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In our Bullies at the Ballot Box report we looked at the Tea Party voter inimidation group known as True The Vote. As Liz Kennedy wrote:
Organizers of True the Vote claim their goal is to train one million poll watchers to challenge and confront other Americans as they go to the polls in November. They say they want to make the experience of voting “like driving and seeing the police following you.”
Of course, no one should attempt to vote if he or she is not legally registered, but documented cases of actual voter fraud are rare. True the Vote is aiming to train as many as one million poll “observers,” and the scope of that effort far exceeds any real problem of illegal voting; instead, it seems intended to intimidate voters. As True the Vote’s top organizer reportedly told recruits during a training session in South Florida, their job is to make voters feel as if they are “driving and seeing the police following you.” This isn’t a civics lesson.
WASHINGTON -- More than half of the nation's 400 richest citizens have contributed money to help elect President Barack Obama or former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to the White House. These members of the Forbes 400, who boast a combined net worth of $1.7 trillion -- more than 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product -- have donated more to affect the outcome of the presidential race than ever before.
New York -- Voting rights experts at national public policy organization Demos will again pull out all the stops on Pre-Election and Election Day to ensure that every eligible voter is able to vote in this critical election year. To protect the fundamental freedom to vote, Demos works with advocates and policymakers around the country to foster an inclusive democracy, decrease bureaucratic barriers to voter registration and civic participation, and monitor the fair administration of elections.
For the first time, the U.S. is no longer one of the top 10 prosperous countries, as ranked by the 2012 Legatum Institute’s Prosperity Index. Legatum, a non-partisan, independent think tank based in the UK, uses eight metrics to determine their Prosperity Index that combine both hard data and survey results on how citizens feel. The eight metrics include: economy, entrepreneurship and ownership, governance, education, health, safety and security, personal freedom, and social capital.
The Washington Post reports that nearly all sizeable campaign contributions in this year’s presidential election have come from people living in predominantly wealthy, white neighborhoods. Even though Latinos comprise about 16 percent of the U.S. population, less than four percent of the $1.3 billion in itemized contributions came from Latino neighborhoods.
Today's job numbers show that the economy continues to creep in the right direction -- but also that job creation will remain a paramount challenge over the next few years. The problem is not just the millions of working-age adults who remain unemployed or under-employed.
The surprise Obama endorsement from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s is a good time to revisit one of Bloomberg’s ideas to combat climate change: the carbon tax.