Ari Berman at
The Nation writes—
Alabama, Birthplace of the Voting Rights Act, Is Once Again Gutting Voting Rights:
It was Alabama that brought the country the Voting Rights Act (VRA) because of its brutality against black citizens in places like Selma. “The Voting Rights Act is Alabama’s gift to our country,” the civil-rights lawyer Debo Adegbile once said.
And it was a county in Alabama–Shelby County–that brought the 2013 challenge that gutted the VRA. As a result of that ruling, those states with the worst histories of voting discrimination, including Alabama, no longer have to approve their voting changes with the federal government.
Ari Berman's excellent new book.
After the Shelby County decision, Alabama’s strict voter ID law, passed by the GOP legislature in 2011, was allowed to go into effect without federal approval. And now Alabama is making it much tougher to obtain the government-issued ID required to vote by closing 31 DMV locations in the state, many in majority-black counties.
The state is shuttering DMV offices in eight of the 10 counties with the highest concentration of black voters. Selma will still have a DMV office but virtually all of the surrounding Black Belt counties will not. “Every single county in which blacks make up more than 75 percent of registered voters will see their driver license office closed,” writes John Archibald of the Birmingham News. “The harm is inflicted disproportionately on voters who happen to be black, and poor, in sparsely populated areas.”
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2002—Public support for war dropping:
An ABC News poll shows that public support for war is edging down despite the administration's full-court press to start one. 61 percent support war, but that's down from 68 after Bush's UN speech. That support is conditional, with just 46 percent backing unilateral war, and far fewer if a costly ground war is required. Given the fact the US makes up a daily excuse for war, the numbers are particularly telling. Bush and his people are failing miserably to make a case for war.
Interestingly, 21 percent of respondents said they would be more apt to elect a member of Congress authorizing war, while 38 percent said they would be less likely. Numbers like that should embolden Democrats and some Republicans to take a stand against the war.
Finally, 53 percent of respondents believe the economy is headed in the wrong direction, compared to 43 who bizarrely think everything is peachy. Those numbers cannot reassure Republicans this fall.
Tweet of the Day
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show podcast, catch the previously unheard 15 minutes (dropped by Internet glitches)! Hillary's email picked over for click bait & partisan spin. The media has Biden Fever, and the only cure is more speculation. Maj. Whip, maybe soon-Speaker McCarthy steps into a truth about how the Gop operates. No one has a clue what to do, or what will happen with Boehner gone. The finance industry has learned nothing. Anti-vaxxers fall short in CA. Obama playing it right in Syria? Some Republicans fear "untethered" Boehner. Ex-Rep. Paul Braun sad he didn’t get in on that sweet Speaker-ousting action, setting up to fire whoever comes along.
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