voter ID or voter fraud?

I foolishly let myself get drawn into a FB 'conversation' over the continual efforts of the Texas Republicans to institute a new voter ID card to combat 'voter fraud' in our state. The Justice Department has ruled against it as posing undue hardship on the poor and minorities, infringing on their constitutional right to vote but that doesn't stop our state attorney general from filing a lawsuit against the government over it, his 24^th, incidentally, against the government since he took office in 2004.

The reason the republicans give for the new ID card is to prevent voter fraud. The problem with that is that the percentage of proven voter fraud in our state is so small as to be negligible, except perhaps in some local elections where only a small percentage of the population votes in the first place and the races are sometimes decided by a few votes, as pointed out by a proponent of the law.

The effect of the new voter ID card will be, in fact, to disenfranchise many thousands of legal, law abiding voters.

This was my comment :

I've always had to show an ID to vote, we already do have to show an ID to vote. that's not the problem. the problem is they want to change it to a state issued picture ID. that means a lot of people won't be able to vote that have been able to vote in the past. for some people getting a state issued photo ID is not easy or even possible. the new restriction will make it extremely difficult for the poor and disenfranchised and students and elderly to vote. and there is no reason for this new restriction since there has never been any problem with voter fraud. hell half the people in this country don't vote anyway. the only reason I can think of for the republicans to push this new restriction is because they don't feel like they can win in a fair setting so they are trying to make it harder for people who traditionally don't vote republican to vote at all. and that is not what America is about. voting is a constitutional right. all those people who would be turned away at the polls because they don't have the new 'proper' ID, all those people who used to be able to vote, will still be held by the results of any election, an election they were turned away from participating in. and if you think getting this new free state issued voter ID from the DPS is easy, try being poor with no driver's license so you have to take the bus, you have several children at home that you will have to take with you or find a bay sitter except you can't afford one, you will have to take a day (or two if there is a big crowd at the DPS) off work which you can't afford even if your boss will give you the day off, and you have to have proper identification like a birth certificate that you don't have a copy of. this new voter ID that the republicans have tried to impose and was struck down by the Justice Department is unnecessary. it will impose undue hardship and obstruction on legal voters. Prove first that there is a problem, that there has been voter fraud and by that I mean voter fraud that wasn't purposely perpetrated by a republican to prove that there is voter fraud.

To which he dug up a few statistics stretching all the way back to 1948 to justify the need. The number of fraudulent votes this new law might possibly prevent is miniscule compared to the number of legal votes it will prevent. And besides, it's not the poor, the minorities, the students, or the old people who commit voter fraud. It's the cronies and the funders that have a personal stake in the outcome who commit voter fraud and those people will find a way, new ID card or not.

So I asked him...

burning down the house to get rid of a few roaches is an appropriate response in your opinion?

Perhaps he didn't like my analogy which I thought was quite apt. Taking an extreme approach to a minor problem that ultimately doesn't really address the problem but causes all kinds of damage anyway,

because this was his reply...

The courts will decide this one. We are living in two separate universes. thanks for the debate. Adios.

Well, fella, the Justice Department has already decided it but our state continues to waste everyone's time and money to pursue it and I thank the powers that be that we do live in different universes because yours must be a pretty dismal place unless you are one of the chosen.

an unexpected outcome

I think I'm finally recovering from my three weeks of visits. What I thought would only take a few days turned out to take nearly a whole week but today I'm feeling like doing something. Unfortunately, that something will probably not be something that I want to do but rather something that I need to do and that something is clean house.

I'm afraid I have slipped back into my more slovenly ways.

When we moved into this fresh new clean house I vowed not to let it get away from me. And I succeeded for a while but apparently, you can't really change your nature. Nature always wins out.

One of the reasons I am feeling more energetic, besides just days of being a slug, is because of what happened last night.

Months ago, our friend Gene encouraged us to submit a piece to Archway Gallery's annual juried exhibition for Texas artists. Archway Gallery is an artist owned gallery in Houston, a very nice space with some very talented artists in all types of media.

Last week we had to take our entries for jurying by the current director of the Houston Center For Contemporary Craft. We got the call on Thursday that our piece had been juried in and they encouraged us to attend the opening which was last night.

The first thing I did was to check that they had our names spelled right on the tag by our piece. Yes! You wouldn't think I would have to do that but for some reason, both our names are frequently mis-spelled at shows.

After saying hello to the artists we knew that were part of the gallery I noticed there were name tags so I went to get mine and Marc's. They had one for Marc (spelled correctly) and then they had one for Ellen Albert. Well, they got three of the letters right anyway. I just cut off everything past the A.

I hadn't really paid any attention to the particulars of the show, only deciding at the last minute what to submit so I was a little surprised to find, once there, that there were awards.

So the time came for the director to read the juror's comments and to announce the awards. I thought maybe we might get an Honorable Mention, (our usual place though we did get 3^rd once).

They called out all 7 of the Honorable Mentions, then 3^rd place, then 2^nd place and I quit listening, turning to head deeper in the gallery where Marc and some friends were standing and then...was that my name?

Did he just say my name?

Why, yes he did! First place came with a $500 check and an invitation to show in their next exhibit.

I'm still dumbfounded but it has certainly put the spark back in my creative endeavors.

Now if I just had a maid.

grandkid visits - week 3

Once again Tuesday week found me in town making the switch, dropping Robin off and picking up Autumn.

Autumn, also 14, is more reserved than her twin, but is very funny when she clowns around. She wants to learn to draw and by that she means not just draw pictures, but really draw things so they look accurate. I have a drawing program on my iPad which all three girls used extensively during their visits, each having their own album, but Autumn chronicled her visit in hers.

Here's a few of the 42 pictures she drew.

She had only a couple of projects for her week. We listened to music and sat up late every night. We had a slumber party one night since I fell asleep next to her on the futon while we were talking in the dark.

We made baby monsters.

She had me turn her school uniform sweatshirts into zippered jackets. It remains to be seen what the school uniform police will think of that.

She made cookies.

I made her two pairs of shorts.

Unlike her younger sister, she isn't really interested in learning to sew, just in the product. So while I sewed, she did this...

and this.

We went to the Freedom Fest here in Wharton and she walked on water

and bungee jumped.

And we saw the fireworks display, all 8 minutes of it.

We babysat my sister's two little dogs over the weekend while she ran around the yard refusing to let me take her picture.

She wanted s'mores sans the graham crackers (I blame the commercials for the kids wanting to eat these terrible things) but since it was too hot to have a fire in the little pit outside, she tried melting the marshmallows with a match.

When that didn't work, she melted the chocolate and marshmallows in the microwave.

OK, that wasn't such a good idea.

It seemed like the week had just begun when it was time to take her home.

Whew! 

 I'm bushed and glad the grandboy still has a week or two of summer school before his visit.

place holder...

...while I get my post about the third visit ready

the sunset Wednesday week

a field sunflower

the sunset last Saturday

a baby anole giving me a wary eye

one of the rabbits that live in the Wild Space

the sunset Tuesday night

one of a pair of blue dragonflies that visits the pond

big mama showing off her ornament

minnows in the small pond

zen beans

grandkid visits - week 2

When I dropped off Jade, Robin had her stuff in the truck in a flash and off we went.

Robin, the youngest, is 11 this year and will be making the transition to middle school in the fall. She was pretty quiet while she was here, calling her mom just about every day. She loves her mom.

We played Gin and Rummikub, both at which she beat me consistently, though I did manage one win or two.

We made monsters.

She made a strawberry pie and helped with dinner.

We sewed. Of the three girls, Robin is best at the sewing machine.

We went to see Brave.

We picked figs from my neighbor Frank's trees.

She watched a lot of TV on my computer.

We had a lot of fun and the week was up in no time. Took her home Tuesday and returned with Autumn.

a few pics from the yard...

The squash is about done but this one growing end seems determined to put on one last burst.

When I went out to the compost pile last evening I was greeted by a dozen or so of these beauties. I think it is a type of fritillary but couldn't identify it exactly.

The plumeria and the bromeliad don't seem to mind the heat.

edit:  thanks to TexWisGirl, I have identified the butterfly as a tawny emperor.

grandkid visits - week 1

Jade was ready for her week with a list of projects, a supply list for those projects, and a menu for the week...breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At 14, she is a very organized young woman.

We had a lot of fun, Jade and I. She really didn't need any help with any of the things we did. Well, maybe a little, especially with the sewing parts, but mostly all she needed was company.

We stayed up late every night. Me, til midnight. Sometimes she stayed up longer.

We made bow rings.

We made a tribal necklace. Jade made a tribal necklace.

We cut down T-shirts and wove up the sides.

We made her Oscar The Grouch Halloween costume into a bag to keep her yearbook from school and a scrapbook in so it won't get messed up.

We made pies and cookies. She turned her head when I lifted the camera. 'Nooo, Granny. I don't like the way it looks with my hair up.' She ran off to the bathroom and fixed it and came back and posed for me.

We made a dino hoodie.

Again with the turning of the head.

The week was over in no time. I took her home and returned with Robin.