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Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 | 2:02 a.m.
Another view?
View more of the Las Vegas Sun's opinion section:
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Regarding Robert Blanner’s letter, “When did we become so divided?” bemoaning the fact that so many Republicans voted against aid for Superstorm Sandy victims: The situation illustrates what we can expect in the future.
With so many congressional districts gerrymandered, the Republicans will hold control of the House for 10 years. Also, if these same districts continue to be proportioned in the same way, it will signal the death knell of democracy.
The only reasonable solutions to these problems are public financing of elections, term limits and popular vote for president.
Harold surmises "Political divide is only widening"
DUH
Obama's Inauguration reset the negative tone
No - I repeat - No Obama call for National Unity
Obama in his WE THE GOVERNMENT inaugural speech told us he won again and his manifesto would expand the liberal progressive bigger government agenda.
This was an unyielding restatement of Obama's in your face campaign nomination speech.
Obama inaugural declared war on, and demeaned and stigmatized conservative polices and values. Fiscal responsibility and working, freedom and liberty.
And Obama declared war on the job creators saying "We the people understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it," It is interesting to note that under Obama's collectivism there are a lot fewer rich and many more middle class are poorer. Everybody is getting poorer.
No hint of concern about fiscal responsibility or of the growing infringement on personal liberties.
"ThinkProgress is reporting the following:
While the eyes of the nation were turned toward President Barack Obama's second inauguration on Monday, the Virginia State Senate managed to hurriedly pass a bill that would redistrict the state's senate seats.
The vote, 20-19, would have been a tie had Democratic Senator Henry Marsh been present. Marsh, a civil rights leader, was in Washington, D.C., attending the inauguration. Had Marsh been present, however, the state's Lieutenant Governor would likely have broken the tie. The bill was reportedly pushed through in a matter of hours.
According to Virginia politics blogger Ben Tribbett, the move could potentially eliminate at least one Democratic seat, the 25th district, which currently belongs to former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sen. Creigh Deeds (D).
The bill will next go the Republican House where it will face little opposition.
Blue Virginia further reports that, according to a Virginia political analyst, "If VA Republicans were smart enough not to touch the already cleared VRA districts, the plan will likely stand. Dems are toast."
The great Republican election rigging continues."
The Electoral College in the 2012 election, and recent others, is skewed in favor of the democratic party and states. Period. End of story. All the other talk about GOP jerrymandering is filler and footnotes.
CarmineD
Republicans who voted against the Sandy Hook relief bill had good cause. The Senate, thanks to the Leadership of Reid, used a parliamentary procedure called: "Filling the tree." This is where the majority party in the Senate aka Democrats add personal pork items for constituents back home totally unrelated to the bill. Knowing that the original bill is sure passage and guarantees no up and down debate and vote on the pork items. Reid and the Dems have used this procedure over 70 times since his tutelage in 2007.
Tell us again what was president Obama's stance on this practice?
CarmineD
Except for the popular vote, I agree with the letter writer. We need public financing of campaigns and Congressional term limits.
It is true that two Presidents in a row have called for legislation that is unwise and or not affordable, but that legislation could not have been enacted without the Congress. From the war in Iraq and tax cuts to the ACA, and more bailouts, Congress approved them all.. and did not raise taxes enough to pay for them.
Congress is where the biggest problem is. Because members value their excellent and lucrative 'career' as a Senator or House member above all else, they enact poor legislation that is desired by powerful interests with lobbyists.
Americans spend soooo much time arguing about the President. Go read your Constitution! We don't have a King. We have a very powerful legislative branch called Congress, and Congress makes all our laws, sets all our taxes, enacts foreign policy legislation, and sets budgets.
If Americans want a better country, pay attention to Congress and its members, enact public financing to reign in the power of lobbyists and demand term limits to remove the 'career' aspect of serving in Congress.... it was NEVER intended to be a 'career'!
Michael
When Republicans gerrymander districts in their favor or try to eliminate a Democratic seat in Congress, outfits like 'Think Progress' dutifully report it. When Democrats do the same kind of thing, outfits like 'The Club for Growth' dutifully report it.
The problem is that neither group reports it when the side they advocate for does it. Then we have the 'drone' supporters on each side trumpeting the news.
This is not helpful and only adds to the problems. We should all punish members of the party we support when they use tricks such as a hurried vote and gerrymandering to gain unfair advantage. This is the corruption to our system that is playing out right before our eyes... and unlike the claims of advocacy groups and party 'drones', both sides do it... and it happens often.
We should not accept it, when either side does it.
Michael
Republicans tried to pull the pork out the Sandy bill.
As oppose to Democrats who have no problem piling up trillion dollar annual deficits on the backs of our children.
Harold Wasserman has no problem with those victims, our children, getting whack with a overwhelming load of national debt.
Thanks for the 411, Harold.
Let's see, to avoid the "fiscal cliff" republicans accepted Obumma's tax hikes with no spending cuts. In fact, 332 billion in new spending.
Then they get a pork-laden Sandy bill for another 60 billion. They delay passing it for a week.
Knee-Pad media blames republicans. Spend-Baby-Spend and enjoy watching the ship go down.
History is showing it's hand once again.
This issue is black and white, literally! Slave states, VS Free States. Boundaries as defined on the map of the USA in 1851.
House republicans in the southern states as show on the map of 1851 are fighting old battles, cultures wars, when in reality, deep down, the actions of division are simply racial to the core.
Big Money and Special Interest spark this hatred, then the fire feeds itself.
We are seeing this up front and very personal. It all comes down to the first Black President of the United State Of America fixing the problems caused by the ruling class. Everyday Americans are not driving this hatred, it's Big Money and Special interest. Follow the money, the information is available.
Come 2014, the America People once again will have the "right" to choose between old culture practices, or practice of diversity and inclusion. Big Money and Special Interest lost on November 6, 2012.
At the pace America is going, the America People will repeat the results.
With the November elections behind us we know that Mitch McConnell failed miserably to realize his top priority -- to make President Obama a one-term president.
It was a noble goal -- for a dirtbag like the Kentucky senator, and we can only wonder where the hundreds of other critical issues that directly affect our lives rank on McTurtlehead's to-do list.
Wasserman, as is so often the case, fudges the facts and omits pertinent info that does not align with his leftist leanings. Of course the Republicrats "gerrymander," but so do the Dumbocrats. When looking at politics through an ideological prism, as Wasserman and others do, they see only what they want to see. "Gerrymandering" is a blot on the political process regardless of which side does it and no amount of public financing will change that. Instituting term limits? That may have an effect but so long as the first priority for either party is getting elected and the second, remaining in office is paramount, cheaters will cheat.
CarmineD - "The Electoral College in the 2012 election, and recent others, is skewed in favor of the democratic party and states."
Complete nonsense; if that were true the Democrats would have controlled the House and not Republicans. Gerrymandering by Republicans is the reason they hold the House now because Democrats gathered a million more votes than they did in the last election.
'Big Money and Special Interest lost on November 6, 2012.' No, it did not.
Big money ALWAYS wins, due to the way campaigns are funded. We need public funding of campaigns if we want to reduce the influence of powerful interests with lobbyists and money.
Michael
Gerrymandering happens all over America, has happened for years and years and is liberally practiced by both parties. The practice should be outlawed and punishment for gerrymandering should be serious and lengthy prison terms.
Michael
Given that Mr. Casler agrees gerrymandering is such a widespread problem, then he, no doubt, agrees that dividing a state's electoral votes by CD is a terrible idea.
This is, after all, the ingenious plan set forth by the GOP (and even our own local "Whig" sham party) to destroy the electoral college by allocating based on congressional district vs state-wide popular vote.
When you look at the House election in 2012, you see a very clear consequence of gerrymandering. If one were to take the popular vote totals, they were nearly equal. At last count, Democrats held a slight 0.6% edge in the popular vote for the House.
Yet the House remains firmly under GOP control with a 30 seat margin...
Special interest money would flood state legislatures, electing well-heeled plutocrats who would rig the game, carving more and more intricately gerrymandered congressional districts... forming majority-minority districts to strip minorities of their fair say in our election. This just happened in Virginia, and this scheme is inviting corruption.
Their scheme to betray the founding fathers vision and substitute a new racket for electing the President would make it MORE likely that the candidate who won the popular vote would lose the Presidency.
That's the wrong direction for our country.
Michael,
Ask the people who stood in line for 8 to 10 hours to vote in Florida about Big Money and Special, the results on November 6, 2012.
Again, "Big Money and Special Interest lost on November 6, 2012"
"The Electoral College in the 2012 election, and recent others, is skewed in favor of the democratic party and states." I think somebody on this forum needs some cheese with their whine.
Why do GOPers preach taking responsibility for your actions, then turn around and play the woe-is-me victim card -- over and over and over again?
It's the liberal media's fault -- even though the GOP controls the #1 cable "news" network as well as ruling the airwaves with a whole slew of hate-radio Limbauh wannabes.
It's those "low information" voters who don't know any better -- even though it was GOP BS that made republican voters believe pre-election polls were skewed and therefore had to be "unskewed" until Romney was projected to win the election.
Here's an idea, rightwingers -- man-up and quit blaming others for your sad losing ways. Or don't. Personally, I enjoy hearing your teary-eyed sob stories about how you wus dun rong by them mean ol voters. It's absolutely hilarious!
"Complete nonsense; if that were true the Democrats would have controlled the House and not Republicans." @ VernosB
You're comparing unlike facts and circumstances and making conclusions, obviously far-fetched, based on them. Why? Presidential elections are every 4 years. House and Senate every 2. One winner [in the Presidential elections] versus many in the Congress.
CarmineD
"I think somebody on this forum needs some cheese with their whine." @ Last Throes
Before you do, may I make recommendations? Red signifies debts and deficits. Definitely avoid these which appear to be primarily in Democratic leaning states that voted for Obama. And cheese, avoid the rancid smelling ones. They are old and stale like your comment above. They crumble into pieces when you cut them.
CarmineD
People standing in line for hours are not what win elections. Money wins elections and the millions, soon to be billions, of dollars contributed by powerful interests with lobbyists ... to both sides, is what wins elections.
Michael
One does not even need to look outside the state of Nevada to see how some of this happens. In the 2010 Assembly election, 51% of the ballots cast were for Republicans and 45% were cast for Democrats. And yet the Democrats won a 26-16 majority in the state Assembly. That was the result of gerrymandering from the 2000 Census.
From the NY Times, the Old Gray Lady, not exactly a bastion of conservatism.
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com...
By the way, Bloomberg Business made the same observation shortly after the 2012 election. You can google and read for yourself. Unless you like the "ostrich" path better.
CarmineD
Rghtwingers who post here at the Sun should publicly thank the newspaper for providing them with a place to deal with their issues of insecurity and rejection.
It's like free therapy for abused, misunderstood conservatives.
The biggest winner in this past election was not Obama. It was Harry Reid. He contols more of the party line than Obama does. he supports Obama in every thing that he (Reid) proposes. Harry Reid is the Porkmaster of the Senate. In past days his family was in the business of selling whiskey to the indians. I understand Harry's ancestor was responsible for nailing the back door of the Alamo shut.
@ Michael Casler:"Big money ALWAYS wins, due to the way campaigns are funded."
Michael, big money always wins no matter what the circumstance. As soon as "We The People" realize that, party affiliation will mean nothing. Our pocket books and those of our children will dictate our futures.
Right-wingers such as Carmine simply don't get it but that's not surprising.....
Unless the GOP changes the way it is, they are dead in the water.....
The country has changed over the last 20+ years & the GOP wiil, with out change, continue to find themselves on the outside looking in......
The party continues to stay over on the extreme right which makes it impossible for them to take back the White House or control the Senate....
Thanks to "gerrymandering," the GOP has been able to maintain control of the House but that too is coming to an end....
Too many old, tired & stubborn white guys are running the GOP. Their vision of what America should be like is a page out of the 1950's......
We're not going back to the 1950's....plain & simple!
The Sandy aid package shouldn't have been larded up with pork unconnected to the disaster.
I'll bet the significant others ensure of the leftwingers who post here aren't allowed to look at the AVN pictures.
There are certain facts that El_Lobo simply doesn't understand.
Fact: Republicans increased the number of governorships to 30 in the last election.
Fact: Republicans control the both chambers and the governorship in 25 states.
Fact: Republicans have supermajority control of several state houses.
Fact: Republicans were re-elected to control the US Congress
Fact: In the last Federal non-presidential election, Democrats lost a ton of seats.
Let's hope that is repeated in 2014.
Harold.......
The political divide is widening because the
republican party has gone off the deep end.
The republican party is the minority party and
will ALWAYS be the minority.
There are too many extremists and not enough
moderates left in the republican party.
The crazy teabaggers finished off the republican
party.
Thank God.
LIVE BETTER/WORK UNION!
And thanks to our great PRESIDENT OBAMA and our
great Senate Majority Leader, HARRY REID, our
economy is getting better everyday.
The stock market is heading to an all time high.
Home values are going up.
If we want this to continue,
NEVER EVER VOTE REPUBLICAN!
We average Americans can't afford greedy
republicans.
DEMOCRATS FOREVER!
A news story today said that earth's biggest
dinosaurs had brains the size of tennis balls.
I think that also applys to today's republicans.
Michael Casler wrote,
"People standing in line for hours are not what win elections." (Michael Casler)
Someone is in denial. Michael, your statement is bubble thinking. Refusing to accept a reality. Your party was soundly defeated on November 6, 2012. The turnout on the Democrat side was a grassroot effort, an organized ground game by the Obama campaign. The Republicans and Karl Rove spent the Big on the Media, especial TV. Big Money and Special Interest determined to unseat President Obama lost. Lost big time. Ohio voters stood in line for hours. Florida voters stood in line for hours. Big Money and Special Interest lost on November 6, 2012. They will lose again in 2014.
The numbers don't lie. You all were told time and time again that Mitt Romney would lose on November 6, 2012. The Bubble People refuse to believe the numbers. The figure don't lie, but liars figure. The House will change hands in 2014 in spite of the gerrymandering by the Republicans. The numbers shows this is the path heading into 2014.
"Right-wingers such as Carmine simply don't get it but that's not surprising....." @ El Lobo
No, you don't. I'm left of center AND I know the difference bewteen historical fact and fact without the need to name calling and stereotyping. There is a huge one and it's older than 20 years. More like 236.
CarmineD
"We're not going back to the 1950's....plain & simple!" @ El Lobo
Really? Did you miss the recent second President Obama inaugural speech? Catch the rerun, or the pundits analysis on both sides of the aisle, and tell me, if you can, what political era it's from.
CarmineD
John Boehner accused the President of trying to destroy the Republican Party! LOL as the GOP is doing fine on their own in accomplishing that.
When their propaganda arm, (The Benghazi Network, aka Fox News), can't keep them afloat with all their millions of informationaly challenged viewers, you know the Party is down and almost out.
"John Boehner accused the President of trying to destroy the Republican Party!" Willie Tanner
Obama has tried. And failed.
CarmineD
Willie........Spot on!
YES, the GOP is down and almost out.
It's all over for the crazy GOP.
El_Lobo......Good comment.
The GOP can't change.
They're stuck in crazy.
They can't help it.
The crazy teabaggers finished them off.
Teamster: The U.S. needs the Republicans, just not these Republicans! It probably won't be until 2024 that they will have a shot at the WH but it may not take that long to weed out the tea potty bunch in the House and get back to a respectable two party system in Congress. If they stay under the influence of Limbaugh, O'really, Hannity and the other droids at Faux News it could be a while.
I could hardly believe that the Prince of the Tea Potty, Rand Paul, used a Fox Fiction Fact about Libya smuggling arms to Turkey when questioning H. Clinton about Benghazi. And we thought his daddy was the crazy one!