influence on him, and his son Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is an even bigger fan. A short list of other Rand fans includes Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; Christopher Cox, chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission in George W. Bush’s second administration; and former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford.

But Rand’s impact on U.S. society and culture goes even deeper.

The Seduction of Nathan Blumenthal

Ayn Rand’s books such as The Virtue of Selfishness and her philosophy that celebrates self-interest and disdains altruism may well be, as Vidal assessed, “nearly perfect in its immorality.” But is Vidal right about evil? Charles Manson, who himself did not kill anyone, is the personification of evil for many of us because of his psychological success at exploiting the vulnerabilities of young people and seducing them to murder. What should we call Ayn Rand’s psychological ability to exploit the vulnerabilities of millions of young people so as to influence them not to care about anyone besides themselves?

While Greenspan (tagged “A.G.” by Rand) was the most famous name that would emerge from Rand’s Collective, the second most well-known name to emerge from the Collective was Nathaniel Branden, psychotherapist, author and “self-esteem” advocate. Before he was Nathaniel Branden, he was Nathan Blumenthal, a 14-year-old who read Rand’s The Fountainhead again and again. He later would say, “I felt hypnotized.” He describes how Rand gave him a sense that he could be powerful, that he could be a hero. He wrote one letter to his idol Rand, then a second. To his amazement, she telephoned him, and at age 20, Nathan received an invitation to Ayn Rand’s home. Shortly after, Nathan Blumenthal announced to the world that he was incorporating Rand in his new name: Nathaniel Branden. And in 1955, with Rand approaching her 50th birthday and Branden his 25th, and both in dissatisfying marriages, Ayn bedded Nathaniel.

What followed sounds straight out of Hollywood, but Rand was straight out of Hollywood, having worked for Cecil B. DeMille. Rand convened a meeting with Nathaniel, his wife Barbara (also a Collective member), and Rand’s own husband Frank. To Branden's astonishment, Rand convinced both spouses that a time-structured affair—she and Branden were to have one afternoon and one evening a week together—was “reasonable.” Within the Collective, Rand is purported to have never lost an argument. On his trysts at Rand’s New York City apartment, Branden would sometimes shake hands with Frank before he exited. Later, all discovered that Rand’s sweet but passive husband would leave for a bar, where he began his self-destructive affair with alcohol.

Continue reading at Alternet

Texas Political Parties Agree to April 3rd Primary

Updated Friday December 16, 2011 @ 3:15pm - Court signs order for April 3^rd primary

Texas Democrats and Republicans agreed to move the unified primary election from March 6^th to April 3^rd, avoiding the costs and confusion of holding a two-part primary across a two month span. In his filing for a redistricting map stay with the SCOTUS, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott asked for bifurcated primary with most races being held in March, but other races being moved to May. AG Abbott's bifurcated primary idea turned out to be very unpopular with most other Republicans in Texas.

The three judge federal district court panel in San Antonio asked the parties to try to work something out after a day-long hearing Tuesday over what to do in the absence of legal maps for legislative and congressional races. Some wanted to split the primaries — leaving the presidential and other statewide elections alone and moving only the contests that needed maps. But that's an expensive and complicated proposition, doubling costs of elections for counties and for the state, and endangering the precinct elections needed before the state political parties can hold their early summer conventions.

Today, The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio accepted the deal reached by the Democratic and Republican parties, and signed an order for a single primary for all federal, state and local offices — including for POTUS — to be held on Tuesday April 3, 2012:

January 31, 2012 - If changes in county election precinct boundaries are necessary to give effect to a redistricting plan, each commissioners court shall order the changes on or before January 31, 2012, as described in Texas Election Code § 42.032. The requirements of Texas Election Code § 42.036 are suspended for an order of a commissioner’s court adopted to comply with this section of this Court’s Order.

February 1, 2012 - New residency deadline for candidates seeking election to the Texas House and Texas Senate. (There is no residency requirement for Congress).

February 1, 2012, 6:00 p.m. - New deadline of court-ordered reopened filing period, in which candidates for all offices have the opportunity to amend, withdraw or file a new application for the ballot.

February 3, 2012 - New deadline for Democratic and Republican county executive committees to conduct drawing for candidate order on ballot.

April 3, 2012 - Date of the 2012 General Primary Election.

April 12, 2012 - The deadline for county chairs to submit canvassed returns for statewide and district offices to the state party chair.

April 14 or April 21, 2012 - Date of County and Senatorial District Conventions, as determined by the State Chair of each political party.

June 5, 2012 - Date of the 2012 General Primary Runoff Election.

Earlier this week the San Antonio Court signed an order for new election filing deadlines:

• The filing deadline for all federal, state, county, and local offices is extended until Monday, December 19, at 6 p.m. (local time). The order provides that the filing period will be reopened at a later date after legislative and congressional maps are done to let additional candidates file or let existing candidates amend or withdraw their applications.

• Any currently filed candidate may withdraw his or her application and obtain a full refund of the filing fee.

• Candidates may continue to file for state house, state senate, and congressional seats. To file, candidates need only to list their lawful residence as of the date of the application and the district they want to run in. Candidates may chose either the state’s map or the court-drawn interim map. Candidates will have an opportunity to amend their applications at a later date.

• The requirement in the Texas Election Code that party rule changes be filed with the Texas Secretary of State on or before the 30th day before precinct conventions is suspended for the 2012 cycle.

Texas voters will be left out of the multi-state March 6th Super Tuesday election event. The three federal courts looking at different aspects of Texas redistricting — including the U.S. Supreme Court — have scheduled hearings on the different versions of the redistricting maps next month.

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio - Court Order - Case 5:11 Cv 00360 OLG JES XR Document 563:

Acrimony Among Republicans Over Bifurcated Vs Delayed Unified Primary

MySanAntonio.com

Acrimony among elected Republican officials, the statewide Republican Party leadership and Attorney General Greg Abbott spilled into public Thursday as a bitter fight over whether to split the state's primary elections rages on.

That dispute was partially responsible for the cancellation of a planned mediation session between Republican and Democratic Party officials, which was supposed to take place Thursday in Austin.

Instead, several sources said, the political parties engaged in informal negotiations via phone calls and email messages that were focused on when the state's primary election should be rescheduled and if it should be split.

Three sources indicated the talks had centered on moving March 6 primary elections to early April so courts and county election officials would have enough time to enact whatever changes the U.S. Supreme Court may order to the interim redistricting maps for the 2012 election.

Political observers say they believe Texas Gov. Rick Perry is among the GOP officials pushing for a split primary behind the scenes, so that the Republican presidential primary nominating contest still happens on March 6th.

Read the full story @ MySanAntonio.com

Pew: GOP Base Critical of Party’s Washington Leadership

Public discontent with Congress has reached record levels, and the implications for incumbents in next year's elections could be stark, according to the the latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Dec. 7-11.

Two-in-three voters say most members of Congress should be voted out of office in 2012 - the highest on record.

And the number who say their own member should be replaced matches the all-time high recorded in 2010, when fully 58 members of Congress lost reelection bids - the most in any election since 1948.

The Republican Party is taking more of the blame than the Democrats for a do-nothing Congress.

A record-high 50% say that the current Congress has accomplished less than other recent Congresses, and by nearly two-to-one (40% to 23%) more blame Republican leaders than Democratic leaders for this.

By wide margins, the GOP is seen as the party that is more extreme in its positions, less willing to work with the other side to get things done, and less honest and ethical in the way it governs.

And for the first time in over two years, the Democratic Party has gained the edge as the party better able to manage the federal government.

The poll also found that when asked directly about the belief that sparked the 99 Percent Movement — that the rich have too much power and influence in this country — Americans of all political stripes largely agree.

Wide majorities of Democrats, independents, and even Republicans, in fact, think the rich are too powerful, and a majority also thinks our economic system unfairly favors the wealthy, as the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent highlighted:

Roughly three-quarters of the public (77%) say that they think there is too much power in the hands of a few rich people and large corporations in the United States. In a 1941 Gallup poll, six-in-ten (60%) Americans expressed this view. About nine-in-ten (91%) Democrats and eight-in-ten (80%) of independents assert that power is too concentrated among the rich and large corporations, but this view is shared by a much narrower majority (53%) of Republicans.

Reflecting a parallel sentiment, 61% of Americans now say the economic system in this country unfairly favors the wealthy and just 36% say the system is generally fair to most Americans. About three-quarters (76%) of Democrats and 61% of independents say the economic system is tilted in favor of the wealthy; a majority (58%) of Republicans say that the system is generally fair to most Americans.

In addition, Americans also have a skeptical view of Wall Street. A slim majority — 51 percent — thinks Wall Street hurts the economy more than it helps, including 60 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of independents. Just 36 percent think Wall Street helps more than it hurts.

Read the full report for more details.

Texas Dems Enlist Young People To Get Out The Vote In 2012

NewsTaco.com By Anthony Gutierrez and Rebecca Acuña, the Texas Democratic Party

Our community is under attack by right-wing extremists. We’re willing to bet, albeit not $10,000, that you’ve had enough of the hostility and hateful rhetoric coming from the Republican Party towards Latinos. But you have the power to stop these constant attacks on our families.

The Texas Democratic Party is proud to launch the Promesa Project to reach out to our fellow Latinos and ask them to take the reins to change our state. Based on simple math, we know we have the power to change the political landscape in Texas.

There are 3.8 million eligible Latino voters in Texas, and one out of every four eligible voters in Texas is Latino. We know that on every issue that’s important to Latinos, Democrats are better. We also know that there’s no one better to carry out that message than young Latinos themselves.

Research has shown that young Latinos, many of whom are the first in their families to attend college, are increasingly the trusted sources of political information in their families and social circles. A study earlier this year also found that the Internet had surpassed television as the main sources of news for people under 30.

How it Works

The Promesa Project is an innovative program that will use a combination of online and grassroots techniques to recruit young Latinos as the Party’s messengers to their families and social networks. On PromesaProject.com, individuals will be able to give us their “promesa” that they will talk to their family and friends about voting Democratic.

Democrats Seek Federal Law Against Election Fraud

The Wash­ing­ton Post

Mary­land Sen. Ben­jamin L. Cardin (D) on Wednes­day said tricks designed to sup­press voter turnout, espe­cially those of his­tor­i­cally dis­en­fran­chised minori­ties, require Con­gress to pass an update to the nation’s 50-year-old voting-rights legislation.

Cardin said he would file a bill Wednes­day to make it a fed­eral offense to pro­duce or use fraud­u­lent elec­tion mate­r­ial to try to mis­lead or dis­cour­age vot­ing within 90 days of an election. For one, Cardin said the bill would allow pros­e­cu­tors nation­wide to guard against the kind of robo­calls that a Mary­land jury this month decided were intended to sup­press black voter turnout in the state’s 2010 guber­na­to­r­ial race.

For­mer Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich’s ® cam­paign man­ager, Paul E. Schurick, was found guilty of four counts of elec­tion law vio­la­tions stem­ming from order­ing the calls, which told vot­ers in Prince George’s County and in Bal­ti­more to “relax” and to not bother going to the polls. The auto­mated call said Demo­c­ra­tic can­di­date Gov. Mar­tin O’Malley and Pres­i­dent Obama had already been suc­cess­ful. Schurick is sched­uled to be sen­tenced Feb. 16, and faces poten­tial jail time.

Cardin noted that the Office of the Mary­land State Pros­e­cu­tor could only pur­sue the case because of a 2006 change to state law. He and co-sponsor New York Sen. Charles Schumer (D), said a sim­i­lar tool is needed in the hands of pros­e­cu­tors nation­wide. Their “Decep­tive Prac­tices and Voter Intim­i­da­tion Pre­ven­tion Act of 2011” would cre­ate a process for civil com­plaints as well as crim­i­nal penal­ties of up to five years in prison.

At a Capi­tol Hill news con­fer­ence, Cardin and Schumer were flanked by plac­ards show­ing exam­ples of what they said were increas­ingly sophis­ti­cated attempts to sup­press and intim­i­date voters. One showed a fab­ri­cated “sam­ple Demo­c­ra­tic bal­lot” from Maryland’s pre­vi­ous guber­na­to­r­ial elec­tion, when paid cam­paign work­ers for Ehrlich and then Lt. Gov. Michael Steele cir­cu­lated a flyer before the 2006 elec­tion that sug­gested the Repub­li­can can­di­dates were the pre­ferred choices of Democrats.

One from Mil­wau­kee sug­gested erro­neously that any­one who had been found guilty of even a traf­fic vio­la­tion was not allowed to vote in an upcom­ing elec­tion. And another showed a flyer seem­ingly pro­duced by a local elec­tion board ask­ing Repub­li­cans to vote on Tues­day, and Democ­rats to vote on Wednesday.

“This should make anyone’s blood boil,” Schumer said, adding that “Democracy’s days are num­bered” if the prac­tices are not curbed. Cardin added that in an age of so many fledg­ling democ­ra­cies seek­ing to take root around the world, the United States must “lead by exam­ple” in pro­tect­ing cit­i­zens’ right to vote.

Read the full story @ The Wash­ing­ton Post.

San Antonio Court Signs Order On New Election Filing Deadlines

Michael Li's Texas Redistricting Blog:

The San Antonio panel has signed the proposed order on election deadlines reflecting the deal announced on the record yesterday by lawyers for the Democratic and Republican parties.

More changes will be forthcoming as the parties continue to negotiate over a primary date, but, for now, here’s what’s changed:

• The filing deadline for all federal, state, county, and local offices is extended until Monday, December 19, at 6 p.m. (local time). The order provides that the filing period will be reopened at a later date after legislative and congressional maps are done to let additional candidates file or let existing candidates amend or withdraw their applications.

• Any currently filed candidate may withdraw his or her application and obtain a full refund of the filing fee.

• Candidates may continue to file for state house, state senate, and congressional seats. To file, candidates need only to list their lawful residence as of the date of the application and the district they want to run in. Candidates may chose either the state’s map or the court-drawn interim map. Candidates will have an opportunity to amend their applications at a later date.

• The court will determine residency requirements at a later date,

• The court will set a date in the future by which commissioners courts must redraw precinct boundaries if required by the ultimate congressional and legislative district lines.

• The requirement in the Texas Election Code that party rule changes be filed with the Texas Secretary of State on or before the 30th day before precinct conventions is suspended for the 2012 cycle.

Here’s the signed order:

http://tinyurl.com/cfqjgvp

Video: Attorney General Holder Speaks On Voting Rights At The LBJ Library

Attorney General Eric Holder speaking on voting rights at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas - Dec. 13, 2011 - Part 1
Video by David Barrow


Attorney General Eric Holder speaking on voting rights at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas - Dec. 13, 2011 - Part 2
Video by David Barrow

On March 15, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson calls on Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. Pres. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965, establishing federal Department of Justice oversight of election laws passed by certain southern states with a history of discrimination.

The LBJ Library Archive

Texas Tribune: The warning from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was polite but firm: The U.S. Department of Justice will not stand idly by if it feels Texas intends to halt or reverse gains for minority voting rights.

That was the message Holder delivered on the University of Texas campus at the library of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Holder spoke just as Texas is squaring off with federal government over two major political voting issues: redistricting and voter ID.

Holder said that the redistricting maps legislators drew this year show that gains made under the Voting Rights Act are being challenged by a Legislature intent on protecting incumbents rather than on having candidates compete for votes.

Maps the Republican-dominated Legislature drew, he said, fail to reflect the burgeoning Hispanic growth in Texas, as indicated by the 2010 U.S. Census.

“We intend to argue vigorously at trial that this was the kind of discrimination that Section Five [of the Act] was intended to block,” Holder said, referring to the current federal litigation over the redistricting maps.

A panel of federal judges in San Antonio redrew maps for legislative and congressional districts in Texas, but the U.S. Supreme Court blocked those, at least temporarily, last week. The maps that will be used in next year’s elections are still uncertain, and it is unclear whether the issue will be decided before the scheduled primary elections in March.

Texas’ voter ID law, which requires that voters furnish a state-issued photo ID before casting a ballot, is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. That date could be in jeopardy, though, because the Justice Department has the authority to review election laws passed in states with a history of racial segregation and discrimination. In Texas, Democrats argue the voter ID law will disenfranchise minorities, the elderly and students, while Republicans and other proponents say it will stamp out voter fraud.

Read the full story @ The Texas Tribune

Attorney General Holder Speaks On Voting Rights At The LBJ Library

It's no coincidence that Attorney General Eric Holder chose the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas, as the site of a forceful speech on voting rights. President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act (VRA) into law on August 6, 1965, establishing federal Department of Justice oversight of election laws passed by certain southern states with a history of discrimination.

States that must request pre-clearance from the federal DOJ for any change to election laws or districts. More about the Voting Rights Act:

• Voting Rights Act text
• Voting Rights Act history
• Frequently Asked Questions

In the wake of violence and civil rights protests, the Johnson Administration drafted the VRA to enforce the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, aiming to eliminate various Jim Crow election law strategies to prevent blacks and other minorities from voting. On July 27, 2006, President George W. Bush signed a bill extending the Voting Rights Act for another 25 years.

Before the VRA, many states had poll taxes, literacy tests and a whole array of so called "Jim Crow" schemes and gimmicks encoded in legal statutes to make sure that whites of a certain status were the only ones "qualified" to vote.

The VRA not only forbids state laws that are intended to specifically target minority voters -- it also forbids state laws that have a greater impact on minority voters than on others.

Declaring that protecting ballot access for all eligible voters “must be viewed not only as a legal issue but as a moral imperative,” Attorney General Holder tonight urged Americans to “call on our political parties to resist the temptation to suppress certain votes in the hope of attaining electoral success and, instead, achieve success by appealing to more voters.”

The speech by Mr. Holder comes as the Justice Department’s civil rights division is scrutinizing a series of new state voting laws that were enacted — largely by Republican officials — in the name of fighting fraud. This year, more than a dozen states enacted new voting restrictions. For example, eight — Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin — imposed new laws requiring voters to present one of a very limited selection of dated and non-expired government issued photo ID cards that millions of American citizens do not possess.

In major metropolitan areas it is the norm for the working poor to use public transportation. Hence, it is very common for that group of citizens to not have a car and not need a driver's license. A state issued picture ID has never been something that most of these people felt a need to have. For these people Getting a State Issued Photo ID is not as easy. Some of the obstacles are: taking time off work to go to Department of Motor Vehicles office and transportation costs to get to the DMV can be hard on a poor person's budget. They must obtain their state certified birth certificate and other identity documents before traveling to the nearest DMV, which typically have long waiting lines. Many older citizens have no birth certificate on record because they were born at home before issuance of birth certificates was required. Court costs to obtain a birth certificate are generally around $200. This cost to vote imposed on millions of American citizens who do not own or drive a car is a new variation on an old evil: the poll tax. Previously voters were able to use other forms of identification, like bank statements, utility bills, military veteran cards, student ID and Social Security cards.

ACLU Files Lawsuit Challenging Wisconsin’s Voter Photo ID Law As Unconstitutional

Billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch finally got their way in 2011. After their decades of funding the American Legislative Exchange Council the collaboration between multinational corporations and conservative state legislators, the project began finally to yield the intended result.

ALEC has been organizing, promoting, and encouraging its legislative associates in every state of the Union to enact its rigid voter photo ID legislation. This year, ALEC's model voter photo ID legislation was signed into law by Kansas, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Texas and South Carolina. ALEC's model voter photo ID legislation was initially enacted Georgia and Indiana.

The voter photo ID legislation specifies voters must present one of a very limited selection of dated and non-expired government issued photo ID cards that millions of American citizens do not possess. Citizens, who do not drive and never board a plane, and therefore lack identification required to vote, must obtain their certified birth certificate and other identity documents and travel to a state Driver's License Office to obtain a voter identification card. Acquiring the identity documents needed to obtain a voting identity document and taking time off work to travel to the nearest Driver's License Office, which typically have long waiting lines, can cost tens to hundreds of dollars. This cost to vote imposed on millions of American citizens who do not own or drive a car is a new variation on an old evil: the poll tax.

“For nearly a century, there were Jim Crow laws in place that discouraged people of color from voting, says Wade Henderson, the president and CEO of the Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights. “Today, there are different laws, but the objective is the same—to prevent millions from exercising their right to vote."

ACLU Press Release:

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Wisconsin and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty today filed a federal lawsuit charging that Wisconsin’s voter ID law is unconstitutional and will deprive citizens of their basic right to vote. The lawsuit is the only active federal challenge against a voter ID law, the most common type of legislation that is part of a nationwide attack on the right to vote.

Fact Check Your News

Annenberg Political Fact Check
A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, it is a nonpartisan, nonprofit "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. It monitors “the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases.”

Annenberg Flack Check
This new Annenberg site fights fact-mangling site through humor and quick turnarounds without further propagating the underlying deception.

Columbia Journalism Review
The campaign desk site mission: “to encourage and stimulate excellence in journalism in the service of a free society. It is both a watchdog and a friend of the press in all its forms, from newspapers to magazines to radio, television, and the Web…CJR examines day-to-day press performance as well as the forces that affect that performance.”

Open Secrets
The site of The Center for Responsive Politics calls itself: "Your Guide to the Money in U.S. elections" – the “guide to money’s influence on U.S. elections and public policy.”

PolitiFact
PolitiFact is “A scorecard separating fact from fiction. A project of the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly, it helps find the truth in the presidential campaign. “Every day, reporters and researchers from the Times and CQ will analyze the candidates' speeches, TV ads and interviews and determine whether the claims are accurate.”

Real Clear Politics
“An independent political site that culls and publishes the best commentary, news, polling data, and links to important resources.” Updated daily.

Snopes
A website for validating or debunking urban legends, Internet rumor, email hoaxes, and other such stories of uncertain or questionable origin.

Washington Post Fact Checker A permanent Post feature, it uses the one to four “Pinocchio” system to evaluate statements and claims.

Hat tip to Beverly Bandler for this fact check list