Voting Rights Act Being Hijacked - CALL CONGRESS!!!

[beaconess]

URGENT ALERT from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights!

Call your representative NOW at [phone]. Tell your representative: Congress must get the Voting Rights Act renewal back on track, and should not recess until it gets the job done. I urge you to fully support H.R. 9 and oppose any harmful amendments.

The members who hijacked the Voting Rights Act -- Reps. Lynn Westmorland, Charlie Norwood and others -- represent retrogressive forces that America hasn't seen at this level since the 1960s. Many of those trying to derail this bill represent states with the most egregious records of discrimination in voting. Their actions would return us to a time when the right to vote for racial and ethnic minorities was not protected.

Rarely does a bill have the bicameral, bipartisan support that H.R. 9 has. House leaders must move past this small group of saboteurs and get this bill back on track immediately. The nation's continued progress toward equality demands it. Representatives are scheduled to leave Washington next week for a July 4th recess. But House members should not go home until they have finished the job of renewing the Voting Rights Act.

http://renewthevra.civilrights.org/resources/details.cfm?id=44549

[journalist3072]

1. I was encourging everyone to do this in a thread I posted here on DU

But no one responded to it:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1488109&mesg_id=1488109

[beaconess]

2. It's a shame there doesn't seem to be more interest on DU about this issue

Damn shame.

[journalist3072]

5. You are absolutely right. And it's an issue that I feel very passionately

about. Like I said, I posted about it on DU the other day.

And also, I've been talking about it on my blog. And I am a member of John Edward's One America Committee site, so I made a diary entry about it on there.

I'm trying to do my part.

[itzamirakul]

11. Thanks for what you are trying to do. i don't always reply to

every post that I read, but in the case of the VRA I am sending this info to everyone on my personal mailing list. So please keep posting this stuff because sometimes people like me don't see it the first time.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

3. JUST PICK UP THE PHONE

AND CALL. TELL THEM WHAT YOU WANT! PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. TIE UP THE PHONE LINES! THIS IS AN OLD TACTIC, BUT IT REALLY WORKS.

[journalist3072]

4. What can I do to help?

Because I am a D.C. resident, I have no representation in Congress. So I have no Representative to call and say "support the re-authorization of the VRA."

I feel helpless.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

7. CALL ANY SEN. OR REP. YOU WANT IT.

TIE UP THE PHONES!TALK ABOUT ANYTHING YOU WANT TO CHANGE. YOU GET NOTICED WHEN THE LINES STOP WORKING.

[journalist3072]

8. Because I am not their constituent, will they even take my call?

I know I have emailed Senators before (for example, I emailed Sen. Boxer just to thank her for signing on to the objection of the certification of the Ohio electors).

Anyway, when you email a Senator, you usually see a message that says they will only respond to emails from constituents.

So I'm just wondering how a telephone call would go over. Because they aren't looking for my vote, they could probably care less what I think.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

9. DON'T USE E-MAIL. USE THE PHONE.

THIS TIES UP THE OFFICE STAFF. THE OBJECT IS TO GET NOTICED WHEN THE STAFF REPORTS BACK TO THE REP. OR SEN. WHATS GOING ON WITH THE PHONES.

[xxqqqzme]

10. go here

http://www.vote-smart.org/index.htm
find the senator you want 2 call, take note of the zip code or city where they have a home office - use that if the staffer asks. I do this all the time. I'm not going to let 'constituent' stop me when they are voting on issues that affect ALL AMERICANS!

[Hippo_Tron]

6. It's a stunt and it will get to a vote

Lynn Westmoreland and others are trying to pander to their racist base but also to their xenophobic base with the provisions about spanish language ballots. There's no chance that they will actually succeed, however. Congressman Westmoreland may have won the 2006 elections for Democrats with this stunt by causing unprecedented black turnout.

By the way, I was thinking about making a sign with the ten commandments on it and posting the sign on a government building. However, it seems as though I can only remember three of them. Maybe Congressman Westmoreland can help me out with this.

[beaconess]

12. Don't take it lightly as a stunt!

Westmoreland and Norwood and those who are quietly behind them want to get rid of the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act - they don't want Georgia and other states with history of blatant racial discrimination to be monitored by the federal government anymore. Their plan is to drag this out until it's too late to reauthorize the Act before it expires next August.

If this bill doesn't pass before the July 4th recess this year, that could happen:

When Congress comes back from the Fourth of July recess, there will be only a couple of weeks before the August recess - there will be little, if any time, to get the bill passed in both the House and the Senate. Arlen Specter has already caved in to the racists on the Senate side and says he won't even allow a vote out of the Judiciary Committee until the House acts on the bill. So that means they'll have two weeks, with all of the other stuff they have to do, to pass the bill in the House, vote it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, get it on the Senate floor, deal with all of the objections the Southern Senators will raise, and have a vote. It could happen, but it will be hard.

And if they wait until after they come back in September, it will be even worse. They'll be scrambling to get all of the appropriations bills and other measures - that they should have been working on all year long but were too busy to do, what with gay marriage and flag burning being so important, and all - it's unlikely they'll get to the Voting Rights Act.

Then we'll be looking at next year. If Dems take back the House and Senate, it should be no problem. But if we don't, they will continue to slow-walk it and, before we know it, the Act will expire!

DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN - STAY ON THEM. MAKE THEM DO A VOTE NOW!!!!

[beaconess]

13. kick

[beaconess]

14. kick

[Quantess]

15. kicking __E.O.M.