80-year old Laura Troth discovered how difficult it is to actually get a Texas ID card in order to vote.

What happened to Troth and me is something that only happens to women. Men do not have this problem. This stupid law designed to solve a non-existent problem only makes it worse.



http://crooksandliars.com/2014/02/texas-granny-collides-texas-voterid-law

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Eric Holder is putting the weight of the Obama administration behind restoring voting rights to former felons, calling laws that disenfranchise millions of Americans "unnecessary and unjust," and saying they are rooted in "centuries-old conceptions of justice that were too often based on exclusion, animus, and fear."

Holder, who has made criminal justice reform a central focus of his over the past several months, said the policies had a disparate impact on minority communities and echoed those enacted during the post-Civil War era.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/11/eric-holder-felon-voting_n_4762863.html

Dirty Tricksters In Texas Target Wendy Davis

The Wendy Davis campaign has issued an SOS regarding dirty robocalls being made in Texas. The campaign sent this out to supporters yesterday:

Dear Friends,

We have received a number of reports that an entity has been making robo-calls to our supporters in attempt to solicit donations. The call begins with an audio of a woman [whom callers are led to believe is Senator Davis] and continues with giving callers an option to press “1” to continue hearing the message. Some of these calls have reportedly made solicitations for campaign contributions or simply rang endlessly.

These calls are not from the Wendy Davis campaign nor from anyone affiliated with our campaign. If you receive any of these fraudulent calls, please transcribe as much information as you can from the call, note the caller and number from the caller ID and send us an e-mail to info@wendydavistexas.com.

We are tracking these calls and are continuing to alert our supporters of this deviance.

Thank you again for your support.


Snip........

My guess is that the funding for the calls comes via Empower Texans, a group connected with Texas oil interests and James Leininger, an ultra-right wing billionaire who functions as sugar daddy for the religious righties in Texas.


http://crooksandliars.com/2014/02/dirty-tricksters-texas-target-wendy-davis

The Republicans just filibustered the unemployment benefits extension by one vote.


An estimated 1.7 million unemployed Americans were kicked in the teeth today by the Republican party -- again. The extension was filibustered in the Senate, and lost by one vote.

Harry Reid vows to bring it up again for another vote:


http://crooksandliars.com/2014/02/senate-blocks-bill-extend-unemployment

The study estimates that the workforce will be reduced by the equivalent of 2.3 million full-time workers by 2021 as people choose to leave it. More would take early retirement, work fewer hours or otherwise rearrange their work-home balance to take advantage of new subsidies for health insurance and new markets for individual policies that don't depend on having a job.

In a key point overlooked in the GOP response, the report says, "The estimated reduction stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply, rather than from a net drop in businesses' demand for labor."

In other words, workers aren't being laid off. They are taking themselves out of the workforce, in many cases opening job opportunities for others.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/06/obamacare-fact-check_n_4736962.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

WASHINGTON -- The idea that Obamacare could give people more freedom sure struck a nerve with those who hate the health care reform law, and apparently hate that people could choose to work less because of it. (Warning: some of them used strong language.)


But in a hearing Wednesday, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf explained how that is not so: His office's report, he noted, actually says that Obamacare produces a net increase in employment, and cuts the deficit.

As for the idea that millions of new shirkers would join Mitt Romney's infamous 47 percent, well, the people who might work less thanks to Obamacare would actually be doing things most Americans praise. Many would be moms and dads working fewer hours to spend time with their kids. There would be older, sicker Americans who only work now because it's the only way they can get health care. People with multiple jobs could cut that number to one. And many people would be able to take advantage of the new health-care safety net to start their own businesses -- 1.5 million according to one estimate from the Urban Institute.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/05/obamacare-jobs_n_4732344.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

We've long argued that the Republican Party is no longer a legitimate governing party. Never mind whether we agree with them on any particular policy issue, they are simply no longer a serious organization.


Two reports from U.S. State Dept. and CBO on Keystone XL and Obamacare provide two opportunities for Republicans to lie, again, about both...

Snip.......

Never mind whether you agree with the Republican position on either of those two policies. The fact that the party feels it necessary to blatantly lie about what's in each of those reports, specifically with regard to "job creation," in order to advocate for their own policy positions, underscores yet again that these are simply not serious people who are worth being taken seriously anymore...


http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10495

--which means Republicans will fight it tooth and nail.


Amid all of the Chris Christie stories and SOTU writeups, the Postal Service Inspector General released a report that has the potential to spark a needed and timely debate about banking, the US Postal Service, and people who need access to banking services.

Elizabeth Warren jumped right onto it, pointing out that it solves two problems.

The first problem is access to banking services by those who have no checking or savings account.


Snip...........

The second problem is the chronic budget shortfalls the USPS is bending under because of the unreasonable requirement that they fully fund all pension liabilities for the next 75 years -- a requirement no private business has to meet.


http://crooksandliars.com/2014/02/elizabeth-warren-backs-plan-save-usps-kill

The hypocrisy with which conservative politicians coat themselves with everyday is as thick as pancake batter when it comes to the debt ceiling. And no one spreads it one like Rep. Justin Amash can. For that matter Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) is no slouch in that department either.

It was Ted Cruz that led the charge from the Senate and influenced these knuckleheads to shut down the government over Obamacare. Amash was all guns a-blazing during the shutdown, but now suddenly he's changing his tune on the debt ceiling fight.

Snip..............

Suddenly holding the debt ceiling hostage is now just "theater" to Amash and his cohorts. They almost destroyed our economy with their debt ceiling fever swamp politics and their government shutdown fiasco, but since it's a different day, the debt ceiling is nothing more than a bad off Broadway play that gets closed down in a week after it premieres.






http://crooksandliars.com/2014/02/debit-ceiling-jokers-now-begging-john

No matter what spin you may have heard, today's CBO report confirms the ACA has a positive effect on job creation and the federal budget.


Today's CBO report on the ACA was so bad for Republicans that they're spinning furiously to minimize the damage. While Fox News, Fox Business, and MSNBC's favorite GOP mouthpiece Chuck Todd intentionally misstate the report's findings to support repeal, the facts are there in black and white.



http://crooksandliars.com/2014/02/cbo-report-blows-away-gop-aca-lies