Judge Posner, Too Bad You Didn't Recognize Voter ID=Voter Suppression In 2007

“Let’s not beat around the bush: The Indiana voter photo ID law is a not-too-thinly-veiled attempt to discourage election-day turnout by certain folks believed to skew Democratic.”
--Judge Terence T. Evans,  Dissenting opinion, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board case

The landmark Crawford v. Marion County Election Board case in 2007 that was subsequently upheld a year later by the SCOTUS unleashed a new way for the GOP to engage in their Southern Strategy tactics of suppressing the voting rights of non-white Americans.

As we in Texas started the first election cycle in which that Spawn of Conservasatan Voter Suppression law is impacting us no thanks to the SCOTUS frakking with Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, we have the bitter irony of the US Seventh Circuit court judge who wrote the opinion in favor of it, Judge Richard A Posner, now saying he was wrong in that case. 

Posner was appointed to the Seventh District Court of Appeals in 1981 by President Reagan and is a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.  In his 40th book, “Reflections on Judging,” Judge Posner said, “I plead guilty to having written the majority opinion” in the case. He noted that the Indiana law in the Crawford case is “a type of law now widely regarded as a means of voter suppression rather than of fraud prevention.” .

Gee, any person of color who is or isn't an attorney could have told you that. Judge Evans tried to tell you that in 2007.



Thanks Judge Posner for admitting you were wrong in that case, but it's too little and way too damned late.

Judge Evans (who passed away in 2011) isn't around to hear you say it, and your 'you were wrong' admission on video and in print is of little comfort to those of us living in GOP controlled areas of the country who have to deal with the repercussions of these Voter ID laws you and Judge Sykes' opinion in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board helped unleash on the rest of the nation.

        

GOP Voter Suppression Billboards Up In Ohio and Wisconsin

You just knew the Teapublicans in their racist desperation to defeat President Obama wouldn't put all their political eggs in the passing of voter ID suppression laws basket knowing there was a possibility they would get struck down in the courts. 

They had Plans B,.C and D as well in the works to accomplish their goal of making President Obama a one-term POTUS by jacking with the coalition of senior, students, non-whites and white liberal progressive voters that swept him into office in 2008.

The GOP cranked up their voter suppression machinery and prepared for the November 6 election by training and planning the deployment of partisan poll watchers looking for voter 'iiregularities'.  Their True the Vote vigilantes were filing lawsuits and browbeating election boards trying to challenge registrations.   In addition to training their True the Vote vigilantes to harass people in Black and Latino precincts, in other GOP controlled states such as Florida the were attempting to pass voter ID voter suppression laws and illegally trying to purge people from the voting rolls less than 60 days before this critical election.

Why?  In order to shave off enough votes to swing states to the Romney-Ryan ticket.

It fits with the Republican motto: If you can't beat 'em, cheat 'em.

The latest reprehensible Suppress the Vote activity is these billboards paid for by a shadowy foundation that are popping up in African-American and Latino neighborhoods in Ohio and Wisconsin.  They are designed to 'scurr' people into not casting ballots in this critical presidential election.



The billboards in question are owned by Clear Channel, a conservative leaning media corporation that has been owned by Bain Capital since 2008.  Clear Channel's radio stations right wing talkers Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and others..

It also shouldn't surprise you that fourteen directors of Clear Channel since 1994 have donated over $700,000 to Romney campaigns since 1994, with much of the money being donated in this current presidential election cycle..

ColorofChange has a petition up demanding the billboards be taken down, which they are refusing to do..

Stay tuned to see what happens with those billboards.  Speaking of those billboards, don't let them dissuade you or anyone else you know in your 'hood who is eligible in this election to bumrush the polls and cast your ballots to fire the Republicans who arrogantly tried to suppress your precious right to vote. 

Like Rev. Al said in his MSNBC commercials promoting his show, I stopped being scared of the boogeyman before I exited elementary school and I'm damned sure not 'scurred' of Republican True the Vote bullies trying to suppress my vote.   And may I remind you misguided conservapeople that harassment of voters is a punishable felony offense.

In fact the more you Tea Klux Klanners engage in this anti-American behavior the more you're pissing me off and ensuring I'm showing up to cast that ballot.  Take your soul to the polls and a few friends with you. 

But it's just another concrete example of why African-Americans and increasingly Latin@s have no love for the GOP.. 

Texas Unjust Voter Suppression Law Unanimously Rejected

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) was handed another loss in court today for the second time this week.

First the redistricting plan unanimously went down in flames, and today a federal three judge panel unanimously rejected the Texas Photo Voter ID voter suppression law passed by our Republifool controlled state legislature in 2011. 

"Uncontested record evidence conclusively shows that the implicit costs of obtaining SB 14-qualifying ID will fall most heavily on the poor and that a disproportionately high percentage of African Americans and Hispanics in Texas live in poverty,” according to the ruling written by U.S. Circuit Judge David Tatel and joined by U.S. District Judges Rosemary Collyer and Robert Wilkins. .

Tafel was appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton, Collyer by President George W. Bush and Wilkins was appointed by President Barack Obama. 

Collyer was also part of the three judge panel that threw out the jacked up Republican concocted discriminatory redistricting plan earlier this week.  

Elections matter people.   The POTUS picks your federal judges, so it ain't as the GOP is lying to you just about the economy.  It's about the federal judiciary, the Supreme Court and who controls both for the next three decades or more.

But back to the wonderful news about this federal court ruling legally pimp slapping this photo voter ID voter suppression law.  

Abbott is probably going to waste more Texas taxpayer money appealing it to the Supreme Court, but the upshot of this ruling is that all we Texans will need to cast ballots on November 6 in the Lone Star State or during the early voting period is our yellow voter registration cards.  

Thank you Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and Attorney General Eric Holder. 

I'll be celebrating this win by as soon as early voting starts in October by heading to the nearest early voting center and casting another proud ballot for President Obama and every Democratic candidate I see on it..

You racist Teapublican conservafools have pissed me off that much.

Texas Voter Suppression Law Trial Starts Today

Texas' voter ID suppression law will go on trial starting today in front a a three judge panel in Washington DC.  

It pits our Republifool attorney general Greg Abbott making another bogus 'states rights' argument against the Department of Justice and a phalanx of groups seeking to enforce Section V of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Since my birth state has an odious history of suppressing the voting rights of non-white people, they find themselves under Section V of the Voting Rights Act.  

Section V requires any changes in election law or that affect voting procedures to be precleared by the DOJ and it was under that provision of the VRA that the Texas Voter ID suppression law was blocked by the DOJ from implementation in March.  

That prompted Abbott to file a suit attempting to convince a three judge panel to uphold this jacked up law.  The sniping you heard Sen John Cornyn (R-TX) direct at Attorney General Eric Holder and demand he resign during that Senate hearing a few weeks ago was in relation to this Texas voter suppression case.

The three judge panel that will hear this case for this projected five day trial is made up of  GW Bush appointee (2002) Rosemary Collyer, Clinton appointee (1994) David Tatel and Obama appointee (2010) Robert Wilkins. 

Collyer was also one of the judges comprising the three judge panel that threw out the partisan GOP Texas congressional redistricting maps a few months ago after a three week trial 

Abbot will argue the GOP party line that this law is only designed to address 'voter fraud', but we non-white Texans know these ALEC sponsored laws are designed to do noting else but suppress non-white voter turnout. 

"The state's argument has this notion of widespread fraud, when what we know from the evidence is that so far, for 2008 and 2010, there were 13 million votes cast across the state and of those 13 million, there's been one indictment for voter fraud," said Texas state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, the chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, one of the groups joining the Justice Department.

May this law go down in a painful death later this week.

Rep John Lewis Calls Out Rep. Paul Broun

The GOP effort to suppress the vote is well underway, and Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) tried to offer an amendment Wednesday night that would strip the funding from the Department of Justice allocated for it to enforce Section V of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

What Broun didn't count on when he tried to pull this stunt was civil rights warrior and American hero Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) being in the room.  Rep Lewis then proceeded to call his azz out about it to the point where Broun's bigoted behind withdrew the amendment. 

Take notes liberal-progressives and Democrats.  This is how you confront a conservafool.



transcript courtesy of Think Progress.

It is hard, and difficult, and almost unbelievable that any Member — but especially a Member from the state of Georgia — would come and offer such amendment. There’s a long history in our country, especially in the 11 states that are old Confederacy — from Virginia to Texas — of discrimination based on race, on color. Maybe some of us need to study a little contemporary history dealing with the question of voting rights.

Just think, before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it was almost impossible for many people in the state of Georgia, in the state of Alabama, in Virginia, in Texas, to register to vote, to participate in the democratic process. The state of Mississippi, for example, had a black voting age population of more than 450,000, and only about 16,000 were registered to vote. One county in Alabama, the county was more than 80 percent [black], and not a single registered African-American voter. People had to pass a so-called literacy test. . . . one man was asked to count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap. Another man was asked to count the number of jelly beans in a jar.

It’s shameful that you would come here tonight and say to the Department of Justice that you must not use one penny, one cent, one dime, one dollar, to carry out the mandate of Section Five of the Voting Rights Act.

. . . People died for the right to vote. Friends of mine. Colleagues of mine. I speak out against this amendment. It doesn’t have a place.

***

Note to conservafools and Tea Klux Klan, some of those tax dollars you rail about come from the hard work of African-Americans.   We damned sure want the DOJ properly funded to enforce Section V against your white supremacist and ALEC inspired thuggish vote suppression tactics. 

Thanks Rep. Lewis for reminding the nation and the Republifools why the Voting Rights Act is still necessary.

Texas Voter ID Law Struck Down By DOJ

Elections matter people   And nowhere is that statement more true than in my beloved home state. 

In 2003 I helplessly watched from a distance as the GW Bush controlled Department of Justice allowed the jacked up Delaymandering to happen.  It put the GOP on the path to a supermajority in the Lege and trampled all over the rights of minority voters in Texas.

Fast forward to 2012 and another Republifool overreach in passing a restrictive ALEC designed Voter ID law designed to suppress the voting rights of non-white Texas.   

Thanks to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, any changes in voting procedures or election laws because of Texas' past discriminatory history have to be 'precleard' by the DOJ.    And in the Obama Administration's DOJ, this bill didn't have a chance.  The DOJ struck it down, noting that the ID requirement would disproportionately affect our state's Latino voters.

“Even using the data most favorable to the state, Hispanics disproportionately lack either a driver’s license or a personal identification card,” wrote Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, in a letter to Keith Ingram, director of elections for the Texas Secretary of State.

Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) and Gov Perry can whine all they want to about the federal government 'picking on Texas' but we know what's going on here. 

Texas has been a majority-minority state population wise since 2000 and every move the GOP has made since then has been calculated to keep power in this state in GOP hands as long as possible.  The last thing they want to see is the Lone Star State going back to its progressive roots and becoming a swing state like Florida.

You know this bill is jacked up and discriminatory when a gun license is acceptable ID to vote but a student ID issued by a Texas college isn't. 

You know the Republifools are going to appeal it, but for now, all I'll and my fellow Texans will need to show at the polls when I go to cast my ballot is are our voter registration cards.

.

Voting Rights March Starts Today

Wish I could be in Alabama for this event, but unfortunately I can't.  

A voting rights march from Selma, AL to Montgomery is being held starting today and running for several days to not only commemorate the upcoming 47th anniversary of Bloody Sunday (March 7, 1965) , but protest the Republifool attacks on the voting rights of African-Americans and others in the run-up to the 2012 presidential elections.

The 50 mile march from Selma to Montgomery helped galvanize support for the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act after the nation and the world watched as the first march was halted by police wielding billy clubs and firing tear gas into the crowd after they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge. 

It's also why Rev Al Sharpton and several congressmembers led by Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) are retracing the historic 1965 march from today until March 9 along US 80 to draw attention to the GOP Block the vote efforts   Rev. Al will also be doing his MSNBC PoliticsNation show from the road as well.

For those of you who can be a part of it, i urge you to do so, even if it's only for a day or at the rallies in Selma or Montgomery.  Alabama is one of the GOP controlled states that are pimping voter ID laws designed to disenfranchise voters and draconian SB 1070 style anti-immigration laws.

And frankly people, our democracy is at stake because the basic bedrock principles of it are under attack by a conservafool movement that wants to repeal the 20th century.  

That's how critical this November 6 election is, and I don't want to hear any excuses from anybody sharing my ancestry or who is a member of a marginalized community as to why they can't or won't vote.   You have time to register to vote and need to do so immediately.

As I have said more than a few times on this blog in terms of our trans human rights push, while we have had a decades long struggle in many cases to get trans human rights coverage enacted, passing the laws is the easy part.  The hard part is staying vigilant against the Forces of Intolerance and defending what you paid for in effort, sweat and in some cases blood to enact.

And when it comes to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, it is under attack from the 1% who only want people like them voting, electing politicians that look like them, and enacting policies that benefit them.

They ain't happy that the hands that once picked cotton are now picking presidents.

As Dr. King said, "Now is not the time to to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.  Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy."



And one of those promises of democracy is enshrined in the basic act of voting.

Want Voter Intimidation With That Big Mac?

Conservafools will go to any lengths to get to that magic 51% mark of voters since they know the policies they espouse no rational human being would vote for .

In addition to lying, bait and switch tactics, and cutting off access to reporters determined to get to the truth of their policy positions,  they use voter suppression and intimidation as well.

An example of this is McDonalds franchise owner Paul Siegfried in Canton, Ohio.   He enclosed a letter with employee's paychecks that threatened lower wages and reduced benefits if the Republifools didn't win on Tuesday.

"As the election season is here we wanted you to know which candidates will help our business grow in the future," reads the letter. "As you know, the better our business does it enables us to invest in our people and our restaurants. If the right people are elected we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above our present levels. If others are elected, we will not. As always, who you vote for is completely your personal decision and many factors go into your decision."


Not surprisingly the letter conveniently pimps a list of candidates he believes "will help our business move forward."  that included Republican candidates John Kasich for governor, Rob Portman for Senate, and Jim Renacci for Congress.   The employee letter with McDonald's logo on it also includes Renacci's biography.

What Siegfried did was a violation of  not only Ohio state election law, but federal law as well.

It's probably costing him some business from angry Ohio Democrats in the Canton area, some legal fees and whatever money he donated to these GOP candidates.   One of the targeted Mickey D's employees instead of silently stewing about it, forwarded the letter to Canton law firm Schulman Zimmerman & Associates, who turned over the documents to local prosecutors, asking them to "investigate this matter for a criminal violation".

"The handbill endorses candidates who have in essence pledged to roll back the minimum wage and eviscerate the safety net that protects the most vulnerable members of our workforce," said Attorney Allen Schulman.   "But it's more than that. When a corporation like McDonald's intimidates its employees into voting a specific way, it violates both state and federal election law. It's no surprise to anyone that Ohio is a battleground state in this election, and for a multinational corporation like McDonald's to threaten employees like this is morally and legally wrong. This despicable corporate conduct is the logical extension of the Citizens United decision, which has unleashed corporate arrogance and abuse."

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (D) said she was launching an investigation because the action appeared to violate Ohio election laws and would hand off any findings to the state attorney general..

"Voter intimidation is a form of voter fraud. It is a serious offense requiring a strong response," she said in a statement.   She also issued a warning to all candidates in Ohio: "The election is just four days away. All involved would be best to play fair, fight hard for what they believe in and work together for all Ohioans and our country in this democratic process not enjoyed in countries elsewhere."


Sigfried, realizing that he has seriously screwed up, tried to cover his behind.  "Distributing this communication was an error of judgment on my part," he said in a statement. "Please know it was never my intention to offend anyone. For those that I have offended, I sincerely apologize."

Yeah right, dude.  You're only apologizing because you got caught and your behind is in serious trouble.

McDonalds USA swiftly chimed in with a statement that said the company respects its employees' diverse opinions, and "had no knowledge of this material being distributed" by its franchisee.

It was a position that was echoed by McDonald's Ohio Region General Manager Shirley Rogers Reece. .

"The content of this material is not reflective of McDonalds' position," she said in her statement."We remain bipartisan on these matters. That said, while clearly this was poor judgment, we don't believe it was intended to offend anyone."

Rep. John Boccieri, the current Democratic congressmember in Ohio's 16th district,  issued a statement that said in part: "In America, the people decide who represents them, not corporations. Our right to vote is sacred and people should have confidence that they can cast their vote this year, and any year, without being intimidated at the workplace."

Paul Siegfried and his GOP friends need to learn that lesson on Tuesday.