I gave up and didn't go back to sleep. But at least I'm not at work. Yet.

NPR makes a brilliant use of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Watcher Rupert Giles in their segment On the Media.

Too bad Buffy can't slay the Media Demon that is James O'Keefe.

I am so fed up with my state gov't. So first they pass the "any woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy must have a sonogram and hear the heartbeat" bill, which I loathe, clearly, and is in no way "small gov't" or "gov't staying out of our lives" which is what so many of them claim to be their political stance. NOW, they are on the verge of passing a law requiring residents to have a state or fed gov't issued photo ID in order to VOTE! THE FUCK?!?! Also they are looking to cut property taxes, WHILE WE ARE FACING A BUDGET DEFICIT AND WILL BE LAYING OFF TEACHERS?!?!?!?

"any woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy must have a sonogram and hear the heartbeat" bill

What's that actually pan out to? I mean, if you're deaf?

they are on the verge of passing a law requiring residents to have a state or fed gov't issued photo ID in order to VOTE! THE FUCK?!?!

How do they currently ID people? (I've never voted, anywhere, so I have no idea how these things work)

How do they currently ID people?

Signature.

I can't remember if it's how they do it here, but in NY, you sign the register against the signature you registered to vote with.

Talk me through this slowly, because I am a newb to your ways of democracy and hope...but what's big difference between simply registering to vote and getting a state ID? What do you need for the latter that you don't need for the former?

Oh, and this (SFW, but a little WTF?) doesn't belong anywhere near my Democracy 101 questions.

State ID costs money. registering to vote does not. To get my Driver's License in TX with a current NY one, I needed my original Birth Certificate, documentation of local address (possibly the mortgage or deed), and something else. It is a deterrent to vote and there is no proof that voter fraud is currently an issue.

ita, traditionally in the US, but especially in the South, States have implemented various measures to keep poor and black people from voting, including things like literacy tests and poll taxes. The US Supreme Court has repeatedly struck down these measure as unconstitutional. In the 1990s, the Democratic Congress passed laws to make it even easier for people to register to vote, with the result being even wider spread voter participation.

In the past few elections the right wing media (i.e. Fox News) have been planting stories about widespread voter fraud, mostly in inner cities. This is what all of the attacks on Acorn were about. Acorn was successful at getting people registered to vote, but the right was charging that they were enabling people with fake names to vote multiple times. Even though there was never any real evidence of widespread voter fraud, it is taken as the gospel truth in right-wing circles. A majority of Republicans believe that Obama and Acorn stole the election.

So basically, these voter ID laws are being put in place as a reaction against a nonexistent threat. The net result will be to make it harder for poor people to vote. Poor people are more likely to not have a driver's license, and probably won't go through the hassle of getting a non-driver's ID in order to vote.