Dept of Justice Blocks FLorida Voter Purge



Can you imagine getting a letter from a official in your state telling you that your name is being removed from the voter rolls. The letter would inform you that if you wished to vote, you must prove your citizenship. Well, that's what's happening to 182,000 registered voters in the state of Florida.

Mitt's Education Policy

Mitt Romney rolled out his Education policy, declaring “the gap in educational opportunity and achievement of people of color in this society, I believe, is the civil rights issue of our time.” In a speech Wednesday, Romney proposed expanding charter schools, which are privately run but funded by taxpayers, and creating a voucher-like system in which poor and disabled students could attend private schools, also using public money.

Cory Booker's Gaffe: Fact or Fiction

Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker stands in the middle of a major political controversy after his remarks on NBC's Meet the Press last Sunday. Going off message in an unscripted moment, Booker railed against campaign tactics on both sides of the political discourse in the presidential race.

President Obama is using Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital to negate Romney's claim that involvement at Bain shows he can create jobs. Romney's campaign has been approached to revisit the Obama/Rev. Wright relationship as an issue during the 2012 campaign.

Questions About Catholic Suit Against Obama

Archbishop Wuerl and HHS Sec. Sebelius

More than 40 Catholic schools, hospitals, charities and dioceses, including the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. are going to court, ostensibly to fight a requirement that would force them to violate church teaching by including free contraceptive coverage for employees in their health plans by as soon as Aug. 1.

Pundits Galore –Part Two

Watching politics on the news programs exposes us to a variety of opinions and points of view.  It’s good to be aware the background of the people we are listening to, their experiences and qualifications in the subject matter they are addressing, so that we might put their comments in perspective. In keeping with that thought, let’s meet some interesting people who are popping up on the airwaves.

Will Jeremiah Wright Ride Again?

The media is buzzing about a new Republican super PAC which is considering an ad campaign linking President Obama to his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, a line of attack the party rejected by john McCain in 2008. The New York Times got hold of a proposed campaign playbook commissioned by TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, who has become increasingly involved in GOP politics.

The plan, called “The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama: The Ricketts Plan to End His Spending for Good,” would “do exactly what John McCain would not let us do,” the strategists write, according to the Times report. The $10 million plan would include television and newspaper ads as well as outdoor advertisements and aerial banners, according to the Times report.

Ricketts’s Ending Spending Action Fund super PAC was a player in state Sen. Deb Fischer’s come from behind surprise victory in Tuesday’s Nebraska Republican Senate primary. His son Pete is a member of the Republican National Committee from Nebraska who ran against Sen. Ben Nelson (D) in 2006.

Mitt Romney’s campaign distanced itself from the idea.

Marriage Equality: The Week That Was

Everybody is talking about the events of last week as it pertains to marriage equality. The media has covered the stories ad infinitum and pundits comment morning, noon and night. Newsweek's cover calls Barack Obama "The First Gay President". The public buys into the hoopla, but, after all is said and done, there's only one policy change and policy is all that matters.

North Carolina joined 37 other states with a constitutional or statutory ban on gay marriage. That number could grow to 42 states with a ban on same-sex marriage dependent on the four state with the issue on the ballot this year. Voters in Minnesota, Maine, Maryland and Washington will cast their ballots to determine how their states will legislate the fate of citizens in the LGBT community. Only 4 states and the District of Columbia have held that gay marriage is legal within their boundaries. Interesting isn't it that 50% of the American public polled favor marriage equality.

The bottom line is that denying LGBT citizens the right to marry discriminates against them since they can not qualify for 1,138 federal benefits that are available to married couples. We therefore continue to have two classes of citizens in our country. That's about civil rights, not religion.