October 9, 2013

Obama’s Impeachment Would Probably Benefit Obama

Given the increase possibility that the tea party will impeach President Obama, I found this article on the possible effects of the impeachment interesting.http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2013/10/post047213.php The basic premise is that when you pick on one person, it is easy to dismiss that person's complaints but it is harder to dismiss these complaints when there is a pattern. Given the fact that the GOP wrongfully impeached President Clinton, there is a pattern that can be exploited.

As virtually no one remembers Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton stood alone in the dock in the public’s mind when he was impeached. That would have made it easy for his accusers to make his impeachment about him even if he hadn’t engaged in sketchy behavior.

But if the Tea Partiers impeach President Obama, it will be hard to persuade anyone not suffering from epistemic closure that two Democratic Presidents in a row just happened to deserve impeachment. The public’s attention and attributions would shift to the radicals in the Republican ranks: Why have these people impeached every Democratic President elected in the last 20 years?

Even if they didn’t have that psychological phenomenon in their favor, the Democrats would have two huge advantages in convincing the public that an Obama impeachment case was really about the Tea Party rather than the President: Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. That’s as politically talented a pair as exists in the U.S. today, and it’s hard to think of anyone in the House of Representatives who could take them on and successfully frame an impeachment debate in the Tea Party’s preferred fashion.

Presidential impeachment would thus, like everything else the Tea Party is currently doing, be popular in their echo chamber but help convince the rest of the country that they are a dangerous and irresponsible force in U.S. politics. It’s not therefore something that Obama should fear. Indeed, he might even welcome it.

I believe that the tea party and GOP will eventually impeach President Obama. Such a step hurt the GOP with President Clinton and that hurt will be worse if this stunt is tried on President Obama. We need to be prepared to respond to any impeachment attempts by the GOP or Tea Party with a simple question:

Why is it only Democratic Presidents who are being impeached?

The more we point out the pattern of GOP conduct, the more painful it will be for the tea party and the GOP when they get around to this tactic

October 9, 2013

ACA-Not going through Exchanges

My middle child is still in law school and just turned 26 a couple of months ago. She had been on my policy at my firm and we started looking for coverage. In addition, my youngest child is on my policy but now I am paying $590 a month for family coverage for one dependent. One of my friends from my congregation's men service club is an insurance agent and h e found a policy for my daughters. He found some policies from blue cross and we applied only to have both kids turned down due to pre-existing health issues (this did not matter for the youngest child and the middle child is getting on the law school policy). Today, he sent me a link through his firm for a Blue Cross Silver PPO plan that is at a good rate. I can cover both daughters for less than I am paying for one. This is an exchange type policy that is silver level for the exchanges. The rates for this policy is $10 higher per month than the rate quoted for the non-ACA policy.

Anyone who is going through the exchanges can also talk to insurance agents. I do not feel bad about not going through the exchange given that I am getting an exchange qualified plan that is under the ACA

October 8, 2013

Polling on Marijuana legalization

The 2012 Texas Democratic Party platform had a plank on the legalization of marijuana. This polling is interesting http://blog.norml.org/2013/10/08/everything-is-bigger-in-texas-including-support-for-marijuana-legalization/

PPP’s polling found that 58% of Texans support regulating marijuana like alcohol and only 38% were opposed. This change in policy was supported by 59% of women, 70% of Democrats, 57% of Independents, a majority of all racial demographics, and a majority of all age demographics.

The survey also reported that 58% of Texans supported medical marijuana and 61% supported the decriminalization of possession of an ounce or less.

- See more at: http://blog.norml.org/2013/10/08/everything-is-bigger-in-texas-including-support-for-marijuana-legalization/#sthash.llC90anI.W0oXK2fD.dpuf

October 4, 2013

Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg not indicted

This is good news because Goodhair is seeking to replace Rosemary with a republican http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/lehmberg-not-indicted-for-jail-conduct/nbGBZ/

A Travis County grand jury has declined to indict District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg on any charges relating to her conduct in jail following her drunken driving arrest in April.

The 12-member panel was tapped to determine whether Lehmberg violated any state laws as a result of how she acted in jail that night.

Lehmberg is also head of the Public Integrity unit which is the group that tried Tom DeLay and is appealing the decision to acquit DeLay

October 4, 2013

Good Article on why Wendy Davis could win

Here is a decent article on why Wendy Davis could win http://www.texasobserver.org/three-reasons-wendy-davis-can-win-three-reasons-cant/ One of the reasons for her potential ability to win is Greg Abbott

Abbott has already shown a tendency to needlessly step in it. If there’s one thing that a Texas Republican running against a smart, strong Democratic woman shouldn’t do is pull a Clayton Williams. And Abbott has already edged in that direction. Last month, Abbott retweeted Dave Carney, his top advisor who tweets as @granitewinger, with a headline that read in part, “Wendy Davis is too Stupid to be Governor.” The link in the tweet took you to an article by a conservative blogger, Robbie Cooper of Austin, who frequently engages in violent, racist tirades. Abbott is fairly chummy with Cooper.

If this is the company Abbott is going to keep, he runs the risk of saying or doing something terminally stupid. So far, he’s running a hard-right tea party campaign featuring “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and lots of jerk-y red meat ads.

The Abbott ads that I have seen have been weak with no non-whites in these ads. I practiced law with Greg back in the 1980s and he is not that bright. This could be a close race

October 3, 2013

Contest-Can you find a non-white face in this Greg Abbott ad?

Greg has some bad ads out but these ads all have one common theme-there are no non-white faces in these ads. Here is Greg's latest ad

It is clear that Greg is running a white only strategy and does not want the vote of any non-whites

October 3, 2013

Shutdown affecting Voter id lawsuit

The DOJ filed a motion to slow down the voter id lawsuit due to the shutdown http://txredistricting.org/post/62998695392/doj-asks-for-partial-stay-of-texas-voter-id-case

Lawyers for the Justice Department have asked Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos for a partial stay of the Texas voter ID case, telling the court that under the federal government shutdown “Department of Justice attorneys and employees are prohibited from working, even on a voluntary basis, except in very limited circumstances, including ‘emergencies involving the safety of human life or protection of property.’”

As requested, the stay would extend to “any briefing, responses on behalf of the United States to any pending motions … court appearances, discovery obligations, and pre-discovery obligations.”

You can read the pleading by going to this link
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxeOfQQnUr_gdmw0UjZOVW9tM1E/edit?usp=sharing

October 1, 2013

My Congresscritter Pete Olson is an idiot

I am in Tom DeLay's old district and my current congresscritter is an idiot named Pete Olson. Pete has never held a private sector job in his life and is clueless as to even simple issues. Pete is blaming President Obama for the shutdown http://www.dotnews.com/2013/orderly-shutdown-federal-government-begins

Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas), speaking from the House floor Wednesday morning, said Obama was failing to address cost escalation in entitlement programs and was “demanding a naked increase in our debt ceiling.”

“Mr. President, the government did not have to shut down today,” Olson said amid reports that the Senate voted 54-46 against joining the House in a conference committee to resolve differences.

September 30, 2013

I know why the DOJ filed a lawsuit on voter id in Texas first

I know a great deal about the Texas voter id law and remember that some posters from North Carolina were upset that the DOJ filed against Texas first. After reading the petition, I can see why Texas was first. You can read the petition here http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/dojnclawsuit.pdf I have read the section dealing with voter ID and found that the North Carolina law as described in the DOJ petition is actually more liberal than the Texas voter id law (SB 14) in a number of key aspects. For example, the North Carolina law allows Veteran’s cards and indian tribe identifications to be used:

………(5) a Veteran’s identification card issued by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs; (6) a tribal enrollment card issued by a federally- or State-recognized tribe;

The Texas voter ID law does not allow for these forms of identification but does provided that conceal carry permits are acceptable.

Next, the North Carolina law exempts persons over 70 from having identifications that is current on the voter’s 70th birthday:

Voters who are 70 years of age and older are exempted from the requirement that the photo identification be unexpired; however, the photo identification they present must have been unexpired on the voter’s 70th birthday.

In Texas, the free id, i.e., the Election Identification Certificate, issued to a voter who is 70 years or older does not expire while EICs issued to other voters do expire.

Third, voters with disabilities are treated differently. In North Carolina is a voter qualifies for curbside assistance, then that voter can present forms of identification that are acceptable under the Help America Vote Act which includes ultility bills and other correspondence:

(3) registered voters who qualify to cast a ballot curbside because of age or physical disability. The voters in at least the last category must show one of the forms of identification approved by the HAVA for first-time voters who register by mail

In, Texas only voters who are more than 50% disabled according to the Social Security Administration or the Veteran’s Administration and who submit paper documenting such disability to the county voter registrar can meet the disability exemption.

Finally, under the North Carolina law, the counties are required to provide free birth certificates to any voter who requests a birth certificate in order to get the free identification from the state:

Further, although HB 589 requires a North Carolina register of deeds to issue without charge a certified copy of a birth certificate or marriage license to any registered voter who declares that he or she needs the document to obtain a photo identification in order to vote, it does not address any fees that will be imposed on voters who will have to obtain the requisite underlying documentation from out-of-state agencies.

In Texas there is no provision for free birth certificates.

The North Carolina law is actually a more liberal law compared to the Texas law and the DOJ still sued. To me, this means that Texas may have a harder time justifying SB14 given that the Texas voter id law is far stricter than the North Carolina law in many respects. The fact that the DOJ has a court ruling that the Texas act adversely affects the voting rights of minorities combined with the fact that the Texas voter id law is a much stricter law explains why the DOJ filed suit in Texas first.

September 25, 2013

Texas Department of Public Safety opening Mobile Stations to Process Voter IDs

It appears that Greg Abbott and the State of Texas is worried. In Georgia and a couple other states, the DOJ forced the state to agree to have mobile stations to process the free voter id so as to get pre-clearance under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. I was a speaker at some town halls held by Congressman Al Green on voter id and one of the other speakers was the spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety. The DPS spokesperson told the town hall that the DPS did not have the money and did not plan to have mobile stations for processing voter ids.

The DOJ and the plaintiffs in the voter id litigation have mentioned the lack of mobile stations in their pleadings and it appears hat Greg Abbott is worried enough to cause the DPS to reverse course on this issue. http://www.keyetv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/dps-roll-out-mobile-stations-process-voter-ids-13430.shtml

The Texas Department of Public Safety announced on Tuesday it is offering another way for potential voters to obtain a photo ID needed to vote.

Twenty-five mobile locations will begin processing the election identification certificates on Oct. 1. The documents, which are free for applicants who meet voter requirements and show proof of identity and citizenship, are also available at driver's license offices.

Tuesday's announcement follows a DPS decision two weeks ago to extend the hours of about 50 driver's license offices to include Saturday to encourage more citizens to apply for the documents.

The DPS and the State of Texas (i.e. Greg Abbott) is trying to answer some of the issues raised in the voter id lawsuit. I doubt that these efforts will change the course of this litigation.