Warning, the following post is long and is critical of the president. If you can deal with that please read on. If you are Bush voter that doesn't care for 'nuance,' do something better with your time.

I usually don't blog about national issues since this is a DFL blog, but this really strikes me as important. I also am a firm believer in not saying anything when your opponents are self-destructing (and the Republicans have been doing one hell of a job recently), but I'm going to make an exception this time. George Bush has shown that he doesn't care about a lot of people, especially the poor and - black people to an extent (Let's just recall that he cut his vacation short to try to save the life of one brain-dead white woman, but took nearly a week to act when it came to thousands of black people in New Orleans). There's nothing wrong with hating the poor, Bush is a Christian and that's clearly consistent with his faith (I believe that Jesus said, "fuck the poor" many times. Actually, I think Christ only hated gay marriage more than he hated the poor. At least that's what I hear from the Religious Right). But this isn't about Bush hating the poor, this is about civil rights.

So, back to why Bush doesn't care about black people. He probably doesn't hate all Black people, just the ones that don't serve in his administration (sans Colin Powell). Bush doesn't care about black people because of the attitude his political appointees in the Justice Department and their job to enforce the Voting Rights Act (or, rather, their refusal to enforce it). This act was written to essentially curb the common practice of white people in the South stopping people of color from voting or changing political districts to dilute the vote of minority groups, among other things. Basically what this means is that states which have a history of blatant discrimination and racism in voting laws and drawing racially disproportionate districts need to get "pre-clearance" from the Justice Department before they can redistrict or change their voting laws. I'm pretty sure all of these states on the list all happen to be in the South. Shocking, I know. Anyway, in order to get pre-clearance, the state government needs to prove that there will be no reductions in minority voting strength as a result of redistricting. A good, just law.

The point is that the people that Bush appointed to head the DOJ's Civil Rights Division (which enforces the VRA) seem to have a different interpretation of what "the law" is then people whose job it is to understand what the law is. They seem to think that there are always exceptions to be made when it comes to helping their boss and their party. Case in point: Tom DeLay's Texas redistricting coup in 2003 to redraw federal congressional districts to get more of his GOP minions from Texas elected to the U.S. House. This post is not about Tom DeLay though, he also has his own problems understanding what the law is.

According to the Washington Post, Delay's guys knew that their redistricting plan probably wouldn't hold up. Specifically, "Republican lawmakers and state officials who helped craft the proposal were aware it posed a high risk of being ruled discriminatory compared with other options." Guess what, every single career lawyer that was on the panel that reviewed it agreed that it was a clear violation of the VRA. They unanimously agreed that the DeLay "redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts. It also said the plan eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial, though not necessarily decisive, influence in elections." Then why did Bush's appointees in the DOJ give the plan an OK anyway, above the objection of everyone that wasn't a political appointee? Same thing happened with the poll tax picture ID voting law in Georgia. Career civil rights attorneys at the DOJ said it was illegal; Bush's guys said they don't care, and signed off on it anyway because it helps Republicans. Good thing we have a somewhat independent judiciary to stop this kind of shit. Also, thank God the Washington Post reports this stuff and that someone on the inside leaked this information. Don't you think it is a little strange that the unanimously dissenting panel of experts were "subjected to an unusual gag rule" about this matter?

Now I ain't saying he hates black people, but he ain't messin' with no white districts. Props to Kanye West: keep up the excellent music and don't let the suits keep you down.

18 years! 18 years! ... If you ain't no punk, holla, "We Want Pre-nup!" WE WANT PRE-NUP! YEAH!