VOTING RIGHTS ACT NAILED TO BURNING CROSS

Whats foremost on my mind right now is the revelation by Palast and RFK, Jr. about the voting disenfranchisement of mostly African Americans in those swing states like Florida and Ohio.

To add insult to injury, I am now reading that the Republican side of the House is stalling on the extension of the Voting Rights Act because it objects to the the fact that the civil rights measure unfairly singled out Southern states and unnecessarily required ballots to be printed in foreign languages.

When did this country revert back to DE JURE and DE FACTO racism and xenophobia? I have no doubt that the Kristian Konservative Koalition is behind this.

Greg Palast:
Complaints by a couple of good old boys to legislation has never stopped the GOP leadership from rolling over dissenters.

Don’t kid yourself. The Republican Party’s decision to “delay” the renewal of the Voting Rights Act has not a darn thing to do with local objections of the Republican’s White Sheets Caucus.
This is a strategic stall — meant to allow certain states to slip into place new suspect voting machines, new suspect rules and new suspect ballot procedures for 2008 which would never get past the Voting Rights Act’s “pre-clearance” provisions.

The fix for ‘08 is ready to roll but this law is in the way. So the party of DeLay is killing it with “delay.”

Tom Paine:
What’s a bigger problem with American elections: disenfranchisment of minority voters or new electronic voting machines stealing votes?

Most people on the political left will answer electronic machines. But on Wednesday, House Republicans showed America exactly why old-school election thuggery is a far more pressing problem. In fact, it was Jim Crow tactics, not computer hacking, which gave George W. Bush his Ohio victory in 2004. And such tactics are exactly what a handful of southern GOP congressmen defended on Wednesday when they derailed renewing the National Voting Rights Act, complaining it does not end federal oversight of elections in their states and requires multilingual ballots. More>>>

People For The American Way:
A new voter suppression tactic has surfaced in Ohio. We must take action! This time, Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has implemented new rules making some legitimate voter registration activities punishable as crimes and severely restricting the ability of non-partisan civic participation organizations to register voters in historically disenfranchised communities. The new rules place hurdles in the way of any compensated voter registration workers returning voter registrations they collect to the organization sponsoring the voter registration drive - making it exceedingly difficult for organizations to keep the records necessary to follow up later to make sure these potential new voters actually make it onto the rolls. The Ohio Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) has the opportunity to reject these changes at its meting on June 26. Send them, and Secretary of State Blackwell, an email telling them to remove these roadblocks to democratic participation. Click this link to take action now!!