New Orleans Pennsylvania took a pass on making voting fair and other states continue to hardball voters. It all comes too close to home. One of the items on my list today is taking my mother out on the town. Unfortunately that means rolling her out on the street from the facility where she is recovering from breaking her hip to a nearby Walgreen’s so she can have a passport picture taken there. Her drivers’ license has expired as has her passport, but she would be denied the ability to vote without making an uproarious fuss in Louisiana this fall without some kind of picture ID, along with other problems. It is easier to get a renewed passport than have her somehow endure hours in line at state Motor Vehicles locations in order to get a picture for a Louisiana official ID, and furthermore the passport is good for more years. Without extra effort she could be counted as one of the millions whose vote would have been denied. Oh, yes, this is about fraud, eh? Not!
Bad news was hidden in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. The Missouri Supreme Court rule that SNAP, the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, and its beleaguered director, former ACORN organizer, Dave Clohessey, is to disclose more than 20 years of records including what were confidential communications with the victims. This litigation was widely publicized as part of the new pushback policy of the Church after many of us had hoped some closure was coming in these matters. The legal expenses and distractions are dwarfing SNAP and threatening its very existence, which is coming close to putting SNAP on the list of organizations (ACORN, NPR, Planned Parenthood, etc) that have been imperiled because of the core of their advocacy and efforts. The priest’s lawyers claim they are trying to see if some of the abuse is past the statues of limitations, which is depressing on its face. SNAP’s lawyers’ say this is a “fishing expedition,” but either way, this is a step backward and a call for support for SNAP.
To round it out, Campbell Brown, who I covered not long ago in these pages, when I encouraged people to stand up and be counted and reject her obvious efforts to debut as an op-ed columnist for the New York Times, continues to try to find a place for her velvet-gloved iron fisted Republican hard right hater politics and voice. She recently penned a piece in a similar tryout for the Wall Street Journal, but this one was an anti-teachers’ union screed, which she has obviously market tested as currently popular, accusing them of protecting child predators through collective bargaining agreements. Really, now?!? Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and former head of the New York local, UFT, pulled the wool Brown was trying to put over everyone’s eyes and got into a Twitter spat with her reported by the Times, while they also were forced to admit their own mea culpa for having been tricked twice. Brown in her now patented fake-feminism move tried to claim that she had admired Randi and seen her as a role model, even while basically calling her an egg-sucking dog. This Campbell Brown show is way past its cancellation date. The gig is up and she needs to stop pretending, fly her true colors, and find her voice as a blogger for the Republican National Committee or wherever her heart truly lies.
Just saying…it’s all too close to home!
