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Stories tagged with “League of Women Voters”

NEWS FLASH

Romney Conference Call On Women To Feature Another Anti-Pay Equity Republican Congresswoman | Yesterday, Mitt Romney’s campaign enlisted Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) to attack President Obama’s record on women’s issues, despite the fact that both had voted against two signature Obama administration efforts designed to fight pay discrimination against women. Today, the campaign announced a conference call to continue the bizarre attacks featuring three Republican women. The call will feature Rodgers and another Congresswoman, Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), who also voted against both the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. A third Romney supporter on the call, first-term Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), was not yet in Congress when the votes came up.

Justice

South Carolina Considering Bill That Would Drive League Of Women Voters Out Of Palmetto State

By Scott Keyes on Feb 29, 2012 at 1:00 pm

Last year, the Florida legislature passed a bill enacting requirements for groups conducting voter registration drives so onerous that even the League of Women Voters were forced to pull out of the state. Sensible individuals would see this episode as a cautionary tale. South Carolina legislators view it instead as a how-to guide.

This week, the South Carolina House will consider HB 4549, a bill that mimics Florida’s changes to its voter registration laws. Among the changes contained in the bill is a new requirement that voter registration groups must submit registration applications within 48 hours of completion or face a fine of up to $1,000 per application. It has already been approved by the House Judiciary Committee and faces good prospects in the overall House, which Republicans control 76-48.

A similar 48-hour requirement is precisely what forced the League of Women Voters out of the Sunshine State. Now, the same could happen in South Carolina.

HB 4549 “would make it very difficult for the LWV to register voters in South Carolina,” Barbara Zia, co-president of the League of Women Voters of South Carolina told ThinkProgress. If it’s passed in its present form, Zia said, “the League could not afford the liability and risk that it would entail to continue registering voters in South Carolina.”

Voter registration drives disproportionately benefit minorities and low-income communities. Last election cycle, black voters were four times as likely as white voters to register via a registration drive.

South Carolina is already hurting in the voter turnout arena. In 2010, the state ranked just 36th in turnout. If the legislature succeeds in passing these new restrictions, that ranking will surely drop further.

Security

Fox Pundit Says Women In The Military Should ‘Expect’ To Be Raped

By Ben Armbruster on Feb 13, 2012 at 2:04 pm

Fox News contributor Liz Trotta

The Pentagon announced new rules last week easing the ban on women serving in combat. While conservatives like Rick Santorum are a little uneasy with the news, the announcement only formalizes military practices that were already taking place.

But Fox News contributor Liz Trotta’s commentary on the matter took the issue to a whole other level. She’s not really concerned about the “controversy” surrounding the Pentagon’s announcement. For Trotta, the issue is having “women once more, the feminist, going, wanting to be warriors and victims at the same time.” She cited a recent Pentagon report that violent sex crimes in the military have increased over the last 6 years and said women should “expect” it, decrying more levels of bureaucracy to support women who have been “raped too much“:

TROTTA: But while all of this is going on, just a few weeks ago, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta commented on a new Pentagon report on sexual abuse in the military. I think they have actually discovered there is a difference between men and women. And the sexual abuse report says that there has been, since 2006, a 64% increase in violent sexual assaults. Now, what did they expect? These people are in close contact, the whole airing of this issue has never been done by Congress, it’s strictly been a question of pressure from the feminist.

And the feminists have also directed them, really, to spend a lot of money. They have sexual counselors all over the place, victims’ advocates, sexual response coordinators. … So, you have this whole bureaucracy upon bureaucracy being built up with all kinds of levels of people to support women in the military who are now being raped too much.

To his credit, Fox host Eric Shawn tried to talk Trotta down a bit. “You certainly want the people fighting the war to be protected from anything that could be illegal,” he said. But Trotta wouldn’t have it. “Nice try Eric,” she said, “This whole question of women in the military has not been aired properly, and it’s the great sleeping giant.” Watch the clip via Media Matters:

Just to clarify, Trotta complained about government supporting women who have been “raped too much,” a statement seeming to imply that there is an acceptable amount of rape one can or should endure in order to prevent more layers of bureaucracy from swooping in to help out.

Climate Progress

People Not Polluters: The Clean Air Promise

By Brad Johnson on Aug 10, 2011 at 10:28 am

The League of Women Voters has launched a major, nationwide campaign in defense of the EPA’s work to give Americans clean air. The People Not Polluters campaign asks Americans and their elected officials to join the Clean Air Promise:

I promise to protect America’s children and families from dangerous air pollution. Because toxics and pollutants such as mercury, smog, carbon, and soot, cause thousands of hospital visits, asthma attacks, and even deaths, I will support clean air policies and other protections that scientists and public health experts have recommended to the EPA to safeguard our air quality.

Watch the campaign spot:

LWV is mobilizing its members to tell personal stories of the cost of asthma for children and families, including outreach to vulnerable populations like seniors, Latinos, and African Americans.

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