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[Kamikaze] Year of the Underdog

I'm drawn to stories of the underdog—the little guy or gal triumphant against seemingly insurmountable odds.

Voter Shenanigans Could be Costly

A curious exchange took place between Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, and Republican Speaker Philip Gunn of Clinton over the weekend, as the Legislature hammered a budget for state agencies.

[Your Turn] Bring Net Metering to Mississippi

Mississippi is on the verge of being the last state in the union to adopt a net-metering policy. I have tried for about two years to bring the topic of net metering to the attention and action of our state legislators. Others in our state have been trying longer than I have.

[Walker] Politics Through My Eyes

I expected our senators to be similar to those in 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'

Get out the Voter ID

At a recent event, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said he hoped new voter-identification laws will be in place by September—in time for federal elections. He's waiting on the Legislature to decide how to apply the new amendment that will require photo ID at the polls, though, and depending on how strict our law is when the Legislature is through with it, Mississippi could be waiting much longer than that before voter ID becomes a reality.

[Kamikaze] Embracing Who I Am

I'm a fan of MSNBC's "Morning Joe." At the end of every show, in a segment called "What have we learned today," each of the hosts tells one thing new that they learned on that's day's show. It's always interesting, because as well-read as the hosts are, they still take in some new information almost daily.

Services Aren't Like Toasters

Politicians, especially the tight-fisted ones, love to compare the government to your home. When money is tight at home, they'll explain condescendingly, you may have to send your toaster to a repair shop, put off that Disney family vacation or drive that old clunker around for another year or two.

[Halkias] Taking Jackson With Me

Though I am in love with Austin, I think about Jackson every day.

[Editor's Note] Two Steps Forward

"Leave." That one-word tweet came from a conservative dude in Louisiana, not Mississippi. But he wasn't pleased that I was talking about crazy legislation that the right wing has wrought upon Mississippi once again. I have a way of raising the hair on the necks of folks who prefer empty rhetoric over research-based criticism, especially when I'm talking about issues like women's health and reproductive services; sex ed; voter ID; or, yes, race.

[Your Turn] Fix the System

The recent flap over Haley Barbour's 200 pardons and commutations has highlighted problems in our current gubernatorial clemency processes. At my request, the staff of the legislative Performance and Expenditure Review Committee reviewed the files of those who were pardoned.

[Stiggers] Love and Black History

Jojo wants to give his customers the gift of history to instill in them the ability to learn and think critically during the 'Tribute to Carter G. Woodson and Pre-Valentine Day Sale.' Therefore, Jojo will stock his store with plenty of black history books.

[Kamikaze] ‘I'm No Token'

I attended the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership annual luncheon last week. It's one of those affairs where the city's power players share a meal and listen to a speaker talk about how to move our city forward.

[Your Turn] No March for March 1st

"What do we want? Full equality! When do we want it? Now!" These sentiments provided a unified chant for gay-rights protesters March 1 on the south steps of the Mississippi Capitol building.

[Queen] If I Were A Man

We are just as capable and ready for battle as any man—whatever that battle is.

[Kamikaze] Behind the Curtain

It appears the culture wars of 2008 have returned for a sequel in 2012. You can attribute some of it to the Republican presidential candidates. Sure, gas prices are rising, and there's growing unrest on foreign soil, but why bother with those issues when it's so much more important to legislate morality?

[Hood] No ‘Sunshine' Here

What if nobody stood between you—a law-abiding citizen of the state of Mississippi—and everyone else who would do you harm? What if a governor pardoned violent criminals, and no one was there to try and stop it? What if giant, money-hungry corporations stole your hard-earned paycheck, and not one person made them give it back? What if a company defrauded a state agency out of hundreds of millions of dollars, and the state agency did nothing about it?

Save ‘Violence Against Women Act'

Next on conservatives' list of things to drown in the bathtub of "big government extravagance" is the Violence Against Women Act. Bill Clinton signed VAWA into law in 1994, providing just over $1.5 billion to help investigate and prosecute perpetrators of violence against women, to provide grants for education about domestic violence and to help shelter women from abusers.

Keep Up the Reform Momentum

Former Gov. Haley Barbour's unprecedented spate of last-minute pardons brought numerous issues regarding some of Mississippi's antiquated customs into the glaring light of national media attention.

[Editor's Note] Rethinking "Tough on Crime"

Gov. Haley Barbour left a lot of people reeling with his recent round of pardons and clemencies. Among the list are vicious, premeditated murderers. It wasn't the first time he's done this--remember that we broke the news of his string of woman-killer pardons in 2008--but this time the state and national media actually paid attention.

[Editorial] Change Felony Voting Laws for All

Here's what continues to get us about former Gov. Haley Barbour's excuses for all those pardons. He keeps saying that he is a Christian and, thus, is concerned about the trustys and others whom he believes served enough time and now should be able to go vote and hunt and get professional licenses and the like. Our question to Barbour is: Where were you all these years?