Literacy Tests? REALLY Gov. McDonnell?

Gov. Bob ' The Civil War wasn't really about slavery' McDonnell, is up to his same bag of tricks.

From the Washington Post:

McDonnell in hot water over nonviolent felons' rights
By Anita Kumar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 11, 2010

RICHMOND -- For the second time in a week, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has angered black leaders and civil rights groups, this time when they learned of his plans to add another step for nonviolent felons to have their voting rights restored.

McDonnell (R) will require the offenders to submit an essay outlining their contributions to society since their release, turning a nearly automatic process into a subjective one that some say may prevent poor, less-educated or minority residents from being allowed to vote.

"It's another roadblock," Sen. Yvonne B. Miller (D-Norfolk), a member of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, said when she was told of the change.

Miller has repeatedly introduced unsuccessful bills to allow nonviolent offenders to have their rights restored automatically. "This is designed to suppress the rights of poor people," she said.

You understand that? You've paid your' debt to society', and on top of an application process, he wanted ex-felons to SUBMIT AN ESSAY. Just exactly WHO would be reading those essays? WHO was going to determine what WAS and WAS NOT an acceptable essay?

This is nothing more than an attempt to reinstate LITERACY TESTS.

Let me say it again, quoting Dennis Green:

THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE.

Plain and simple.

He thought that he could just roll on in and reinstate LITERACY TESTS, and folks would be hunky dory about it.

They really don't think Black folk can read. Or that we can comprehend what he is attempting to do.

This story came out on Sunday, by Monday night, he was backtracking, saying that this was just in the ' draft' stages, except for the not-so-small FACT, that WaPo and the Rachel Maddow show, produced LETTERS TO EX-FELONS telling them to send in their ESSAYS.

Then, once it was clear that his ass was busted on that, then Tuesday or Wednesday, he was blaming some low-level staffer.

You're not slick Governor. Folks can see you up close and personal.

This is about VOTER SUPPRESSION, plain and simple. That voting rights aren't restored automatically is a form of voter suppression.

Virginia turned BLUE in 2008, and these lowlife mofos are determined to 'correct' that in 2012.

He is EVERY BIT the right-wing nutcase that Town and other JJP posters warned us he would be. He hasn't disappointed one bit, cause nobody here was fooled by his extremism.

Rachel Maddow did 2 pieces this week on McDonnell and his backtracking on this issue.

This is from Tuesday's Show:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This is from Wednesday's Show:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

It's About The Ground Game

Bottom line, that's what November 4th is all about - getting people to the polls.

The Community-Organizer-In-Chief understands this.

From NBC's Chuck Todd Yesterday.




We need to pound, pound, pound.

Canvass.
Phonebank (can be done from the safety of your own home at your home computer).
DONATE
VOTE EARLY (protect your vote, and you'll be one less person in line on November 4th - and, you can help others go vote on that day).

The Tinfoil Hat Strikes Again - work with me...

Found this diary at DailyKos

Which led me to this Site:

Community Organizer
By: emptywheel Thursday September 4, 2008 10:03 am

Sarah Palin, self-described "pit bull in lipstick," took two swipes at community organizers last night. First, when she claimed that community organizers have no responsibilities:

I guess a small-town mayor if sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.

And again when she suggested community organizers were only seeking personal discovery.

My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery. (Laughter, cheers, applause.) This world of threats and dangers, it's not just a community and it doesn't just need an organizer. (Laughter.)

I agree with billmon--this is a Republican dogwhistle at its very best.

Used the way the GOP speakers used the words tonight (i.e. with a sneer), community = ghetto and organizer = activist.

It essentially was a coded way of pointing out Obama's work in, with and for the black community (see? even I'm doing it) on the South Side of Chicago. Also the fact that his work involved helping low-income people stand up for their legal rights, as opposed to a GOP-sanctioned "real" job like business owner or career military officer (or moose hunter.) They were trying to put Obama back on the same level as Jesse Jackson -- i.e., the black protest candidate -- and mocking him for it.

To cut right to the nasty, they were using "community organizer" as a euphemism for "poverty pimp."

[snip]

I gotta admit, I'm impressed in spite of myself. When it comes to playing the dog whistle, these guys are Mozarts.

Though I'll go billmon one better. I think they're setting up a very specific attack on Obama's push to register people to vote that will play right into their expected attempts to use voter ID laws to do vote caging on a massive scale.

You'll recall that in 2006, the GOP made a concerted effort to go after ACORN, which does a lot of community organizing as well as voter registration of lower-income people. In Missouri, after ACORN self-reported some problems with some of its (former) organizers, Brad Schlozman made a federal case out of it just in time for the elections. But there were hints all over the country of investigations targeting ACORN organizers. In fact, this obviously coordinated national attack on ACORN is, I suspect, at the root of Brad Schlozman's own legal problems.

So the Republicans have already laid the ground work for a nationalized attack of the work ACORN does to register and mobilize low-income voters.

Well, what is one of Obama's big pushes this year? Registering voters--particularly African Americans--and turning them out to vote in November.

Redstate's Erick Erickson was just insinuating a connection between Obama and ACORN last week. I suspect we'll see more, similar moves to equate Obama's voter registration efforts with ACORN's efforts to give people a voice.

I plan to return to this attack. But as for interpreting dog whistles, I think this laid the groundwork for attempts to deny those the Obama campaign registers in the next few weeks their right to vote in November.

Now, you know me. I naturally wear the tinfoil hat, so I'm just trying to get folks to think. Might be true...might not...IMO, there's nothing too low for this bunch. They have NEVER been about democracy. And they've ALWAYS been about fighting VOTING RIGHTS, so this is right up their alley. It's already come out how their yelping about voter fraud turned out to be nothing but complete and utter bullshit, but was ALL ABOUT VOTER SUPPRESSION.

Just keep it in the back of your mind, as you watch THEM in the upcoming weeks.

Obama Launches Vote For Change, A Massive 50-State Registration Drive

This informative post is by Jack Turner of Jack and Jill Politics. One of the main purposes of blogging is to try and share as much information as possible to as broad an audience as possible.


****************************************************************

Hey fam, sorry for such a late post. I've been traveling and am in San Fran for the weekend. If you want to meetup, I'm holding "office hours" Sunday afternoon in The Mission. Details here. Would be nice to put a face to some of your names.

Now, on to business.

I am relieved to begin the shift from primary to general election mode. With the Wrath Of The Math having been determined by voters in March and accepted by the media this week, with Rasmussen concluding there's no point (or money) in polling Clinton vs. Obama, with Hillary somehow one-upping her race-baiting beyond even my wildest dreams, let's move on.

One of the things I've appreciated most about Obama is his first-hand experience with and respect for grassroots organizing. I've been a part of it firsthand in VA, TX and PA, and this weekend, his campaign takes it up another notch with an unprecedented, massive, 50-state voter registration drive: Vote For Change

For those who didn't know, Obama ran ProjectVote in Illinois many years ago. Check this video for some background.




Here's the campaign's description of Vote For Change

On May 10th, Barack Obama is launching Vote for Change, an unprecedented 50-state voter registration and mobilization drive. More than 100 events will be held across the country that day. Obama volunteers will register new voters as the start of a six-month voter registration drive.

We can change Washington if more Americans get involved, get registered and show up to vote on November 4th. If millions of new voters get involved, a powerful message will be sent to the special interests that dominate the old politics. This is an important time to find more people in your community to register to vote. To attend a May 10th Vote for Change launch event in your area, click on your state above.

Recent voter registration drives have registered more than 200,000 new Democrats in Pennsylvania, more than 165,000 new Democrats in North Carolina, and more than 150,000 new Democrats in Indiana. Those numbers just scratch the surface of what's possible.

If you're a Democrat living abroad, you're included too!

Obama will run circles around John McCain. He's putting his effort where his mouth is and has already proven an ability to engage new people in the political process. What's starting tomorrow has the potential to be huge. Wherever you are, consider being a part of it.

There are millions of us who want more from our government and our politicians and more from ourselves. Help take that step and get involved. At a minimum, you'll meet some neighbors. That's how some revolutions got started. :)

Head to the Vote For Change site, and see what's up in your area tomorrow and beyond.


**************************************************************

This is the time to get active, folks.

Some people continue to be snide about Obama's 'Community Organizer' roots. But, others, like Marc Ambinder, seem to get the depth of what Obama is aiming to do:

Pay To Attention To Obama's Voter Registration Drive
08 May 2008 04:32 pm


The Obama campaign calls its "Vote for Change" voter registration drive a mere voter registration drive. Nothing to see here, folks, except for ordinary people helping ordinary people gain the franchise.

But it's more than that. The Vote For Change program will lay the foundation for Obama's general election get-out-the-vote efforts. Obama aides won't say much more, but I gather that the campaign is constructing an incredibly elaborate online interface to allow its more than a million donors and volunteers to directly persuade their neighbors through a variety of media. Names gathered from the voter registration effort will be merged with names gathered through Obama's primary efforts and the names off of the Democratic Party's integrated voter file as well as lists purchased from outside vendors.

On election day, Obama might have more than a million individuals volunteering on his behalf. That should scare the beejeesus out of the McCain campaign and the RNC.

YES.WE.CAN.

Prairie View A&M Students March for Voting Rights

Hat tip: Roland S. Martin (WVON-AM, 1690)

From The Houston Chronicle:

Thousands march in Prairie View for voting rights
By HELEN ERIKSEN
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

PRAIRIE VIEW — More than 1,000 Prairie View A&M students turned out today to march in support of their voting rights.

The marchers said Prairie View student voting rights have been suppressed for decades in Waller County.

The protesters carried "Register to Vote" signs and wore black shirts with the slogan, "It is 2008 and we will vote".

"I was angry after registering to vote in the 2006 election only to be turned away at the voting booth," said sophomore Dee Dee Williams.

The march began at 9 a.m. as the protesters left the campus on the seven-mile journey to the Waller County Courthouse in Hempstead.

Students, local leaders, civil rights activists and elected officials took part in the march. Police estimated the total crowd at about 2,000 people..

"These are wonderful kids. They are making a statement, until they spoke up there was only one early voting place in the entire county. They spoke up but everyone is benefiting from what they are doing,'' said Prairie View Mayor Frank Johnson.

Last week, under pressure from the federal government, Waller County officials added three temporary polling places for early voting, ditching plans to open only one voting site in advance of the March 4 primary.

The Justice Department questioned the county's January decision to cut early-voting sites from a half dozen throughout the county to just one in Hempstead. The county's about-face came on the same day that critics announced a mass march to the polls next week.

Early voting begins today.

Waller County has faced numerous lawsuits involving voting rights in the past 30 years and remains under investigation by the Texas Attorney General's Office based on complaints by local black leaders. Those allegations, concerning the November 2006 general election, related to voting machine failures, inadequate staffing and long delays for voting results.

Good for them. I heard one of the young women organizing this on the radio this morning, and it was obvious that they had been targeted many times, but they were standing up TOGETHER this time as a community.

There's something about that picture that makes me mad and smile at the same time.

Congress Grills Justice Department Voting Rights Chief

Congress set its sights on the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division in hearings yesterday. John Tanner, the head of the Civil Rights Division's Voting Rights Unit testified before the House Judiciary's Subcommittee on Civil Rights.

Congressmen Keith Ellison, Artur Davis, and others grilled Tanner until he was well cooked. Members of the Committee specifically called attention to Tanner's recent controversial comments about Blacks dying early....

From TPM:

Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL) laid into voting section chief John Tanner during the hearing today over his comment earlier this month that "our society is such that minorities don't become elderly the way white people do. They die first." Tanner made the remarks as justification for his conviction that voter ID laws actually discriminate against whites. In Tanner's calculus, since minorities don't age "the way white people do," the effect of voter ID laws on the elderly means that whites are disproportionately affected. And since younger African-Americans frequently carry IDs because of racial profiling and the need to cash checks at "a check cashing business," voter ID laws actually favor African-Americans.

Watch a short video of Tanner's comments and his exchanges with members of the Sub-Committee on Civil Rights. Congressman Davis crushes the rationale for Tanner's comments.




Committee members also focused on the lack of overall enforcement of existing voting rights laws, and the lack of enforcement by the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division In General. A former employee of the Voting Rights Unit testified about how Tanner has contributed to the politicization of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division. There have been numerous reports about the lack of enforcement from within the Civil Rights Division, due to political interference. Several experienced career attorneys have left the Civil Rights Division within the last several years (under the Bush Administration).

Under the Bush Administration, the Civil Rights Division reportedly moved away from aggressive enforcement of Civil Rights Laws to more of a political wing of the White House, engaging in actions having little to do with Civil Rights and Voting Rights. The Division has been involved in numerous efforts that appear to be motivated by politics...such as aggressive enforcement of certain voting rules, in certain key battleground States at election time.

Watch Full Video of Hearing

(video may only be available for approximately 15 days from date posted) ____________________________


Related Postings

See PBS Investigative Report on Voter Suppression efforts under the Bush Administration

Greg Palast Reports on Fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias

The Justice Department and Voter Suppression

Obama, Others Nix Deal on Spakovsky

Hat Tip:Think On These Things

From TPMMuckraker.com:

Obama, Others Nix Deal on Voter Fraud Guru
By Paul Kiel - October 4, 2007, 12:14PM
From Roll Call (sub. req.):

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Wednesday derailed a plan blessed by Senate leaders to vote on controversial Federal Election Commission White House nominee Hans von Spakovsky, a move giving Democrats time to breathe in the ongoing Senate stalemate on FEC nominees.

According to Democratic Senate aides, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) struck a deal mid-week to hotline four FEC slots that must be confirmed by the Senate before next year. As part of the proposed deal, a voice vote on fellow commission nominees only would take place if no Senators objected to von Spakovsky’s nomination.

But a vote on the deal, which was expected to come to the floor as early as today, appeared to be off by mid-day Wednesday after Obama — and unconfirmed others — voiced concerns that von Spakovsky’s nomination was too controversial not to go through regular floor proceedings.

A Democratic aide said Senate offices continue to explore “concerns with Mr. von Spakovsky, if they rise to the level of other objections, as well as where the caucus lies.”

The Democrats never should have allowed this to go forth in the first place, with even the appearance of 'a deal'. WTF are they ' dealing' for with a person with a KNOWN HISTORY of voting fraud against Black folk. This is as ridiculous as Feinstein voting to approve Leslie Southwick out of the Judiciary Committee. I am pleased that Senator Obama has stood up for Voting Rights - it's what he should do- period. Good for Obama.


Related Articles:
Obama, Feingold: We Oppose von Spakovsky Nomination

Obama: Von Spakovsky "Unacceptable Nominee"

Vote NO on Spakovsky

More on Spakovsky

Hans Spakovsky Does Not Want You To Vote, But The Democrats Might Not Care

Taxation Without Representation for D.C. - AGAIN

From CQPolitics.com:

D.C. Voting Rights Bill Derailed in Senate
By Michael Teitelbaum
3:50 PM; Sep. 18, 2007

The Senate on Tuesday dealt what is likely to be a fatal blow this year to legislation giving the District of Columbia full voting representation in the U.S. House.

An effort to invoke cloture drew a 57-42 majority but fell short of the 60 votes needed to limit debate on a motion to call up the measure (S 1257). Eight Republicans voted “yes,” and one Democrat, Max Baucus of Montana, voted “no.”

The bill would grant full voting rights to the District’s current delegate and create one additional seat in the House, initially to be given to Utah, bringing the chamber to 437 voting members and four non-voting delegates.

The setback likely dooms the legislation for the entire 110th Congress. Opponents, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Constitution limits membership in the House to representatives from “the several states,” and the District is not a state.

He hailed the Senate’s action, declaring the bill was “clearly and unambiguously unconstitutional.” He added, “If the residents of the District are to get a member for themselves, there remains a remedy: amend the Constitution.”

Congress tried that route almost 30 years ago. In 1978, the 95th Congress passed a constitutional amendment to grant the District full membership in both the House and Senate. But the amendment carried a seven-year limit for ratification by three-fourths of the states (38), and only 16 had ratified it by the time the deadline arrived.

The Senate’s senior Democrat, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, agreed with McConnell and other Republicans who argued that only a constitutional amendment could grant the District a vote in Congress.

While Byrd was absent for the vote, he issued a statement explaining his position. “We cannot pick and choose which provisions of the Constitution we will abide by, and which we will set aside whenever convenient,” he said. “If one provision of the Constitution can be circumvented, then so can others just as easily. Let us provide the citizens of the District of Columbia with full voting rights in both the House and the Senate, and do so the proper way, by passing a joint resolution to amend the Constitution.”

The House passed its version of the voting rights bill (HR 1905) on April 19 by a 241-177 vote.

Veto Threat

But even if supporters of the measure had been able to move it through the Senate, it had little chance of becoming law.

The White House meanwhile renewed its threat that President Bush would veto the legislation, declaring, “The bill violates the Constitution’s provisions governing the composition and election of the United States Congress.”

Although the legislation appeared to command a majority of members in both chambers, its support did not reach the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.

Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, a cosponsor of the bill, said the legal issue was not as clear-cut as critics suggested, because the Constitution also gives Congress power over the District of Columbia, the nation’s capital. And he noted the bill contained provisions expediting a Supreme Court review of its constitutionality.

“We’re prepared to accept whatever the Supreme Court says,” he declared.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other advocates argued that District residents pay taxes, serve in the armed forces and sit on federal juries, yet “they are given only a ‘delegate’ in Congress, not a real voting member. This is nothing more than ‘shadow representation.’ This injustice has stood for far too long. Shadow representation is shadow citizenship.”

Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., chief sponsor of the measure, said it aimed to correct “taxation without representation” for 600,000 Americans who live in the District.

D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va., and Mayor Adrian Fenty were in the Senate chamber lobbying Republicans to support the cloture motion. But their efforts were in vain.

This story originally appeared in CQ Today.


Once again, no representation to go along with the representation for The District of Columbia. We can dance around it all we want, but it's no surprise as to why the GOP blocked it - AGAIN. Yeah, that GOP really wants that 'Big Tent'. Once again, birds chirping waiting on comments from Black GOPers.