For those of you that don't subscribe to the Mississippi Press, I have posted below a letter I wrote that was published on 14 May 2007. I have highlighted a portion of the letter I will discuss further after you have read the letter -

During the past couple of weeks Mr. Don Brimm and I have been exchanging pleasantries about this twice unelected president and the illegal invasion of Iraq. I'm sure it will come as a relief to you and your readers that I have no intention of continuing this debate. It is patently clear to me that my logical and sound reasoning will not penetrate the neo-con wall that Mr. Brimm has chosen to surround himself with. I am convinced this wall is designed to keep out all reason, logic and the truth. I shall make one more comment - as to my statement in the last letter I wrote that we are real close to being a fascist society, I shall refer Mr. Brimm and others to the following website - http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm

Now on to some other issues -

From time to time this paper and "the other coast paper" will publish an editorial or a letter from a citizen of the coast bemoaning the fact that despite acquiring thousands of signatures we were not able to persuade our 19th century minded legislatures to pass an animal cruelty bill with some teeth in it. Invariably the author will site Representative Jeff Smith as a driving force to get this kind of legislation passed. Let me once again remind your readers of an incident that happened to a citizen of the coast when she tried to convince Smith that this legislation needed to be passed. She presented him with the petitions we had acquired, again with thousands of signatures, he told her in no uncertain terms that as long as he was the chairman of the Judiciary B committee a bill making animal abuse a felony would never get out of committee. He is still the committee chairman and has yet to let a felony animal abuse bill out of his committee. It is my understanding that a committee chairman has the power to push a bill to the floor even if it meets major opposition by the other members of a committee. In short - don't think Smith is going to be the hero of the hour.

As reported in this paper on the 2nd of May of this year candidate for LtGov State Senator Charlie Ross, Republican, called for a special session of the state legislature to address his proposal for a voter ID bill. The Republicans in state after state are trying to push a voter ID law down the throat's of their state citizens. They always use the same argument - "It will stop voter fraud". Expert after expert have studied this allegation every time this argument rears its ugly head, and have all arrived at the same conclusion - there is no proof that in recent history massive voter fraud ever occurred. These same experts agree that ALL voter ID bill's are meant to suppress the vote of persons of color. It is just another version of the "poll tax". I urge all of you that are concerned about a further watering down of your civil rights, call your state representative and make them aware that you do not support a voter ID bill in this state.

Last item of concern - why is the State Health Department so concerned about protecting the health of the citizens of this state by closing down mom and pop operations that sell home baked, and canned goods at farmers market's, but don't seem to care about the pollution foisted on the citizens of this state by the likes of DuPont and Chevron? Could it be that money talks?

Now as to the reason I have posted this letter and highlighted the portion concerning voter ID and the attempt by the Republican Party to impose rules that are meant for one thing and one thing only - to suppress and intimidate the vote of people of color. It just happened that on the same day the Mississippi Press printed my letter Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! conducted an interview with the well respected, and much published, reporter, Greg Palast. The gist of the interview was that he had gotten his hands on 500 of the e-mails that Karl Rove had either initiated or had received. The majority of this e-mails were related to the on going scandal involving Gonzales and the firing of U.S. Attorneys. The content of some of these e-mails left no doubt that in some cases the firings were because the attorneys would not go along with Republican schemes to suppress the vote of people of color. You can either view the entire interview read a transcript of the interview here. What I was not aware of was that one of the fired attorneys, David Iglesias, is the person Tom Cruise portrayed in the movie " A Few Good Men".