* 'unfamiliar' with Voting Rights Act

It's not that this shocks me, it's just that it's so WRONG! We have an uneducated idiot running our country and half the people don't seem to mind! :mad:

At least the pic in the article makes him look like the dweeb he is. :D





WASHINGTON (NNPA) President George W. Bush met with the Congressional Black Caucus recently for the first time as a group in nearly four years, but what CBC members said stood out the most was the president's declaration that he was "unfamiliar" with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant pieces of legislation passed in the history of the United States.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Bush was asked by Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Illinois) whether he would support the re-authorization of a portion of the Voting Rights Act that must be approved every 25 years (It will come up for consideration next year).

"I don't know anything about the 1965 Voting Rights Act," Jackson quoted the president as saying.


http://www.dallasexaminer.com/cgi-bin/examiner/display_story.cgi?front_Page/story4.txt

That saying never made any sense to me until now.

Well. It fits Bush perfectly, as someone who had the best education money can buy in this country, he certainly can't be called uneducated.

Instead I'm just saddened.

How could someone of his age NOT know anything about the 1965 Voting Rights Act? WTF?

His handlers didn't prep him too well for that meeting, did they?

Yesterday we saw photos of his white elitist wife running a "Passport to Manhood" campaing for black males and today he reveals how ignorant he is of one of the most important pieces of legislation that pertains to equal rights for blacks. THESE PEOPLE ARE SO OUT OF TOUCH! They live in their insulated world and simply don't give a flying fuck.

HAS HE HEARD OF THE SELMA MARCH? uuuggggh...That man is pathetic.

There are no words at just how disturbing this.

instead of trying to bluff his way through it like he did with the "sovereignty" issue at the Native American summit.

In all fairness, I'm not familiar with the Voting Rights Act (but then, I'd expect more from the President).

Could someone enlighten me?

Before it in many southern states there had huge problems with things such as eligibility test, literacy test, poll tax and other such tactics employed to keep minorities from registering to vote.

The Voting Rights Act was cited during Bush v Gore and in Bush v Vera in Texas in 1996.

One of Justice O'Connor's clearest statements along these lines came in her concurring opinion in Miller v. Johnson, in which she said, "To invoke strict scrutiny , a plaintiff must show that the State has relied on race in substantial disregard of customary and traditional districting practices." Justice O'Connor also took pains in the Texas redistricting case, Bush v. Vera, to make it clear that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act will often require states to draw majority-minority districts, and that states are entitled to assume that Section 2 is constitutional.

http://www.southerncouncil.org/helpnet/articles/dilution.html

And, his brother certainly knows about it since it was argued in Johnson v Bush:

The permanent disenfranchisement of convicted felons contained in Florida’s Constitution and statutes has a significant disproportionate impact on African-Americans and serves to deny plaintiffs the right to vote on account of race, in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

http://www.righttovote.org/legal_pending_descrip.asp?ID=4

Edit to correct name.