Christie Finally Comments on Voting Rights Act Decision...Sort Of

Cleaver ad, I get it. But 4 minutes? Really?

25 days after the decision was made public and three questions from reporters later, the Buono for Governor campaign has unearthed video of Governor Christie commenting on the Supreme Court's decision to gut part of the Voting Rights Act...sort of.

Buono Remarks at Voting Rights Act Press Conference

New Brunswick, NJ – At a press conference in Newark today, Democratic gubernatorial candidate and State Senator Barbara Buono delivered remarks opposing the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a key part of the Voting Rights Act. Eight days since the ruling was announced, Governor Christie has refused to offer his opinion on the decision, opting to remain silent instead of standing up for what’s right.

Video from today's press conference can be found below:

Buono Statement Following Christie’s Unacceptable Vetoes

New Brunswick, NJ –Democratic gubernatorial candidate and State Senator Barbara Buono issued the following statement:

"Governor Christie's week can be summed up as a 'profile in cowardice.' He chose Friday night to deny women health services, pander to gun lobbyists, veto legislation to keep jobs in New Jersey and thwart a full expansion of Obamacare. All this after he bashed the Supreme Court's decision to end DOMA and refuses to comment on its decision to gut the Voting Rights Act. He would rather please Republican primary voters in Iowa than stand up for the Garden State and its working and middle class families."

Pallone: Supreme Court Ruling is a Blow to Voting Rights and Access

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. issued the following statement upon the announcement of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the case of Shelby County vs. Holder, which strikes down a critical component of the Voting Rights Act:

“The U. S. Supreme Court’s decision today in the case of Shelby County vs. Holder was a major setback to ensuring one of the most fundamental rights given to citizens in our democracy, the right to vote. I am deeply disappointed in the Court’s ruling today and I believe it is out of step with the needs and realities of our nation’s electoral system.

“I agree entirely with Justice Ginsburg’s dissent where she concluded that, ‘The sad irony of today’s decision lies in its utter failure to grasp why the VRA has proven effective... Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.’

“The Voting Rights Act has helped millions of Americans who have faced roadblocks to participating in the electoral process and it continues to act as an important check on laws that would unfairly restrict such participation. In 2006, I voted with an overwhelming majority to ensure that advanced approval of changes to election processes should be required for jurisdictions with a history of discriminatory practices. In light of today’s ruling, it is clear that Congress must, once again, work together to reinforce this important provision of the Voting Rights Act.

“Voting in the Unites States must always be open and accessible for all Americans. I stand ready to work together with my colleagues in a bipartisan fashion, as we did in 2006 and address this failed ruling by the Supreme Court and ensure the Voting Rights Act continues to protect the right to vote.”

To Those Who Need It

The following is from Congressman Rush Holt's newsletter:

“Banker,” “revolutionary,” and “visionary” are not words often associated with each other. Yet all apply to Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who this week was honored with our nation’s highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, under legislation that I wrote and helped pass with help from many New Jerseyans.

Born and educated in what is today Bangladesh, Dr. Yunus discovered that impoverished people could not get ahead because of the predatory lending practices of money-lenders. Starting with just $27 of his own money, Dr. Yunus showed that, contrary to the old, cynical saying than bankers “loan money only to people who don’t need it,” it could be profitable to loan money to poor people who had not shown marketable skills or facility in handling money. In the face of skepticism and opposition, he built a microcredit banking business that thrived, lifted millions of people out of poverty, and provided a model for similar work around the world.


In 2006, New Jerseyans who were inspired by Dr. Yunus’s work – organized through RESULTS NJ – urged me to help honor his contributions and raise awareness of microcredit by working to award him a Congressional Gold Medal. Awarding the medal was not easy; we had to work for four years and talk one by one to hundreds of lawmakers. I feel certain that the effort has generated awareness and durable support in Congress for anti-poverty microfinance programs.

Now Dr. Yunus is developing his model for eliminating poverty – not simply alleviating poverty, but eliminating poverty. Does this sound preposterously idealistic? To many it does. However, we would do well to listen to someone who has such a clear, remarkable record of exploding long-cherished myths about business, money, and poverty.

A Receipt for Your Taxes

As you know, Monday was the deadline to file your 2012 income taxes with the Internal Revenue Service. I encourage you to take a few moments to visit the White House’s 2012 Federal Taxpayer Receipt, which will show you how your tax dollars are being spent.

You may be surprised to learn, for instance, that the clear majority of tax dollars go to support just three programs: Social Security, Medicare, and the Department of Defense. As the economist and Central New Jersey resident Paul Krugman has often commented, the United States government is, from a budgetary perspective, “an insurance company with an army” – an insight that we would all do well to bear in mind when considering the anti-government rhetoric so prevalent in Washington today and when considering possible changes in the federal budget.

“Precious – Almost Sacred”

The history of American elections is a story of an expanding right to vote. The franchise was once extended only to land-owning whites, but over centuries, America has expanded it far more broadly: to non-landowners, to women, and to minorities. Over the years, through various laws we have made it more difficult to exclude people from registering and voting.

One of the heroes in that long story is my friend John Lewis, the Georgia congressman who suffered grave injuries during his nonviolent protests that helped inspire the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This week he joined me and other New Jersey officials to call on Gov. Christie to take the next step in expanding the franchise: bringing early voting to New Jersey.

The flaws of a one-day-only voting system were all too obvious last November. Many voters across the nation had to wait in long lines on Election Day, and many New Jersey voters affected by Hurricane Sandy could not make it to the polls at all.

The rational, simple solution to this problem – already embraced by more than 30 states – is to allow voters to cast their ballots any time during a period of days or weeks leading up to Election Day. The state legislature has already passed a bill to give New Jerseyans 15 days to vote early. Now, we just need Gov. Christie to sign it into law.

As Rep. Lewis said, “The vote is precious – almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool that we have in a democratic society to bring about change. It is my hope that the governor of the state of New Jersey will do what is right, what is fair and what is just, and sign this piece of legislation.”

Sincerely,

Rush Holt
Member of Congress

80 Reasons Why It’s Time To Take These Republican/Tea Party ‘Sons Of Bitches’ Down

Here's another gem that I found on AddictingInfo.com today that I thought I would pass along titled "80 Reasons Why It’s Time To Take These Republican/Tea Party ‘Sons Of Bitches’ Down". I think it touches upon all the points as to why the Tea Party and its members are so wrong, on so many issues , I hope you agree and feel free to comment:



At a Labor Day event yesterday, Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa gave a fiery speech about the tea party, telling the American people that “It’s time to take these sons of bitches out.” And each and every one of us should listen. For the last thirty years, the American people have been under assault from the right-wing and their corporate overlords. Everything that makes America strong is being weakened and the American people are suffering. So if you need a reason why we should end the Republican/Tea Party, here are 80 of them.

1. They want to take away your Social Security.
2. They want to end Medicare.
3. They want to wipe out labor unions.
4. They want to send every last American job overseas.
5. They want to pollute the air we breathe.
6. They want pollute the water we drink.
7. They want to persecute non-Christians.
8. They want declare a state religion.
9. They took America hostage during the debt ceiling debate.
10. They want to take America hostage in every debate from now on.
11. The want to make it legal for businesses to discriminate.
12. They want to segregate our schools.
13. They want to allow oil companies to rape America’s environmental treasures for any trace amount of oil.
14. They refuse to give aid to the American people who go through natural disasters.
15. They want to end funding for natural disaster warning systems.
16. They want to take away the right to vote.
17. They want to make abortion illegal, even in cases of rape.
18. They want to abolish the corporate income tax.
19. They want to raise YOUR taxes but not taxes on the wealthy.
20. They want to end workplace safety regulations.
21. They ARE racists.
22. They disrespect the President at every opportunity.
23. They don’t support health care for every American citizen.
24. They want to allow health insurance companies to drop people.
25. They want to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency.
26. They want to illegally spy on American citizens.
27. They want more wars.
28. They want to indoctrinate our kids.
29. They want to make laws requiring every person to own a gun whether you like guns or not.
30. They want kill Planned Parenthood and end critical health care services for women.
31. They want to ban contraceptives and condoms.
32. They want to kill homosexuals.
33. They want to end unemployment benefits.
34. They want our infrastructure to crumble.
35. They want to end the independent judiciary branch, and turn it into a strictly conservative branch.
36. They want to keep women from earning equal pay for equal work.
37. They want President Obama to fail at all costs.
38. They want to continue the same failed economic policies that put us into a recession.
39. They rewrite and distort history.
40. They want to end public education for all.
41. They want to repeal the Voting Rights Act.
42. They care more about Wall Street than they do about Main Street.
43. They have voted to end 1.9 million jobs and have created zero.
44. They want to make it legal to kill doctors who provide abortions.
45. They want to reinstate ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
46. They encourage gun violence.
47. They refuse to vote for cleaner, more efficient energy sources.
48. They want to deport hispanics, whether they were born here or not.
49. They support Israel’s President over our own.
50. They want to abolish minimum wage laws.
51. They think corporations are people.
52. They want to repeal portions of the Constitution.
53. They want to pull America out of the United Nations.
54. They support torture.
55. They want to teach creationism in schools.
56. They reject science.
57. They want to make cohabitation before marriage a crime.
58. They want to allow health insurance companies to not cover sick children.
59. They want to end food stamps.
60. They make government ineffective.
61. They want to take away your pensions.
62. They want to privatize prisons to put more people in jail.
63. They want to end your right to collectively bargain with your employer.
64. They want to ban the unemployed from being considered for employment.
65. They want end funding for legal services for the poor.
66. They want to end Miranda Rights.
67. They think all liberals are un-American.
68. They refuse to give any credit to President Obama for ordering the killing of Osama Bin Laden.
69. They refuse to acknowledge that 9/11 occurred during the Bush Administration.
70. They declared fiscal martial law in a Michigan town and fired the legally elected local government.
71. They called President Obama a liar during his State Of The Union Address.
72. They refuse to cut the Defense budget, which if cut in half would still be the largest defense budget in the world.
73. They apologize to foreign oil companies when they take heat for oil spills.
74. They take orders from the Koch brothers.
75. They sign pledges drawn up by conservative activists, and ignore their pledge to serve the constituents who voted for them.
76. They use conservative media to push the right wing agenda even if it means distorting the news or flat out lying.
77. They want to cut nutrition programs for children.
78. They want to cut housing and energy assistance programs that help poor people.
79. They want to slash job training programs that help the unemployed.
80. They think teachers are thugs.