Nashville

A friend forwarded me an item today about immigration; remember all the hype? Turns out the government has, for all intents and purposes, stopped enforcing the regulations that prevent businesses from hiring illegal immigrants. The recipe goes:

1. Remove government
2. Howl at abuses of system absent any regulation
3. Find scapegoat
4. Inflame (pick one: racism, sexism, homophobia)
5. Get elected

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Yesterday, House Republicans voted down the first increase in the minimum wage in almost a decade, exactly a week after they voted themselves a raise.

If you're not already reading Shakespeare's Sister, you should start. Here's a taste:

Trusting the government to do no deliberate harm to its people permits the denial of wrongdoing—“Our government wouldn’t do that”—unless and until the evidence becomes overwhelming, at which time the second rationalization kicks in—“Well, all politicians are crooks, anyway; what do you expect?” From naïveté to apathy, in one lazy step.

Leaping from one to the other skips over the middle ground in which the politically active reside, that constant state of awareness, connectivity, attention. It is that space from whence government accountability—and therefore good governance—springs, but such is dependent on a majority of the electorate being willing to do the important work of a democratic citizen.

Friends, we're the politically active. We're it. It's time, and we're going to get our government -the kind that actually governs- back.

It's almost here, folks! DLers Joyce and Dave forward this:

"In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see An Inconvenient Truth. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to."

- Roger Ebert

We'll be at the Green Hills Cinema, the 7:20 show next Friday, 6/23; get your tickets now!

Let's see if we can make it a sold-out show, and get out to support someone speaking up about the biggest crisis of our times.

See you there!

The answer might surprise you:

Block the Vote, Ohio Remix

Published: June 7, 2006

If there was ever a sign of a ruling party in trouble, it is a game plan that calls for trying to win by discouraging voting.

The latest sign that Republicans have an election-year strategy to shut down voter registration drives comes from Ohio. As the state gears up for a very competitive election season this fall, its secretary of state, J. Kenneth Blackwell, has put in place "emergency" regulations that could hit voter registration workers with criminal penalties for perfectly legitimate registration practices. The rules are so draconian they could shut down registration drives in Ohio.

Mr. Blackwell, who also happens to be the Republican candidate for governor this year, has a history of this sort of behavior. In 2004, he instructed county boards of elections to reject any registrations on paper of less than 80-pound stock — about the thickness of a postcard. His order was almost certainly illegal, and he retracted it after he came under intense criticism. It was, however, in place long enough to get some registrations tossed out.

This year, Mr. Blackwell's office has issued rules and materials that appear to require that paid registration workers, and perhaps even volunteers, personally take the forms they collect to an election office. Organizations that run registration drives generally have the people who register voters bring the forms back to supervisors, who can then review them for errors. Under Mr. Blackwell's edict, everyone involved could be committing a crime. Mr. Blackwell's rules also appear to prohibit people who register voters from sending the forms in by mail. That rule itself may violate federal elections law.

Mr. Blackwell's rules are interpretations of a law the Republican-controlled Ohio Legislature passed recently. Another of the nation's most famous swing states, Florida, has been the scene of similar consternation and confusion since it recently enacted a law that is so harsh that the Florida League of Women Voters announced that it was stopping all voter registration efforts for the first time in 67 years.

Florida's Legislature, like Ohio's, is controlled by Republicans. Throughout American history both parties have shown a willingness to try to use election law to get results they might otherwise not win at the polls. But right now it is clearly the Republicans who believe they have an interest in keeping the voter base small. Mr. Blackwell and other politicians who insist on making it harder to vote never say, of course, that they are worried that get-out-the-vote drives will bring too many poor and minority voters into the system. They say that they want to reduce fraud. However, there is virtually no evidence that registration drives are leading to fraud at the polls.

But there is one clear way that Ohio's election system is corrupt. Decisions about who can vote are being made by a candidate for governor. Mr. Blackwell should hand over responsibility for elections to a decision maker whose only loyalty is to the voters and the law.

It's probably a good idea to check to see if you're properly registered; Tennessee can purge you from the rolls.

Division of Elections
PURGING OF A REGISTERED VOTER

Once properly registered to vote in Tennessee, a person remains permanently registered unless the election commission must remove the registration from its records as a result of acts that require purging a voter. T.C.A. 2-2-105 and 2-2-106.

ACTS PURGING VOTER REGISTRATION

The registration of a voter shall be purged:

1. Upon receipt of a request to purge by the voter.
2. Upon learning that a voter has had a name change for ninety (90) days or more, except by marriage, and the voter has failed to notify the election commission.
3. Upon the death of the voter.
4. Upon receiving official confirmation that the voter has been convicted of an infamous crime as defined in T.C.A. 40-20-112.
5. Upon written confirmation that the voter has moved outside the county of registration or has registered to vote in another jurisdiction.
6. If the voter fails to respond to a confirmation notice, and if the voter fails to otherwise update the voter’s registration over a period of two (2) consecutive regular November elections following the date the notice was first sent.

In Ohio 2004, Mr. Blackwell relied heavily on the 'fails to respond to a confirmation notice,' even though many of those notices were knowingly sent to incorrect addresses. It's awfully hard to respond to a notice that never reaches you. Give your local county election commission a call to be sure you're still on the list.