Guantanamo Freak-Out

Political Cartoon is by Pat Bagley in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Another Poll Says Senate Should Consider Obama's Nominee

I have already posted a couple of poll's where a majority said the Senate should consider and vote on Obama's coming nominee to the Supreme Court. Now there is a third. This time it's the prestigious Pew Research Center survey -- done between February 18th and 21st of a random national sample of 1,002 adults, with a 3.7 point margin of error.

The Senate Republicans have just come out and reiterated their stand to not give Obama's nominee a hearing or a vote. They will probably follow through on that pledge, but it could be a mistake with an election coming up. The public is already angry with Congress over their inability to accomplish anything.

Toxic Growth

Political Cartoon is by Rick McKee in The Augusta Chronicle.

Trump Wins Big In Nevada - Takes GOP Delegate Lead

(Graphic image is by DonkeyHotey.)

RESULTS OF GOP NEVADA CAUCUS:

Trump...............34,531 (45.91%)
Rubio...............17,940 (23.85%)
Cruz...............16,079 (21.38%)
Carson...............3,619 (4.81%)
Kasich...............2,709 (3.60%)

AND THE CURRENT DELEGATE COUNT:

Trump...............81
Rubio...............17
Cruz...............17
Kasich...............6
Carson...............4

Donald Trump's Nevada victory was huge. He doubled the votes (and percentage) of the next two candidates (Rubio & Cruz). Some political pundits are ready to crown him as the GOP nominee -- saying the race is all but over. I certainly wouldn't go that far, but he does seem to have a significant advantage right now -- and it could be over soon if Rubio and Cruz don't start winning some states pretty soon.

Cruz's home state of Texas will vote in less than a week. Cruz was counting on winning over 50% of the vote there (which would have given him all of Texas' 155 delegates). However, recent polls have shown he is losing ground, and while he may still win a plurality of the votes there, will probably have to split Texas delegates with Trump. That would be a devastating blow for the Cruz campaign.

Rubio is not sitting much better. He's also needs to win in his home state of Florida (which votes on March 15th). Most polls, however, are showing he could actually lose to Trump there.

A Monster Is Created

Political Cartoon is by Mike Luckovich in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Rick Perry Avoids Justice For His Criminal Behavior

(Caricature of Rick Perry is by DonkeyHotey.)

This comes as no surprise to those of us living in Texas. Former Governor Rick Perry, who was charged with two felonies (abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant) will not have to stand trial for his criminal behavior.

The Republican-dominated Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has chosen to protect one of it's own -- and in a 6 to 2 decision, decided the charges violated the Texas Constitution. Perry can now ride off into the sunset -- assured he will not have to face a jury on those charges.

Here is how texaslawyer.com describes the ridiculous decision:

A divided Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has dismissed the criminal case against former Gov. Rick Perry.

The 6-2 majority opinion—accompanied by two concurrences and two dissents—dismissed Perry's charge of abuse of official capacity, and upheld the Third Court of Appeal's decision to dismiss his coercion of a public servant charge.

The high court found that Perry's case arose from a governor's threat to exercise a veto and his ultimate exercise of the veto.

The court ruled that it violated the Texas Constitution's separation of powers provision to prosecute the exercise of a veto under the abuse of official capacity statute. It determined there was a facial violation of the First Amendment to prosecute the threat of a veto under the coercion of a public servant statute. The court also decided—in an expansion of Texas habeas law—that Perry could raise his separation-of-powers argument as an as-applied challenge in a pretrial habeas application, followed by an interlocutory appeal.

"The nature of the constitutional right at issue entitles him to raise these claims by pretrial habeas corpus," said the majority opinion by Presiding Judge Sharon Keller.

Previously, courts would only grant a defendant pretrial habeas relief if he successfully argued that a law was unconstitutional on its face, not as applied to his situation.

"Weekend At Scalia's"

Political Cartoon is by Lalo Alcaraz at Daily Kos.

Hillary Clinton's Stand On Criminal Justice Reform

(This phot of Hillary Clinton is from cnn.com.)

From hillaryclinton.com:

Hillary believes that, to successfully reform our criminal justice system, we must work to strengthen the bonds of trust between our communities and our police, end the era of mass incarceration, and ensure a successful transition of individuals from prison to home. As president, she will: 

• Work to strengthen bonds of trust between communities and police. Effective policing and constitutional policing go hand-in-hand—we can and must do both. Hillary will work to promote effective, accountable, constitutional policing, including:
• Making new investments to support state-of-the-art law enforcement training programs at every level on issues such as implicit bias, use of force, de-escalation, community policing and problem solving, alternatives to incarceration, crisis intervention, and officer safety and wellness. 
• Strengthening the U.S. Department of Justice’s pattern or practice unitby increasing resources, working to secure subpoena power, and improving data collection for pattern or practice investigations. 
• Doubling funding for the U.S. Department of Justice “Collaborative Reform” program to provide technical assistance and training to agencies that undertake voluntary efforts toward transformational reform of their police departments. Across the country, there are police departments deploying creative and effective strategies that we can learn from and build on.
• Supporting legislation to end racial profiling by federal, state, and local law enforcement officials. 
• Providing federal matching funds to make body cameras available to every police officer to increase transparency and accountability on both sides of the lens.
• Promoting oversight and accountability in use of controlled equipment by limiting the transfer of military equipment by the federal government to local law enforcement, eliminating the one-year use requirement, and requiring transparency by agencies that purchase equipment using federal funds.
• Collecting and reporting national data on policing to inform policing strategies and provide greater transparency and accountability, including robust state and local data on issues such as crime, officer involved shootings, and deaths in custody.
• Creating national guidelines for use of force that recognize the need for officers to protect their safety and the safety of others, but emphasize use of force as a last resort and at the appropriate level. The federal government has an important role to play in standardizing best practices for the use of force.
• Take action on mandatory minimum sentences. Excessive federal mandatory minimum sentences keep nonviolent drug offenders in prison for longer than is necessary or useful and have increased racial inequality in our criminal justice system. Hillary will reform mandatory minimum sentences, including:
• Reducing mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses by cutting them in half. 
• Applying Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 retroactively to allow current nonviolent prisoners to seek fairer sentences.
• Eliminating the sentencing disparity for crack and powder cocaine so that equal amounts of crack and powder cocaine carry equal sentences and applying this change retroactively.
• Reforming the “strike” system to focus on violent crime by narrowing the category of prior offenses that count as strikes to exclude nonviolent drug offenses, and reducing the mandatory penalty for second- and third-strike offenses.
• Granting additional discretion to judges in applying mandatory minimum sentences by expanding the “safety valve” to a larger set of cases. 
• Focus federal enforcement resources on violent crime, not simple marijuana possession. Marijuana arrests, including for simple possession, account for a huge number of drug arrests. Further, significant racial disparities exist in marijuana enforcement, with black men significantly more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than their white counterparts, even though usage rates are similar. Hillary believes we need an approach to marijuana that includes:
• Allowing states that have enacted marijuana laws to act as laboratories of democracy, as long as they adhere to certain federal priorities such as not selling to minors, preventing intoxicated driving, and keeping organized crime out of the industry. 
• Rescheduling marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule II substance. Hillary supports medical marijuana and would reschedule marijuana to advance research into its health benefits. 
• Prioritize treatment and rehabilitation—rather than incarceration—for low-level, nonviolent drug offenders. Over half of prison and jail inmates suffer from a mental health problem, and up to 65 percent of the correctional population meets the medical criteria for a substance use disorder. Hillary will ensure adequate training for law enforcement for crisis intervention and referral to treatment, as appropriate, for low-level, nonviolent drug offenders with mental health or addiction problems. She will also direct the attorney general to issue guidance to federal prosecutors on seeking treatment over incarceration for low-level, nonviolent drug crimes. Read more on Hillary’s plan to tackle America’s epidemic of addiction.
• End the privatization of prisons. Hillary believes we should move away from contracting out this core responsibility of the federal government to private corporations, and from creating private industry incentives that may contribute—or have the appearance of contributing—to over-incarceration. The campaign does not accept contributions from federally registered lobbyists or PACs for private prison companies, and will donate any such direct contributions to charity.
• Promote successful re-entry by formerly incarcerated individuals. This year, the number of people released from state or federal prison will reach approximately 600,000. For those given a second chance, and for the health and safety of the communities to which those individuals return, the reentry pathway must not be littered with barriers, but rather paved with a fair opportunity for success. Clinton will work to remove barriers and create pathways to employment, housing, health care, education, and civic participation, including:
• Taking executive action to “ban the box” for federal employers and contractors, so that applicants have an opportunity to demonstrate their qualifications before being asked about their criminal records.
• Supporting legislation to restore voting rights to individuals who have served their sentences.

Evangelical Hypocrisy

Political Cartoon is by Nick Anderson in the Houston Chronicle.

Progressive

Pride - Shame

Potter County Democratic Convention Is Set

This post is for you residents of Amarillo (at least those living in the northern half of the city).

The Potter County Democratic Party will hold its county convention on Saturday March 19th at 2:00pm. Registration will begin at 1:30pm. Delegates to the state convention will be chosen at this gathering (and will be apportioned according to the primary results).

The location is the Plumbers and Steamfitters Union Hall at 1505 W. 7th Street in Amarillo.

Any Potter County resident who voted in the Democratic primary on March 1st is eligible to attend.

Rough Ride

Political Cartoon is by David Horsey in the Los Angeles Times.

Texas Democrats Are Still Solidly Behind Hillary Clinton

It's only six days now until Texas Democrats get to vote in the 2016 primary, and a new University of Texas / Texas Tribune Poll shows she still has a solid 10 to 17 point lead. The poll was done between February 12th and 19th of a random sample of 460 Democrats (324 likely voters). The margin of error for all Democrats is 4.57 points, and for likely voters is 5.44 points.

I could be wrong, but I think Hillary Clinton will take Texas by about a 12 to 13 point margin.

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Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com also sees an easy victory for Clinton in Texas. He says she has a 95% chance of winning the state (and his projected outcome is shown in the chart below).