Uppity Wisconsin

From the Capital Times (Madison, Wis), John Nichols reports:

Incredible! Bush wants the US DOJ to look into the GOP's proposed Ohio vote suppression scheme using HAVA, seeking forced provisional voting that suppresses legal voters.

After being shot down by the US Supreme Court on using the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) for the purpose of declaring eligible voters to be tentatively ineligible because of database mismatches - a purpose that the text of HAVA expressively forbids - Bush and the Republicans will not give up.

As the Milwaukee Branch of NAACP and the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association write in their amicus brief in the Van Hollen v. GAB Wisconsin case, provisional voting is inherently suppressive, and many provisional voters will not be able to come back the next day to corroborate their legal voting status, and leave the voting process with questions about whether their votes counted.

Even this winter's heavy snows did not bring the Great Lakes back to their historic average depths, as a warming climate increases evaporation.

Lower lake levels mean navigation troubles and lighter, less-profitable loads for shippers, heightening the need for coordinated efforts to maintain the waters' quality and quantity.

And despite the growing awareness across the region, and certainly worldwide, that all water is absolutely precious, radical Republicans carrying political water for business interests in Waukesha County, with allies in the conservative fringes in the Ohio legislature, are blocking an eight-state water conservation agreement for Great Lakes management.

What they want are Great Lakes diversions with few standards and controls, even though four of the eight Great Lakes staes have approved the agreement - - known as the Great Lakes Compact - - and further delay could easily kill it.

Details here.

See Ohio Buckeye State Blog for updates on Ohio.

For Texas updates, see Texas Burnt Orange Report.

Better than what you can get from CNN or MSNBC.