appal_jack
appal_jack's JournalThe Fifth Amendment is NOT exclusively about criminal matters.
Amendment V
No person shall be... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
There are bits in-between about processes relating to criminal indictments and trials, but the Fifth Amendment serves as a restriction on what government may and may not do under any and all circumstances. Saying that something is a civil matter does not exempt the government from abiding by Fifth Amendment protections.
Demanding that the government abide by the Constitution is good citizenship. Save the Teabagging accusations for idiots who can't spell Medicare properly on signs saying that the gubmint needs to get their hands off it.
-app
Repub efforts at student vote suppression in Boone, NC fail. Spectacularly.
Cross-posting from the NC Forum for wider visibility. For original, see:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10695400
As mentioned in the original thread, I (appal_jack) am typing this with a newborn NC progressive in my arms, so I won't be able to participate in this thread much, but please spread the good news:
Minutes after the State Board of Elections selected an early-voting site on the campus of Appalachian State University for the general election on Wednesday afternoon, the N.C. Supreme Court stepped in and allowed a stay against an early-voting site on the college campus.
“It happened almost immediately,” said Ian O’Keefe, a member of the Watauga County Democratic Party.
The State Board of Elections held a special meeting at 4 p.m. on Wednesday to select the early-voting site. The board members unanimously chose the Price Lake Room in the Plemmons Student Union from among multiple recommendations from ASU officials and members of the Watauga County Board of Elections.
Enthusiasm of the local Democrats quickly dissipated initially as news spread that the N.C. Supreme Court had taken up the issue and allowed a stay against an early-voting site on the campus, which would mean that the State Board of Elections wasn’t legally bound to have an early-voting site on the campus and that the constitutional matter of no early voting at ASU could be decided by the courts after the general election.
“I am pretty disappointed … I think the Supreme Court decided to do something against the will of the people, and the will of this county, and they are actively engaging in voter suppression, and with the highest court in our state to be involved in that is disappointing,” O’Keefe said minutes after the N.C. Supreme Court ruling. “I think they should be ashamed of themselves, and their actions do not warrant their position.”
However, State Board of Elections spokesman Josh Lawson noted that the N.C. Supreme Court’s ruling didn’t void the State Board of Elections decision to have an early voting site on the campus of Appalachian State University.
“The State Board can adopt a new voting plan for a county really at any time,” Lawson said, adding that the State Board of Elections made the unanimous decision moments before the N.C. Supreme Court’s stay because it thought it was “under legal requirements” to do so.
“Unless the State Board were to meet again and establish a new plan for the county, the plan approved unanimously for [Watauga by the SBOE on Wednesday] stands,” Lawson said.
http://www.hcpress.com/news/early-voting-at-app-state-a-go-even-though-n-c-supreme-court-steps-in-to-allow-stay-against-campus-site.html
The local Democratic activists who sued and fanned flames in the media about local vote suppression are true heroes!
-app
Really? Patenting Plants?
I prefer that my leaders carry the torch of Jefferson, supporting small farms and the free exchange of biological resources we inherit from the commons. The TPP and other trade agreements are the leading edge of a vicious modern enclosure movement that steals from farmers past, present, and future.
-app
Excellent point CaptainTruth.
I could not have summarized the core principles of our Constitutional system of governance any better.
When one of the nine most powerful arbiters of the Constitution is in such willful denial, we are in a lot of trouble as a nation.
Scalia is unfit to serve on the Court (as are Thomas & Alito, at the very least).
-app
MFN status for China was granted by Clinton
I agree that Reagan was a pivotal actor (see what I did there?) in the destruction of the Middle Class. However, it started well before him, certainly under Nixon as the Treasury was emptied to pay for the Vietnam War, maybe earlier (Chris Hedges traces it back to the early 20th Century, basically as soon as the Middle Class formed in America).
While it's worthwhile to focus on particularly evil Republicans like Nixon and Reagan, too many Democrats have been willing players in the hollowing out of our country as well. Particularly, Bill Clinton reneged on his campaign promises about the Middle Class & China, granting China Most Favored Nation trading status in 1994:
http://tech.mit.edu/V114/N27/china.27w.html
This + NAFTA (plus too many other venal moves to mention) defines the Clinton legacy for me.
-app
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Gender: MaleHometown: North Carolina
Member since: Wed Aug 11, 2004, 06:57 PM
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