You know, the alleged usual. Here’s the alleged latest, via WisPolitics:
According to a new court filing, a forensic investigation of computers GOP lawmakers, their aides and their lawyers used in the redistricting process found some files were deleted just after a federal court ordered three witnesses to turn over documents to the plaintiffs. Other files were deleted one week before the lawmakers’ firm, Michael Best & Friedrich, turned over its redistricting files to Dems after they took control of the state Senate following a recall election. [...]
Yesterday’s filing updated the court on a forensic examination of the computers and noted the cost of the review had now reached $100,000. The plaintiffs asked the court to require the Legislature, its employees and/or its attorneys to cover the costs of the forensics.
Doyle McManus examines the GOP’s problems as it relates to winning the 2016 presidential election. The real problem is not the message but simply the math.
The GOP is hanging on to its old ways thanks to its very skillful management of the vote. Republicans control the House even though they received fewer votes in 2012 than the Democrats. Similarly, they control several state houses thanks to gerrymandered districts. They effectively control the Senate through the filibuster.
But this approach, which ghettoizes the opposition and puts many districts in the GOP column by a few percentage points, creates a house of cards. With just a small shift in key districts, it will all come down.
It is time to change the policies and not just the rhetoric. Republicans cannot maintain their voting advantage forever.
Glen Jansma
Newport Beach
***
With the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq this week, I can only hope that the Republican Party remains divided for a long time to come.
It was this party that took us into war with a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, had no weapons of mass destruction and where more than 4,000 American lives would end up being lost. And for what? Is America any safer?
Republicans should hang their heads in shame this week, and I hope that their embracing of the “tea party” leads to the GOP’s demise for once and for all.
The subpoenas are being used to force GOP officials to reveal where the mystery computers, external hard drives, discs and documents are located, and the groups who are making these demands want the answers under oath.
It’s been months and months, but the state of Wisconsin never told the plaintiffs, who want to search said computers, where the computers were, and made every effort to block them from finding out, so now the Dems are playing hardball. They want those documents, and they want them now.
Republicans who control the Wisconsin legislature. Wisconsin’s governor is the one and only GOP “rising star” Scott Walker. Of course, Walker, along with the legislature, approved redistricting maps that benefited their party
It isn’t clear who deleted these documents, but– call me crazy– I’m guessing it wasn’t a Democrat.
Madison - Documents were deleted from state redistricting computers last year even after a lawyer for the Legislature told lawmakers’ aides to preserve all records on the computers, according to documents filed Wednesday in federal court.
Nine hard drives were recently given to groups suing the state because of questions about whether legislators and their attorneys had turned over all the documents they had been ordered to provide. One of the nine hard drives was unreadable and the outside of it was dented and scratched, which suggested its metal housing had been removed, according to affidavits in the case.
In addition, some of the hard drives had a program installed on them that could remove electronic data and hide the fact that files had been deleted, according to the filing. So far, however, a computer expert has not been able to determine if the program was actually used.
JSOnline goes on to say that a “panel of federal judges ruled last year that two Assembly maps on Milwaukee’s south side violated the voting rights of Latinos. The court put in place new maps for those districts but not others, meaning the Republican-friendly maps were largely preserved.”
And the fun never ends under Scott Walker’s watch. Stay tuned.
See how they’ve changed? The only “rebranding” they’ve done is cosmetically, with a few new words, but when it comes to policies and attitudes, well, let’s just say that so far, most of the 71% of Latinos who voted for President Obama will be unimpressed.
Per a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 52% of Americans have a favorable view of President Obama’s policies that he’s proposed for the next four years.
But 55% think that the plans the GOP will be brewing during the president’s second term are not their cup o’ tea. Gee, can’t imagine why; their party is so, you know, inclusive and goes out of its way to embrace all Americans. And by all Americans I mean guns. And white people. And corporations. Hey, guns and people are corporations, too.
One of the things that inclusive, embrace-y Republican-led states has produced is redistricting, as I’ve posted about repeatedly. In fact, you can see all of those posts here.
As if we needed proof, that practice has resulted in those states becoming redder than ever. And by redder I mean cheating their way into future GOP election victories.
The New York Times notes that due to redistricting, seven states had a “severe imbalance” between their popular vote and the party makeup of their House delegations: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
All but Arizona were tilted in favor of the Republicans.
In the vast majority of states, the presidential candidate who wins receives all of that state’s electoral votes. The proposed changes would instead apportion electoral votes by congressional district, a setup far more favorable to Republicans. Under such a system in Virginia, for instance, President Obama would have claimed four of the state’s 13 electoral votes in the 2012 election, rather than all of them.
Virginia House of Delegates Speaker William Howell (R) killed the Inauguration Day sneak attack by Senate Republicans who hoped to pass a massive mid-decade gerrymander. Howell ruled that the Senate’s amendment to a House bill making minor technical corrections to the House legislative maps were not germane, as it was a “vast rewrite” and would “stray dramatically” from the legislation’s original purpose.
So we started with six possible states where Republicans hoped to tilt the playing field, right? Florida, Virginia, Wisconsin, Ohio, and then finally Michigan all said no. They’re not gonna do it. But there is still one holdout– not Michigan, I am surprised to say, I thought the holdout would be Michigan. But it turns out the holdout is Pennsylvania. The Republican Senate majority leader said he will introduce a bill this month, in February, even if it makes some folks in his party a little queasy. I’ve been thinking that Michigan was home to the do-not-give-a-bleep honey badgers of the Republican party in 2013. But maybe it is Pennsylvania, maybe it is actually Tom Corbett eating the cobra. Stay tuned.
WaPo: Republicans in Virginia and a handful of other battleground states are pushing for far-reaching changes to the electoral college in an attempt to counter recent success by Democrats.
In the vast majority of states, the presidential candidate who wins receives all of that state’s electoral votes. The proposed changes would instead apportion electoral votes by congressional district, a setup far more favorable to Republicans. Under such a system in Virginia, for instance, President Obama would have claimed four of the state’s 13 electoral votes in the 2012 election, rather than all of them.
Again, the GOP knows the only way they can win is to lie, cheat, and steal elections, because America sure isn’t buying into their policy ideas. To make matters worse, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus supports these tactics.
Unlike the plan Priebus backs, the New Republican Plan would not tie electoral votes to congressional districts. Instead, it would award the overwhelming majority of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes proportionally according to the popular vote, with two additional electoral votes going to the winner of the state as a whole. If the New Republican Plan had been in effect in 2012, Mitt Romney would have received 8 of Pennsylvania’ 20 electoral votes, despite losing the state by a substantial margin… The plan gives away Democratic votes to the Republican for free, while letting the Republican candidate keep all the votes they earn legitimately in other states [...]
The New Republican Plan, by contrast seems designed to allay this fear among Republican U.S. Representatives by keeping the presidential race entirely separate from congressional districts — thus allowing Republicans to steal away Democratic electoral votes without risking Republican U.S. House seats.
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