links for 2011-03-13

Continue Readinglinks for 2011-03-13

Republicans call the cops on Democrats

As reported in the San Francisco Gate: In the House of Representatives, Democrats were protesting the illegal ending of a discussion over a pension bill in the Ways and Means Committee, and while they tried to plot strategy on how to work on the bill, Republicans called the police to intimidate them into leaving the committee’s anteroom.

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Texas Democrats protest redistricting

Here’s the skinny on what happened in Texas. Every ten years, new voting districts are redrawn in conjunction with the census. Districts were redrawn two years ago, and they didn’t come out the way the Republicans wanted (giving them more votes). So the Republicans tried to introduce a bill to redistrict again this year, to screw over the Democrats. And to kill the bill, the Democrats had to make sure there wasn’t a quorum. So they left town and went to Oklahoma. So the Republicans called in the National Department of Homeland Security (the agency to prevent terrorism) to track down where the Democrats were.

Are you happy with this? Is it okay that they used a National Agency in a way it was never intended to increase their advantage in the Texas statehouse? That’s your money they used.

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