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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Update: Federal panel refuses to suspend interim map


The crux of the dispute is whether the Legislature created enough majority-minority districts to reflect the state's minority-driven population boom

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By Nolan Hicks
San Antonio Express-News
Published Nov. 25, 2011

Read the complete story
Texas AG Greg Abbott
A three-judge federal court in San Antonio on Friday rejected Attorney General Greg Abbott's request, made Wednesday, to suspend enforcement of its own interim Texas House and Senate redistricting plans.

The majority in the 2-1 vote wrote that the state's lawyers had confused key points of the Voting Rights Act and “misinterpreted” key case law throughout the map-drawing process.

“You have to show irreparable harm, and it's really pretty hard to show irreparable harm in an election,” said Michael Li, an elections law expert who has been closely tracking the redistricting trial. “The state's argument is the same argument that Democrats tried to use in 2004,” which the Supreme Court rejected.

Abbott said he would ask the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay.

Earlier Friday, Abbott slammed changes proposed by the same federal panel to the congressional map in a legal filing, claiming the court overstepped its bounds. Abbott accused it of “undermining the democratic process.”

The panel, which oversaw a key redistricting trial in San Antonio, proposed significant changes to the Legislature's congressional redistricting plan that could give Democrats three more congressional seats and put another three seats in play.

13 comments:

Song Smith said...

John Lennon:

Everybody's talking
and no one says a word
Everybody's making love
and no one really cares
There's fascists in the bathroom
just below the stairs

Always something happening
and nothing going on
There's always something cooking
and nothing in the pot
They're starving back in Africa
so finish what you got

Everybody's runnin'
and no one makes a move
Everyone's a winner
and nothing left to lose
There's a little yellow idol
to the north of Katmandu

Everybody's flying
and no one leaves the ground
Everybody's crying
and no one makes a sound
There's a place for us in movies
you just gotta pay around

Everybody's smoking
and no one's getting high
Everybody's flying
but never touch the sky
Their demonstrating in New York and I ain't too surprised

Nobody told me there'd be days like these
Nobody told me there'd be days like these
Nobody told me there'd be days like these
Strange days indeed -- most peculiar, mama

Emancipator said...

The Texas Republican trash is using the same “The state's argument is the same argument that Democrats tried to use in 2004,” which the Supreme Court rejected.

Of course Abbott and the other right wing fascists in Austin want the law to be allowed as an exception to the Democrats.

But don't be surprised if the incompetent and corrupted right wing of the US Supreme Court does what they did with baby Bush in Florida 2000 and with the Citizens United scam - sell out to the elite criminals who are destroying our nation.

Anonymous said...

@the emancipator

Why so bitter?

E said...

I have a cold

Rocky Boschert said...

To the Anonymous who asks why Emancipator is so bitter over the Republicans, how about this:

The now leading Republican Presidential candidate has stated that janitors at public schools should be fired - and the district should abolish child labor laws and hire poor kids to do the work, at a time when poor children are falling further and further behind academically?

Or the fact that this same Presidential candidate said when he was House Speaker back in the 1990s that children of welfare recipients maybe should be removed from their homes by government welfare offices. And that includes white children as well.

Do you really need to ask Emancipator why he is so bitter at the current crop of clowns calling themselves the best of the Republican leadership?

Sure, Obama sold out to Wall Street and the macho man military-industrial-security complex, but intelligent or even common sense Republicans should be ashamed at their leadership.

How about this for a perfect example of the Republican Pres debates - when asked about solving the immigration problem:

Compulsive flip-flopper candidate # 1 says: We should built a huge wall at the border.

Texas Dumbkopf candidate 2 says: We should build a second huge wall next to the first wall.

Homophobic female candidate # 3 says: We should install a moat between the two fences.

Sexual predator candidate # 4 says: We should eletrocute the two fences.

Two time elitist philanderer candidate # 5 says: Have drones fly over the electrofied, moated double fences.

A viable solution to the illegal immigration problem, or pandering nonsense to hate monger xenophobes?

Where are the sane REP candidates like Jon Huntsman, Buddy Roemer, or even Ron Paul?

Is "disgusted" a better description than "bitter?"

And where is the integrity and intelligence of Republican voters?

Ministry of Silly Walks said...

To E:

What ho! A Python fan!

Les said...

"Both three-judge panels contain two judges appointed by Republican presidents."

Not exactly a Democratic conspiracy.

Independent Voter said...

Or how about Obama's plan to cut payroll taxes to the tune of about $1,500.00 per middle income American family AND impose a 3% + tax surcharge on the top 1/2% of income earners.

The Rich Party's (Republican) representatives voted it down, saying it wouldn't make a difference re: the budget deficit.

That is not the point, Republican Party numbskulls.

Why so bitter? That's why!

jwigginsburns said...

Rocky, Emancipator, Independent-you all pretty much stole my thunder. Great points, all.

Rocky B. said...

"jwigginsburns" gets it.

I would like social conservatives -especially those of you who support intrusive and degrading mandatory abortions for pregnant women contemplating a last resort abortion - to answer this question:

Why is Herman Cain's decade plus extramarital affair a "campaign killer" - while the alleged predatory sexual harassment of THREE women who worked with Herman Cain NOT a campaign killer?

In fact, many Republicans apparently sent Cain MORE money after his first sexual harrassment allegation.

Is that "family values?"

Anonymous said...

Rocky says:

"Why is Herman Cain's decade plus extramarital affair a "campaign killer" - while the alleged predatory sexual harassment of THREE women who worked with Herman Cain NOT a campaign killer?"

While I don't think Cain stands a chance of being elected, I certainly won't convict him on unsubstantiated allegations. Rather, I will wait for the truth to come out.

Anonymous said...

Herman Cain didn't have a chance anyway. He was unqualified all along and his sexual problems were just the frosting on the cake of his failure.

I question the personal history of Newt Gingrich in the family values factor. He cheated on his first wife while she was on her death bed, which is a little understandable.

But to do it a second time seems reckless. But maybe Newt is OK because he at least "married" both of his known mistresses.

Yet I find it very weird that he said he cheated because he was under so much stress trying to be "patriotic" as a workaholic Congressman.

I support Ron Paul. He is kind of a goober looking and acting guy so he probably doesn't have the same sexual opportunities that the Hermanator and Newtie did (although Newt's wife looks like an aging Barbie doll made in an AARP cosmetics lab).

Mitt the Mannequin is a political weasel, so that ends that vote for me.

Rocky B. said...

Anonymous says:

"While I don't think Cain stands a chance of being elected, I certainly won't convict him on unsubstantiated allegations. Rather, I will wait for the truth to come out."

While I don't want to be a local Nancy Grace here, that is an ironically generous response to Cain's troubles.

So, Anonymous, do you really think Cain is going to stay in the race so the "truth" can come out? Not a chance. He knows what the "truth" is (although he may not think his distorted "privilege" to allegedly harass women for sexual favors is something that is a disqualifying factor).

What I find interesting is how the "truth" that at least two women were paid off with a financial settlement by Cain's past employer (NRA) is NOT considered "the truth" by the right wing.

Do you really think the NRA with all their power and money would pay off TWO women just for convenience if the allegations were not true? Get real.

Apparently, to the right wing, THREE professionally educated women cannot be trusted - and are clearly hussies (until proven not guilty) that will exploit a "good man" for a quick buck or for some pathological celebrity.

Or is it now because Cain is a Rebublican black man who is being attacked by the racist liberal press?

Again, the political "family values" on the right has strange bedfellows, pun intended.

God I loathe hypocrisy.