fta: "Make no mistake about it, Republicans excessively used taxpayer resources to divide our communities, isolate minority voters and to further their discriminatory agenda against North Carolina's women."

Yeah, but they got a 10% discount on their lawyerin' folk so that means they are still fiscally conservative, at least.

NC is so hooped here.

Serves you right for massive overreach. When exactly are people going to learn that there is nothing fiscally responsible about the Republican Party?

If they make the districts 100% Republican, they won't have to worry about spending money against those pesky Democrats!

/Democracy is hard

markie_farkie: The proposed Texas redistricting plan makes some districts look like exploded intestinal tracts across certain areas of the city.

If your last name is Gomez or Washington, it's a fair bet that someone spent hours trying to exclude your house and still maintain a contiguous area.

It's why we're not voting today in Texas.
The plans got thrown out.

Link (new window)

Shakespeare's Monkey: When did they stop calling it gerrymandering?

Probably around the time that the 24H news channels realized that too many people are aware of the negative connotations of the word "gerrymander," and that if they called it "redistricting" it would sound more Fair And Balanced.

How is this still legal?

King Something: Shakespeare's Monkey: When did they stop calling it gerrymandering?

Probably around the time that the 24H news channels realized that too many people are aware of the negative connotations of the word "gerrymander," and that if they called it "redistricting" it would sound more Fair And Balanced.

To be fair, it is redistricting. Gerrymandering is a form of redistricting with a political or racial intent to minimize the power of a voting block.

It's not 'gerrymandering' but for the intent.

Derwood: How is this still legal?

Take a wild guess who the only people are who could pass a law making this illegal.

Texas redistricting is tied up in court. Seems the Dems grew a pair and challenged it (woohoo!!). It may not be solved before November (I can has awesome for 100, Alex)

/Screwed up the GOP domination plans. The funny thing is, this state can't be more republican based. They should have just left it alone, but I guess nothing ventured nothing gained.

Deneb81: King Something: Shakespeare's Monkey: When did they stop calling it gerrymandering?

Probably around the time that the 24H news channels realized that too many people are aware of the negative connotations of the word "gerrymander," and that if they called it "redistricting" it would sound more Fair And Balanced.

To be fair, it is redistricting. Gerrymandering is a form of redistricting with a political or racial intent to minimize the power of a voting block.

It's not 'gerrymandering' but for the intent.

Like I said, the negative connotations of the word "Gerrymander" is why they don't use it to describe the... "creative" redistricting.

Like referring to forcible rape as "sexual relations" or the Chinese Democracy album as "music."

Deneb81: King Something: Shakespeare's Monkey: When did they stop calling it gerrymandering?

Probably around the time that the 24H news channels realized that too many people are aware of the negative connotations of the word "gerrymander," and that if they called it "redistricting" it would sound more Fair And Balanced.

To be fair, it is redistricting. Gerrymandering is a form of redistricting with a political or racial intent to minimize the power of a voting block.

It's not 'gerrymandering' but for the intent.

Is redistricting ever done without that intent though?

And with public coffers running so low, the return on investment must be brutal for private interests.

GAT_00: Serves you right for massive overreach. When exactly are people going to learn that there is nothing fiscally responsible about the Republican Party?

They'll never learn. The teabagger at work claims Bush was a Democrat. Why? "He spent like a Democrat" is the answer, apparently. So when a Republican spends tons of money on two wars and just not put it on the books, while simultaneously cutting revenues, he's being a Democrat. It's similar to Rush's "apology" the other day by saying what he did wrong was he "acted like a Democrat."

/farking projection, how does it work?

not doesn't

/derp

Seriously, the most amusing part about any WRAL article is always the comments. Scroll to the bottom of the farkin' link and see for yourself.

/I unfortunately live here.

Got rid of Heath Shuler, so it's worth it. The moral of story is to be in contol of the legislature at census time. The Democrats were the majority in 2000 and major ass-raping took place.

This is the first time in the past 100 years that the Republicans have been in control of the state legislature in NC and had the privilege of defining the re-districting due to the census. They did the the same thing to Democrats that the Democrats did to the Republicans in the previous 9 decades of re-districting.

However the Democrats in this case whined about the re-districting and launched all sorts of legal actions to have it undone. This lead to all sorts of money being used by the Republicans to defend the re-districting.

They are actually UNDOING the gerrymandering of previous Democrat congresses. If you haven't seen it, you should check out NC's District 12, which was designed for no other purpose than to get African-Americans elected.

Link

browser_snake: They are actually UNDOING the gerrymandering of previous Democrat congresses. If you haven't seen it, you should check out NC's District 12, which was designed for no other purpose than to get African-Americans elected.

Link

Oh G-d no, not African-Americans in office; anything but African-Americans in elected office! This changes everything! No thinking person can tolerate that.

jackass

It's time to remove redistricting from the hands of people who benefit from it in favor of impartial processes. Public computer algorithms are the best solution.

As an ArcGIS developer, I'm getting a kick...

Nuclear Monk: Deneb81: King Something: Shakespeare's Monkey: When did they stop calling it gerrymandering?

Probably around the time that the 24H news channels realized that too many people are aware of the negative connotations of the word "gerrymander," and that if they called it "redistricting" it would sound more Fair And Balanced.

To be fair, it is redistricting. Gerrymandering is a form of redistricting with a political or racial intent to minimize the power of a voting block.

It's not 'gerrymandering' but for the intent.

Is redistricting ever done without that intent though?

Iowa. At least their Congressional districts, anyway. Currently 4 districts, formerly 5, which are/were shaped like boxes rather than spaghetti.

Florida voters also voted for an amendment to the state constitution requiring Iowa-style redistricting (the shapes of the districts need to be as small and simple as possible, keep district lines congruent with existing city, county, geographical or other currently-existing boundaries, etc.) but the dickholes in Tallahassee called a mulligan.

qorkfiend: It's time to remove redistricting from the hands of people who benefit from it in favor of impartial processes. Public computer algorithms are the best solution.

I like that idea. When we implement it, let's specify that less populous counties or cities remain undivided districts. If they are really small, we could have multiple adjacent counties or cities form a district. Highly populous counties or cities would be sub-divided by some existing physical feature: a highway that runs through the middle of the city, for instance.

dr.zaeus: As an ArcGIS developer, I'm getting a kick...

What exactly do you guys do? Arc10 is probably worse than 9.3.

Do only north Carolina us redistricting after the census? What farking idiots some of you are.

MyRandomName: Do only north Carolina us redistricting after the census? What farking idiots some of you are.


What self-pwnage may look like.

North Carolina is almost two states now. You've got the urban crescent of the Charlotte, Triad, Triangle, and Greenville areas connected by I-85, I-40, and US-264. Then you've got the eastern farmlands and the western highlands. The urban area is torn between the two parties largely on economic issues. Other than agri-policy the hinterlands are largely fought over using social issues and buzzwords like "values". Add to this the long legacy of voting Democratic that still pervades the population despite the great leap the South made to the republicans under Nixon. NC was smart enough to start diversifying its economic base long before the manufacturing sector began disappearing, so we're not as bad off as neighboring states, and we've seen a major emigration shift in the last 25 years. This has combined to make NC a more progressive state than South Carolina or Tennessee - and judging by what the Virginia has done politically the last two years, they've regressed politically as to be behind us in some respects. But it's still a battleground.

Only in America would we create a political system so corrupt and backward that it allows the politicians to choose who votes for them.

AmorousRedDragon: If they make the districts 100% Republican, they won't have to worry about spending money against those pesky Democrats!

/Democracy is hard

Gerrymandering is the exact opposite of that.

Let's say your state is split 50/50 D/R, and has 6 congressional districts of equal size. If I can gerrymander 5 60/40 districts, and 1 0/100 district, I can get 5 Democrats and 1 Republican, despite being split 50/50.

So it's more like: If I can make a couple districts 100% Democrat, I can write them off as a loss, and make the rest lightly Republican, and then I won't have to worry about spending money against those pesky Democrats .

King Something: Like referring to...the Chinese Democracy album as "music."

I don't think this level of hyperbole advances the debate at all.

GAT_00: dr.zaeus: As an ArcGIS developer, I'm getting a kick...

What exactly do you guys do? Arc10 is probably worse than 9.3.

I work for a large-ish electricity distribution cooperative. Basically, our spatial database is used to house consumer AMI metering data, and (most importantly) the network connectivity model for outage prediction.

I'm involved mostly with authoring internal mapping applications and maintaining the outage system, so I eat, drink, and breathe ArcGIS Server and ArcSDE. The changes at 10 (especially in ArcMap) were a little weird, and we've had a minor revolt from some users here at the coop ever the new drawers they added.

I remember you saying a while back that you were studying GIS. How's it going?

UNC_Samurai: North Carolina is almost two states now. You've got the urban crescent of the Charlotte, Triad, Triangle, and Greenville areas connected by I-85, I-40, and US-264. Then you've got the eastern farmlands and the western highlands. The urban area is torn between the two parties largely on economic issues. Other than agri-policy the hinterlands are largely fought over using social issues and buzzwords like "values". Add to this the long legacy of voting Democratic that still pervades the population despite the great leap the South made to the republicans under Nixon. NC was smart enough to start diversifying its economic base long before the manufacturing sector began disappearing, so we're not as bad off as neighboring states, and we've seen a major emigration shift in the last 25 years. This has combined to make NC a more progressive state than South Carolina or Tennessee - and judging by what the Virginia has done politically the last two years, they've regressed politically as to be behind us in some respects. But it's still a battleground.

This comment is not only absolutely correct but full of win.

I'm from North Carolina, so, how about you sit down and shut up before you look even more foolish?

At one time the Democrats had so gerrymandered some districts to give themselves the advantage that they got taken to court over it, and they lost, horrifically. That's how bad it was.

So after that they learned their lesson and...

Oh wait, they redid them, and again, gerrymandered some districts so badly that they ended up in court, again, and they lost, again, horrifically.

Upon discovering that her gerrymandered district was going away and that her reelection chances were nil you could basically call our local congress woman's office for the last year she was in office to be told that nothing was her problem anymore and she didn't give a damn.

I'm not sure how much the Democrats spent on their two gerrymander sessions and court battles, but 650k probably wouldn't cover it.

Lunaville: browser_snake: They are actually UNDOING the gerrymandering of previous Democrat congresses. If you haven't seen it, you should check out NC's District 12, which was designed for no other purpose than to get African-Americans elected.

Link

Oh G-d no, not African-Americans in office; anything but African-Americans in elected office! This changes everything! No thinking person can tolerate that.

jackass

Extremely poor effort. 3/10.

qorkfiend: It's time to remove redistricting from the hands of people who benefit from it in favor of impartial processes. Public computer algorithms are the best solution.

But then people would just have partisan fights over the algorithms.

I doubt that it would make a big difference either; the US Senate is pretty dysfunctional despite being impossible to gerrymander.