The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Photo credti: dcwriterdawn on Flickr

NYS Senate bill 06779

AN ACT to amend the civil rights law, in relation to protecting a person’s right to know who is behind an anonymous internet posting

The Senate sponsor is Republican Thomas O’Mara, 53rd Senate district. The Assembly sponsor is Republican James Conte, 10th Assembly district.

As Wired reports

Proposed legislation in both chambers would require New York-based websites, such as blogs and newspapers, to “remove any comments posted on his or her website by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post.” … Oddly, the bill has no identification requirement for those who request the takedown of anonymous content.

There are a lot of idiots in the world, and some of them are unfortunately Republican. O’Mara’s Senate district includes Ithaca, Elmira, Corning and my birthplace of Arkport. Conte’s district is a chunk of Suffolk County gerrymandered to include a winding piece of Nassau County. I suspect the voters of both districts may wish to choose another representative in the next election, based solely on the sheer stupidity of their current state Senator and Assemblyman.

UPDATE 5/8/2012 5:14 pm:  Let’s look at the arguments against Warren’s heritage.

1. The son gained no advantage by claiming his mother was Indian.
2. The area where O.C. Sarah Neoma Smith was born was Indian land.
3. The census records are only a valid proof if the census taker had the option to put Indian down for race. One of the comments states that assimilated Indians were listed as white at the time.
4. The Jonathan that is claimed to be the militia member is not Warren’s ancestor but a distant  cousin. There are two Jonathans in the family tree. The report linked below only covers her direct ancestry.

Everyone is forgetting that the Cherokee were one of the “civilized” tribes. They had adopted the English way of life to a great extent, including keeping slaves. They were as civilized as any white settler in the area at that time and cannot be differentiated based on occupation or residence.

UPDATE 5/1/2012 10:19 pm: Child is correct in his research. Neoma or Sarah Smith, born 1794 in North Carolina, seems to be Warren’s Cherokee ancestor. Two caveats. The family is not enrolled with the tribe. The sole reason to believe that she was Cherokee was her son, William’s statement upon his marriage. Clearly it would seem that Warren can claim to be 1/32 Cherokee.

I can find no support for the story that Warren told to the Boston Globe about her pioneering grandmother. While she was the oldest child at the time of the Oklahoma land rush, research appears to show that her mother was still alive.
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Paul Monachino was a sergeant in the East Rochester Police Department on June 14, 2011. After an evening celebrating the appointment of the new police chief, while in his personal car, he caused a motor vehicle accident and was arrested for DWI.

In December, 2011, Susan Walsh was the director of the Greater Rochester International Airport. After an evening of drinking, while driving her county vehicle, she caused a motor vehicle accident and was arrested for DWI.

Monachino and Walsh both resigned their jobs.

Monachino plead guilty and received a sentence of six months in jail with five years probation.

Walsh plead guilty and received a sentence of 100 hours of community service, a $750 fine, and will have an interlocking device installed on her vehicle for a year.

The circumstances of both offenses are virtually identical. One offender receives the maximum sentence and the other receives a slap on the wrist. Why?

Walsh has powerful political connections in Monroe County. Monachino does not. Did politics play a part in the differences in sentencing?

Sandra Fluke has been the center of a whirlwind of publicity and opinion making since her appearance on February 23 before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. The hearing was to permit Ms. Fluke a platform where she could discuss reproductive rights, the medical insurance coverage at Georgetown University and related topics.

Democratic members of the House had attempted to have Ms. Fluke testify before an Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on a religious exemption from Obama administration regulations on medical insurance and mandatory coverage for birth control. Fluke was not on the agenda and the committee chairman, Darrell Issa (R-CA), refused to allow her testimony. The Democratic Steering Committee hearing was scheduled to take that testimony.
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Long time Facebook friend Tamar Shermadini stars in this video.