Dark n Stormy Knight
Dark n Stormy Knight's JournalHow's this? GOP REDMAP Memo Admits Gerrymandering To Thank For Congressional Election Success
The report -- drafted as a summary of the importance of the RSLC's Redistricting Majority Project (REDMAP) -- serves as a breakdown of the broader GOP plan to take control of state legislatures, giving Republicans free rein to mount an aggressive gerrymandering campaign that allowed the party to keep a House majority, despite getting fewer votes in those races overall.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/17/gop-redmap-memo-gerrymandering_n_2498913.html
This could not be more important.
I'm with you, BB! Anyone who would identify themselves with the things that today's
Republicans stand for is not someone I am drawn to.
Many of my friends I met back when I was hardly paying attention to politics. It just happened that the people who engendered feelings of love and respect turned out not to be Republicans.
And it's not as if all Democrats are exactly the same leaving us with mundane social lives, as some here have haughtily claimed.
Amongst my friends are teachers, carpenters, IT workers, gardeners, business owners, musicians, graphic designers, interior decorators, journalists, big rig drivers, auto mechanics, baseball players, veterinarians, cartoonists, photographers, and sales reps by profession.
They are hunters, gun haters, vegetarians, omnivores, junk food junkies, SUV owners, VW buggers, mini-van drivers, motorbikers, and bicyclists. Some are urban dwellers, others reside in the country. Some are potheads, some drinkers, some teetotallers. Some watch PBS, some loved The Jersey Shore, and others don't have tvs in their homes.
They are hashers (On on!), civil war reenactors, fox hunters, side saddle horseback champions, sailors, jousters, square dancers, and HO scale slot car collectors. Most are straight, but the LGBT community is reasonably well represented.
So, no, our parties are not boring.
Nor are our lives impoverished for lack of close pals who think Wall Street is over-regulated, or poor folk are all lazy, or gays are going to hell, or unions are evil, or Obama is a muslim communist marxist nazi, or that Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin would make swell presidents.
As if it's not bad enough that the Rs are holding the country hostage,
let's not forget that the reason they control the House and have as large a piece of the Senate as they do is thanks almost entirely to gerrymandering and lies.
About that gerrymandering, in case anyone missed it, Sam Wang did a great piece on this at the beginning of this year:
Using statistical tools that are common in fields like my own, neuroscience, I have found strong evidence that this historic aberration arises from partisan disenfranchisement. Although gerrymandering is usually thought of as a bipartisan offense, the rather asymmetrical results may surprise you.
Through artful drawing of district boundaries, it is possible to put large groups of voters on the losing side of every election. The Republican State Leadership Committee, a Washington-based political group dedicated to electing state officeholders, recently issued a progress report on Redmap, its multiyear plan to influence redistricting. The $30 million strategy consists of two steps for tilting the playing field: take over state legislatures before the decennial Census, then redraw state and Congressional districts to lock in partisan advantages. The plan was highly successful.
Read the entire piece and view the excellent graphics here.
Which progressive groups do the most with our donations?
I have limited ability to engage in direct action. I also have limited finances, but I make small donations when I can. However, it is very hard to decide which groups to donate to.
The volume of emails I get from progressive groups continues to grow to the point where some days I just delete it all without reading. On the days when I do read it, I sign just about all of the petitions they ask me to, though I'm not sure it does any good.
Is there any way to know which groups are most successful in accomplishing progressive goals? I am quite far left on most issues, so I lean toward groups such as MoveOn, Bold Progressives, Left Action, etc.
Not that my tiny contributions matter that much anyway, but I'd still like to know.
Proof against RWers' fear that education will destroy the "traditional values" taught in RW homes...
The incendiary messages, which all date from this past June, are a regular cavalcade of bigotry. And a source told the Philadelphia Inquirer Monday that “What has been made public represents a fraction of the messages between the men.” In one exchange, the two riff on how “All should have whatever first names they want… then last name is [n-word]!”
Over the course of their messages, they also speculate in details on other people’s sex lives, discuss a “Jew red haired ESL” teacher, “that ape,” “cotton pickers” and a “skinny bitch,” among others. Intriguingly, there’s also a reference to a “MAJOR sneak” who “made at least 1500 – 2000 on kickback.” But to be honest, my favorite is the damming understatement that “This fucking phone! No idea how to work!”
Full article and link to the unbelievably racist, sexist, stupid texts
If there is a group former Superintendent Richard Como and Donato failed to offend, it wasn't for lack of trying.
The texts are also puerile, nasty, superior, profane, and profoundly stupid, laced with a reckless and consistent contempt for students, faculty, and staff.
In one June text, Como asked of two staffers: "Please tell me no f-ing way that ape banged that white piece?"
Please remember at all times that Como is 67, an educator for more than four decades, who was fluent in creating hateful, lurid, infantile, and snarky texts. Como was Coatesville superintendent for eight years, a principal - though perhaps not so principled - for a decade.
Full article and, of course, a slew of racist, sexist comments defending the texters .
As Karen Heller ends her story cited above--Read 'em and weep..
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Gender: Do not displayHometown: East Coast
Home country: USA
Current location: MidAtlantic US
Member since: Wed Oct 24, 2012, 09:05 PM
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