State Senates thread

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I do the same thing!

Ah, Texas: "‘Room for all three’: Handgun, cannon and knife all being considered for official state symbol designation in Texas"

Guns, knives, and cannons. Yeah, what happy symbols. (end sarcasm)

From the article:

Quote

When Walker was killed in the Battle of Huamantla, he was carrying two of the revolvers.

The weapon carried such heft, Colt reportedly said, “it would take a Texan to shoot it.” It was so powerful, Walker wrote, it was “as effective as a common rifle at 100 yards and superior to a musket even at 200.”

Quickly, the Colt Walker became “a symbol of strength, authority and great financial means,” according to the American history museum.

*facepalms* Oh look, the idiots in the Texas Legislature are acting like Yosemite Sam again.

Can't we just admire the bluebonnets and not behave like jackasses, or talk about guns for five minutes? 

http://www.chron.com/life/travel/article/Incredibly-beautiful-rare-albino-bluebonnets-11048805.php

[fraurosena]

Don't forget the Dutch ovens though... the official Texas state cooking utensil. Not kidding!

 

(Seriously. States have official state cooking utensils? That's just cray-cray... )

 

Love the flowers though. 

[fraurosena]

Meanwhile some other news from Texas.

Federal Judge Rules That Texas Intentionally Discriminated Against Minority Voters

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A federal judge Monday ruled that the state of Texas intentionally discriminated against African American and Hispanic voters when it enacted a draconian voter ID law in 2011. The ruling could pave the way for courts to require Texas to get approval from federal authorities before making future changes to its voting laws.[...]

 

Of course, the DOJ flipped their stance on the matter when Sessions became head of the department:

Quote

In 2013, the Department of Justice joined civil rights groups, Democratic lawmakers, and voters in challenging the law. On the day President Donald Trump was inaugurated, the department signaled that it might change its position. In February, the department's lawyers asked the court to allow the US government to withdraw from the case and urged. The DOJ also urged Ramos not to rule on the intent question until the Texas legislature had taken steps this spring to amend the law, which the Fifth Circuit had ordered it to do. Ramos allowed the federal government to withdraw from this part of the case but rejected its request to hold off on the intent ruling. However, Ramos did indicate that she would wait until the legislature recessed to issue any remedy in conjunction with her findings.

The intent finding is a major victory for voting rights advocates because the courts have wide latitude to remedy intentional racial discrimination. Most importantly, a finding of intent allows the courts, if they choose, to put jurisdictions under federal oversight so that future changes to election procedures must be approved by the DOJ. Civil rights groups are requesting such a remedy and feel their argument for putting Texas back under federal supervision—which ended when the Supreme Court gutted a central provision of the Voting Rights Act in 2013—is strong. Last month, a three-judge panel in a federal district court in San Antonio found, in a separate case, that Republicans had racially gerrymandered congressional districts in order to weaken the growing power of minority voters. Taken together, voting rights attorneys believe the two findings of racially discriminatory intent make a convincing case that Texas should be placed under federal supervision.

Under current management this won't be as advantageous as it seems. I don't think the DOJ with Sessions in charge will care much for the rights of minority voters... do you?

[Cartmann99]

2 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Don't forget the Dutch ovens though... the official Texas state cooking utensil. Not kidding!

 

(Seriously. States have official state cooking utensils? That's just cray-cray... )

 

Love the flowers though. 

Once you get past the usual state bird, state flower, and state tree stuff, it's safe to assume that someone thought they could make some money off of the idea. 

[fraurosena]

2 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

Once you get past the usual state bird, state flower, and state tree stuff, it's safe to assume that someone thought they could make some money off of the idea. 

The irony though. The irony.

A Dutch oven for a US state. 

[formergothardite]

NC is still being terrible and doing whatever they can to push anyone not a democrat out of any position of power.

Quote

 

Four former chief justices of the N.C. Supreme Court have written a letter to General Assembly leaders to complain about two legislative actions that they say will “seriously harm our judicial system” and “hurt the people of our State.”

The letter, signed by three Democrats and one Republican, told Senate leader Phil Berger and House speaker Tim Moore that the bills to reduce the size of the state Court of Appeals and end the appointment of special judges to all courts except the business court are “premised on factual inaccuracies and will affirmatively impair the North Carolina court system.”

 

Quote

 

Earlier this month, the legislature adopted a bill that would reduce the Court of Appeals from 15 judges to 12, a change that Gov. Roy Cooper has said he would veto.

“The legislative sponsors claim that the reduction is needed as the judges have had such a significant decline in their case load that a 20 percent reduction in judicial manpower is required,” the former chief justices wrote. “Nothing could be further off the mark.”

 

You might wonder why the Republicans want to suddenly drop three judges, well the answer is that three republican judges are getting ready to hit the mandatory retirement age(72) and when they do, the current democrat governor will get to appoint three new judges. By shrinking the number of judges they are taking power away from him, something they have been trying to do ever since he got elected. They have been attempting to cripple him as much as possible and give themselves more power. I hate these people. I think it shocked them when McCrory didn't get voted back in and they want to rig the system so they can keep power no matter what the people of NC think of them. 

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article145067464.html

[GreyhoundFan]

@formergothardite: There seems to be no depth to which the Repubs won't sink to screw the people they supposedly represent. Every story is just mind-blowing. One of Bill Maher's "New Rules" last week was about how everything Republicans do is basically a dick move. He brought up the Republican push to reverse the ban on lead bullets because they were poisoning bald eagles when the eagles ate the animals that had been shot with lead bullets. I hadn't heard about that previously. It's amazing the crap the Repubs are doing.

[Cartmann99]

On 4/11/2017 at 4:17 PM, fraurosena said:

The irony though. The irony.

A Dutch oven for a US state. 

Americans proudly steal good ideas from everywhere! 

I love my cast iron skillets and my next cast iron purchase will be a Dutch oven. I'm leaning towards this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LEXR0K/ref=s9_acsd_top_hd_bw_b1DOU_c_x_2_w?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-4&pf_rd_r=G25KG8Y0AJS3MHRV6J37&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=583113ca-4280-5cf7-9256-1686242a14df&pf_rd_i=289818

The lid doubles as another skillet!  I have a bread recipe that calls for a Dutch oven, and I think this will work well with that recipe.

[fraurosena]

Shit. This just makes me ragey as hell. 

All-Male Panel Fails to End Maryland Law that Forces Women to Share Custody with Their Rapists

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Five Maryland legislators could have ended a policy that forces women to share child custody with their rapists. Instead the five legislators, all men, buried the bill.

Maryland is one of seven states without a law allowing women to terminate parental rights for their rapists, if their child was conceived as a result of sexual assault, according to reproductive rights organization NARAL. The state’s current policy forces survivors to negotiate child custody and adoption issues with their attacker. In a bid to update the draconian policy, Maryland Delegate Kathleen Dumais introduced legislation that would allow a woman to cut her rapist’s parental rights. 

But while the bill passed both Maryland’s House and Senate, the bill’s text varied between the two legislative bodies. On Monday, the last day of legislative session, a five-person negotiating group was set to decide on the bill’s final text, the Baltimore Sun reported. Instead, the five-man group let the bill fall by the wayside, running out the legislative session’s clock without finalizing the bill’s text. [...]

But rather than agree on a finalized version of the bill, the five men appeared to strike some kind of bargain, the Baltimore Sun previously reported. Republican Sen. Michael Hough announced “we’re good,” before the commission ran out the clock on the legislation. With no revised text with which to present the General Assembly, the bill failed, despite having passed both houses.

Dumais reportedly left the session close to tears as the bill she had worked nearly a decade to pass had been abandoned again, this year on a technicality that ran the urgent bill out of time.

 

Fucking misogynistic wankers, the lot of them!

[Childless]

13 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Shit. This just makes me ragey as hell. 

All-Male Panel Fails to End Maryland Law that Forces Women to Share Custody with Their Rapists

Fucking misogynistic wankers, the lot of them!

See, I don't understand this.  You would think pro-lifers would have stumped hard for this one.  A woman is a hell of a lot more likely to abort if carrying full term will tie her to her rapist forever.  With liberals and conservatives pushing for it, it probably would have passed.

[47of74]

State Sen. Florida Man in action;

nbcmiami.com/news/local/Florida-Senator-Used-Racial-Slurs-to-Colleagues-Reports-419785973.html

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A Florida state senator is expected to apologize publicly for using racial slurs and insults in a private after-hours conversation with African-American colleagues.

Miami-area Republican Sen. Frank Artiles reportedly used a variation of the "n-word" in the conversation at Tallahassee's Governor's Club with Democratic senators Audrey Gibson of Jacksonville and Perry Thurston of Fort Lauderdale. They said Artiles also used obscene and belittling language directed at them in the Monday night conversation.

Artiles apologized Tuesday afternoon, after Senate President Joe Negron was told about the incident. He is scheduled to again apologize in front of the full senate Wednesday.

Negron issued a statement saying that he's asked Artiles to formally apologize to Gibson on the Senate floor, but the Florida Democratic Party is still calling on Artiles to resign. 

What a fucking idiot.

[CTRLZero]

7 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

A Florida state senator is expected to apologize publicly for using racial slurs and insults in a private after-hours conversation with African-American colleagues.

I read a more detailed report on this earlier, and it was pretty bad.  He may have a drinking problem (in addition to being a moron), and has made racist comments before with witnesses around.  How these people get [re]elected is beyond me.

He'll probably end up being invited to Mar-a-Lago, where I hope he gets a hearty dose of food poisoning.

[fraurosena]

Can I just say how glad I am that the courts have stopped these serial murders by Arkansas?

Arkansas courts stay execution, block state from using lethal injection drug

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Arkansas courts on Wednesday dealt another pair of blows to the state’s plans to resume executions Thursday night, the latest in a series of legal rulings imperiling the scheduled flurry of lethal injections.

In one case, a state court halted an execution scheduled for Thursday night, while a state judge separately barred the use of a lethal injection drug, potentially blocking all of the planned executions.

The rulings come as Arkansas, seeking to carry out its first executions since 2005, has become the epicenter of capital punishment in the United States because of its frantic schedule. Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) originally scheduled eight executions in 11 days, an unprecedented pace, which drew national scrutiny and criticism. [...]

Challenges to the executions are not only being brought by the inmates. McKesson, the country’s largest drug distributor, said a court on Wednesday granted its request for a temporary restraining order keeping Arkansas from using a drug the company says was obtained under false pretenses. The judge issued a verbal order from the bench, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; no order was filed in court records by Wednesday night.

McKesson is one of several drug companies that have tried to have courts stop Arkansas from using their drugs, arguing that they should not be used in lethal injections. In McKesson’s case, the firm accused the Arkansas Department of Corrections of knowingly deceiving the distributor to obtain 100 vials of vecuronium bromide the firm distributes for Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant, which seeks to keep its drugs away from lethal injections.

According to McKesson, the Arkansas Department of Corrections promised to return the drug and was given a refund, only to then refuse to hand over the drugs (while still keeping the refund). A spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Corrections declined to comment on McKesson’s claims, but the state has said in court filings that the company “willingly sold a drug … and then experienced seller’s remorse.” [...]

On Wednesday, McKesson praised the latest decision keeping Arkansas from using its drug.

“We are pleased that the court has ruled in our favor and we look forward to the return of our product,” the company said in a statement.

The Arkansas Supreme Court also stopped one specific execution set for Thursday, saying just over 24 hours before it was scheduled to occur that it was staying it without explanation.

In its order, the state Supreme Court narrowly blocked the execution of Stacey E. Johnson, 47, who has been on death row since 1994. The court said Johnson should be allowed to press on with his motion for post-conviction DNA testing. Johnson was sentenced to death for the murder of Carol Jean Heath, a woman brutally killed in her home.

Johnson is one of two inmates facing execution Thursday night. The other, Ledell Lee, has appealed his execution, arguing that he has an intellectual disability and seeking to prove his innocence.

Both men are also among a group of death-row inmates who have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the executions, one of several legal battles being waged between the state and the inmates.

Yes, I am most emphatically against the death penalty. So my feelings about this subject are biased.

However, I believe the reasoning Arkansas has for these mass-executions is utterly contemptible, no matter what one's stance is on the death penalty. Killing people just because your drug of choice is nearing it's expiry date is simply dispicable.

[47of74]

On 4/19/2017 at 10:04 AM, CTRLZero said:

I read a more detailed report on this earlier, and it was pretty bad.  He may have a drinking problem (in addition to being a moron), and has made racist comments before with witnesses around.  How these people get [re]elected is beyond me.

He'll probably end up being invited to Mar-a-Lago, where I hope he gets a hearty dose of food poisoning.

Yeah he resigned.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-senator-frank-artiles-resigns-over-racist-remarks/

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An alcohol-fueled obscenity and racial slur-laced tirade have cost a Miami senator his job.

CBS Miami reports Republican Sen. Frank Artiles officially submitted his letter of resignation on Friday.

Artiles has tried to explain his behavior as cultural, he’s said that’s the way people speak in Hialeah, where he grew up.

So of course he blames the booze and the area he grew up in as being responsible for his racist fuck stickery.

Hey asshole, your party is the Party of Personal Responsibility.™  Try practicing some of that for once.

[PsyD2013]

I would like to send one of these shirts to every senator and representative who voted against women's healthcare.  

[GreyhoundFan]

Maryland often votes Democrat, but some Repubs have made in-roads. The current Governor is a Repub. Well, this was interesting: "How Md. Republicans plan to break the state Senate’s supermajority in 2018"

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Maryland’s Republican Party is trying to break the veto-proof majority Democrats have held in the state legislature for nearly a century, hoping to use the popularity and fundraising prowess of Gov. Larry Hogan to oust a handful of Senate incumbents and increase the governor’s ability to block legislation he opposes.

Republicans are targeting six seats representing Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Frederick counties and the Eastern Shore, all areas Hogan (R) won by wide margins in 2014.

An increase of five GOP seats in the 47-person chamber would mean Democrats would lack the 29 votes needed to override vetoes, which are one of the main ways a Republican can influence lawmaking in a deep-blue state with strong Democratic majorities in both legislative chambers.

Party leaders have dubbed the effort “Drive for Five” and are recruiting candidates, raising money and counting on Hogan, who plans to seek a second term, to campaign in down-ballot races as well.

“If the Republicans can prevent vetoes from being overridden, it gives Hogan considerably more power than he has now,” said Donald F. Norris, director of the School of Public Policy at University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Administration officials say removing the threat of overrides would force Democratic leaders to compromise more on issues like paid sick leave, which was proposed by Hogan and Democratic legislative leaders this year.

Hogan’s measure, which required sick leave for businesses with at least 50 employees and offered tax incentives for smaller companies to provide the benefit, died in committee.

The legislature instead approved a bill that forces businesses with at least 15 employees to offer sick leave. Hogan has until the end of the month to decide whether to veto it. If he does, Democrats would probably override the veto and enact the law once the legislature reconvenes.

Democratic lawmakers have reversed numerous Hogan vetoes in the past two years, including his attempts to block a renewable-energy bill that he said would increase electricity prices, a bill that sets up a system to rank transportation projects to determine which should get funding priority and legislation to restore voting rights for felons on parole or probation.

Party leaders say that opposition to President Trump should translate into high Democratic turnout in 2018 that will enable them to protect the veto-proof margins they have held in both chambers since 1922.

But Republicans point to splintering within the Democratic Party as a sign that the GOP can build on its 2014 successes, which included picking up nine additional legislative seats — seven in the House of Delegates and two in the Senate — and capturing the governorship in an upset victory over then-Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D).

The state GOP’s last concerted push to end the veto-proof majority came in 2006, during the administrations of former governor Robert L. Ehrlich (R) and former president George W. Bush (R). It ended with the GOP losing six House seats and the governorship.

Republican officials say they will focus this time on the Senate because the party picked off most of the low-hanging fruit in the House during the last election, and because the GOP would need to win seven House seats to end the supermajority in that chamber.

...

The GOP says it is organizing rapid-response teams to hold rallies and counter-demonstrations throughout the state and is aggressively growing its social-media presence.

More than 16,600 people shared, liked or commented on the state party’s Facebook page during the last week of the legislative session, giving it 17 times the level of engagement as the state Democrats’ page and making it the most successful state-party page in the country during that span, according to Facebook analytics data provided by party officials.

Howard Ernst, a political-science­ professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, said the success of the GOP effort will hinge largely on “the size of Governor Hogan’s coattails.”

“The wild card in the race is the anti-Trump backlash,” he said. “Governor Hogan has successfully insulated himself from Trump so far, but time will tell if he can continue.”

We are focusing on overturning some of the DOH party's grip on power, but we need to make sure that the places that have Dem majorities don't lose ground.