Divinest Sense

A bunch of bleating upstart House republicans toppled their own GOP leadership and forced them to cancel renewing the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Oh, but this time it’s not because they hate blacks, it’s because they hate mexicans. See, times do change! I’m so glad we got that racism problem solved and we don’t need a voting rights act anymore.

Georgia has nine statewide elected black officials and other proof of ample minority participation in electoral politics, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) said in an interview. “If you move a polling place from the Baptist church to the Methodist church, you’ve got to go through the Justice Department,” he said.

But Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said a bipartisan commission found evidence of recent voting rights violations in Georgia, Texas and several other states. “These are not states that can say their hands are clean,” she said.

The House Rules Committee had agreed to let Georgia lawmakers offer two amendments that would make it easier for states to become exempt from the Voting Rights Act. House leaders had expressed confidence that the amendments would fail. But the committee rejected King’s request for an amendment to end the multilingual requirements.

That was “a gigantic mistake,” said Rep. Charles Whitlow Norwood Jr. (R-Ga.), a leading critic of the act’s renewal. “What people are really upset about is bilingual ballots,” he said. “The American people want this to be an English-speaking nation.”

So, I saw An Inconvenient Truth on Friday night and I highly recommend it. Not that anyone who’s not already into that sort of thing is going to even think about seeing it, but what the heck, ask your skeptical acquaintances to go check it out if they want to argue with you about global warming.

Though it doesn’t have quite the thrills of the usual summer movie offerings (Al Gore gives slide show! Aaaaaaaaaggghhhh!) this movie will crush you with its relentless barrage of facts and drive you cr-aaaaaazy with its common sense solutions. Hot damn!

I. love. Al. Gore.

ABC news presents a day in the life of the gay marriage amendment, in which the Big Presidential Speech is moved from the rose garden to a nondescript office building. The day’s events go something like this:

Preznit: Um, let’s make gay marriage unconstitutional.
Democrats: Yawn.
Republicans: Yawn.

RFK Jr. is my hero. Go read his Rolling Stone article “Was the 2004 Election Stolen?” I know democrats are making their petulant little arguments about whether this sort of writing “hurts our image”, making us look like sore losers - (or, perhaps, people who are too weak and goody-goody to come up with a half-decent fraud campaign of our own!) But shouldn’t we all be a little more interested in finding out the truth of what really happened? Not necessarily to storm the castle a.s.a.p. and make our guy the new leader, but just to KNOW? For history’s sake? Read it and then tell me there’s still not the least little lingering doubt in your mind about the 2004 election.

The Dixie Chicks’ latest album is topping the Billboard country music chart, which is based on album sales. I’m so proud of my homegirls, who have succeeded based on their enormous talent and original sound, despite the fact that they’ve been frozen out by the country music scene. Other country artists frequently poke fun at them, and country radio stations refuse to play their hits, all because Natalie Maines spoke her mind and said what we were all thinking. Well, guess who has the last laugh? Here’s to the women who single-handedly made country music interesting and relevant again.

A friend of mine found this little gem the other day… the National Review’s 50 greatest conservative rock n’ roll songs of all time! Hooo-eee. I think I actually gave myself a hernia reading this.

Let’s examine the offerings. OK, “Sweet Home Alabama”, I can buy that. Definitely some rage against urban elitism there. Kid Rock? I won’t argue with you. Any 80’s song that’s even vaguely anti-communist? Ummmmm, missing the point, but I can sort of buy it. But “Cult of Personality” by Living Colour? Bwaaaahahahahahahaha! Are you effing kidding me? Will somebody please telephone Living Colour and ask if they’d like to say anything about that?