Day 26 - "The United States of this country"

That's how Rep. Mills managed to refer to our nation when speaking in support of his HB 45. Ironic that the point of the bill is to require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Shouldn't you have to know the name of the country too?

As we write this, debate has begun on HB 45, yet another voter disenfranchisement bill. For the reasons it's such a bad idea, go here:
http://www.lwvga.org/documents/proofofcitizenship2AA7EC_000.pdf

The Gold Dome was swarming with folks this morning. By the People Day/Women in the Halls (co-sponsored every Wednesday by the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Feminist Women's Health Center, and GRUS), had two special foci today: Immigrants' Rights and Raising the GA Minimum Wage. So many people came to advocate that we had to split into two different rooms.

The group headed from the LOB over to the Capitol, we had a lot to work on. We lobbied hard against HB 45, sending information in to legislators and calling them out from the floor to talk to them about why it's such a bad bill.

One member, who started out telling us he wanted to prevent voter fraud, but who seemed to come around to the reality that voter fraud is not an issue that we have any reason to be worried about, and that this bill would in fact threaten citizens' right to vote, finally just said, "What am I supposed to tell my constituents in North Georgia? They won't understand me voting against it."

Well, it just so happened that a few of his constituents, who had come down to the Capitol for other issues, happened to be standing behind us, overheard us, and then said that they in fact did want him to vote against it. They called him back out from the floor to talk to him about it. No word, unfortunately, on how that went.

Speaking of all these voter ID-voter registration-picture ID-birth certificate bills, if they ever get around to passing one of the several bills giving rights to embryos (or zygotes at this point), does the mother get the embryo's vote? (Yes, bills have been introduced allowing you to adopt embryos. Yea! I'm already picking out names for mine!)

So here we are almost at the end of the session, and as bad as the budget is, they still haven't moved any revenue bills. What's up with that?

At the same time, Ways and Means has a dozen tax credit bills for corporations that they're considering. When have you ever benefited from corporate tax breaks?

*** And we're abruptly brought back to more ridiculousness: HB 45 has now passed. A partisan vote with only one Republican voting No. So get ready to find your birth certificate when you want to register to vote. Don't have it? Just get your passport. Too poor to think about traveling overseas? They don't care.

And that legislator who said he had to listen to his constituents' wishes, and whose constituents told him they wanted him to vote against it? He voted for it. Republican leadership called for a block vote and only one had the courage to bolt, but not this guy who actually had consituent input.

Meanwhile, the Senate ended up passing another terrible anti-immigrant bill this morning. SB 136 is intended to speed up the deportation process for those undocumented who are incarcerated. It would allow Pardons and Paroles to half the sentence when the inmate agreed to voluntarily waive legal rights and representation. And then be immediately deported without possibility of return. The bill also takes the decision issue final deportation orders away from an immigration judge and delegates that part to the prison system folks. So, no matter what you think of the immigrantion issue, it is not a good idea to entice people to give up their rights...and an even worse idea to take away the role of judges to determine what the law actually allows.

So let's recap, shall we?

What our legislators are spending time on:
- Taking away and/or erecting barriers for the right to vote.
- Allowing us to adopt embryos.
- Giving tax breaks to corporations.

What our legislators are not spending time on:
- Budget shortfalls.
- Jobs.
- Education.
- Health Care.
- Things on top of the list of what you actually need.


Remember that you can always look up legislation and find out who your legislators are and how they voted on legislation, on the General Assembly's website: http://www.legis.ga.gov/

And you can come down here and talk to your legislators whenever you want.

Speaking of which, Polly McKinney of the League of Women Voters had about 25 third graders down here with her this morning. We suspect they were a bit disappointed when they left.