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Michael T. Barrett
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Aug
26
Justice Department Approves Georgia Voter I.D. Law
Category: Opinions, Society | Leave a Comment | 421 words | Print
Back in 2007, I wrote several posts about Georgia’s new Voter I.D. Law on my other blog, Slobokan’s Site O’ Schtuff.
Today, I am happy to say that the U.S. Department of Justice has approved the voter I.D. system.
The Justice Department has given Georgia approval to again verify voters’ identity and citizenship, Secretary of State Brian Kemp announced Monday.
Federal officials have pre-cleared a modified new program designed to confirm that prospective voters are U.S. citizens. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division had repeatedly rejected similar versions of the Georgia program.
It has been mired in legal challenges since 2008…
It’s about time. There is nothing wrong with requiring a voter to show proof of their identity and their citizenship, unless you’re a Democrat.
State Rep. Roger Bruce (D-Atlanta) said, “We should be doing things to encourage them to vote instead of making them jump through hoops”. What hoops? Carrying the same identification they are required to carry if they walk down the street, drive a car, or open an account at a bank? Hello? What hoops are Rep. Bruce referring to?
Oh wait. I remember. The only person jumping through hoops will be Roy Barnes, former Governor (and current candidate for Governor) who was spearheading an effort to overturn the law…
Former Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes had sought the action in a state court, arguing Thursday before Judge Melvin K. Westmoreland that requiring voters to show government-issued photo ID violated the state Constitution.
That’s right. Good ol’ boy Roy, who is the Democratic nominee for Governor was really looking forward to all of those votes from people who thought carrying a photo i.d. would take too much effort or would require them to act like every other member of society.
I think we should light those hoops on fire and watch King Roy sweat a little bit.
If you want to read all my previous posts about the Georgia Voter I.D. Law, here are the links to those posts.
Georgia Voter I.D. Law Upheld
Georgia Voter I.D. Law Not Unconstitutional
State Supreme Court Hears Voter ID Case
The Georgia Voter Yo-Yo Act
Georgia Supreme Court Rejects States Appeal
Georgia Voter ID Law On Hold… Again…
Georgia Voter I.D. Cards Aren’t Quite Ready
Justice Dept. Approves Georgia Voter I.D. Law
Governor Signs Georgia Voter I.D. Law… Again.
Georgia State Senate Debates Voter ID Law. Again.
U.S. Court Denies Appeal On Voter I.D.
Boortz On Yesterday’s Voter I.D. Decision
Georgia Voter I.D. Law On Hold
Got I.D.? No Problem
Nothing More Than A Poll Tax?
The NY Times Is Full Of It
The Georgia Voter ID Bus
Aug
15
Silent Sunday
Category: Economics, Society | Leave a Comment | 3 words | Print
Aug
8
Jul
30
That Rain Doesn’t Belong To You!
Category: Our Nation, Society | Leave a Comment | 114 words | Print
I am taking a break tonight, but you need to read this article.
Collecting rain in a rain barrel may be illegal in your state.
Many of the freedoms we enjoy here in the U.S. are quickly eroding as the nation transforms from the land of the free into the land of the enslaved, but what I’m about to share with you takes the assault on our freedoms to a whole new level. You may not be aware of this, but many Western states, including Utah, Washington and Colorado, have long outlawed individuals from collecting rainwater on their own properties because, according to officials, that rain belongs to someone else.
Read more at Natural News.
Sphere: Related ContentJul
29
Ignoring The Truth For 15 Minutes
Category: Our Nation, Society | Leave a Comment | 317 words | Print
While attempting to prove she has “overcome” her racism toward white farmers, Shirley Sherrod has now taken the next obvious step along her path to self-destruction. She is planning on suing Andrew Breitbart because the Obama administration over reacted and fired her innappropriately.
Ousted Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod said Thursday she will sue a conservative blogger who posted a video edited in a way that made her appear racist.
Sherrod was forced to resign last week as director of rural development in Georgia after Andrew Breitbart posted the edited video online. In the full video, Sherrod, who is black, spoke to a local NAACP group about racial reconciliation and overcoming her initial reluctance to help a white farmer.
Why is Sherrod suing Breitbart? His video was used to criticize the NAACP, not Sherrod. Is it his fault that the Obama administration is so scared of racial issues that they were trigger happy when they fired her? No, it’s not.
Personally, I am sick of this story, and this will be the last time I post anything about Shirley Sherrod, or her racist husband, Charles.
The video shows her making the statements she made, and the crowd reacting the way they did. Period. She’s a moron for suing Breitbart. The truth is the truth, if she can’t handle the truth then she never should have been in the position she was in.
Just imagine if a white person had made the same statements about a black farmer, and a white crowd reacted the way the NAACP crowd did. This would be a whole different story and heads would already be served up on platters.
On top of it all, she is going to drag this out into court. For what? Oh, that’s right, she needs her 15 minutes, and this past couple weeks just hasn’t been enough, I guess. Disgusting.
Sphere: Related ContentJul
27
Massachusetts Will Soon Be Seeing Red
Category: Our Nation, Politics, Society | Leave a Comment | 404 words | Print
Did you hear what happened in Massachusetts today?
The Massachusetts Legislature has approved a new law intended to bypass the Electoral College system and ensure that the winner of the presidential election is determined by the national popular vote.
Yes, you read that correctly. The Massachusetts Legislature essentially took the election of the President of the United States out of the hands of the citizens of Massachusetts. You see, no matter who they vote for in the 2012 election, all electoral votes for Massachusetts will be awarded to the candidate which receives the most popular votes, nationwide!
The bill, which passed on a 28-to-9 vote, now heads to Democratic Governor Deval Patrick’s desk. The governor has said in the past that he supports the bill, said his spokeswoman Kim Haberlin.
Under the law, which was enacted by the House last week, all 12 of the state’s electoral votes would be awarded to the candidate who receives the most votes nationally.
This is idea is actually stupid. Plain and simple. If you want to pass a law that awards your electoral votes based on the popular vote within your state, that’s one thing, but this has nothing to do with the people of Massachusetts, or their vote. If the people of Ohio, Florida, or any other swing state end up taking a candidate over the top with the popular vote, the state of Massachusetts is going to award their electoral votes to that candidate, whether or not that candidate did well in the popular vote.
Massachusetts isn’t alone either. Illinois, Hawaii, Maryland, and Washington have also adopted the same law.
I can hardly wait to see the newscasts on election night 2012. When Illinois, Maryland, Hawaii, and Washington are all painted red because the citizens of those states allowed their legislature to elect “the other guy”.
The current Electoral College system is confusing and causes presidential candidates to focus unduly on a handful of battleground states, supporters say. They also say that the popular vote winner has lost in four of the nation’s 56 elections.
Wow. Four times in 56 elections. I can understand some people wanting to abolish the electoral college, but this bill is way over the top. The first time Massachusetts goes red on the map because of this law, the people will stand up and demand it be repealed. Just watch.
Jul
26
Shirley Sherrod Is Married To Racism
Category: Opinions, Society | Leave a Comment | 128 words | Print
If you pay attention to the news, you’ve heard of Shirley Sherrod by now. There has been a lot of commotion about her and the clip of the speech she gave. Of course, once the entire video was released it didn’t make her look as bad as the clip did (although there is no excuse for the audience’s reaction to her speech).
Well, some people may not think Shirley Sherrod is a racist, but the same cannot be said for her husband, Charles.
What a shame. I actually believed Shirley Sherrod had redeemed herself and didn’t tolerate racism, yet she’s married to it. Believe what you want, but I don’t think Charles Sherrod has any redeeming qualities in this video.
Jul
21
One Day Later…
Category: Politics, Society | Leave a Comment | 468 words | Print
To say I am shocked is an understatement. Last night was the wildest election I have followed since I started voting. I am absolutely stunned. Some good, mostly bad, but completely and absolutely stunned. I just don’t understand what was going through the voters’ heads.
The mission of our local TEA Party organization was to educate the voters, and it’s clear the local TEA parties had absolutely no effect on the outcome of this election. While I think they had a profound effect on the message during the campaign, they had no effect on the voters decision when choosing candidates.
A few candidates won on name recognition alone, and others who busted their ass, won 98% of the straw polls statewide, and gave it everything they had, ended up being kicked to the curb prematurely.
It’s clear that the Republican voters of Georgia did not pick the best candidate to run against Roy Barnes in November. Sure, we still have a run-off on August 10th, but neither Karen Handel nor Nathan Deal are the best candidate for the job. Both of them are better alternatives than Roy Barnes, but they don’t hold a candle to others where liberty and fiscal conservatism are concerned.
With the governors race we have a surrogate showdown between Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin. Gingrich has endorsed Deal and Palin has endorsed Handel. This makes the perfect “career politician” surrogate showdown, with actual career politicians in the candidate as well as endorsing positions.
Doesn’t this make you feel like their way of telling you to “assume the position”?
With the availability of information on the internet, there is no excuse for not researching the best candidate. People have really proven how lazy they are, because voter turn out was extremely low too.
Ten percent of the people have determined the course of the general election for the remainder of the population. I would have thought that conservatives (and independents) across the state would have stepped up to make their voices heard last night, and all we got was the sound of the dedicated few who support incumbents and career politicians.
Republicans in Georgia had a chance to prove they had evolved into a better political party with a mindset on liberty, smaller government, and a return to the values of our founding fathers, but instead they handed the primary election over to the career politicians who got us in this mess in the first place.
Disgusted doesn’t even begin to explain what I am feeling.
Conservatives in general have evolved, but those who just call themselves conservatives are still taking the easy road by listening to one particular talking head at a time and ignoring the issues that matter most.
Yeah, to say I am disgusted is definitely an understatement. ;)
Sphere: Related ContentJul
19
Tomorrow’s The Big Day!
Category: Politics, Society | Leave a Comment | 211 words | Print
Tomorrow is primary day here in Georgia. It’s been a long and grueling campaign for some candidates, while a couple of incumbents have skated by with no opposition.
Whether you are a registered Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, or independent (like me), make sure you get out there tomorrow and vote. Mid-term elections are notorious for extremely low voter turnout, and your vote could literally make the difference whether or not your candidate makes it to the general election.
I voted last Friday afternoon, so I could sit home tomorrow and watch the exit polls and keep my eye glued to the election returns. People say it all the time, but this year is probably the most important mid-term election of my generation (and I am not that young anymore). With out-of-control spending, an out-of-control Congress, and an egomaniacal out-of-control President, we need to elect candidates that will get our country back on track and stop the downward spiral our country is taking.
I am confident that many of the candidates I voted for will win their primary campaigns, and I look forward to voting for them again in the upcoming general election. Once we get this mid-term cycle straightened out, we can all focus on 2012!
Jul
10
Saturday Oil Spill Summary – 81 Days In
Category: Our Nation, Society | Leave a Comment | 745 words | Print
While BP says they are making another attempt that could “permanently cap the well, and capture all of the oil”, let’s look back on the past few days and see what’s really going on.
Obama Rejected Again
On Thursday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals told the Obama Administration to take a flying leap where deepwater drilling bans are concerned.
A U.S. appeals court on Thursday rejected the Obama administration’s request to stay a lower court decision to lift a six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the wake of the BP Plc oil spill.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans, ruled about an hour after hearing arguments.
Its decision will likely prompt the Interior Department to quickly issue a revised moratorium order on deepwater drilling below 500 feet to address concerns raised by the federal courts.
If there is one thing the Obama Administration does well, is scramble. It seems they’re always trying to cover their asses or find an alternative solution with every single thing they put their grubby little hands on.
Once Again, Late To Their Own Party
How many stories have we heard about BP involving them dragging their feet?
Helix, the Houston-based owner of floating oil platforms and subsea wells, offered its Helix Producer I vessel in late April to help BP collect oil that has been gushing from the Macondo well since an April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers, Chief Executive Officer Owen Kratz said today in an interview. BP initially declined the offer, he said.
BP notified Helix June 10 that it wanted to lease the Helix Producer I platform to augment two other vessels that are receiving oil from the Macondo well, Kratz said. The delay meant Helix had to construct a collection tube from spare parts that will be plugged into a pipe just one-sixth the diameter of the main opening atop the well, he said.
The oil leak itself is the only thing quick and efficient that BP has done since April 20th.
Covering Up The Safety Excellence of BP
If it wasn’t for the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, BP would have been on-track to receive a 2010 safety commendation from the Minerals and Management Service! You go BP!
Shortly after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, we reported that the Minerals Management Service canceled its annual “Safety Award for Excellence” luncheon, which—rather embarrassingly—included BP as one of the finalists for a 2010 safety commendation. The SAFE event was never held, and MMS never did get around to announcing a winner.
Now Energy & Environment reports that the Department of Interior has scrubbed the evidence of BP’s finalist-status from its website.
I bet the staff over at the Department of the Interior are wishing they could whitewash BP’s entire existence from the minds of people everywhere.
Gulf Oil Spill Panel To Look At Root Causes
Don’t you just love that headline? Idiots I tell ya. It’s pretty obvious why the oil is spilling. Instead of looking at the cause, maybe they should focus on the solution?
The new presidential oil spill commission will focus on how safety, government oversight and the ability to clean up spills haven’t kept up with advances in drilling technology, the panel’s leaders say.
Oil Spill Workers Are Being Exposed To Some Nasty Stuff
Workers in the Gulf are being exposed to 2-butoxyethanol, and their lives are being put at risk.
In an under-the-radar release of new test results for its Gulf of Mexico oil spill workers, BP PLC is reporting potentially hazardous exposures to a now-discontinued dispersant chemical — a substance blamed for contributing to chronic health problems after the Exxon Valdez cleanup — among more than 20 percent of offshore responders.
They’re testing for more and more chemicals, but for some workers, it may be a little too late.
It just goes to prove, what you don’t know might kill you.
The Flyover by John L. Wathen
Here’s a longer version of a video I featured the other day. Pay attention people, this problem is NOT going away anytime soon.
No Freedom Of The Press On Federal Wildlife Refuge Property
Check out this video from Citizen Tube.
Apparently this same suspension of the First Amendment is being enforced near BP properties as well.
More Links You Should Read
As if I haven’t posted enough for you to read and digest tonight, you may want to look at these links as well.
More oil coming ashore near Mobile Bay
It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt
Air quality poses risk to some people
Sphere: Related Content