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The GOP's Army of Voter Intimidators
Colorlines‘ voting-rights reporter, Brentin Mock, writes that True the Vote, an organization affiliated with the Koch brothers’ super PAC Americans for Prosperity, is determined to train and dispatch a Tea Party army of voter intimidators to watch over this year’s electoral process to spot “irregularities,” label them fraud and use that “evidence” to justify new…
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Texas' Decades-Long Fight Against Voting Rights
In a blog entry at ColorLlines, Brentin Mock warns that a legal challenge to a voter-ID law in Texas could signal the demise of the Voting Rights Act, which made it possible for people of color to vote in much of the country. Earlier this week, Attorney General Eric Holder declared in his address to…
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Pennsylvania Voters Have a New Deadline
Adding to the long list of states attacking voter laws, Pennsylvania, argues Colorlines contributor Brentin Mock, is using photo ID expiration dates as a weapon. The state’s Gov. Tom Corbett recently signed a bill into law that is supposed to tackle voter fraud, and Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State Carol Aichele is tasked with its publicity.…
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Mississippi to Voters: Show Your ID!
ColorLines blogger Brentin Mock checks in on Mississippi’s tough new voter ID law, which was signed on Thursday. Before stepping into the booth, voters are now required to show IDs under the law that is bound to face legal challenges. Yesterday, Democrats in Congress unveiled the Voter Empowerment Act of 2012, legislation aimed at strengthening…
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Voter Disenfranchisement's Real Female Face
Brentin Mock, contributor to the Nation, spoke with voting-rights “evangelist” Faye Anderson, who said that the focus of the voter-registration movement should be re-evaluated. Instead of concentrating on registering elderly persons, Mock argues, the movement should target middle-aged women without driver’s licenses. “Advocates have done themselves a disservice by bringing up these 80- and 90-year-old…
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Texas Needs to Chill With the War on Voting Rights
At ColorLines, Brentin Mock worries about the implication of Texas’ challenge to the Voting Rights Act . Challenging the Department of Justice’s rejection of Texas’s proposed photo voter ID laws wasn’t enough. No, Texas had to challenge the Voting Rights Act itself, particularly Section 5, which grants the federal government special powers to oversee election…
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Your Take: A Year After BP, Gulf Is Not Back
One year after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Gulf Coast has dropped out of the headlines. As I was walking recently with a reporter along the beach of an eroding island in the vast Gulf of Mexico, the waters were as clear as the skies, leaving little evidence that the nation’s worst accidental…
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The Root Interview: Antoine Dodson
By Brentin Mock (Updated October 27, 2010) Ever since Antoine Dodson’s TV news interview from Huntsville, Ala., when he sounded off about an intruder who broke into his sister’s apartment and allegedly attempted to rape her, he has become a media spectacle, if not a celebrity. His televised rant has been remixed and Auto-Tuned in…
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Post-Oil Spill Recovery: Who Benefits?
On Tuesday the Obama administration cheered the release of the Long Term Gulf Coast Restoration Support Plan authored by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. The 130-page document asks that Congress apply the bulk of civil penalties and fines imposed on BP for its Clean Water Act violations toward a Gulf Coast Recovery Fund that would pay…
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There Was Nothing Good About Katrina
There’s no way I can reflect on the future of New Orleans without starting with the lives of the displaced. Not all of those lives shared the same fate or destiny, but what has happened in the city while they’ve been away is, I believe, a telling story of how federal policymakers feel about the…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
