Today's outrage....

[pat]

You would think, given this government -- and I say government, not Administration, because both Congress and the judiciary have done some breathtakingly bad things over the past few years, although generally not as bad as the idiots in the White House, I would have run out of the capacity to be appalled and shocked.

There is an amendment to the current housing bill which would deny housing funds to any group which participated in voter-registration campaigns, even if those efforts were nonpartisan. (Thanks to jmhm for the heads-up.)

You may remember that, along with capital punishment, voting rights are sort of a "thing" with me. I was so appalled by this amendment I decided that even e-mail wasn't urgent enough, and called my representative's Washington office, which may have been stupid, but which made me feel a little better.

Call. Write. E-mail. Scream. Just contact your representative. Trampling on the ability of groups to help people exercise one of the most fundamental rights we have as citizens is an abomination.

Evil. Evil. Evil. I would call these people pond scum, but that would be an insult to fine, upstanding pond scum everywhere.

(Oh, and just wait until I get started on some of the efforts at amending the Patriot Act's federal death penalty, or the maneuverings in regard to Jose Padilla. And I've been completely avoiding Plamegate, on the grounds that so many other people are doing such a stellar job talking about it.)

Evil evil evil evil evil evil.

Comments

[sisterfish125.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't that mean that our government workers couldn't vote, because they're off registering voters in Iraq...

What about the people at the library? I registered to vote when I got my library card changed...and at the DMV when I originally moved to Georgia...

*shakes head*

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

No, this applies to groups that register voters and then apply for housing funds. Unusally non-profits such as churches or in some places tenant's rights groups. If a Habitat for Humanity chapter helped with a voter registration drive -- even if it were nonpartisan -- it would be ineligible for housing funds.

This will disproportionately affect organizatiions that offer a lot of services to the poor.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I continue to be very pleased we have something called the Australian Electoral Commission, and compulsory voting. All these attempts to deprive poor people of the right to vote would be seen here, I think, as something like obstruction of justice.