EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Sen. Ben Cardin Talks Dream Act, Marriage Equality, DOMA & More // PLUS: Netroots Nation Photo Album

Maryland Juice had the opportunity to shadow U.S. Senator Ben Cardin this weekend, as he talked to various groups at the Netroots Nation conference. The annual gathering of progressive, Internet-based organizers brought together a few thousand people to share strategies and talk issues.

Sen. Cardin was there to speak on a panel titled the War on Voting Rights. MarylandReporter today carried coverage of the Senator's talk (excerpt below), which compared the Republican push to scrub voter rolls and make voting more difficult to the Jim Crow laws of the past:

MARYLAND REPORTER: “These laws are the new Jim Crow laws of our times,” said Maryland U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin on a panel about “The War on Voting” at Netroots Nation, a large conference of progressive activists. “This is really an effort to control the outcome of elections” and not protect “the integrity of our electoral system.”

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO & PHOTO COVERAGE: Below see exclusive content from Maryland Juice, including various videos of Sen. Cardin's remarks. We captured video of him talking to LGBT activists, organizers from various communities of color, and more. Senator Cardin gave surprisingly candid remarks about the political and electoral dynamics regarding DOMA, the Dream Act, marriage equality, immigration reform, racial profiling, judicial nominations and much more. See seven videos below.

Within his comments, Sen. Cardin noted that senior members of the Senate were impeding reforms that could help President Obama clear judicial nominees. He also promised to raise the Maryland marriage equality ballot effort at every campaign stop, but also stated that the chances of DOMA repeal this year looked very difficult.

See the videos of Cardin's comments below, along with a photo gallery of Maryland politicos at Netroots Nation. As always, feel free to use any of my content as you see fit, with or without attribution.

NETROOTS NATION 2012 - PHOTOS OF MARYLAND POLITICOS (full album online)

Q: Who Is Senate President Mike Miller? // A: Another Defender of Misogny, Racism & Anti-Semitism

In the course of our attempted disruption of the Maryland political psyche, readers are beginning to forward interesting tidbits about Senate President Mike Miller's quarter-century reign over the Free State.

A Maryland Juice reader with a long memory forwarded us an interesting Baltimore Sun article from 1993. Darth Miller was still refining his power-consolidation techniques, and he used them to try and salvage the highly controversial judicial appointment for a former legislator accused of racism and misogny:

Arnick used racist, sexist language, panel is told

February 09, 1993

John S. Arnick, a new District Court judge in Baltimore County, told racist jokes and used derogatory and vulgar language to refer to women during a meeting when he was chairman of a state legislative committee, a woman lawyer testified last night.

Judy A. Wolfer, 34, of Takoma Park said the former state delegate is unfit to be a judge and urged the Senate Executive Nominations Committee to reject his recent appointment to the bench.

Ms. Wolfer said a "loud and angry" Mr. Arnick referred to her and a female colleague as "you bitches" and "you bimbos" during a February 1992 dinner meeting at an Annapolis restaurant. The women scheduled the meeting to lobby Mr. Arnick on a domestic violence bill that would be voted on by the House Judiciary Committee, which he chaired.