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Thursday, October 22, 2015

The Daily Drift

Welcome to the Thursday Edition of The Truth Be Told.
Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!  
 
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Republicans - Very appropriate, don't you think ... !
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Working Full Time and Living in Abject Poverty - That's What Today's Minimum Wage Will Get You

All Politicians Have To Dance But This New Twitter Account @BernieDancing Is Everything

All Politicians Have To Dance But This New Twitter Account @BernieDancing Is Everything (IMAGES/VIDEO)
What happens when you take political nerds and make them have rhythm is hilarious. But this new Twitter account makes it awesome!

Chicago Police 'Disappeared' 7,000 People in an Off-the-Books Interrogation Warehouse

Cornell Professors: Hiring Republicans Compromises Faculty Quality

Cornell Professors: Hiring Republicans Compromises Faculty Quality

Fox News 'Judge' Launches Fact-Free Unhinged Rant Against Hillary Clinton

Jeb campaign and super PAC using the same consulting firm for the same services

Jeb Bush, via Gage Skidmore / FlickrJeb campaign and super PAC using the same consulting firm for the same services
This isn’t the first time Jeb has done so, and Jeb isn’t the first candidate to do so.

Jeb, crony capitalist, unironically promises to end crony capitalism as president

The Bush Family, via Wikimedia Commons
Jeb, crony capitalist, unironically promises to end crony capitalism as pretender
If Jeb knows anything about how to stop crony capitalism, it’s because he knows how to be a crony capitalist.

Trump Is Lying About Immigration—Here Are The Facts

Robert Reich Says Donald Trump Is Lying About Immigration—Here Are The Facts (VIDEO) Trump doesn’t care about immigrants. He also thinks he is the American Savior who would have saved us from 9/11… except the terrorists...

Huckabee Defends Israeli Apartheid, Decries Reality-Based Pundits

Wingnut Brooks: Hillary Clinton will be first president ‘subject to impeachment’ on her first day

Rep. Mo Brooks (C-SPAN/screen grab)
Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton hasn’t even clinched the nomination, but Brooks (R-AL) is already floating impeachment for the former secretary of state.

This Wingnut’s Reaction Is PRICELESS When He Gets Treated Exactly How He Treats Hillary

This Republican’s Reaction Is PRICELESS When He Gets Treated Exactly How He Treats Hillary
KARMA! Gowdy doesn’t like the scrutiny very much, now that he’s being treated EXACTLY the same way he’s treated Mrs. Clinton this past year. These words of defiance from him are worth a million bucks.

A Bad Day For The NRA As Federal Court Upholds Gun Safety Laws In 2 States

Second Amendment Gun
It was a bad day for gun nuts running the NRA as the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan largely upheld tough gun safety laws in New York and Connecticut, including restrictions on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
CONCLUSION
To summarize, we hold as follows:
(1) The core prohibitions by New York and
Connecticut of assault weapons and large ‐capacity magazines do not violate the Second Amendment.
(a)
We assume that the majority of the prohibited conduct falls within the scope of Second Amendment protections. The statutes are appropriately evaluated under the
Constitutional standard of “intermediate scrutiny”—that is, whether they are “substantially related to the achievement of an important governmental interest.”
(b)
Because the prohibitions are substantially related to the important governmental interests of public safety and crime reduction, they pass constitutional muster. We
therefore AFFIRM the relevant portions of the judgments of the Western District of New York and the District of Connecticut insofar as they upheld the constitutionality of state prohibitions on semiautomatic assault weapons and large capacity magazines.

New York State Rifle and Pistol Association plans to appeal the ruling.

New York State Rifle and Pistol Association has a close relationship with the NRA. The organization’s president sits on the NRA board, so today’s loss was a defeat for the powerful gun lobby.
The Court found that the prohibitions on semiautomatic assault weapons and large capacity magazines in each state did not violate the Second Amendment. At a time when public support for gun control has jumped to 55%, the ruling is in line with the public’s frustration over the easy availability of guns.

Actively Trying To Make Maine Dumber, Teabagger LaPage Anoints Creationist Education Commissioner

Actively Trying To Make Maine Dumber, Republican Gov. Appoints Creationist Education CommissionerLunatic fringe teabagger LePage is trying out the ultimate Republican election strategy: Keep people ignorant.

White House Busts Republicans For Being Scared of Letting People Vote

obama-point
In a press briefing today, Press Secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged that “the amount of time and energy that Republicans have spent trying to make it more difficult for people to — for eligible voters to cast a ballot is mind-boggling.” Earnest deadpanned, “I’m not really sure what they’re scared of.”
Earnest also called out the point, “(t)here is documented evidence that those were strategies that were predicated on a political benefit for Republicans.”
From the press briefing:
Q All right. On another subject, there’s a big controversy brewing in Alabama. Thirty-one DMV offices in minority, rural, urban communities have been shut down, and that at a time when there is concern about the infringement on voting rights as well as this upsurge with voter ID. What does this administration feel about that? And what particularly is this White House looking at in reaction to this, if there will be a reaction?
MR. EARNEST: Well, I did see that Secretary Clinton had an opportunity to talk about this issue, and she expressed I think some legitimate concerns about measures that we’re seeing, once again, being put in place to try to make it harder for people to vote. The amount of time and energy that Republicans have spent trying to make it more difficult for people to — for eligible voters to cast a ballot is mind-boggling. I’m not really sure what they’re scared of. But the fact is the President, I think on a number of occasions, has made clear that the principle of allowing eligible voters to cast a vote is central to our democracy. And I think the President said that much more eloquently than I just did when he traveled to Alabama himself earlier this year to mark the 50th anniversary of the march in Selma.
So I’m not steeped in the details of this particular matter, but we certainly would urge — well, let me just say this. When the President spoke in Selma, the President talked about how we should be able to build bipartisan support for those kinds of policies that protect the right of eligible citizens to vote. And the President delivered a call to action to encourage Democrats and Republicans to come together to renew the Voting Rights Act, and to do more to ensure that that sacred right in our democracy is protected for eligible voters.
That continues to be our principle here. And we hope that both Democrats and Republicans in Alabama, and in every other state in the country, can live up to that principle.
Q So the governor of Alabama is saying that it’s not racial. The two issues here — voter suppression and possibly racial discrimination — do you see both clearly? Does this White House see both clearly?
MR. EARNEST: I’m not going to comment on this specific matter because I haven’t had an opportunity to look carefully at it. I do think that it sort of — I think that the reason that we’re having this conversation is because there are legitimate concerns that have been raised about voter ID laws in the first place. And we’ve seen reports that some Republicans — many Republicans across the country acknowledge that this has a political impact that benefits Republicans, and in some cases, has a disproportionate impact on certain populations.
Q But when you get into the weeds of what you just said, that’s race. Am I correct?
MR. EARNEST: Well, I think that’s what some people have observed. But again, I’m not talking about this particular incident because I don’t know enough about the details to talk about it. But when it comes to voter ID laws, when it comes to the way that Republicans have, time and again, taken steps and implemented policies that make it more difficult for eligible voters to cast a ballot, yes, in some cases, there is documented evidence that those were strategies that were predicated on a political benefit for Republicans. And that certainly runs counter to some of the basic and most important principles of our democracy.
Earnest wouldn’t answer as to whether the Department of Justice would be getting involved, and directed reporters to them.
As reported here by Keith Brekhus on October 1 of this year,
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/10/01/passing-voter-id-law-alabama-closes-drivers-license-offices-democratic-counties.html
In 2011, Alabama passed a voter ID law that required voters to provide a government-issued state ID to vote in elections. Critics charged that the law would make it disproportionately difficult for poor voters and African-American voters in the state to vote. Republicans brushed off those criticisms by suggesting that the voter ID law was instead designed to eliminate in-person voter fraud, despite the fact that in-person voter fraud is almost non-existent.
However, Alabama has announced that it is now closing 31 driver’s license bureaus throughout the state, leaving 29 of the state’s counties without an office where voters can easily obtain a state-issued driver’s license. Not coincidentally, the impact of closures will be disproportionately felt by low-income voters. Also unsurprisingly, offices targeted for closure are heavily concentrated in predominately African-American, Democratic-leaning counties.
Republicans are desperate to keep people from voting because it’s the only way they have a chance of winning. How pathetic is that?
2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called the closures a blast from the Jim Crow past, urging Republicans to “listen to their consciences.”
Insert laughter here.
Republicans should be afraid of getting a reputation as the party against liberty because that would make their flag waving, and war drums a bit difficult to sell.

Judge Refuses To Expand Wisconsin Voter ID Law To Help Students And Veterans Vote


Planned Parenthood Attackers Slam Group For Ending Fetal Tissue Reimbursements They Criticized

From the "Hypocrites are us" Department:
Over the summer, anti-choice activists began accusing Planned Parenthood of illegally profiting off the fetal tissue that a handful of its clinics allow women to donate to medical research. Although only one percent of Planned Parenthood’s clinics currently even offer that option, the women... MORE

Wingnut Governors Won’t Stop Trying To Illegally Defund Planned Parenthood

Penalties don’t work with insider trading

As Congress kept increasing the civil and criminal penalties for illegal insider trading, nothing happened. New research by University of Michigan Ross School professors Cindy Schipani and Nejat Seyhun shows that vague legal definitions and a recent court decision...

Coca-Cola’s Sneaky, Evil Politics