If a law called the “Clear Skies Act” actually results in more pollution and a Department of Homeland Security actually does little to protect America, it’s probably not a stretch to see the United States Commission on Civil Rights actually undermining civil rights.

In the land of Bush, everything is for sale and every function of government must be done based on partisan ideology instead of being based on competency and on what the mission of a particular entity is supposed to be.

This is why we now see the Civil Rights Commission actually rolling back the gains minorities have made under a system that was supposed to insure against their rights being trampled.

How did this happen? Bush violated the spirit of the charter of the Commission. The Commission’s panel was supposed to have no more than 4 members, of its 8-member panel, be of one political party. The panel already had 4 Republicans. So, he appointed another 2 Republicans who, upon receiving their appointments, re-registered as Independents, skirting the charter.

So, what did this mean? Well, since this majority has been in place, the following have taken place:

Before the changes, the agency had planned to evaluate a White House budget request for civil rights enforcement, the adequacy of college financial aid for minorities, and whether the US Census Bureau undercounts minorities, keeping nonwhite areas from their fair share of political apportionment and spending. After the appointments, the commission canceled the projects.

Instead, the commission has put out a series of reports concluding that there is little educational benefit to integrating elementary and secondary schools, calling for closer scrutiny of programs that help minorities gain admission to top law schools, and urging the government to look for ways to replace policies that help minority-owned businesses win contracts with race-neutral alternatives.

The conservative bloc has also pushed through retroactive term limits for several of its state advisory committees. As a result, some longtime traditional civil rights activists have had to leave the advisory panels, and the commission replaced several of them with conservative activists.

The commission has also stopped issuing subpoenas and going on the road to hold lengthy fact-finding hearings, as it previously did about once a year. The commission had three planned hearings in the works when the conservative bloc took over and canceled them. Instead, the panel has held only shorter briefings, all but one of which was in Washington, from invited specialists.

What this means is that civil rights enforcement has been totally gutted, much to the delight of the more racist elements of the Republican party.

In Bush-speak, this would be called “leveling the playing field”. However, in this case, leveling does not mean making things even. In this case, leveling would be its more destructive meaning, as in leveling a long-standing structure that brought some level of assurance to minority Americans that the government had their best interests in mind, as well.

So, as the t-shirt says, “Kanye was right.”

Popularity: 24% [?]

A big thanks to Brad Blog for this one. If you are not familiar with Brad Blog, it provides excellent coverage on voter issues, particular being a watchdog on those public officials and companies that are working against the voters through an assault on even their most basic voting rights.

In a recent post, they cover a talk given by US Attorney John Tanner, who is — get this — the Chief of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. This means that he is supposed to be insuring the rights of voters of color. Instead, he is actively working against them.

While addressing the National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles, he offers an amazing rationale for requiring voter ID (which is likely a violation of the Voting Rights Act). According to Tanner, those most likely to be adversely affected by this requirement are elderly voters but, since minority voters don’t live that long, this wouldn’t be an issue for them. So, according to Tanner, this should work in favor of minorities.

No, I am not twisting his words, he actually stated this. To be precise, he stated the following:

“I think it’s probably true that among those who don’t, it’s primarily elderly persons. And that’s a shame…You know, creating problems for elderly persons just is not good under any circumstance.

Of course, that also ties in with a racial aspect, because our society is such that minorities don’t become elderly…the way that white people do. They die first.”

Well, you can hear/see it for yourself…

Popularity: 32% [?]

The U.S. Supreme Court has some very significant cases it will be considering this term but, there is one that we, as black folks, should watch very closely.

It is a challenge to an Indiana voter law that requires photo ID to be presented at the polling place. Backers of the law say that it is needed to stop voter fraud.

Okay, let me interject here.

I have been hearing about this mythical spectre of rampant voter fraud for years but, these folks can’t seem to point out any real significant cases of it. In fact, voter fraud seems to be as rare as hens’ teeth.

This is what other opponents of such measures say, as well. In fact, the people that seem disproportionately affected by these measures are the poor, the elderly and minorities, who overwhelmingly vote Democrat. So, to help preserve their dwindling power, Republicans need a method to purge people from voter rolls or, at least, stop them from casting a ballot on election day.

Admittedly, based on the makeup of the Court, I am little concerned about how all this will shake out. Let’s keep making noise on this because our vote is to precious to have simply taken from us.

Popularity: 25% [?]