The Commentariat -- Feb. 27, 2013
My column in the New York Times eXaminer is on David Brooks' latest hogwash.
Mark Murray of NBC News: "... according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll..., President Barack Obama finds himself in a much stronger position than his Republican adversaries.... Strong majorities support the broad outlines of Obama's top domestic priorities pp on immigration, gun control and raising the minimum wage.... What's more, the polls shows the Democratic Party beats the Republican Party on almost every issue...."
Donna Cassata of the AP: "Chuck Hagel takes charge at the Defense Department with deep budget cuts looming and Republican opponents still doubtful that he's up to the job. Hagel is expected to be sworn in Wednesday and is likely to address the staff in his first day as defense secretary." ...
... Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The Senate confirmed Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense on Tuesday after a bruising bout with Republicans, while President Obama's choice to be Treasury secretary headed to the floor with bipartisan support, suggesting that the Republican blockade against the administration's second-term nominees was beginning to ease. After escaping a filibuster by members of his own party, Mr. Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, prevailed in a 58-to-41 vote -- the narrowest margin for any defense secretary on record.... Just four Republicans voted for his confirmation: Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, [Rand] Paul [of Kentucky] and Richard Shelby of Alabama.... Hours earlier, the Senate Finance Committee approved the nomination of Jacob J. Lew as Treasury secretary on a 19-to-5 vote." ...
... Contributor James S. remarked on Paul's "yea" vote in a comment to yesterday's Commentariat: "... Aqua Buddha Man voted 'yea.' Does this mean he hasn't figured out the buttons on his chamber desk yet, or what?" May be. As Dana Milbank notes today in his column on the multiple smears Hagel endured from fellow Republican Senators, "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) gave credence to a hoax, published credulously in the conservative press, that Hagel had received funds from a fictitious group called Friends of Hamas. Asked about this by radio host Hugh Hewitt, Paul replied: 'You know, I saw that information today, also, and that is more and more concerning.'" Evidently, Paul got over his fake concerns, perhaps when somebody told him they were based on a completely phony report by what I suppose is one of Paul's favorite "news" outlets. ...
... Dave Weigel of Slate (who has described himself as a libertarian) explains it's a libertarian thing. I still can't see the logic of why -- as contributor Diane points out -- Paul voted nay on cloture hours before he voted yea on confirmation, the only Senator to do so. I think the point is that often there is little logic to Paul's "principled votes." He does what he does when he does it. If he can't find a libertarian rationale for his vote, he can find a conservative one. ...
... Funny tweet from Matt Yglesias in response to Hagel confirmation; responses to Yglesias's tweet are good, too. Via Jonathan Bernstein.
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: Today the Supreme Court "will review -- for the sixth time since passage in 1965 -- Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which mandates that federal authorities pre-approve any changes in voting laws here [in nine] states and numerous jurisdictions with a history of discrimination. It has survived each previous time." ...
... Washington Post Editors: "In reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act seven years ago, a bipartisan majority of lawmakers -- 390 to 33 in the House, 98 to 0 in the Senate -- determined that the evidence justified maintaining pre-clearance. Shelby County and its allies have not given the high court reason enough to repudiate Congress's resounding judgment." ...
... Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia), in a Washington Post op-ed, on why we still need the Voting Rights Act. Lewis explains what specifically is at issue in the case before the Supremes & writes, "It is ironic and almost emblematic that the worst perpetrators are those seeking to be relieved of the responsibilities of justice. Instead of accepting the ways our society has changed and dealing with the implications of true democracy, they would rather free themselves of oversight and the obligations of equal justice." ...
... Adam Serwer of Mother Jones: John Roberts has a long history of fighting the Voting Rights Act.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned back a challenge to a federal law that broadened the government’s power to eavesdrop on international phone calls and e-mails. The decision, by a 5-to-4 vote that divided along ideological lines, probably means the Supreme Court will never rule on the constitutionality of that 2008 law.... Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said that the journalists, lawyers and human rights advocates who challenged the constitutionality of the law could not show they had been harmed by it and so lacked standing to sue."
Bob Woodward Extends His Anti-Obama Campaign. Kevin Robillard of Politico: "The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward attacked President Barack Obama on Wednesday, saying the commander-in-chief's decision not to deploy an aircraft carrier because of budget cuts is 'a kind of madness.' ... The Pentagon announced earlier this month the U.S.S. Harry Truman, which was supposed to leave for the Persian Gulf, will remain stateside due to budget concerns. The sequester, which will cut billions in defense spending, is scheduled to hit on Friday." ...
The Virginian-Pilot: "Thousands of blue-collar jobs will be lost if federal lawmakers don't strike a deal by the end if the week to avoid sweeping budget cuts, President Barack Obama told a crowd of about 3,000 shipyard workers this afternoon. Standing in front of a massive propeller in a cavernous facility used to build submarines, Obama called on Congress to compromise or risk harming the economy in Hampton Roads," Virginia. ...
... An excellent, easy-to-understand post by Sharon Parrott of the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities on the impacts of the sequester: "Taken together, the [2011 Budget Control Act] cuts and sequestration would cut discretionary spending 14 percent below the 2010 level in inflation-adjusted terms...." Apparently, Republicans cannot do this math. ...
... Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The federal government, the nation's largest consumer and investor, is cutting back at a pace exceeded in the last half-century only by the military demobilizations after the Vietnam War and the cold war."
... CW: Here's Brian Beutler's prediction on how the sequester will come down. It sounds plausible to me, though I would not be bold enough to bet a nickel on any prediction:
The most important factor in this fight is probably the reality that Obama doesn't have to face voters again and thus is willing to veto sequestration replacement bills if they're composed of spending cuts alone. Congressional Democrats are fully aware of this.... So sequestration will begin.... And then the tension sequestration was intended to create -- and in fact has created -- between defense hawks and the rest of the GOP will intensify and actually splinter the party. If that doesn't happen quickly enough, then the sequestration fight will become tangled up in the need to renew funding for the federal government at the end of March. If Republicans don't cave before then, they'll precipitate a 1995-style government shutdown, public opinion will actually begin to control the outcome, and it'll be game over. ...
... Greg Sargent adds, "Ultimately, what will be decisive is how public opinion plays out through March. The current environment suggests Republicans have a lot more work to do to shift the basic dynamic in their favor than Dems do." ...
... ** STILL, as Jonathan Chait of New York writes, "... deciphering the GOP strategy is as mysterious as gaming out the plans of a tiny band of warring clans in some mountainous region of Afghanistan.... Deepening the bafflement is that the Republicans' apparent approach bears no relation either to political reality or to the party's stated goals. President Obama is offering up something -- hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Social Security and Medicare -- that Republicans say they want and which (because of their unpopularity) they have proven unable to obtain even when they have had full control of government. They are instead undertaking a public showdown against a figure who is vastly more popular and trusted, who possesses a better platform to communicate his message, and whose message itself ... commands overwhelmingly higher public support." Read the whole post. ...
... Sarah Binder, in the Monkey Cage: "I suspect the GOP strategy seems inscrutable because we are overestimating the degree of consensus within (and between) the House and Senate Republican conferences. In the House, for sure, I see no evidence that Speaker Boehner has the votes to re-pass the sequester replacement from last December, explaining why Boehner keeps claiming that the House has already acted even though the bill died at the close of the 112th Congress.... By carving out protection for major (Social Security and Medicare) federal benefits, narrowly tailored education benefits, and low-income support programs, Democratic priorities are partially protected.... Democratic legislators would surely prefer the sequester cuts to the alternative cuts passed in December by House Republicans, which Democrats uniformly voted against."
Kirk Semple of the New York Times: "Federal immigration officials have released hundreds of detainees from immigration detention centers around the country in a highly unusual effort that is intended to save money as automatic budget cuts loom in Washington, officials said Tuesday. The government has not dropped the deportation cases against the immigrants, however. The detainees have been freed on supervised release while their cases continue in court...."
Fiction writer Louise Erdrich, in a New York Times op-ed: "The Justice Department reports that one in three Native women is raped over her lifetime, while other sources report that many Native women are too demoralized to report rape. Perhaps this is because federal prosecutors decline to prosecute 67 percent of sexual abuse cases, according to the Government Accountability Office.... More than 80 percent of sex crimes on reservations are committed by non-Indian men, who are immune from prosecution by tribal courts." The Senate passed the reauthorization Violence Against Women Act -- again -- but the House has failed to pass it once & the version Eric Cantor has put forward would put limits on the protections the Senate bill provides to Native Americans & other groups. ...
... Update: Jake Sherman of Politico: "House Republicans seem to be resigned that their version of the Violence Against Women Act is a loser with their own members and are likely to pass the Senate bill this week without changes. The GOP leadership has set up a floor process that would allow the chamber to vote on the Senate bill if they cannot pass their own version of the domestic violence legislation.... The main lingering issues for the House's bill was how it handled violence in tribal areas. The White House on Tuesday said it 'cannot support the House substitute' to the Senate bill."
James Risen of the New York Times: "Virginia Messick is the first victim of a sexual assault scandal at Lackland Air Force Base to discuss what she has endured.... Ms. Messick, now 21, is one of 62 trainees identified as victims of assault or other improper conduct by 32 training instructors between 2009 and 2012 at Lackland, a sprawling base outside San Antonio that serves as the Air Force's basic training center for enlisted personnel. So far, seven Air Force instructors have been court-martialed, including Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, now serving a 20-year sentence for crimes involving 10 women, including Ms. Messick. Eight more court-martial cases are pending. Fifteen other instructors are under investigation, and two senior officers have been relieved of command.... The reforms undertaken by the Air Force do not alter a fundamental fact of military life: commanders have final say over whether criminal charges are brought in military courts, and victims are expected to report crimes to those who oversee their careers."
Obama 2.0. Ben Protess of the New York Times: "Lawmakers are scrutinizing Mary Jo White ahead of her Senate confirmation hearing [re: her nomination to head the S.E.C.], raising questions about the former prosecutor’s lack of regulatory experience and the challenge of policing Wall Street firms she recently defended in private practice.... Ms. White ... offered a previously undisclosed concession, vowing 'as far as can be foreseen,' never to return to Debevoise & Plimpton, where she had built a lucrative legal practice.... Ms. White had already agreed to recuse herself for one year from most matters that involve former clients.... [Some] Democrats have lingering reservations.... Her husband, John W. White, is co-chairman of the corporate governance practice at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he represents many of the companies that the S.E.C. regulates. They also question whether Ms. White's recusals, even if well-intentioned, could cripple her ability to run the agency."
Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "Gov. Chris Christie, one of the most strident Republican critics of President Obama’s health care overhaul, announced on Tuesday that he would accept federal money to expand the Medicaid program in New Jersey. The expansion, which the governor described in his annual budget address to the Legislature, would provide health insurance to 104,000 of the poorest 1.3 million residents currently living without it, though some groups say the number could be higher. Mr. Christie emphasized that it was a financial decision, not a philosophical shift; if New Jersey did not take the money, he said, the federal government would give it to other states." ...
... Shushannah Walshe of ABC News: "There are almost 40 featured speakers at next month’s Conservative Political Action Conference, but one of the most popular Republican governors in the country has yet to receive an invite. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is 'not being invited' to CPAC...." CW: Walshe describes Marco Rubio as "former Florida Sen[ator]." If only.
Binyamin Appelbaum: "The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, played down concerns about the Fed's economic stimulus campaign on Tuesday, describing it as necessary and effective and making clear it was likely to continue for some time. In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Mr. Bernanke was relatively upbeat about the broader economy, which he said was growing again after pausing in the fourth quarter. But he said unemployment remained unacceptably high." ...
... Mark Gongloff of the Huffington Post: "Newly minted Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday showed why big banks are not her biggest fans, grilling Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about the risks and fairness of having banks that are 'too big to fail.' Warren (D-Mass.) questioned Bernanke during his latest semiannual appearance before the Senate Banking Committee...." Thanks to contributor Julie L. for the link. ...
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... Ben Bernanke was up on Capitol Hill this morning giving his fellow Republicans a much-needed lesson in austerity economics. Departing from his statutory duty of reporting to the Senate Banking Committee on the Fed's monetary policy, Bernanke devoted much of his testimony to fiscal policy, warning his congressional class that letting the sequester go ahead would endanger the economic recovery and do little or nothing to reduce the country's debt burden.... He also called on European countries to ease up on their austerity policies, saying that they could adopt a 'more judicious balance' of short-term and long-term fiscal consolidation.... Today, once again, the mild-mannered professor demonstrated that he can take the heat."
Another Republican Tries to Save the Nation from Republicans. Sheila Bair, the former head of the FDIC, in a New York Times op-ed: "I am a capitalist and a lifelong Republican. I believe that, in a meritocracy, some level of income inequality is both inevitable and desirable.... But I fear that government actions, not merit, have fueled these extremes in income distribution through taxpayer bailouts, central-bank-engineered financial asset bubbles and unjustified tax breaks that favor the rich....Skewing income toward the upper, upper class hurts our economy because the rich tend to sit on their money -- unlike lower- and middle-income people, who spend a large share of their paychecks, and hence stimulate economic activity."
Maureen Dowd writes a critique of Marissa Mayer, the umpteenth CEO of Yahoo! CW: I'm in agreement with most, if not all, of what Dowd says about Mayer's actions, but I always bear in mind that Dowd is especially hard on ultra-successful women.
** CW: Sorry I forgot to link the obituary of former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Coop, who died Monday. Thanks to Kate M. for reminding us. Coop's New York Times obituary is here: "Dr. Koop issued emphatic warnings about the dangers of smoking, he almost single-handedly pushed the government into taking a more aggressive stand against AIDS, and despite his moral opposition to abortion, he refused to use his office as a pulpit from which to preach against it.... In an interview for this obituary in 1996, he said he had declined to speak out on abortion because he thought his job was to deal with factual health issues like the hazards of smoking, not to express opinions on moral issues." ...
... CW: I had no idea that the Times interviewed prominent people for their obituaries. The initial ask gives new meaning to the term "cold call."
Congressional Race
Rick Pearson & Bill Ruthhart of the Chicago Tribune: "Former state Rep. Robin Kelly easily won the special Democratic primary Tuesday night in the race to replace the disgraced Jesse Jackson Jr. in Congress, helped by millions of dollars in pro-gun control ads from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's political fund.... Bloomberg's Independence USA PAC was the largest campaign interest in the race and dominated the Chicago broadcast TV airwaves compared to a marginal buy by one minor candidate."
Right Wing World
If Ted Cruz is so smart, why can't he understand the basics of critical legal studies? Zach Beauchamp of Think Progress: "... not only did Cruz get it wrong [when he claimed that roughly a dozen professors at Harvard Law 'would say they were Marxists who believed in the Communists overthrowing the United States government'], but in a certain sense he got it backwards."
No-Tax Purity Test. Maggie Haberman of Politico: "The Club for Growth, the anti-tax group that has spent heavily in Republican primaries in the past few cycles, is launching a new website that names nine GOP Congress members in safe seats and urges people to help find challengers to them.... [The site] names people in districts where Mitt Romney notched more than 60 percent in the 2012 presidential race, but got a lifetime rating of below 70 percent from the Club."
Benedict Blames Dozing Jesus for Troubles. Rachel Donadio & Alan Cowell of the New York Times: "Pope Benedict XVI held his final general audience in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday, telling tens of thousands of believers in an unusually personal public farewell that his nearly eight years in office had known 'moments of joy and light but also moments that were not easy' when it seemed 'the Lord was sleeping.'"
Secrets of the Dead
Bork's Quest. Mark Sherman of TPM: "Robert Bork says President Richard Nixon promised him the next Supreme Court vacancy after Bork complied with Nixon's order to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox in 1973. Bork's recollection of his role in the Saturday Night Massacre that culminated in Cox's firing is at the center of his slim memoir, 'Saving Justice,' that is being published posthumously by Encounter Books. Bork died in December at age 85." Via Charles Pierce: ... frankly, the fact that a dead crazy person is giving up a dead criminal 40 years too late, and from from the Beyond, does not impress me as an act of contrition, either."
Poor Rockefeller. Paul Glastris of the Washington Monthly: "In 1974, after Richard Nixon resigned and Gerald Ford became president, Ford brought Nelson Rockerfeller into the Oval Office and offered to nominate him to be vice president. When Ford and everyone else was leaving the room, [confirmation prep expert Tom] Korologos ... invited the governor to his office to start the grueling process of going through Rockefeller's past. One of the first questions Rockefeller asked was whether his financial disclosure forms might be made public. This is Washington, Korologos told him, you can bet someone will leak them. The hearings ultimately revealed, among other things, that Rockefeller had failed to pay $1 million in taxes and financed a negative biography of a political rival. But that day, Rockefeller confessed to Korologos his biggest concern: that the disclosure would show that Rockefeller was worth 'only' $600 million, far less than everyone assumed, and he would lose stature in the eyes of his billionaire buddies."
News Ledes
New York Times: "The United States is significantly stepping up its support for the Syrian opposition, senior administration officials said on Wednesday, helping to train rebels at a base in the region and for the first time offering armed groups nonlethal assistance and equipment that could help their military campaign."
New York Times: "Van Cliburn, the American pianist whose first-place award at the 1958 Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow made him an overnight sensation and propelled him to a phenomenally successful and lucrative career, though a short-lived one, died Wednesday morning in Fort Worth. He was 78."
Reuters: "A powerful winter storm that buried the U.S. Plains moved on Tuesday into the southern Great Lakes region, where it snarled the evening commute in Chicago and Milwaukee, created near-whiteout conditions and forced hundreds of flight cancellations."
AP: "A center-left group of parties appears to have the best shot at forming a coalition government in Italy after an inconclusive national election, but the challenge is steep and comes amid public anger over austerity measures. If Italian parties fail to form a governing coalition, new elections would be required, causing more uncertainty and a leadership vacuum, and that possibility rattled financial markets across Europe on Tuesday." Guardian story here.
AP: "New U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has held his first official meeting with France's leadership amid increasing efforts by both countries to bolster Syria's opposition. Kerry met Wednesday with French President Francois Hollande in Paris, chatting in French on the front steps of the Elysee Palace." CW: I guess the headline in Right Wing World would be "Obama's Envoy and Socialist Leader Speak the Same Language -- And It's French!"
Reuters: "Iran gave an upbeat assessment of two days of nuclear talks with world powers that ended on Wednesday, but Western officials said Tehran must start taking concrete steps to ease mounting concerns about its atomic activity."
Reuters: U.S. Lieutenant-General Christopher Bogdan, "the Pentagon program chief for the F-35 warplane, slammed its commercial partners Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney on Wednesday, accusing them of trying to 'squeeze every nickel' out of the U.S. government and failing to see the long-term benefits of the project."
Guardian: "The US government is planning to call an American, possibly one of the 22 Navy Seals involved in the Abbottabad raid that killed Osama bin Laden, to give evidence at the trial of Bradley Manning about how he discovered digital material later revealed to contain WikiLeaks disclosures, a military court heard on Tuesday."
AP: "Two police detectives [in Santa Cruz County, California,] were shot and killed while investigating a sexual assault complaint, and a suspect was also fatally shot after a brief chase, authorities said."
Reuters: "A 19-year-old student died following a shooting on Tuesday at a residence hall of a South Carolina university near the resort area of Myrtle Beach, and authorities were searching for a gunman, university officials said."
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Reader Comments (9)
Rand Paul's yea is even more puzzling immediately after he was among the 21 who voted to continue debate on the Hagel nomination.(http://www.humanevents.com/2013/02/26/hagel-cloture-vote-passes/) Apparently, his reasoning was that Presidents should have a little "leeway" on their nominations. Yikes - must have taken his meds just in time for the confirmation vote.
The idea that Hagel is weak and must "repair" his relationship with Senators on the Armed Services Committee makes, as my sainted father used to say, " my ass work buttonholes." The Brotherhood of the Senatorial Asswipes are the ones who be begging forgiveness for accusing Hagel of being a supporter of terrorism, speechifing in support of terrorism and being a member of a non-existent terrorist group.
This morning I am repeatedly told that visiting this site will result in bad things happening––I ignore this since Marie has told us about her problem with her host, but the warning message gives one an odd sensation that perhaps something could go wrong and I envision a computer disfunction of great magnitude. Yet I forge ahead ignoring the warnings; I watched the PBS "Makers" last night about the historical rise of women's rights and I feel mighty powerful.
P.S. I just showed the warning sign to my husband who said this site was probably hacked by Republicans––he chuckled as he said this, but it gave me pause––for a few moments.
@P.D. Pepe: the message was the result of my having some NBC videos embedded. About a week ago, the NBC site was hacked, & apparently our virus protection plans are just now catching up with it. NBC declared their site safe within hours of the hacking, so my best guess is that the virus programs are behind the curve & there's nothing wrong with the vids.
I took down one of the NBC videos & moved the other -- Michelle Obama dancing with Jimmy Fallon -- down so it doesn't fall on the front page.
Marie
Update: I substituted a YouTube video for the NBC video of Obama & Fallon, so all should be well now.
So Mary Jo's husband is, "co-chairman of the corporate governance practice at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he represents many of the companies that the S.E.C. regulates."
WTF?!? We already have conflict of interest with Mary making it rich being the Minion to corporate corruption, and now she's going to go home and have her filet mignons while passing on the dirt she's collected to her well-networked hubby.... Right.
Talk about insider trading. How can this be expected to work.
Hold on, what's that Oracle? Oh yeah, right. That's the idea.
You might want to let your breakfast settle a bit. I don't read WAPO much but today the local paper ran Kathleen Parker's article on Michelle Obama published in WAPO yesterday. Parker spent the entire article pushing, shoving,and cutting off limbs in order to cram Michelle Obama into some "Gidget/ Madonna" (to use Parker's words) nightmare scenario of a girl who just wants to have fun. Of course, not before she elevates Laura Bush to some heroic pedestal in the sky and says of Obama:
"Obviously accomplished in her own right, she spent the past four years fashioning an image of good wife and mother to counter early impressions of her as politically ambitious and, to certain of her critics, angry."
I've got nothing against Laura Bush except her taste in men, but freedom fighter for the oppressed? A few days ago it was all about removing her name from the ad supporting gay marriage. Yeah she's a trailblazer.
Lord, Michelle Obama doesn't Parker's idea of a whitebread first lady should be - Laura Bush and Jackie Kennedy suit with a heavy dose of Gidget thrown in. The Madonna thing was just snark.......
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kathleen-parker-michelle-obama--the-first-lady-takes-flight/2013/02/26/b9ff0002-804e-11e2-a350-49866afab584_story.html?wprss=rss_rightleaning
@Diane: about half-way down this piece, Driftglass has some apt words for Parker.
"When a woman changes her hair — especially as dramatically as the first lady did — something is up," Parker writes. I have just Googled images of Parker & have found her sporting half-a-dozen different do's, including -- bangs! Apparently, she has had a very busy life, with lots of new self-realizations. Probably a good idea for Parker to see a professional about a possible multiple personality disorder.
Or maybe she just wanted a new hairdo. Anyway, her column was up to MoDo standards.
Marie
Scalia on section V of the Voting Rights Act "perpetuation of racial entitlement." After striking down Section V of the Voting Rights Act, perpetuation of racial entitlement will actually be reality - different race.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/voting-rights-act-supreme-court_n_2768942.html
It appears that the Supremes are getting ready to help Republicans make sure that the voter suppression schemes that felt short of handing them a big win in the last election will be given thumbs up for all elections as we move into the future, at least in the southern states whose long history of electoral mischief forced the federal government to step in and tell them, "why, no, you can't deny these people the right to vote anymore".
If anything, given the GOP's move toward greater and more efficient ways to rig and steal elections and suppress the vote, the SCOTUS should expand this section of the law to require ALL states controlled largely by Republican governors, secretaries of state, and election officials to be required to receive permission whenever they try any of their slimy tricks like allowing Republican polling places equipped with 45 booths and a staff of hundreds to stay open for 24 hours while forcing voters in Democratic and largely minority precincts to show up on election day between 6:00 AM and 6:16 AM to wait in line for a single broken voting booth, and ready to present 12 forms of identification, DNA samples, medical clearance, the results of a psych evaluation, dressed in formal evening attire and riding a unicycle while reciting the 2nd and 10th Amendments by heart.
I mean, why not just say, "All you good ol' boys who have been hampered in your attempts to keep those blah people from voting, don't worry about a thing. We got your backs. Them niggras ain't gettin' anywhere near a polling place if we can he'p it."