The Fort Worth Star-Telegram recently noted that BuzzFlash.com had awarded its weekly "Wings of Justice Award" to a Texas State Senator:
State Sen. Mario Gallegos was recently honored for his efforts to help scuttle a bill that would have made voters show official identification at the polls.
Gallegos, D-Houston, had missed much of the 2007 legislative session while recovering from liver-transplant surgery. But in the waning days of the session, he brushed aside doctors' orders to attend the session's final days -- to make sure the voter ID bill didn't get through.
The liberal Web site BuzzFlash.com gave Gallegos its "Wings of Justice" award for his efforts.
"Because of the devotion of Mario Gallegos to democracy, the legislative clock ran out on the dastardly Texas Republicans," BuzzFlash said in its tribute.
Actually, as we noted in our "Wings of Justice Award" citation last week, Gallegos, at times, needed a hospital bed to recover on. It was temporarily placed next to the Texas senate chambers, until he was assured that the Republicans couldn’t pass the "Jim Crow" voter ID law that is so near and dear to Karl Rove’s plans for stealing in the election for the GOP in 2008.
You see, without the "no" vote of Gallegos, the bill would have passed – and the Republicans held off calling the bill, hoping that Gallegos would become incapacitated following his liver transplant and have to return to the hospital. Then, as is typical of the ruthless nature of Republicans, they would have called the legislation and passed the voter suppression law in the Lone Star State.
As we noted in our "Wings of Justice Award," "Too bad Gallegos isn't leading the charge on Capitol Hill in D.C. He has all the guts the Dems on the Hill lack."
Because we also observed:
BuzzFlash has warned again and again that the Republicans are not stopping their efforts to steal the 2008 election through a variety of undemocratic methods, including the suppression of votes. Greg Palast has also weighed in on this with a great deal of corroborating evidence.
Nothing proves this theory more than the fact that the U.S. Attorneys put into place largely to concoct flimsy charges of voter fraud -- to smear minority voters and help pass new "Jim Crow" laws in states -- are still in their positions.
Meanwhile, states with Republican legislatures are scrambling to pass onerous voter registration and polling place "verification" requirements designed to keeps tens of thousands of Democrats from ever voting.
Meanwhile, up in Washington, D.C., the Democrats keep running around like three blind mice. They continue to tout "symbolic" votes as victories, when what they need to do is act to remove powers from the Bush cabal, not just boast about toothless roll calls.
We’ve said since we began BuzzFlash in 2000 -- and we’ll say it again -- power is achieved by wielding power, not by retreating from it.
Full article here: http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorials/140