I'm not sure, but I think voters over here need to produce identification if they registered after 2003.

HAVA-compliant, but anyone else can just walk in and point to their name on the register.

It's funny, because Larry Seabrook-back when he was a lowly state senator-was making the same complaint you are right now.

His basic point was, "why on earth shouldn't you produce ID for voting; I mean, you have to take out two or three forms of ID to get a Blockbuster card."

I was amazed at the time, since it was one of the few instances where that doofus actually seemed to make a valid argument on an important issue.

That's my paraphrase of what he said, BTW, since I don't recall his statement verbatim.

It would be nice if minorities would come to realize what little the Dems do for them in return for expecting their vote.

both African-American guys

Karol, what's with this PC Newsspeak garbage? I don't expect this out of you.

Kim DuToit is an African-American. He's whiter than you.

The correct appelation is "negroe"

I think more and more minorities _are_ starting to understand how little the Dems do for us. Used to be my mother was one of few black people at a GOP event. Not so much anymore.

Between the sharp division on social issues, the fact that blacks were welcome in the Clinton White House as long as they were singing and dancing but not for any policy decisions, John Kerry's whiter than Wonderbread political advisory team, and George Bush having the first black national security advisor and Secretary of State, Dems may find that the voter bloc they used to consider rock solid isn't so much.

Of course, it's not like I'm happy with the current GOP either...but neither are many conservatives.

There's a sense of entitlement here, which is why the Dems feel that they can implement policies that harm the interests of one of their core constituencies.

The anecdote that I think illustrates this better than anything involves James Brown.

I think this was during the '92 conventions.

The DNC asked James Brown to perform at their convention in the City.

His manager asked them what they were offering to pay him-or gave them his pay scale for these type of events-and he was told that he wasn't going to be paid.

In other words, he was expected to perform for free.

That's why we needed Harry Bellefonte to assure us Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice are race traitors, because otherwise black people would realized they're, well, black.

I can only surmise African Americans vote Democrat because they eschew positions of real power in favor of token appointments to HUD.

Historically, in the south and midwest, the rules whereby someone could get state sanctioned identification made it hard for black people (really, poor people, but a disproportionate number of blacks in the south are poor) to get it. I wonder if this is still the case, but probably not so much.

You make the point that you need an ID, but in rural America, you can usually get into a bar because you know somebody, you cash your paycheck at the 7-11, you obviously don't need it to work (hello, Mexicans doing construction), it's not that big a deal. If you never do anything stupid, you don't even need it to drive. It's a different part of America.

I don't know that the status quo (The idea that ID is hard to get, and therefore implicitly racist because it disproportionately affects poor people) is valid anymore, but can you really justify being so surprised that the laws still accomodate the lack of ID? You can't buy liquor on Sunday in some places in the US? Does that make sense? Is it a Democratic conspiracy or a racist assault on the drinkers (ahem, Russians) in the country? OK, I'm rambling, so I'll stop here.

The idea that people don't have one piece of photo I.D. is kind of absurd.

If you're not an illegal alien-and are a motorist-chances are that you do have a driver's license, even if it's invalid.

I have a passport even though I've never been abroad.

Besides, most of these bills paid for the identification so it wasn't an issue of money.

Yes, unlike Southern Republicans who still wanted to OWN blacks, or just reminisce on the good ol' lynching days.

That, or course, is less racist.

A lot of poor people living right here in NYC Manhattan would not have any ID if it wasn't for their New York City welfare benefits card. It's not suprising that really poor people in this country have no form of ID. Since this country does not have a national ID card.

Toby,

Drinking that much isn't good for you.

You fail at trolling, Tobster.