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Feds to Florida: halt non-citizen voter purge

You are right, but your forgetting something I believe Dan...Bush wanted total immigration reform that included total amnesty with a few restrictions. The country went NUTS...all the polls had it in the low to high 70s % of people against it. The outrage made that flop...it also caused a huge backlash against McCain when he and lindsey Graham was spouting total amnesty. Mel Martinez senator from fla and head of the RNC retired because of it...it was very unpopular.
Now with the newly far right nutters that have taken over the GOP they distanced themselves even further....Obama will win a huge margin of the latino vote...and soon very soon the latino vote will be the DECIDING factor in national elections. All the gop brainstormers know this but they dont know how to deal with it yet.
If one were to accept your statistics, you get then that it wasnt 'far right nutters' that were opposed to total immigration reform and amnesty, but rather the WHOLE of the country...right? That includes democrats...

ONE of the candidates in the presidential race is touting total reform with an amnesty component, while the OTHER did absolutely nothing for 3.5 years...even when his party held majorities in both the house, senate and while he occupied the white house. The OTHER guy...he was also a senator for 4 years prior and never introduced immigration reform legislation. Guess which is which.
 
If one were to accept your statistics, you get then that it wasnt 'far right nutters' that were opposed to total immigration reform and amnesty, but rather the WHOLE of the country...right? That includes democrats...

ONE of the candidates in the presidential race is touting total reform with an amnesty component, while the OTHER did absolutely nothing for 3.5 years...even when his party held majorities in both the house, senate and while he occupied the white house. The OTHER guy...he was also a senator for 4 years prior and never introduced immigration reform legislation. Guess which is which.

That's a nice fairy tale, but that's all it is. In fact the Dems DID try to pass the DREAM Act under Obama, but it was unanimously rejected by Republicans — including several who were cosponsors of the original bill!

Romney was as anti-immigrant as can be during the primaries (Mr. Self-Deportation) and now, of course, he's trying to shake his Etch-a-Sketch and reverse that damage ... without offering any specifics or even saying whether he would reverse Obama's executive action. Gumby has more spine than Romney.
 
... while the OTHER did absolutely nothing for 3.5 years...even when his party held majorities in both the house, senate and while he occupied the white house.

The OTHER guy we may safely assume to be President Obama as Romney has never "occupied the White House", and the statement that he has done nothing on immigration reform " would also cause one to think it is the President that VanceMack is calling the OTHER

So we have a partisan simply repeating the rightwing mantra that is being used as cover for the hapless Willard.

Then there is that well known librul biased media reporting on what really happened a couple of years ago
Senate Republicans Block DREAM Act for Illegal Immigrants
Dec. 18, 2010

Senate Republicans today blocked a controversial immigration measure that would have provided a conditional path to legal residency for hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented immigrants first brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents.

By a vote of 55 to 41, the bill -- the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM Act -- failed to win the 60 votes needed to break a GOP filibuster, even though the measure passed the House last week.

Readers who bother to read more at the ABC site might found the following 'interesting'
"We are declaring a 10-year victory," said Roy Beck, president of Numbers USA, an advocacy group that has lobbied against the DREAM Act. "Since 2001, there has been an attempt to pass giant amnesties every year. And we have been on defense, we have fought every single year. And now there's not going to be any amnesty in this new Congress. It's over."

Who was President from 2001 to 2009? What party did he belong to? Every day we see similar examples of Republican hypocrisy - actions and policies they once supported are now anathema simply because the present President is an advocate.
 
That's a nice fairy tale, but that's all it is. In fact the Dems DID try to pass the DREAM Act under Obama, but it was unanimously rejected by Republicans — including several who were cosponsors of the original bill!


Oh, I am sorry...Did I miss something other than the barrage of "don't read it, just pass it" ultimatums from arguably the worst majority leader of the Senate to ever hold the position? Yeah, compromise to demo's means do it our way.

Romney was as anti-immigrant as can be during the primaries (Mr. Self-Deportation) and now, of course, he's trying to shake his Etch-a-Sketch and reverse that damage ... without offering any specifics or even saying whether he would reverse Obama's executive action. Gumby has more spine than Romney.

I don't know what can be more anti Hispanic than implying that latino constituents can't be trusted with forks and knives....heh, heh....

j-mac
 
That's a nice fairy tale, but that's all it is. In fact the Dems DID try to pass the DREAM Act under Obama, but it was unanimously rejected by Republicans — including several who were cosponsors of the original bill!

Romney was as anti-immigrant as can be during the primaries (Mr. Self-Deportation) and now, of course, he's trying to shake his Etch-a-Sketch and reverse that damage ... without offering any specifics or even saying whether he would reverse Obama's executive action. Gumby has more spine than Romney.

WHY did the "dream act" wait untill 5/1/11 to get to the floor? As for Romney, I agree with you, he is a weasle. Hmm...
 
WHY did the "dream act" wait untill 5/1/11 to get to the floor? As for Romney, I agree with you, he is a weasle. Hmm...


I think you might be off by a year - the DREAM Act was introduced in 2010 and passed by the House but filibustered in the Senate by Republicans in Dec 2010
 
I am curious how requiring the SAME (valid state issued photo) ID for buying alcohol, tobacco, firearms, ammo, traveling by air, getting hunting/fishing licenses, getting SNAP/welfare benefits, cashing checks or collecting state lottery prizes is NOT seen as an "undue discriminatory burden", ONLY voting seems to be an issue. Hmm...

The problem in my mind is not the ID requirement per se.

The problem is, rather, the nature of these states' restrictions and the way they are going at it. Passing laws restricting voting requirements on the very same year that a major election is to take place is really shady. And requiring someone to spend money on an ID just so they can vote is a poll tax, pure and simple.

I'm willing to accept a compromise where (1) changes in voting regulations do not take effect until one year after they have been signed into law, and (2) those below a certain income level can, with the proper documentation, receive an ID card for free. Have those two safeguards in place, I'm open to the possibility of requiring photo IDs to vote. If not, forget it.
 
That's a nice fairy tale, but that's all it is. In fact the Dems DID try to pass the DREAM Act under Obama, but it was unanimously rejected by Republicans — including several who were cosponsors of the original bill!

Romney was as anti-immigrant as can be during the primaries (Mr. Self-Deportation) and now, of course, he's trying to shake his Etch-a-Sketch and reverse that damage ... without offering any specifics or even saying whether he would reverse Obama's executive action. Gumby has more spine than Romney.
Please...do show us the immigration reform legislation Obama proposed during his term as a senator or that democrats attempted to pass from...well...lets see...2007 to 2011 when they held both bodies of congress. Immigration reform, not tokenism. I get you guys are good at tokenism.
 
The OTHER guy we may safely assume to be President Obama as Romney has never "occupied the White House", and the statement that he has done nothing on immigration reform " would also cause one to think it is the President that VanceMack is calling the OTHER

So we have a partisan simply repeating the rightwing mantra that is being used as cover for the hapless Willard.

Then there is that well known librul biased media reporting on what really happened a couple of years ago


Readers who bother to read more at the ABC site might found the following 'interesting'


Who was President from 2001 to 2009? What party did he belong to? Every day we see similar examples of Republican hypocrisy - actions and policies they once supported are now anathema simply because the present President is an advocate.
you guys really need to get your talking points straight. Just a few posts prior a liberal here pointed out that it was in fact Bush pushing for immigration reform which was soundly defeated. But lets stop running on Bush's record, shall we? Where is Obama's sweeping immigration reform and why did he wait til a few months before the election to suddenly decide it was 'important'? Oh...thats right...just as with his gay marriage announcement...he was just looking to find the time when it was most strategic and advantageous. To him. Because...you know...he 'cares'...
 
I think you might be off by a year - the DREAM Act was introduced in 2010 and passed by the House but filibustered in the Senate by Republicans in Dec 2010

That was having the dream act stuffed into a bundled MESS in the defense spending authorization bill, including DADT and other nonsense. I was talking about as a stand alone thing. The dream act, in various forms has been around for a long time, it just never passed. We do NOT need amnesty or "head of line" privileges for some ILLEGAL ALIENS. It makes NO sense to offer "special deals" to those that break the law, and NOT for those that remain in their homelands on the waiting lists. The ENTIRE idea of U.S. immigration law is to allow the U.S. to choose which immigrants are accepted, not to accept whoever sneaks in and simply does not get thrown out fast enough.
 
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Well I read the Colorblind link you posted Karl, and it doesn't pass the sniff test. First, this is not a matter of race or class, but citizenship status and voter eligibility. So the feds should have no interest under the Voting Rights Act. Further, as noted in the article, other states have similar and some the exact same law - all passed and in force without a peep from the DOJ. Texas just happens to be one of the states still being punished for it's past and now must have oversight and permission from the feds to pass their own voting laws. I suspect that will one day soon be challenged in the SCOTUS and struck down.

Secondly, the reasons given for the inability to get a FREE voter ID are lame at best, unbelievable at worst. Yes, if you read the comments on the article, there are already provisions in the law for FREE state election IDs. I understand there are counties that don't have DMV offices - so make the election IDs available at the government offices that are available in those counties.

There something else about this that smells. 11% of "hispanics" (I'm guess that's from folks who self-report that way) don't have drivers licenses or state issued ID. No one has said how they access state services, do their banking, rent their place of residence, sign up for telephone and utilities, all without being able to identify themselves.

The article did mention one of the things holding this group back was the lack of proper paperwork. Sounds like the state and the DOJ just identified a group of illegals. Anyone who immigrated legally will have paperwork by the sheaf, and access to copies if they've lost it all. The ones born here will have a birth certificate or be able to get one from the state. The whole thing reeks of illegitimate excuse.
 
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Please...do show us the immigration reform legislation Obama proposed during his term as a senator or that democrats attempted to pass from...well...lets see...2007 to 2011 when they held both bodies of congress. Immigration reform, not tokenism. I get you guys are good at tokenism.

The DREAM Act is an immigration reform bill, though not comprehensive. I thought Republicans were afraid of big, comprehensive reform bills, like Obamacare? Or does that just apply to health care reform for some reason?

Given the current makeup of Congress, there is no way in hell that a comprehensive reform bill can pass. Whatever they come up with will be too lenient for Republicans and too harsh for Democrats. The only realistic possibility at this point is to do piecemeal legislation like the Dream Act.
 
There something else about this that smells. 11% of "hispanics" (I'm guess that's from folks who self-report that way) don't have drivers licenses or state issued ID. No one has said how they access state services, do their banking, rent their place of residence, sign up for telephone and utilities, all without being able to identify themselves.

DL's and state-issued ID aren't the only forms of ID that can be used for those purposes.

What smells about all this is that groups that traditionally vote Democratic are being systematically targeted by a variety of means when there is virtually no evidence that we have a meaningful voter fraud problem.
 
I understand there are counties that don't have DMV offices - so make the election IDs available at the government offices that are available in those counties.
Works for me. Why didn't Texas do something like that?

There something else about this that smells. 11% of "hispanics" (I'm guess that's from folks who self-report that way) don't have drivers licenses or state issued ID. No one has said how they access state services, do their banking, rent their place of residence, sign up for telephone and utilities, all without being able to identify themselves.
That you don't know how someone does something, that you think they must be doing, means nothing at all. However, using your logic -- and the correct figures --
Their independent analysis showed that almost 37 percent of Spanish-surnamed voters and close to 17 percent of African American voters lack proper ID as opposed to just 11 percent of white Texans.
-- then 17% of African American voters are illegals, as are 11% of white voters :shock:

Now given this statistic --
the poverty rate for Texas Latino Americans and African Americans are 24.8 percent and 23.8 percent respectively, compared to 8.4 percent for white Americans; Latino Americans are 53 percent of all Texans living in poverty, while 16 percent are African American.
-- we might presume that whites are more likely to have drivers licenses than Hispanics because more whites can afford a car (if you've never owned or driven a car, would you have a drivers license?). But I'll certainly allow that some of the Hispanics without ID may well indeed be illegals; however, Texas should have made more accommodation in their new law for people that may have difficulty getting to an official ID station (as you noted as well). I don't want to see illegals vote, but I don't want states intimidating people or setting up nuisance schemes either (like these last-minute rule changes).

The article did mention one of the things holding this group back was the lack of proper paperwork. Sounds like the state and the DOJ just identified a group of illegals. Anyone who immigrated legally will have paperwork by the sheaf, and access to copies if they've lost it all. The ones born here will have a birth certificate or be able to get one from the state. The whole thing reeks of illegitimate excuse.
While I do thank you for reading the link (I suspect many don't), I'll have to ask you to reread that section -- by my interpretation they were talking about college students (who I presume would have things like birth certificates at home, at least those that live out of state):
They collected anecdotes from hundreds of students at Texas HBCUs [Historically Black Colleges and Universities] who stated they didn’t think they’d be able to get a voter ID due to lack of transportation, funds or the right documents.

DOJ Texas Voter ID Ruling Is No Surprise Given State’s Faulty ‘Colorblind’ Policies - COLORLINES
 
The DREAM Act is an immigration reform bill, though not comprehensive. I thought Republicans were afraid of big, comprehensive reform bills, like Obamacare? Or does that just apply to health care reform for some reason?

Given the current makeup of Congress, there is no way in hell that a comprehensive reform bill can pass. Whatever they come up with will be too lenient for Republicans and too harsh for Democrats. The only realistic possibility at this point is to do piecemeal legislation like the Dream Act.
Horse****. The Dream Act is an appeasement act...similar to politicians naming a street after MLK and saying look at me...I did something about race relations.
 
Horse****. The Dream Act is an appeasement act...similar to politicians naming a street after MLK and saying look at me...I did something about race relations.

That may be the worst analogy ever.
 
That may be the worst analogy ever.
Since the 'dream act' doesnt address illegal immigration reform and instead merely serves a bunch of politicians then I would say it was spot on. Of COURSE you dont like it. But then...when asked to provide this massive 'immigration reform' that you are touting, all you have is an appeasement act. And not even...hell...the Obama announcement legislatively is little different than saying he supports gay marriage. Yay...but...now what. Oh yeah...nothing. And the funny part is...it doesnt matter. He tugs...you dance.
 
Federal Judge to the DoJ: Kiss Florida's Ass

Common sense, and the law, have prevailed in Florida. Florida can continue its purge of voting rolls. Now maybe the Obama DoJ and Obama Department of Homeland Security will act as though they support America, and the Law, instead of their continued assault on it.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A judge on Wednesday rejected a request by federal authorities to block Florida's contentious move to remove potentially ineligible voters from its rolls.

The decision could prompt some counties to revive efforts to identify registered voters who are not U.S. citizens. Many counties had suspended the effort after hearing about conflicting legal opinions.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled there was nothing in federal voting laws that prevent the state from identifying ineligible voters even if it is close to the upcoming Aug. 14 election.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit earlier this month to halt the purge, saying federal voting laws barred the effort since it was within 90 days of a federal election. U.S. officials also said the list used by Florida had "critical imperfections, which lead to errors that harm and confuse voters."

Hinkle in ruling from the bench said federal laws are designed to block states from removing eligible voters close to an election. He said they are not designed to block voters who should have never been allowed to cast ballots in the first place.

Although he said "questioning someone's citizenship" is not a trivial matter, Hinkle also said that non-citizens should not be allowed to vote.

"People need to know we are running an honest election," said Hinkle, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton.



Read more: Judge refuses to block Florida voter purge | Fox News
 
Federal Judge to the DoJ: Kiss Florida's Ass

Common sense, and the law, have prevailed in Florida. Florida can continue its purge of voting rolls. Now maybe the Obama DoJ and Obama Department of Homeland Security will act as though they support America, and the Law, instead of their continued assault on it.

Bad decision, but it doesn't matter. Election officials aren't playing ball with the Governor.
 
Bad decision, but it doesn't matter. Election officials aren't playing ball with the Governor.

If you read the article, you will see that many had stopped, awaiting a Court ruling, lest they waste time and money.

They got their ruling. Back to cleaning up the books, and putting out the trash.
 
If you read the article, you will see that many had stopped, awaiting a Court ruling, lest they waste time and money.

They got their ruling. Back to cleaning up the books, and putting out the trash.


Not quite. Only two counties have said they would continue the effort to purge their voter rolls- Lee and Collier. Most of the election supervisors said the lists they had received were so full of errors it would be foolish to use them.

The decision wasn't quite as big a win as some would like to claim

Judge Hinkle, who delivered his ruling from the bench, chastised the state as having handled the matter cavalierly.

“Determining citizenship is not as easy as the state would have it,” Judge Hinkle said, according to The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. “Questioning someone’s citizenship isn’t as trivial as the state would have it.”

The DoJ's suit against the state will continue.
 
If you read the article, you will see that many had stopped, awaiting a Court ruling, lest they waste time and money.

They got their ruling. Back to cleaning up the books, and putting out the trash.
If one is observant, they get an occasional glance into the right wing world. As we can see, it is a world that considers certain human beings "trash".
 
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