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From the Inbox: Congresswoman Brown Introduces Legislation to Ease Restrictive Voting Laws

October 19, 2011 by Kenneth

From Corrine Brown:

Congresswoman Brown made the following statement:

“Across the United States, Republican controlled state legislatures are undertaking vigorous efforts to suppress the voting rights of a wide array of the American public. I have introduced the Easy Voting Act to counter these trends. The bill will require states to allow early voting up to the day of the election, ban identification requirements, and allow for same day registration or address changes,” said the Congresswoman.

A recent study conducted by New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice found that up to five million voters may be prevented from registering to vote in the 2012 elections because of onerous restrictions tacked on during this legislative session. These laws will discourage or even block the poor, minorities, the elderly, the disabled, and students from attempting to register or vote. In the words of Michael Waldman, the executive director of the Brennan Center, this is “the most significant rollback in voting rights in decades.”

GOP Contenders In A Single Word

October 19, 2011 by Left in Alabama

The WaPo asked Americans to describe the 2012 GOP frontrunners in a single word: 

The WaPo graphic shows no positive words got more than 10 mentions for Perry.  Looking at the full results of the Pew/WaPo survey, a few items caught my eye.

•  "Liar/lies" or "crook/crooked" --which were tabulated separately in the survey -- came up for all the Republicans:

• Cain --11
• Perry -- 14
  
• Romney -- 9

•  7 people said "A**" is the first word that comes to mind when they think of Rick Perry and 6 people said "Bush."

•  A total of 13 people think of Mitt Romney as "boring" or "dull."  "Loser" is the first word that springs to mind for another 4.

•  "Competent" (8 people) was only mentioned in connection with Romney.

Privatizing Government Work Is More Expensive (Ammunition)

October 19, 2011 by Kenneth

As usual, conservative theories fail the truth test when actual science is applied to them. From CBS:

As Washington’s use of private contractors grows, the government is paying those contractors billions more than it would pay their government workers to do the same job, according to a new study released Tuesday..

In an attempt to verify frequently made claims that the government can save money by outsourcing its work, the nonprofit Project On Government Oversight (POGO) compared the total annual compensation for federal (and private sector) employees with federal contractor billing rates.

The group found that in 33 of the 35 occupational categories it reviewed, federal government employees were less expensive than contractors. On average, the federal government pays contractors 1.83 times more than it pays federal employees and two times more than what comparable workers in the private sector are paid.

Infrastructure In Worse Shape In Red States (Ammunition)

October 19, 2011 by Kenneth

This isn’t surprising, but it is dangerous and it is a sign that Republicans aren’t doing their job and aren’t serving their constituents:

[The] Republican leadership has continually blocked efforts by Obama and Congressional Democrats to invest in infrastructure improvements, and as a result, bridges and roadways in their states are crumbling. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, about 12 percent of the nation’s bridges are considered “structurally deficient,” the same rating given to the Minneapolis bridge that collapsed in 2007, killing 13 people. Roughly another 12 percent are considered “functionally obsolete.”

In four of the five states represented by Republican congressional leadership, the rate of structurally deficient or functionally obsolete bridges outpaces the national average.

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