Land O Links

Land O Links — 15 November 2012

By Derek Melot/Bridge Magazine

* Michigan Democrats probably would like to deliver this story to households across the state: “Democrats were taking chambers from Republicans in places where the lines were the product of courts (Minnesota), independent commissions (Colorado) and bipartisan compromises (Oregon). They mostly lost in places where Republican elected officials were in charge of redistricting.

“That list includes chambers that might otherwise have been promising targets for Democrats, including ones in states such as Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, where President Obama was declared the winner last night. Democrats, of course, used redistricting to tilt the playing field in their favor in places where they had power, such as Illinois, where they expanded their legislative majorities yesterday.”

http://www.pewstates.org/projects/stateline/headlines/democrats-make-incremental-gains-in-legislatures-republicans-win-in-south-85899428366

* Oregon and Washington seem to be doing just fine with vote-by-mail … fraud hasn’t been an issue and turnout is great. So why isn’t full-blown vote-by-mail adopted elsewhere?:

http://www.governing.com/columns/dispatch/Why-Hasnt-Voting-by-Mail-Spread.html

* There’s supposed to be a great deal of action in coming days in the Legislature on revamping Michigan’s school code. Will an electoral result in Indiana have any effect on how Michigan lawmakers approach bills like this one?:

http://www.indystar.com/article/20121107/NEWS0502/121107033/What-does-Bennett-s-defeat-mean-future-education-reform-?nclick_check=1

* You keep hearing the term “fiscal cliff” out of Washington, D.C. What does that mean? The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has analyzed the economic impact of a variety of policy options that will or could occur in the next few weeks regarding federal tax and spending plans. It’s not a light read, but it is an invaluable one:

http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/11-08-12-FiscalTightening.pdf

*As an aficionado of mid-century modern design, your LOL author dreams occasionally about finding a classic Eames chair at a yard sale. So instances of (alleged) knock-offs are to be looked upon with the most disapproving eye:

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2012/11/herman_miller_sues_canadian_co.html

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Derek Melot

Bridge Magazine

(1) Reader Comment

Connie
November 15, 2012 at 10:29 pm

Jocelyn Benson ran on making it easier for people to vote, so Ruth Johnson claimed that she was for making it easier for people to vote until she got into office and then magically changed her mind. I’m over 60 and voted absentee, so I could early vote, but it should be available to everyone.

The amount of prosecutions shows how little voter fraud there is. They spent most of the Bush Administration looking for cases to prosecute. I have heard that it is often people who have done their time in prison and don’t realize they live in a state where former felons can’t vote.

And yet Republican controlled states threw people off the rolls, stopped early voting and had fewer voting booths in low income and minority polling places in an attempt to stop the ground swell of support for the President.

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