Buzzfeed - Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson filed an anti-trust lawsuit in federal court Friday to try to force his way into next month's presidential debates.
Johnson, who first sought the GOP primary nomination before launching a third-party bid, is suing the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates and both the Democratic and Republican parties, calling the CPD a "conspiracy."
The CPD was founded jointly by the two parties and the nominee, and the lawsuit alleges that they meet every four years to set the rules for the debate to "hoodwink" the American people.
Johnson is asking the courts to force the CPD to allow for all candidates who are on the ballot in enough states to reach 270 electoral votes to have a spot on the debate state.
22 Eylül 2012 Cumartesi
GOP rigging election ID laws to block student voters
Huffington Post - In 2008, youth voter turnout was higher that it had been since Vietnam, and overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. This time around, the GOP isn't counting solely on disillusionment to keep the student vote down.
In the last two years, Republican-controlled state legislatures have passed dozens of bills that erect new barriers to voting, all targeting Democratic-leaning groups, many specifically aimed at students. The GOP's stated rationale is to fight voter fraud. But voter fraud -- and especially in-person fraud which many of these measures address -- is essentially nonexistent.
None of the new laws blocks student voting outright -- although in New Hampshire, Republican lawmakers almost passed a bill that would have banned out-of-state students from casting a ballot...
And in some states, education officials are trying to limit the damage. In Pennsylvania, for instance, many universities are either reissuing IDs or printing expiration stickers to make current cards valid, according to a survey by the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group.
But every additional barrier makes a difference to students, said Maxwell Love, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. "It's the little things that make voting harder that are going to affect apathetic students ... This is like literally slamming the door on youth engagement."
Voting advocates agree. "This is absolutely perfectly rigged to prevent students from voting," said David Halperin, an attorney and former director of national youth organization Campus Progress.
In the last two years, Republican-controlled state legislatures have passed dozens of bills that erect new barriers to voting, all targeting Democratic-leaning groups, many specifically aimed at students. The GOP's stated rationale is to fight voter fraud. But voter fraud -- and especially in-person fraud which many of these measures address -- is essentially nonexistent.
None of the new laws blocks student voting outright -- although in New Hampshire, Republican lawmakers almost passed a bill that would have banned out-of-state students from casting a ballot...
And in some states, education officials are trying to limit the damage. In Pennsylvania, for instance, many universities are either reissuing IDs or printing expiration stickers to make current cards valid, according to a survey by the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group.
But every additional barrier makes a difference to students, said Maxwell Love, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. "It's the little things that make voting harder that are going to affect apathetic students ... This is like literally slamming the door on youth engagement."
Voting advocates agree. "This is absolutely perfectly rigged to prevent students from voting," said David Halperin, an attorney and former director of national youth organization Campus Progress.
Federal judge says secret ballot not protected by Constitution
Denver Post - Saying there is no fundamental right to a secret ballot, a federal judge Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by elections integrity activists that challenged whether counties can print ballots with identifying numbers that critics say can be traced back to individual voters easily.
Denver U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello first denied a request by the Citizen Center, a group that advocates transparency in elections, to block counties temporarily from printing ballots with identifying bar codes.
The rise of tiny homes
CNN - ew York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in July announced a pilot program to develop a new housing model for the city's growing small-household population. The program seeks to accommodate the need for smaller apartments for roughly 1.8 million households in New York that consist of one or two people.
The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development kicked off the program in July with a request for proposals from designers and development teams for self-contained "micro-units" between 275 and 300 square feet, including kitchen and bathroom.
The contest closed last week, drawing 33 submissions mostly from teams in the Northeastern United States, along with international entries from London and Amsterdam. The proposals suggest the use of modular design and some include sustainable design such as solar paneling....
The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development kicked off the program in July with a request for proposals from designers and development teams for self-contained "micro-units" between 275 and 300 square feet, including kitchen and bathroom.
The contest closed last week, drawing 33 submissions mostly from teams in the Northeastern United States, along with international entries from London and Amsterdam. The proposals suggest the use of modular design and some include sustainable design such as solar paneling....
The real moochers are corporations
Phil Mattera, Dirt Digger's Digest - If, as Romney suggested, moocherism begins with the failure to pay federal income taxes, then that label can easily be applied to many of the country’s major companies. A November 2011 report by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that more than one-quarter of large companies paid zero taxes in at least one of the three years examined.
Quite a few of those companies arranged their affairs so that they had negative tax rates, meaning that the IRS sends them checks. And many of those that paid taxes did so at what CTJ and ITEP called “ultra low” rates of 10 percent or less.
Corporate tax avoidance is just the beginning of the story. The dependence on government that has Romney so upset is at the heart of the business plan for much of Corporate America. What libertarian types tend to overlook is that much of the public spending they disdain comes in the form of purchases from businesses. It’s estimated that more than $500 billion a year in federal outlays occurs via private-sector contracts.
Some companies rely so heavily on that spending that they are as government-dependent as any Medicaid or food stamp recipient. Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, for example, derives more than 80 percent of its revenue from the federal government, especially the Pentagon; for its competitor Raytheon the figure is about 75 percent.
Quite a few of those companies arranged their affairs so that they had negative tax rates, meaning that the IRS sends them checks. And many of those that paid taxes did so at what CTJ and ITEP called “ultra low” rates of 10 percent or less.
Corporate tax avoidance is just the beginning of the story. The dependence on government that has Romney so upset is at the heart of the business plan for much of Corporate America. What libertarian types tend to overlook is that much of the public spending they disdain comes in the form of purchases from businesses. It’s estimated that more than $500 billion a year in federal outlays occurs via private-sector contracts.
Some companies rely so heavily on that spending that they are as government-dependent as any Medicaid or food stamp recipient. Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, for example, derives more than 80 percent of its revenue from the federal government, especially the Pentagon; for its competitor Raytheon the figure is about 75 percent.
Some of Jon Gold's Co-Signers
Jon's been flogging his "Statement for 9-11 Justice" petition lately; these folks certainly know how to circulate petitions; submitting them somewhere effective, not so much. Anyway, the signers are pretty much the usual crackpots: Cindy Sheehan, Dahlia Wasfi, Ray McGovern, Daniel Sunjata, etc. But just for fun, I googled some of the names on page 11:
Andrew Coldrick. Andrew has a page on Causes.com of all the causes he's into. Aside from 9-11 Truth, he's opposed to chemtrails, Zionists, RFID chips and aspartame, supports Ron Paul, and believes that cannabis cures cancer. In short, he fits the Truther demo to a T.
James David Childers. Possibly this guy, who certainly has some interests in common with Manny Badillo.
Helen Harris-Scott. Sued Michael Jackson's estate for $50 million.
Andrew Coldrick. Andrew has a page on Causes.com of all the causes he's into. Aside from 9-11 Truth, he's opposed to chemtrails, Zionists, RFID chips and aspartame, supports Ron Paul, and believes that cannabis cures cancer. In short, he fits the Truther demo to a T.
James David Childers. Possibly this guy, who certainly has some interests in common with Manny Badillo.
Helen Harris-Scott. Sued Michael Jackson's estate for $50 million.
This isn't the woman's first legal battle with Jackson, either. Nor is it the first one she's likely to lose, or the first she probably concocted after a few too many drinks.
Helen Harris-Scott filed a lawsuit against Michael in 2006, claiming Jackson installed a tracking device in her car, wiretapped her phone and even had "organized criminals watching me inside my house in L.A. and reporting to him."
No, It Wasn't On the PBS Network
Despite the claims of 9-11 Truther Victoria N. Alexander.
Victoria's a longtime kook, belonging to Scholars for 9-11 Truth, Justice and the America Way, Steven Jones' splinter group. She describes herself as a philosopher of science.
"9/11: Explosive Evidence - Experts Speak Out" is getting public attention and casting doubt on the scientific validity of the U.S. government's investigation into the WTC tragedy. PBS is the first major network to air the program. Just days away from the 11th anniversary of the World Trade Center tragedy and months away from the U.S. presidential election, a game-changing 9/11 documentary is ranking number three among "most watched" documentaries on PBS and number one among "most shared." Available for free online August 18th - September 4th, the documentary could have a significant effect on public opinion. Both the Republicans and Democrats, as equally staunch defenders of the official story, stand to be affected if the public's suspicion of government corruption grows deeper.In fact, it was broadcast on just one PBS station, the nutbar Colorado one that has previously aired Loose Change, Press for Troof and other paranoid conspiracy films.
Victoria's a longtime kook, belonging to Scholars for 9-11 Truth, Justice and the America Way, Steven Jones' splinter group. She describes herself as a philosopher of science.
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