French Roast News

Anne is reading …

Mitt Romney photo by J.D. Pooley/Getty ImagesSlate Magazine discourses on a topic very important to AOC readers: facts. It’s not only a dangerous time for lack of reasoned discourse in America; it’s a tough time for facts and transparency of any kind among our politicians.

Mitt Romney says that the reason he’s not releasing his tax returns is that the Obama team will “pick over it” and “distort and lie about them”.

Last week Senate Republicans filibustered the DISCLOSE Act. “Republicans are in favor of disclosure,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) said in 2000 on NBC’s “Meet the Press”.

“I don’t like it when a large source of money is out there funding ads and is unaccountable,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said in 2010. “To the extent we can, I tend to favor disclosure,’ cited The Washington Post last week.

Today Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell refuses to consider full disclosure, calling it an “enemies list”.

“This amounts to nothing more than member and donor harassment and intimidation, and it’s all part of a broader government-led intimidation effort by this administration. There are parallel efforts at the FCC, SEC, IRS, DoJ, and the White House itself to silence its critics. The creation of a modern day Nixonian enemies list is currently in full swing and, frankly, the American people should not stand for it. As I’ve said before, no individual or group in this country should have to face harassment or intimidation, or incur crippling expenses defending themselves against their own government, simply because that government doesn’t like the message they’re advocating.”

Republicans, led by Mitt Romney, are telling all Americans that our nation should no longer have any information about campaign contributors, where they got their cash or anything about their agendas.

It’s important to note that even the ultra conservative Justice Scalia disagrees with Mitch McConnell. Slate cites his position on disclosure and transparency:

There are laws against threats and intimidation; and harsh criticism, short of unlawful action, is a price our people have traditionally been willing to pay for self-governance. Requiring people to stand up in public for their political acts fosters civic courage, without which democracy is doomed.

Someone needs to explain this civic virtues of transparency and information to Republicans. Is it not the foundation of a free society?

The Right To Vote

PA’s Voter ID Law Large

As the Justice Department prepares to look into the legality of Pennsylvania’s new voter ID law, lawyers for the state acting as defendants in the case, say they will offer no evidence that there is a problem with voter fraud in the state, past or future.

From the inception, voter fraud in Pennsylvania or any other state has been a miniscule number, even though its possibility as served as the ideological argument for new laws that disproportionately disenfranchise poor people and the elderly.

Huffington Post writes:

Pennsylvania GOP House Majority Leader Mike Turzai fueled the concerns of anti-voter ID activists earlier this year when he claimed that the recently enacted measure would “allow Gov. [Mitt] Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania.”

Estimates are that the new laws will impact more than 758,000 voters in PA, with a large number located in Philadelphia, a city that votes Democratic.

Personhood Fails in Montana

Supporters of a drive to put a personhood amendment on the ballot in Montana failed to muster up the 48,674 signatures needed to put the issue before voters in November.

“Personhood” for fertilized eggs has failed everywhere it has come to the voters — twice in Colorado by overwhelming margins and most recently in conservative Mississippi by 16 points.

In an interesting piece for the The Clarion Ledger, conservative writer, and Bible Belt believer Natalie Winningham makes the point that the fight against personhood bills is not only coming from progressive women.

The push back against personhood initiatives by conservative women represents a rebellion against the government assuming a role as morality police, with lawmakers openly wanting to participate in creating legislation that controls women’s bodies.

Many conservative women who are pro-life personally are also pro-choice, rejecting governmental control — and especially in the name of religion — over women’s beings.

One Third of US Births ‘Unintended’: CDC

In a number that has remained constant from 1982 to 2010, a new government report confirms again that 37 percent of US births are unintended. The only group that has made progress in declining the percent of unplanned pregnancies are married white women.

In 1982, white women accounted for 66% of all births. In 2006-2010 they accounted for 43%.