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i am convinced that it is important to create an open diverse environment to provide discussion and education concerning the voting rights act with no political motivations. it is up for renewel in 2007, and it is important that people know about it.

my friend jeff sent this to me last night:

From: Ben Brandzel, MoveOn.org Political Action [mailto:moveon-help@list.moveon.org]
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 12:30 PM
To: Jeff Hess
Subject: Help the NAACP save the Voting Rights Act

The 1965 Voting Rights Act needs to be renewed and is headed for the Senate, where some republicans will try to run down the clock. Next week, the NAACP is sending 2000 volunteers to Washington to meet with senators, and we want to arm them with signatures and comments from thousands of supportive Americans. Will you join in?


The Good News


Late yesterday afternoon, the House of Representatives overcame weeks of stall tactics from a conservative bloc of Republicans and re-authorized the Voting Rights Act! If we act now, we can help make sure it will pass in the Senate as well.





Dear MoveOn member,

A group of Republicans in the Senate are preparing to hold up the re-authorization of the 1965 Voting Rights Act—the landmark legislation that prevents partisan officials from denying minorities their right to vote. If the VRA is not reauthorized soon, it will open the door to voter discrimination in some of the highest risk areas around the country.
After the 8 hour lines, wrongly "purged" voter rolls and blatant intimidation many minority voters faced in Ohio and Florida in the last 2 elections, our nation cannot afford to make this problem any worse.
Next week, the NAACP is bringing over 2000 volunteers to Washington D.C. to walk door to door in the Senate making the case for the Voting Rights Act. You can help.
This morning, we're launching a petition asking the Senate to swiftly renew the Voting Rights Act. If you add your name now, we'll pass your signature and comments on to the NAACP volunteers to hand deliver to your Senators. Please sign today:

http://www.political.moveon.org/votingrights?id=8216-3080040-VkBMzPhcocKMNWdyrPy87w&t=2

The 1965 Voting Rights Act is one of the greatest accomplishments of the civil rights movement. It ended the Jim-Crow era poll taxes and "literacy tests" that had been used since the Civil War to stop African-Americans from voting. It forbids intimidating minority voters away from the polls, and bans drawing district lines to divide and diffuse minority votes.1
Though most of Congress supports re-authorizing the VRA, a right-wing bloc of Republicans managed to derail the bill for over a month in the House,2 (a blockade that finally ended yesterday).3 Now, the Voting Rights Act is headed to the Senate, where, as the AP is reporting, "The objections from House conservatives are being echoed by their colleagues across the Capitol."4 It's easier for a small group to stall things in the Senate, and a delay of even a few more weeks would push it off the Senate calendar for the rest of the year.
If the VRA is not reauthorized, several key provisions will simply expire. These include the requirement to provide multi-lingual ballots in relevant areas and special scrutiny for states and counties with a clear history of voter discrimination. Perhaps most importantly, the law allowing the federal government to investigate in high risk areas when there is specific evidence of voter intimidation could be wiped off the books—simply by continuing to delay.5
The NAACP, People for the American Way and other civil rights groups have made this their top priority, and they've asked us to join the fight. This petition will be unusually effective because we'll print out your signatures and comments and give them to NAACP volunteers to hand deliver to your senators. This not only ensures that you will be heard right way, but it adds great power to the NAACP effort.
Together, we can make sure that when those volunteers stand up in Washington, it will be clear to everyone they meet that they aren't standing alone. Please add your name today:

i appreciate both the naacp and moveon.org for the good works they do, and i will write my senator, but why arent they helping to educate people on what the voting rights act really contains right now, and how not all states were created equal under this act, and bringing forth ideascchanges that will improve the act instead of just saying the other guy has the wrong idea?

Song of the day:all food and creative love- rusted root