Thursday 30 August 2012

Live Blog 2: Republican National Convention

After yesterday's hiatus in, er, reportage, here is the third and last day of the Republican National Convention from Tampa, Florida. I am watching it through C-Span's livestream.
"Baby elephant mud bathing Chobi, Botswana Photo"
by Lee R. Berger (Profberger)
via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Before we begin:
"Texas voter ID law is blocked," (August 30, 2012) Washington Post
 
THE U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decided earlier today that Texas's new voter ID laws are discriminatory against African-Americans and Hispanics of modest means. An appeal to the Supreme Court is intended.
Republican lawmakers have argued that the voter ID law is needed to clean up voter rolls, [. . .] Texas, they argue, is asking for no more identification than people need to board an airplane, get a library card or enter many government buildings.
In South Carolina, voters would need to show a driver's license, DMV identification card, U.S. military ID, passport, or a photo ID which can be obtained from election workers in one's county free of charge. In Texas, the Department of Justice has estimated that anyone without a copy of their birth certificate would have to fork over at least $22.