Posted on 11/02/2015 5:52:54 PM PST by Starman417
With a recent decision in Alabama to close 31 DMV offices, the predictable howls of outrage form the Radical Left have come out - "Voter disenfranchisement!' "Jim Crow!" "Taking away our right to vote!" Expect to hear a lot more of this as we lead up to the 2016 election. PJTV's Christopher Coates responds to Contributor at The Nation Ari Berman's new book on voting rights with "Give Us the Ballot". Unsurprisingly, Berman's research leaves out some key facts, like this gem:
Another serious omission is Berman's failure to discuss the controversies surrounding lawsuits brought during the George W. Bush administration against a black Mississippi Democratic official, Ike Brown, and against the New Black Panther Party. Those two VRA cases were the first (and to date, the only) cases ever brought by the DOJ against black Americans for discriminating against white voters and candidates.Read the whole thing.In the Brown case, the district court found blatant discrimination by the black defendants, a ruling affirmed unanimously by the Fifth Circuit. In the New Black Panther case, government attorneys were on the verge of obtaining a default judgment against the Panthers for their intimidation and threats when Obama administration officials demanded that the case against three of four defendants be dismissed and that only limited relief be obtained against one defendant.
These cases and the ugly response to them by DOJ employees raised serious questions about the willingness of career attorneys and officials in the Obama administration to enforce the VRA in a racial-neutral manner, and whether they are only willing to enforce federal voting laws for the benefit of certain racial minorities.
Back to the Alabama story, Brentin Mock at Citylab gives a pretty balanced look at both sides of the story. But in the following paragraphs that are dispersed throughout the post it becomes apparent that the decision to close these offices is not as sinister as Radical Left would have us believe:
The Brennan Center reported in 2012 that almost a third of Alabama's voting-age population lived more than 10 miles away from the nearest license-issuing office that was open more than two days per week.But setting the record straight regarding Alabama (and voter ID laws in general) this isn't why I'm writing this post. One fairly subtle part from Mock's piece really grabbed my attention:Those numbers have not budged today, even with the 31 drivers license offices that have closed. That's because almost all of the offices that were closed down were only open one day a week, none of them on weekends, and many of them for only a half-day. And they weren’t actually “offices.†Rather, they were “supplemental services†from state government “examiners†who were dispatched to satellite locations to primarily administer drivers licenses to new teen drivers.
Alabama officials have been keen to remind the public that there are other options for people to get photo ID. People can obtain free voter ID cards at county registrar offices, which are open in all of Alabama's counties and for longer hours throughout the week. The state is also providing mobile services, sending crews out to various locations on certain dates and by request to dispense voter identification cards.
It's worth noting that under federal law, DMV offices are required to offer voter registration services. The DMV closings will reduce opportunities for that to happen—though, again, given how rarely those offices were open, it's hard to know whether those reductions are really significant. The number of transactions in general performed at the closed offices came to less than five percent of all drivers-license transactions (about 2,000)—and that's for all 31 closed stations combined in 2014.
African Americans are more likely to not have licenses or state-issued ID—in no small part because a lot of folks in the elderly black population don’t have birth certificates. (Many black women in the South weren’t served by hospitals during the Jim Crow era, so they gave birth at home or at non-medical facilities, their children born off the books.)Did anyone else catch the problem with that last statement? The article points out that many births in the South took place during the Jim Crow era, which Wikipedia says ended around 1965. That means that many of these voters are over the age of fifty, and have been of voting age for over three decades. And that brings up the big question:
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
If they treated guns like voting....
Near San Francisco, the last gun store in that entire area just went out of business. The local government demanded they videotape and photograph (like criminals) anyone who purchased guns or ammunition, even after they did so legally and jumping through 1,000 unconstitutional hoops.
The gun store decided to close instead of complying with this forced intimidation and thuggery. That was also the goal of the local criminal government.
Can you imagine if anyone suggested that those seeking abortions be videotaped or photographed?
Now, Obama has just issued another "Executive Order" that allows Felons to apply for Federal jobs.
We are on the rapid road to ruin. I don't think America will survive the next 14 months.
Throw a darn picture on the voting card and be done. I never saw a more stupid country in my life. We have pictures on many things. It would be NOTHING to throw a picture on the voting card and all this nonsense would be null and void. We all have passports today due to rules a few years ago requiring them for Canada. So if we have the most important document on our person then pertaining throwing a picture on the voting card would be possible to do. Both sides again refuse to make this easy change. I guess its easier to complain and get nothing done.
Why? Because it is anathema to their principle of “vote early and often”.
Most felons already have federal jobs.
The House, The Senate, The White House, The Oval Office....
It makes it harder for them to steal elections.
Today's FBI agents cannot be child porn purveyors, DoD engineers cannot be convicted rapists, and DEA agents cannot be drug dealers. Every application is rigorously screened - drug tests are legendary, and felons are not even considered.
But now, overnight, with a flick of his pen, Obama has changed all of that.
In a “rusty” irony, welfare recipients are quite competent to fill out all types of benefit forms for government assistance requiring ID... yet are deemed by their liberal “champions” incapable of getting a voter ID. IMHO this is NOT so much about illegals voting, as about creating VOTES from whole cloth! Commuter generated and untraceable votes on demand! With most big tech 1% billionaires loyal Democrats who control voting machine software... fraud is no longer stuffing ballot boxes... but AlGore-rhythms that “find” votes by the thousands. Big Democrat machine run areas will wait to see how many votes are needed... and make them happen. If one looks at ‘08 and ‘12 only about ten or so BIG Democrat run areas needed for BO to “win”. In Florida, Ohio, Nevada, Virginia and others there was a Democrat machine run area where Obummer’s vote count was greater than his state margin. Everybody gets to cast a ballot in 2016, but are the votes already counted?
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