Millions Wanted to Vote But Couldn’t

Source: PoliticalWire



New research finds that many more people wanted to vote in the 2012 presidential election but couldn’t register.

Alex Street: “We estimate that keeping registration open through Election Day in 2012 would have allowed an additional 3 million to 4 million Americans to register and vote. We used the number of Google searches for ‘register to vote’ in the weeks leading up to the 2012 election to measure late interest in registering. These search terms were entered millions of times, and much of the activity fell at the very end of the campaign period.”

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Read more: http://p.feedblitz.com/r3.asp?l=103546145&f=17571&u=37190363&c=4917408

Arizona Tea Party senator: Church service should be mandatory to push ‘moral rebirth’

Arizona state Sen. Sylvia Allen (R) derailed a discussion on gun legislation by expressing her support for mandatory church attendance nationwide, KPHO-TV reported.

“Probably we should be debating a bill requiring every American to attend a church of their choice on Sunday to see if we can get back to having a moral rebirth,” Allen said during a Senate subcommittee meeting on Tuesday.

According to the Arizona Capitol Times, the bill in question involved allowing licensed concealed-carry weapons owners to bring their firearms into public buildings. The Tea Party senator said she did not understand the measure before offering her opinion on the country’s “moral erosion.”

Allen’s comment was posted online by state Sen. Steve Farley (D).

“Even if you believe that would stem the moral decay, I think the Constitution makes it very clear that our country is founded on the pillar of separation of church and state,” he said.

more
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/arizona-tea-party-senator-church-service-should-be-mandatory-to-push-moral-rebirth/

Angry listeners lash out at country stations for promoting the ‘gay agenda’ with ‘Girl Crush’ song

Cuntry music radio stations have placed Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush” into low rotation after listeners complained that the song is “promoting the gay agenda,” Al.com’s Debbie Lord reports.

The song is written from the perspective of a woman who envies of her ex-boyfriend’s new lover. “I want to taste her lips, yeah cause they taste like you / I want to drown myself in a bottle of her perfume,” Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild sings. “I want her long blond hair, I want her magic touch / Yeah cause maybe then, you’d want me just as much — I got a girl crush.”

According to “TexMex,” a music director for a country radio station in Texas, the first time the song was played, his station was deluged with complaints about its “‘obvious’ lesbian meaning.”

He admitted to be baffled by the response. “Did you listen to the song all the way through? Do you not like songs about women being jealous of a mistress?” he asked. “This is the foundation of female country music subjects most of the time.”

In an interview with Vevo, Fairchild’s band mate, Kimberly Schlapman agreed, saying “this woman is just looking at the woman her man left her for and wondering, ‘What does she have that I don’t have? What am I missing? What is it that she’s giving you that I can’t give you?’”

more
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/angry-listeners-lash-out-at-country-stations-for-promoting-the-gay-agenda-with-girl-crush-song/

Ted Cruz says religious conservatives have given up too much power to non-Christians

Source: RawStory

n. Ted Cruz (R-TX) assured conservative Christian voters he speaks their language in a sanctimonious interview with a religious broadcaster.

The newly announced GOP presidential candidate told David Brody, of the Christian Broadcasting Network, that religious conservatives must take back their political dominance, reported Right Wing Watch.

“This country remains a country, I believe, grounded in values, grounded in faith, but far too many Christians have ceded the public arena to people who aren’t believers,” Cruz said.

He suggested that Christians were a marginalized group by invoking the name of the biblical heroine Esther, whose story has served as a model of empowerment for Jews, women, and black Americans.

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Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/ted-cruz-says-religious-conservatives-have-given-up-too-much-power-to-non-christians/

Keith Olbermann calls on sports leagues to abandon ‘medieval’ Indiana over anti-gay law

ESPN’s Keith Olbermann has called on the National College Athletic Association and National Football League to boycott Indiana until the state repeals a new law that protects businesses that refuse to provide services to same-sex couples.

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But critics say the new law undermines local ordinances that prohibit discrimination against customers based on their sexual orientation. Olbermann is among them:

Keith Olbermann ✔ @KeithOlbermann

Simple fact: after Indiana enacts a law permitting prejudice against some of its customers, NCAA should pull Final 4 out of Indy. Right now

2:22 PM - 26 Mar 2015

Keith Olbermann ✔ @KeithOlbermann

I don't care if Final 4 winds up being played in a parking lot in Tulsa, NCAA has no right to support legally codified hatred and stupidity

2:24 PM - 26 Mar 2015

Keith Olbermann ✔ @KeithOlbermann

If a state wants to pretend this is 1955 and not 2015, dandy. You want to make some customers "illegal"? Prepare to be left behind.

2:25 PM - 26 Mar 2015

Keith Olbermann ✔ @KeithOlbermann

And for that matter the NFL should play no games in Indiana until and unless this hateful, medieval measure is repealed.

2:26 PM - 26 Mar 2015

Keith Olbermann ✔ @KeithOlbermann

And if you fall back on the discredited "orientation is a choice," ask yourself: what is religion if not a choice? Or passing hate laws?

2:41 PM - 26 Mar 2015

LGBT rights amendment proves to be ‘poison pill’ for Georgia’s ‘religious freedom’ bill

Source: RawStory

As reactions swirl to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R)’s decision to sign into law a bill legalizing discrimination in the state so long as it is done on religious grounds, a similar bill in Georgia has stalled out in committee.

According to the New Civil Rights Movement blog, state Sen. Josh McKoon (R)’s bill was derailed by a fellow Republican, who attached a provision to the proposed Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that would stop it from violating Georgians’ civil rights, including those of LGBT people.

The state Senate passed the bill on March 5 and it was assigned to a special House Judiciary Committee before it would be allowed to go up for a full House vote. It was in that committee on Thursday afternoon that state Rep. Mike Jacobs (R) added an amendment to the bill — the conservative organization Concerned Women for America (CWA) called it a “poison pill” — that would uphold the state’s civil rights laws and protections for LGBT Georgians.

Jacobs told the committee that he has had too many calls and emails from constituents worried about the bill’s unintended consequences and long-term effects. “This is the amendment which will gut this bill,” said Republican Rep. Barry Fleming before the vote on Jacobs’ amendment, according to the AP.

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Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/lgbt-rights-amendment-proves-to-be-poison-pill-for-georgias-religious-freedom-bill/

N.H. Lawmakers Backtrack After Brutally Mocking 4th Graders' Raptor Bill Class Project

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Lawmakers on Wednesday passed a resolution formally encouraging student participation in state government even as the legislators were being lampooned nationally for mocking what started as a civics lesson for fourth-graders.

The action in the House of Representatives follows the much-criticized and publicized debate over the students' effort to name the red-tailed hawk the official state raptor. As the students from Lincoln Akerman School watched from the House gallery March 12, one lawmaker invoked abortion and others called the students' effort a waste of time. One suggested the state would next be naming an official state hot dog. The House defeated the kids' bill.

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Blowback was swift. National media wrote about the comments, editorial writers blasted lawmakers, comedian John Oliver shredded them on his HBO show and the satirical website The Onion weighed in, too. The Republican speaker of the House requested an apology — so far not forthcoming — from the legislator who said the hawk rips its prey apart "limb by limb" and would make a better mascot for Planned Parenthood.

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When Cushing (Rep sponsoring the student's bill) finished speaking, the lawmakers rose to their feet and applauded for several seconds, but when a motion was made to enter his comments into the permanent record, a minority of legislators shouted, "No!"

Full article:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/new-hampshire-red-tailed-hawk-school-project

Harry Reid's Retirement Blows The Nevada Senate Race Wide Open

WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) decision not to run for re-election in 2016 sets up a Nevada Senate race that's wide open on both the Republican and Democratic sides.

"It's a tossup because the presidential race is a tossup there - I'd expect the candidates to run closely together," Kyle Kondik, the managing editor for polling guru Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball, told TPM Friday.

The question on the Republican side is if Gov. Brian Sandoval (R), often mentioned as the top contender for Senate, will change his mind and decide to run. He had previously said he was not interested in running, despite encouragement from national Republicans. A national Senate Republican aide listed Sandoval, who is Hispanic, on Friday on the shortlist for running for Senate.

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There is no Democratic heir apparent to Reid. Democrats mentioned Catherine Marie Cortez Masto, the former two-term attorney general who couldn't run again because of Nevada term limits, and former Secretary of State Ross Miller —who lost the race for attorney general— or perhaps state Sen. Ruben Kihuen. National Democrats were quick to stress that the bench of potential candidates was decent even if Reid was not running.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/harry-reid-nevada-senate-race-wide-open-brian-sandoval

Senate Passes GOP Budget: Let The Obamacare Battles Begin

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans muscled a balanced-budget plan through the Senate early Friday, positioning Congress for months of battling President Barack Obama over the GOP's goals of slicing spending and dismantling his health care law.

Working into Friday's pre-dawn hours, senators approved the blueprint by a near party-line 52-46 vote, endorsing a measure that closely follows one the House passed Wednesday. Both budgets embody a conservative vision of shrinking projected federal deficits by more than $5 trillion over the coming decade, mostly by cutting health care and other benefit programs and without raising taxes.

The Senate was beginning a spring recess after approving the measure, leaving Congress' two GOP-run chambers to negotiate a compromise budget in mid-April. The legislation is a non-binding blueprint that does not require Obama's signature but lays the groundwork for future bills that seem destined for veto fights with the president.

"Republicans have shown that the Senate is under new management and delivering on the change and responsible government the American people expect," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Democrats viewed the document differently, saying it relied on gimmickry and touted the wrong priorities.

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/senate-passes-gop-budget

Israel Releasing Impounded Palestinian Tax Revenue

Source: New York Times


In a clear indication of a desire to ease tensions with the Palestinians and Washington, Israel announced on Friday that it would resume the transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority, three months after suspending the payments in response to the Palestinian move to join the International Criminal Court.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel approved the recommendation of his defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, and of the Israeli military and Shin Bet internal security agency to transfer the withheld funds “based on humanitarian concerns and in overall consideration of Israel’s interests at this time,” according to a statement from Mr. Netanyahu’s office.

Israel collects more than $100 million a month on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. Israel’s impoundment of the money had deepened the resilient tensions that are part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/28/world/middleeast/israel-netanyahu-palestinians-tax-revenue.html?emc=edit_na_20150327