Advertise Here

Deliver your message to thousands of readers every day.

Our readers are influential opinion makers - politicians, journalists and activists.

Our latest headlines

About Us

The California Progress Report is published by Frank D. Russo, a longtime observer of and participant in California politics.

About Frank Russo.
About California Progress Report.

Got a news tip? Want to write a guest column? Contact Frank here.

Books

Republican ‘Men in Black’ Seek To Purge Voter Rolls of “Aliens”

towashington 089.gif By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ill-advisedly ruled that requiring identification at the polls as a requisite for casting a ballot is Constitutional, the G.O.P. is taking the next step: requiring “proof of citizenship” at the polls.

The initial effort is being made in Missouri where voters will likely pass such a measure in August – in time to disenfranchise enough poor people to swing the state to the Republicans. Swinging state election results to Republicans by disenfranchising poor Democrats is, you see, the order of the day.

Oh, the G.O.P. will say it’s to stop fraudulent voting by “illegal aliens”. Even though every reliable study shows that’s as rare as voting by Martians.

How would one “prove” citizenship to our Republican ‘men in black’? There are only two ways: a valid birth certificate combined with other identification (social security card, driver’s license or other photo identification) or a U.S. Passport. The package costs over $40 and takes several months – and soon will take longer as Counties are beset with requests for birth certificates. A more honest Supreme Court ruled such restrictions on voting to be an unconstitutional “poll tax”.

But, of course, you won’t have to “prove” anything if you are white, will you?

Birth records in the rural South tend to be a bit scanty for Black residents born in the 30’s, 40’s or 50’s. In California and other Southwestern States, babies born to undocumented parents – although legally citizens themselves – often have birth records that are fouled up because of their parents unwillingness to provide their own true names.

But visiting the ‘sins of the father’ on the innocent citizen children matters little to Republican operatives seeking any means to continue eight years of Republican rule that began with their own vote fraud in Florida – later ratified by their G.O.P. court.

It’s a simple continuation of the attitude that led to the resignation of Richard M. Nixon: anything’s fair if it leads to victory. Is it any wonder the Bush Administration is failing to bring democracy to Iraq? They wouldn’t know democracy if it bit them!

My great grandfather fought with the 12th Iowa under Sherman to end slavery.

He and my family were Republicans for generations because of the shameful record of the Democrats on Civil Rights. If alive today, they would be ashamed of their party and would be voting for Obama this fall.

If they could prove they were citizens to the satisfaction of G.O.P. election officials.

Bill Cavala was Deputy Director of the Assembly Speaker’s Office of Member Services where he worked for over 30 years.

He attended undergraduate and graduate school in the 1960’s and received a doctorate in political science at UC Berkeley. He taught political science at UC Berkeley during the 1970's while he worked part-time for the State Assembly.

Cavala left teaching at UC Berkeley and went to work for Assembly Speaker Willie Brown in 1981 until his tenure as Speaker ended in 1995, and he has worked for his five successors as Speaker up to and including Speaker Fabian Nunez.

Mr. Cavala manages election campaigns for Democratic candidates.

Posted on May 12, 2008

Comments

Comrade Cavala,

Appreciate your Great-Grandfathers service during the Civil War. But how do you know HE fought to free the slaves? Did he tell you? Did he volunteer or was he drafted? (Sherman in 1863-1864 had sizeable numbers of draftees in his army as the volunteer concept wasn't producing enough soldiers for the Union). Did he volunteer to "save the union" or to specifically end slavery as you attest? Just curious...

You also don't KNOW if they would vote for Obama or be ashamed to be republicans. With republican values of the 1860's, they probably wouldn't like the democrats views on abortion, the lefts views on religion or the progressive/socialist ways of income redistrobution.

Remember, EVERY DEMOCRAT PRESIDENT SINCE TRUMAN (sans Kennedy) is FROM THE SOUTH. Many were in additional poilitical positions of influence like LBJ and civil rights to FIX problems in their OWN STATES like those of what you describe today and pass off as a "republican" plan of some sort specifically "targeting" blacks in the "Evil Southern Confederacy" of 2008.

But to point:

Getting a Birth Certificate, an SSN or a drivers licence/equivilant ID is NO BIG DEAL. Heck for certain income levels, make it a tax deduction if that makes you happy. But you need these things anyway to secure loans, buy significant products (home, car, etc). A SSN is your ticket to secure ANY Social Security benefits (and is your taxpayer ID too). Can't imagine anyone passing that up deliberately, especially if "cash limited".

Nice try again with the "Big Lie" , scare version this time Comrade!

Posted by: Jay Gould at May 13, 2008 01:37 PM

Get Email Updates

Want the California Progress Report by email? Once a week, we'll send you the latest and greatest headlines.

Stat tracker