LOL - Classic~!!!! "ooopss"

HAHAHAHA

The below statement was my post from where MSNBC hid the breaking news in the business section....

Thank You Supreme Court!!!! Now if we can just get back to the Maps as drawn up by the legislation all would be right in the country.

The Obama administration, the state Democratic Party and minority groups have challenged parts or all of the state's redistricting plan for violating the voting rights law, and said the judicially drawn one should be used on an interim basis.

When is this President going to get out of individual State business and mind his boundaries outlined by the Constitution.

Let's hope that the Judges will actually follow proper procedure on this pass...Fortunately, Obama, the DNC, LaRaza and Eric Holder cannot make up the rules as they go...the Supreme Court will gladly call them on their missteps.

Question for someone from MSNBC....why was this story filed under Business and not in Politics or National News? Seems the ruling should have at least reached headline status as it is truly news.

Texas Mom,

One obligation you seem to overlook of the President and the Administration is to uphold not only the Constitution but Federal laws.

Redistricting must, by Federal law, meet certain conditions. If for any reason the any administration, Democrat, Republican, etc., believes that any State may have violated that Federal law then it is their responsibility as stated in the Constitution to enforce the law.

The Supreme Court said today "Because it is unclear whether the District Court for the Western District of Texas followed the appropriate standards in drawing interim maps for the 2012 Texas elections, the orders implementing those maps are vacated, and the cases are remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion"

You understand the Texas State has violated the law in the past and getting approval is part of its "parole" right?

Not all states must get approval only ones that have been found to have broken the law. Much like the Republican party has been found to violate the law on voter caging and faces restrictions in campaigning and registration drives.

elyhim....you realize the reason States like Texas are required to follow the Draconian measures are because Democrats have historically abused reasonable measures in favor of attempts to stack the deck? Much like they attempted to do under the Federal Judges in SA. Who managed to carve out niches in major metro areas to make the most of Minority concentrations....In the case of my district they managed to draw the lines to eliminate two state level legislators from their districts....one who is an African American....This is the height of the Justice Department imposing Gerrymandering to their benefit...I think it would be reasonable for this to go to Congressional review with records from the US AG's office to see if there were any criminal requests from that office.

Texas Mom,

“I think it would be reasonable for this to go to Congressional review with records from the US AG's office to see if there were any criminal requests from that office.”

Congress already made the law so it should not go back to them for review if there is a suspected violation … it should go to the courts.

Gerrymandering is always a concern. In States, like Ohio, where the Federal law is not in effect we refer disputes to the State Supreme Court. Our SC just ruled that the new Congressional map did not meet the State Constitution for a couple reasons one being unfair and unrepresentative redistribution of districts or gerrymandering.

It is the job of the legislature to draw the maps, not that of the courts. This is the new direction of our country: Legislation by appointed judge. If a conservative legislature passes something that liberals do not like, they simply get a judge to issue an injunction invalidating it.

The democrats in Indiana have once again walked off the job and refuse to do the states business because they don't like legislation that is likely to pass. The house voted to fine them $1000 a day for being AWOL. This is NOT to get the money, but to get the Indiana house in session to do what they were elected to do: Hear and vote on legislation. But NOoooooooo.... An appointed judge steps in and says they can't fine them, prolonging this agony here.....

Get the activist judges out of there!

Bruce,

“If a conservative legislature passes something that liberals do not like, they simply get a judge to issue an injunction invalidating it.” ** And vice versa **

It is called due process – it is the way our founders wanted it to work. Citizens have the right to object and then it is up to the judicial process to make the final decision.

The founders never intended for political hack judges to legislate from the bench. They envisioned impartial judges who would interpret the laws fairly. That clearly is not the case today, as judges misuse their power daily to push their own idealistic agendas. I guess we will agree to disagree.

"This will make it very hard for Texas to have its primary in April. It's already been delayed a month, from March"

Guess Rick will have to start that secession talk again.

By the time this redistricting thing is settled in Texas, the Teavangelicals may have picked their candidate.

chilled,

The way this is playing out, Texas might have to wait until the NEXT census to figure this all out. Fun part of that, new census numbers means Texans get to play the same game again. Maybe by 2024?

It's interesting, in that they only remanded it. Obviously, they felt they could not substitute the maps drawn by Republicans in the legislature, either. It looks like they just decided to duck the issue for now, to avoid the controversy, and maybe to surprise us just in time for the November election, when there's no time to react.

Don't anyone believe they didn't consider the consequences.

phinephancy..."The Roberts court in action".....It was an unanimous decision.....you didn't even know that.

So true phine.

I'm sure the Roberts and his right-wing court have gotten signals about the District Court here in San Antonio. San Antonio/Bexar County went for Obama in 2008.

From what I understand, the lines drawn by the Texas (Republican controlled) Legislature heavily favor Republicans by awarding 3 of the 4 newly gained seats to republican leaning areas. The population growth is attributed to minorities (mostly Hispanics), but the lines disenfranchise the same.

Add to that Ricks new voter ID laws, another issue that is in the courts.

2024 for Texas voters..........Rick did it!

gtouch,

You are right. I read the article and thought just one justice had decided. Thanks for the correction. (I googled to get the whole story).

From NPR.org

Controversy over the maps arose from redrawing political boundaries based on results of the 2010 census that found that Texas had added more than 4 million new residents, mostly Latinos and African-Americans, since 2000. The minority groups complained they were denied sufficient voting power by Republican lawmakers who sought to maximize GOP electoral gains in violation of the landmark Voting Rights Act.

Texas will have 36 seats in the next Congress, a gain of four districts. A divided court in San Antonio drew maps that differed from the Legislature's efforts, giving Democrats a chance to prevail in three or four more congressional districts. Republicans now represent 23 of the 32 current districts.

_______

Still don't know who my congressional representative will be, my county may shift out from under 89 year old Ralph Hall. Maybe they will shift me to a younger GOP representative. Also the county can't even go forward with doing their own redestricting of precincts due to population growth. I still don't even know where I will vote and I'm a precinct captain/election judge.

Mark --

I feel your pain. Now imagine how this confusion will translate to the November elections.

Anna Molly

Although I live in the DFW area, I'm just glad that I don't live in Dallas County. On top of the voter id law, the confusion over congressional and state seats they have other issues (lawsuits) to figure out for elections. It goes from the macro level (Congressional seats) all the way down to the micro level (city council seats). In reality, from people I know in Dallas, the city council issue is way more important to them than the congressional and state seats.

LULAC has threatened to sue over the carving up of neighborhoods of city council members through traditionally latino and black districts.

The City of Dallas council seat allocation is being disputed based on the population changes with the new census. Whites who lost population in Dallas make up 32% of the total, they still receive 6 districts. Blacks lost population to make up 25% of the total yet they received 4 districts. Latinos the only group to grow make up 42% of the population yet they only received 4 districts.

The accepted maps kept the 6 traditionally white districts fairly intact although they grew to slice into minority districts. The minority districts were revised to their detriment. Looking at strictly numbers the latino population should have received 5 districts and the white or the black districts should have lost one.

Note the vote was 9 to 6 in favor of the map (14 districts) but mayor votes to make it 15 votes. Divide and conquer at its best by the GOP.

_________

DALLAS — The Dallas City Council approved a new redistricting map Wednesday night, but the 9-6 vote came only after heated debate.

Hispanic Council members wanted five seats after census data revealed that Latinos make up 42 percent of the Dallas population and 37 percent of the voting age population.

They got four seats under the approved map.

Council member Delia Jasso was disappointed, but told News 8, it was not a defeat. She expects Hispanic leaders to file a lawsuit.

"Our African-American colleagues were set on four African-American districts, even though their representation doesn't warrant that, in my opinion," Jasso said. "I think putting at risk District 1 — which is a traditional Hispanic seat — is something to be very concerned about."

The new map leaves African-American districts as-is with four seats, despite a dip in population.

Mark in the Dallas the problem with the Hispanic population is not in the overall numbers it is with registered voters. It takes such a large number of hispanics in a district to "guarantee" a hispanic gets elected because most of the hispanics either are not registered or cannot register to vote that is the problem. So they are put into just a few districts to guarantee the outcome of the election in their favor and still keep the districts overall population numbers about equal.

Didn't hear any liberal whining when the democrats in Illinois did the same thing last fall. The GOP picked up 5 seats in 2010. Democrat thugs redrew the districts to ensure the 2010 election would be nullified. Blacks, hispanics and Republicans are being disenfranchised, but Democrat power trumps all. The case went to court, but democrat judges threw it out.

Everything I just wrote is God's truth. The bigger issue is this is how the game played. When democrats control your state, Republicans lose. When Republicans control the state, democrats lose.

We rail on and on about Obama and Gingrich and Romney. The real nuts and bolts that get very little media attention is at the state representative and state senate level. These folks control property taxes, sales taxes, fees, tolls, and of course congressional census remaps.

Regardless of your party or philosophy,pay more attention to your local races if you really want to make a difference.

Gee, Iowa got off easy we went from 5 to 4 congressional house districts. the politicians here just divided iowa into 4 equal parts, the only anomoly was polk county that became part of the southwest drawn district. Easy to understand why, the SW quadrant is the least populated and polk county is heavily populated.

Looking at strictly numbers the latino population should have received 5 districts and the white or the black districts should have lost one.

YO! LATINOS ARE WHITE

What is wrong with you people? As long as you go along with this travesty furthered by the media you are allowing an entire segment of the population to scream inequality for something that has nothing to do with them EVER be discriminated against based upon race.

The African American and Native American populations should be up in arms over this.

Roberts court? The ruling was a unanimous 9-0 decision.

Bennie your one of the few who gets this........it was an unanimous decision.

It was an unanimous decision Dave......sorry you look foolish on this one.

Dave isn't foolish, he's deluded.

DaveBronx....Three judges in this State un-did what the legislation worked and reworked. Apparently, the problem is that they did not use the original map instead just reworked the map to the favor requested by the US justice system and Obama administration. In doing this they showed no legal requirement for their slice and dice just did what they were told without following proper process.

These judges should be ashamed and well stop following Holder memo's and do their job properly. They need to start with the Legislation maps, if they can find flaws in those maps identify them and then account for them...Of course they chose not do do this. Fortunately, this action by the Supreme Court will spot light those others working on this and should keep them honest...we could in the end get to keep our Legislators maps and move forward with the election season.

Sorry DaveBronx, the ruling was a unanimous 9-0 ruling. Yes, that means Justices Kagan, Sotomayer, Ginsberg, Breyer, and Kennedy also agreed.

lol do you ever get dizzy, with all your spinning?

Rob for once the Supreme Court was unanimous in it's findings........so I think the law must be pretty clear on this. There was no activism by SCOTUS or you would have had the usual 5-4 decision.

I wasn't talking about this decision. Just responding to others saying that the lower courts are activists.

Rob, This was a decision by an activist federal judge who felt he knew more or had more authority than the people who had drawn the districts in the first place. Redrawing districts after a census has always been the responsibility of the states, not the federal government. The Voting Rights Act has long out lived its purpose and should be rescinded.

Again, I wasn't talking about this decision. Calling out a lower court for being activist is disingenuous at best, without pointing out that the Supreme Court is also an activist court. The fact that this was a unanimous decision does nothing to change that fact!

Its pretty funny to watch the liberals on this site, toss entire states out. Texas, South Carolina anymore you want to cast out?

All courts are activist, that's the point. You may not like or agree with their decisions, but they'd be unnecessary if they didn't act.

jolly

I only want to toss the ones that want to leave anyway,...otherwise, I'd love for them to sit down and shut the ef up,...

but that's just me,...

Daniel the democrats rework the districts when they are in power and this happens all across America that is why it is beneficial for either party to be in power when the census comes out. To the victor goes the spoils right or wrong.

What you said is right, but it is yet another example of how broken and corrupt our political and justice systems are. At this point I'm not even sure they are fixable without completely tearing them down and starting over!

Not just Texas. I read an article about Pennsylvania where the Dems and Reps spar with each other exactly the same way. Ten years ago one Democratic-created district was drawn like a mangled ink-blot test so that it cordoned off Republican areas. This time the Republicans did the same thing, creating a district that sends tendrils out almost 200 miles link reliably-red areas. A pox on both!

I agree, they are doing a fine job (for those of you who can't tell, Jay and I are practicing sarcasm)

Very true.

Well said. I've often said politics these days has descended into a "hated sports rivalry" mentality.

A minuscule number of states take the process out of the hands of the politicians and turn it over to (relatively) non-partisan committees. The same software that can draw districts to curl boundaries around the one D or R house on a block can also be used to keep districts compact and contiguous IF it's in the proper hands.

The Supreme Court stated that the liberal Judges in San Antonio that changed the redistricting lines were wrong.

You might want to see that the Judges drew lines on an etch-a-sketch that were created based on political lines and not population growth.

maybe they meant 'redraw' it with the appropriate clown shoes and a big bow tie?

LOL

PS. Where IS tom delay when you NEED him?

Delay is somewhere fighting to appeal his conviction!....lol

Jim Wilson2638946. You sound like one of those west coast "intellectuals" who think you know everything. I do agree with you on one thing, anyone who indulges in calling others ignorant and "morons" should not be allowed to vote or hold office themselves. At least the Texans were smart enough to get rid of the Democrat politicians and move their state away from the "Politicians for sale" philosophy which existed under the Democrat majority back in the 70's and 80's.

Well, Chac

If that's your idea of smart,...it is truly scary to know you vote.

You can't annihilate your opposition,...unless you want to start your own country and only allow those stepfords LIKE you to join. Good luck with that.

That's what got Texas in trouble in the first place (redistricting not following the law)!

You left an "S" off at the end of TEXAS....

No, you made the typos because you're a right wing idiot whose rants are in no way tethered to any facts.

Very well put Navyvet98..

lol what stupidity; it's only a matter of time b4 many more minorities leave the liberal plantation