- Curbing Voting Rights in Wisconsin | Prospect.org – Alexander Zaitchik
- Cases of voter fraud of the sort addressed by Stone's bill are roughly on par with instances of people being struck by lightning…
The true purpose of such bills, [say] critics, is the stealth disenfranchisement of poor, elderly, student, and minority voters. … A study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee found that more than half of black male Wisconsinites do not have a state-issued photo ID. …
The…decision to fast-track voter ID comes against the backdrop of looming recall elections…
The current Republican drive for voter ID is part of a broader reversal of the expansion of the franchise over the last half-century. In the decades between the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, the right to vote was assured and made accessible to more Americans than ever before. It is a tide that the Republican Party has increasingly sought to turn back.
- Homelessness Is Not Just About Housing | Prospect.org – Courtney E. Martin
- The federal government is pumping unprecedented resources into organizations that help the homeless in innovative ways.
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- The Progress Report: IMMIGRATION — Arizona One Year Later
- Even though most of the law has not gone into effect, the economic, political, and social consequences of SB-1070's passage have been profound.
- American-Born President of America Proves He American | The Black Snob Feed • by Danielle Belton
- [It's week-old news, but I like the title. -L]
- When This Cruel War Is Over | Ta-Nehisi Coates : The Atlantic • by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Stories like this strike me, all at once, as necessary and insulting. It's like Obama needing to show his birth certificate to be official. Muslims must show their joy at Bin Laden's death to be official. The problem isn't the joy, but that the joy isn't assumed. The "enemy within" narrative lurks beneath the need to point out that Bin Laden was a killer of Muslims, or that Bin Laden doesn't represent "true" Islam.
- House to Vote on Abortion Tax Bill | Open Congress : Blog • by Donny Shaw
- Under the bill, any individual — regardless of sex — who uses their own money to purchases a health insurance plan that includes coverage of elective abortion services would not be allowed to any deduct health care costs from their income tax bill. And if a woman uses funds from a tax-free Medical Savings Account or other flexible pre-tax plan, she would be required to report the money spent on abortion services as taxable income. Additionally, small businesses that receive tax credits for providing health insurance for their employees would see their taxes go up if they fail to choose a plan that does not cover abortions. These provisions would be enforced by the IRS, which means that if you’re a woman and you get audited, be ready to prove to government investigators that you did not have an abortion over the past year.
misogyny womens_health let_them_eat_bandaids reproductive_justice
- The Civil War Isn’t Tragic – Ta-Nehisi Coates – National – The Atlantic
- It's really simple for me. One group of Americans attempted to raise a country on property in Negroes. Another group of Americans, many of them Negroes themselves, stopped them. As surely as we lack the ability to see tragedy in violently throwing off the yoke of the English, I lack the ability to see tragedy in violently throwing off the yoke of slaveholders.
For most Americans, the Civil War is a sudden outbreak of a existential violence. But for 250 years, African-Americans lived in slavery–which is to say perpetual existential violence. I don't know what else to call a system that involves the constant threat of your children, your parents, your grandparents, being sold off, never for you to see them again. That is death.
[My bookmarks live at delicious.com/camryl. In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Also, signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
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