A boy, a war, an ocean journey and a miracle. 

No story today about elections could be a better read than this American Thinker piece.

Incoming state Representative John Rizzo from Kansas City, Missouri, may be denied his seat in the legislature by the Missouri Speaker of the House because of voter fraud in the Democratic primary.  Rizzo defeated his opponent by a single vote in the primary.  Rizzo was presented with a 100 page document detailing voter fraud which occurred in the Democratic primary.  St. Louis today has the story:

“Clearly there’s a lot of smoke,” Tilley said of Royster’s allegations, which include that relatives and supporters of Rizzo’s who live outside the district illegally cast votes and that a group of Somalis who couldn’t speak English were instructed how to vote by a Rizzo supporter.

Among the allegations:

• Throughout primary election day, an unidentified Rizzo supporter brought groups of voters to various precincts who appeared to be Somalis who did not speak or read English. According to affidavits from several election judges, the Rizzo supporter handed out the ballots and told the Somalis to vote for Rizzo.

• Several Rizzo campaign supporters, including relatives, voted in the election even though in campaign documents they list home addresses that are outside the 40th District.

• A total of 14 ballots weren’t signed by any election officials, as required by law.

One of the most wonderful Christmas stories appeared in the Wall Street Journal a few years ago.   “A Christmas Tale – 1919″  by Hans von Spakovsky is the son’s story of a father’s escape from tyranny and certain death in a Russian forest on Christmas night.  Thousands of stories like it no doubt exist, for tyrants throughout time have forced heroic escapes by those who love liberty. 

It is a story of Christmas in a snow covered forest, in flight from the vile madness that was becoming the Soviet Union.   It is a story of a cold night remembered each Christmas.  It is the story of hope and faith, when circumstances would seem to allow neither.

America is blessed with immigrants who have experienced what it means to live in lands where law, human dignity and individual freedom don’t exist. They come to America where each person is recognized as endowed with individual dignity.  

Even that is a Christmas story of sorts.

The ACLU has threatened to sue Yakima Washington under the Voting Rights Act.  They want Yakima to move to single member districts and create a majority Hispanic district.

One little problem, you can’t draw a district in Yakima with 50 percent plus one Hispanic CITIZEN population in Yakima.  If the ACLU follows through on this threat, it will have the effect of forcing the creation of a noncitizen Hispanic majority district.  The Voting Rights Act was not designed to award political representation to non-citizens.  It was designed to remedy wrongs to racial minorities.  Yakima is in no mood to back down:

“‘Go ahead and sue,’ [the mayor] said Wednesday, the day before county election officials say they must have ballot language in hand from the city to add anything to the Feb. 8 strong-mayor special election.”

The mayor is right, and the ACLU would be on the hook for Yakima’s attorney’s fees if they sued and lost.  If you can’t satisfy Gingles One with adequate Hispanic citizen population, then you can’t win your case.  This seems like a poor place for the ACLU to burn scarce resources.

Arizona’a Statebrief.

“The federal government dealt noteworthy blows to local self-government and direct democracy earlier this week, when a district court in D.C. dismissed LaRoque v. Holder, a case that challenged the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, a law enacted by Congress to prohibit racial discrimination in elections.  While racial prejudice in the voting process is, as a matter of principle, a social evil that ought to be exorcised by appropriate and lawful means, the problem is that this particular law, in actual practice, is subject to abuse by public officials in the federal government who can—and do—exploit it for undue political gain.  To be sure, one significant political pretext for the lawsuit was that the Obama Administration used Section 5 to advance an agenda that has no plausible connection to the prevention of racial discrimination in the democratic process.”

The story below on the James Cole nomination has been updated.  Senate sources tell ELC that the nomination of James Cole to be the Deputy Attorney General at the Justice Department is DEAD with the Senate going out of session and after his nomination was blocked on the floor yesterday. 

Not one news report, except in the Washington Times, reported accurately that the nomination was blocked because Texas Senator John Cornyn put a hold on the nominee. 

Kudos to Senator Cornyn for refusing to budge in the face of overwhelming pressure from all corners to lift the hold.  Senator Cornyn made the DOJ pay a price for the incompetence and bumbling of the Voting Section’s inability to aggressively enforce military voting protections in 2010.  Because of the ineptitude, James Cole will not be confirmed as the Deputy Attorney General.  Hopefully the bureaucrats responsible are held to account because of the failed nomination.  Hopefully the bureaucrats left standing learn there is a price to be paid for failing to protect military voters, both administratively and at the ballot box.

What does Senator John Cornyn’s hold on James Cole for Deputy Attorney General have to do with the Voting Section at the Department of Justice?  Lots.

Yesterday, on the floor of the Senate, Cole’s nomination was blocked yet again because of the failure of the Voting Section at the Department of Justice to aggressively enforce military voting rights.  More specifically, Cornyn blocked the nomination because a United States Senator could not get straight answers in August and September from the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department.  He wanted to know which states were in compliance with the new MOVE Act, and which were not.  Problem was, the Voting Section didn’t know themselves, so Cornyn blocked the Cole nomination until he got answers – answers he never got.  Cornyn wanted to see aggressive and swift enforcement of the law to protect military voters, something that never happened.

Then to rub salt in the wound, the Voting Section badly bungled military voting rights enforcement during the run up to the election, something extensively reported at Fox News and Pajamas Media.  Cole’s fate was sealed.  It would not be an easy path to nomination.

Democrats in the Senate are desperate to see Cole confirmed.  Maybe they should call the Office of Legislative Affairs at DOJ and tell them to start getting Senator Cornyn the answers he wants, and start enforcing the law without cutting corners to states.  Maybe they should tell Eric Holder to hold people accountable who bungled military voting 2010.  Maybe then the hold will come off.

Cole’s hold doesn’t have anything to do with AIG, it has to do with the Voting Section at the Department of Justice not aggressively enforcing military voting rights in 2010. 

Whether or not the people responsible will be held accountable remains to be seen.

UPDATE:  A Senate staffer tells ELC that the Cole nomination is DEAD.  James Cole will not be confirmed as the Deputy Attorney General this session.  Had only the DOJ responded to information requests about military voting and filed some cases when violations were well known, Cole might well have been confirmed months ago. 

The Salon War Room advises ‘How Obama can stop a GOP redistricting bonanza” and “defend his party” as a result of the census… “In some key states, Democrats will have majorities in at least one legislative chamber, which will give them a measure of power to resist aggressive GOP mapping efforts. By far, though, Democrats’ best weapon will be the Voting Rights Act.”

More:

“Tuesday’s announcement of the final census numbers confirms that Republicans will for the next decade be the primary beneficiaries of massive exurban population growth. Right-leaning states like Arizona, Florida, South Carolina and Utah are set to gain seats in the House of Representatives when the lines are redrawn for the 2012 election, while strongly Democratic states in the Northeast and Midwest will shed seats.”

“Moreover, the sweeping gains Republicans posted in gubernatorial and state legislative races last month will give them control of the map-making process in virtually every key malleable state.  In other words, the GOP could be positioned to use redistricting to cement its new majority in the House for years to come.  If Republicans do decide to mount a concerted push to radically redraw congressional maps in their favor, they could potentially squeeze out an impressive number of new seats. But they could also be stopped in their tracks — if the Obama administration is willing to use the Voting Rights Act to fight them.”

Politico.

The Washington Times has this news story on the Kinston dismissal.  What is interesting is the comment from someone who appears to be the plaintiff in the case, and has posted before at the Times appearing to be the plaintiff.  He announces in the comments that the case “will be appealed.”