VOTE! (Again)

Primary runoffs are Tuesday. Get back to your polling precincts and be heard. Again, here are the endorsements of the Acropolis in the races we care about:

Democratic:

State Auditor – Mike Sumrall

No one gave Sumrall a chance three weeks ago, but voters aren’t stupid. The same holds true now: Sumrall is the only candidate with accounting and auditing experience running for the democratic nomination. Todd Brand is a community college communication professor. Sumrall is an auditor. I know when someone goes into communication – when they are scared of numbers (see me). One of the candidates cannot do math. So, do the math.

Hinds County District Attorney – Faye Peterson

Sheriff Malcolm McMillan and Michelle Purvis, the candidate knocked out in the Aug. 7 primary, both have endorsed Peterson. As have the Clarion Ledger and JFP. Mayor Melton failed to get his personal sheriff into office, the same fate should await his district attorney choice, Robert Shuler Smith. Peterson is just getting started; good things will happen in her second term.

Public Service Commissioner (Central) – Lynn Posey

Adams & Jefferson County Circuit Clerks - Anyone but the two convicts http://theacropolis.wordpress.com/2007/08/12/convicts-lead-heading-into-runoffs/

The Acropolis in the JFP

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/comments.php?id=14603_0_7_0_C

Published! Be sure to pick up a copy of the Jackson Free Press and check it out. Thanks go out to Donna Ladd and Maggie Burks for all their help, and the JFP’s continued willingness to present all sides of an issue.

If you’re coming here via the JFP article, welcome to the Acropolis. This blog really is in its early stages, but here’s some posts of interest:

Convicts Lead Heading Into Runoffs: http://theacropolis.wordpress.com/2007/08/12/convicts-lead-heading-into-runoffs/

Executive Privilege: http://theacropolis.wordpress.com/2007/08/03/executive-privilege-in-action/ and http://theacropolis.wordpress.com/2007/07/16/a-generalized-assertion-of-privilege/

Scooter Libby’s Commutation: http://theacropolis.wordpress.com/2007/07/03/scooter-commuted-and-so-begins-the-blog/

Thanks for taking a look at the blog. Mark it in your favorites and keep dropping in.

- Dylan

dylanmclemore      @    gmail   -dot-   com

BREAKING: Michael Vick to Plead Guilty to Dogfighting Charges

Just coming across the wire. Vick will plead guilty to federal charges. Guidelines for jail time are 12-18 months. The plea will be entered next week. State charges could still come later, with harsher punishments. Of course, more news, hopefully a statement from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and my take coming soon. Keep it here.

Where have you gone Matt Schaub? Oh yeah, the Falcons shipped him to Houston. Hindsight is 20/20 guys. Thugs don’t belong in the locker room.

Common Sense at the Polls (Thoughts from My Novitiate into Mississippi Politics)

This article has been submitted to the Jackson Free Press.

 

If college has done anything for me, it has piqued my interest in politics. For the first time, I truly invested in the state and local elections. I researched candidates; I even braved the heat and humidity of the Neshoba County Fair to hear some good ol’ mudslinging and eat watermelon.

 

Yet it seems my knowledge of this year’s issues only takes me so far. To be a part of the political process in Mississippi, you apparently must be full-fledged blue or red, and do most of your thinking in the past.

 

Voter ID is my first quandary. From what I hear, there is quite a bit of opposition to the proposal. Something about rehashing memories of the old poll taxes and preventing the poor from voting. I have to present some sort of identification to pay for a t-shirt, get my contact lenses from Wal-Mart, and to go inside any building on Commerce Street. And I’ve never once felt intimidated by that Wal-Mart optometry cashier. The Mississippi Voter Registration Application requires a driver’s license number, social security number, picture ID, bank statement – identification that proves you are who you say you are. Voter ID is not a literacy test or a tax. It is not alienating your right to vote. It is ensuring that your right to vote is not compromised; that your vote is really your vote. Right?

 

Removing deceased voters from the roles seemed like an even easier move to make. Yet, the Jackson Free Press did not make an endorsement in the Republican Secretary of State primary, citing the “overblown” focus on illegal immigrants and cleaning up the voter roles. What is so wrong with making sure those who are no longer alive to vote, don’t vote? In fact, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 requires states to maintain those lists, removing the deceased and people who have moved. Opponents will point to a lack of evidence of this kind of voter fraud. Yes, and until Noxubee County, there was a lack of evidence of voter fraud discriminating against whites. All it takes is one incident, why leave the door wide open?

 

Already thoroughly puzzled, I drove up to my polling place Tuesday as a moderate with no home. After seeing the boxing match that was Charlie Ross vs. Phil Bryant, I wanted to have a say in the tightest, most talked about statewide election. For Secretary of State, there was Inglebert Hosemann, but what’s in a name? Maybe Jeffrey or Mike lacked a humorous commercial, but made up for it in policy.

 

But none of that really mattered anyway, because I live in Hinds County, where the Democratic primary is the election. In my own backyard, Mayor Frank Melton was trying to control the entire county with Tyrone Lewis as the Cowboy’s sheriff. The district attorney’s race was a tight one, and again, I wanted to make sure the candidate who was not in Melton’s corner came out victorious. Not to mention some notable state races, like insurance commissioner and secretary of state, where there was a young guy with some good ideas.

 

I do not vote by party lines; it’s about the individual candidates. I vote where the races are. I vote where my voice is needed the most. This year, the biggest state election was on the Republican side, but the biggest local issues were on the Democratic side. So I had to choose. I cringed as I realized that there would be a party affiliation stamped by my name, ignoring my personal views, labeling me. But I chose and I voted. Better to be half-heard than not heard at all.

 

Soon, Mississippi’s primaries will be completely closed. Picking a side will mean far more than a year-to-year decision to follow the close races. The label will stick. I think I am a fan of California’s old “buffet style” primaries, essentially a Super Sized general ballot. But in Mississippi, like too many other states, the (R) or (D) next to a candidate’s name means more than ideas or character.

 

Once our primaries are fully closed, I imagine I will lack that “glowing sense of pride and duty” Maggie (Burks) referred to recently. My voice will be stifled. Maybe I’m just young and naïve, but something became very clear to me Tuesday. Closed primaries do far more to harm the voting process than bringing a plastic card with your name on it to the polls.

Convicts Lead Heading Into Runoffs

Two circuit clerk judges convicted of embezzlement have been allowed to run for re-election, and worse, they lead their respective races, both heading for runoffs.

 

Burnell Harris of Jefferson County and Binky Vines Jr. of Adams County have slim leads over their crime-free opponents to retain the circuit clerk position. Harris was convicted on nine counts of embezzlement, money laundering, and tax evasion in a federal court in July. He embezzled more than $220,000 from Jefferson County over three years. Vines pleaded guilty to three counts of embezzlement in May, for stealing $228,760 from Adams County over a single fiscal year.

 

What does this say for voters? How uninformed must you be to vote for men who steal from you? The right to vote should be taken for more than the grain of salt it apparently is viewed as in these counties. However, there is a greater evil here than voter apathy.

 

Attorney General Jim Hood allowed both men to run for re-election, and says both can continue to serve, even though they were convicted, as long as they are not sentenced to jail time. Hood, a democrat, prosecuted Vines, a democrat, and offered him a plea bargain. Vines pled guilty; Hood wiped away all of the jail time and now claims Vines should keep his office.

 

Except for, you know, that whole Constitution thing.

 

SECTION 44 of the MISSISSIPPI CONSTITUTION

(1) No person shall be eligible to a seat in either house of the Legislature, or to any office of profit or trust, who shall have been convicted of bribery, perjury, or other infamous crime; and any person who shall have been convicted of giving or offering, directly, or indirectly, any bribe to procure his election or appointment, and any person who shall give or offer any bribe to procure the election or appointment of any person to office, shall, on conviction thereof, be disqualified from holding any office of profit or trust under the laws of this state.

 

(2) No person who is convicted after ratification of this amendment in another state of any offense which is a felony under the laws of this state, and no person who is convicted after ratification of this amendment of any felony in a federal court, shall be eligible to hold any office of profit or trust in this state.

 

(3) This section shall not disqualify a person from holding office if he has been pardoned for the offense or if the offense of which the person was convicted was manslaughter, any violation of the United States Internal Revenue Code or any violation of the tax laws of this state unless such offense also involved misuse or abuse of his office or money coming into his hands by virtue of his office

 

And the State Code.

 

TITLE 25, CHAPTER 4, ARTICLE 3 of the MISSISSIPPI CODE

(1) No public servant shall use his official position to obtain pecuniary benefit for himself other than that compensation provided for by law, or to obtain pecuniary benefit for any relative or any business with which he is associated. 

 

TITLE 25, CHAPTER 5, ARTICLE 1 of the MISSISSIPPI CODE

When any such officer is found guilty of a crime which is a felony under the laws of this state or which is punishable by imprisonment for one (1) year or more, other than manslaughter or any violation of the United States Internal Revenue Code, in a federal court or a court of competent jurisdiction of any other state, the Attorney General of the State of Mississippi shall promptly enter a motion for removal from office in the circuit court of Hinds County in the case of a state officer, and in the circuit court of the county of residence in the case of a district, county or municipal officer. The court, or the judge in vacation, shall, upon notice and a proper hearing, issue an order removing such person from office and the vacancy shall be filled as provided by law.

 

 

Hood is already in immense danger of losing his A.G. seat to Al Hopkins in November. This should be the final straw. Ignoring the Constitution and Code of the State of Mississippi so that your democratic buddies can continue to steal money from the taxpayers of Adams and Jefferson counties. To steal a line from Hopkins’ Neshoba County Fair speech, “What do you say to a man who does that? You’re fired!”

 

Do you realize Harris and Vines, as convicted felons, could not even vote for themselves, yet Mr. Hood will allow them to serve in an elected position? It is truly beyond belief.

——

And an update on the firewall situation. There are other WordPress blogs blocked, but some still work. Mine even does some days. The firewall claims “proxy avoidance” as the reason for the block. Either way, if this does not get resolved soon, this blog is moving.

 

You can’t silence me, Royce!