Ronnie Musgrove delivers his inauguration speech (1/11/2000)
8/21/2005
The Raw Story carries a story about voting machines in California. A non-partisan citizen's group in San Diego conducting parallel elections alongside the official elections has discovered a consistent discrepency in favor of the Republican candidate of around 4%. Read more.
3/11/2003
As evidence piles up that the new touch-screen, computerized, voting machines may have been fixed, a few jurisdictions are becoming wary. Read the Article.
2/01/2003
Thom Hartmann, author of Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights, explores the political implications of automated voting systems. In particular, he concentrates upon elections in Nebraska, in which Chuck Hagel, winner of the U. S. Senate race, had an undisclosed interest in the very corporation that manufactured the touchscreen voting machines used in the race, and in Georgia, where highly-favored Democrat incumbent and war-hero Max Cleland was defeated by Saxby Chambliss, who'd avoided service in Vietnam with a "medical deferment" but ran his campaign on the theme that he was more patriotic than Cleland. Add to these surprises that fact that exit polling, a staple of the media, has virtually disappeared, and one must conclude that there are more than adequate grounds for considerable unease about the direction of our electoral system. Since, as we pointed out below, touch screen voting is coming to Mississippi, we believe this article is highly relevant locally as well as nationally.Read the article.
12/29/2002
In which the recent fall of erstwhile powerful senatemaster Trent Lott is analyzed in light of the editor's own observations, Mississippi history and Lott's own character. How the petty have fallen! Read the article.
11/23/2002
After having used the new touchscreen voting machines, the editor, a sometime computer professional, was disturbed by the easy way in which the outcome of an election could be stolen without anyone the wiser. This is a proposal for a secure and reliable statewide electronic voting system that would preserve the integrity of the ballot. Read the article.
6/10/2001
Your editor waxes philosophical over the results of the recent referendum on the Mississippi Flag. Adopting the new flag would have been basically dishonest, a form of false advertising. The current flag really does represent what we stand for as a state. Read the column.
by Keith Wright
6/25/2000
Congress, with the support of our own senators and representatives, has been subsidizing the timber industry's logging of public lands for years. Here's a look into the politics of the heist, with some suggestions on what to do about it. Read the article.
by Keith Wright
5/1/2000
As the University of Mississippi's Trent Lott Leadership Institute nears completion, the leadership training will begin in earnest. The question is, what kind of leaders is the Institute preparing to train? If the private donations that were raised are any indication, the Institute will continue to create followers of the corporate creed, and not leaders. Read the article.
3/26/2000
The next Green Party of Jackson (GPoJ), meeting will be held Tuesday, April 4, 2000 at 7:00 PM at The Rainbow Co-op, 2807 Old Canton Road, Jackson, MS 39216.GPoJ and the Sierra Club will present "The Billion Dollar Boondoggle ...A Call To Action To Defend Our Local National Forests." at the Eudora Welty Library, on Wednesday, March 29, 2000 at 7:00 PM. The program will consist of a panel discussion and a video presentation on what steps we can take now to preserve Mississippi's forests.
Visit the GPoJ web site. http://www.greensofjackson.homestead.com/welcome.html
Contact: Landon W. Huey, e-mail: greensofjackson@hotmail.com, land mail - P.O. Box 3564, Jackson, MS 39207
3/04/2000
We are pleased to announce the fourth winner of the Idiotic Bill of the Week Award, Representative Andrew M. Ketchings of Natchez, whose bill, HB688, would allow conviction by ten members of a twelve-person jury. Since statehood, conviction of a crime has required in Mississippi a unanimous jury. With our prisons literally burgeoning with convicted persons, many of whom are serving the long mandated sentences enacted by "get tough" legislatures of the last few years, this bill would make it far easier to convict a defendant, even if two of the jurors vote for aquittal.This would be a tragic mistake. Prosecutors and defendants already have procedures to exclude biased and incompetent jurors. There are no complaints on their part on the requirement of twelve votes to convict. The U.S. imprisons more than 2 million people, a greater incarceration rate than any other country in the world, and putting more people in prison is not making us more secure.
The success of a republic is in a law-abiding citizenry, not in having an alarming percentage of the population in jails. That, dear reader, is a sign of utter failure. Ketchings's bill would compound that failure.
2/21/2000
We are pleased to announce the third winner of the Idiotic Bill of the Week Award, Representative Thomas F. Cameron, III of Greenville, whose proposed amendment to the criminal sentencing statutes would authorize judges, in their discretion, to order corporal punishment and/or labor as an alternative punishment for virtually all serious crimes. This is the second that Representative Cameron has won the prize, an achievement that reflects his dedication towards a truly Hobbsian state of nature.HB138 would undoubtedly permit public and private "whippings" or even more onerous punishments. The term "corporal punishment," would, in fact, permit virtually any bodily punishment not forbidden by the U. S. or Mississippi constitutions. It is easy to work up a righteous froth against persons who commit crimes, either against property or against persons. There is no evidence, however, that severity of sentence has been much of a deterrent to crime but plenty of evidence that such punishments, if they become a customary and usual form of punishment, can convert a law-abiding and peaceable population into a violent and brutal people. They are the tools of absolute monarchs and dictators, not republics. Is this a sign that we are changing our form of government? Think about it.
Hopefully, the bill will be allowed to quietly die in committee. But the fact that a state representative could file such a bill without embarrassment is a sad commentary.
2/11/2000
We are pleased to announce the second winner of the Idiotic Bill of the Week Award, Representative Thomas F. Cameron, III of Greenville, whose proposed amendment to the marriage statutes would accomplish little more than making unhappy couples even more unhappy and cost them a trip to another state. HB94 establishes a "covenant marriage." Marriages are already covenants, of course, but some folks are upset that marriages can be ended easily, without all the obstacles that were historically placed in the way of unhappy couples.Cameron's bill is positively medieval, in that it permits a couple to voluntarily enter into a special marriage that can only be dissolved by uncondoned and unconnived adultery. If such a statute were actually enacted, it is entirely predictable that many naive and well-meaning couples would let themselves be persuaded to enter into covenant marriages. Can't you hear it now: "If you really loved me you would be willing to enter into a covenant marriage." And what lover, stripped of his or her better judgment by the force of an overwhelming passion, would refuse the beloved's request? It is unthinkable ... until afterwards.
Once covenant marriages become popular, we anticipate that the venerable practice of wife-beating will experience a revival, as men will be able to beat their wives without fear of being hauled before a chancellor. And drunkeness--none of that complaining when the old boy comes in smashed every night. Or if the wife robs a bank and gets sent to the slammer for twenty years, too bad; you wait until she gets out. Not a pretty picture.
Overlooked in all this ferver to create more permanent marriages, is the full faith and credit provision of the U. S. Constitution, which would undoubtedly apply to Las Vegas divorces. Mississippi, in other words, would be obliged to honor judgments of divorce that are legally valid in the state in which they are granted, even if the divorce is from a covenant marriage.
2/3/2000
The Jackson Progressive hereby establishes a weekly award to be given to the legislator who files or promotes a piece of legislation that no reasonable person would seriously consider. As the number of eligible candidates for this award are unfortunately large, nominations are welcome.We are pleased to announce that the hands-down winner this week is Republican Senator Thomas E. King, Jr. of Hattiesburg, whose bill, An Act to Prohibit Certain Indecent Acts; To Enact Definitions; To Prescribe Punishment for Violations; And For Related Purposes, SB2013, prohibits males from becoming sexually arounsed in public by criminalizing "the showing of covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state." Don't go to the beach without an overcoat, guys or you'll be in big trouble.
Ronnie Musgrove delivers his inauguration speech (1/11/2000)
Click here for a short movie (1.0 MB)
1/5/2000
The Jackson Progressive has not covered the election cycle this past year, mainly because we lacked the resources to do a decent job. It is certainly not because we lacked strong opinions.Ronnie Musgrove won the governorship in the House of Representatives because he had earned the right to be governor. Mike Parker, on the other hand, hadn't. Our impression of Parker all along has been one of a mean, arrogant man with a small mind and an inflated opinion of himself, who came to belive that he was predestined to win any election in which he chose to run.
The test of character is in losing, not winning.
Parker's decision to hang on until the bitter end has enlightened Mississippi voters far more about his character than all of the vapid, touchy-feely, high-priced television ads that came close to winning the election for him.
Good riddance.
Public Citizen: Betting on Trent Lott - The Casino Gambling Industry's Campaign Contributions Pay Off In Congress. Read the executive summary of a full report by Ralph Nader's organization on the ties between Lott and casino gambling.
What could be more commonplace than infidelity--forsaking one's spouse of many years for the affections of another? continued