'RIVETING EVIDENCE': E-mails From Rep Lamar Smith (R-TX) Discussing WAYS TO DILUTE HISPANIC VOTE

[kpete]

...actual emails from Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) discussing ways to dilute the Hispanic vote in Texas when they redrew congressional districts this year.



10.26.2011 — 09:59 AM
'RIVETING CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE'

For readers who have followed voting rights issues for a long time, you'll want to check this out.
Feds: Rick Perry-Signed Texas Redistricting Plan Reduces Voting Power Of 479,704 Hispanics
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/feds_rick_perry-signed_redistricting_map_keeps_479704_hispanics_from_electing_candidate_of_their_choice.php?ref=fpblg
The Justice Department thinks it has the sort of evidence of racially discriminatory redistricting that you would only dream up for a law school exam: actual emails from Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) discussing ways to dilute the Hispanic vote in Texas when they redrew congressional districts this year.

The member of Congress in question is Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) — who as it so happens chairs the House Judiciary Committee, which has primary oversight over DOJ. Smith’s emails are cited as an example of officials plotting to protect their electoral interests while taking race into account.

......................

While the existence of contemporaneous statements of direct racial intent related to current redistricting efforts may be rare, the email exchanges between United States Congressional representatives and staff, and State officials involved in devising the State’s plans, provide riveting circumstantial evidence bearing witness to the process discussed above, where data as to race and ethnicity rather than partisan data drove the line drawing for the proposed Congressional plan, and where the State sought to exclude minority representatives from the redistricting process. DOJ lawyers said in reference to emails to and from Smith.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/70375462/DOJ-s-Texas-Redistricting-Filings

Here’s the kicker: Gov. Rick Perry signed that discriminatory redistricting plan into law in Texas. So this is a story with national political implications on multiple levels.

Read More →
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/10/riveting_circumstantial_evidence.php?ref=fpblg
http://www.scribd.com/doc/70375462/DOJ-s-Texas-Redistricting-Filings

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[EC]

2. Good thing the Voting Rights Act covers

Texas...now will the courts allow the maps to stand?

[callous taoboy]

3. Get that Howdy Doody asshole.

[ceile]

4. K&R n/t

[KittyWampus]

5. Redistricting- the least sexy topic in politics. But arguably the most important.

[Brother Buzz]

9. That, and judaical appointments

[animato]

6. kick and rec

[animato]

7. kick and rec

[Segami]

8. Kick & rec.

:kick:

[BetterThanNoSN]

10. Another brick in the wall...

..of Republican voter contempt. Ho Hum

[uponit7771]

11. wow

[Melissa G]

12. Isn't Obama's DOJ pretty much Shrub's DOJ?

If so, these would be the same political appointees that gave us the mess that Texas is currently in because of mid decade re redistricting. These superiors squelched the career folks who were saying the mid decade shenanigans should not be left standing.

I hope the DOJ works as it should this time around.

[lark]

13. Nope

Holders Justice Dept. continues to make a mockery of the name. He's doing a great job of extending all the Bush policies that the candidate Obama railed against, then immediately embraced once he was President Obama.

It's just disgusting that I feel I have to vote for him because "he's not as totally batshit crazy as Perry, Bachmann, Cain, etc. In most important ways, they seem to have the same or quite similar goals. I can't think of anything much sadder than this.

[Scuba]

23. +1

[RainDog]

14. Lamar Smith has go to go

please, Austin, TX, get rid of this ass.

[Melissa G]

15. Austin TX would LOVE to get rid of his ass, but Travis County has been sliced and diced

out of our ability to do so. We now look like this. The State capitol is obviously not a 'community of interest' deserving of representation of our congruent interests in the eyes of the Repubs. :eyes: Redistricting Hell.:grr:

check out the map at the link below:

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2011/04/28/a_proposed_redistricting_map_w.html

[RainDog]

18. gerrymandering has a long and ignoble tradition...

condolences.

maybe the libertarians and liberals can create a coalition since Smith is the one person in the legislature that is keeping a decriminalization bill from a hearing - it is a bipartisan bill - including Paul as a sponsor.

maybe divide the conservatives on their social issues...

but I know the talibornagains are strong in Tx - I'm from the south, too, and, honestly, I feel for you.

Austin is a GREAT city. love it. Smith doesn't deserve to represent such a fine place.

[Blue Owl]

16. This just in: GOP still lying, cheating, stealing

n/t

[The Wielding Truth]

17. It's against the law. He did it.There is evidence. He's done.

This criminal was once Chairman of the Ethics Committee.


...So typical of our friends on the other side of the aisle...

[malaise]

19. Sweet!

Scumbags :puke:

[Enthusiast]

20. K&R!

Democracy? Who needs it?

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."
— Frank Zappa

[Skidmore]

21. Your read more links are freezing my computer.

So, I'll have to make due with the summary.

[Brother Buzz]

24. Nothing nefarious about the sites

The Scrib link is just a big ass one, like, a 142 pages. Maybe you just need a stronger hamster! ;)

[Skidmore]

25. My hamster isn't the only thing that's not working today.

Been a hell of a month so far.

[Mosaic]

22. This crook broke the law

He's toast.

[Vogon_Glory]

26. No Doubt AG Holder Is Preparing A Slap On The Wrist For Smith

No doubt US Attorney General Eric Holder is preparing a slap on the wrist for Lamar Smith. I mean this administration still believes in that "post-partisan" bull-puckey, right? So even if the Department of Justice has a long-overdue chance to throw the book at Lamar Smith, Eric Holder will no doubt settle for a "we're-not-really-mad-at-you" light tap on the wrist for Lamar Smith.

:argh:

[deacon]

27. Wow and sheeeesh. k/r +1