Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
GOP state lawmakers try to restrict ballot initiatives, partly to thwart abortion protections
By JULIE CARR SMYTH
Today
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — With other state lawmakers seated around her in the Ohio House, Democratic state Rep. Tavia Galonski got to her feet and began to loudly chant, “One person, one vote!”
The former Teamster's cry spread quickly through the visitors gallery, then began to rise from the throng of protesters gathered outside in the statehouse rotunda. Struggling to be heard over the din, the Republican speaker ordered spectators cleared from the chamber.
Last week's striking scene came as Ohio joined a growing number of Republican-leaning states that are moving to undermine direct democracy by restricting citizens' ability to bypass lawmakers through ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments.
The Ohio proposal will ask voters during an August special election to boost the threshold for passing constitutional amendments to 60% rather than a simple majority. It also would double the number of counties where signatures must be collected, adding an extra layer of difficulty to qualifying initiatives for the ballot.
A similar measure will be on North Dakota's ballot next year, while one in the works in Idaho would ask voters to increase signature requirements imposed on petition gatherers. In Wisconsin, which does not allow statewide citizen initiatives, Republicans who control the Legislature have proposed prohibiting local governments from placing advisory questions on ballots. Such referenda are sometimes used to boost voter turnout, though results don’t carry the weight of law. Florida Republicans added new hurdles to that state's constitutional amendment process in 2020.
The trend has taken off as Democrats and left-leaning groups frustrated by legislative gerrymandering that locks them out of power in state legislatures are increasingly turning to the initiative process to force public votes on issues that are opposed by Republican lawmakers yet popular among voters. Only about half the states, mostly in the Western U.S., allow some form of citizen ballot initiative.
In Ohio, voters have proposed using the initiative process to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution this November, as well as to increase the minimum wage, to legalize recreational marijuana and to reform a redistricting system that has produced persistently unconstitutional political maps favoring Republicans.
“I think one of the things it does is, no matter what party is in power, when you start trying to make it harder for citizens to challenge what their government does or make changes, then it just makes people not have faith in the process,” King said. “So I do think that making it harder is wrong.”
In Ohio, former governors and attorneys general of both major parties have lined up against the proposed constitutional amendment that would alter the simple majority threshold for passing citizen-led initiative that has been in place since 1912.
Democratic legislators point to the bipartisan opposition and the maneuvering that allowed the proposal to be on an August ballot as evidence that today's Republicans are extremist in their desire to maintain political power.
Republican state Rep. Brian Stewart, the Ohio plan's sponsor, argued during last week's raucous floor session that a simple majority of voters will get to decide whether to impose the stricter requirements on future ballot initiatives.
“SJR 2 will ask Ohioans, not us, whether Ohio’s constitution should require a 60% vote threshold to adopt amendments going forward. It will ask Ohioans, not us, to decide whether all 88 counties should have a voice in determining what amendments make it onto the ballot and to eliminate the cumbersome ‘cure’ period, which gives initiative petitions effectively a do-over when they fail to meet the requirements for ballot access,” he said. “Putting this issue in front of Ohioans, that is democratic.”
What Stewart didn't address is how Republicans circumvented a law they had just passed so they could put the proposed amendment on a summertime ballot when voter turnout is typically quite low, rather than putting it before voters in the regular election this November.
Democratic Rep. Casey Weinstein called out Stewart and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, for previously opposing the very August special elections that they supported for offering the 60% question.
Weinstein read in its entirety LaRose's testimony from December advocating for the provisions of a new law — signed in January — that eliminated most August elections. LaRose argued that making big decisions, including those regarding ballot issues, in chronically low-turnout August elections “isn’t the way democracy is supposed to work” and that such elections “aren’t good for taxpayers, election officials or the civic health of our state.”
In testimony, Mark Gavin Sr., outreach director for the Black Environmental Leaders Association, referred to the U.S. Constitution's counting of enslaved people by calling the Ohio proposal “the new Three-Fifths Compromise.”
Gavin was among hundreds of protesters who packed statehouse hearings and overflow rooms, testified and marched in opposition to the Republican proposal, which he said is intended to dilute the power of individual voters.
“I’ve been a voter in Ohio for 15 years, and it’s getting really old to always have to have new rules and regulations on a ballot,” he said.
Anti-abortion and pro-gun groups were the primary forces behind the push in favor of the proposed Ohio amendment. Since the Supreme Court's decision last year overturning Roe v. Wade, voters in Michigan, Kentucky and Kansas have protected abortion rights through statewide votes.
David Couch, an attorney who has worked on citizens' initiatives in Arkansas, said Republicans' efforts to thwart direct democracy are uniquely partisan.
“If you look in Arkansas history in the '90s, when the Democrats controlled Arkansas, the conservative right passed same-sex marriage amendments, they passed adoption amendments," he said. “They passed all sorts of reforms, and the Democrats didn’t try to change the process.”
Democrats in Missouri did try to cripple the initiative process through legislation in 1992. Then-Gov. John Ashcroft, a Republican who went on to serve as U.S. attorney general, vetoed the bill. Ashcroft’s son, Jay, is the state’s current secretary of state.
"It is through the initiative process that those who have no influence with elective representatives may take their cause directly to the people," the elder Ashcroft said in a veto letter that became part of this year's debate. "The General Assembly should be reluctant, therefore, to enact legislation which places any impediments on the initiative power which are inconsistent with the reservation found in the Constitution.”
Missouri's Republican lawmakers are singing a different tune today. Fearing a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights, they vowed last week to make it a priority in 2024 to adopt a ballot measure that would establish a 57% threshold for passing future amendments.
Not all Republicans in the state think that's a good idea. Former Republican House Speaker Pro Tem Carl Bearden said the proposal would infringe on the rights of Missouri voters while noting that the initiative process is intended to be a check on the power of the Legislature.
“It is not a conservative policy,” he said of the Republican plan.
___
Associated Press writers Ayanna Alexander in Washington, Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Mo., Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
oh they changed the name back. for this it was Lowrent Boobfart
that dude is so annoying. constantly changing his screen name and then constantly putting out dumb tweets like it is his full time job. had to unfollow weeks ago.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
oh they changed the name back. for this it was Lowrent Boobfart
that dude is so annoying. constantly changing his screen name and then constantly putting out dumb tweets like it is his full time job. had to unfollow weeks ago.
Then why'd you follow him to start?
'05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
oh they changed the name back. for this it was Lowrent Boobfart
that dude is so annoying. constantly changing his screen name and then constantly putting out dumb tweets like it is his full time job. had to unfollow weeks ago.
its a part of a given joke. dumbfucks think its actually Liam Neeson....
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
GOP state lawmakers try to restrict ballot initiatives, partly to thwart abortion protections
By JULIE CARR SMYTH
Today
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — With other state lawmakers seated around her in the Ohio House, Democratic state Rep. Tavia Galonski got to her feet and began to loudly chant, “One person, one vote!”
The former Teamster's cry spread quickly through the visitors gallery, then began to rise from the throng of protesters gathered outside in the statehouse rotunda. Struggling to be heard over the din, the Republican speaker ordered spectators cleared from the chamber.
Last week's striking scene came as Ohio joined a growing number of Republican-leaning states that are moving to undermine direct democracy by restricting citizens' ability to bypass lawmakers through ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments.
The Ohio proposal will ask voters during an August special election to boost the threshold for passing constitutional amendments to 60% rather than a simple majority. It also would double the number of counties where signatures must be collected, adding an extra layer of difficulty to qualifying initiatives for the ballot.
A similar measure will be on North Dakota's ballot next year, while one in the works in Idaho would ask voters to increase signature requirements imposed on petition gatherers. In Wisconsin, which does not allow statewide citizen initiatives, Republicans who control the Legislature have proposed prohibiting local governments from placing advisory questions on ballots. Such referenda are sometimes used to boost voter turnout, though results don’t carry the weight of law. Florida Republicans added new hurdles to that state's constitutional amendment process in 2020.
The trend has taken off as Democrats and left-leaning groups frustrated by legislative gerrymandering that locks them out of power in state legislatures are increasingly turning to the initiative process to force public votes on issues that are opposed by Republican lawmakers yet popular among voters. Only about half the states, mostly in the Western U.S., allow some form of citizen ballot initiative.
In Ohio, voters have proposed using the initiative process to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution this November, as well as to increase the minimum wage, to legalize recreational marijuana and to reform a redistricting system that has produced persistently unconstitutional political maps favoring Republicans.
“I think one of the things it does is, no matter what party is in power, when you start trying to make it harder for citizens to challenge what their government does or make changes, then it just makes people not have faith in the process,” King said. “So I do think that making it harder is wrong.”
In Ohio, former governors and attorneys general of both major parties have lined up against the proposed constitutional amendment that would alter the simple majority threshold for passing citizen-led initiative that has been in place since 1912.
Democratic legislators point to the bipartisan opposition and the maneuvering that allowed the proposal to be on an August ballot as evidence that today's Republicans are extremist in their desire to maintain political power.
Republican state Rep. Brian Stewart, the Ohio plan's sponsor, argued during last week's raucous floor session that a simple majority of voters will get to decide whether to impose the stricter requirements on future ballot initiatives.
“SJR 2 will ask Ohioans, not us, whether Ohio’s constitution should require a 60% vote threshold to adopt amendments going forward. It will ask Ohioans, not us, to decide whether all 88 counties should have a voice in determining what amendments make it onto the ballot and to eliminate the cumbersome ‘cure’ period, which gives initiative petitions effectively a do-over when they fail to meet the requirements for ballot access,” he said. “Putting this issue in front of Ohioans, that is democratic.”
What Stewart didn't address is how Republicans circumvented a law they had just passed so they could put the proposed amendment on a summertime ballot when voter turnout is typically quite low, rather than putting it before voters in the regular election this November.
Democratic Rep. Casey Weinstein called out Stewart and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, for previously opposing the very August special elections that they supported for offering the 60% question.
Weinstein read in its entirety LaRose's testimony from December advocating for the provisions of a new law — signed in January — that eliminated most August elections. LaRose argued that making big decisions, including those regarding ballot issues, in chronically low-turnout August elections “isn’t the way democracy is supposed to work” and that such elections “aren’t good for taxpayers, election officials or the civic health of our state.”
In testimony, Mark Gavin Sr., outreach director for the Black Environmental Leaders Association, referred to the U.S. Constitution's counting of enslaved people by calling the Ohio proposal “the new Three-Fifths Compromise.”
Gavin was among hundreds of protesters who packed statehouse hearings and overflow rooms, testified and marched in opposition to the Republican proposal, which he said is intended to dilute the power of individual voters.
“I’ve been a voter in Ohio for 15 years, and it’s getting really old to always have to have new rules and regulations on a ballot,” he said.
Anti-abortion and pro-gun groups were the primary forces behind the push in favor of the proposed Ohio amendment. Since the Supreme Court's decision last year overturning Roe v. Wade, voters in Michigan, Kentucky and Kansas have protected abortion rights through statewide votes.
David Couch, an attorney who has worked on citizens' initiatives in Arkansas, said Republicans' efforts to thwart direct democracy are uniquely partisan.
“If you look in Arkansas history in the '90s, when the Democrats controlled Arkansas, the conservative right passed same-sex marriage amendments, they passed adoption amendments," he said. “They passed all sorts of reforms, and the Democrats didn’t try to change the process.”
Democrats in Missouri did try to cripple the initiative process through legislation in 1992. Then-Gov. John Ashcroft, a Republican who went on to serve as U.S. attorney general, vetoed the bill. Ashcroft’s son, Jay, is the state’s current secretary of state.
"It is through the initiative process that those who have no influence with elective representatives may take their cause directly to the people," the elder Ashcroft said in a veto letter that became part of this year's debate. "The General Assembly should be reluctant, therefore, to enact legislation which places any impediments on the initiative power which are inconsistent with the reservation found in the Constitution.”
Missouri's Republican lawmakers are singing a different tune today. Fearing a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights, they vowed last week to make it a priority in 2024 to adopt a ballot measure that would establish a 57% threshold for passing future amendments.
Not all Republicans in the state think that's a good idea. Former Republican House Speaker Pro Tem Carl Bearden said the proposal would infringe on the rights of Missouri voters while noting that the initiative process is intended to be a check on the power of the Legislature.
“It is not a conservative policy,” he said of the Republican plan.
___
Associated Press writers Ayanna Alexander in Washington, Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Mo., Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
oh they changed the name back. for this it was Lowrent Boobfart
that dude is so annoying. constantly changing his screen name and then constantly putting out dumb tweets like it is his full time job. had to unfollow weeks ago.
Then why'd you follow him to start?
because i didn't realized he does 110 tweets per day all basically saying the same thing. also always complaining about his follower count. its annoying.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
DeSantis signs bill to defund DEI programs at Florida’s public colleges By Jack Stripling May 15, 2023 at 12:03 ET Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill into law Monday barring the state’s colleges and universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and limiting how race can be discussed in many courses. The move comes amid a larger conservative attack on higher education DEI programs, which DeSantis and others say reinforce racial divisions and promote liberal orthodoxy. Supporters of the programs say they are critical to serving the nation’s increasingly diverse student populations. “If you look at the way this has actually been implemented across the country, DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination,” DeSantis said at a news conference at New College of Florida in Sarasota. “And that has no place in our public institutions. This bill says the whole experiment with DEI is coming to an end in the state of Florida.” Florida’s new law prohibits public colleges from spending state or federal money on DEI efforts. These programs often assist colleges in increasing student and faculty diversity, which can apply to race and ethnicity, as well as sexual orientation, religion and socioeconomic status. [DeSantis’s plan to starve college diversity efforts advances in Florida] The law also forbids public colleges from offering general education courses — those that are part of a required curriculum for all college students — that “distort significant historical events,” teach “identity politics,” or are “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, or privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, or economic inequities.” The Florida legislation has been met with backlash at both the state and national level, where higher education experts and First Amendment advocates say the state is trampling on academic freedom. “It’s basically state-mandated censorship, which has no place in a democracy,” Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors, said in a recent interview with The Washington Post. DeSantis said students who want to study “niche subjects,” such as critical race theory, ought to look elsewhere. “Florida’s getting out of that game,” he said. “If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley. Go to some of these other places.”
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
is this where we say "typical violent cultish mushbrain conservatives"? @Out of My Mind and Time ?
Why the fuck is this posted in the GOP thread? This is another prime example of how sick AMT is jumping to conclusions when you have no proof that this has anything to do with the GOP or conservatives.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
is this where we say "typical violent cultish mushbrain conservatives"? @Out of My Mind and Time ?
Why the fuck is this posted in the GOP thread? This is another prime example of how sick AMT is jumping to conclusions when you have no proof that this has anything to do with the GOP or conservatives.
The best part? You don’t have to take ol’ Keith Olbermann’s word for it as it’s referenced and footnoted in the court filing. Leads me to believe the recordings are real and authentic. This ain’t no Sydney PowI’mDisbarred legal representation. Who likes dots? Mmmmmmmm, dots!
Maybe that’s why they dropped Bull Durham’s bull today? Take some of the heat off of POOTWH and that sick fuck Ruddy Ghouliani?
is this where we say "typical violent cultish mushbrain conservatives"? @Out of My Mind and Time ?
Why the fuck is this posted in the GOP thread? This is another prime example of how sick AMT is jumping to conclusions when you have no proof that this has anything to do with the GOP or conservatives.
is this where we say "typical violent cultish mushbrain conservatives"? @Out of My Mind and Time ?
Why the fuck is this posted in the GOP thread? This is another prime example of how sick AMT is jumping to conclusions when you have no proof that this has anything to do with the GOP or conservatives.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
George Santos signs deal to avoid prosecution in Brazil over forged checks
By DIANE JEANTET and DAVID BILLER
11 May 2023
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A day after New York Rep. George Santos pleaded not guilty to charges in the U.S., he signed an agreement Thursday with public prosecutors in Brazil to avoid prosecution for forging two stolen checks in 2008.
“What would have been the start of a case was ended today,” Santos’ lawyer in Brazil, Jonymar Vasconcelos, told The Associated Press in a text message. “As such, my client is no longer the subject of any case in Brazil.”
Asked about the details of the non-prosecution agreement, Vasconcelos demurred, citing the fact the case proceeded under seal. The public prosecutors' office of Rio de Janeiro state also declined to comment when contacted by the AP.
Court records in Brazil, first uncovered by The New York Times, show Santos was the subject of a criminal charge for using two stolen checks to buy items at a shop in the city of Niteroi, including a pair of sneakers that he gifted to a friend. At the time, Santos would have been 19. The purchase totaled 2,144 Brazilian reais, then equal to about $1,350, according to the charge prosecutors filed in 2011.
That followed an investigation opened in 2008 and Santos’ signed confession, in which he admitted to having stolen the checkbook of his mother’s former employer from her purse and making purchases, including in the store, and recognizing the fraudulent checks as those he had signed, according to the court documents reviewed by the AP.
A judge accepted the charges against Santos in 2011, but subsequent subpoenas for him to appear personally or present a written defense went unanswered and, with authorities repeatedly unable to determine his whereabouts, the case was suspended in 2013. That changed after he won a U.S. congressional seat and the subsequent flurry of media attention focused on his dubious credentials. Rio state prosecutors then petitioned to reopen the case.
Per terms of the non-prosecution agreement, Santos will pay 24,000 reais (almost $5,000), with the majority going to the shopkeeper who received the bad checks and the remainder to charities, newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported, without saying how it obtained the information. Santos attended the meeting virtually, the paper reported.
Resolution of the case removes the possibility Santos might have been obliged to travel to another country to resolve pending charges; that could have been been complicated after he was forced to surrender his passport after recent charges in the U.S.
On Wednesday in New York, Santos pleaded not guilty to charges he stole from his campaign and lied to Congress about being a millionaire, while collecting unemployment benefits he didn’t deserve.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
is this where we say "typical violent cultish mushbrain conservatives"? @Out of My Mind and Time ?
Why the fuck is this posted in the GOP thread? This is another prime example of how sick AMT is jumping to conclusions when you have no proof that this has anything to do with the GOP or conservatives.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
is this where we say "typical violent cultish mushbrain conservatives"? @Out of My Mind and Time ?
Why the fuck is this posted in the GOP thread? This is another prime example of how sick AMT is jumping to conclusions when you have no proof that this has anything to do with the GOP or conservatives.
is this where we say "typical violent cultish mushbrain conservatives"? @Out of My Mind and Time ?
Why the fuck is this posted in the GOP thread? This is another prime example of how sick AMT is jumping to conclusions when you have no proof that this has anything to do with the GOP or conservatives.
Funny how you want to talk about "typical violent" when your profile picture is endorsing gun culture and violence.
Because it fits here perfectly?
Its also reasonable to think that one party’s offices get attacked , the attacker is of the opposite party. not a hard and fast rule but reasonable imo...
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
is this where we say "typical violent cultish mushbrain conservatives"? @Out of My Mind and Time ?
Why the fuck is this posted in the GOP thread? This is another prime example of how sick AMT is jumping to conclusions when you have no proof that this has anything to do with the GOP or conservatives.
Comments
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
oh they changed the name back. for this it was Lowrent Boobfart
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — With other state lawmakers seated around her in the Ohio House, Democratic state Rep. Tavia Galonski got to her feet and began to loudly chant, “One person, one vote!”
The former Teamster's cry spread quickly through the visitors gallery, then began to rise from the throng of protesters gathered outside in the statehouse rotunda. Struggling to be heard over the din, the Republican speaker ordered spectators cleared from the chamber.
Last week's striking scene came as Ohio joined a growing number of Republican-leaning states that are moving to undermine direct democracy by restricting citizens' ability to bypass lawmakers through ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments.
The Ohio proposal will ask voters during an August special election to boost the threshold for passing constitutional amendments to 60% rather than a simple majority. It also would double the number of counties where signatures must be collected, adding an extra layer of difficulty to qualifying initiatives for the ballot.
The Missouri Legislature failed to approve a similar measure on Friday, but Republicans vowed to bring the issue back in 2024 in an attempt to head off a citizens' attempt to restore abortion rights in the state through a constitutional amendment.
A similar measure will be on North Dakota's ballot next year, while one in the works in Idaho would ask voters to increase signature requirements imposed on petition gatherers. In Wisconsin, which does not allow statewide citizen initiatives, Republicans who control the Legislature have proposed prohibiting local governments from placing advisory questions on ballots. Such referenda are sometimes used to boost voter turnout, though results don’t carry the weight of law. Florida Republicans added new hurdles to that state's constitutional amendment process in 2020.
The trend has taken off as Democrats and left-leaning groups frustrated by legislative gerrymandering that locks them out of power in state legislatures are increasingly turning to the initiative process to force public votes on issues that are opposed by Republican lawmakers yet popular among voters. Only about half the states, mostly in the Western U.S., allow some form of citizen ballot initiative.
In Ohio, voters have proposed using the initiative process to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution this November, as well as to increase the minimum wage, to legalize recreational marijuana and to reform a redistricting system that has produced persistently unconstitutional political maps favoring Republicans.
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Arkansas Sen. Bryan King, a Republican who has joined the League of Women Voters in a lawsuit challenging his state's latest initiative restriction, said he views efforts to undermine the initiative process as anti-democratic.
A measure approved earlier this year by Arkansas’ majority-GOP Legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders makes it harder to get initiatives on the ballot by raising the number of counties where signatures must be gathered from 15 to 50.
“I think one of the things it does is, no matter what party is in power, when you start trying to make it harder for citizens to challenge what their government does or make changes, then it just makes people not have faith in the process,” King said. “So I do think that making it harder is wrong.”
In Ohio, former governors and attorneys general of both major parties have lined up against the proposed constitutional amendment that would alter the simple majority threshold for passing citizen-led initiative that has been in place since 1912.
Democratic legislators point to the bipartisan opposition and the maneuvering that allowed the proposal to be on an August ballot as evidence that today's Republicans are extremist in their desire to maintain political power.
Republican state Rep. Brian Stewart, the Ohio plan's sponsor, argued during last week's raucous floor session that a simple majority of voters will get to decide whether to impose the stricter requirements on future ballot initiatives.
“SJR 2 will ask Ohioans, not us, whether Ohio’s constitution should require a 60% vote threshold to adopt amendments going forward. It will ask Ohioans, not us, to decide whether all 88 counties should have a voice in determining what amendments make it onto the ballot and to eliminate the cumbersome ‘cure’ period, which gives initiative petitions effectively a do-over when they fail to meet the requirements for ballot access,” he said. “Putting this issue in front of Ohioans, that is democratic.”
What Stewart didn't address is how Republicans circumvented a law they had just passed so they could put the proposed amendment on a summertime ballot when voter turnout is typically quite low, rather than putting it before voters in the regular election this November.
Democratic Rep. Casey Weinstein called out Stewart and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, for previously opposing the very August special elections that they supported for offering the 60% question.
Weinstein read in its entirety LaRose's testimony from December advocating for the provisions of a new law — signed in January — that eliminated most August elections. LaRose argued that making big decisions, including those regarding ballot issues, in chronically low-turnout August elections “isn’t the way democracy is supposed to work” and that such elections “aren’t good for taxpayers, election officials or the civic health of our state.”
In testimony, Mark Gavin Sr., outreach director for the Black Environmental Leaders Association, referred to the U.S. Constitution's counting of enslaved people by calling the Ohio proposal “the new Three-Fifths Compromise.”
Gavin was among hundreds of protesters who packed statehouse hearings and overflow rooms, testified and marched in opposition to the Republican proposal, which he said is intended to dilute the power of individual voters.
“I’ve been a voter in Ohio for 15 years, and it’s getting really old to always have to have new rules and regulations on a ballot,” he said.
Anti-abortion and pro-gun groups were the primary forces behind the push in favor of the proposed Ohio amendment. Since the Supreme Court's decision last year overturning Roe v. Wade, voters in Michigan, Kentucky and Kansas have protected abortion rights through statewide votes.
David Couch, an attorney who has worked on citizens' initiatives in Arkansas, said Republicans' efforts to thwart direct democracy are uniquely partisan.
“If you look in Arkansas history in the '90s, when the Democrats controlled Arkansas, the conservative right passed same-sex marriage amendments, they passed adoption amendments," he said. “They passed all sorts of reforms, and the Democrats didn’t try to change the process.”
Democrats in Missouri did try to cripple the initiative process through legislation in 1992. Then-Gov. John Ashcroft, a Republican who went on to serve as U.S. attorney general, vetoed the bill. Ashcroft’s son, Jay, is the state’s current secretary of state.
"It is through the initiative process that those who have no influence with elective representatives may take their cause directly to the people," the elder Ashcroft said in a veto letter that became part of this year's debate. "The General Assembly should be reluctant, therefore, to enact legislation which places any impediments on the initiative power which are inconsistent with the reservation found in the Constitution.”
Missouri's Republican lawmakers are singing a different tune today. Fearing a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights, they vowed last week to make it a priority in 2024 to adopt a ballot measure that would establish a 57% threshold for passing future amendments.
Not all Republicans in the state think that's a good idea. Former Republican House Speaker Pro Tem Carl Bearden said the proposal would infringe on the rights of Missouri voters while noting that the initiative process is intended to be a check on the power of the Legislature.
“It is not a conservative policy,” he said of the Republican plan.
___
Associated Press writers Ayanna Alexander in Washington, Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Mo., Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
its a part of a given joke. dumbfucks think its actually Liam Neeson....
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2023/05/opponents-file-lawsuit-to-block-60-constitutional-amendment-proposal-say-lawmakers-abused-process.html
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Great job Magats!
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-stochastic-terrorism-uses-disgust-to-incite-violence/
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
-EV 8/14/93
i promise this guy would have had a gun if he could get one.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
By Jack Stripling
May 15, 2023 at 12:03 ET
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill into law Monday barring the state’s colleges and universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and limiting how race can be discussed in many courses.
The move comes amid a larger conservative attack on higher education DEI programs, which DeSantis and others say reinforce racial divisions and promote liberal orthodoxy. Supporters of the programs say they are critical to serving the nation’s increasingly diverse student populations.
“If you look at the way this has actually been implemented across the country, DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination,” DeSantis said at a news conference at New College of Florida in Sarasota. “And that has no place in our public institutions. This bill says the whole experiment with DEI is coming to an end in the state of Florida.”
Florida’s new law prohibits public colleges from spending state or federal money on DEI efforts. These programs often assist colleges in increasing student and faculty diversity, which can apply to race and ethnicity, as well as sexual orientation, religion and socioeconomic status.
[DeSantis’s plan to starve college diversity efforts advances in Florida]
The law also forbids public colleges from offering general education courses — those that are part of a required curriculum for all college students — that “distort significant historical events,” teach “identity politics,” or are “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, or privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, or economic inequities.”
The Florida legislation has been met with backlash at both the state and national level, where higher education experts and First Amendment advocates say the state is trampling on academic freedom. “It’s basically state-mandated censorship, which has no place in a democracy,” Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors, said in a recent interview with The Washington Post.
DeSantis said students who want to study “niche subjects,” such as critical race theory, ought to look elsewhere. “Florida’s getting out of that game,” he said. “If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley. Go to some of these other places.”
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
https://twitter.com/DrewWilderTV/status/1658218347643674641
Funny how you want to talk about "typical violent" when your profile picture is endorsing gun culture and violence.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Maybe that’s why they dropped Bull Durham’s bull today? Take some of the heat off of POOTWH and that sick fuck Ruddy Ghouliani?
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
I'M SO ANGRY SOMEONE HAD THE BALLS TO POST THAT HERE!
Relax Francis.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
another clear example that none of these gop big players are serious people.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A day after New York Rep. George Santos pleaded not guilty to charges in the U.S., he signed an agreement Thursday with public prosecutors in Brazil to avoid prosecution for forging two stolen checks in 2008.
“What would have been the start of a case was ended today,” Santos’ lawyer in Brazil, Jonymar Vasconcelos, told The Associated Press in a text message. “As such, my client is no longer the subject of any case in Brazil.”
Asked about the details of the non-prosecution agreement, Vasconcelos demurred, citing the fact the case proceeded under seal. The public prosecutors' office of Rio de Janeiro state also declined to comment when contacted by the AP.
Court records in Brazil, first uncovered by The New York Times, show Santos was the subject of a criminal charge for using two stolen checks to buy items at a shop in the city of Niteroi, including a pair of sneakers that he gifted to a friend. At the time, Santos would have been 19. The purchase totaled 2,144 Brazilian reais, then equal to about $1,350, according to the charge prosecutors filed in 2011.
That followed an investigation opened in 2008 and Santos’ signed confession, in which he admitted to having stolen the checkbook of his mother’s former employer from her purse and making purchases, including in the store, and recognizing the fraudulent checks as those he had signed, according to the court documents reviewed by the AP.
A judge accepted the charges against Santos in 2011, but subsequent subpoenas for him to appear personally or present a written defense went unanswered and, with authorities repeatedly unable to determine his whereabouts, the case was suspended in 2013. That changed after he won a U.S. congressional seat and the subsequent flurry of media attention focused on his dubious credentials. Rio state prosecutors then petitioned to reopen the case.
Per terms of the non-prosecution agreement, Santos will pay 24,000 reais (almost $5,000), with the majority going to the shopkeeper who received the bad checks and the remainder to charities, newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported, without saying how it obtained the information. Santos attended the meeting virtually, the paper reported.
Resolution of the case removes the possibility Santos might have been obliged to travel to another country to resolve pending charges; that could have been been complicated after he was forced to surrender his passport after recent charges in the U.S.
On Wednesday in New York, Santos pleaded not guilty to charges he stole from his campaign and lied to Congress about being a millionaire, while collecting unemployment benefits he didn’t deserve.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Its also reasonable to think that one party’s offices get attacked , the attacker is of the opposite party. not a hard and fast rule but reasonable imo...
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
-EV 8/14/93