Is this nation ready for a black president? I think it is! And I also think this nation is ready for a woman president. But we will know for sure soon. Below the link to the "We Can"/"Sí Se Puede" Obama '08 video, that is creating sensation all around the nation. Enjoy it as I did!
LeMonton
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Thursday, January 31, 2008
"a Godfather of Green"
Another example of an idiot and, what a surprise, a republican.
LeMonton
------------
Hall of Shame: Mitch McConnell
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell earns a third spot in the Hall of Shame for his blatant pandering to oil companies, for which he’s been amply rewarded with campaign cash. It’s no surprise to find a wealthy Republican Senator in bed with oil barons, but McConnell’s recent decision to call himself an environmental leader adds an extra element of shamefulness to his already disgraceful behavior.
Over the course of his career, McConnell has received more than half a million dollars in campaign contributions from the oil and gas lobbyists who look to him for help with troublesome bills. In 2006, McConnell supported a $5 billion tax windfall for the industry. He even went so far as to raise an objection in the Senate that led to the cancellation of a Live Earth benefit concert.
Here’s what Mitch McConnell’s hometown paper, the Courier-Journal, had to say about one of the Senator’s latest “green” efforts:
Editorial: McConnell Brought GOP Senate and Bush White House Together On Behalf of Oil Companies.
“In an oily speech on the floor after passage of a weakened energy bill, Kentucky's Mitch McConnell described what happened this way: ‘We recognized here in the Senate that the House bill couldn't pass the Senate and wouldn't be signed into law. So we fixed it. And now it will.’ He unctuously thanked colleagues for their hard work. He slathered on the praise, claiming, ‘I'm extremely pleased that we're about to show the American people we still have it in us to come together as a body and achieve consensus on an issue that affects all of us.’ Actually it's the Republican Senate he controls and the White House he cultivates that came together -- on behalf of the oil industry and the utility interests, by blocking the restoration of $13 billion in taxes on fabulous petroleum profits and shielding the power companies from a requirement to produce 15 percent of their electricity from renewable resources. …But the real winners were the lobbyists for big Republican campaign givers, who succeeded in blocking the restoration of billions in taxes on the big oil companies, which are squeezing American consumers for more than $100 billion per year in profits, thanks to huge price hikes at the pump. Had that tax provision survived, the proceeds would have financed clean energy development. Also falling before the pressure of lobbyists was a requirement that utilities produce 15 percent of their electricity by wind, solar and other renewable means by 2020. This was a huge victory for the operators of dirty coal-fired plants in the Midwest and South. This is what Mitch McConnell and George W. Bush did for Big Energy, and did to the rest of us. As long as Sen. McConnell can block action on future-friendly legislation by denying the Democrats 60-vote margins, this obstructionism will continue. …Sen. McConnell and President Bush are yesterday's heroes, not tomorrow's champions.”
Given his cozy relationship with the oil companies, and his 0% rating from the League of Conservation Voters, McConnell isn’t exactly known for his environmentally-friendly ways. But that hasn’t stopped McConnell from launching a new television ad calling the Senator “a Godfather of Green.”
For not only pushing the oil companies’ agendas and taking their campaign cash, but for hypocritically claiming to be an environmentalist, we congratulate Senator McConnell on his induction into the Hall of Shame.
LeMonton
------------
Hall of Shame: Mitch McConnell
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell earns a third spot in the Hall of Shame for his blatant pandering to oil companies, for which he’s been amply rewarded with campaign cash. It’s no surprise to find a wealthy Republican Senator in bed with oil barons, but McConnell’s recent decision to call himself an environmental leader adds an extra element of shamefulness to his already disgraceful behavior.
Over the course of his career, McConnell has received more than half a million dollars in campaign contributions from the oil and gas lobbyists who look to him for help with troublesome bills. In 2006, McConnell supported a $5 billion tax windfall for the industry. He even went so far as to raise an objection in the Senate that led to the cancellation of a Live Earth benefit concert.
Here’s what Mitch McConnell’s hometown paper, the Courier-Journal, had to say about one of the Senator’s latest “green” efforts:
Editorial: McConnell Brought GOP Senate and Bush White House Together On Behalf of Oil Companies.
“In an oily speech on the floor after passage of a weakened energy bill, Kentucky's Mitch McConnell described what happened this way: ‘We recognized here in the Senate that the House bill couldn't pass the Senate and wouldn't be signed into law. So we fixed it. And now it will.’ He unctuously thanked colleagues for their hard work. He slathered on the praise, claiming, ‘I'm extremely pleased that we're about to show the American people we still have it in us to come together as a body and achieve consensus on an issue that affects all of us.’ Actually it's the Republican Senate he controls and the White House he cultivates that came together -- on behalf of the oil industry and the utility interests, by blocking the restoration of $13 billion in taxes on fabulous petroleum profits and shielding the power companies from a requirement to produce 15 percent of their electricity from renewable resources. …But the real winners were the lobbyists for big Republican campaign givers, who succeeded in blocking the restoration of billions in taxes on the big oil companies, which are squeezing American consumers for more than $100 billion per year in profits, thanks to huge price hikes at the pump. Had that tax provision survived, the proceeds would have financed clean energy development. Also falling before the pressure of lobbyists was a requirement that utilities produce 15 percent of their electricity by wind, solar and other renewable means by 2020. This was a huge victory for the operators of dirty coal-fired plants in the Midwest and South. This is what Mitch McConnell and George W. Bush did for Big Energy, and did to the rest of us. As long as Sen. McConnell can block action on future-friendly legislation by denying the Democrats 60-vote margins, this obstructionism will continue. …Sen. McConnell and President Bush are yesterday's heroes, not tomorrow's champions.”
Given his cozy relationship with the oil companies, and his 0% rating from the League of Conservation Voters, McConnell isn’t exactly known for his environmentally-friendly ways. But that hasn’t stopped McConnell from launching a new television ad calling the Senator “a Godfather of Green.”
For not only pushing the oil companies’ agendas and taking their campaign cash, but for hypocritically claiming to be an environmentalist, we congratulate Senator McConnell on his induction into the Hall of Shame.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
U.S. should resist linguistic terrorism of English-only laws
www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.englishonly09jan09,0,6357403.story
By Deborah WhitfordJanuary 9, 2008
Language is a difficult subject to discuss dispassionately because it's our essence. So when two languages come cheek to jowl, as English and Spanish have in the United States, it becomes a hot issue. As Chicano poet Gloria Anzaldua wrote in Borderlands: La Frontera: "So, if you really want to hurt me, talk badly about my language. I am my language."
Linguistic terrorism has plagued children of immigrants and Native Americans for generations. Alberto Alvaro Ríos wrote in his book Capirotada: A Nogales Memoir: "If speaking Spanish is bad, and our parents speak Spanish, then they must be bad," he concluded, "and we became ashamed of them."
Fueling the language debate are clashes arising over illegal immigrants fleeing dire circumstances. But anti-foreign-language fervor has been around for a long time. We disrespected the languages of Native Americans and African-Americans because non-white minorities spoke them, and we shunned German during World War I. Now it's Spanish.
The irony is that almost all of us have ancestors who were immigrants. The co-mingling of languages is as much a part of that brew as the people who speak them. Yet we have become so smug about English that we ignore the prominence of foreign words in our vocabularies.
French: casserole, cassette and clientele. Latin: acumen, genius, moratorium. Greek: thesis, barometer, autistic. German: angst, kindergarten, sauerkraut. Turkish: macramé, bridge, caviar. Italian: pizza, ghetto, ballerina. Japanese: banzai, sushi. Afrikaner: trek. Hungarian: coach, paprika.
As for Spanish, it left its mark upon our culture long before the arrival of Cristóbal Colón. Just close your eyes and press your finger onto any U.S. map, and chances are decent that you'll be pointing to a place with a Spanish name (such as Colorado, Montana or Florida).
Yet we view foreign languages with suspicion and derision - the billboards in Spanish, the mom-and-pop piñata shops, the Little Mexicos. We've got them in our sights. Our weapon? Legislation.
Thirty states, from Arkansas to Wyoming, have enacted laws making English their official language.
This is not a bad thing as long as the sole purpose is to enable the government to run smoothly, unencumbered by language barriers. But it's one thing to specify English as the official language and quite another to issue "English only" mandates that order all government employees to refrain from offering assistance in other languages. Heaven forbid a Navajo legislator should speak to his Navajo constituents in Navajo, or a bilingual welfare worker speak Spanish, or a state park ranger give visitors directions in French or German.
Yet 23 states have adopted measures restricting the public use of minority languages. During last year's regular session of the General Assembly in Maryland, laws that would have required all government business statewide and in Baltimore County to be conducted in English were defeated.
An English-only mandate not only hampers effective communication but, according to the written opinion of the Arizona Supreme Court, it also "chills First Amendment rights."Stephen Montoya, the lawyer who represented legislators and state employees in Arizona seeking to overturn one such law, called it racist. "The only individuals in Arizona who don't speak English fluently, or not at all, are people of color," he said. "I see this as a way to keep them out of the political process."
To legislate against Spanish is to marginalize the largest minority group in this country. The United States contains the fifth-largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, estimated at about 32 million. Spanish is the third-most-spoken language on the planet, with 400 million to 480 million speakers.
As for the assertions that these "foreigners" don't want to learn English, considering the waiting list of immigrants clamoring for classes, that can't be true.
Moreover, learning a foreign language takes time. Please, let's give them a chance.
Language is a beautiful resource, a bridge to other cultures and new ways of thinking. It's also constantly in flux; a language that doesn't change dies.
If we stymie the process, the best we can hope for might be the unearthing of American English by future archeologists studying a dead culture.
Deborah Whitford is a writer, a student of Spanish and a courtroom clerk in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix. Her e-mail is jwhitf6364@cox.net.
By Deborah WhitfordJanuary 9, 2008
Language is a difficult subject to discuss dispassionately because it's our essence. So when two languages come cheek to jowl, as English and Spanish have in the United States, it becomes a hot issue. As Chicano poet Gloria Anzaldua wrote in Borderlands: La Frontera: "So, if you really want to hurt me, talk badly about my language. I am my language."
Linguistic terrorism has plagued children of immigrants and Native Americans for generations. Alberto Alvaro Ríos wrote in his book Capirotada: A Nogales Memoir: "If speaking Spanish is bad, and our parents speak Spanish, then they must be bad," he concluded, "and we became ashamed of them."
Fueling the language debate are clashes arising over illegal immigrants fleeing dire circumstances. But anti-foreign-language fervor has been around for a long time. We disrespected the languages of Native Americans and African-Americans because non-white minorities spoke them, and we shunned German during World War I. Now it's Spanish.
The irony is that almost all of us have ancestors who were immigrants. The co-mingling of languages is as much a part of that brew as the people who speak them. Yet we have become so smug about English that we ignore the prominence of foreign words in our vocabularies.
French: casserole, cassette and clientele. Latin: acumen, genius, moratorium. Greek: thesis, barometer, autistic. German: angst, kindergarten, sauerkraut. Turkish: macramé, bridge, caviar. Italian: pizza, ghetto, ballerina. Japanese: banzai, sushi. Afrikaner: trek. Hungarian: coach, paprika.
As for Spanish, it left its mark upon our culture long before the arrival of Cristóbal Colón. Just close your eyes and press your finger onto any U.S. map, and chances are decent that you'll be pointing to a place with a Spanish name (such as Colorado, Montana or Florida).
Yet we view foreign languages with suspicion and derision - the billboards in Spanish, the mom-and-pop piñata shops, the Little Mexicos. We've got them in our sights. Our weapon? Legislation.
Thirty states, from Arkansas to Wyoming, have enacted laws making English their official language.
This is not a bad thing as long as the sole purpose is to enable the government to run smoothly, unencumbered by language barriers. But it's one thing to specify English as the official language and quite another to issue "English only" mandates that order all government employees to refrain from offering assistance in other languages. Heaven forbid a Navajo legislator should speak to his Navajo constituents in Navajo, or a bilingual welfare worker speak Spanish, or a state park ranger give visitors directions in French or German.
Yet 23 states have adopted measures restricting the public use of minority languages. During last year's regular session of the General Assembly in Maryland, laws that would have required all government business statewide and in Baltimore County to be conducted in English were defeated.
An English-only mandate not only hampers effective communication but, according to the written opinion of the Arizona Supreme Court, it also "chills First Amendment rights."Stephen Montoya, the lawyer who represented legislators and state employees in Arizona seeking to overturn one such law, called it racist. "The only individuals in Arizona who don't speak English fluently, or not at all, are people of color," he said. "I see this as a way to keep them out of the political process."
To legislate against Spanish is to marginalize the largest minority group in this country. The United States contains the fifth-largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, estimated at about 32 million. Spanish is the third-most-spoken language on the planet, with 400 million to 480 million speakers.
As for the assertions that these "foreigners" don't want to learn English, considering the waiting list of immigrants clamoring for classes, that can't be true.
Moreover, learning a foreign language takes time. Please, let's give them a chance.
Language is a beautiful resource, a bridge to other cultures and new ways of thinking. It's also constantly in flux; a language that doesn't change dies.
If we stymie the process, the best we can hope for might be the unearthing of American English by future archeologists studying a dead culture.
Deborah Whitford is a writer, a student of Spanish and a courtroom clerk in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix. Her e-mail is jwhitf6364@cox.net.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Bill Richardson throws the towel
Bill Richardson ended his bid for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Nobody can deny that he has the best experience and skills of all candidates of both parties. However, voters did not put too much value on that. Why? I don't think anyone can answer this question really. However, there is something wrong in this nation when we have the chance to put an excellent perrson in the White House (and God, how we need it!!) and don't do give it a chance.
LeMonton
LeMonton
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Texas Republicans Launch New Vote Suppression Scheme
(202) 547-7610 - Fax (202) 547-8258
November 30, 2007
Contact: Matt Angle
On the web at http://www.lonestarproject.net/
Texas Republicans Launch New Vote Suppression Scheme
Craddick committee directive and GOP vote suppression think tank will attempt to justify denying Texans access to the ballot
Academic studies, media reports and fact based voter analysis consistently demonstrate that systematic, widespread or frequent voter fraud in Texas, or anywhere else in the United States, simply does not exist. Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, however, has directed a State House committee to conduct an interim study on voter fraud with the clear intention of recommending legislation to limit the ability of thousands of eligible Texans to vote. (See the order here)
At the same time, former Tom DeLay aide and current Tom Craddick ally, John Colyandro, who remains under felony indictment for money laundering and other charges, has formed a "think tank" that is already using faulty data and illogical statistics to justify vote suppression tactics.
These most recent Texas Republican efforts to suppress voter turnout are consistent with Texas AG Greg Abbott's taxpayer funded phony voter fraud enforcement unit that the Lone Star Project has exposed and reported on extensively here.
Why do Tom Craddick and other Texas Republican leaders want to spend taxpayer resources to examine a problem that doesn't exist? Clearly Craddick, Abbott and others are attempting to justify dramatic changes in Texas law and election practices, including voter photo ID requirements, senior mail ballot restrictions and voter roll purges, that will reduce overall voter turnout as demographic changes take place in Texas that are increasing the influence of minorities in Texas elections.
The facts below demonstrate clearly that the Republican voter fraud initiative is a partisan scheme to hold power by suppressing the turnout of voters whose support Republicans are unable or unwilling to earn through legitimate public service.
Voter ID/Vote Suppression Bill Fact Sheet
Republican Claim: Voter Fraud is an "Epidemic" in Texas
FACT CHECK: Even fiercely partisan Republican Attorney General Abbott has admitted that after spending millions of Texas and federal taxpayer dollars investigating, "there have been few [voter fraud] prosecutions in Texas." The Austin American Statesman editorialized, “Voter fraud is not an issue because Texas is not being flooded with unregistered voters and illegal immigrants flocking to the polls. That just isn't happening.” (Source: Austin American-Statesman, April 26, 2007)
Republican Claim: Non-citizens voting is a major problem throughout the U.S.
FACT CHECK: The Department of Justice’s Ballot Access and Voting Integrity Initiative has resulted in just 14 convictions of non-citizens voting in the entire United States between 2002 and 2005. That is less then 5 noncitizens voting a year. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Public Integrity Section, Election Fraud Prosecutions & Convictions, Ballot Access & Voting Integrity Initiative, October 2002 – September 2005; The Politics of Voter Fraud, Minnite, Ph.D. Columbia University)
Republican Claim: Everyone has an ID
FACT CHECK: Even the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute admitted that 37% of Texas residents over the age of 80 did not have a driver's license. (TCCRI Commentary, May 1, 2007)
Republican Claim: Democratic operatives are pushing the opposition to the Voter Suppression Bill
FACT CHECK: The objections to the voter ID legislation are broad and bipartisan. The bill is opposed by non-partisan groups like the AARP and League of Women Voters, as well as every major Texas newspaper and many local newspapers. (Source: Associated Press, April 23, 2007) Former Republican Party Political Director Royal Massett has been one of the most outspoken opponents of the bill saying "Anyone who says all legal voters under this bill can vote doesn't know what he is talking about." (Source: The Houston Chronicle, April 26, 2007)
Additionally, each of the major daily papers and many smaller papers have penned an editorial against the voter suppression legislation including the:
Houston Chronicle – “With no proof of significant voter fraud in state elections, the Texas House is considering bills that would require voters to provide additional identification in order to register and cast their ballots. Not only is the legislation unjustified, if enacted it could disenfranchise large numbers of the elderly, the poor and minorities.” April 26, 2007
Dallas Morning News - “Voting is a privilege sacred to the Republic. The process needs to be secure. Violators should be prosecuted. But absent any evidence of serious security breaches at the polls, access to the voting booth needs to remain as unimpeded as it is today. The state Senate would be wise to stop this bad idea.” April 25, 2007
Austin American-Statesman – “Voter fraud is not an issue because Texas is not being flooded with unregistered voters and illegal immigrants flocking to the polls. That just isn't happening.” April 26, 2007
Fort Worth Star-Telegram – “The architects of this idea, pitched as a noble effort to prevent voter fraud, cannot be allowed to succeed with what is surely one of the greatest assaults on the right to vote in this state since passage of the federal Voting Rights Act in 1965.” April 23, 2007
Waco Tribune – “When asked for evidence that the problem is rampant in this great and vast state, partisans who cry “voter fraud” are strangely silent.” April 25, 2007
Corpus Christi Caller-Times – “Putting more procedural hurdles in the way of voters is precisely what the doctor did not order. In fact, it conjures up memories of the old poll-tax days, when the system actively discouraged voting by all but the "right" groups.” April 25, 2007
Republican Claim: Simple computer matching will remove improperly registered voters.
FACT CHECK: The Houston Chronicle Reported that the, ““hundreds of people who went to the polls found their names had been removed because of glitches in a $14 million Web-based state computer program intended to centralize voter registration lists.” The Chronicle also reports, “the system already has kicked registered voters' names off the lists [including] Prairie View Mayor Frank Jackson.” (Source: The Houston Chronicle, May 3, 2007; May 6, 2007)
Republican Claim: According to “Lite” Governor David Dewhurst: “On June 22, 2006, Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar Paul Bettencourt testified before the U.S. House Administration Committee that foreign nationals are both applying for and receiving voter registration cards. Data given to my office indicates that in Harris County alone since 1992, 3,742 voters have been removed from the voter rolls because they were not U.S. citizens.”
FACT CHECK: Republican Paul Bettencourt gave Congressional testimony disputing the above statistic. On June 22, 2006, Bettencourt appeared before the Committee on House Administration saying, “A review by my office in early 2005 turned up at least 35 cases in which foreign nationals either applied for or received voter's cards.” It is unclear why David Dewhurst’s number is exponentially higher than Paul Bettencourt’s figure. (Source: CQ Congressional Testimony, June 22, 2006)
Election Integrity???
Indicted DeLay Crony Heads
Voter Suppression Think Tank
Colyandro and DeLay mug shots
John Colyandro was indicted along with Tom DeLay on felony charges of money laundering, conspiring to launder money, and making illegal contributions of corporate money for his role in, “illegally funneling $190,000 in banned corporate money into the 2002 elections to help Republican candidates.” (Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 28, 2007) Colyandro is now Executive Director of the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute (TCCRI), which has launched a group with the cynical and ironic name "Election Integrity Task Force."
Colyandro has recruited two of the most harshly partisan Republicans in the Texas State House, Leo Berman (R-Tyler) and Betty Brown (R-Terrell) to co-chair the group. It will push "Purging voter rolls" and "Requiring photo identification at the polls." Betty Brown was the sponsor of an onerous voter ID bill in the House in 2007. One of Berman's most revealing quotes was made on the Texas State House floor last May, when he said, "Everyone on this floor needs a vote on illegal aliens to take home and say we did a little something about it." (Source: Austin American- Statesman, May 23, 2007)
Berman admitted in the Tyler Morning Telegraph that he, "asked House Speaker Tom Craddick to approve the topic for interim study." (Source: Tyler Morning Telegraph, November 29, 2007)
November 30, 2007
Contact: Matt Angle
On the web at http://www.lonestarproject.net/
Texas Republicans Launch New Vote Suppression Scheme
Craddick committee directive and GOP vote suppression think tank will attempt to justify denying Texans access to the ballot
Academic studies, media reports and fact based voter analysis consistently demonstrate that systematic, widespread or frequent voter fraud in Texas, or anywhere else in the United States, simply does not exist. Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, however, has directed a State House committee to conduct an interim study on voter fraud with the clear intention of recommending legislation to limit the ability of thousands of eligible Texans to vote. (See the order here)
At the same time, former Tom DeLay aide and current Tom Craddick ally, John Colyandro, who remains under felony indictment for money laundering and other charges, has formed a "think tank" that is already using faulty data and illogical statistics to justify vote suppression tactics.
These most recent Texas Republican efforts to suppress voter turnout are consistent with Texas AG Greg Abbott's taxpayer funded phony voter fraud enforcement unit that the Lone Star Project has exposed and reported on extensively here.
Why do Tom Craddick and other Texas Republican leaders want to spend taxpayer resources to examine a problem that doesn't exist? Clearly Craddick, Abbott and others are attempting to justify dramatic changes in Texas law and election practices, including voter photo ID requirements, senior mail ballot restrictions and voter roll purges, that will reduce overall voter turnout as demographic changes take place in Texas that are increasing the influence of minorities in Texas elections.
The facts below demonstrate clearly that the Republican voter fraud initiative is a partisan scheme to hold power by suppressing the turnout of voters whose support Republicans are unable or unwilling to earn through legitimate public service.
Voter ID/Vote Suppression Bill Fact Sheet
Republican Claim: Voter Fraud is an "Epidemic" in Texas
FACT CHECK: Even fiercely partisan Republican Attorney General Abbott has admitted that after spending millions of Texas and federal taxpayer dollars investigating, "there have been few [voter fraud] prosecutions in Texas." The Austin American Statesman editorialized, “Voter fraud is not an issue because Texas is not being flooded with unregistered voters and illegal immigrants flocking to the polls. That just isn't happening.” (Source: Austin American-Statesman, April 26, 2007)
Republican Claim: Non-citizens voting is a major problem throughout the U.S.
FACT CHECK: The Department of Justice’s Ballot Access and Voting Integrity Initiative has resulted in just 14 convictions of non-citizens voting in the entire United States between 2002 and 2005. That is less then 5 noncitizens voting a year. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Public Integrity Section, Election Fraud Prosecutions & Convictions, Ballot Access & Voting Integrity Initiative, October 2002 – September 2005; The Politics of Voter Fraud, Minnite, Ph.D. Columbia University)
Republican Claim: Everyone has an ID
FACT CHECK: Even the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute admitted that 37% of Texas residents over the age of 80 did not have a driver's license. (TCCRI Commentary, May 1, 2007)
Republican Claim: Democratic operatives are pushing the opposition to the Voter Suppression Bill
FACT CHECK: The objections to the voter ID legislation are broad and bipartisan. The bill is opposed by non-partisan groups like the AARP and League of Women Voters, as well as every major Texas newspaper and many local newspapers. (Source: Associated Press, April 23, 2007) Former Republican Party Political Director Royal Massett has been one of the most outspoken opponents of the bill saying "Anyone who says all legal voters under this bill can vote doesn't know what he is talking about." (Source: The Houston Chronicle, April 26, 2007)
Additionally, each of the major daily papers and many smaller papers have penned an editorial against the voter suppression legislation including the:
Houston Chronicle – “With no proof of significant voter fraud in state elections, the Texas House is considering bills that would require voters to provide additional identification in order to register and cast their ballots. Not only is the legislation unjustified, if enacted it could disenfranchise large numbers of the elderly, the poor and minorities.” April 26, 2007
Dallas Morning News - “Voting is a privilege sacred to the Republic. The process needs to be secure. Violators should be prosecuted. But absent any evidence of serious security breaches at the polls, access to the voting booth needs to remain as unimpeded as it is today. The state Senate would be wise to stop this bad idea.” April 25, 2007
Austin American-Statesman – “Voter fraud is not an issue because Texas is not being flooded with unregistered voters and illegal immigrants flocking to the polls. That just isn't happening.” April 26, 2007
Fort Worth Star-Telegram – “The architects of this idea, pitched as a noble effort to prevent voter fraud, cannot be allowed to succeed with what is surely one of the greatest assaults on the right to vote in this state since passage of the federal Voting Rights Act in 1965.” April 23, 2007
Waco Tribune – “When asked for evidence that the problem is rampant in this great and vast state, partisans who cry “voter fraud” are strangely silent.” April 25, 2007
Corpus Christi Caller-Times – “Putting more procedural hurdles in the way of voters is precisely what the doctor did not order. In fact, it conjures up memories of the old poll-tax days, when the system actively discouraged voting by all but the "right" groups.” April 25, 2007
Republican Claim: Simple computer matching will remove improperly registered voters.
FACT CHECK: The Houston Chronicle Reported that the, ““hundreds of people who went to the polls found their names had been removed because of glitches in a $14 million Web-based state computer program intended to centralize voter registration lists.” The Chronicle also reports, “the system already has kicked registered voters' names off the lists [including] Prairie View Mayor Frank Jackson.” (Source: The Houston Chronicle, May 3, 2007; May 6, 2007)
Republican Claim: According to “Lite” Governor David Dewhurst: “On June 22, 2006, Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar Paul Bettencourt testified before the U.S. House Administration Committee that foreign nationals are both applying for and receiving voter registration cards. Data given to my office indicates that in Harris County alone since 1992, 3,742 voters have been removed from the voter rolls because they were not U.S. citizens.”
FACT CHECK: Republican Paul Bettencourt gave Congressional testimony disputing the above statistic. On June 22, 2006, Bettencourt appeared before the Committee on House Administration saying, “A review by my office in early 2005 turned up at least 35 cases in which foreign nationals either applied for or received voter's cards.” It is unclear why David Dewhurst’s number is exponentially higher than Paul Bettencourt’s figure. (Source: CQ Congressional Testimony, June 22, 2006)
Election Integrity???
Indicted DeLay Crony Heads
Voter Suppression Think Tank
Colyandro and DeLay mug shots
John Colyandro was indicted along with Tom DeLay on felony charges of money laundering, conspiring to launder money, and making illegal contributions of corporate money for his role in, “illegally funneling $190,000 in banned corporate money into the 2002 elections to help Republican candidates.” (Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 28, 2007) Colyandro is now Executive Director of the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute (TCCRI), which has launched a group with the cynical and ironic name "Election Integrity Task Force."
Colyandro has recruited two of the most harshly partisan Republicans in the Texas State House, Leo Berman (R-Tyler) and Betty Brown (R-Terrell) to co-chair the group. It will push "Purging voter rolls" and "Requiring photo identification at the polls." Betty Brown was the sponsor of an onerous voter ID bill in the House in 2007. One of Berman's most revealing quotes was made on the Texas State House floor last May, when he said, "Everyone on this floor needs a vote on illegal aliens to take home and say we did a little something about it." (Source: Austin American- Statesman, May 23, 2007)
Berman admitted in the Tyler Morning Telegraph that he, "asked House Speaker Tom Craddick to approve the topic for interim study." (Source: Tyler Morning Telegraph, November 29, 2007)
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