• Jeff Sessions, Trump's Nominee for Attorney General, Calls Voting Rights Act 'Intrusive'
    18 replies, posted
[quote]WASHINGTON ― Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, doubled down Tuesday in calling the Voting Rights Act “intrusive” and struggled to say how he would enforce the law going forward.[/quote] [URL="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jeff-sessions-voting-rights-act_us_587520a2e4b099cdb0ffc2c1"] The Huffington Post [/URL]
Oh [B]GET FUCKED[/B], Sessions. The Voting Rights Act has been continuously under assault with voter ID laws and other attempts at disenfranchising the black vote. He'll "struggle" to enforce the law by not giving a shit about enforcing the law. All the better to keep Republicans in power now that they've won a majority and have a fascist orange in the Oval Office. I think an actual revolution is not out of the question at this point, because Trump's administration seems poised to dismantle every major step of progress accomplished in [B]the last fifty years[/B]. I hope I'm wrong, because I'd rather not see bloodshed, but America could look disturbingly different in four years, with or without a coup.
Full quote [quote]“It is intrusive. The Supreme Court on more than one occasion has described it legally as an intrusive act, because you’re only focused on a certain number of states,” Sessions said of the act in response to a question from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). “Normally when Congress passes law it applies to the whole country. So it’s a very unusual thing for a law to be passed that targets only a few states, but they had a factual basis.”[/quote] his justification: [quote]The Supreme Court in 2013 struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act that placed states with a history of voting discrimination under Department of Justice oversight. In response, a number of states and localities quickly moved to pass voter ID laws and other measures that voting rights advocates say disenfranchise minority voters. North Carolina, a stunning example, implemented one of the strictest voting laws in the country that year.[/quote] He's calling it intrusive because it targeted problem states, and not the whole country. Really bad choice of words but he isn't one of those crazy hippies who think it should be abolished (unless he is). He's a fool though.
[QUOTE=ROFLBURGER;51650422]Full quote his justification: He's calling it intrusive because it targeted problem states, and not the whole country. Really bad choice of words but he isn't one of those crazy hippies who think it should be abolished (unless he is). He's a fool though.[/QUOTE] Considering the two quotes you just gave, that's all the more reason to keep the act in place and simply amend it to cover all states if that's the problem. As soon as part of the VRA was struck down, a bunch of the states that'd been under its yoke [B]immediately went and did the thing they'd been prevented from doing by the VRA[/B]. I don't trust this administration to do anything except fuck the country up one step at a time. Can we just drown Congress in an actual swamp and start over?
The man who had been deemed too racist to hold a legal position in the past thinks that blacks shouldn't have the right to vote? What a surprise.
[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;51650439]Considering the two quotes you just gave, that's all the more reason to keep the act in place and simply amend it to cover all states if that's the problem. As soon as part of the VRA was struck down, a bunch of the states that'd been under its yoke [B]immediately went and did the thing they'd been prevented from doing by the VRA[/B]. I don't trust this administration to do anything except fuck the country up one step at a time. Can we just drown Congress in an actual swamp and start over?[/QUOTE] Oh yeah of course, to remove this bill because it doesn't cover everyone is fucking retarded and is obviously an excuse to benefit people such as him.
Have the hearing on TV. I didn't know who Jeff Sessions was before this. It sounds like he's either a terrible or great person depending on who you ask. I don't like that kind of partisan divide our Sport Team Politic has created.
How transparent. Voter ID laws are a blatant attack on poor and minority voters, because those demographics tend to lean left. As if widescale gerrymandering wasn't enough, the incoming administration is poised to attack the voting process itself. The GOP in its current form has zero interest in anything other than securing and holding political power. Their rhetoric of Freedom and Security is a hollow appeal to ignorant voters.
[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;51650440]The man who had been deemed too racist to hold a legal position in the past thinks that blacks shouldn't have the right to vote? What a surprise.[/QUOTE] Is he currently racist and/or apologized through his actions for racism in the past? Didn't Hillary have a close ally that was literally a Klansman at one point but had repented?
[QUOTE=OvB;51650476]Is he currently racist and/or apologized through his actions for racism in the past? Didn't Hillary have a close ally that was literally a Klansman at one point but had repented?[/QUOTE] [QUOTE] Thomas Figures, who worked under Sessions as an assistant U.S. attorney, testified that Sessions had called him "boy" and told him to watch what he said to white people. Sessions denies this. There was also testimony that Sessions said the ACLU and NAACP were "un-American" and had "forced civil rights down the throats of the people," and that he had agreed with the claim that a white lawyer known to defend black clients was a "disgrace to his race." [B]Sessions says these statements were taken out of context.[/B][/QUOTE] [URL="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/why-lawyers-are-freaking-out-about-jeff-sessions-as-ag-w460272"]So, a non-apology[/URL], and this Rolling Stone article covers a lot more of his bullshit. [URL="http://investigations.blog.ajc.com/2017/01/10/jeff-sessions-views-on-disabilities-raise-questions-about-georgia-lawsuit/"]He's also bad news for the disabled.[/URL]
I think a lot of those things were addressed during the hearing. He doesn't sound like the best choice, but I guess we'll have to wait and see because he's probably going to get the job. I hope he can keep his personal opinion out of upholding the law. As if former AG's have ever been able to do that.
Seems a lot of the old guard (and some of the new) Republicans are still sore about that whole Civil Rights Movement thing. And now, they have the opportunity to dismantle all of it.
Nice of HuffPost to take a 50second snip and give 2 paragraphs on the matter. Bet they don't address him destroying the Klan, killing a Klan murderer, pledging to uphold religious freedom for all Americans, and being open to climate change. Quality journalism.
[QUOTE=-nesto-;51651023]Nice of HuffPost to take a 50second snip and give 2 paragraphs on the matter. Bet they don't address him destroying the Klan, killing a Klan murderer, pledging to uphold religious freedom for all Americans, and being open to climate change.[/QUOTE] That doesn't make the bad parts go away...
He's not open to climate change according to [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Sessions#Energy_and_environment"]the Wikipedia article.[/URL] He opposes the Klan but there was [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Security,_Economic_Opportunity,_and_Immigration_Modernization_Act_of_2013#Criticism"]significant criticism of immigration bills he supported.[/URL]
Opposing the Ku Klux Klan is pretty much the lowest possible bar for not being a total piece of shit
[QUOTE=-nesto-;51651023]Nice of HuffPost to take a 50second snip and give 2 paragraphs on the matter. Bet they don't address him destroying the Klan, killing a Klan murderer, pledging to uphold religious freedom for all Americans, and being open to climate change. Quality journalism.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE= The Atlantic]In 1986, Figures testified before the Senate that while it was “literally true” that Sessions had not “obstructed the investigation of the murder of Michael Donald,” Sessions had “tried to persuade me to discontinue pursuit of the case.” Figures said that Sessions “remarked, with regard to the investigation, that the case was a waste of time, that it wasn’t going anywhere, that I should spend more time on other things, and that, if the perpetrators were found, I would not be assigned to the case.” Figures told the Senate that after the case went to the grand jury, and it “became increasingly apparent that we were going to break the case, Mr. Sessions attitude changed” and that he supported the prosecution.[/QUOTE] [URL="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/sessions-kkk-case/512600/"]hmmmmmm[/URL]
[QUOTE]By Kowalski’s account, which is backed up by Eddy and others, Sessions played a “supervisory role” and “couldn’t have been more cooperative and helpful in the case.” For instance, Kowalski recalled Sessions allowing them to use his office to interview Klan members, who Kowalski said found the official trappings of a federal prosecutor’s office intimidating. “Sessions asked what we needed, and I said, in order to get a capital murder conviction, we need these things, and he said that in that regard whatever the federal agents did or the FBI did he would make those things available,” said then-Assistant District Attorney Thomas Harrison, who prosecuted Hays in state court. “He did in fact do that.” After Hays’s conviction and death sentence, Sessions served as Alabama attorney general during his appeal, and opposed ameliorating his sentence.[/QUOTE] 1 guy, Figures, word against many. He said she said bullshit and the end result was the conviction and execution of a Klan killer and the start to the demise of the Klan in Alabama.
The new Republican administration leans more towards outright fascism or oligarchy than any admin since Nixon.
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