Originally posted by Nadir at LastChocolateCity.com

Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refuses to step down over the politically motivated firing of eight US attorneys. His boss, President George W. Bush, continues to support Gonzo despite bipartisan calls for his ouster. However, new information about the attorney firings may take on greater relevance in a post-Don Imus world.

Reports have surfaced
that at least two attorneys in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division were fired because they failed to file charges that would have helped disenfranchise Black voters.

From Democracy Now:

Former Justice Department attorneys have publicly accused the Bush administration of politicizing the department’€™s Civil Rights Division which was formed 50 years ago to protect the voting rights of African-Americans. According to a recent report by the McClatchy newspapers, the Bush administration has pursued an aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout in key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates.

The administration did this in part by alleging widespread election fraud in largely Democratic areas and to push new voter ID rules. Civil rights advocates contend that the administration’s policies were intended to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of poor and minority voters who tend to support Democrats.

Let’s not forget that Bush emerged the victor in two highly contested elections where Black voter disenfranchisment was a key strategy. These new charges offer evidence that this practice has continued.

The chorus of voices that forced Don Imus’€™s firing over racist and sexist remarks should rise up for another refrain. Gonzales should also be fired, and investigations into voter fraud and misconduct by the Bush administration should commence immediately.

If all of these civil rights leaders, and journalists can work so hard to get a talk show host fired, certainly they can put just as much effort into firing the attorney general, the president’s chief advisor and the president himself for a conspiracy to suppress the voting rights of hundreds of thousands of Black Americans.

Democracy Now

Blues Talkin'

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