How America's Obsolete Voting Machines Could Spark An Election Crisis in 2016

by Nomad

Without a drastic overhaul of America's antiquated voting machines, we could face a major electoral crisis in the 2016 presidential race.

A Question of Legitimacy

One of the more pernicious effects of a politically-split nation is the very real possibility that- no matter what the outcome of the elections- one side will claim the results were rigged. In this event, half the country could simply refuse to respect the legitimacy of the political system and the leader that emerges. We have come awfully close to this dreaded situation already.

Anything that encourages doubts about the validity of the election must be investigated and amended, prior to the election. Afterward, any solution comes too late.

There've been plenty of warnings in the past that the voting machine crisis was looming. Practically since their inception,  the use of voting machines have raised plenty of doubts about the reliability. Many claimed that the machines were too easy to rig, with too many opportunities to manipulate the results. Those charges come not just from the so-called tin-foil hat brigade but from highly qualified experts.

Even if one puts aside the conspiracy theories, there are still problems with the use of voting machines. Last year, a study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law noted many polling places nationwide are out of date. The report also pointed out that replacement parts are difficult to find for these machines because of their age.   

The Unsung Heroes: Fannie Hamer and Ella Baker

by Nomad

A photo of two African-American women and the story behind the image. 

Recently, I found this photo while scouring the net, totally unaware that these two women were a lot more than just patriotic Americans. 

They are that, but they are much more too. A bit of research led me to uncover who these women were and the fascinating part they played in struggle for full equality.

According to the caption, Fannie Lou Hamer (holding the flag) and Ella Baker are shown in the photo, attending the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) in 1964. The organization was formed when blacks and whites from that state came together  to challenge the legitimacy of the regular Mississippi Democratic Party (MDP). 

The MDP had refused to allow the blacks to participate even though African American made up around 40% of Mississippi's population.

Such a purposeful oversight could not be ignored. Their solution was ingenious and elegant.  With Robert Parris Moses, Hamer and Baker set up a new and more inclusive organization and called it MFDP.

Conservative Family Values and Reality: The Secret Ted Cruz's Mother Tried to Hide

by Nomad

The Party of Personal Responsibility

Recently, during the Republican debates, Presidential candidate, and Senator Ted Cruz, while taking a swing at front-runner Donald Trump, attempted to employ his brand of divisive politics by slighting New York values, presumably as a contrast to the true values of the heartland.

Along with faith and patriotism, one of those values Cruz says he prizes above all else is family. As defined by conservatives. that's a mother, father, and children under the same roof. Except for abstinence-endorsing Bristol Palin, single mothers with children born out of wedlock are strictly unwelcome. This is, after all, the party of personal responsibility.    

That's why the details of Cruz's family history come as a bit of a shock. Although the facts have been camouflaged and dates have been skillfully blurred or altered if one account is correct, the unofficial story is a different -and much more interesting- one.

Sanity Break: John Prine- Beautiful World

by Nomad

Here's How Trump Dealt with Little People Who Stood In His Way

by Nomad

A 27-year-old exposé about Donald Trump sheds some light on the character of the man who is today running for president.

Back in 1989, real estate mogul, Donald Trump worked extremely hard to keep the public from seeing the expose film, Trump: What's the Deal?
He did everything in his power to suppress its release.
It's easy to see why he thought it would damage the image he had spent years crafting. 

The battle between Trump and the producers of this documentary included public insults and threats of lawsuits and involved PR firms and dozens of attorneys. The primary financier of the project was business mogul Leonard Norman Stern, so it was something of a war of Manhattan titans. For the full story of that war, click here.

Eligibility: How Ted Cruz Got Totally Tripped up in his Tangle of Lies

by Nomad

If Ted Cruz is eligible, says one blogger, then he has been caught in yet another lie. Like Cruz, Obama's mother was American. If Obama is eligible, why have the Birthers like Cruz been slandering the president for so many years?

AMERICAblog writer, Jon Green, makes a valid point worth highlighting about Ted Cruz and the revived question of his eligibility to run as president.  

With a great deal of schadenfreude,  we on the Left can thank Donald Trump for bringing up this issue. Is Canadian-born Ted "Rafael" Cruz actually constitutionally eligible to run for president?

It's doubtful whether there's much validity to Trump's argument but it is everso enjoyable to watch Cruz squirm in the heat of the media attention. After years of leading a completely ridiculous crusade against the President's eligibility. it is fun to see the table turned. Over the years, Cruz (and Trump too) propagated vague theories about Obama's unfitness for office. And that had the easily-deceived birthers eating from Ted's palm. He didn't get to be a Tea Party favorite by his good looks and shining intellect. 

Trump's question about Cruz's eligibility appeared to be fairly simple to resolve. Cruz produced his birth certificate proving that he was born to an American mother, thus satisfying the qualifications. No matter where he was born, Canada or Russia or Kenya, so long as his mother had an American passport, he could claim American citizenship.
But the debate wouldn't die. Some leading constitutional lawyers still openly disagreed about the issue.  The Washington Post states:

In Cruz's case, nobody is disputing the underlying facts of the case -- that Cruz was born in Canada to a Cuban father and a mother who was a U.S. citizen. ... that makes him a U.S. citizen himself, but it's not 100 percent clear that that is the same thing as a "natural-born citizen" -- the requirement for becoming president.

The Post adds that while most scholars think the terms mean the same thing and that Cruz "most likely" qualifies, nobody is quite sure. It's mighty satisfying to watch Cruz getting a taste of his own bitter medicine. 

Jefferson's Take: Why Separation of Church and Government is Necessary

by Nomad