The True Cost of Freedom

Oh with yet another Republican primary coming up there's a longer-term issue that will affect voters in several states come November: These Photo-ID laws. While arguments about the disparate impact of these new laws are usually couched in lawsuits and research studies, some activists are now pushing beyond identifying the problem to help voters get the information they need.

I wrote about this last week..But what I didn't write about was a group that is basically saying...Let's move beyond all of the lawsuits and challenges.
The Cost of Freedom Project, a crowd-sourced initiative that is developing a Web application to provide people with information on how to get a voter ID.

The project has focused its efforts on the sixteen states(including mine) where photo-ID laws -- which require government-issued photo ID to be presented at the polls in order to vote -- will go into effect this November.

By typing in an address, users will get a list of the documents needed for a state ID, the offices where they can obtain said documents (as well as their hours of operation and public transportation directions) and the costs. Voters will also be able to get the information through text messaging.

"I got frustrated with only hearing about lawsuits and studies around the problem of voter-ID laws," said Faye Anderson,project manager for the Cost of Freedom team.

"Yes, it's important to challenge voter-ID requirements. But the clock is ticking, and a lawsuit and yet another study will not help one voter who needs a photo ID to get one."

Faye Anderson presented the idea last December at Random Hacks of Kindness Philadelphia, a competition held at Drexel University to develop technological solutions for real-world problems.

From there a team of Web developers, graphic designers and researchers began forming. Faye Anderson demonstrated the application on Feb. 14th during a panel at the Social Media Week conference in Washington, D.C., and she officially launched the site A few weeks ago on March 7th.

The Cost of Freedom tool was designed to be concise, offering just the information voters need. "We don't want to overwhelm them with information. When you start talking about 21st-century poll taxes, people's eyes glaze over," said Ms. Anderson.

She added, however, that such an argument is nonetheless valid. In most states with voter-ID laws, citizens must present a birth certificate to get their ID. "That can cost as high as $25. If you get it online, tack on another $12," said Anderson. "During a recession, having to provide a series of underlying documents is an unreasonable burden. And as a practical matter: While you need a birth certificate to get photo ID, in order to get a birth certificate, you need photo ID."

But despite the many aspects of photo-ID laws that may block voters from accessing the ballot, the Cost of Freedom is focused simply on helping people get what they need in time. "We want to give voters information as quickly as possible," said Anderson, "To minimize the number of voters who say 'Oh, forget about it.' "

You know, I joked about needing a birth certificate last week. These fools aren't joking though... I don't know about you, but I don't carry my birth certificate around with me.

As I stated before...While this is all well and good..Most people have a drivers license...(Which is a valid State issued form of identification.) If you work somewhere or get any kind of public assistance you have a photo ID of some sort..

If not...You can go to your local Driver's Education center and have a State ID made for you for a minimum cost..It looks just like a Drivers License", except that it says Indentification card.

This is crazy...I never heard of such....These people (and you know who I'm talking about) will go to any length to discourage us from voting...We must be vigilant and we must do everything possible to meet their challenge and thwart it...

They're trying to rig the game in their favor....  They stole an election once...We can not afford to allow them to steal another one.

Too Many Times

I look at this boy and this could have been me...Many years ago.  This angelic faced boy is dead...Killed by some body who has been listening to and fed stereotypes for years..Killed by some loser who couldn't make it on the police force, so he decided to pack a nine milimeter and become a vigilante...Masquerading as a "Town Watch" operative.

I first heard about this case on The Michael Baisden show last week.  This kid went into a store in a gated community in Sanford ,Florida and bought some skittles and some iced tea.  This "town watch" individual named George Zimmerman didn't think that he looked like he belonged in that community...and so he called 911...Who told him to sit tight....

Can't tell you how many times I have been stopped by police when I was a young man because I didn't look like I belonged somewhere.  What surprised me is when I found out that the same thing happened to one of my cousins...Who is eight years my senior and it happened to some of my other cousins , who are a generation younger than me....  The rites of passage of being a Black man in America sometimes...

But moving away from me... This guy, the shooter claims that he killed the kid in self defense. According to the 911 reports...this is not so.


Calls made to police show that a black teenager was terrified as he tried to get away from the white neighborhood watch volunteer who shot him, and that the volunteer was not defending himself as he has claimed, the teen's family told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Sanford police released eight 911 calls late Friday. The neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, tells a dispatcher in the first call that he is following 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

He says Martin is running, but the dispatcher tells him not to follow the teen.

"How can you claim self-defense and you are the aggressor?" Tracy Martin, Trayvon Martin's father, told the AP on Saturday.

George Zimmerman had called police to report a suspicious person walking through the gated community. He had said he shot the teen in self-defense. Zimmerman's father said in a letter to the Orlando Sentinel that his son, who is Hispanic, has been cruelly and unfairly portrayed in the media as a racist.

The teen had gone to a convenience store to buy candy and was walking back to his family's home in the neighborhood.

"This guy looks like he is up to no good. He is on drugs or something," Zimmerman told the dispatcher from his SUV. He added that the black teen had his hand in his waistband and was walking around looking at homes.

"These assholes. They always get away," Zimmerman said on a 911 call.


He has said he acted in self-defense, but Martin's family said they are now more convinced than ever that Zimmerman should be
charged in the shooting. Several of the 911 calls made by neighbors describe some sort of scuffle or fight outside, someone yelling for help and a gunshot.

"(Zimmerman) was chasing him, he was following him, and my son was afraid," Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin's mother, told the AP.

"He didn't know who this stranger was."

Tracy Martin said the calls paint a stark picture of what were his son's final moments.

"He was yelling for help, and no one could help him. He saw his life being taken away from him," Tracy Martin said.

That assertion was bolstered by two other neighbors who came forward on Friday, according to a report from NBC Miami.

The two women, roommates, came forward to say they heard the teen calling for help.

"I feel it was not self-defense, because I heard the crying, and if it was Zimmerman that was crying, Zimmerman would have continued crying after the shot went off," said Mary Kutcher, speaking to television reporters.

The case has been turned over to the State Attorney's Office, which can decide whether to file charges or present evidence to a
grand jury.

Trayvon Martin's family said they will continue pushing for charges to be filed against Zimmerman.

We're hoping this doesn't happen again to another family, and that America opens their eyes ... even though this won't bring
Trayvon back, we don't want there to be another Trayvon," Tracy Martin said.

Moments after Zimmerman's first call, dispatchers were bombarded by seven 911 calls from frantic neighbors describing a fight between two men, screaming and then a gunshot.

"There is somebody screaming outside," one female caller said, as an unknown male voice can be heard crying in the background.

Then a shot is heard!!!

A male caller described a physical altercation between Martin and the shooter.

"I just heard a shot right behind my house," The caller said.

"They're wrestling right behind my porch. The guy is yelling `Help.' I'm not going outside."

Earlier Friday, Martin's parents called on the FBI to take over the investigation, saying they no longer trusted the Sanford police department.

Sanford police Sgt. David Morgenstern said the department stands by its investigation but welcomes help from any outside agency. FBI agent David Couvertier said the agency has been in contact with Sanford police and is monitoring the case.

"We are committed to having somebody review this to see if we made a mistake," said Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett. "If we made missteps and there is something there, we will act accordingly." Misteps?? Misteps???

Several Sanford residents who spoke to The Associated Press Friday said they think there would have been an arrest already if the shooter had been black and the deceased had been white. They said blacks and whites in this city of 53,000 residents were pretty much in agreement that an injustice had been done with no one arrested, and that there was no racial divide in how the case is being perceived. The city is 57 percent white and 30 percent black.

It has a median household income of almost $42,000.

"It's just about ... to be able to take somebody's life in 2012 and not even go to jail for it, that is just sad. No matter, for any color. Not just black or white. Any color," Ladonna Williams, 38, who is black, said as she shopped at the Seminole Towne Center shopping mall, more than a mile from where the shooting took place.

In the letter to the Sentinel, Zimmerman's father says his son has received death threats and moved out of his home. George Zimmerman is Hispanic and grew up in a multiracial family, the statement says.

"He would be the last to discriminate for any reason whatsoever ...," the letter says. "The media portrayal of George as a racist could not be further from the truth."

We can argue that and other things until the cows come home...but I want to ask this...If Trayvon Martin had killed George Zimmerman..is there any doubt in anyone's mind that he'd at least of been charged with something?? The Sanford Police have yet to even bring charges up against this guy...

This type of thing happens too many times and too many times people sort of just brush it off with an "oh well"...OH WELL MY ASS! That's right I'm saying it...When does this bullshit stop? Where does it end?

How many more have to die because of these stupid stereotypes that are perpetrated by the news media, Television shows, Movies and at times our own people in our own entertainment mediums that we create? How long will there be a bullseye on the chest of every young black man???   This just happens too many times.

Keith's Favorite Quotes

When I Give Food to the Poor.....They Call Me A Saint...

When I ask why the poor have no food...They call me a Communist!- author unknown.

Keith's Music Spotlight

It's sexy woman time again!... My girl, Melanie Fiona drops her sophmore album next week... It's called the "MF" Life...Am I dating myself by saying album?  Well, I was gonna purchase the CD...That might even be a little dated considering that most people I know, download everything...  Here is her new release.. "4:00 Am"
I hope you like it!

Weekend Humor

Mrs. Carter declined to serve on the jury because she was not a believer in capital punishment and didn’t want her beliefs to get in the way of the trial.

“But, Mrs.Carter,” said the public defender, who had taken a liking to her kind face and calm demeanor, “This is not a murder trial. It is merely a civil lawsuit being brought by a wife against her husband. He gambled away the fifteen thousand dollars he’d promised to spend on a chinchilla coat for her birthday.”

“Hmmm,” reflected Mrs.Carter. “Okay then, I’ll serve, I could be wrong about capital punishment.”


Have a great weekend everybody!

What My State Did

I was just writing about this yesterday...and look what happened in my state of Pennsylvania..The Pennsylvania State Senate, along nearly partisan lines, passed a bill Wednesday that would make Pennsylvania the 16th state to require its residents to show photo identification at the polls.

After more than four hours of debate, senators voted, 26-23, to approve the so-called voter ID bill. Its Republican sponsors contend it is needed to protect the integrity of elections. What integrity? The Democrats countered  that it is nothing more than a partisan attempt to suppress their side's votes in a presidential election year, which is true.

The bill now heads for the House, which passed a stricter version last summer. If approved there - as is expected in that GOP-controlled chamber as early as next week - it would go to Gov.Tom Corbett, who has said he supports the concept, and would take effect in time for the Nov. 6 election.How ironic! That's exactlywhat it was designed for...They aren't fooling anybody.

"This bill is a simple, commonsense measure to protect the integrity of the voting process, which is the very foundation of our democracy," said Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware) as debate on the bill commenced Wednesday.

One after another, Democratic senators rose to argue the exact opposite. Those senators, as well as the Pennsylvania chapter of the ACLU, said Wednesday night they would challenge the measure in court if it becomes law.

Democrats contended the bill would disproportionately hurt the elderly, the poor and the disabled, who make up the lion's share of voters who typically do not have photo IDs. Those groups also tend to vote Democratic.

Over the last year, Republican legislators in state after state have introduced similar voter ID bills - so many that the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks legislation nationwide, has called voter ID the hottest election-related topic.

The push for such laws, Democrats contend, is part of a national effort to skew state and federal races in favor of Republicans. "I call you a hypocrite today if you vote for this bill," State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams (D., Phila.) said in Wednesday's debate.

Williams and other Democrats challenged Republicans to cite specific studies or evidence of voter fraud being rampant.

During the floor debate, Pileggi cited a 2005 report by an election commission headed by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker that supported the use of photo IDs - the two men called for standardized photo IDs in the states - as a way to ensure fair elections.

But neither Pileggi nor any other senator cited a specific example of fraud. Of course they didn't...and you know why??..Because there is none!  This is just more Republican mythology designed to hide the fact that they really don't have a clue how to solve the nation's economic ills...and also that they intend to do everything humanly possible to keep this president from being re-elected.

My Grandfather used to say that in between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh...Pennsylvania might as well be Alabama..He was right!

Voter Fraud?, Really?

And here we have it...Another Republican talking point...Voter Fraud!!!  Last week it was their job to save the nation's feeble minded female population from"having too much sex"  or was it, "having sex outside of marriage" or was it, "having an abortion without making an intelligent judgemant...a judgemant that the woman would be too feeble minded to make herself and therefore would need a man's opinion..profferably her wise all knowing husband.

Now this week... The noble Republicans are out to save the nation from mass voter fraud.  A number of states are trying to pass what is being called a voter I.D. bill ,which will require voters to have a picture I.D. when they go to vote.  I think that these people think this will discourage many Black and young voters...but the basic truth is...If you drive and or have a job or receive any kind of public assistance...You already have a photo ID....or do they want us to get a seperate photo ID in order to vote??

Are we going to be asked to recite the constitution too in order to vote?  Will we have to bring our birth certificates also? It gets sillier and sillier... Where was this concern in 1960, When Chicago Mayor Daley was registering dead people and having them "vote"?  Where was this concern during every other Presidential administration?  Why now? This smacks of the same type of crap they used to pull in the south during the 50's and the 60's to turn away Black voters...

It Seems as though the Republicans want to talk about everything except the economy and job growth, which is what they should be talking about... I 'm just shaking my head...

Those Women Voters

You know...I don't understand the Republican party...They have aileanated the largest group of voters in the country. Women! With all of this talk about contraception and abortion amongst other things... Now would be a great time for the Obama campaign and the Democrats in general to rach out to them. In fact..That just may be what is happening.

President Obama's re-election team campaign appears to be intensiing its efforts with female voters this week, according to the New York Times.

Using the current debates about birth control coverage in his health care law, President Obama hopes to connect with women who may feel that they are in danger of losing their rights at the hands of the Republican Party.

President Obama is trying to recapture the traditionally Democratic women's vote. Women were 53 percent of the national vote in 2008 and accounted for 56 percent of his votes, despite leaning Republican in the 2010 midterm elections.

I've been reading and hearing on CNN that The President's campaign will begin sending out mailings to more than a million women in a dozen of the so called battleground states.

Three separate versions of the mailing will be sent out to young women, older women and mothers. An effort called "Nurses for Obama" will begin on Wednesday, with nurses natonwide enlisted as advocates for the president's health care law.

A New Web site will include links to video testimonials about the health care overhaul signed by Mr. Obama in 2010, including from a former critic who subsequently was found to have breast cancer.

Through the month,President Obama's campaign field offices will organize phone banks, campus activities, house parties and media events featuring local residents helped by the health care law, culminating in a "Women's Week of Action."

The Obama campaign’s effort to rally women around the health care law had been long planned, to coincide with the second anniversary of Mr. Obama signing it on March 23, campaign officials said. But the effort has gained intensity, they added, because of recent controversies over contraception, abortion and education in Washington and in state capitals that have energized people in the campaign’s far-flung field offices who are essential to putting any national strategy into action.

For example, in New Hampshire, a swing state, the seven field offices will hold 16 phone banks to contact female voters about the benefits for them in the health care law. On Wednesday, when the “Nurses for Obama” effort is to be announced, nurses in New Hampshire will be making the calls, field organizers say.

In Virginia, another battleground state, Barbara Kanninen volunteered a month ago to help lead a “Women for Obama” network and said “it’s growing fast” thanks to the debates in Washington and Richmond. “The conversations at these house parties are very much dominated by women concerned about all this,” said Ms. Kanninen, a freelance economist and mother of two teenage boys.

 Her own house party drew women that she did not know and three members of her choral group with whom she had never discussed politics, Ms. Kanninen said, and each day brings at least one new message of interest on her Facebook page from some woman who has heard of the group.

"Up until six weeks ago, Democrats suffered from an intensity gap, but this has closed as women -- particularly suburban women -- have turned against the GOP," Peter D. Hart, a Democratic pollster who is not affiliated with the campaign, told the New York Times


This is good...This is further proof that Romney, who I will call "Flipper" from now on because he flips positions so often...
Newt 'Sexy Beast " Gingrich, Rick Santorum (No name I can write aabout him is printable) and crazy ass (Ron Paul)have no business even running for President.

The way they have systematically aileanated everyone except maybe Asians and White males is amazing...Amazingly stupid...and like I said..With candidates this bad...Why waste money campaigning?? They'll win the election for you.

Keith's Favorite Quotes

“Passion is the quickest to develop, and the quickest to fade. Intimacy develops more slowly, and commitment more gradually still.”-   Robert Sternberg

Keith's Music Spotlight

This is one sexy woman....Oh and I love her music too!  An import from across the pond... This is Estelle

Weekend Humor (Oxymorons)

Okay,just so you don't think I'm being overly deep..Let me explain to you what an oxymoron is...An oxymoron is a combination of two words that are completely opposite in meaning. So with that taken care of...Here are a few-

46.Kinder Gentler Republican administration


45. Act naturally

44. Found missing

43. Resident alien

42. Advanced BASIC


41. Genuine imitation

40. Airline Food


39. Good grief


38. Same difference


37. Almost exactly


36. Government organization


35. Sanitary landfill

34. Alone together


33. Legally drunk


32. Silent scream

31. Living dead

30. Small crowd

29. Business ethics

28. Soft rock

27. Butt head

26. Military intelligence

25. Software documentation

24. New classic

23. Sweet sorrow

22. Child Proof

21. "Now, then ..."

20. Synthetic natural gas

19. Passive aggression

18. Taped live

17. Clearly misunderstood

16. Peace force

15. Extinct life

14. Temporary tax increase

13. Computer jock

12. Plastic glasses

11. Terribly pleased

10. Computer security

9. Political science

8. Tight slacks

7. Definite maybe

6. Pretty ugly

5. Twelve-ounce pound cake

4. Diet ice cream

3. Working vacation

2. Exact estimate

...And the number 1 oxymoron is..
1. Microsoft Works

Have a great weekend everybody!

The Monster in Uganda!

This powerful film says it all...I don't believe that you can watch this and not be moved....I saw it on Facebook last night and I felt that I had to share it with you!
This should be something we all, Democrats and Republicans can agree on.


http://kony2012.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/