black…MYstory

Some might ask why I have spent so much time lately discussing the unusual (and seemingly unprecedented) firings of Republican U.S. attorneys by the Justice Department. Specifically, some may ask, what this has to do with black folks. Apart from us being affected as citizens of this country, there is an impact to this that is more central to us.

In a previous post, I offered the following:

Also, keep in mind, the people fired were Republicans. So, if they can fire people for not being “Republican enough”, how many people scored high marks for willing to do political hit jobs, using their prosecutor statuses or blocked/ignored investigations into Republican corruption out of political loyalty.

Well, it appears that some may have done just that very thing — they may have done some partisan political hit jobs.

Look at this except detailing some of the investigations done by reports for the McClatchey newspapers.

Since 2005, McClatchy Newspapers has found, Bush has appointed at least three U.S. attorneys who had worked in the Justice Department’s civil rights division when it was rolling back longstanding voting-rights policies aimed at protecting predominantly poor, minority voters.

Another newly installed U.S. attorney, Tim Griffin in Little Rock, Ark., was accused of participating in efforts to suppress Democratic votes in Florida during the 2004 presidential election while he was a research director for the Republican National Committee. He’s denied any wrongdoing.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the four U.S. attorneys weren’t chosen only because of their backgrounds in election issues, but “we would expect any U.S. attorney to prosecute voting fraud.”

Taken together, critics say, the replacement of the U.S. attorneys, the voter-fraud campaign and the changes in Justice Department voting rights policies suggest that the Bush administration may have been using its law enforcement powers for partisan political purposes.

So, indeed, this issue hits close to home for us. We may be seeing the old trick of Republican voter suppression being taken to a new level by having it done at the hands of the top presecutors of their given states.

Therefore, if anyone asks why this is important to us black folks, let them know that, once again, our very right to vote is under attack by the very people tasked with making sure our right to vote is not jeopardized.

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