Simpson said he was not convinced that the party and its fellow individual plaintiffs can ultimately prove their allegations that ACORN is fostering voter-registration fraud and that the state's election system lacks the safeguards to stop it.
Overall, it was a good, civil discussion of issues without any mudslinging or personal attacks, which is always nice to see. I understand why the LWV likes the format it uses, but it would have been nice to allow the moderator a chance to follow up on questions, or to take more informal feedback from the audience. As it was, with very strictly-timed responses and not much opportunity to build one question onto another, it seemed a little more rigid than it needed to be.
There is a provision of the Military Commissions Act that says the government can declare a United States citizen an enemy combatant and hold them without habeas corpus.
When you suspend the constitution you have to be little bit nervous about that. I swore a couple of times to protect and defend the constitution both as a military officer and as a member of Congress. You can hold people in this country by charging them under the 5th amendment and charge them with a crime and they get due process. American citizens should not be deprived due process.
So do you favor repealing that provision of the act?
As long as there is a legal way to cover them if they are an American citizen they get full rights as an American citizen.
Is that a yes?
That’s a yes. When we ignore our own rules we hurt ourselves as a nation. We hurt our ethic, we hurt what we stand for in the eyes of our people and the eyes of the world.
I believe Steva Stowell-Hardcastle's essay about encounters with racism in the Susquehanna Valley was misinterpreted by the gentleman who described it as "race-baiting." She never suggested that racism is limited to Valley residents, or conservatives, or even white people. Her point was that racism is not a family, Christian or American value and should not be tolerated anywhere. The writer, in contrast, seems to suggest that because some black or liberal people may be racist, then people like Ms. Stowell-Hardcastle should not point out racist remarks or attitudes where they see them. I do not understand how he makes this connection. He is right that racism is not just a white behavior. But it is a learned behavior, often passed down between generations, and it can be "unlearned," too. The first step is to recognize it, call it out and be vigilant in making clear that our society will not tolerate it anymore. That goes for Americans of all races and political persuasions.I am glad that my letter got published, but man! I couldn't believe that they published the other letter in the first place.
Finally, the writer claims that Obama campaigners should be thankful to campaign "freely and safely" here because if a Republican campaigned in "any major city" (meaning where non-white people live?) they would be physically harmed. It is exactly this kind of unfounded accusation that allows otherwise well-intentioned people to continue believing that racist words "aren't hurting anybody," and racist fears and attitudes are justified. Besides the fact that the writer offers no evidence of any such incidents, McCain has offices in most major cities, including Philadelphia and even Los Angeles. Let's agree that to change racist attitudes in the Valley and this great country of ours -- from all sides -- we need to hold everyone to a higher standard as the writer suggests and let facts, not fears, be our guide.
1% of 1.3 million registrations is 1,300.
Think of ACORN as a business, like hiring people at an airport to solicit credit card registrations.
And add the fact that all registration forms MUST be turned in. Otherwise, you can have canvassers collect registration forms, and then throw out all the Republican ones. Wouldn't that be bad? So, turning in all of them seems like a good idea.
And then those forms are checked by election officials to make sure they are correct. ACORN flags those forms it thinks are flawed. So, those 1,300 flawed (we do not know intent of person who filled them out, so I won't say fraudulent) are then weeded out. By two rounds of quality control: first by ACORN, and second, by the good-intentioned and hard-working election officials.
Isn't that, you know, the system WORKING?
And, how many service companies that process paperwork in our society have a 1% error rate?
I saw a picture of the truck, and it was truly strange. But I saw something today that was down right scary. On my way from a meeting at the Best Western near Country Cupboard today around noon, I heard the report on WKOK. Three vehicles in front of me was a pick up truck (an older Ford F-350 with a King Cab, dark green in color, and with a chrome trim around the top of the bed) and I noticed a fairly large sign across the top of the back window. Now, bear in mind that there were two cars in front of me and that I couldn’t read the license plate, but I had no problem reading the sign across the back. It said “BASH A MUSLIM. BASH OBAMA”Anti-Obama sign called ‘distasteful’ in Lewisburg
LEWISBURG – What most called a “distasteful” political sign caught the
attention of Lewisburg residents Wednesday afternoon. The sign, sitting in the
back of a pickup truck in the 300 block of Market Street showed a picture of
Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama, smoking a cigarette and wearing
a hat shaped like an acorn.
On the sign, the words, “Fellow members of ACORN will help me form my
administration…Thanks, you made it happen.” Nancy, of Lewisburg, found the sign
offensive. She said no matter which political party you favor, it is unfair
politics and not the way we should be voting.
Union County Chairman of the Republican Party, Yvonne Morgan, agreed,
saying she thinks it promotes ill will among citizens in Union County. She also
said she tried to contact the police, but they told her it was free speech. No
word on who owns the truck or who put up the sign. (Sara Bartlett)
The facts about ACORN are worth getting out. ACORN is an organization that, among other things, registers low-income people to vote. One of the ways they do this is to hire door-to-door canvassers from the neighborhoods they are working in. This sort of work is tightly regulated. So, when one of the thousands of people they give jobs to doesn't do their work right and brings back bogus or phony voter registration cards, the law REQUIRES that ACORN turn the forms in to the voter registration office. The law, rightly, doesn't want anybody throwing out voter registration forms for any reason.
Sorry to distract from all the so called "important issues" and whatnot (BO-RING!), but everyone knows that this election will be decided not by the many complex problems facing America today, but by obscure Pennsylvania country singers and their insipid, lighthearted political sing-song ditties. Pat "She's A Moose Shootin' Mama" Garrett and I went head-to-head on ABC News out of Harrisburg this morning and I've got the URL to prove it.
And by “relax” I meant, of course, get up and volunteer!
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