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Florida GOP Passes Radical Overhaul Of Election Law, Jeopardizing Voting Rights Of Elderly, Military, Students

By Tanya Somanader on May 9, 2011 at 7:30 pm

A growing number of GOP-led states are launching a concerted effort to severely impede and disenfranchise voters across the country. Last Thursday, the Florida legislature did its part by passing a 128-page “sweeping rewrite” of the state’s elections laws with “head-spinning speed” that now heads to Gov. Rick Scott (R) for signature. Passed along a party-line vote, the bill — HB 1355 — contains several provisions that drastically alter election laws to disadvantage and disenfranchise voters across the state:

– Forces Provisional Ballots: The bill eliminates a long-standing provision that allows people to change their address or name at the polls. For four decades, Florida allowed those with proper photo ID whose name or address had changed due to marriage, or divorce, or a move by a military family to update that information on Election Day. Under HB 1355, those changes would only be allowed for voters moving within the same county. Otherwise, a voter will not have to cast a provisional ballot and later provide identification to the supervisor of elections. As one Florida supervisor of elections told the Florida Independent, the provision is “disturbing” as provisional ballots are often reserved for close races and thus “go uncounted.”

– Cuts Early Voting: HB 1355 also cuts the time for early voting from 14 days to eight. The early voting reform was among former Gov. Charlie Crist’s (R-FL) election reforms to “prevent embarrassments like the 2000 election.” As the Miami Herald’s Joy-Ann Reid notes, “It was a hard-won victory for working people who sometimes can’t get to the polls if they work odd hours, or run out of time to resolve a problem at the polls.” According to Reid, in 2008, black churches and college students “took full advantage of the extra time” — two groups that overwhelmingly voted for President Obama.

– Invalidates Absentee Ballots: The bill severely undercuts the absentee ballot. Under this bill, absentee ballots are determined illegal if the voter’s signature on the certificate does not match the signature on record.” As the Herald-Tribune notes, this will affect “voters who suffer from arthritis, strokes and other ailments that affect their handwriting. Those who fail to update their signatures in time would be out of luck.” The bill states that, if elections results are contested, a court cannot “consider any evidence other than the signatures on the voter’s certificate and the signature of the elector in the registration records” in determining the ballots validity.

– Fines Third Party Voting Groups: Third-party voter registration groups, such as the non-partisan League of Women voters, the NAACP, and the Boy Scouts are also targeted by HB 1355 by requiring these groups to turn in registration cards within 48 hours of signature or face fines. Voter groups note that “the requirement would be difficult to meet if they are registering thousands of voters at a time.” Because of the “undue burden” this provision places on “thousands of volunteers,” the League of Women Voters — an organization with a “91-year history of registering and educating voters” — announced today that it will “cease [its] voter registration efforts in this state” should HB 1355 become law

Florida Republicans conjured up the often-used but non-existent specter of voter fraud to legitimize this comprehensive blow to voters’ rights. Bill sponsor state Rep. Dennis Baxley (R) said the goal was “to have a smooth process going into the next election cycle.” However, the Florida Department of State noted that “there were just 31 cases of alleged voter fraud” between 2008 and 2011, only two of which resulted in arrests. What’s more, “after the electoral debacles earlier in the decade,” Florida developed a database that allows poll workers to check if an individual already voted and to confirm voter identities. Citing the complete lack of need for HB 1355, numerous state publications and critics note that this is most likely intended to cripple low-income voters, seniors, students, and minorities who tend to lean Democrat.

In response to this overreach, an incensed Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) informed the governor in a letter that if Scott doesn’t veto the bill, he will have to answer to the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ). Florida is one of 9 states that, under the Voting Rights Acts, must get federal clearance for “any changes to election laws that could impact racial, ethnic or language minorities.” Nelson said today on the Senate floor that he has alerted the DOJ Civil Rights division about the potential violation and will seek an investigation into the law should it pass.

Though generally thought to support the bill, Scott “declined to take a position” on HB 1355, offering “I want to make sure people vote.” “The things I’m going to look at is ‘Does it increase the chance for people to stay active,’” he asked. The answer is a definitive, unequivocal no.

Yglesias

Endgame

By Matthew Yglesias on May 9, 2011 at 7:28 pm

Do do do it again:

— It’s the details that matter most (see boring Medicare link at the end for more).

— The Berlin neighborhood that defies Germany’s demographic trends.

— The biggest gains would come from taller buildings in DC’s central business district.

— How Bush lost Bin Laden.

— Gideon Rachman reviews the new John Ikenberry.

— Some ideas on reforming physician payment systems in Medicare (yes, as boring as it sounds).

Edwyn Collins, “Do It Again”.

Yglesias

What’s In A Word?

By Matthew Yglesias on May 9, 2011 at 6:56 pm

The American Prospect has a cool feature where they ask people to write short columns about a book or cultural artifact that’s influenced them. The current issue has me on WVO Quine’s Word and Object:

It’s tempting (and conventional) to imagine language working neatly through such correspondences. Each word refers to some object in the world; each sentence describes a fact. Quine’s somewhat fanciful speculations on radical translation serve to undermine this account of meaning. Language is a social phenomenon, and languages are social practices with no guarantee of such direct correspondences. Quine observes that if we hear of a place where the local inhabitants describe pelicans as their half-brothers, it would be foolish to interpret this as a sign of profound genetic misunderstanding on their part. Instead, we see that their words don’t quite line up with ours, and a concept exists that somehow refers to half-brothers and pelicans alike. [...]

Those of us who try to describe the world for a living aren’t just poor handmaidens of those who try to uncover the truth about it. Nor are we all, as Plato had it, dupes gazing at shadows, unable to perceive the real light projected from behind us. Rather, the process of description is the process of discovery. Language and science are, together, a joint process of discovery. Quine uses the phrase “ontic decision” to bypass the traditional question of what kinds of things are “real” as opposed to merely nominal. As he puts it, “The quest of a simplest, clearest overall pattern of canonical notation is not to be distinguished from a quest of ultimate categories, a limning of the most general traits of reality.” To paraphrase loosely — no doubt a bit too loosely for the tastes of one of the most precise writers I’ve ever read — a writer’s search for better, clearer, more concise descriptions of what we know is fundamentally of a piece with the searches for new knowledge.

Economy

Boehner Admits It’s ‘Irresponsible’ To Not Raise Debt Ceiling, Still Takes It Hostage For ‘Trillions’ In Cuts

By Pat Garofalo on May 9, 2011 at 6:40 pm

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) has been having a hard time playing both sides of the debate over whether or not to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. On the one hand, he admits that failure to do so would be a “disaster” and that Republicans need to to “deal with it as adults.” But on the other, he’s trying to placate Tea Partiers within the GOP caucus by claiming that Republicans won’t raise the debt ceiling unless Congressional Democrats and the Obama administration accept spending cuts and budget reforms.

Boehner is traveling to Manhattan tonight to deliver a speech to the Economic Club of New York, in an attempt “to lay out a strategy for raising the debt ceiling to a crowd heavy on Wall Street players who are anxiously watching the fierce debate over the debt ceiling unfold.” And according to excerpts released this afternoon, Boehner is still trying to walk the fine line between placating the fringe elements in his party and acknowledging that allowing the U.S. to hit its debt limit is not an option:

It’s true that allowing America to default would be irresponsible. But it would be more irresponsible to raise the debt ceiling without simultaneously taking dramatic steps to reduce spending and reform the budget process. To increase the debt limit without simultaneously addressing the drivers of our debt — in defiance of the will of our people — would be monumentally arrogant and massively irresponsible. It would send a signal to investors and entrepreneurs everywhere that America still is not serious about dealing with our spending addiction…Without significant spending cuts and reforms to reduce our debt, there will be no debt limit increase. And the cuts should be greater than the accompanying increase in debt authority the president is given. We should be talking about cuts of trillions, not just billions.

This is similar to remarks made by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), who said at a National Press club event that failing to raise the debt ceiling is “unworkable,” then proceeded to take it hostage anyway. But as the Wall Street Journal’s Paul Gigot pointed out to Ryan, “you have to pass a debt ceiling increase, so that’s a hostage you’re not prepared to shoot, ’cause you can’t.” Indeed, failing to raise the debt ceiling would have several severe consequences for the U.S. and world economy, and would increase America’s budget costs significantly.

But at the same time that Boehner’s taking the creditworthiness of the country hostage for huge cuts that would severely impact the middling economic recovery, he’s ruled tax increases entirely “off the table,” proving that he doesn’t actually care all that much about reducing the deficit. He’s simply trying to win concessions for something that even he acknowledges his party has to vote to do anyway.

Politics

Texas GOP Rams Koch-Backed ‘Loser Pays’ Bill Through House, Making It Harder To Sue Corporations

By Travis Waldron on May 9, 2011 at 6:30 pm

As ThinkProgress has reported, brothers Charles and David Koch and their corporate giant, Koch Industries, have played an extensive role in the corporate takeover of government, both at the state and federal level. This weekend, another of the Kochs’ projects surfaced in Texas, as the state’s Republican lawmakers rammed through a Koch-backed bill that would make it harder for consumers, workers, and small business owners to bring civil suits against corporations.

House Bill 274 — dubbed the “Loser Pays” bill — passed the state House Saturday with no amendments and no debate after Gov. Rick Perry (R) deemed it “emergency legislation,” rushing it to the top of the legislative agenda. Under the bill, those who sue corporations could be held responsible for the defendants’ legal fees if they lose the case — and in some instances, even if they win. If the court sides with the plaintiff, but awards a smaller amount than the defendant offered in a potential settlement, the plaintiff could be forced to pay the defendant’s court costs, even if those costs exceed the amount awarded to the plaintiff. For this reason, state Rep. Craig Eiland (D) wanted to rename the bill the “loser-pays-but-sometimes-the-winner pays-too” bill.

The law could intimidate potential plaintiffs into avoiding lawsuits against corporations, because they could be on the hook for massive legal fees if the court ultimately doesn’t side with them.

Not surprisingly, among the bill’s biggest proponent are large corporations, including Koch Industries, Chevron, and G.E., which all lobbied on its behalf. Also backing the bill is the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a non-profit front group funded largely by corporations, including Koch Industries and three other Koch-owned companies: Georgia Pacific, Invista, and Flint Hills Resources.

These companies stand to gain tremendously from the legislation, as it could both reduce their legal fees in specific cases and have a chilling effect on lawsuits more generally. And Koch’s business practices have made them a frequent target of expensive lawsuits. In Texas, for example, Koch’s refinery in Corpus Cristi has a history of leaking Benzene, a hazardous chemical linked to cancer, and was indicted in 2000 on 97 counts for violating EPA rules.

As the public interest group Texas Watch found, Florida experimented with its own version of the law, only to realize its ineffectiveness and abandon it just five years later:

As the Duke Law Journal notes, proponents are “diplomatically silent about Florida’s unsuccessful experience.” A former president of the nation’s oldest association of civil defense lawyers put it bluntly: “They tried it in Florida, and it was a disaster.”

The bill’s proponents also claim that the law is needed to curb frivolous lawsuits that are supposedly plaguing the Texas court system. But Texas already has sanctions regarding frivolous lawsuits, including the repayment of attorney fees, and a recent study by the Baylor Law Review found that 86 percent of Texas judges did not believe additional regulations were needed.

Recent court proceedings in Texas provide a snapshot of exactly how a “loser pays” law could play out. Last week, the ultra-conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Texas cheerleader who refused to cheer for her alleged rapist and forced her to pay $45,000 in legal fees accrued by the school district she sued.

If Texas Republicans, Koch Industries, and other corporations have their way and HB 274 is signed into law, similar results will become much more common.

Yglesias

Jackson Diehl Hits Western Leaders For Not Ending Syria Repression With Magical Fairy Dust

By Matthew Yglesias on May 9, 2011 at 6:14 pm

Today’s Jackson Diehl column is like the Platonic ideal of a DC foreign policy column. He’s really, really, really furious about Barack Obama for not doing “more” to block the Syrian government’s violent repression of anti-government protests and he goes on for some length about it all without mentioning a single efficacious step he’d like to see Obama take. And the column contains the following amazing paragraph:

No one in Syria has asked for a Libya-style military intervention, and nothing else the United States and Europe could do, even in concert, would probably be decisive. But why do so little, and so slowly?

What is the big mystery here? The Obama administration is doing “so little” because nobody can think of any reasonable steps to take. That’s sad. It’s frustrating even. I bet policymakers in the White House, in the State Department, and in the Department of Defense are upset about it. But what are they supposed to do? Genuinely: what? They could just make increasingly bombastic statements, but that would just make them look silly. They could attack Syria, but they shouldn’t. And short of that, there doesn’t seem to be anything else they could do, even in concert, that would be decisive. It’s all right there in the column.

One of the luxuries one has as a writer is that “write a furious denunciation of Assad in which I say mean things about him and his regime” is a totally viable response to events. But the head of government of a major global power can’t just say stuff unless he’s got a plan to back it up with action.

Climate Progress

Why clean energy can scale today

By Stephen Lacey on May 9, 2011 at 6:14 pm

Introducing energy reporter Stephen Lacey

StephenLaceyI am delighted to announce that ClimateProgress has a new journalist/blogger/podcaster-extraordinaire, Stephen Lacey.  He is joining us after 5 years at renewableenergyworld.com.  He will be reporting and pod-casting on a range of issues, but focusing especially on the reality of clean energy today — how it is ready to scale up — while kicking the tires on what works and what doesn’t here and around the world.

I asked CP readers weeks ago, “What would you like to know about clean energy?” and “What investigative reporting would you like to see?“  We are going to deliver as much of what you asked for as possible in the coming year.

Join me in welcoming Lacey, whose introductory post follows:

Throughout my years covering clean energy, I’ve found that people involved in the field generally fall into two camps. The first camp – typically made up of investors, engineers and developers in the business of renewable energy – argues that clean energy can scale to high penetrations with current technologies. The second camp – made up of a diverse group of doubters, spin artists, cautious supporters and high-minded futurists – believes that we can only bring renewables to scale with dramatic breakthroughs in technology.

Read more

Climate Progress

May 9 new: Denmark tops cleantech producers, with China #2, U.S. #17; Reid preps bill to cut oil subsidies

By Sean Pool on May 9, 2011 at 6:13 pm

Denmark tops list of clean technology producers; China is No. 2; US at 17 is rapidly expanding

Denmark earns the biggest share of its national revenue from producing windmills and other clean technologies, the United States is rapidly expanding its clean-tech sector, but no country can match China’s pace of growth, according to a new report obtained by The Associated Press.

China’s production of green technologies has grown by a remarkable 77 per cent a year, according to the report, which was commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature and which will be unveiled on Monday at an industry conference in Amsterdam.

Read more

Health

Florida Hands Over Medicaid Program To Private Insurers

By Igor Volsky on May 9, 2011 at 6:00 pm

On Friday, the Florida legislature passed two bills that would shift hundreds of thousands of poor and elderly beneficiaries in Medicaid onto private HMOs and “other types of managed-care plans.” Under the proposal — which Gov. Rick Scott (R) is expected to sign — seniors with long-term care needs would be required to enroll in private health coverage by October 2013 and women and children would have to begin participating in October 2014. Beneficiaries with developmental disabilities would be excluded from the requirement.

Proponents claim that the change would “hold down spiraling costs in the $20 billion program, while also improving a fragmented system of care.” But the date is far less conclusive. In fact, a five-county Medicaid pilot program that tested the idea of whether “privatization would save the state money while improving services” found widespread complaints and little evidence of savings. From an analysis by Georgetown University:

This study concluded that the pilots were saving money, but did not account for the cost of the enhanced benefits program and increased administrative costs associated with the pilot.

The study also concluded that it was not possible to assess whether these savings were a result of reduced access to care or more efficient provision of services. … Much critical information is still lacking about the impact of Florida’s Medicaid pilots, including whether or not the pilots have saved money – and if they have whether the savings came at the expense of needed care. [...]

Market instability and plan turnover have resulted in significant changes in beneficiary plan assignments over the past three years, which is likely to have caused disruptions in care for children, people with disabilities and other vulnerable populations.

Other cash strapped states are strongly considering partnering with private insurers, but the evidence on the degree to which managed care actually accomplishes these goals varies. Medicaid patients in some states seem to have better access to doctors, while other surveys have found that overall improvements in access associated with managed care are minimal.

States view managed care as way to reduce their Medicaid expenditures, but they have to ensure that private payers aren’t looking out for short term profits by denying treatments or reducing reimbursement rates. Florida’s expansion of managed care — which still has to be approved by the federal government — will serve as a test of that criticism, even if the results of its pilot program are already less than promising.

Economy

9 In 10 Americans Blame Wall Street And Big Oil For Spiking Gas Prices

By Brad Johnson on May 9, 2011 at 5:45 pm

Exxon profitsAmericans know who’s to blame for spiking gas prices: Big Oil and Wall Street.

As oil prices have skyrocketed, sending gas prices surging to $4 a gallon or more around the nation, American families have suffered. Although the surging prices threaten the national economic recovery as Americans cut back their household spending and driving, oil companies and commodity speculators have reaped billion-dollar payouts. Fossil-funded conservatives blame environmental regulations and President Obama, but a new poll by Opinion Research Corporation for CNN shows that the American public, no matter what party, know that they can just follow the money to find who’s to blame. Nine out of ten Americans believe that oil companies and speculators are to blame for the recent increase in gas prices:

– 89 percent of Americans believe oil companies deserve a great deal of (61 percent) or some (27 percent) blame for the recent increase in gas prices.

– 90 percent of Americans believe Wall Street speculators deserve a great deal of (59 percent) or some (31 percent) blame for the recent increase in gas prices.

Remarkably, the poll found that a majority of Americans of every ideological stripe — Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative — believe that oil companies and speculators deserve a great deal of blame for gas prices. Only self-identified Tea Party supporters break with the rest of the American public, with about 4 in 10 putting the onus on Big Oil and Wall Street.

By comparison, only a quarter of Americans believe that Obama, Republicans, or environmental policies deserve a great deal of blame. (About half of Tea Partiers put most of the blame on Obama and environmental regulations.)

Goldman Sachs, a top commodity speculator, smashed investor estimates with its first-quarter profits, just after admitting a speculative bubble was driving up oil prices and hurting the US economy. Exxon made $5 million an hour the first three months of this year, while complaining that Congress is considering taking away the tax subsidies that have allowed it to pay zero income taxes. Koch Industries, as a top oil distributor, refiner, and trader, is funneling a fraction of its billion-dollar profits to conservative politicians and lobbyists who fight oil market regulation. Glencore, the world’s largest diversified commodities trader, is planning one of the largest IPOs in history, creating four new billionaires and several hundred millionaires.

Republicans in Congress are now fighting attempts to rein in speculators and end subsidies for oil companies.

Cross-posted on the Wonk Room.

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