Category Archives: Uncategorized

Shuttlesworth, RIP

 Quin Hillyer:

A courageous man and civil rights hero, the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, died yesterday. This was the sort of man who the likes of Jack Kemp would have wanted to be leaders in the Republican Party. When he started working for justice, black people couldn’t sit at the same diner counter as whites. He lived long enough to see a black man in the Oval Office. Never mind that it is not the right man: The changes in the United States that made such a thing possible represent a triumph for Shuttlesworth, whose life was threatened so many times while he tried to make it happen.

Texas Sec of State gives DOJ more info on voter ID

This doesn’t look to end well for Texas.  The Texas Secretary of States has provided a response to the DOJ’s “more information” request.  More information requests are one of the early signs that an objection may be forthcoming.  If Texas wants to see voter ID become law, it would be well advised to consider pulling the submission immediately and filing in United States District Court for approval by a fair and impartial federal judge.  It may well be cheaper, and if an objection is imminent as many suspect, it will also be quicker. 

With “Dems poised for gains in Ariz. remap”, bipartisan = Red to Blue

Politico has the story of Christmas in October for Arizona Democrats.  It is an outrage. 

Overwhelming Republican majority state + (so-called) bipartisan redistricting commission = Democratic majority map. 

One would suppose it would not be such a radical belief to expect a fully red Arizona (two Republican senators, 2/3rds majority of Republicans in both legislative bodies, an Republican attorney general and Republican Governor) to actually have a Republican majority in the Congress.  Despite not one Democrat able to be elected statewide (that I can find), Democrats are giving thanks to the deceitful bipartisan redistricting committee for balancing the scales unilaterally and feeding some scraps to the Democrats.  The reality is that this is like giving alcohol to the homeless and will likely backfire.  Here is the lead of the story:


A newly proposed Arizona redistricting plan has the potential to drastically alter the state’s congressional landscape, positioning Democrats to compete for the majority of the state’s nine seats and possibly instigating a primary between two GOP freshmen.  The map, released by the state’s new bipartisan redistricting commission, crafts safe seats for two of Arizona’s Hispanic Democrats, Rep. Raul Grijalva and Ed Pastor. It also places freshman Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who is recovering from a January assassination attempt and has not indicated whether she will run for reelection, in a Democratic-oriented, Tucson-area seat.

So Arizona bipartisan line-drawing is protecting three Democratic seats but sending two popular Republican incumbents into primary battles and somehow precisely reducing the margins of the most vulnerable Republican seat.  This is exactly how Democrats wish they could use the Voting Rights Act and so-called bipartisan commissions across America – as a weapon to carve Republicans out of work. 

Gerrymandering against the will of the public by the political class results in such inequities.