Category: Uncategorized

Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson is lobbying Congress to ban online gambling. His lobbyists are pressing for a vote before the congressional, summer recess.

Adelson is looking to cluster this law into an unrelated bill and sneak it through. The One Subject at a Time Act would stop that kind of activity. Tell Congress to pass the One Subject at a Time Act through DownsizeDC.org’s campaign.

You may borrow from or copy this letter…

Sheldon Adelson’s gambling ban (Restoration of America’s Wire Act, or RAWA) is unpopular and terrible. It combines the worst features of the Corporate State and the Nanny State. …read more

The following are the bills the House and Senate passed last month. The bills were passed by voice vote except where indicated. Roll call votes for the House are found here, and for the Senate here. The descriptions of bills are essentially taken verbatim from the Congressional Record Daily Digest (Index).SENATE 15 bills, 1,262 pages
Native American Children’s Safety Act: Senate passed S. 184, to amend the Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act to require background checks before foster care placements are ordered in tribal court proceedings. 12 pages
Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children …read more

Maryland — In a damning blow to transparency, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that information related to police misconduct cannot be disclosed to the public and is exempt from the Maryland Public Information Act.
In other words, if a police officer strangles an innocent child to death while on duty and is “disciplined” for these actions, the public will never and can never know.
According to the Baltimore Sun:
The question before the state’s highest court centered on whether citizens have a right to know the outcome and other information about an investigation once misconduct allegations are sustained. In a 5-2 ruling, …read more

Baltimore, MD — This week a Baltimore resident was walking by the police department when she noticed a sadistic message painted on the inside of one of the police vans. The message read, “Enjoy your ride, cuz we sure will!”
The Baltimore resident, who we will identify only by the first name of Laura, decided to take photos of the inside of the van, and later posted them on Facebook.
After the photos were brought to the attention of the Free Thought Project, we contacted Laura to verify their authenticity.
“I want to contact the state’s attorney! I took these photos today! Around …read more

Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee for president in 2012, received primary season matching funds on August 28, 2012. The funds were helpful to Green Party ballot access costs and other campaign expenses, but they would have been more helpful if they had arrived earlier.
This year, Stein is already working to qualify. If she raises $5,000 from each of 20 states, soon enough, she could potentially receive federal matching funds on January 1, 2016. So far she has already received enough contributions from California, and is over halfway for Washington, New York, and Massachusetts. …read more

The Argus Leader of Sioux Falls, the largest newspaper in South Dakota, has this story about the referendum drive that attacks SB 69. SB 69, signed into law earlier this year, made restrictive changes for ballot access. As a result of the referendum petition’s success, the law won’t be in effect in 2016 and voters will decide whether to repeal it. …read more

A new technological marvel will help save lives in natural disasters and may actually save lives in police-citizen encounters. The Explorer camera, made by Bounce Imaging, is a rubber ball with camera lenses that transmits panoramic images of an area almost instantaneously, to a smartphone.
“The softball-sized Explorer is covered in a thick rubber shell. Inside is a camera with six lenses, peeking out at different indented spots around the circumference, and LED lights. When activated, the camera snaps photos from all lenses, a few times every second. Software uploads these disparate images to a mobile device and stitches them together …read more

Federal Heights, CO — Officer Mark Magness is no stranger to police brutality. In 2009, after being on the Federal Heights police department for a year, Magness was convicted of misdemeanor assault after he broke an innocent man’s arm while investigating the popping of illegal fireworks.
Despite pleading guilty to assault, Magness was never fired.
Now, 6 years later, we are witnessing the horrid negligence of this department for allowing a monster like Magness to remain in a position of power.
ABC 7 Denver, obtained body cam footage of two Federal Heights officers. The footage shows nothing short of torture, carried out by …read more

Breitbart has this fascinating article by Sarah Rumpf, a writer and attorney in Austin, Texas. She first presents the latest Fox poll for the Republican presidential nomination. Then she explores the consequences of these results, as applied to the Fox Debate set for August 6, 2015. As she points out, the Fox rule that the ten highest candidates (as shown by polls) qualify for the main debate is not practical. The margin of error for a poll like this, given that 16 candidates are running, doesn’t really make it possible to know which ten candidates are …read more

As already noted, today the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state initiative process can be used to change laws affecting congressional elections. Rick Hasen notes today that Article II, which describes the presidency and presidential elections, also says, “the legislature” shall pass election laws concerning presidential elections. It says, “Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors…”. Hasen notes that it now seems obvious that state initiatives can also amend state laws concerning presidential elections.
This is good news for the National Popular Vote movement, which has been …read more