Texas' voter ID motives questioned in two areas

In the state legislature...

More than a week ago, Texas Senate Democrats put Texas Secretary of State Nandita Berry on notice: They wanted her office to get more mobile units on Texas streets to give voters without an acceptable photo ID a chance to get one before November's election.

One week later, there's been no movement to do so, says state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin.

The problem, he says, is that there are not one but two state agencies in charge of putting more mobile units out in the community. The Secretary of State's office (SOS), which includes voter registration, has to coordinate where the mobile units will go. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) actually owns the mobile units which can issue the new Texas election identification certificates, or EICs.

After trying to get the two entities to agree on how to do it — and to do it quickly — Watson said late Tuesday that it "appears to me it is a breakdown on both ends."

Ah, the Department of Public Safety. Their scheme is revealed in the courthouse, where the state's photo ID legislation is on trial.

Emails from a Department of Public Safety official raised questions Tuesday in federal court about the sincerity of the agency's voter qualification efforts.

"Zero's a good number," Tony Rodriguez, a senior DPS manager wrote in a email presented as evidence in the ongoing voter ID trial. Rodriguez was responding to a subordinate's report that no election identification certificates had been issued the day before at a DPS location.

The rest is behind a paywall, but there's more context for it at the Brennan Center's liveblog.  Note that this courtroom drama -- which included testimony from Sen. Wendy Davis -- came last Friday morning, and the Corpus Christi Caller-Time's story (first linked; apparently the only news coverage, if you can believe Google) appeared last night.

What an appalling lapse on the part of the Texas media.  To be even-handed, there was some other breaking news late last Friday that must have simply overwhelmed our tired corporate news gatherers.  All the way into Thursday.

The Texas Secretary of State, as we all know by now, is Mrs. Michael Berry.  So when you hear it said over and over again that Texas is a non-voting state, you also need to understand that this is no accident on the part of Texas Republicans.  That is exactly the way they want it.

It's the only way they can stay in power.

Here's my opportunity to repeat myself: do what you have to do in order to make sure you can vote in the next few weeks, and do it now.  And then help your family, friends, and neighbors do so.

Texas Leftist has more.  Update: And Charles climbed over the firewall and got more of the Caller-Times story.   It's worth reading just for DPS official Rodriguez' defense of his 'zero is a good number' comments as sarcasm.

Fumbles and personal fouls

-- The Ray Rice domestic violence affair melted down yesterday.  Rice's two-game suspension by the NFL for cold-cocking his fiance'/now wife Janay turned into an indefinite one -- and the termination of his contract by the Baltimore Ravens -- after elevator video surfaced of the blow he struck her.

Previously the team's players, coaches, and front office had voiced support for what a great guy Rice was.  That all changed in a matter of a few hours.  As the story developed, Fox's morning morons revealed they skipped their corporate sensitivity trainings.  They probably won't lose their jobs.  *Update: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell might lose his, though.  And probably should.

I'm sure there's no connection -- none whatsoever -- between this and the whole "War on Women" being waged by the GOP.  No coverup or anything.  The fact that Bob McNair, the owner of the Houston Texans, and Drayton McLane, the previous owner of the Houston Astros, are large benefactors to Greg Abbott is nothing more than a coincidence.

-- Speaking of misogyny... if you're the kind of person that feels like they might be voting this year, feels kinda like they might want to support the Democratic nominee for governor, Wendy Davis, but finds yourself undecided for any variety of reasons... read the comments on this story and see if that helps you make up your mind.  Maybe you're already planning on voting for her, and were thinking you might try to help her campaign in some way, if you found time.  Read the comments again, and see if they provide some motivation.

Some people seem to have a problem with her book tour.  Not just whiny Greg Abbott.

-- David Alameel is polling twenty-one points behind John Cornyn.  Carry on.

-- On a more upbeat note regarding Democrats and other candidates on the ballot in the Dallas area, see this handy Dallas Voters Guide, courtesy of the DMN.  They have the statewides as well as the locals.

-- The Harris County Green Party is holding a candidate forum on Monday, September 22.  State and local candidates will meet and greet voters and the media, give remarks, and be available for Q&A.  Some statewide candidates will also be available via Skype.  And in October, Texas Agriculture Commission candidate Kenneth Kendrick and Texas Railroad Commission candidate Martina Salinas will return to Houston for a joint fundraiser.

Senate will vote on repealing Citizens United today

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has set up a procedural vote for September on a constitutional amendment to limit money in politics.

...Reid filed cloture on the motion to proceed to S.J. Res. 19, which is designed to overturn two recent Supreme Court decisions that allowed corporations, labor unions and wealthy individuals to spend more money on federal elections.

The procedural vote on the constitutional amendment is set for 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 8.

Here's Bernie Sanders.

One day before the U.S. Senate votes on a constitutional amendment to restore limits on big money in politics, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called the drive to undo Supreme Court decisions that gutted campaign finance laws “the major issue of our time” and said Monday’s showdown vote is “a pivotal moment in American history.”

“Billionaires buying elections is not what our Constitution stands for,” said Sanders. He is a cosponsor of the amendment to reverse Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and later court rulings that let millionaires and billionaires spend virtually unlimited and unregulated sums to sway elections. 

“The major issue of our time is whether the United States of America retains its democratic foundation or whether we devolve into an oligarchic form of society where a handful of billionaires are able to control our political process by spending hundreds of millions of dollars to elect candidates who represent their interests,” Sanders said.

Vermont and 15 other states along with voters and city councils in more than 500 cities and towns already have passed measures supporting a constitutional amendment. A survey last spring conducted by the Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner polling firm found that the Citizens United ruling was opposed by 80 percent of those surveyed. Despite such overwhelming and growing public support, Sanders warned that Republican obstruction tactics could block the Senate from even taking a vote on the proposed amendment to overturn the Supreme Court ruling.

Emphasis above is mine.  That eighty percent unquestionably includes many Republicans, and it puts conservatives like Greg in the thin minority usually reserved for the number of adults in the United States who can read at the level of a fifth-grader.

No correlation between those two groups, I'm sure.

Call your Senators and tell them how you feel.  Watch as the Senate Republicans block the bill (and understand precisely why they do so).  And then observe as the sewage flows -- straight from the Koch Machine -- right out of your teevee for the next couple of months.

It's no exaggeration to say that we cannot begin to fix the other ills in our body politic until we fix this one.  So if you like Republican governance and think we need more of it... you know what to do (sit around and do nothing, like always).  And if you don't, you also know what to do: the exact opposite of what the GOP does.  Except for voting.  Everyone who doesn't like Republican rule and doesn't think it has earned continuance needs to do exactly what they do, just a little bit more and better than them.

I think that can happen, but I'll feel better about it happening once I see some more trend lines.

Update: Senate invokes cloture, 79-18.

The vote was an election year ruse. Senate Republicans have no intention of letting this bill pass. Republicans have no intention of ever letting a constitutional amendment be ratified. What this vote today proves is the power of the issue.

Senate Republicans don’t want to be publicly linked to the Koch brothers before an election. The Kochs are toxic, and Republicans are trying to trick voters into ignoring the right-wing billionaire dollars that are trying to buy the government.

Ted Cruz voted no, John Cornyn voted yes.  And more from TPM.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance commends Sen. Wendy Davis for her courage as it brings you this week's roundup of the best from the Lone Star blogosphere from last week.

Off the Kuff thinks all the statewide candidates should engage in at least one public debate and applauds Sam Houston for pursuing the matter in the AG race.

Libby Shaw, now posting at Daily Kos, is both shocked and pleased that the Houston Chronicle's editorial board spanked Greg Abbott hard for his disingenuous and exaggerated claims about voter fraud in Texas. Texas: "Voter Fraud? What Fraud?"

In a state with a rapidly growing population and the mounting set of challenges associated with that growth, Texas Leftist can't even believe how much money Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick and other TEA-publicans are leaving behind in their refusal to expand Medicaid. Trust me, you won't believe it either.

If you’re in the “coverage gap” – someone who doesn’t have health care because Perry and the GOP declined to expand Medicaid in Texas – and don’t vote, then WCNews at Eye on Williamson says you’re choosing not to have health care coverage: To Expand Medicaid in Texas, Those Without Insurance Must Vote.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants you to know that cutting Medicaid reimbursements has shut down pharmacies in Texas. Cheap, short-sighted, heartless Republicans are to blame.

The disclosure by Wendy Davis in her forthcoming memoir of her pregnancy terminations pushed a reset button in the Texas governor's race. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs says that whether it more greatly mobilizes her support or her opposition is something still to be determined.

Neil at All People Have Value said you should consider helping the Davis/Van de Putte ticket even if you are not a political person and if you have great skepticism about Democrats and our political system. The Abbott/Patrick ticket is a very extreme ideological team. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

Egberto Willies has video of Texas comptroller candidate Mike Collier, and Texpatriate has an update on the race for Texas attorney general, between Sam Houston and Ken Paxton.

Bluedaze reports that Range Resources, a member of the Big Gas Mafia, is SLAPPing the hell out of the First Amendment, and Texas Vox has more on the Earth, Wind, and Fire energy summit in Dallas this October.

Dos Centavos noted that Greg Abbott declined to appear at UT-Dallas at the students' invitation, then showed up on campus and kept students locked out.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Socratic Gadfly has some thoughts on Wendy Davis' disclosure and its political fallout.

Somervell County Salon is thinking about Rick Perry's wife, Anita, and when she came out as pro-choice.

Juanita Jean sets a Republican straight on Tom DeLay's criminal record.

Carol Morgan says it's time to bust the GOP prostitution ring in DC and in Texas.

Grits for Breakfast reflects on Rick Perry's criminal justice vetoes.

Lone Star Ma reminds us that Texas law protects a woman's right to breastfeed in any place where she would otherwise be allowed to be.

Nonsequiteuse blazes with fury at the "Greg Abbott crushes Houston Votes" story.

Texas Clean Air Matters wants a clean energy plan that rewards Texas, not Wyoming coal interests.

BOR issues the #TacosOrBeer Challenge.

The Texas Election Law Blog dismisses the lesser arguments in favor of voter ID.

Sunday Funnies