Mississippi

Women In American Political Offices By Election: 1917-Present

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On this 4th of July, it is a good time to recount how women have fared in American electoral politics.

As of today, 17 women are serving as US Senators, with a total of 39 women historically who have served in the upper chamber since 1922.

A total of 72 women are now serving in the US House of Representatives, with 229 women having served since 1917 in the chamber.

Presently, six women are serving as Governors of their states, with 35 having served in that capacity since 1925, and a maximum of nine women at the same time.

Two states, Iowa and Mississippi, have seen women only rise to a top position as Lieutenant Governor, rather than Governor, Senator or Congresswoman.

We have come a long way since 87-94 years ago when the first women reached elected office, but with 83 percent of office holders in Congress still male, and 88 percent of the Governors still males, and with women being a majority of the population (51 to 49) in the 2010 Census, it is certainly time for more women to run for public office, and to be involved in the governing of our nation in the future!

Time For Barack Obama To Utilize Executive Order To Stop Deportations Of Young Immigrant Children Victims Of Failure To Pass DREAM Act!

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It is long overdue for President Obama to halt deportations of young immigrant children facing deportation from the only country they know, since the DREAM Act, designed to allow them to become citizens through miltary service or college graduation, has not been passed by Congress due to strong nativist sentiments!

These young people were brought here through no fault of their own, by parents who were trying to better their lives. Many are being forced from the country now, to go back to a nation they have no memory of, and in many cases, have no relatives to return to.

These young people have broken no laws, and just want to work toward citizenship through serving in the military, or attending college, so that they can contribute to the future of America.

The use of the executive order is not something new, and this President has already been bold in many ways, so instead of talking about immigration reform, it is essential that the President now take action to stop this violation of human rights!

Executive orders to promote the end of oppression and denial of human rights is part of the long tradition of American history, as witness the following:

1. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s establishment of the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression in 1935.
3. Harry Truman’s promotion of integration of Washington, DC and of the military in 1948.
4. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s intervention in the Little Rock School Desegregation crisis in 1957.
5. John F. Kennedy’s promoting affirmative action in employment by government contractors in 1961, along with his interventions in Mississippi in 1962 and Alabama in 1963 with the National Guard.
6. Lyndon B. Johnson’s promotion of Equal Employment Opportunity in federal employment in 1965.

So, Mr. President, it is time for immediate action on immigrant children!

Correction! Arizona In 2011 Is Both Mississippi And South Carolina!

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The author has already labeled Arizona, with its anti immigration legislation targeted at Latinos and Hispanics, as the equivalent of Mississippi in its treatment of African Americans in the 1960s.

Now, Arizona must also be compared to South Carolina, with its threat of nullification of federal laws and the Constitution, which went on from the 1830s with John C. Calhoun, all the way up to Fort Sumter and the Civil War in 1861!

It is extremely ironic that just as we are about to commemorate the tragedy of the Civil War’s beginning on April 12, we now have the Arizona State Senate passing legislation declaring the power to nullify federal laws and the US Constitution if they do not like what is being done!

This idea of defiance was supposed to be settled by the Civil War prosecution by Abraham Lincoln, and also supposed to be resolved by US National Guard intervention in Arkansas in 1957 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and in Mississippi and Alabama in 1962 and 1963 by President John F. Kennedy!

Now, however, State Senator Russell Pearce of the Arizona legislature is promoting defiance of the federal government, not only on immigration matters and the health care law, but also on anything else that he and his followers believe is unconstitutional!

Apparently, they have learned nothing from history, and the reality that only the Supreme Court can declare actions of the executive and legislative branches unconstitutional!

To advocate anything else is TREASON, subject to prosecution by the federal government if action is actually taken, and if need be, Presidential control of the state National Guard to enforce federal laws and federal court decisions, just as in the South in the 1950s and 1960s!

Anyone living in Arizona should be ashamed of what their government leaders are advocating, a path that would lead to chaos and lawlessness and abuse of power by state outlaws, and it might be necessary at some point to enforce federal law by intervention by Federal authorities!

Hopefully, before we get into that kind of crisis, cooler heads will prevail, as states may not defy the US Constitution and be allowed to get away with it!

This is a warning to Governor Jan Brewer, State Senator Russell Pearce, and other radical right wingers: Shape up or else suffer the consequences of disobedience of constitutional law!

The Republicans Are Starting To Implode Even Before The Presidential Competition Begins!

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Here it is March, and not one Republican has announced for President, and yet the party is starting to implode!

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has made the observation that people on Medicaid in his state are coming to pharmacies in their BMWs and saying they cannot afford the copays for their medication! Oh really, Haley? In the poorest state of the Union, poor people have BMWs? Give me a break!

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee made a statement in a radio interview that Barack Obama grew up in Kenya, and because of that, he has a very different view of the British, who once controlled Kenya. Really, Mike, Obama grew up in Kenya? Of course, Huckabee says Obama was born in Hawaii, so he is not a “Birther”, but now we are told he was brought up in Kenya, the home of his father, who left his mother when Obama was two years old! When caught in a controversy over the remark, Huckabee now says, oh he meant to say Indonesia, where Obama did live for a few years with his mother when she had a second marriage with an Indonesian man. So Mike does not know the difference between Kenya and Indonesia, and one wonders if he can point them out on the map and knows anything about either nation.

Oh, and if Obama lived in Indonesia, then how does he understand the British differently, when it was the Dutch who controlled Indonesia until after World War II?

And also, since Kenya and Indonesia were both independent BEFORE Obama was born, how would he have a “different” view of either the British or the Dutch, Mike, heh?

Then, we have Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, the head of the Budget Committee, who tells us that he is not thrilled with “Romneycare”, anymore than he is with “Obamacare”, a real knock at Mitt Romney, the former Governor of Massachusetts, even before he enters the Presidential race!

And Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma tells us that Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House in the mid 1990s, is indeed a bright fellow, but is also divisive and confrontational, and does not bring out the better side of people, and how is he supposed to unite the nation and be effective as President? And by the way, back in 1996, Coburn was a House member and led a move to oust Gingrich as Speaker, which failed. And Coburn also makes clear that Gingrich’s morality, having three wives and cheating on the first two, is not a good character image for a President of the United States!

With so much bad mouthing going on, and so much inaccurate and damaging statements being made, one wonders how the GOP is going to unite around anyone to oppose President Obama, and remember, we are not even factoring in the influence of the large freshman class of Republicans in the House plus a few in the Senate, who are proud to call themselves Tea Party people!

So it will be fun to watch as events develop, and here it is ONLY March 2!

Arizona Is At It Again, Adding To Its Image As The Mississippi Of The 1960s!

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Arizona, the state of the near assassination of Gabrielle Giffords due to its loose regulation of who can purchase guns; the state denying 96 citizens, who need transplants, of any assistance because of budget cuts, but giving tax breaks to corporations; the state of discriminatory legislation against Latinos and Hispanics that is now being contested in the federal courts; now is adding to its horrible image as the equivalent of Mississippi in the 1960s, despite Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour’s belief that his state was a paragon of virtue in its treatment of African Americans in that decade!

Governor Jan Brewer, a person who evades explanation and responsibility for her wretched administration of the state government, is expected to sign new discriminatory legislation against illegal immigrants within the state, which is being considered by the Arizona legislature.

Under the proposed and likely legislation, illegal immigrants would not be allowed to drive within state boundaries, enroll their children in schools or receive most public benefits. Additionally, their children would have special birth certificates that make it clear they are not considered to be Arizona citizens.

School officials would have to ask for proof of citizenship for students, and hospitals would have to ask for papers of citizenship for those receiving non emergency care.

Also, no licenses would be given to illegal immigrants, including marriage licenses. And if one person in a family was an illegal immigrant, then a family could be evicted from public housing units. Additionally, if caught driving a car in the state boundaries, an illegal immigrant would face 30 days in jail and lose ownership of the car.

These laws are obviously unconstitutional, but the promoters of them hope the Supreme Court, unduly influenced by conservative business interests including the Koch Brothers, might continue their practice of acting in a manner which makes one wonder as to their qualifications to sit on the Supreme Court due to conflict of interest.

These new proposed laws would challenge basic freedoms and rights, which Arizona fails to understand is guaranteed to all who live in the United States, not just citizens.

Arizona citizens, who are decent people and do not promote hatred and prejudice as government policy, are embarrassed and upset as what the Arizona legislature is about to do only adds to that state being seen as a pariah and a disgrace!

And, by the way, if all illegal immigrants were somehow forced out of the state, the effect economically on Arizona would be massive, and the public relations damage done to Arizona’s image already will not be overcome any time soon, if ever!

Another Outrage From Arizona State Government: Banning Of Mexican American Studies Program While Retaining Asian American, African American And Native American Studies Programs! :(

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Arizona is indeed becoming the new Mississippi or Alabama, gaining the horrible reputation both of those states gained in the civil rights era of the 1960s.

The new Attorney General of Arizona, Tom Horne, who used to be the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the state, has banned the Mexican American Studies program in the high schools of Tucson, while continuing to allow Asian American, African American, and Native American Studies programs to continue.

This is adding to the image of Arizona, which is now the DEATH PANELS state, cutting $1.2 million from the budget of Medicaid, and therefore preventing 96 transplant patients of all kinds of organs from getting necessary surgery, and two patients already passing away, while it would be easy to find that small amount if Governor Jan Brewer really cared about life! 🙁

This ethnic discrimination is being appealed, and the decision of the attorney general, enforcement of a law he originated as education administrator, should be reversed as also illegal conflict of interest by the man who claims to enforce the law, and then shows totally outrageous prejudice on the level of Bull Connor, Birmingham Police Chief in the 1960s, or Governor George Wallace of Alabama!

A case on this issue may have to be brought to the Supreme Court eventually, as now we have demonstration of a new racism against Mexican Americans, as we had in the past against other groups. This issue, along with the new Arizona law, on checking for illegal status of anyone who looks Hispanic, is in the worst traditions of racism and hatred that we would like to think had already passed into history, but sadly is alive and well! 🙁

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, White Citizens Councils, And The Presidency: A Strikeout! :(

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Mississippi’s Republican Governor, Haley Barbour, who also in the past was Chairman of the Republican National Committee and the head of the Republican Governors Conference, has come out in defense of the White Citizens Councils that were prevalent during the 1950s and 1960s, formed to oppose integration and civil rights in the Southern states.

Barbour has every right to speak freely, but advocating support of such groups which promoted hate and bloodshed in the Southern states, and reaching its greatest level in Mississippi in the 1960s, is a reprehensible act, and should immediately disqualify Barbour as a serious Presidential candidate for the GOP in 2012 or beyond! 🙁

There is no room in this nation in the 21st century to have an advocate of such views being the spokesman for the country on issues such as civil rights and human rights, when he has no issue with such hateful, divisive groups, who worked against the federal government and the Supreme Court on the most significant social issue of the second half of the 20th century, and advocated closing of public schools.

So, Governor Barbour, forget about running for President, as your potential candidacy would be a total disaster for the party of the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln.

But then again, is it not true that the Republican Party of today is a shameful example of the principles of Abraham Lincoln? Sad, but absolutely true! 🙁

Arizona And “Anchor Babies”: New Challenge To The Constitution!

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Arizona, already rapidly gaining the image of being the new “Mississippi of the 1960s” is now considering another step in the direction of discrimination! 🙁

Against the United States Constitution’s guarantee that anyone born in the country is a citizen at birth, the state plans to disallow citizenship to children born of “illegal” immigrants, those often called “anchor babies”!

This would be a method to enable, in a more easy fashion, to deport “illegal” immigrants, as the argument that their children are American citizens would be ended!

But it would be in violation of the Constitution that these anti immigrant nativists claim to honor and worship! It would be the height of hypocrisy, but what else is new? 🙁