Teablogger Equates DISCLOSE Act With 19th Century Poll Taxes and Literacy Tests

It’s our old friend Bill Hay, fresh from a shellacking when he was Laurence Verga’s campaign manager. His website, “Virginia’s 5th District” is now on Blogger, but the inanity continues apace. In one of his latest diatribes, he tells us how the DISCLOSE Act, which attempts to curtail foreign contributions to political candidates in this country, is just like poll taxes used in the 19th century to deny African-Americans the right to vote.

This legislation is no different than the poll taxes that were instituted in the former confederate states shortly after the 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870, the only difference is that instead of keeping people from voting it is preventing their organizations from fully participating in the election process. This will be another law that will have to be taken to the Supreme Court and hopefully overturned there.

You see, in Bill’s mind, everything he doesn’t like is unconstitutional. Never mind legal precedent or the Supreme Court. In fact, as you see above, he wishes for the day the DISCLOSE Act is before the high court to turn it over. I am positive he thinks that’s the only outcome. After all, he doesn’t like it. Bill also thinks that foreign corporations were already excluded from making political contributions. Of course, Bill has a favorite boogeyman that he mentions in nearly every screed. Can you guess? Yes, that’s right, it’s the unions in this country. Unions are not the powerhouse they used to be, now with only somewhere around 6% of the labor force belonging.

What is it about freedom of speech that these elected officials don’t get? Free speech is a God given right to be protected by our government not hindered by it. Of course the Democrats seem to feel that only unions are deserving of unlimited free speech since they have been exempted from this overbearing regulations. We can expect Perriello and liberal Democrats all over the country to have their campaigns subsidized with political advertising by unions like SEIU and conservative organizations will have to remain mute because of government infringement on their right to free political speech.

Once again we can thank Congressman Tom Perriello for ignoring his oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America.

There it is. It’s unconstitutional because Bill said it was. In the comments, after having deleted my initial comment to the piece, he claims in a comment in response to me that not only is the DISCLOSE Act like poll taxes, it’s just like literacy tests. I’m looking forward to your next pronouncement of unconstitutionality, Bill. What will it be this time? Puppies? Goldfish?

Here’s what the purpose is, courtesy of the authors of the bill:

The DISCLOSE Act legislation will address seven major points:

1. Enhance Disclaimers
Make CEOs and other leaders take responsibility for their ads.

2. Enhance Disclosures
It is time to follow the money.

3. Prevent Foreign Influence
Foreign countries and entities should not be determining the outcome of our elections.

4. Shareholder/Member Disclosure
We should allow shareholders and members to know where money goes.

5. Prevent Government Contractors from Spending
Taxpayer money should not be spent on political ads.

6. Provide the Lowest Unit Rate for Candidates and Parties
Special interests should not drown out the voices of the people.

7. Tighten Coordination Rules
Corporations should not be able to “sponsor” a candidate.

Sounds evil to me.

Disabled Minor Student Blamed for Being Molested

This has been working on me for a couple of days now, since I first saw it. I have calmed down now, but I was livid when I first read it.

A California school was the site of a staff member molesting a 17 year old disabled student, on school property. I have a big problem with this story, because this person is a minor child, but also with the actions of the school board in this case. The article details how the school district, in this case Santa Ana Unified School District, had the first instinct to cover it up and pretend it didn’t happen. The student’s mental capacity was said to be that of a seven year old.

The criminal former school employee was arrested and pleaded guilty.

I’ll let Raw Story pick up the details from here.

Now, a year after the aide’s guilty plea, the parents of the student have brought a civil suit against Gonzales for causing mental and physical trauma to their daughter and also against the school district for negligence. As a result, the district’s lawyers are fighting back — hard.

In a filing with the Orange County Superior Court, the attorneys claim that the wheelchair-bound girl “chose to encounter the known risk” of being alone with Gonzalez, that she “consented to” him lifting up her shirt, and that her injuries were the result of her having “failed to use due and reasonable care for her own safety and protection.”

They also charge her parents with having “negligently, carelessly and recklessly supervised, monitored, controlled and instructed the minor plaintiff so as to legally cause and contribute to her injuries and damages, if any.”

It goes on to detail that the school district lawyers also made a motion to have the parents to pay the legal fees of the district.

In light of intractable problems in this country’s schools, this serves as an example of all the wrong things happening. Parents had complained as far back as 2005 about Gonzalez, and the district ignored their pleas. Virginia schools have had their problems (TC Williams, Roanoke, etc.) but I can’t believe this is the way this was handled by a supposedly professional group of people in this district.

Shameful.

National Geographic Video: Hobet Mine MTR Effects

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Taken between 1984 and 2009 by NASA’s Landsat 5 satellite, the true-color pictures document the evolution of the Hobet mine in the Appalachian Mountains.

Mountaintop miners use heavy construction equipment—up to 40 stories tall—to get at the “layer cake” of coal seams underneath the surface, according to NASA. The resulting coal pits, which can be up to 800 feet (244 meters) deep, are seen in off-white against the dark green forests in the pictures above.

Teabaggers must be so proud today.

An example of the signs at Saturday's Teabagger rally at the Capitol, Washington, DC.

Image originally uploaded by cjbrenchley on Flickr and is used under a Creative Commons license, by-nc-sa.

Calls To Tom Perriello’s Office Last Thursday Were 88% From Outside the Fifth District

LAV, the two person political influence organization, one of them being slime merchant Dick (Dick) Morris, has been mobilizing a campaign to derail health care reform in the last few weeks. An email campaign and a television ad (find it yourself) targeted to certain Democratic members of the House have resulted in a situation where the telephone calls are interrupting normal business in the offices and have caused constituents to not be able to reach their representative’s offices.

TPMDC writer Eric Kleefeld wrote a story yesterday concerning this situation, and Rep. Tom Perriello’s office was mentioned as one of the offices targeted.

Morris has also been operating an e-mail campaign to have people across the country call members of Congress. One staffer for an unnamed targeted representative said that the office has been inundated with calls from outside the district, including at least one caller from another state who specifically cited the Morris e-mail campaign as the reason for their call.

If anything, the staffer said that the volume of calls from outside the district have led to a different perspective on the calls from inside the district, which have been a mix of both positive and negative comments about the bill. “Looking back on the last few days, it’s actually the impression for us that our district is much more moderate than we thought,” the staffer said, also adding: “I think people who inundate us from outside the district aren’t terribly effective to make their argument. Maybe there are people from inside our district who have tried to call us, but the phone lines are jammed up.”

Jessica Barba, press secretary for Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA), said that on the office’s tally from this past Thursday, 88% of calls to the office came from outside the district. “We believe that we have had more calls in support of health are from inside our own district,” said Barba.

Barba also said that the phone calls from outside the district are interfering with the real business of the office: “We’ll get a constituent calling in the middle of all the phones ringing off the hook and say, ‘I’ve tried a few times, and I’m trying to talk to somebody about Social Security.’ So they’re getting caught in the mess.’” [my emphasis]

The League of American voters did not return our requests for comment.

In my opinion, this sort of operation should be illegal. Obviously, voters from both political parties (three parties if you count the teabaggers) are interested in calling their representatives. However, masses of calls, mostly from outside the district sounds more like undue harassment to me.

Morris, who once worked for Democrats and is now the darling of the right-wing press (think Fox News and Newsmax), is someone who is mainly interested in what happens that can be beneficial for Dick Morris. He is a shameless self-promoter who evidently will stop at nothing to lie to the American people to try delivering the message his financial backers and handlers want to be delivered. The funding sources and/or backers of LAV (League of American Voters) are unknown at this time.

Thanks for nothing, Dick.

Rachel Maddow: What is Bart Stupak Up To?

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VA-05 Republican Debate in Lynchburg Saturday Night

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