Carl Todd. A man among men and a WWll hero. Gone a year and not forgotten. This is what I wrote when he passed last year:
GREATEST GENERATION:
R.I.P. Carl Todd – American hero
In Colorado tomorrow there will a memorial service for our friend and Sue’s step-father, Carl Todd, who died on August 18, 2015. Carl lived to be a very healthy and fully lucid 93 years of age. Which is remarkable because of the fact that Carl flew daylight bombing missions over enemy territory during World War ll with the U.S. 8th Air Force.
Carl was a true hero. In the war, the 8th Air Force suffered more KIAs than did the entire U.S. Marine Corps.
The late 1990’s photo here is Carl and me in front of a giant American flag at the D-Day museum in New Orleans. I am very proud of the pic and it is framed and proudly displayed here at El Rancho King.
I had to pry the below information out of Carl years ago:
Carl Todd – Captain of the ship, flew B-24 bombers with the U.S. 8th Air Force when he was age 22-23. 93rd Bomb Group. 409th Bomb Squadron, 2nd Air Division, based in England.
We all had great time with Carl, who was a generous and loyal friend of ours. He will be missed and trust me, they don’t make ’em like this anymore.
Carl Todd, a man among men.
Good bye, sir. Thank you for helping to save the world and for being such a terrific friend.
What documents do U.S. citizens need to bring to obtain or renew their drivers license in 2016?HERE
Question to DDS, August, 2016:
How many drivers licenses and official ID cards were issued in FY 2015?
Response from DDS:
2,150,725 permits and licenses.
371,030 identification cards.
Total 2,526,755 ( two million five hundred twenty-six thousand seven hundred fifty five ) Check my math, please.
—–Original Message—–
From: Mitchell, Michael [mailto:mbmitchell@dds.ga.gov]
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2016 9:46 AM
To: Nealey, Donna
Subject: Re: DDS – licenses and official ID cards
2,150,725 permits and licenses.
371,030 identification cards.
Our friend John Litland got this letter published in the (paywall) MDJ today. He nailed it. The original letter to which he replies is posted below. Letters to the editor make a difference and serve to counter the liberal, open borders media.
NOTE: We encourage everyone to take advantage of this no-cost way of going around the press ( especially the biased and agenda-driven AJC and Associated Press) to make your voice heard.
Marietta Daily Journal
Letters
August 17, 2016
DEAR EDITOR:
In his plea for “immigration reform,” MDJ letter writer and self-described “business leader” Don Aldridge of Roswell informs us that we have “an immigration problem,” a “labor shortage” and missed opportunities on business and more tax revenues. “Immigrants are good for our economy” he writes, as if the U.S. somehow has a shortage of immigrants. We don’t. Even after many years of D.A. King’s educational writing here, maybe there are still folks out there who don’t know the USA imports more immigrants than any nation in the world. We take in a million legal immigrants each year. My wife is one of them.
We also import almost that many guest workers every year and from what I can see, once they are here, we don’t make them leave as agreed. I learned from D.A. King and confirmed on my own that almost half the illegal aliens here now came as guest workers and fearlessly stayed past their visa expiration dates. Some of the 9/11 terrorists did exactly that.
Aldridge also says we should “reform to an expanded immigration system that “grants those who want to contribute to the economic success of America the ability to do so.”
It looks like Aldridge is spouting the same worn business demand for another immigration amnesty and for an unlimited supply of cheaper-than-now labor — open borders.
I disagree. The assimilation process of the often-cited great wave of immigration from the beginning of the last century came about due to a sharp reduction in immigration from about 1924 to the mid-sixties. This break not only allowed American wages to rise — thereby creating the now vanishing middle class — but also created an atmosphere of common culture, language and patriotic unity in our country.
Ignoring howls from business leaders whose biggest expense is wages, most of us understand the laws of supply and demand. The concept that we have a worker shortage is ridiculous and we resent the fact that all such “immigration reform” demands ignore the American — including immigrant — workers who are desperate for better jobs and higher wages.
We should reduce immigration, enforce our laws and protect our own workers.
Our country has an immigration problem. Over the last year, we’ve heard this rhetoric time and again. As a business leader, I have witnessed the collateral damage of our fractured immigration system, which in Georgia manifests as labor shortages, missed growth opportunities for businesses and lost tax revenues.
So what, then, is the solution? Immigration reform.
The political infighting on today’s campaign trail is missing a critical point: Immigrants are good for our economy. In fact, the strength of the U.S. economy and America’s ability to remain the global leader in innovation may even depend on an updated, streamlined and rationalized immigration system — one that grants those who want to contribute to the economic success of America the ability to do so.
Today, Georgia is home to nearly a million foreign-born individuals who came in pursuit of the American Dream and now contribute to some of our largest industries like agriculture and manufacturing. They often possess an entrepreneurial spirit and boost state and federal coffers through spending power and tax revenues.
Though they account for about 10 percent of the state’s population, Georgia’s immigrant workers make up nearly 14 percent of our workforce. Immigrant-led households in Georgia earned $26.1 billion in income in 2014, giving them purchasing power they could turn around and spend at community businesses. Those who founded their own companies saw their businesses earn more than $1.5 billion in annual income.
What immigrants don’t spend at local businesses or invest in their own ventures, contribute to taxes and federal programs. In 2014, immigrants paid almost $7 billion in taxes, over $2 billion of which went directly to state and local collections. This money is used to fund important municipal projects, like education and infrastructure, proving that foreign-born Georgians contribute to our community in tangible ways.
A strong immigrant workforce is partly the answer: Today, foreign-born workers contribute nearly $3 billion to Social Security annually, and this trend is likely to continue for years to come. Immigrants in Georgia are far more likely to be working-age than the native-born population: More than 75 percent of the foreign-born population falls into this category, compared to just 50 percent of the state’s native population. Streamlining our visa process would allow more foreign-born workers to fill labor gaps that are hurting key industries like farming and tech.
Ultimately, the effects of meaningful reform could be even more far-reaching.
Voice over, Sen Josh McKoon: Every illegal alien who has received deferred action, they’ve all been given federal work permits, they’ve all been given social security numbers–
Tim Bryant: And now they might get driver’s licenses. Josh McKoon there, Columbus state senator, Republican who joined us on Wednesday. We approach 9:06 on classics of the day.
The concern is just that. Uh, settlement of a lawsuit that will make it much easier for undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses in Georgia. Bert Brantley, now the head of the Georgia Department of Driver Services, or as Jennifer Pointer and I call it, the DMV. Bert Brantley, thanks for your time this morning.
Jennifer Pointer: (laughs)
Bert Brantley: (laughs) Thanks Tim, thanks Jennifer. Good to be with you.
Jennifer: Yeah, yeah.
Tim:[00:01:00] All right, I want to look at this from 30,000 feet and then put you on the ground and then let you fill in the blanks here. But what we had earlier this week, a settlement of a lawsuit was filed by six, I believe it was, undocumented immigrants, illegal aliens. The Southern Poverty Law Center in Atlanta handling the lawsuit. Their allegation, their claim, was that they were denied Georgia driver’s license they should have been afforded by virtue of some federal law. Settlement of the lawsuit, as I understand it means, in addition to the state picking up the legal expenses for the Southern Poverty Law Center, $30,000, $35,000. These folks are gonna get their driver’s licenses.
Now you’re saying as I understand uh, in some of the quoting that you’ve been doing, you have said this was a policy we were putting in place anyway, we just expedite this to make the lawsuit go away.
Bert Brantley:[00:02:00] Right, so there was uh … when these folks were being denied, uh, driver’s license based on our interpretation of uh, the federal and state uh, statutes, and so the number of lawsuits that had been filed at all different levels by a number of different defendants, uh, or plaintiffs, I’m sorry, uh, in the cases and so there were two federal, uh, Fulton county Superior Court rulings earlier this spring that both ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. And ordered us to issue driver’s licenses to the plaintiffs in those cases. And so in order to meet those rulings, uh, we were in the process of imput, of implementing a policy, uh, that would, uh, that would license uh, these, these plaintiffs and all those that are in the same situation.
And so right behind that, this federal lawsuit came with these six, uh, individuals that had been denied under the previous, uh, policy. Uh, and um, and so they were in the same situation as the, as the Fulton County Superior Court rulings had already ruled on. So it didn’t make any sense for us to fight a lawsuit when we had already uh, lost the lawsuit and the federal judge was gonna rely on uh, the reasoning, uh, most likely from that, from that lawsuit.
So the settlement today, or this week that was announced uh, really didn’t change anything. Uh, it, it was just a really what I would say an administrative uh, call on our part and the Attorney General’s part to uh, to get rid of the lawsuit that had already been determined, uh, that these six, uh, individuals were eligible based on the previous court ruling uh, from the spring.
[00:03:00] Tim:Okay, so Georgia’s options at that [crosstalk 00:03:00] point as I understand it, again Bert Brantley, the Department of Driver Services. Georgia’s options at that point were to, again, to settle the suit or to dig in our heels, “Listen, we, we issue the driver’s licenses around here, we decide what the parameters are,” to fight that fight and ultimately lose.
Bert Brantley: Right. And pay uh, a large sum. Uh, there are several state agencies that have been paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, uh, in similar cases that, that have lost. And so, you know again, in consulting with the Attorney General’s office, we had to make a decision uh, did this make sense to, uh, to go forward and potentially uh, extend uh, the state’s risk, uh, in, in legal fees uh, and it really, you know, again the reasoning in the Fulton County lawsuits, we, we and the Attorney General’s office really felt like uh, it was gonna hold in the, in the federal lawsuit uh, as well.
[00:04:00] So, so again, the settlement didn’t change anything, it didn’t um … it, we, we were in the process of meeting the Superior Court rulings that had come down this spring uh, and uh, and so, it was honestly a little bit of surprise that it’s gotten this much attention to me because you know, we, we did some press uh, on the, the rulings back in the spring uh, and, because people were, were interested. And obviously it’s a, this is an important topic of who gets licensed and, and who doesn’t.
And so the settlement really is, it’s about um, you know, this particular, uh, group of people but, but, but really, it’s about uh, meeting this, these ruling from uh, from the spring.
Jennifer: So um … Bert, what would you say to people um, who are against this, who are critics of giving licenses to illegal immigrants?
Bert Brantley: Yeah, I completely understand that, that point of view uh–
Jennifer: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Bert Brantley:[00:05:00] –and you know, from a … we are a implementer, we’re the agency that implements the rules uh, and regs that are passed by federal uh, Congress and, and our state legislature and then obviously the courts as they interpret those rules as well. So I completely understand that, that argument uh, and, and that point of view and uh, but, you know, as an agency, we have to follow uh, what we interpret the rules to be and certainly what court rulings are out there as well.
I think there’s arguments on both sides. Frankly, I’ve heard, you know, heard from all, all sides on this and–
Jennifer: Right.
Bert Brantley: –uh, and it’s up to the individual person I think to determine where they fall on, whether it’s a benefit to have them–
Jennifer: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Bert Brantley: –in the system, have them licensed, have their, their ability to go get insurance and, and all those arguments for and then all the arguments against, uh, where you got people who have, you know, overstayed their, uh, their visas uh, or their, you know, the immigration documents.
One key point I think is really important to note on this. Uh, the, the federal work permit that all of these folks have, they have to present a federal work permit and an application for permanent status. So–
Jennifer: [crosstalk 00:05:42] Oh, okay. That is new.
Bert Brantley: –they’re federally able to work uh, and then they also have applied for permanent status and they’re waiting on that, that case to be … their situation to be resolved.
Tim:[00:06:00] Yeah but one of the concerns that people have, Bert Brantley, uh and the folks we talked with yesterday uh, Senator Josh McKoon among them, they’re concerned about the documentation, with the very things that you just outlined there. What do they have to show, I mean, I know what I have to show to get my driver’s license, uh, what do they have to do?
Bert Brantley: Yeah, so they have to show a, a what is called an employment authorization document, a EAD, which is a federal work permit essentially. So they’ve gotten that issued by, by the federal government to work. They have a social security number uh, as well and then they also have to show proof that they have applied for permanent status and are waiting on that, uh, that application to be, to be resolved. Uh, and so their status is only good for, in most cases a year, so these folks have to come in every year or every two years, whatever, however long their, their status is, uh, and, and renew their license. Unlike you and I, they come in every eight years, uh, they have to come in, they have to bring all that documentation each time they come in because the license is only good until, uh, their documents are good for.
[00:07:00] Uh, and so um, so again, that’s the … you know, based on the court rulings, that’s … uh, the way that um, that we’re, that we are now, there could be future court rulings or future laws. I mean all this stuff changes pretty dramatically but I just want to make sure everybody understands, I mean all of these folks, uh, who are licensed … and again, you’re talking about a couple thousand out of the two million licenses we issue a year, all these folks have a federal work permit, and employment authorization document and a pending application for permanent status and they’re just, uh, waiting, again, final disposition.
If they’re awarded permanent status, of course they have a green card then and they can get a license, uh, and if they’re not awarded, uh, status, then they can no longer be licensed.
Jennifer: So if they’re not awarded the status, their license will be taken from them?
Bert Brantley: Well, and again, they’re only good for a year–
Jennifer: Right.
Bert Brantley: –uh, or two, and so, yeah they … we, we, we won’t go out to their address and, and (laughs)–
Jennifer: (laughs)
Bert Brantley: –seize their license, but they can’t come back in. They can’t get it renewed–
Jennifer: Sure.
Bert Brantley: –so they would have an expired license at that point.
Tim: Bert Brantley with us. Another couple of minutes here. The Department of Driver Services itself, and Jennifer and I were joking yesterday, why don’t we [crosstalk 00:07:51] just call it the DMV–
Jennifer: (laughs)
Tim:[00:08:00] –well the obvious answer there is the DMV deals with cars, you people deal with people. And that’s fine, and that’s good. You were around, uh, when, when Sonny Perdue kind of made that transition. We all remember, most of us, those of us old enough to remember, just how hideous it used to be at the DMV. I mean–
Jennifer: Oh. Ohhh.
Tim: –listen, fair is fair, I can criticize government with the best of them, but it’s gotten a lot better when it comes to getting a driver’s license in Georgia.
Bert Brantley: Yeah. Thanks Tim, I appreciate you saying that.
Jennifer: It has gotten better, yeah.
Bert Brantley: First of all, you guys have an awesome center in Athens. Huge Bulldog fans there. Uh, Brenda is the manager out there, please everybody go see her. Uh, and if you’re a football player and you’re listening, please go get your license in [crosstalk 00:08:26]
Tim: (laughs)
Jennifer: (laughs)
Bert Brantley:[00:09:00] [inaudible 00:09:10] driving without a license. But, yeah, we really have made a lot of investment. The state invested in people and technology, uh, and you know, our goal is for 95% of the people around the state to wait less than 30 minutes. Uh, and uh, and so we hit that and uh … so there are times where, you know, we get busy, particularly on Tuesdays, uh, but uh, for the most part, if you’re coming in to a, a, a DDS center to get your driver’s license renewed, you’re gonna be in and out of there, uh, in 30 minutes and uh, I think … I’m really proud of it. I mean I’ve only been here since March, but as you said, we were around with Governor Perdue when we, uh, started this. Governor Deal has continued to put an emphasis on it. It’s the one thing that every single person in the state has to come and do and we should do that well. Uh, and so we’re really proud of our performance, and, but always striving to get better as well–
Tim: Right.
Jennifer: Right.
Bert Brantley: –and, uh, again, you guys have a great center out there, really uh, really proud of the Athens center and all of our centers around, around the state but we’re proud of the job we’re doing.
Jennifer: Yeah, I have a personal anecdote really quick about that.
I actually had to get my license renewed because my birthday was in February and it had expired. And so I went to the one out here in Athens and I was like, “Oh my gosh,” you know, because it’s been forever (laughs) since I’ve been to the DMV and I’m like, “I’m gonna be here for hours.”
I was in and out in less than five minutes.
Tim: Hmmm.
Bert Brantley: That’s awesome.
Jennifer: Literally. I, it was a awesome, it was amazing. I was telling everyone about it because I was like, “Oh my God, this just happened to me.”
And, and it wasn’t … the, it was empty, it was, you know, it was kinda crowded actually, people were, you know, there was a good bit of people in there and yet I was in and out in, you know, about five minutes time and I was like, “That was quick, that was great,” so–
[00:10:00] Bert Brantley:
And I’ve got even better news for you. On the top right of your license, you’ll see a gold star. You had to bring in all your documents, uh, you’ll be able to renew once online.
Tim: Oh!
Jennifer: Ohhh!
Bert Brantley: And so the next time that your renewal is up, if you have that gold star, you can go online, create a, a DDS account uh, and renew online and don’t even have to come back to the center.
Jennifer: I like that.
Tim: Yeah.
Bert Brantley: So that’s part of this, the Real ID and, and uh, and making sure that we’re, uh, that we’re doing all the things we need to do and, and document those that are, uh, that are here, uh, and, and are eligible for licenses but then also making it customer friendly by, by not making you come back. You can go 16 years without coming into the li–
Tim: Wow.
Bert Brantley: –back to the center–
Jennifer: [crosstalk 00:10:33] That’s amazing.
Bert Brantley: –if you have an eight year license renewed once.
Tim: Good stuff. Bert Brantley, the Department of Driver Services Commissioner there. Thanks for your time this morning.
Tim Bryant: DA King, thanks for your time this morning.
D.A. King: Thank you Tim, thank you Jennifer, glad to be here.
Jennifer Pointer: Yes.
Tim: I can only imagine your reaction to this settlement. You tell me.
DA: Well Tim it’s a long story. Before I start I would like to extend my congratulations to the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Immigration Reporter Jeremy Redmon [00:00:19] for dropping any possible claim to a or pretense of having fair, accurate or balanced and complete information on their reporting on this. It is notable and won’t be forgotten. And also a big hearty thank you and congratulations for his courage to State Senator Josh McKoon for being the only legislator in a Republican controlled gold dome to, to have an interest in this or to carry this bill.
Tim:[00:01:00] All right. The specifics of the settlement this week though, which already and even in advance of the settlement the he state, the, the driver services department ah, Burt Brantley [00:00:56] they were working in this direction anyway and its evidently speeding up the approval process ah you had between May and June almost 2800 of these licenses. That’s up from 1800 ah, between January and May.
DA: Ah, okay, Tim let, I’m very grateful for this opportunity. First of all the, the insult to immigrants like my adopted sister and many of my friends and supporters in, in labeling these people who have won this lawsuit as in any way being described as an immigrant is insulting. And I hope we can all note the difference between an immigrant who joins the American family lawfully and an illegal alien who was here either because he crossed our border illegally or overstayed a Visa.
Jennifer Pointer: Sure.
DA:[00:02:00] The shorter story I can tell is this, Georgia has had in place laws with the intention of stopping any illegal alien from ever obtaining any kind of Georgia driver’s license or official state id card. The language was written such that it was a loophole created when Barack Obama in 2012 in his reelection bid decided to grant um, an executive amnesty to the illegal aliens who can claim to be brought here when they were children.
In that process he awarded them a work permit, a real one this time not the fake ones that they’ve been using.
Tim: Hmm.
DA: A real work permit and a valid social security, not one that was stolen from an American citizen or a real legal immigrant. With those two documents, a work permit and a social security number those were the precautions we had in the state law to stop an illegal alien from getting a driver’s license. Obama negated that language and made it possible for anyone with a work permit or a driver’s license to get a Georgia driver’s … Excuse me. Anyone with a work permit or a social security number to get a driver’s license.
[00:03:00] Josh McKoon bill was aimed at altering the language originally to go back to the original intent so that no illegal alien of any description no matter how they’re described in the Atlanta Journal Constitution could obtain one. For a period of time the Department of Driver’s Services was issuing driver’s licenses to all illegal aliens who could produce a work permit and a social security number. Then they realized that the Obama administration was granting work permits and social security numbers not just to people with this [inaudible 00:03:29] deferred action for childhood arrivals, but also to illegal aliens who had been recently arrested for being in the country illegally in raids and people who it was clear had already been gone through the court system and were under deportation orders.
[00:04:00] This lawsuit brought by the SPLC was aimed at that latter group. This entire news event is built around the fact that illegal aliens who do not have Obama’s deferred action on deportation amnesty who are here because either their country won’t take them back after they’re been ordered deported, or they’ve been ordered deported and their in the removal system and are going to have their status adjusted, have found a lawyer who will do that and then Obama administration has given them a work permit and a social security card. These are by no means immigrants, many of them are again illegal aliens who are already under deportation orders.
Jennifer: Yes.
Tim: And that’s the distinction we need to make there DA King, ah, under deportion orders you say.
DA: Many of them have then been ordered to be deported and their country will not take them back.
Jennifer: So, um, we were talking with, as Tim mentioned Senator, Senator Isaacson earlier and um …
Tim: Senator McKoon.
Jennifer:[00:05:00] Senator McKoon thank you. Sorry. (laughs) We’ve talked with several Senators this morning. Senator McKoon and he was saying that, you know, there, the dangers outweigh the benefits of illegal aliens getting driver’s licenses because I said well, is it not a benefit that you know now we have their photo id, we have their potential address, it’s real, etc. And I want to know what dangers you consider it to be for them to be getting their, you know, their driver’s license without showing any documentation. Because that bothers me as well that they don’t have to present any documentation whereas you, I, Tim or anyone else would have to.
DA: The do Jennifer, to be clear, they go to DDS and they present a birth certificate. You can only imagine from where it comes …
Tim: Yeah.
Jennifer: Right.
DA:[00:06:00] Whether or not it’s accurate or legal, it’s a foreign birth certificate. In Mexico for example none of the birth certificates of the various states are the same. I have found many birth certificates with multiple pictures on them that are taped on there along the, around on the border in Arizona. But the concept that we have to give the de facto national id card that we all use for everyday occurrences including boarding the airliners, opening bank accounts, renting cars and buying explosives to a [inaudible 00:06:07] illegal alien so that we know where they are I think is self-explanatory and it’s very unproductive concept. The danger is that again, in this country that national id card is a driver’s license, whether it’s Georgia or not. You can register to vote if it doesn’t happen automatically with a driver’s license. And one more time, we should all recognize that many people in the world hate this country and American and if you have a driver’s license you can board an airliner without any questions asked.
Tim: DA King got to leave it there. Up against the bottom of the hour break. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
