Repeat after me: Republicans hate black voters

Actually it's more complex than that, but that's a good media-ready sound bite that deserves wide rotation these days.

It has become increasingly obvious that poor voters and minority voters -- especially black voters, because they are the easiest to identify, locate, and isolate -- are the GOP's favorite targets for their various disenfranchisement strategies and stunts.

It's not just what we saw in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. It's acions taken by the federal government in recent years to back up and expand on state efforts such as those of the aforementioned.

We've been learning recently about how Bush appointees in the Justice Department have been knowingly and aggressively supporting violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We also must remember the recent efforts of Missouri Senator Chris Bond to pass senseless legislation outlawing voter registration drives in public housing.

And since the North Carolina redistricting case of the 1990's, the federal courts -- especially the Bush-enthralled US Supreme Court -- have proven not to be the place for reliable relief.

Our last avenue has to be the media. Our elected "leaders" must develop and relentlessly hammer the meme that disenfranchising black voters is a core part of the GOP's electoral strategy. When the inevitable demands for proof arise, our "leaders" must respond with the above-cited examples. Beyond the editorial-here-and-article-there, this concept must become part of the national political lexicon -- along the lines of "Republicans are more patriotic," but with the added benefit of actually being true.

Otherwise, the impact of all our anti-electronic voting machine activism will be severely blunted.

Should gay people still be allowed to vote? I mean, they can't marry, or designate next of kin or inheritance. Why should they be allowed to vote?

I'm just surprised it hasn't occurred to them before now.

It's not like it couldn't happen here, seeing as how easily they got people to the polls to vote against same sex marriage.

Let's not forget the whole Tom Delay Texas black voter disenfranchisement gerrymandering caper. It just popped up in the news recently,

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/12/02/gonzales-defense/

when it was revealed that every single one of the career Justice Dept. officials investigating this episode believed that it "violated the Voting Rights Act"... But they were all over-ruled by Bush appointees.

And it goes to the very core of the party, all the way to Supreme Court justices. They've all done it. They have intimidated blacks, struck them from voting rolls, limited the voting booths, ballots, and machines for black citizens.

They like blacks for photo ops and sports, and that's it.