Breaking - Sen. Menendez will not be re-tried

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Wednesday January 31, 2018 · 11:24 AM PST

2018/01/31 · 11:24

I haven’t seen it posted here, but it’s on the news wires. The U. S. Prosecutors have decided not to re-try Senator Menendez (NJ) on the remaining corruption charges. In the earlier trial, there was a hung jury, and the prosecutor later dropped some charges. Today, he dropped the rest. This makes his re-election to the Senate more certain, and eliminates a possible republican flip.

Drinking game for tonight's debate

DaytonMike

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Wednesday September 16, 2015 · 4:27 PM PDT

2015/09/16 · 16:27

There's really not that much in tonight's debate to excite a progressive, since all eleven candidates on the main stage will be trying to seem to be the most conservative of conservatives, abandoning even St. Ronnie into RINO land. I don't plan on boring myself by watching, but if you really must, here's a drinking game to play guaranteed to leave you blotto by the end of the "debate". All you need to do is classify everything the Trumpster says into three "B"s and three "I"s, and drink accordingly.

The rules of the game are below the orange drink coaster.

DaytonMike

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Monday July 27, 2015 · 5:53 PM PDT

2015/07/27 · 17:53

Already diaried while I was at a Scout meeting, but more background here.

As widely expected, the Boy Scouts of America National Executive Board removed the national ban on gay Scout leaders. The Executive Committee had unanimously recommended this change in policy to National President Robert Gates two weeks ago, and President Gates had advocated this change in a speech to the National Meeting several months ago. As part of this policy, local districts, councils and Scout camps may not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, and those individuals who had been kicked out of Scouting in the past solely on the basis of orientation can apply to be reinstated. Individual chartering organizations, generally churches, can continue to discriminate based on their own internal policies and practices.

More below the orange fleur de lis.

DaytonMike

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Monday July 13, 2015 · 3:38 PM PDT

2015/07/13 · 15:38

This afternoon, the Executive Committee of the BSA UNANIMOUSLY approved a resolution that:

1. Ends any discrimination against prospective Scout leaders based on sexual identity, and
2. Allows individual chartering organizations (i. e. conservative churches) to continue to set their own adult membership policies.

If this is approved by the Executive Board of the BSA on July 27th (and it would be unprecedented for them to go against such a resolution), that means that BSA councils, districts and camps can no longer discriminate against GLBTQ adults who wish to register for Scouting positions, but that very conservative churches may still bar these adults from unit leadership (and unit leadership only). So a gay Eagle Scout might not be allowed to become an Assistant Scoutmaster in an LDS unit, but he CAN be hired as a staff member at camp, or any other volunteer position in a unit sponsored by a more progressive sponsor, or by the local districts and councils.

Good news indeed!

And now I'm off to my own Scout unit, whose leadership would support this change.

Ohio Voting and ticking off Husted

DaytonMike

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Tuesday November 04, 2014 · 8:05 AM PST

2014/11/04 · 08:05

Just a quick report on voting today. I showed up at 7:15, and about half of the machines were occupied. I checked in, no problems, and was issued the computer card to place into the machine. It refused to authorize voting. I was issued a new card, went to a different machine, same problem. After a third failed attempt, I had to vote provisional. Other people were having similar problems, but at least we voted.

Ticking off Secretary of State John Husted below the orange curlicue.

DaytonMike

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Friday July 19, 2013 · 12:21 PM PDT

2013/07/19 · 12:21

I can't find an online link yet, but the news at the top of the hour on my local NPR station said that the bankruptcy filing has been stayed by a court, and any actions by Gov. Snyder and/or the emergency manager that would impact retirees is prohibited.

Can we prosecute Ohio's governor and legislators?

DaytonMike

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Monday July 01, 2013 · 6:45 PM PDT

2013/07/01 · 18:45

I am not a lawyer, but with the draconian new abortion laws passed in Ohio's budget, can we prosecute Ohio's governor and legislators under criminal law? Follow me below the orange curlicue.

DaytonMike

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Thursday June 27, 2013 · 6:14 AM PDT

2013/06/27 · 06:14

Ever since the Supreme Court gutted the VRA like a fish by abolishing Section 4 as outdated (despite the overwhelming evidence that it is still valid SINCE the decision was announced), many commentators have said it is impossible to create a new Section 4 due to political inertia and partisan division. That's probably true, if it was simply a list. Red state (Republican) legislators don't want to recognize their states as still being bigoted, and blue state legislators (mostly, but not all Democrats) don't want to list their own states, like Pennsylvania, for trying to institute discriminatory Voter ID laws.

I'd like to suggest a rule that's really a rule, and not a list of jurisdictions. Under the previous Section 4, a jurisdiction (city, county or state) that had been placed on the Section 4 map could be delisted by demonstrating a clean voting history for ten years. let's just carry that rule forward. Rules below the orange squiggly.

DaytonMike

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Saturday December 22, 2012 · 12:36 PM PST

2012/12/22 · 12:36

I know that many fellow Kossacks think that the Boy Scouts of America is some right-wing organization. or even hate group, due to their treatment of gays and atheists. I don't really want to debate that in this diary. Instead, I'd like to focus on how the Boy Scouts deals with firearms, and how much more mature they are about this than the NRA. Follow me beyond the orange curlicue.

DaytonMike

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Tuesday November 06, 2012 · 10:41 AM PST

2012/11/06 · 10:41

It's not just Democrats in Ohio and Florida who are apparently having difficulties with voting machines. Former President George Bush accidentally voted for Obama! News story here. He apparently mis-entered his vote, and thought that the "Cast Vote" button on the touch screen meant "cast aside this vote". The election officials wouldn't let him do it over, since ha actually cast his vote.

Since he was confused over a supermarket scanner, this doesn't seem too surprising.

UPDATED - Snark tag added by someone else, and I got fooled. I was on Josh marshall's site, and there were these "links you might be interested in" at the bottom of the page, with this story one of them. I hadn't checked out the main page, but the story was VERY well written

PA Voter ID law blocked

DaytonMike

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Tuesday October 02, 2012 · 7:11 AM PDT

2012/10/02 · 07:11

Just a quick note - I just heard on NPR that the Pennsylvania voter ID law has been blocked by the PA district court judge that earlier ruled it constitutional. Here is the AP story The judge apparently ruled on instructions from the PA Supreme Court that the law should be stayed if the state can't comply with providing the needed ID's prior to election day

Good news to start the day

Many of the 47% pay higher tax rates than Mitt does

DaytonMike

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Tuesday September 18, 2012 · 8:05 AM PDT

2012/09/18 · 08:05

Mitt may be right that 47% of all people pay no income taxes, but he's wrong to suggest they pay no taxes. There's sales taxes, excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco and property taxes, or higher rent payments to cover the landlord's property taxes. There's state and local income taxes, which don't have all of the deductions and credits that apply to Federal income taxes. It's hard to figure out the exact amount of other taxes paid by everyone from these other taxes.

But there's one tax that's easy to calculate, the FICA withholding that pays for Social Security. It has been 15.3% for all employees since 1990. If you are on a salary, like me, you pay half, and your employee pays half. If you work independently, like my wife, you pay the full 15.3%. There's a temporary cut of 2%, which will end at the end of the year. As my (Democratic) boss points out, I really pay the full 15.3%, because if he didn't have to pay his share of FCA, I'd get it as pay instead. My boss also wants single-payer so that we don't have to pay outrageous insurance premiums and he could raise our pay by the insurance costs, but that's another diary

However, these tax rates apply only to the firts $110,000 or so of taxable income. If you have a much higher taxable income, like Mitt's $25 million, your FICA rate drops to near zero.

Now, since Mitt paid less than 14% of his income in 2010, and who knows how much less than that in previous years, there's only one conclusion

Mitt Romney pays a lower tax rates than many of those " entitled victims that don't take control of their lives" he complains about.

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Breaking - Sen. Menendez will not be re-tried

Drinking game for tonight's debate

BSA to allow gay leaders

Breaking: Boy Scouts a step closer to same-sex equality

Ohio Voting and ticking off Husted

Detroit Bankruptcy Stayed?

Can we prosecute Ohio's governor and legislators?

Building a new VRA Section 4

Gun Control - Even the Boy Scouts know better

George Bush voted for Obama - by mistake

PA Voter ID law blocked

Many of the 47% pay higher tax rates than Mitt does