Congress missed the memo on a sweet just new year
I received many notes today wishing me the coming of a sweet new year–I wish Congress had sent the same.
Rather, it was an atrocious day today on the Hill, as The House voted in support of a federal voter ID bill, H.R. 4844, also known by the PR spin as the “Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006,” and the Senate has moved to build a 700-mile fence along the border between the United States and Mexico.
Why am I not surprised that only 25% of the US population approves of Congress?
I can’t tell you how bad both of these bills are, so let me start first with the twisted attempt at easing the American publics fears of voter fraud, which is really more myth than reality, by instilling the idea that we need to police people at the polls to have integrity in our elections. As the Republican Congress tries to win over voters in pre-election season by being “tough on immigration” through legislation they deem will help prevent undocumented immigrants from casting ballots H.R. 4844 will more likely block eligible citizens from voting.
This actually goes against the grain of many good election reforms that have been won lately on the state level on voter ID, including both Missouri state court Judge Richard Callahan who ruled that the state’s newly-enacted voter identification statute violated the state constitution and enjoined its implementation, recognizing that “the elderly, the poor, the under-educated and those otherwise disadvantaged would confront great, if not insurmountable costs and bureaucratic obstacles in obtaining the documents required to vote.” While Georgia also passed voter ID laws, this is also being challenged in the courts, as judges and advocates alike are aware of the far greater realities in everyday Americans being barred from the ballot box by these measures. The legislation around voter ID all leads up to enactment of the REAL ID legislation by states in 2008.
The facts:
- The Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio and the League of Women Voters Coalition found that, while more than 9,078,728 votes were cast in Ohio during the 2002 and 2004 elections, there were only four instances of ineligible people voting or attempting to vote in the state—approximately 0.000044 percent of the total number of votes cast.
- The American Association of People with Disabilities estimates that more than 3 million Americans with disabilities do not possess a driver’s license or state-issued photo ID, the most commonly-accepted forms of identification.
- AARP of Georgia estimates that about 153,000 Georgia seniors who voted in 2004 do not possess a government-issued photo ID. These Georgians could not have voted had the 2005 ID law been in effect.
- In 1994, the U.S. Department of Justice found that African Americans living in Louisiana were four to five times less likely to have government-issued photo ID than whites. These numbers are likely to have grown in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. A large percentage of those victimized by the storm have lost birth certificates, social security cards and all other governmentissued documentation.
And the list goes on and on of point after point which demonstrates how the requirement of a state ID is truly a bad idea, an issuing of a modern day poll tax that will inevitably harbor more harm than good to the state of our democracy today.
So what about the border? Well, I think Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said it best in the article, “We can build the tallest fence in the world and it won’t fix our broken immigration system.” To do that, he said, “we need the kind of comprehensive reform that the Senate passed earlier this year.” And truth remains that until the US takes a good look in the mirror at its international economic and political policies, the waves of people who are forced to migrate due to harsh economic conditions brought on by policies we advocate, including free trade globalization, means this issue isn’t going anywhere.
This is a sad day indeed for a Congress and a nation that believes that safety comes in narrowness, in raising walls on borders, in further policing, in ID cards that will bar potentially millions of eligible voters from the ballot box–looks like this year (not really unlike any other year, but still) Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur should be in the streets.
crossposted to jspot
It’s whining such as this that causes americans to have problems that other nations don’t even have to bother thinking about.
The US government has every right to build a fence along the border with mexico to stem the flow of illegal aliens. Mexicans do not have a G-d given right to live in the US.
And if congress insists that only citizens are capable of electing them into office it’s not only their right, but also their duty to make that happen. Every illegal alien that gets a vote dilutes the ability of american citizens to decide their own government. Something no other nation would accept.
But like I said above, americans have problems other nations can’t even imagine worrying about.
Which is thinner — cellophane or the veil over the blatant anti-Latino racism driving the construction of the border wall?
Formermuslim,
Precisely what problems does America have that other nations need not consider on their own soil? How does free speech cause these problems?
That’s quite an accusation. Might there be reasons other than racism to not want a flood of undocumented people pouring into the country? Just as you don’t allow just anyone off the street to enter your home (let alone take on a commitment to pay for their health care and their children’s education), shouldn’t the country be allowed to do the same without being accused of racism?
J–
A home is not a country. Several reasons:
1) When my kids turn 18, they’re going to be living in a different home, but I’ll still have some responsibility to them and they to me.
2) I can’t walk outside my home and bomb the be-Yeshuah out of someobody else’s because I want their stuff.
3) The way I conduct affairs in my home does not have huge implications all over the neighborhood that simultaneously raise the standard of living inside my home, diminish it in others, and make people want to move in.
4) My home doesn’t purport to be a shining beacon of light and truth, with liberty and justice for all, where anyone can rise to any station and there’s always enough to go around. Sometimes it’s tough just to pay the cable bill.
5) In the US, there are people on the bottom starving to death, over half of them children, while other people have so much excess that neither they nor their children nor their children’s children will ever have to work a day in their lives except to decide which mutual funds to go with. This is not quite the case in my home.
6) If I wanted to squeeze a little more cash out of, say, my cats, by removing exemptions that their predecessors had lobbied for or bribed the power structure into providing, I wouldn’t be able to.
7) If my wife and kids start to feel like a burden, I can’t stop supporting them and outsource their jobs to the tenants of another house while continuing to live with them. That’s called polygamy.
There are more reasons, but I think you get the picture.
Ever heard of the word “ANALOGY”? When we make an analogy, we don’t claim the items being compared are identical in every way.
What’s the relevance of these distictions? Outside of parading the usual litany of Lefty propaganda, I mean. Paragraph 2 – which “stuff” has the US seized by bombing or fighting (and then you’ll turn around and say you’re against the war because it costs the country too much!). Paragraph 3- yeah, the rest of the world was a wealthy paradise until the US found a way to steal all their wealth. Each Mexican had two yachts, tiill the gringos robbed them. What drivel. Paragraph 4 – who purported that there’s enough to go around? Paragraph 5 – gross exaggeration, a lie, really. Show me the bodies. Seriously – who starved in the last five, ten, fifty years? Paragraph 7- take into consideration the jobs that are outsourced from elsewhere and employ Americans. The picture will look a little different.
Now excuse me, I have some foreigners to pillage.
J–
I have heard the word “analogy” before, yes; you presented a grossly inaccurate one. I simply was trying to make you aware of that fact.
You’re welcome.
As for hunger in America, here’s a link:
http://www.centeronhunger.org/pdf/full_state_rankings.pdf
You’ll note that in the vast majority of US state, both hunger and food insecurity are on the rise. If you can provide me with statistics to the contrary, I’d love to see them. Sounds like you live in a happy world.
P.S. — Phrases like “show me the bodies” remind me — I really need to put on a production of Brundibar starring some hungry kids. Thanks.
Noach-
Your entire post was a series of evasions.
You wrote earlier-
” In the US, there are people on the bottom starving to death, over half of them children, while other people have so much excess that neither they nor their children nor their children’s children will ever have to work a day in their lives except to decide which mutual funds to go with.”
This is not about whether hunger and food insecurity are on the rise. Now back up your statement, or we’ll draw the appropriate conclusions about the merits of your arguments and your good faith in making them.
Harley-“Precisely what problems does America have that other nations need not consider on their own soil?”
If we had to go into that in detail it would divert too much from the issue at hand. But the current issue is a good example: people damanding the virtual abolishment of borders.
“How does free speech cause these problems?”
Free speech doesn’t, people using free speech do.
Noach:”J–
I have heard the word “analogy†before, yes; you presented a grossly inaccurate one. I simply was trying to make you aware of that fact.”
You failed.
Folks–this is seriously off thread to the message of the post–please try to engage with themes in the post, as I think more people will engage if it isn’t this side back and forth. Thank you–shana tovah
(Cole, I apologize, but I sorta have to respond here…)
J–
I’m not sure exactly what you expect me to say. There doesn’t seem to be any way for me to answer your question to your satisfaction, so I’ll just suggest that you check out links like this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States
There are many unpleasant aspects about poverty in the United States that we would all rather were not the case. At times, they do tie into the immigration issue, since many of the impoverished and the hungry are also illegals. But as Cole says, this is somewhat off-topic. My apologies if I was overly flippant. Dismissing the duties of those who have with regard to those who have not — both moral and social duties — is something that riles me. I’ve said all I’m going to on the subject.
no worries noach…
Noach says:
“There are many unpleasant aspects about poverty in the United States that we would all rather were not the case.”
And that’s all I asked for. THAT is an accurate statement. As opposed to this-
“In the US, there are people on the bottom starving to death, over half of them children,”
which is not.
I take the problem of poverty very seriously, and in particular the problems of the working poor. But exaggerating the extent of the problem is (a) a case of crying wolf, which eventually backfires, as people become angry about being lied to and then ignore even the real problems, and (b) America-bashing, which is wrong coming from anyone, let alone from Jews who owe so much to this incredible country.
Cole- hope my comment #5 above counts as staying on point.