Some more lies from Senator Shit Kicker:
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/...
While President Obama and many others see the Supreme Court's June ruling on the Voter Rights Act as the complete knee-capping of minority election rights, our own Senator John Cornyn says everything is a-OK and it's about time.
Continuing his appeal to the right wing people of Texas, says the SC was right to shut down Section 4 of the act which required states like Texas to get advance approval from the U.S. Department of Justice before it set up voting districts and the like.
As Cornyn wrote in a statement released today:
"Until the Supreme Court struck down Section 4 as unconstitutional, Texas needed permission from the Justice Department to implement even a change in a polling place. That arrangement was good for Eric Holder.
Take voter ID as an example. In 2011, Texas adopted a commonsense voter ID law. It requires voters to present one of a number of approved forms of photo ID at the polling place, just like you have to do to buy beer or get on a plane. The state offers voter ID cards free of charge. And the law allows voters unable to present a valid photo ID to cast a provisional ballot and return within a week with proper identification. It even makes exceptions for people who have a religious objection to being photographed or lost their ID as a result of a recent national disaster.
The law is reasonable, and it is popular. Protecting the integrity of the voting process is something that benefits everyone. The Supreme Court has held that voter ID laws are constitutional. But Section 4 subjected Texas to preclearance, giving Holder the ability to block Texas from implementing the law -- which he did." - Houston Press, 8/8/13
Some times I seriously don't who's worse, Cornyn or his idiot brother Ted Cruz (R. TX). Actually, Texas Attorney General and 2014 Texas gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott (R. TX) also shares the same ranking as Cornyn on this issue:
http://northdallasgazette.com/...
“The administration’s approach reveals the Democrats‘ fear that Republican candidates were making inroads with Latino voters. Democrats could never “turn Texas blue” if that trend continued, so they got the courts to draw district lines that guarantee Democratic victory in predominantly Latino areas. What about the rights of Latino voters who preferred representatives such as Mr. Aliseda, you might ask? They apparently don’t matter to this administration.”
REBUTTAL: Actually, as Greg Abbott knows, it has been the actions of the Republican legislature and the Attorney General himself who demonstrate ignorance and fear of minority voters. Senate Redistricting Committee Chair Kel Seliger was not able to come close to giving the correct percentage of African American or Latino voters in his own Senate district.
As the Latino and African American populations in Texas continue to grow at a much faster rate than the Anglo population, Abbott and Republican leaders have moved to adopt redistricting plans and voting laws that reduce the voting strength of Texas minority citizens. Prior to the release of the 2010 census, Republican leaders in Texas had not asked the federal courts to overturn the US Voting Rights Act.
Attacking the US Voting Rights Act is a tactic that allows Republicans to restrict and suppress minority voting without fear of oversight. The share of the Latino vote going to Republican candidates in Texas has dropped in recent elections. Abbott also knows that as the number of Latino votes cast increases, the percentage share that goes to
Republican candidates typically drops. In 2012, Republican candidates in Texas typically received 20 to 40 percent of the Latino vote and 3 to 10 percent of the African American vote. Greg Abbott is using dishonest rhetoric to obscure the fact that Texas Republicans have chosen to suppress and restrict the ability of minority Texans to cast ballots rather than working to earn the support of Latino voters. - North Dallas Gazette, 8/5/13
And Texas Democrats don't see anything "fair" or "equal" about Texas' voter ID laws:
http://www.myfoxlubbock.com/...
Lubbock Democratic Party chair Kenny Ketner said of most concern was that this law could shut out low income voters, the elderly, and minorities.
"Since a disproportionately high number of minority voters in Texas are poor, that means it also targets minority voters," Ketner said.
But that's not all.
"If you're a woman and you've married recently and your name has changed, but your ID has your old name on it, they can reject you at the polls, if your ID doesn't match your registration." - Fox 34 News, 7/23/13
And good luck trying to get a "free" voter ID card:
http://www.texastribune.org/...
Opponents of Texas’ voter ID law were supposed to be somewhat placated by a component of that 2011 measure that requires that the Texas Department of Public Safety to issue free IDs to non-drivers interested in casting a ballot.
That would solve the problem of the hundreds of thousands of Texans without the money to pay for IDs, conservative supporters of the bill argued.
But a month after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling gutted a key component of the Voting Rights Act and paved the way for the state’s implementation of the voter ID bill, Texans aren’t exactly camping out at DPS offices to get their voting credentials. As of July 26, the department had issued six of the documents, an average of about one a week, across the state. Texas DPS spokesman Tom Vinger said the documents were issued in Lampasas, Austin, Snyder, Skidmore, Jacksonville and Dallas.
Vinger said there had been about 50 inquiries about the EICs, but many found they already had the necessary documents. Alternatives include a Texas driver’s license or ID, a passport, a concealed handgun license, a passport or passcard, or a military ID or naturalization certificate.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas said the numbers are so low because the required documents are nearly as difficult to obtain as a driver’s license or ID.
“We know, from evidence in our photo voter ID case, that this law adversely affects poor, black and Latino Texans. So we’re not at all surprised to hear that few Texans have been able to take advantage of this supposedly free ID,” said Rebecca Robertson, legal and policy director for the ACLU of Texas. “It costs money to get the underlying documents, such as a certified copy of your birth certificate, which you need to prove to DPS your eligibility for the free ID.” - Texas Weekly, 8/7/13
Not to mention voter fraud is a serious problem in Texas:
http://newsok.com/...
Voter fraud isn't a problem that plagues any state. Consider the “prevalence” of voter fraud in Texas, a state that passed voter ID legislation similar to North Carolina's. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot found that from 2002 to 2012, there were just 100 federal prosecutions and 50 state convictions for voter fraud. That would mean an average of 15 prosecutions and convictions per year. To put the number into context, Texas has a population of approximately 26 million and cast 7,962,799 votes in the 2012 election. This means voter fraud is committed, as a percentage of Texas votes, at a rate of 0.000188 percent, and as a percentage of the Texas population, 0.0000576 percent. The percentage of Americans struck by lightning annually is 0.000143 percent — greater than the occurrence of voter fraud as a percentage of Texans. - News OK, 7/31/13
So yeah, Shit Kicker Cornyn is full of shit. He loves the voter ID laws because he's afraid he could be the first victim of a new blue Texas, especially with his past record in derailing immigration reform. Luckily U.S. Attroney General Eric Holder isn't putting up with this shit:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/...
WHEN IT threw out an old formula under which certain states and local governments had to clear any changes to their voting procedures with the US Justice Department, the Supreme Court effectively gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Because this Congress is unlikely to pass a new formula for singling out areas with a tendency toward racial and ethnic discrimination at the polls, the so-called “preclearance” process seemed to be rendered moot. But the Voting Rights Act, which was signed 48 years ago yesterday, still allows the federal government to seek that power on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis, and last month Attorney General Eric Holder wisely moved to do so in Texas.
The places that are most likely to adopt discriminatory voting rules in the future are the ones that have done so in the recent past. Holder’s suspicion of Texas is well-grounded. District lines redrawn in 2011 so diluted the clout of voters of color that a federal court blocked their implementation. Just last year, a federal appeals court struck down the state’s voter ID law on the grounds it would depress minority turnout. - Boston Globe, 8/7/13
Hopefully a strong Texas Democrat will stand up to the plate and take on Cornyn. I know we all want to make State Senator Wendy Davis (D. TX) Governor but I would strongly suggest she take a look at the U.S. Senate race before she makes her decision. Davis might get lucky if this happens:
http://www.nationalreview.com/...
Louie Gohmert for Senate? That’s what a number of Texas tea-party activists are hoping for. They’re not happy with Senator John Cornyn, and Katrina Pierson, who serves on the Texas Tea Party Caucus Advisory Board, tells me she’s heard from a number of activists pushing for the outspoken East Texas congressman to challenge the senator.
And JoAnn Fleming, the executive director of East Texas–based Grassroots America We The People, says she’s hearing the same thing. She knows Gohmert personally and says she’s had numerous activists tell her she should ask the congressman to run.
“I’ve had people ask me to ask him,” she says. “That hasn’t diminished.” - National Review, 8/7/13
Gohmert has stated that he has no interest in running for Senate but that's not enough to convince the Tea Party nuts. Plus Cornyn has been doing everything he can to suck up to the Tea Party but it looks like he's not really convincing them. But here's a little look at why Democrats would love to see Gohmert run which might also mean why he won't do it:
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/...
- Gohmert thinks women are sneaking into the U.S. to give birth to future terrorists, aka "terror babies."
- He blamed the massacre of theater patrons in Aurora, Colorado on "ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs."
- He thinks elementary school principals should carry assault rifles.
- The basic workings of email are a mystery to him.
- He thinks terrorists are "being trained to come in and act like they're Hispanic when they're radical Islamist," confounding American intelligence officials who think all brown people look the same.
- He thinks sex ed teaches kids how to breed.
- He makes Steve Blow sad. - Dallas Observer, 8/8/13
Don't give up Texas Tea Party. If you can't get Gohmert I'm sure you'll find some just as crazy to challenge Cornyn.