If you're not angry about the gutting of VRA, you sure as hell aren't paying attention!

[cynatnite]

Ginsburg's dissent also rattled off these eight examples of race-based voter discrimination in recent history:

◾"In 1995, Mississippi sought to reenact a dual voter registration system, 'which was initially enacted in 1892 to disenfranchise Black voters,' and for that reason was struck down by a federal court in 1987."

◾"Following the 2000 Census, the City of Albany, Georgia, proposed a redistricting plan that DOJ found to be 'designed with the purpose to limit and retrogress the increased black voting strength…in the city as a whole.'"

◾"In 2001, the mayor and all-white five-member Board of Aldermen of Kilmichael, Mississippi, abruptly canceled the town's election after 'an unprecedented number' of AfricanAmerican candidates announced they were running for office. DOJ required an election, and the town elected its first black mayor and three black aldermen."

◾"In 2006, the court found that Texas' attempt to redraw a congressional district to reduce the strength of Latino voters bore 'the mark of intentional discrimination that could give rise to an equal protection violation,' and ordered the district redrawn in compliance with the VRA…In response, Texas sought to undermine this Court's order by curtailing early voting in the district, but was blocked by an action to enforce the §5 pre-clearance requirement."

◾"In 2003, after African-Americans won a majority of the seats on the school board for the first time in history, Charleston County, South Carolina, proposed an at-large voting mechanism for the board. The proposal, made without consulting any of the African-American members of the school board, was found to be an 'exact replica' of an earlier voting scheme that, a federal court had determined, violated the VRA…DOJ invoked §5 to block the proposal."

◾"In 1993, the City of Millen, Georgia, proposed to delay the election in a majority-black district by two years, leaving that district without representation on the city council while the neighboring majority white district would have three representatives…DOJ blocked the proposal. The county then sought to move a polling place from a predominantly black neighborhood in the city to an inaccessible location in a predominantly white neighborhood outside city limits."

◾"In 2004, Waller County, Texas, threatened to prosecute two black students after they announced their intention to run for office. The county then attempted to reduce the avail ability of early voting in that election at polling places near a historically black university."

◾"In 1990, Dallas County, Alabama, whose county seat is the City of Selma, sought to purge its voter rolls of many black voters. DOJ rejected the purge as discriminatory, noting that it would have disqualified many citizens from voting 'simply because they failed to pick up or return a voter update form, when there was no valid requirement that they do so.'"

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/06/best-lines-ginsburg-dissent-voting-rights-act-decision

[cynatnite]

1. kicking. n/t

[HappyMe]

2. You know, I don't even

know what to say.

[LeftInTX]

3. I'm more than angry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[noiretextatique]

4. this is the same court that ignored the florida voter purge and annoited bush

so who is really suprised by their actions? the gop will do anything to suppress the vote, including treason.

[rhett o rick]

5. The balance of power has tipped to the SCOTUS whose judicial review itself is unconstitutional. nm

[one_voice]

6. I saw this...

decision and I got tears in my eyes. My parents marched for civil rights. My dad is from Alabama, he's 76 years old. He called me this morning and was so upset. What did we fight for? They're taking it back. What was Obama's election about? It's as if we're being punished for electing a black man. It wasn't that long ago your mother and me couldn't go down and visit my family. It hasn't changed that much.

This is about so much more than just voting rights. What's next?

Heartbreaking.

[90-percent]

12. Here's what's next

The music is perhaps accessible only to hardcore Edgard Varese' fans. Forcing yourself to listen is not necessary for understanding my point.

(the visuals are mutually exclusive to the music and has nothing to do with the point I'm trying to make)

The punch line is Zappa's instruction for preparing to listen to this song:

1. If you have already worked your way through, "IN THE PENAL COLONY" by Franz Kafka, skip instructions #2, #3, #4.

2. Everybody else: go dig up a book of short stories & read "IN THE PENAL COLONY".

3. DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS PIECE UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THE STORY.

4. After you have read the story, put the book away & turn on the record player [contemporary note: good luck, boys & girls!] . . . it is now safe to listen (DO NOT READ & LISTEN AT THE SAME TIME).

5. As you listen, think of the concentration camps in California constructed during World War II to house potentially dangerous oriental citizens ... the same camps that many say are now being readied for use as part of the FINAL SOLUTION to the NON-CONFORMIST (hippy?) PROBLEM today. You might allow yourself (irregardless of the length of your hair, or how you feel about greedy wars & paid assassins) to imagine YOU ARE A GUEST AT CAMP REAGAN. You might imagine you have been invited to try out a wonderful new RECREATIONAL DEVICE (designed by the Human Factors Engineering Lab as a method of relieving tension & pent-up hostilities among the members of the CAMP STAFF ... a thankless job which gives little or no ego gratification ... even for the chief warden).

6. At the end of the piece, the name of YOUR CRIME will be carved on your back.


-90% Jimmy

The song is from the 1968 Mothers of Invention album "We're only in it for the Money"

[ellie]

7. I am so angry

that I am almost dizzy. Motherfuckers.

[heaven05]

8. I

am enraged, but not surprised at this decision. Amerikkka, the so called democracy, land of the free and home of the brave. Justice Ginsburg, I salute you. At least you tried. Stialllito needs to grab his buddy clarence by the hand, jump in a toilet somewhere and just flush.

[SoapBox]

9. Angry?

Well, some won't be because they are STILL running around in their 3-Cornered Hat with their Musket, yapping
about the Hero Snowden (aka Chinese, Russian, Ecudorian, etc. citizen that he will be), worrying about their
cell call to Grandma being swept up in TRILLIONS of phone calls...all while the Haters on the S.C. are making
it harder for American citizens to simply vote.

That ought to be some serious outrage.

[AnnieK401]

19. Pretty much what I was thinking. Thanks

[frylock]

23. just because you have issues multitasking doesn't mean others don't..

near as I can tell, DU's big plan for activism is to rehash who was at fault for the 2000 elections. and here's a hint; it's not the people who are up in arms about the surveillance state wasting everyone's time with their two-minute hate on Nader.

[frazzled]

10. This is truly a greater threat to our democracy and freedoms than ...

anything the Snowden bunch paranoically fears the NSA programs may do.

This is the very core of our principles: the right to vote, which continues to be threatened, and now with this new SCOTUS ruling, may revert to the appalling depredations of the pre-civil rights era. Worse, because now it will affect even greater populations, given the rise in the Hispanic population as well.

It's very much an attempt for "the (white) South to rise again."

[AnnieK401]

20. Exactly.

This is why I have not been happy with all the seeming anti-Obama posts on this site. Do you not realize what we are dealing with (Republicans). This is no time for being a purist.

[zappaman]

11. Rec!

[Kablooie]

13. Now they are free to implement any racist policy they want.

Because they can announce the change right before the election and even if its blatantly illegal it can't be stopped.

It can be challenged and shot down in court but that will only happen long after the illegal election is over.

This gives the Republicans in R dominated states freedom to eliminate anyone they want from an election.

I won't be surprised to see English fluency tests appearing shortly before the 2014 election. What's the definition of "flagitious"?

[Coccydynia]

14. Don't worry.

After we collectively do nothing and the knowledge fades from memory. Some poor slob will take a stand and he will be ridiculed and dismissed as this knowledge will have become old news.

I can't wait for football to start. I hate baseball.

[blkmusclmachine]

17. +1. The sock puppets/apologists/cheerleaders will be doing it for sure. Starting for 2014.

[NRaleighLiberal]

15. I've been on pretty consistent angry/outrage level since the Bush election theft of 2000.

It's always there - sadly, I don't really expect things to improve under the current political conditions. The opposite, instead....

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. I just stopped being angry

Not good for my health...but like you, we are far from hitting bottom.

[blkmusclmachine]

16. .

.

[dbackjon]

18. I am pissed

Time to impeach the bastards

[ctsnowman]

21. K & R

[kentuck]

22. This cannot stand.

cannot stand.

[BlueCheese]

24. I agree, mostly.

However, I heard one interpretation that makes it seem not so bad. Namely, the court did not say that requiring preclearance itself is unconstitutional, but that doing so based on data from the 1960s is unconstitutional. Apparently, it would be okay for Congress to essentially reauthorize VRA Section 5, covering largely the same areas, as long as they justified it based on more recent data. Is that an accurate reading of the ruling?

Now, it may be that Congress will be unable to do this in its current dysfunctional and polarized state, and that would lead to a disaster. However, given that the VRA was reauthorized in 2006, when Bush was president and Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, there may be more hope than at first.

In the interim, however, when the current version is invalid and a new version is not yet in effect, we do have a very dangerous situation.

[nolabear]

25. Posted today on the MS Sec of State's website.

http://www.sos.ms.gov/news_press_release.aspx?id=517

(Having been raised largely in MS, my heart hurts.)

[Deep13]

26. Paying attention, pretty irritated. nt

[graham4anything]

27. I have been angry since democratic voters voted against Jimmy Carter and Al Gore in 1980 and 2000

it matters little the specifics, what matters is, any vote AGAINST THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE running for president
is a vote against the democratic party and every vote less, is one more less vote needed for the republican candidate

Eisenhower
Nixon
Reagan
bush41
bush43

none of those people picked the four people who voted for democracy and equality today

Ginsberg
Breyer
Sotomayer
Kagan
voted for democracy and equality today

any time any democratic candidate or one who caucus with the democratic party gets ONE LESS VOTE, it is one less vote for the democratic ability to have a mandate change this court

No one is going to impeach any justice here

However, in every special election (Markey tonight, Booker in October, every democratic senate race in 2014, every house race in 2014 and 2016 every governor race in 13 14 15 16 is one more voted needed when the change in the court happens.

Will it go democratic or go republican?

and every vote for the democratic candidate for President is one vote

[ReRe]

28. This may be the 1%'s Utopia....

K&R x 1,000,000,000

.... but it's the 99%'s HELL.

While Justice Ginsburg was reading those off is no doubt when "Junior" Alito rolled his eyes. That worm doesn't even deserve to breathe the same air as Justice Ginsburg, let alone sit right next to her. I would have turned to him and said "Justice Alito, you have no decency!"

Every single day, we lose another piece of our democracy. Chip, chip chipping away. This doesn't even seem like America anymore.

[AsahinaKimi]

29. so, how long

Before women are no longer allowed to vote? Yes, this pisses me off. The Racists in this country have gone too far.

[freshwest]

30. Post-racial America. Ain't it grand? I feel an urgent need to kick someone.

[cynatnite]

31. I'm still pissed about this! n/t

[Marie Marie]

32. Anger doesn't cut it. More like rage and fury.

Also, sad to watch the rights of women and minorities slowly being eroded. It just doesn't end.

[VA_Jill]

33. Is it better

..to live in a country where tyranny, corruption, and criminality are out in the open and people know it's there and just deal with it, or to live in one that PRETENDS it is a bastion of freedom and liberty but is just as corrupt and tyrannical?

[politicasista]

35. Kick