“The Left’s Intimidation Campaign over Shelby v. Holder”

No surprise here.  Glad to see the rotted racially selective enforcement of Section 5, formerly done behind closed doors at 1800 G Street, now in the wide open and part of the Supreme Court’s deliberations on Shelby.  The Voting Section is reaping the whirlwind they have sown. (See my article at PJ Media first breaking this rotted practice for another example.)  National Review:


“Justice Scalia’s comments relate to the Department of Justice’s controversial enforcement of Section 5, which requires covered states to pre-clear all voting-laws changes with the DOJ or the United States District Court in D.C. This enforcement rarely involves voting practices that exclude minorities from the polls – the last twelve years has seen three cases – and such measures would be illegal in any case.

Instead, Justice Scalia’s controversial comments referred to the Department of Justice’s refusal to invoke Section 5 to protect white voters. As a March inspector general report explains: [extensive quotes about the Voting Section sowing the whirlwind.] . . .

While May would have his readers believe that Justice Scalia’s position would hurt minoritis, the DOJ’s Section 5 preclearance objections are the bigger culprit; the vast majority of these objections involve redistricting (39 out of 67 in 2009). The DOJ interprets Section 5 to require racially gerrymandered and segregated districts—districts with a majority minority population—instead of evenly distributing a minority population across the state. In practice, as Politico reported this week, this can hurt black politicians, who have difficulties transitioning from representing a majority minority district to representing a state. Even members of the Congressional Black Caucus recognize.”

Section 5 Makes CBC Members Unelectable Statewide

So says an MSNBC story.

“While black-majority districts all but guarantee African-American representation, they also have the effect of stamping the members, fairly or not, as simply representing black interests,” Martin reports.


That makes for safe seats, but not launching pads for higher office, when a Member of Congress must appeal to a broader electorate. “It’s a less than preferable training ground,” Martin argues, “for a politician who wishes to run statewide among a more diverse electorate.”

This conclusion might also apply to Section 2 in some circumstances.

For an example of an unelectable Congressman outside of his own gerrymandered district, see Imagine a World Without Balloons.

Non-Citizen Charged With Voter Fraud in Michigan

Where are the Federal charges?

“A Roseville man who is a Mexican citizen has been charged with voter fraud for registering to vote here, according to state officials.

José Antonio Ramirez-Velázquez, 47, is expected to be formally charged Friday with making a material false statement when registering to vote, a 90-day misdemeanor, in 39th District Court in Roseville, state Attorney General Bill Schuette and Secretary of State Ruth Johnson say in a Thursday press release.


“The right to vote is sacred and must be protected for all American citizens,” Schuette says in the release. “Strict enforcement of state election laws preserves the integrity of our democratic system.”



The fraud came to authorities’ attention in December when Ramirez-Velázquez told police and U.S. Border Patrol agents that he had voted in federal elections, officials say. Investigators confirmed Ramirez-Velázquez’s status as a Mexican citizen, officials say. His alleged illegal registration allowed him to vote in elections in November 2004, 2006 and 2008.”

Invoking “blood libels”, Rep. Jim Cooper proposes “right to vote” constitutional amendment

Tennessean reports:  Convinced that the right to vote for all citizens isn’t fully protected
under law, U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, is planning a long-shot
proposal to add a 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

However, so distressed by voter ID and other election integrity issues, one of the few remaining Blue Dog Democrats resorted to racial epithets and murderous blood libels in his speech.  This demagoguery was used in an apparent attempt to raise the racial temperature of the audience and justify the need for this Amendment.  He compared the current environment to the “blood libels” of the past which raised the specter of false accusations against religious minorities, usually the Jews, that led to arrest, torture and murder of people by mobs.

Candor was on full display when he read off the lexicon of derogatory words to prove a point on hate speech and protection. “As civilization advances, the list of protections grow,” Cooper said. “We need protection against blood libels like…”

He
concluded the sentence by uttering eight epithets, including the n-word
and derogatory terms for women, Mexicans, homosexuals, Native Americans
and the disabled. Then he added: “Equality under the law is the slow
triumph of hope over history.” 

But some in the audience were taken aback by Cooper’s word choices. 

“ACU: Senate Campaign Finance Bill Kills Free Speech”

Newsmax reports on the reaction of the American Conservative Union to the latest campaign finance bill filed in the Senate. 


The American Conservative Union Thursday called for the Senate to reject
a bipartisan campaign finance bill introduced this week, saying it
“infringes on freedom, privacy, and free speech” and “inhibits political
discourse.”


The legislation was introduce Tuesday by Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron
Wyden and Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski. The two wrote in a Dec. 27 Washington Post
piece that the bill’s intent would be to prevent the American people
being from “forced to suffer through another election cycle filled with
anonymous sleaze and innuendo.”

Murkowski is a new believer to campaign finance “reforms” after her near death experience in her last Alaska race.  The Senate seat that she believes belongs to her family name was actually competitive where she was **gasp** challenged in the primary and general election. 

At the Huffington Post, Murkowski was quoted as saying:

We’ve all had to go through an election,” Murkowski said. “Some of us
have been the beneficiary of some of this independent expenditure
activity. Some of us have been on the receiving end of some pretty
directed campaigns.”

She was on the receiving end.  That sort of challenge to incumbency must stop!!

The ACU response?

The American Conservative Union Thursday called for the Senate to reject
a bipartisan campaign finance bill introduced this week, saying it
“infringes on freedom, privacy, and free speech” and “inhibits political
discourse.”


The legislation was introduce Tuesday by Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron
Wyden and Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski. The two wrote in a Dec. 27 Washington Post
piece that the bill’s intent would be to prevent the American people
being from “forced to suffer through another election cycle filled with
anonymous sleaze and innuendo.”



A press release from the ACU, however, said the bill “deprives every
American citizen of the rights to support causes of their choice without
fear of retribution from their bosses, neighbors, or government
officials.”



Chairman Al Cardenas said every time government tries to solve a problem
that doesn’t exist it makes matters worse. “ The McCain/Feingold bill
promised to do away with large sums of money in politics, but the
opposite occurred,” Cardenas said in the release.

“Group wants states to rid voter rolls of the dead and ineligible”

Front page, Washington Times today:

“While the Obama administration pushes to stop people from being purged from voter rolls, a conservative-leaning group is pressing localities to clean up their lists — including suing two Mississippi counties where more names appear on the rolls than there are eligible voters.

On behalf of the nonpartisan American Civil Rights Union, three former U.S. Justice Department attorneys filed lawsuits last week in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi seeking an injunction to compel election officials in the two counties to purge all people no longer eligible to cast ballots. . . .



Mr. Adams accused the Obama administration’s Justice Department and the attorney general of failing to properly enforce federal voting rights law, which “forces private parties like ACRU to go in and do the job Eric Holder ought to be doing.”


Mr. Adams said Jefferson Davis County was targeted because of voter violations there, including at least one case where a ballot was cast by a dead person. In Walthall, he said, the gap between registered and eligible voters was too big to ignore. . . .

But the ACRU says Mississippi, as well as counties and states across the country, can be doing much more to fix their voting roll problems.


Mr. Adams pointed to Virginia, which he says has an aggressive and effective voter purging policy, as an example for others to follow.


“Malice is not an element to a [voter] violation,” he said. “What matters is whether or not you’re doing your job keeping the rolls clean, and it’s pretty obvious to anyone who can do math, the answer is these places have failed.”