No, the GOP isn’t a racist party … that’s just an invention of the liberal media.

Seems that the GOP has a coordinated focused attempt to win through electoral math games and basic voter suppression. Hey, it’s a strategy: if you loose on the issues (contraception anyone?), you can still eek out a win by manipulating who shows up to vote, and how those votes are electorally apportioned. 

Voter Suppression:  Even though there are very few actual cases of voter fraud (not surprisingly, a couple of GOP staffers were arrested and charged with voter fraud last election), Republican-controlled state legislatures in something like 23 states are trying to institute voter ID laws. In many instances, these laws target the poor, minorities living in urban areas, seniors, and students.

• Where states have high student populations, the laws in these states will not recognize a picture Student ID. As it turns out, students vote overwhelmingly for Democrats
• In urban areas, many people don’t own cars. Consequently, they don’t have driver’s licenses. And many urban dwellers are also minorities, who, in the last election, vote more Democratic party. There is also a cost to obtaining a “valid” ID- a gas bill or electric bill won’t do — so this basically amounts to a poll-tax; something we eliminated 50 years ago.
• Interestingly, no state legislature that is Democratic has offered up these laws.

Electoral Math: This is where we see a concerted effort by Republicans to change how certain states assign electoral votes.

• In states that went Democratic in the last election, and award all electoral votes to the popular vote winning candidate, they have offered legislation to proportion those electoral votes between both candidates. So, for example, if a state awarded 100 electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote, the new law would proportion those votes: if a (D) wins 55%, the (R) winning 45%, then the (D) would get 55 votes, and the (R) would get 45. 
• In states that went Republican in the last election, and had proportional allocation of Electoral votes, they introduced legislation to make the allocation to winner-take-all.
• In states where Democrats won the last election, and had proportional allocation, no efforts have been introduced to change it.
• In states where Republicans won the last election, and had winner-take-all allocation, again, no efforts are being made to change 

What has not been widely covered by the mainstream media is how coordinated these efforts have been pursued by different state’s legislations. Even if they achieved putting these changes in place in just a couple of swing states, the Electoral math can swing an election, especially where the 270 Electoral target is affected by 25 or 50 Electoral votes by changing either to proportional allocation or winner-take-all. 

You have to hand it to the GOP: they’ll use any means in order to gain the advantage, regardless of how the popular vote swings. They know this upcoming election is going to be tight. This is a great reason why this nation should move to popular vote results-based wins, and not rely on the Electoral College. 

It’s not over yet, but, like the Battle of Gettysburg didn’t end the Civil War, it is widely seen as the final nail in the Southern coffin. I’m talking about New Jersey passing legislation to allow marriage equality.

The Republican Governor, Chris Christie vetoed the measure, but wants to put it to a referendum vote. The legislature isn’t too keen on that idea, partly from a moral objection of putting civil rights for a minority up for a vote, and partly from a fear the electorate might, like 23 other states, vote against the interests of gay Americans.

However, the latest polls show the majority of New Jerseyites favor marriage equality. Nationally, the latest poll shows 49% favor marriage equality, with 42% opposing it. So, it is possible that, for the first time, a popular referendum on gay marriage might actually win in NJ. [For the record, I am also not in favor of a plebiscite on civil rights for a minority.] Meanwhile, Maryland and Washington legislated marriage equality including signatures by their Governors. 

So what happened over the past 10 years to cause such a swift reversal of the nation’s opinion about marriage equality? I think there were a couple of things that happened to cause this amazing shift in public opinion.

1. Visibility: The lesson we learned during the initial AIDS epidemic was that Silence Kills. The closet was/is our biggest enemy. It is hard to demonetize your son, daughter, cousin, nephew, niece, friend, neighbor. It is one thing to vote against a group you neither know or like, it’s entirely a different thing to vote against people you know and love. 
2. Coming Out Earlier: A corollary to #1, is that kids are coming out earlier and earlier. It used to be college-aged kids would come out publicly. However, it is becoming routine for kids in High School to come out. There are Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs in the majority of High Schools. The Prom is seeing more gay couples attending. And where the administration tries to stem this by banning gay kids, an alternative Prom is held, with more attendance than the official Prom. Support for these kids is overwhelming. The message to the adults: The Kids Get It.
3. The Sky Didn’t Fall: The States that have already offered marriage equality also offered compelling evidence that nothing bad happened, and if anything, it brought improved revenue growth to the State. There are no advocates for polygamy, for legalization of bestiality, there hasn’t been a clamoring for brothers wanting to marry sisters. In short, all of the fear mongering by those forces wanting to deny gay Americans this basic civil right, have been proven to be wrong. 
4. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: The demise of this policy by federal legislative mandate, was truly a turning point for gay rights. And the public had to wrestle with the equation: if young men and women are willing to dye or be maimed for their country, why do they have to hide, and why can’t they enjoy all of the rights enjoyed by their brother’s in arms? And they watched how the military implemented the policy, and discovered, again, that the fear mongering of those in favor of the policy were just plain wrong about the outcome. It was also telling that 89+% of all Americans wanted this policy repealed. 

This is getting long, so I’ll wrap up by saying that the more that we are out, living our lives, contributing to our communities, being good friends and neighbors, loving sons and daughters, valued employees … the tide will continue to turn. 

And Chris Christie: Be careful what you ask for. The legislature has until 2013 to overturn your veto. My bet: they will. 

blogvader:

Once, just once, I would love to see a media commentator, host, or personality point out that folks who say these moronic homophobic things on national television don’t have any fucking clue what the term ‘natural’ means. Imagine Kirk’s face if Piers Morgan had the balls to point this out to him….

goodperson-baddecisions:

benditlikekorra:

tomato-bisque:

greencarnations:

godjamit:

peachpiano:

bubblesofrinia:

canary:

Sweet mother of Jesus let this song never end.

Cheesus fuck that was amazing

WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE OH MY GOD

This is the best thing ever. Just hit play. You need to.

I will never escape this song in my lifetime. Oh my God…that was amazing.

At 3 seconds I almost pressed stop.

Then I heard the lyrics. Oh god the lyrics.

Forever reblog

omg this is perfect

THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN I EXPECTED

I CANNOT BE THE ONLY ONE WHO IS SCREAMING SO FUCKING LOUD RIGHT NOW.

i reblog this every time when it appears on my dash

As soon as the lyrics started I screamed.

I was like, ‘What is this shit?’ and then the lyrics started-
And I gasped-screamed.

Forever reblog.

As much as I wanted to press pause, I waited to hear the lyrics.

AND OH MY GOD I SCREAMED.

THIS IS AMAZING.

I.

I CAN’T!!!

FUCK FUCK FUCK THIS IS AMAZING.

Just had to take away the quotes, way too many…

But I’d just like to have this on my dash again. It’s beautiful.

omg <3

Holy shit. It is amazing

First 5 seconds… “Wat.”
Lyrics come in… “OH SHIIIIITTTT.”
Next 45 seconds: ” :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD “
End of the song: Crying mess of goosebumps.

God I love my school. UCLA Scattertones, you are brilliant.

Well, there are a lot of dog whistles blaring the tune. Actually, it’s more like a klaxon blaring. I think even Helen Keller could hear it were she still alive.

Lets look at the evidence: You have Newt Gingrich talking about the Presidents “Kenyon post-colonial mindset”. You have Rush referring to Obama as the Zulu president. You have Newt, again, calling the President the “food stamp” president. Clearly, the key spokesmen of the party are throwing vaguely veiled references to his race. Meanwhile the disrespect thrown at this President is unprecedented in modern politics: the Representative yelling “You Lie” during the SOTU address, the birther nonsense, claims (and belief of over 35% of the party) that he is a secret Muslim, the Governor of Arizona wagging a finger in a President’s face … and that’s just the President.

Let’s talk about the immigration policy, seriously aimed at the Latino’s living in the country. You don’t here them moaning about (white) Russians or Ukrainians over-staying their visas. Look at that joke of a sheriff in Arizona, currently under investigation for racial profiling and other abuse of power in that state. Coincidentally, he’s also a birther, announcing the other day that his “investigation” sheds doubt on the authenticity of the President’s birth certificate.

With the War on Women in full swing, it’s interesting to watch these folks trying to spin this as “religious freedom”. Yet, the GOP’s unrelenting war on Planned Parenthood belies this religious freedom argument. It’s anti-contraception, anti-abortion at it’s basest level. If you have any doubt, listen to Limbaugh’s attack on women who use contraception as “sluts”.

And, again, who are these policies aimed at? Poor minority women, those least likely to afford contraception. And those least likely to afford abortion. So, not only are the attacks on Planned Parenthood aimed at women, it’s increasingly clear it’s aimed at poor minority women.

At the State House level, Virginia wanted intra-vaginal examinations required for all seeking legal abortions. For those who don’t know, the device uses a dildo like device to penetrate the woman. Only after very public outrage did they back down A BIT, still mandating a medical procedure not warranted by any conceivable medical reason.

So the party that wants government out of business has no problem dictating who gets contraception, who marries whom, they want to penetrate vaginae, and if at all possible, mandate that person-hood  begins at ejaculation, mandating that women carry all pregnancies to term.

These are all radical and racist policies. What is frightening is that a significant portion of their base agrees with these policies.

Elections mean things: not just Presidential, but  local (State) and national (House, Senate) … those who want to remain free from these policies need to support, contribute, and vote for those candidates that will repudiate what this party has devolved into.

battleblogs:

Archie gay marriage comic sells out in face of boycott call | guardian uk 

I am not a customer. And I probably won’t EVER be a customer: and here’s why:

A friend of mine is flying, and doesn’t have any money left on his pre-paid phone, and asked me to load some money on it (he’s paying me back) so we can talk when he lands.

I called no less than 6 published numbers in the CONTACT US section of your website.  I needed to talk to an agent so I could put $15 on his phone.

BUT … there is no OPTION to get to an agent. Every menu involved entering his phone number, and then his security code, which I don’t have. So, I hit “0”, which would normally send me to an Agent … nope .. here is what your system said SIX different times I tried (using different contact numbers):

Sorry you’re having problems … good bye

 I’m fairly certain you have people working the phones. Except, how do you actually TALK to them?

Customer Service: FAIL