Who Votes Against The Voting Rights Act? Racists And Only Racists

On Friday, the House passed another crucial piece of legislation, H.R.4-- the Voting Rights Advancement Act-- 4 that MoscowMitch intends to bury in his fetid Senate crypt. In the end, every Democrat (+ one Republican, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania) voted for it and every Republican but Fitzpatrick voted against it.) The bill is meant to restore and modernize the Voting Rights Act to guarantee local bigots can't prevent groups from exercising their right to vote, creating a new coverage formula that hinges on a finding of repeated voting rights violations in the preceding 25 years. Pramila Jayapal was up on the floor of the House before the vote yesterday, telling her colleagues that "When Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it was a recognition that systemic discrimination based on race continued to deny people the right to vote. As an organizer, I understand the VRA as a victory hard fought by Black activists like Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, and of course our esteemed colleague, Representative John Lewis, who devoted their lives to fighting for the right to vote; by a movement that recognized that this right to vote is absolutely fundamental to our concept of and our actualization of democracy. But unfortunately, we have not followed with the same courage. Instead, since 2013, states have enacted laws that are suppressing voting rights across the country. And today, half the country faces stricter voting rights as a result. If we want a true democracy, we must protect the right to vote for all. This is bill is critical to getting there."

Before it passed, however, the Republicans tried pulling a little fast one to kill it with a motion to recommit. That failed, but by only 15 votes. Why so close? Can you say "Blue Dogs and their fellow travelers are racists?" 11 conservative Democrats crossed the aisle and voted with the KKK to kill H.R. 4. And here they are, hoping no one noticed when their hoods slipped off:

• Cindy Axne (New Dem-IA)
• Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)
• Joe Cunningham (Blue Dog-SC)
• Abby Finkenauer (IA)
• Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ)
• Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)
• Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)
• Elisa Slotkin (New Dem-MI)
• Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)
• Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)
• Jefferson Van Drew (Blue Dog-NJ)

After passage, Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP remarked that "This crucial piece of legislation modernizes the Voting Rights Act, protecting voters from the types of voting changes most likely to discriminate against people of color. Passage of this bill in the House today is an important first step to ensuring equal participation for all in our democracy. We call upon the Senate to immediately take up this legislation. The NAACP will keep fighting until this bill is signed into law."

Liam O'Mara is the progressive Democrat taking on corrupt Riverside County Trumpist, Ken Calvert, a notorious racist who voted against the Voting Rights Act yesterday "Let's not mince words," said O'Mara, "The Republicans just voted to back voter-suppression on the basis of race and class. They will call it a principled defence of states rights, and conveniently leave out that the right they're defending is to systemic racism and classism. Courts have repeatedly shown that GOP gerrymandering is done with partisan and racist intent, but since a Republican-dominated SCOTUS thinks that's a-okay, it falls to Congress to defend the very foundation of democracy: the franchise. It seems our incumbent, and all but one Republican House member, think that it's perfectly okay for states flagrantly to deny voting rights to lawful citizens. The House bill impacts only states with many proven instances of voting-rights violations, but as that's a problem almost unique to red states, we know where the GOP's priorities lie. Big hint: it's not defending the Constitution or the rights of the people."

Kathy Ellis and Kara Eastman are both progressives running for Congress Republican-held districts-- and both of their opponents, respectively Jason Smith (R-MO) and Donald Bacon (R-NE), voted against the Voting Rights Act. After the vote yesterday Ellis told us that "The right to vote is the most fundamental right of our Democracy. All Americans, regardless of Party, should do whatever they can to protect this right. Representative Smith should be ashamed of himself. It’s clear that it’s time for new leadership in Missouri’s 8th." Eastman was also disturbed that Bacon voted against H.R.4. "The fact is," she told us, "Republicans like Don Bacon benefit when fewer people vote. HR 4 would turn the tide back to a full and fair democracy, so it’s no surprise he voted no."

Foreign Tourists Are Avoiding Trump Country

The NAACP issued it's first-ever travel advisory last month-- for the state of Missouri. Missouri has become a real police state-- with the most violent and unaccountable law enforcement systems in America, a virtual occupying force. The NAACP pointed out that African-Americans are 75% more likely to be stopped by the police than whites." Nor were they thrilled by a new state law that makes it harder to sue businesses for racial discrimination.

The advisory, the first of its kind for the organization, stated that visitors and state residents should “pay special attention and exercise extreme caution when traveling throughout the state given the series of questionable, race-based incidents occurring statewide recently.” It was reviewed and renewed on Aug. 28.

Missouri might be worst-- but the other day, we mentioned that hate crimes in the U.S. have been climbing since Trump managed to slip into the White House.

That makes foreign tourists nervous and on Tuesday, the NY Times reported that international tourism has been declining since Señor Trumpanzee took over.

Fewer international travelers came to the United States during the first few months of this year than over the same period last year, confirming concerns of some in the travel industry.

New figures released by the U.S. Department of Commerce show a drop in international visitors to the United States by close to 700,000 in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the previous year. European countries were down 10.1 percent, and Mexico was off 7.1 percent in the quarter. The largest drops were from the Middle East and Africa, though they represent a much smaller percentage of overall travel to the United States.

Overall, 697,791 fewer foreigners visited the United States in the first three months of the year, down 4.2 percent to 15.8 million. According to Tourism Economics, a branch of Oxford Economics based in Wayne, Pa., that analyzes travel data, the drop represents a loss of nearly $2.7 billion in spending.

As points of comparison, the first quarter of 2013, after the reelection of Barack Obama, international tourism was up 6.4 percent, and the first quarter of 2009, after President Obama’s first election (and during global recession that began at the end of 2008), it was down 14.3 percent.

The question of whether the results prove a ripple effect from President Trump’s proposed travel ban on visitors from six majority-Muslim countries, an expanded wall along the Mexican border and anti-immigrant statements remains unanswered. But the data tracks with a decline in United States favorability abroad: In June, the Pew Research Center found that 49 percent of those surveyed in 37 nations had a positive view of the United States, versus 64 percent at the end of President Obama’s term in office.

Last week, Pew reported that nearly two-thirds of Mexicans held a negative opinion of the United States, more than double the figure of two years ago, which stood at 29 percent.

“It’s not a reach to say the rhetoric and policies of this administration are affecting sentiment around the world, creating antipathy toward the U.S. and affecting travel behavior,” said Adam Sacks, the president of Tourism Economics.

In response to a Facebook post by the New York Times, European readers overwhelmingly cited the Trump administration and its policies as reasons for avoiding or canceling trips to the United States.

“We are British Muslims and live in London,” Sabaa Farrukh wrote. “We wanted to visit N.Y.C. this summer but decided against it simply because we felt we wouldn’t be welcome there and didn’t want to waste precious holiday time in case there was a problem at passport control at the airport.”

Others cited violence and safety. Marika Treichel, who lives in Denmark, wrote, “I have always dreamed of visiting the US. But the rise of gun violence and political chaos has made me want to cancel all future travels to the U.S. until I can feel safe as a tourist.”

This has been a strong year for the U.S. dollar, which makes travel more expensive for other currencies-- though exceptions make that an unsatisfying explanation for the tourism drop. The Canadian dollar, for example, is weaker than it has been in previous years (despite a summer surge), yet Canadian tourism to the United States was up 14.8 percent January through April.

Within Europe, the tourism declines were largest in Switzerland at nearly 28 percent, Belgium at 20 percent and Britain at 15.5 percent. Britain accounts for the largest share by country of European arrivals in the United States, with 4.5 million tourists last year, making its slowdown significant. (Asian tourism was about the same as last year-- up .6 percent-- mainly due to a surge of South Korean travelers, up over 15 percent in the first quarter.)

“The international travel market is ultracompetitive, and the U.S. is falling behind,” said Roger Dow, the president and chief executive of the U.S. Travel Association, a nonprofit that promotes travel to and within the United States, in a statement.

A report released in April by the World Economic Forum showed the United States falling two spots in its rankings of the top 10 most popular countries for tourism in the world. The United States fell to number six, passed by both Japan and Britain.

...Factoring in the April figures brings the loss to the U.S. economy to $1.7 billion, according to Tourism Economics.

Some tour operators have already felt the freeze. Intrepid Travel reported a 24 percent decrease in bookings to the United States this year to date compared to the same period last year, while trips to Canada are up 40 percent.

“Given the current political and social climate, now is an especially important time for the travel industry to stand for open borders, inclusivity and the celebration of diversity,” wrote Leigh Barnes, the regional director for Intrepid Travel, in an email.

Security concerns may be another factor. Through government travel advisories, countries including New Zealand and Britain have warned their citizens that travel within the United States represents some risk based on the threat of terrorist attacks.

Lucy Taylor, an Australian who is spending several weeks this summer and fall visiting the United States with her husband, altered the couple’s itinerary based on anticipated xenophobia.

“We decided not to do a road trip across the U.S. and just to stick to blue states,” she said. “We weren’t sure what kind of reception we would have.”

It's gotten worse under Trump, but it didn't start with him, did it? Still, there are stories like this way too frequently in the U.S. now that Trump has implicitly and explicitly given police departments permission and encouragement to let their authoritarian freak flags fly. Oklahoma City cops shot a 35 year old deaf man with no criminal history, Magdiel Sanchez, in front of his home yesterday because he didn't obey their commands. Neighbors were yelling "he can't hear you" before the cops opened up on him.

Too Much For A Tweet... Too Little For A Post

If House Dems take back control, they'll have to contemplate the difference between Dracula & Frankenstein

Next Speaker Sweepstakes

One of my favorite congressmembers came over for dinner the other night. Very concerned about all the human garbage lining up to follow Pelosi as Speaker if Dems take back House and she shortens her stay in Congress. Fortunately Steve Israel is so thoroughly disliked by so many Members that he'd have no chance & in the epic battle between Mothra and Godzilla, my dining companion would vote for Wasserman-Schultz, not because there's any unawareness of the character issues but because, "If Hoyer were Speaker, nothing would ever get accomplished. He would feed everything we want to do through the lobbyists and nothing worthwhile would ever come out the other end." Nice! At a live chat at Crooks and Liars Tuesday, Raúl Grijalva suggested a more palatable option: Xavier Becerra (D-CA).

Stuff Happens In Other Countries Too-- Even Beyond the Eurozone

I'm lucky I went to see the 2 gigantic standing Buddhas of Bamian when I was in Afghanistan in 1969. One was built in 507 AD, the other a few decades later. In 2001 the Taliban had them dynamited because they were an affront to their primitive religious prejudices. More recently, I've been writing on my travel blog about how the primitive Tuaregs from the Sahara have swept into Timbuktu and found thousand year old monuments to Sufi saints-- a different sect of the Muslim religion than their own-- to be an affront... so they blew them up. And it gets worse every day.

Islamic extremists destroyed another two mausoleums in the northern Malian city of Timbuktu on Tuesday, attacking a graveyard attached to the city’s most picturesque mosque, according to a historian specializing in the area’s heritage.

Salem Ould Elhadj, a researcher at the Ahmed Baba Institute in Timbuktu, said the members of the radical sect set out with picks and shovels to raze the tombs of two of Timbuktu’s scholars, Baba Babadje and Mahamane Foulane, both of whom are considered saints.

Their mausoleums are in a cemetery attached to the nearly 700-year-old Djingareyber mosque, built in 1325. It’s made of mud and resembles a ziggurat and is one of the most recognizable symbols of the fabled city, often reproduced on postcards.

Both the mosque and the tombs are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Ansar Dine, the sect which seized control of northern Mali last month, says they do not recognize any international law, only the law of the Quran. Spokesman Oumar Ould Hamaha said that they have “divine orders” to destroy any grave that is more than 20 centimeters (7.87 inches) tall because anything taller encourages people to orient their prayer toward the deceased rather than toward God.

What's next? The Pyramids? Apparently, yes.

According to several reports in the Arabic media, prominent Muslim clerics have begun to call for the demolition of Egypt’s Great Pyramids-- or, in the words of Saudi Sheikh Ali bin Said al-Rabi‘i, those “symbols of paganism,” which Egypt’s Salafi party has long planned to cover with wax. Most recently, Bahrain’s “Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs” and President of National Unity, Abd al-Latif al-Mahmoud, called on Egypt’s new president, Muhammad Morsi, to “destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what the Sahabi Amr bin al-As could not."

This is a reference to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad’s companion, Amr bin al-As and his Arabian tribesmen, who invaded and conquered Egypt circa 641. Under al-As and subsequent Muslim rule, many Egyptian antiquities were destroyed as relics of infidelity.  While most Western academics argue otherwise, according to early Muslim writers, the great Library of Alexandria itself-- deemed a repository of pagan knowledge contradicting the Koran-- was destroyed under bin al-As’s reign and in compliance with Caliph Omar’s command.

Maine... Good For The Gays?

A friend in Maine told me to ignore polling that shows most Mainers would vote in favor of gay marriage now. "We just tell that to the pollsters because we don't want to sound like rednecks and bigots. We have enough to be embarrassed about here with LePage spouting off again"

"Governor Romney, you are so white you make white bread look like pumpernickel."

Romney got what he wanted-- material for an ad to run in the Old Confederacy of him being booed at the NAACP Convention:



Ever wonder what it looks like when the GOP racist brain trust gets together to strategize with Willard about "The Blacks?" (And yes, Romney has always had a screwed up relationship with the NAACP.)




UPDATE: Looks Like The Pyramids Are Safe After All

The "call" to destroy the Pyramids seems to be a hoax. Something didn't smell right to me about it and this morning I read it's a rumor being perpetrated by right-wing bloggers and Muslim-haters.

Are The Teabaggers Racist?

Yesterday the NAACP condemned the teabaggers' "explicitly racist behavior," while Glenn Beck, their spiritual leader, amped up his campaign to trivialize and denigrate both Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King by holding a racist rally in Washington on August 28, the anniversary of King's historic "I Have a Dream" speech. The resolution, which was submitted by the NAACP's Kansas City branch points out that teabaggers have "displayed signs and posters intended to degrade people of color generally and President Barack Obama specifically" and calls "the racist elements" within the tea party "a threat to progress." It calls on "the leadership and members of the tea party to recognize the historic and present racist factions within it and to repudiate those factions."

Good luck with that. As anyone who's every attended a teabagger event well knows, divisiveness in general and racism in particular are the very organizing principles around the "movement." They can't very well go out and try to gin all that faux grassroots populism based on bigger bonuses for insurance company CEOs. At the teabagger rally I went to in Alhambra, the "anchor baby" theme was far more dominant than ever "read the bill."

And this might be as good a moment as any to bring up Ryan Murdough, both the New Hampshire state chairman of American Third Position and the Republican candidate for the New Hampshire state senate. Murdough:

For far too long white Americans have been told that diversity is something beneficial to their existence. Statistics prove that the opposite is true. New Hampshire residents must seek to preserve their racial identity if we want future generations to have to possibility to live in such a great state. Affirmative action, illegal and legal non-white immigration, anti-white public school systems, and an anti-white media have done much damage to the United States of America and especially New Hampshire. It is time for white people in New Hampshire and across the country to take a stand. We are only 8 percent of the world's population and we need our own homeland, just like any other non-white group of people deserve their own homeland.

Like the teabaggers you see on TV, Murdough vociferously denies being a racist. Really. Limbaugh and Beck do too. So does the Republican Party in general. And their nutroots. Sarah Palin was tweeting furiously. And on her Facebook page she wrote, self-righteously, "I am saddened by the NAACP’s claim that patriotic Americans who stand up for the United States of America’s Constitutional rights are somehow “racists.” The charge that Tea Party Americans judge people by the color of their skin is false, appalling, and is a regressive and diversionary tactic to change the subject at hand.

"President Reagan called America’s past racism 'a legacy of evil' against which we have seen the long struggle of minority citizens for equal rights. He condemned any sort of racism, as all good and decent people do today. He also called it a 'point of pride for all Americans' that as a nation, we have successfully struggled to overcome this evil. Reagan rightly declared that 'there is no room for racism, anti-Semitism, or other forms of ethnic and racial hatred in this country,' and he warned that we must never go back to the racism of our past." I guess the GOP shock troops at the teabagger rally in the photo to the right missed that speech. Or maybe they don't consider that racism. Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh don't.

Take CNN's Eric Erickson, for example. He's a GOP polemicist embedded with CNN and he had some advice for his party leaders yesterday that was reported to a mainstream audience by Media Matters. He feels the path to a GOP victory in November is scaring people about how the Black Panthers want to kill white children. "The Democrats will scream racism," he wrote. "Let them. Republicans are not going to pick up significant black support anyway."

Had Horton been white, the Republicans still would have used the ad. But Horton was black and the ad was powerfully effective-- so effective that it and Dukakis's stupid answer about opposing the death penalty even if his wife were murdered destroyed the Democrats in 1988-- the Democrats screamed racism at the top of their lungs and their accomplices in the media have forever agreed. Willie Horton = racism.

Nonsense. The ad worked. It was powerful. It was the truth. That's why the Democrats screamed racism so loud. It was the only way to stop the GOP from going this direction again. They know the GOP lives in perpetual quixotic quest for the day it gets a significant share of the black vote.

Now we have King Samir Shabazz. He showed up at a polling location in Pennsylvania and intimidated voters going into the polls. The Justice Department pursued the case and, having received a verdict it the government's favor, Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder stopped pursuing the New Black Panthers.

Video has subsequently come out of King Samir Shabazz encouraging the murder of white children.
Republican candidates nationwide should seize on this issue. The Democrats are giving a pass to radicals who advocate killing white kids in the name of racial justice and who try to block voters from the polls.

No racism there, of course. And speaking of sociopathic right-wing racism, yesterday the House was back from vacation and one of the first bills to pass, HR 4514, Colonel Charles Young Home Study Act passed with an overwhelming bipartisan majority, 350-26. All 225 Democrats voted yes, as did 125 Republicans. The 26 NO votes were from 26 right-wing, racist Republicans, including, notably, notorious and rabid haters like Paul Broun (R-GA), John Campbell (R-CA), John Culberson (R-TX), Virginia Foxx (R-VA), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Steve King (R-IA), Jack Kingston (R-GA), Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), and Paul Ryan (R-WI). The entire GOP leadership voted YES, even Boehner and Cantor (although the leader racist in the leadership, Mike Pence, didn't vote at all. The bill directs the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study of the Colonel Charles Young Home, a National Historic Landmark in Xenia, Ohio, to determine the suitability and feasibility of designating the Home as a unit of the National Park System. (Colonel Charles Young was a distinguished African-American officer in the U.S. Army, a pioneer of techniques in military intelligence, as well as a commander of troops in combat in the Spanish-American War and the Mexican expedition against Pancho Villa.) Even Mean Jean Schmidt signed on as a co-sponsor. We'll just leave it at that.




Racism? Racism? Teabaggers Racist! They Claim They Don't Have A Racist Bone In Their Bodies

Was this teabagger screed yesterday by GOP radio propagandist Mark Williams, racist? You tell me; maybe I'm too sensitive. He imagines he's writing a letter to President Lincoln from the head of the NAACP:

Dear Mr. Lincoln

We Colored People have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the ‘tea party movement’.

The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.

And the ridiculous idea of “reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government.” What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!

The racist tea parties also demand that the government “stop the out of control spending.” Again, they directly target Colored People. That means we Colored People would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.

Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.” That is outrageous! How will we Colored People ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?

Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.

Sincerely

Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Head Colored Person

What if the NAACP held a forum for the GOP presidential candidates and nobody showed up?Or maybe one guy--of all people, Tom Tancredo

And representing the xenophobic wing of the Republican Party, please
give a warm NAACP welcome to Colorado's own Rep. Tom Tancredo

"One has to wonder why this photo was not the lead on every morning show and on the front pages of every morning newspaper in America."
--Jeffrey Feldman, in a Frameshop post today, "A Picture of the GOP on Civil Rights"

The one photo the GOP does not want anyone to see was snapped at yesterday's NAACP GOP Presidential Candidate Forum. The NAACP invited all 9 Republican candidates to the forum, but only one showed up: Tom Tancredo. All the Democratic Presidential hopefuls showed up for their forum.

The excuses given by the Republican campaigns mostly had to do with scheduling conflicts--just too busy to make it.

The resulting photo of Tancredo--standing on a stage of empty podiums--sums up the Republican party's commitment to civil rights in America: the only Republican interested is the guy running to deny immigrant workers their rights.

Jeffrey goes on to wonder, as noted above, why hardly anybody has published this photo:

The reason, most likely, is a coordinated effort by Republicans to pressure news agencies to downplay the obvious implications of having 8 out of 9 of their Presidential candidates as "no shows" for a debate at the NAACP.