U.S. Says Blacks in Mississippi Suppress White Vote

[Rose Siding]

The Justice Department has chosen this no-stoplight, courthouse town buried in the eastern Mississippi prairie for an unusual civil rights test: the first federal lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act accusing blacks of suppressing the rights of whites.

The action represents a sharp shift, and it has raised eyebrows outside the state. The government is charging blacks with voting fraud in a state whose violent rejection of blacks’ right to vote, over generations, helped give birth to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Yet within Mississippi the case has provoked knowing nods rather than cries of outrage, even among liberal Democrats.

The Justice Department’s main focus is Ike Brown, a local power broker whose imaginative electoral tactics have for 20 years caused whisperings from here to the state capital in Jackson, 100 miles to the southwest. Mr. Brown, tall, thin, a twice-convicted felon, the chairman of the Noxubee County Democratic Executive Committee and its undisputed political boss, is accused by the federal government of orchestrating — with the help of others — “relentless voting-related racial discrimination” against whites, whom blacks outnumber by more than 3 to 1 in the county.
...
There are so few whites in the county, Mr. Brown suggests, that the tactics he is accused of are unnecessary to keep blacks in office.

“They can’t win anyway unless we choose to vote for them,” he said with a smile. “If I was doing something wrong — that’s like closing the barn door when the horse is already gone.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/us/politics/11voting.html

[Lindacooks]

1. Oh no, those poor white folks!

After all, they are the majority, they have all the money, they have all the power, they have better jobs, homes, schools, er, wait, ...

Huh?

[Totallybushed]

12. "They are the majority"??

Not according to the article. Don't know whether or not criminality occurred, though.

[Lindacooks]

15. I'm speaking generally.

Sheesh, be picky.

[Totallybushed]

16. The devil is in the details.

If racism is based on power, and if the charges are true, I'd say we have some black racists here.

[Hosnon]

32. What the hell? nt

[greeneyedboy]

2. weird story, but as i read it, not so much about race as about a crackpot

[DaveJ]

6. Maybe not a crackpot...

...but someone who seems not to acknowledge the subtleties of the law, at least based on his his tax fraud felony combined with the possibility of Brown encouraging other legal 'oversights'. Democrats should not need to resort to these tactics... leave it to the Cons.

[KingFlorez]

3. I bet the GOP has a hand in this

This is absolutely stupid, there are hardly any whites in the county, why would they suppress them?

[warrens]

9. I saw a PBS report about this county

It's a pretty vile machine. This guy is admitting it, just saying that he doesn't even have to do it. But they do everything they can to make it tough for whites to vote. Suppression is wrong, no matter who is doing it.

[Rose Siding]

11. I agree, but isn't it interesting to see which fights the govt picks?

It's not like there's a dearth of voting irregularities going on around the country.

[Totallybushed]

14. That is the truth!!

[underpants]

22. I'm sorry but this is being done for the RW noise machine

I have read about this case before and from the article this guy does seem crooked as a politician but they picked this county simply to give the RW noise machine something to kill more time with. They is out to get us!!!!

[Zhade]

24. It's pretty telling, all right - like going after the leftwing church.

Don't misunderstand - the liberal church was breaking the law, but it's interesting how the Dobsons of the world get ignored and this one wasn't.

ALL violations should be dealt with.

[Laughing Mirror]

31. Well Brown has a "maverick Republican lawyer" the article says

So the GOP does a hand in this, you're right.

[last1standing]

4. Suppression on anyone's rights is unacceptable, black or white.

That said, this is just another example of the repubs putting out a story to shore up their racist base. There are still many, many, larger and better examples of racism against blacks than whites in this country and for the fed to ignore all of those in order to go after some rinky-dink town in Mississippi is racist in itself.

But it will get the Archie Bunker vote come November.

[Blaq Dem]

5. Yep, Conservatives are steadily turning back the clock

They're already talking about doing away with Affirmative Action. There's a court case coming up soon in the Supreme Court. With the judges Bush selected, civil rights is dead.

It's amazing how after so many years of discrimination against minorities and women, white southern male having all the advantages, many of them are still poor white trash today.

[bluestateguy]

7. What a waste of time

I wonder how many of these white Mississippians' grandparents were either members of racist organizations or themselves played a part in the disenfranchisement of black people for 100 years.

Tough shit.

[Totallybushed]

13. Straighten me out here.

What does whatever their grandparents did have to do with them? Did they oppress the blacks personally? What an un-liberal comment!!

[tritsofme]

17. Even if every one of their grandfathers were grand masters of the KKK

I don't see how you can see that as justification for disenfranchising these people.

[classysassy]

19. Why

must the blacks always bend over backward to be fair,when they have been mistreated for years by their own goverment?Why didn't the justice department investergate the fraud in the 2000 election(in fla),so much racist bull shit is flying during this election year.Get a life people.

[Zhade]

25. Because they don't want to be hypocrites?

Disenfranchisement of voters based on their ancestors' wrongs is, itself, wrong.

[Totallybushed]

29. If you have to bend over backward.

It isn't fairness. "Fair" is everybody treated alike.

[brentspeak]

30. What a dumb post

[Hosnon]

33. Wow...what a sick view. nt

[Zhade]

36. Wonder if you had racists in your family line.

Or maybe killers. Or fans of squaredancing.

Should you be punished for their transgressions?

[gatlingforme]

38. It's this dumb attitude that keeps us from moving forward.

[bluestateguy]

39. All right, I was wrong. I'm sorry.

I was in a pissy mood this morning. I said something that I do not mean, and said something that I should not have said.

If there is a legitimate finding of violation of civil rights laws, then by all means, investigate, prosecute and hold people accountable.

I apologize for this foolish remark I have made.

[Totally Committed]

8. Oh, this is RICH!

UN-effing-BELIEVABLE! Watch the press THIS gets! --- "See, THEY supreess US, so when WE supress THEM, it's justified."

This country is going to hell in a hand-basket. I am speechless.

TC

[asjr]

10. Well, it sounds like Speedy Gonzales is at it again.

[Zhade]

26. Irony: Speedy Gonzalez was a racist cartoon series.

NT!

[Vidar]

18. Didn't realize the Brooklyn Bridge was for sale in Mississippi.

[patrick t. cakes]

20. when will the justice department

investigate.....OHIO!!!!!!:mad:

[silverweb]

21. Perspective.

I agree that voter suppression is wrong in any instance for any reason.

However, the fact that this is being played up in the national media seems to me to indicate that the reTHUGs are trying to make a generalization about black Democrats based on this case. The aim would obviously be to deflect attention from the reTHUGs' own well-documented, massive black voter suppression and fraud by saying, "But look at what black Democrats are doing!"

As of the 2000 census, Noxubee County had a total population of 12,548 people, 4,470 households, and 3,222 families. Of that population, 69.30% was Black, 29.49% White, 0.15% Native American, 0.11% Asian, 0.37% from other races, and 0.58% from two or more races. 1.12% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. _source_

Why would the Justice Department be making a big issue of this tiny population rather than just indicting and trying those responsible? See paragraph 2, above.

[Zhade]

37. No question as to the focus. It's reprehensible.

Likewise, if this is happening, it's also reprehensible.

[sofa king]

23. Yo, DOJ: Flori-fucking-DUH! 2000.

Remember it, Catherine Harris and Jeb Bush illegally purging thousands of non-whites from voter rolls?

No investigation. No lawsuits. No convictions. What the fuck are you doing in a one-horse town in Mississippi?

[ecstatic]

27. Vote suppression is always wrong, but this action is a slap in the face

Considering the many instances of Black voter suppression that have gone uninvestigated for decades. Should this specific issue be investigated? Of course, but they better damn well make sure they are also investigating the practices of states like Florida who purposely and wrongly add hundreds of thousands of black voters to felon lists.

[hollowdweller]

28. This story will be posted on every right wing website around

racists love stuff like this because it makes it look like vote supression is equal when it's probably 100000 to 1.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

34. Is this the best October surprise they can come up with?

Lame-o.

Ditch the racist s.o.b., then go after the ones in Ohio. And Florida. And every other place in the country that violates the Voting Rights Act.

And while we're at it, let's do something about getting Congressional representation for majority-black Washington DC. I wonder if statehood would be an issue if the population was predominantly white?

[superconnected]

35. It sounds like gov propaganda to make the whites hate the blacks.

Guess I just dont trust the justice dept.

[cap]

40. The DOJ Civil Rights division needs a hose turned on it

and flushed out like the stinking barn that it has become. It has become the anti-civil rights department. There have only been a handful of civil rights cases brought since Bush came into office. The DOJ has been heavily involved in reverse discrimination cases (I think over 200 cases). It has done nothing on age discrimination. Gender discrimination has come to a screeching halt. The Bush administration has forced out senior lawyers who were not on board with the administration ideology with early retirement. It has brought in vetted anti-affirmative action lawyers into the civil service as well as the political appointees. Pro-civil rights attorneys have left and gone into non-profits that truly believe in upholding rights of minorities. Unfortunately, as they leave they fill holes that are filled by racists (let's just call like it is...).

Add to this the appointment of mid-level vetted circuit judges and the evil becomes even harder to fight. Since the Dems cant bring subpoenas in Congress, they are powerless to stop the perversion of the civil service.

This is typical Bush Orwellian double speak... The Department of Justice has become the Department of Injustice.