A response to Mr. Shipp “editorialist”
May 7, 2009
I don’t normally respond to individual columnists, but the last column by Mr Shipp in the Bryan County News (Keep America First; 6 May-Bryan County News) has to be responded to.
The entire gist of the column seems to be “those traiterous Republicans want to jump ship now a Democrat is in office”. He first trots out as evidence a speech given by Texas Governor Rick Perry preaching secession and follows it up with our own Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine “having a team of researchers working on schemes to declare our independence and bid adios to old D.C.”. Where did he come up with this information? The first came from a speech given by the Texas Governor to a “Tea Party” rally in which he stated, “… There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that.” Governor Perry had in recent days asserted states’ rights under the 10th Amendment and denounced Washington for overstepping authority. He had said earlier in the speech, “Washington needs to hear us loud and clear,” said Perry, who wore a khaki jacket and a hunting cap. “Cut the spending, cut the taxes, shrink the government. And reread the Constitution.” Dangerous talk? No and it was hardly treasonous. And what were the remarks Oxendine had made saying he favored secession? ”If Governor, I would support legislation which puts Georgia on record as affirming our sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States and which would serve as notice and demand the federal government, as our agent, cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers. Additionally, I would support legislation which states all compulsory federal legislation that directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed.”
Again, nothing dangerous to the American way of thinking; Oxendine merely wants the Federal government to follow the constitution as does Perry.
Does he offer any further proof of his allegations? Yes. He offers as the final proof a poll conducted for a “progressive” blog called the Daily Kos which apparently stated a third of Georgians want to leave the union while 38% of Texans say the same.
QUESTION: Would you approve or disapprove of Georgia leaving the United States?
APPROVE DISAPPROVE NOT:SURE
ALL 18 76 6
MEN 21 74 5
WOMEN 15 78 7
DEMOCRATS 5 89 6
REPUBLICANS 32 63 5
INDEPENDENTS 14 79 7
QUESTION: Do you think Georgia would be better off as an independent nation or as part of the United States of America.
US IND NOT:SURE
ALL 68 27 5
MEN 54 32 4
WOMEN 72 22 6
DEMOCRATS 88 8 4
REPUBLICANS 52 43 5
INDEPENDENTS 61 33 6
Demographic
MEN 287 48%
WOMEN 313 52%
DEMOCRATS 246 41%
REPUBLICANS 258 43%
INDEPENDENTS/OTHE 96 16%
18-29 78 13%
30-44 174 29%
45-59 210 35%
60+ 138 23%
WHITE 419 69%
BLACK 168 28%
HISPANIC 12 2%
OTHER 6 1%
QUESTION: Do you approve or disapprove of Governor Rick Perry’s suggestion that Texas may need to leave the United States?
APPROVE DISAPPROVE NOT SURE
ALL 37 58 5
MEN 42 54 4
WOMEN 32 62 6
DEMOCRATS 16 80 4
REPUBLICANS 51 44 5
INDEPENDENTS 43 50 7
QUESTION: Do you think Texas would be better off as an independent nation or as part of the United States of America?
US IND NOT SURE
ALL 61 35 4
MEN 57 39 4
WOMEN 65 31 4
DEMOCRATS 82 15 3
REPUBLICANS 48 48 4
INDEPENDENTS 55 40 5
(I’m not sure where Mr Shipps statistic of 38% of Texans comes from, the printed number is 48%.)
Demographics
MEN 288 48%
WOMEN 312 52%
DEMOCRATS 199 33%
REPUBLICANS 234 39%
INDEPENDENTS/OTHER 167 28%
18-29 102 17%
30-44 204 34%
45-59 96 16%
WHITE 390 65%
BLACK 77 13%
HISPANIC 115 19%
OTHER 18 3%
Source: dKos
Of interest:
The Research 2000 Georgia Poll was conducted from April 27 through April 29, 2009. A total of 600 likely voters who vote regularly in state elections were interviewed statewide by telephone. Those interviewed were selected by the random variation of the last four digits of telephone numbers. A cross-section of exchanges was utilized in order to ensure an accurate reflection of the state. Quotas were assigned to reflect the voter registration of distribution by county.
The margin for error, according to standards customarily used by statisticians, is no more than plus or minus 4% percentage points. This means that there is a 95 percent probability that the “true” figure would fall within that range if the entire population were sampled. The margin for error is higher for any subgroup, such as for gender or party affiliation.
For those who may think Research 2000 actually lives up to their claim of being non-partisan a reader would have only to look at the company web page in which the lead story is a “hit piece” on Rush Limbaugh. In fact, their major listed client is Daily Kos. The remaining articles on their site consists mostly of Obama success polls and dismal Republican polls. So, I’m not sure they are quite as non-partisan as they claim.
For the last eight years I have listened and read far worse than this, all the while being told ”Dissent is the highest form of patriotism” which Sen Kerry falsly attributed to Thomas Jefferson. I have seen this on bumper stickers, blogs and even heard Democrat politicians spout it off when slamming President Bush and his administration. During both presidential campaigns when President Bush was running, I heard far too many entertainers threaten to move away from the country if Bush won. To my knowledge, none did. Daily, I read some of the most appalling criticism of the Bush administration. Some writers were even wishing Bush, Cheney, et al dead on a rather alarming basis. Mr Shipp has conveniently forgotten this seeming to believe for the last eight years there was absolutely no partisanship being played by the Democrats or their electorate.
Mr Shipp then plays a great finishing act with the quote “as soon as I finish this column, I think I’ll look up a Federal judge to advise me on how to round up these America haters. We ought to send most of them back where they or their forebears came from, but Ireland and Scotland probably don’t want them either.” Nice. Not even a thought of re-education camps first-just immediate expulsion? And an assumption all of the above respondents were of Irish and Scottish descent? This isn’t his first slip with bigotry and stereotyping. His last column (In wake of shooting; 29 April, Bryan County News) alluded to Southerners having AK-47s under their beds, then goes on to snidely state, “Guns are us. In the South, you’re not a man if you don’t own a gun or two or three”.
His contempt for the constitution was already apparent when he stated in the same article he didn’t expect any action to come from the Athens shooting, “…just more hot air about Second Amendment rights…”. From my readings of Mr Shipp, I get the impression that is his take on the entire constitution-just more hot air.
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