LetMyPeopleVote
LetMyPeopleVote's JournalNew Jersey/Chris Christie- Traffic Jam Scandal
Rachel has been covering this story for a while and it appears to have legs. The basics of the story is that two of three lanes to be busiest bridge in the country were closed in Fort Lee, New Jersey on the first day of school. It now appears that this was done by Chris Christie's appointees to punish this town because the mayor refused to endorse Christie for Governor. The person who ordered the closing and then ordered that no one tell the town was a high school classmate of Christie who has resigned.
Today, another Christie appointee resigned http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nj-official-tied-to-revenge-traffic-jame-reisgns
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) announced the resignation Friday of an official tied to the growing scandal over a traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge last summer.
Bill Baroni, an ally of Christie's who was the deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the bridge, resigned effective immediately.
Other local officials have alleged three lanes leading onto the bridge were ordered closed by Christie's allies because a local mayor declined to endorse the governor's re-election bid. Baroni said the lanes were closed for a traffic study.
Given the fact that Christie is one of the few republicans who could be viable in 2016, it is nice to see that this story has legs. Christie is a jerk and this is the type of stunt that he would pull.
Texas Left Me Out
I love this concept. A large number of Texas citizens are being punished due to Rick Perry's refusal to extend Medicaid in Texas. Texans are going to make this an issue in the 2014 elections http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obamacare-medicaid-expansion-political-advocacy
So far, the effort is most organized in Texas, which is also the state with the most people in that Medicaid expansion gap: 1 million. But it's likely to pick up elsewhere as the Obama administration and outside advocates apply pressure to the 25 states that have resisted expansion for the first year.
Texas Left Me Out, the combined effort of several community groups, is a website designed to collect those people's stories and organize them into a cohesive political action constituency. It asks those in the Medicaid gap to sign a petition to stay informed about advocacy events and share their story on the site.
Are they going to turn Texas blue on the backs of people who have traditionally been ignored by Republicans? Are they going to convince an anti-Obamacare stalwart like Rick Perry to buy into the law? That's a tough sell. But they're going to try.
This is a great concept and program. Someone has to let the people being screwed by Perry know about this issue and see if they be mobilized
True the Vote denied right to join Texas voter id lawsuit
True the Vote is a racist organization formed by the King Street Patriots. The sole goal of this organization is steal elections by keeping people from voting. I had to deal with this group in 2012 when they sent "poll watchers" to a large number of early voting locations and precincts. I trained and had poll watchers out to combat these idiots and we kept the damage down.
True the Vote is represented by an ex-DOJ attorney who was illegally hired by the bushies (there is no way that this guy was qualified to work for the DOJ) and has been trying to join the Texas voter id lawsuit. The DOJ objected to this intervention on the grounds that these idiots were trying to raise non-issues and confuse the lawsuit. Today the court rejected their request http://txredistricting.org/post/69711832445/court-denies-request-of-true-the-vote-to-intervene-in
In rejecting the request, Judge Ramos held that True the Vote had not asserted a “particularized interest” threatened by the case and that its generalized interests were “adequately represented by the State Defendants.”
To the extent True the Vote had a contribution to make to the case, the court said it could “be accomplished without the necessity of, or burden incident to, making it a party” and that Judge Ramos would “duly consider any motion for leave to file briefing as amicus curiae that True the Vote may feel compelled to file.”
This is good news.
LaRouchie running for US Senate
Kesha Rogers just filed to run for the US Senate as a Democrat. http://www.juanitajean.com/2013/12/05/some-creepy-breaking-news/ Her paperwork was handed to the State Democratic Party a couple of hours ago. Kesha has been tormenting Democrats in Texas CD 22 by running in the Texas primary and unfortunately winning due to low turnout and bad candidates. Here are some
I just got word from the best of sources that Kesha Rogers, a Lyndon LaRouche Goofball who wants to impeach President Obama, has filed to run as a Democrat for the United States Senate against John Cornyn.
In case you’re wondering what the LaRouchies are, they are a cult plain and simple, who believe, among other tin foil hat things, that the Queen of Damn England rules the world. Honey, she can’t even rule her family. Around here, they stand in front of the post office all day with big signs saying to impeach Obama. They love, love, love that Hitler mustache thing and think it’s hysterically funny.
Kesha is an African American woman who’s made duplicity an art form. She ran for Tom DeLay’s old seat twice and, of course, lost both times. She campaigns as an Impeach Obama candidate in the white community and a caring, loving black woman in the African American community. She’s slicker than snot on a doorknob
Here is a picture of Kesha with her favorite sign
I also heard that the LaRouchies are running someone for CD22. This will be interesting.
GOP House Hearing on Space Aliens
Lamar Smith is an idiot but he is the chair of the House Science, Space and Technology committee. Smith is holding hearings on space aliens http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/03/house-hearing-aliens_n_4379175.html
With only seven workdays left between now and the end of the first session of the 113th Congress, a full House committee has found time to hold a hearing on extraterrestrial life.
The Committee on Science, Space and Technology, chaired by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), will meet for a hearing called “Astrobiology: Search for Biosignatures in our Solar System and Beyond” for two hours Wednesday to “investigate what methods are being used to determine if any of these planets may harbor life,” according to the hearing charter.
Republicans on the Science Committee may be open to the possibility of alien life on other planets, but Chairman Smith and many of his colleagues are much less convinced that global warming is happening on this one, or that it might be caused by humans.
The republicans on the House Science, Space and Technology committee are idiots and include people who believe in Todd Atkins rape theory and who are against any science dealing with global warming. I wonder if they ran old episodes of the X Files for this meeting
Great News-ALEC is hurting due to loss of sponsors and legislators
The American Legislative Exchange Council is the Koch brother funded organization that writes "model" laws on such things as voter id, stand your ground and other conservative causes. According to a leak, ALEC is hurting and is trying to get sponsors to return http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/03/alec-funding-crisis-big-donors-trayvon-martin?CMP=twt_gu
An influential US lobbying network of Republican politicians and big businesses is seeking to avert a looming funding crisis by appealing to major donors that have abandoned it over the past two years following criticism of its policy on gun laws.
The Guardian has learned that the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), which shapes and promotes legislation at state level across the US, has identified more than 40 lapsed corporate members it wants to attract back into the fold under a scheme referred to in its documents as the "Prodigal Son Project".
The target firms include commercial giants such as Amazon, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Kraft, McDonald's and Walmart, all of which cut ties with the group following the furore over the killing of the unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida in February 2012.....
The Guardian has learned that by Alec's own reckoning the network has lost almost 400 state legislators from its membership over the past two years, as well as more than 60 corporations that form the core of its funding. In the first six months of this year it suffered a hole in its budget of more than a third of its projected income.
This is great news and we need to tell Coke, Amazon and other former sponsors that they will be punished if they rejoin ALEC
Good article on Texas GOP meeting being worried about keeping Texas red
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/texas/article/GOP-rules-Texas-but-talking-like-they-re-on-ropes-5023790.php?t=312fc07e76184ed18dTexas republicans are worried
Court Slaps Down Abbott, and Sides with Wendy Davis...Again
This makes me smile http://us7.campaign-archive1.com/?u=824cb3251abbeba9dfdf52496&id=0a92136dd9&e=88f3e58ec1
Earlier today, the 5th Circuit US Court of Appeals granted a motion by attorneys representing Wendy Davis and other plaintiffs to dismiss an appeal filed by Attorney General Greg Abbott regarding attorneys’ fees. The decision by the Appeals Court is another in a series of miscalculations by Greg Abbott, who has lost every single substantive legal argument in his redistricting battle with Davis.
Earlier this year, the three-judge Federal District Court in San Antonio ruled that Senator Davis and fellow plaintiffs are the prevailing parties in the State Senate redistricting case. Following the District Court’s ruling, attorneys for the Davis plaintiffs filed a motion to recover attorney fees and expenses as the prevailing parties. Rather than wait for the District Court to issue a final fee decision, Attorney General Abbott rushed to the 5th Circuit US Appeals Court in an attempt to head off a fee award and somehow reverse the finding of the Davis plaintiffs as the prevailing party.
Abbott’s appeal was doomed from the outset. Precedent that is well known among experienced legal counsel (except apparently within Greg Abbott’s office) makes clear that the US Appeals Court does not have jurisdiction until a fee award is actually made.
Commenting upon the ruling, Davis legal counsel, J Gerald Hebert said, “I suppose the only persons surprised by this ruling are Greg Abbott and his attorneys in the AG’s office. The dismissal of their appeal was in keeping with fairly well known legal precedent. They’re seldom right, but at least they are consistent.”
Greg is a very bad attorney and keeps on losing these cases.
Was George Zimmerman’s 911 Call a Clever Piece of Propaganda?
It was clear in the Zimmerman trial that Zimmerman knows something about the law and how to take advantage of the law. I tend to agree with this articles conclusion that Zimmerman's latest 911 call was a way to get his story out in a fashion where he would not be subject to cross examination http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/11/20/george_zimmerman_samantha_scheibe_was_the_trayvon_martin_shooter_s_911_call.html?wpisrc=burger_bar
The Associated Press published a thought-provoking story Tuesday suggesting that Zimmerman and Scheibe called 911 knowing that the recordings of their calls were admissible in court, and would likely be made public. As such, it’s not unreasonable to think that both calls may have been intended as pre-emptive public relations efforts in addition to requests for police assistance. According to the AP, this sort of strategic 911 call “spinning” is a common tactic among savvy defendants and accusers:"There really has been what I would call a multiyear training program in place, frankly" to use 911 calls strategically, says former Massachusetts prosecutor Wendy Murphy. "And folks, especially people who understand high-profile crimes and the nature of evidence and the rules of evidence and domestic abuse generally, they (know) the power of a 911 call to change not only the trajectory of the case, but to change public opinion and to affect the jury pool."
For defendants or accusers, a 911 call is a way to get their side of the story on the record without having to testify in court. “It allows him to speak without the fear of cross-examination,” a San Francisco lawyer told the AP in reference to George Zimmerman’s most recent 911 call. “So if he can get his side out, and in a clear way, he never has to face the other side asking him questions or follow-ups.”
....Spinning an emergency dispatcher is a technique best deployed by someone exactly like George Zimmerman: a well-known alleged repeat offender with a bad reputation, good lawyers, and a habit of finding himself in your-word-against-mine situations. The tactic is obviously most valuable in cases where there’s very little physical evidence, and that’s the case in many alleged domestic assault incidents, which often come down to the relative credibility of the accuser and the defendant. As prosecutor Wendy Murphy indicated in the AP story, a strategic 911 call from an alleged abuser could well be effective in establishing reasonable doubt that a given assault actually took place in the way the victim claims. If the Zimmerman table-smashing case ever comes to trial, I’m sure that Zimmerman’s lawyer will use his client’s 911 call in exactly that fashion.
Zimmerman avoided taking the stand in his first trial and there is no way that a good lawyer would let Zimmerman ever take the stand
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