Tomorrow’s Supreme Court hearing of Shelby County v. Holder is “forcing our system to acknowledge the fact of racial progress.“ …much of the argument for keeping [the Voting Rights Act] unreformed rests on the emotional resonance of the civil rights movement half a century ago and the alleged popularity of the law. Nostalgia is a weak argument for any law, or so liberals usually tell me. As Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in 2009: “Past success alone … is not adequate justification to retain the preclearance requirements.” And, popularity shouldn’t be an issue at all. The popularity of slavery was one reason the court could hand down an opinion such as Dred Scott.
President Obama (who twice carried Virginia) disagrees. If the preclearance requirement were stripped, he said, it “would be hard for us to catch those things up front to make sure that elections are done in an equitable way.” That’s true. But that logic basically amounts to turning the Civil Rights Division into a permanent department of pre-crime.
It’s true Congress keeps renewing the law (the last vote extends Section 5 until 2031), but one reason is that liberal politicians, journalists and activists are quick to demagogue anyone in favor of retiring it as being “anti-civil rights,” in much the same way any criticism of the Violence Against Women Act is instantly spun as support for wife-beating.
DOJ Voting to Monitor Elections in Kansas
Zack Roth’s Dishonest Racial Attack on William Consovoy
The left wing media isn’t content to have lawyers make good faith arguments in court that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act might be unconstitutional. No, they must accuse the lawyers of racial animus. Consider the dishonest racialist attack by Zack Roth at MSNBC on a good man and upstanding lawyer William Consovoy.
Under a headline designed to inflame – Push to overturn Voting Rights Act tied to GOP voter suppression efforts -Roth ascribes racist motives to Consovoy for bringing the Shelby County case:
“The Washington D.C. lawyer representing the Alabama county that wants to strike down the heart of the most effective civil-rights law in history specialize [sic] in cases aimed at making voting harder for minorities.”
William Consovoy “specialize[s]” in making it “harder for minorities” to vote in the upside down, inside out world of crackpot racialism. That’s what one concludes in a world without a Constitution, in a world without law, where political victory follows skillful incitement of a mob. Roth inhabits the world where untruth knows no penalty. Where personal attacks have more currency than substantive policy debates.
Roth blows another dog whistle to the racialists: “Consovoy, a former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, is a partner at Wiley Rein, a Washington, D.C., law firm.” Ah ha! The scandal. Thomas, you see, is on his resume, and we all know what he represents.
The piece says “Consovoy, who did not respond to a request for comment from MSNBC.com.” That’s too bad, because my experience with MSNBC tells me that when the drones who watch the network see reports like this one without any competing narrative, the drones go wild, make threats, send nasty threatening emails even to elected officials in the Alynsky cross-hairs at MSNBC. The lies gather steam, and the personal attacks intensify across the blogosphere.
Make no mistake – this MSNBC incitement is designed to throw Consovoy off his game during preparation for Wednesday’s argument. The emails, calls, and who knows what else from the drones is intended to follow. It is the tactic of dishonest thugs, like the snarky 30-something Zachary Roth.
Texas Bill: Absentee Ballot Fraud = Felony
The Herald Zeitung. (Zeitung from New Braunfels!)
Disturbing: A Glimpse the the US Gov. Race “Thought Police”
Kathleen Parker at the Washington Post has this disturbing tour through “diversity” training in the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Some nasty stops on the tour: One does not have to be a flag-waving, uber-patriot to find this repugnant. . . . Exhibit A is sensitivity trainer Samuel Betances of Souder, Betances and Associates, who appears in clips culled from a 3.5-hour “Cultural Sensitivity Training” session that have been featured prominently in conservative media in recent days. As detailed by Caroline May at The Daily Caller, Betances leads a group through aprocess of self-enlightenment. “I want you to say: ‘If we work for a federal agency.’ Say that. (Audience repeats) ‘We have discriminated in the past.’ (Audience repeats) Say: ‘Every federal agency,’ (Audience repeats) ‘has discriminated against African-Americans,’ (Audience repeats) ‘Hispanics,’ (Audience repeats) ‘Native American Indians,’ (Audience repeats) ‘and other groups’ (Audience repeats),” Betances preaches.
“Lessons include such angst-inspiring tropes as the U.S. has destroyed other nations, we all commit sins of discrimination, and America should repent.
Not only did the U.S. steal the lands that are increasingly being populated by illegal immigrants (Texas, California, Arizona) — hence, implicitly, they have a right to re-occupy — but America’s founding fathers took their governing cues from Native Americans. Oh, and they stole their symbol, too — the bald eagle.”
Updated: My take on the rancid racialism here, including video of his snark that he doesn’t like the term “minorities.” He “prefers ‘emerging majorities.'”
SC Absentee Ballot Request Crimes?
Post and Courier and the possibility that many SC absentee ballot requests are criminally false.
“In the Palmetto State, participation in absentee voting has increased dramatically in recent presidential elections. So much so, in fact, that the State Election Commission now believes that the lack of no-excuse early voting has almost certainly led many voters to lie about an excuse — a crime punishable by up to three years in prison — in order to be able to vote early anyway.”
H/t to Rep. Clemmons.
Photo ID being debated in Alaska legislative committee
Virginia AG Cuccinelli develops bipartisan fix to lack of presidential candidates on Virginia ballot
It has been somewhat unheralded but Virginia Attorney General Cuccinelli has followed through on his promise to reform the lack of candidates in Virginia presidential primary elections. Despite controversy in the legislature in other voting issues, Cuccinelli quietly sought bipartisan fixes for ballot access issues. It appears that he successfully negotiated a series of bills through the Virginia legislature and that all Virginia citizens and political parties will benefit from these changes. No easy task in today’s environment with voting issues. Back in January 2012, after only two Republican presidential candidates qualified for the presidential ballot, a situation that left voters bewildered, he said this to FOX News:
Cuccinelli, who is a Republican, shared the concerns and plans to
take them to the legislature while the candidates work through the
courts.“Recent events have underscored that our system is
deficient,” he said in a statement Saturday. “Virginia owes her citizens
a better process
In a recent press release:
As a result of after local and state-level litigation over existing ballot
access restrictions, Cuccinelli brought together a working group of
bipartisan stakeholders and legislators with the aim of improving
ballot access for candidates and those wishing to seek candidacy in
statewide and local elections…With the
attorney general’s personal participation, this group crafted
legislation to provide solutions to ballot access issues that have
arisen in recent years.
Arkansas editorial: “Calm down on voter ID”
It is a bit of a mystery why both sides are so passionate on this issue.
On the one hand, it seems like a relatively simple requirement to ask
someone to show identification when voting. I am asked to show ID when I
enter a courthouse, pay with credit card, cash a check, or a whole list
of other mundane tasks. I also do not buy the notion that there is a
sizable population without identification or that anyone in that
category is unable to make a trip to their county clerk for a free voter
identification card.
At the same time, most voter fraud that has
plagued Arkansas has been focused on absentee ballots, such as the
infamous case of former Rep. Hudson Hallum. Tightening the rules for
absentee ballots would seem to be a better way to prevent fraud. However,
the benefits of the photo ID bill seem to outweigh the potential harms
opponents have raised. It also seems to be an issue on which cooler
heads prevail.
Full editorial by Jason Tolbert a conservative political blogger. His
blog — The Tolbert Report — is linked at ArkansasNews.com. His email is
jason@TolbertReport.com
“Does Nevada need a voter ID law?”
Secretary of State Ross Miller says so but he has a different idea:
Miller, also quoted in the Reno Gazette-Journal, defended his proposal
by saying, “This is an upgrade to a system that needs to take place
anyway. We have been proud of how we have been able to run elections in
this state and, if we want to continue to run top-tier elections, this
is something that needs to happen.” Miller said his system puts the
burden of maintaining voter records on government rather than requiring
citizens to have some sort of voter ID card in order to cast a ballot.