BartBlog

Author’s note:
The voter ID law in WI is an issue that applies to everyone in the U.S., because this is an assault on your rights. Laws like this have been passed in a number of states across the nation, including Georgia, Tennessee, Kansas, Texas and, most recently, Wisconsin. Not only is it unconstitutional to deprive law-abiding citizens of the right to vote, partisan to target the Democratic demographic, but it also disturbing proof of political corruption and banker control over our country. Be sure to check out the video and always read the BRAD BLOG.

Excerpt:

“This is what voter suppression looks like.”

Those are the words posted in the final title card of a video uploaded on You Tube on July 23rd by a Madison woman identified as Nicole (a.k.a. “madtowngirl2”). Click on it at the lower left and prepare for a good example of the destruction of democracy in Wisconsin.

Nicole captured some of the most blatant and disturbing proof of voter suppression, government control and banker corruption to ever come out of the Badger State.

In the process of attempting to obtain a “voter ID” for her son that will be required for voting in 2012, Nicole discovered that the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has the ability to refuse issuance of the ID if the bank account of the individual does not show enough “activity.”

Nicole’s son’s right under the new statute, ostensibly, is to be able to obtain an ID free of charge after meeting the flowing requirements:

• Proof of name and date of birth, for example, a certified U.S. birth certificate, valid passport or certificate of naturalization.
• Proof of identity (usually a document with a signature or photo).
• Proof of Wisconsin residency, such as through a utility bill.
• Proof of U.S. citizenship, legal permanent resident status, legal conditional resident status or legal temporary visitor status.
• A social security number.

At first Nicole was told the charge for the supposedly-free ID would be $28, and that was only after she convinced a clerk that there had been enough “activity” in her son’s bank account, as used by the clerk to determine whether or not he actually resided in the state.

The $28 fee that citizens are charged to get their ID in the first place is yet another maddening hurdle that Wisconsin voters will face under the new law. That is unless they happen to know the secret password, or check the right box, in order to get one for free, as they are entitled to according to the new law. (See slideshow).

That is for a legal voter who is an affluent resident. As Nicole’s interview with another clerk in the video suggests, homeless people, those residing with others who do not have bills or bank accounts in their name, those who do not already have drivers licenses, or students who are part-time residents should more or less forget about being able to vote at all under the new law.

Making matters even worse, Gov. Scott Walker is now working to make it more difficult for Wisconsinites who do not have a state-issued photo ID to get one at the DMV.

Ian Millhiser writing for Think Progress points out that the Walker administration is now finalizing a plan to limit the operational hours for DMVs in Democratic areas of the state, while (surprise, surprise!) extending hours in some Republican districts.

According to a 2005 study (PDF file) by John Pawasarat of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Employment and Training Institute, described as “a first-time analysis of drivers license issues based on the racial/ethnicity of drivers and unlicensed adults in Wisconsin,” it is not just homeless people who are likely to have trouble voting when the voter ID law takes full effect in 2012.

At the time of the study an estimated 23 per cent of persons aged 65 and over did not have a Wisconsin driver’s license or a photo ID. The population of elderly persons 65 and older without a driver’s license or a state photo ID totaled 177,399, and of these 70 percent are women. An estimated 98,247 Wisconsin residents ages 35 through 64 also did not have either a driver’s license or a photo ID. At UWM, Marquette University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, out of a total of 12,624 students living in residence halls, only 280 (2 per cent) had driver’s licenses with these dorms’ addresses.

The elderly, ethnic minorities, and the state’s sizable college population, therefore, are among those likely to be hardest hit. Not coincidentally, all are demographics who tend to lean Democratic in the state of Wisconsin and other states where such laws are also being implemented.

Partisan politics aside, forcing Americans to do anything except be a law abiding citizen in order to vote is completely unconstitutional and harkens to the backwards days where only white, landowning males could vote in many states.

Thanks to the current administration in the Madison capitol, the state of Wisconsin – formerly considered progressive – can now be called regressive as citizen’s rights in the new state of Fitzwalkerstan continue to be stripped.

Read more, get links, see video and a look at the fascist DMV form in WI here: Madison Independent Examiner – Video reveals hurdles in WI voter ID law

Author’s note:

In the ongoing debate about raising the debt ceiling and cutting federal spending, both sides seem to be missing the point. The point is that most of the U.S. debt has been caused byt he Bush-era tax cuts, defense spending, and financing the wars. Yet domestic spending on social programs, infrastructure and stimulating the economy is being targeted by both parties for cuts. This leades me to believe that neither party is working in the best interests of the American people.

Excerpt:

The debate in Washington over raising the federal debt ceiling and how best to slash the federal deficit reveals many details about the competing political and economic ideologies involved. While both sides seem to agree that cutting federal spending on domestic programs is the solution, one major element that is overlooked is that neither side truly represents the interests of working people in America.

As President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner appear engaged in a budgetary battle, the Treasury Department is scheduled to run out of borrowing authority on August 2nd unless Congress raises the federal debt ceiling. Both President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner agree that Congress needs to see and approve a major deficit reduction plan before it will vote to raise the debt ceiling. They just cannot agree on a plan to present to Congress.

President Obama has offered two different deficit reduction plans. One is designed to achieve a $2 to 3-trillion reduction over ten years and the other a $4 to 5-trillion reduction. The republican plan, of course, focuses on further tax reductions for corporations and the wealthy. The only thing certain about every plan is the relative breakdown between spending cuts and revenue increases – or lack of revenue increases.

The truth may be that most of those who demand deficit reduction primarily through spending cuts have as their real goal a further weakening of the public sector and our social programs even though they claim that their only motivation is to do what is best for job creation. Governor Scott Walker provides a good local example of that.

The basic choices with deficit reduction are seemingly simple: maintain taxes and cut government spending or maintain spending and raise taxes. Cutting public spending pulls money out of the economy, costing jobs. So does raising taxes. The question then becomes: Do we lose more jobs by cutting spending or raising taxes?

According to Martin Hart-Landsberg, Professor of Economics and Director of the Political Economy Program at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, “the fact is that almost all studies of the economic impact of changes in government spending and taxes on employment find that changes in government spending have a larger impact on jobs than do tax changes. That means cuts in government spending will cost more jobs than an equivalent increase in taxes. Therefore, if we really care about jobs, deficit reduction efforts should emphasize tax increases over spending reductions.”

Those choices, however, ignore the proverbial one ton elephant perched on the piano in the White House: Defense and war spending. And they also ignore what is in the best interests of working Americans.

Most of the deficit reduction in both plans is to be secured by cutting spending. The spending cuts, however, largely target domestic spending on social programs while ignoring defense spending and the costs of the three ongoing wars, which accounts for about 53 per cent of all federal spending. That is along the lines of the conventional wisdom that the debt crisis is caused by out-of-control social spending and leaves no choice but to make cuts in social programs such as Medicare

The Bush-era tax cuts and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, including their associated interest costs, account for almost half of the projected public debt in 2019 if current policies are continued (see slide show, Figure 2). Taken together, the economic downturn, the measures enacted to combat it, and the financial rescue legislation play a considerably smaller role in the projected debt increase over the next decade than defense and war spending, the Bush-era tax cuts and the loss of revenue due to the economic downturn.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, these three drivers “explain virtually the entire federal budget deficit over the next ten years.” In other words, our debt problems have little to do with runaway social programs. They are caused by specific tax and foreign policies that can be reversed by cutting defense and war spending, changing tax codes, and an economic crisis that can only be overcome through public spending.

The debt ceiling budget battle has done little to clarify the drivers of our rising national debt or encourage a productive national debate over appropriate policy responses.

And sadly enough, both sides in the deficit battle are on the same wrong side as far as responsible policy choices are concerned.

Read more, gets links and charts here: Madison Independent Examiner