kpete
kpete's JournalTexas GOP’s secret anti-Hispanic plot: Smoking gun emails revealed
Texas GOP’s secret anti-Hispanic plot: Smoking gun emails revealedRick Perry and GOP state leaders go on trial today -- and the verdict could mean big things for Voting Rights Act
On Nov. 17, 2010, Eric Opiela sent an email to Gerard Interiano. A Texas Republican Party associate general counsel, Opiela served at that time as a campaign adviser to the state’s speaker of the House Joe Straus, R-San Antonio; he was about to become the man who state lawmakers understood spoke “on behalf of the Republican Congressmen from Texas,” according to minority voting-rights plaintiffs, who have sued Texas for discriminating against them.
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In the Nov. 17, 2010, email, Opelia asked Interiano to look for specific data about Hispanic populations and voting patterns.
“These metrics would be useful to identify the ‘nudge factor’ by which one can analyze which census blocks, when added to a particular district (they) help pull the district’s Total Hispanic pop … to majority status, but leave the Spanish surname RV (registered voters) and TO (turnout) the lowest,” Opiela writes to the mapmaker.
Interiano responded two days later: “I will gladly help with this Eric but you’re going to have to explain to me in layman’s terms.”
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In a follow-up email on Nov. 19, 2010, Opiela explained to Interiano that he called his proposed strategy: “OHRVS” or “Optimal Hispanic Republican Voting Strength.” Opiela defined the acronym-friendly term as, “a measure of how Hispanic, and (,) at the same time (,) Republican we can make a particular census block.”
MORE:
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/14/texas_gops_secret_anti_hispanic_plot_smoking_gun_emails_revealed/
Never enough is it Dick?
During an event sponsored by Politico, Cheney said the next president needs to "turn around the whole trend" of cutting defense dollars.
"That ought to be our top priority for spending. Not food stamps, not highways or anything else," Cheney said. "Your No. 1 responsibility as president is to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Obama is the commander-in-chief and he's absolutely devastating the United States military today."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/14/dick-cheney-defense-spending_n_5585129.html
Never enough is it Dick?
This Cashier Told Obama A Gay Sex Joke And Got The Best Reaction
That cashier -- Daniel Rugg Webb, a comedian and part-time employee at Franklin Barbecue -- told the Austin Chronicle the fist bump was a reaction to a gay sex joke:
As the president approached, Webb threw his hand down and slapped the counter dramatically. "Equal rights for gay people!"
"Are you gay?" the president asked.
"Only when I have sex," Webb said.
"That's when he laughed and said, 'Bump me,'" Webb says.
really fascinating stuff here:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/gay-place/2014-07-11/fist-bumps-for-equal-rights/
This Photographer Wants To Shatter the Stereotype of the Absent Black Father
This Photographer Wants To Shatter the Stereotype of the Absent Black Father
by Clutch — Jul 14, 2014
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From Lee’s site:
Over the past two and a half years, I’ve developed relationships with several Black fathers from different walks of life and in different cities in the US and Canada. Every father I met spoke with his own voice. They expressed their swagger, life rhythm, and ways of relating with their kids and partners in very unique ways. And perhaps more importantly, as I observed these families, another truth manifested loud and clear: Contrary to the prevalent media caricature of Black men as aggressive, violent, and irresponsible, the fathers I met were loving, affectionate, and dependable. They readily shared their feelings and emotions, their concerns and fears. They were vulnerable enough to allow me to photograph them in moments of joy and times of frustration. They were by no means perfect, but unsung everyday heroes nonetheless, committed to being present one fatherly act at a time.
MORE:
http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2014/07/photographer-wants-shatter-stereotype-absent-black-father/
More Pics:
http://www.zunlee.com/
Women Bishops Approved By Church Of England... Finally
Source: Huffington Post
The vote required passage by a two-thirds majority in the synod's three houses of bishops, clergy and laity. The House of Bishops approved of women bishops 37 to 2 with one abstention, the House of Clergy approved 162 to 25 with four abstentions, and the House of Laity approved 152 to 45 with five abstentions.
In an interview with BBC prior to the vote, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who supported consecrating women bishops, said there's a "good chance of the first woman bishop being announced very early in 2015, possibly been chosen before that"
In 2012, a vote to approve allowing women bishops passed among bishops and clergy but failed by six votes among lay members.
The Church of England is the considered the mother church of the worldwide Anglican communion, which includes the Episcopal Church in the United States. Episcopalians, as well as Anglican denominations in more than a dozen other countries, already consecrate or allow the consecration of women bishops
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/14/women-bishops-church-of-england-_n_5584266.html?1405351934&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067
Hobby Lobby ruling, right-wing judges just said I don't have to pay for warfare!
I do not WANT to pay taxes that goes toward supporting the U.S. military.
Scalia’s major screw-up: How SCOTUS just gave liberals a huge gift
With an otherwise awful Hobby Lobby ruling, right-wing judges just said I don't have to pay for warfare!
The upshot of the ruling is that Hobby Lobby and other businesses with conservative religious owners do not need to pay for what the Affordable Care Act mandates as full coverage for family planning. The public interest in affordable and accessible healthcare is not compelling enough to override the private belief that contraceptive methods including (but apparently not limited to) the IUD and the morning-after pill are murder. Well, I’m a pacifist, and I say that warfare is murder, and I don’t want to pay for it; and in recent decades the public interest in my paying for it hardly looks compelling.
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I look forward with mirth to the Supreme Court’s deliberations on whether the portion of military spending funded by the taxes of religious pacifists represents a compelling public interest. Historians of our era — Justice Scalia is especially keen to consult history when backing up his rulings — must already be revving up to declare that it would have benefited our nation hugely had there not been as many military resources available for our government to splash out with. Even more to Scalia’s taste as evidence, a delegate at the 1787 Constitutional Convention declared that a standing army was like an erect penis, “a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure.” Crude analogy, but it’s turned out to be no joke.
I foretell many blessings for our beloved homeland from the coming new dispensation. The arrangements for going to war will be more like a female Hobby Lobby employee’s having to shift for herself if her circumstances, her doctor and her conscience argue for an IUD. (The court has now backed up Wheaton College’s refusal even to certify in a letter its objection to paying for contraceptive coverage, though Wheaton refuses for the very reason that the federal government intended such certification to allow straightforward alternative access to birth control. The court seems to be establishing the right of a religious employer to pursue an employee outside the place of employment and make it as hard as possible for her to obtain standard healthcare he doesn’t want her to have.)
MORE:
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/14/scalias_major_screw_up_how_scotus_just_gave_liberals_a_huge_gift/
UNCONTROLLED GREED: CEO's Make More In HALF-A-DAY-Than Many Workers Make In ENTIRE YEAR
Restaurant CEOs Make More Money in Half a Day Than Their Employees Make in a Year
A new analysis underscores why fast-food workers are going on strike.
—By Jaeah Lee | Mon Jul. 14, 2014 6:00 AM EDT
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http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/epi-study-restaurant-ceo-minimum-wage-workers-pay-gap
http://www.epi.org/publication/top-restaurant-industry-ceos-721-times-minimum/
“If our economy was a Little League game, someone would have called it by now.”
“So basically, income inequality has become just another topic of conversation we prefer to avoid in America, like Japanese internment camps or that time we gave Roberto Bengini an Academy Award. National tragedies, equally wrong,” he said.
Pointing out that income inequality is not exclusive to America, Oliver explained that it “rising faster here,” with the average income of the richest ten percent now sixteen times as large as the poorest ten percent.
“At this point, the rich are just running up the score,” Oliver said. “If our economy was a Little League game, someone would have called it by now.”
Noting that economic policies that benefit the few at the expense of the many shouldn’t be acceptable to Americans, Oliver attributed acceptance to “America’s greatest quality — optimism.”
VIDEO & MORE:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/14/john-oliver-the-rich-keep-the-game-rigged-while-americans-cling-to-false-optimism/
It's 2014 Man...
World's First Marijuana Commercial - Crop King Seeds
Funny, rather than convincing - but hey, still COOL...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/14/1313835/-World-s-First-TV-Commercial-for-Recreational-Marijuana
FUN FAX: Child refugees from Central America are far more likely to be vaccinated than kids in Texas
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FUN FAX: Child refugees from Central America are far more likely to be vaccinated than kids in Texas. http://www.texasobserver.org/disease-threat-immigrant-children-wildly-overstated/ …
7:06 PM - 11 Jul 2014
https://twitter.com/LOLGOP/statuses/487780120930033664
Before demonizing undocumented children, we should look at the facts: The vast majority of Central Americans are vaccinated against all these diseases. Governments concerned about health, and good parents investing in their kids, have made Central American kids better-vaccinated than Texan kids. We fear them not because they are actually sick, but because of powerful anti-immigration narratives that link foreigners to disease.
Consider, for example, Guatemala. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Guatemalan kids are more likely than Texans to be immunized for most infectious diseases. Guatemala has universal health care. Vaccines are 100 percent funded by the government.
By comparison, one in six kids in Texas is uninsured, and even insured families often must pay for vaccination. That means that many Texas kids fall behind on vaccinations, or miss them altogether when their family can’t afford a doctor’s visit. Other families refuse vaccination.
more here:
http://www.texasobserver.org/disease-threat-immigrant-children-wildly-overstated/
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