President Obama Has Plenty Of Money For Playing Cards
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With the government shutting down it is a good time to look at what parts of the behemoth really do close up shop and which ones don’t. There are regulations governing which federal workers are considered “essential” and “non-essential”, and obviously some agencies are more important than others. But within this framework the president has some discretion as to pick and choose which workers and agencies are shut down. If he wanted to keep something like the national parks open he could by taking money from some other government body. But in true President Obama fashion he wants to put on a show and what is more visual for the news media than having the gates to public parks locked. Which of course the president takes no blame for, nor does the media lay any on him.
Now, let’s look at a department the president could draw funding from, but he has decided it must remain open because it’s job is just too vital for the American people to go without. First, we need some background. The 1965 Voting Rights Act had a provision that eight states, mostly in the South and with a history of racial discrimination, had to receive “preclearance” from the federal government before they could make changes to their election laws. Last June, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court struck down this provision. In a nutshell, the ruling said it is not 1965 anymore and that the preclearance provision violates these states 10th Amendment rights by putting a burden on them that other states do not have. In the wake of this ruling, several Southern states have passed new election laws that include requiring voter I.D. One of those states is North Carolina.
With the government shutting down it is a good time to look at what parts of the behemoth really do close up shop and which ones don’t. There are regulations governing which federal workers are considered “essential” and “non-essential”, and obviously some agencies are more important than others. But within this framework the president has some discretion as to pick and choose which workers and agencies are shut down. If he wanted to keep something like the national parks open he could by taking money from some other government body. But in true President Obama fashion he wants to put on a show and what is more visual for the news media than having the gates to public parks locked. Which of course the president takes no blame for, nor does the media lay any on him.
Now, let’s look at a department the president could draw funding from, but he has decided it must remain open because it’s job is just too vital for the American people to go without. First, we need some background. The 1965 Voting Rights Act had a provision that eight states, mostly in the South and with a history of racial discrimination, had to receive “preclearance” from the federal government before they could make changes to their election laws. Last June, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court struck down this provision. In a nutshell, the ruling said it is not 1965 anymore and that the preclearance provision violates these states 10th Amendment rights by putting a burden on them that other states do not have. In the wake of this ruling, several Southern states have passed new election laws that include requiring voter I.D. One of those states is North Carolina.
On Monday, President Obama, via his Attorney General Eric Holder, using what they have turned into a political vendetta squad, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Divison, sued North Carolina over these new election laws. They press ahead in this case, and a similar one filed against Texas, not only in the face of the government shutdown, but in spite of the Supreme Court’s ruling from earlier this year. They are demanding the courts return North Carolina and Texas to federal preclearance oversight by arguing these new voting laws are discrinimatory against minorites. In effect, President Obama’s DOJ is saying these states are still run by a bunch of racists wearing white hoods trying to keep black folks from voting. These states also just happen to be governed by Republicans. In a New York Times’Â report on this case, they quote two election law specialists;
‘Richard H. Pildes, a New York University law professor, said the Justice Department faced a complex legal challenge, “particularly when some of these changes, such as reducing early voting, involve measures that make voting more convenient but don’t restrict direct access to the ballot box.‒
‘Richard L. Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, said the department would “have a hard time proving constitutional or Voting Rights Act violations against North Carolina,†adding that proving intentional racial discrimination is difficult and “even though many minority voters are Democrats, discrimination against Democrats cannot be the basis for these voting claims.‒
In other words, these cases against North Carolina and Texas have no chance. They are simply brought by President Obama’s Civil Rights legal hit men to harass and intimidate his political enemies. So, while the president cannot find the money to keep open the World War II Memorial for elderly veterans to visit, he can find plenty of taxpayer’s cash to waste on frivolous cases just to play the race card on Republicans.
