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While the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) took a giant leap toward reducing voting discrimination, a wealth of evidence today shows that discrimination at the polls persists. A new report by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights documents148 separate instances of voting violations since 2000, with each affecting hundreds to thousands of voters.
The report, The Persistent Challenge of Voting Discrimination, came just days before today's one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, which gutted a key provision of the VRA. The litany of voting rights violations detailed therein underscores the need for reform – now.
Key takeaways gleaned from recent examples:
• Racial discrimination in voting remains a significant problem in our democracy. Nearly 50 years after the enactment of the VRA, racial discrimination in voting remains a persistent problem in many places around the country…
• The problem of racial discrimination in voting is not limited to one region of the country. The examples outlined in this report document instances of voting discrimination from 30 states, representing every region of the country…
• Voting discrimination occurs most often in local elections… They often concern the election of city, county or other local elected officials, where many of the contests are nonpartisan.
• Discrimination in voting manifests itself in many ways, and new methods continue to emerge. Voting discrimination occurs today in both overt and subtle forms.
Here are just a handful of the cases in which systematic discrimination threatened to discourage or sideline voters:
• In 2008, the state of Alaska requested preclearance of a plan to remove polling places in multiple Native villages. The state intended to consolidate predominately Alaska Native voting precincts with those of other communities, creating new polling places that were geographically remote and inaccessible by road. Instead of complying with a "More Information Request" by the Department of Justice regarding the proposed changes, Alaska withdrew their submission.
• Between 2004 and 2011, DOJ alleged that five counties and four cities in California had been in violation of Section 203 of the VRA, citing failures to implement bilingual election programs for language-minority voters, as well as failures to translate election-related materials for precincts with large language-minority populations.
• Between 2002 and 2011, multiple school districts and localities in Louisiana proposed redistricting plans that would have eliminated districts in which an African American majority was able to elect the candidate of their choice.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights notes that because the study was only able to take into account reported cases, the statistics are likely a conservative estimate of the real magnitude of the problem.
Sadly, discrimination in the electoral process still happens. Moving forward on legislation to update and modernize the VRA would help return a voting voice to Americans who are too often, even today, marginalized.
This post was originally published at the Huffington Post.
One year ago this week, the Supreme Court's conservative majority struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act and took yet another step toward undermining our democracy. Since then, civil rights leaders have been hard at work trying to clean up the Court's mess.
The Shelby decision was a devastating loss, especially for those who fought to see the original Voting Rights Act enacted. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, the sole surviving speaker from the 1963 March on Washington and a leader of the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, accused the Supreme Court of "stab[bing] the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in its very heart." Civil rights advocates mourned the naïve assumption that Selma had been relegated to ancient history and that racial discrimination in voting went with it. People For the American Way's director of African American religious affairs noted on the day of the decision: "Those who sided with the majority clearly have not been paying attention, reading the paper, attending community meetings, living in America."
Indeed, anyone who has been paying attention knows that voting discrimination is far from ancient history. A new report by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights found nearly 150 documented instances of voting rights violations since 2000, with each case affecting between hundreds and tens of thousands of voters.
Happily, reform is finally underway in the Senate. On Wednesday, the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on legislation to put the VRA back together again. It's a critically important first step in getting our country's laws back to where they need to be on voting rights protections. But so far House Republican leadership has refused to move forward. Maybe they think that if they pretend a problem doesn't exist, they won't have to fix it.
The push for voting rights protections isn't the only effort underway to clean up the mess the Supreme Court has made of our democracy. With the 2012 election the most expensive in history, this week the Senate Judiciary Committee is considering a proposed constitutional amendment to overturn cases like Citizens United v. FEC, the infamous 2010 ruling that paved the way for unlimited corporate political spending. Like Shelby, Citizens United was a contentious 5-4 decision with a strong dissent. Also like Shelby, it set our democracy back dramatically. Citizens United let corporate bank accounts overwhelm the voices of everyday Americans. Shelby made it easier for state and local governments to create barriers to voting.
But Americans know that the answer to attacks on our democracy isn't despair -- it's action. Sixteen states and more than 550 cities and towns have called for a constitutional amendment to get big money out of politics like the one moving forward in the Senate, and that number is growing rapidly.
National leaders are also speaking out. President Obama has expressed his support for an amendment to overturn Citizen United multiple times since the decision. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens are just a handful of other high-profile amendment supporters. And earlier this month, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not hold back her disdain for the recent democracy-harming decisions coming from the Supreme Court's majority: "Like the currently leading campaign finance decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, I regard Shelby County as an egregiously wrong decision that should not have staying power."
The Supreme Court has made some very bad calls when it comes to protecting the rights of all Americans to participate meaningfully in our political system. But Justice Ginsburg is right: these wrong-headed decisions shouldn't have staying power. And if the American people have anything to do with it, they won't.
WASHINGTON – Today the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on the Voting Rights Amendment Act (VRAA), legislation that addresses the Supreme Court's decision one year ago in Shelby County v. Holder. People For the American Way's Executive Vice President Marge Baker released the following statement:
"One year ago today, the Supreme Court gutted a key provision of one of our country's crowning civil rights triumphs, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We applaud the Senate Judiciary Committee for taking up the important work of repairing the harm done by the Shelby decision. Unfortunately, we can't say the same for House Republican leadership, who have steadfastly refused to act.
"The right to vote is our most precious right as citizens. Failing to defend this right is simply not an option. Will House leadership stand up and act to protect every American's right to cast a ballot that counts, or will they stand by and allow that right to increasingly come under attack?"
Today People For the American Way and its African American Ministers In Action program submitted letters on behalf of members, activists and a network of faith leaders thanking the Senate for moving forward on the VRAA and urging the House to do the same.
WASHINGTON –Chairman Patrick Leahy announced yesterday that the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on June 25 on the Voting Rights Amendment Act (VRAA), legislation intended to repair damage done by the Supreme Court last year in Shelby County v. Holder. People For the American Way's Executive Vice President Marge Baker released the following statement:
"Chairman Leahy and the Judiciary Committee should be commended for taking an important step toward correcting the damage done by last year's Shelby decision. The right to vote is the most fundamental right in our democracy, which is why we need a modern, effective Voting Rights Act to protect it. We urge the Senate to move quickly on this, and the House to follow suit. With another national election looming, now is the time to move forward to protect the right to vote for all."
The day of the Senate hearing will mark one year since the Supreme Court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in its Shelby decision. While a bipartisan group of House members joined Chairman Leahy to introduce the VRAA in January, the House Judiciary Committee has yet to schedule a hearing.
WASHINGTON – In response to today's introduction of legislation to restore the Voting Rights Act, People For the American Way President Michael Keegan released the following statement:
"In the wake of last year's damaging Shelby County v. Holder decision that opened the door to an influx of restrictive new laws around the country, we're heartened that Congress has taken up the important work of replacing what the Voting Rights Act lost.
"This fight isn't about partisan politics – it's about the fundamental right to cast a vote that counts. It's about all people being treated fairly at the polls. We look forward to working with Congress to strengthen one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in our country's history."
People For the American Way recently launched a petition urging Congress to restore strength to the Voting Rights Act, and it currently has more than 137,500 signers.
WASHINGTON – In response to the Supreme Court's decision today in Shelby County v. Holder, People For the American Way Foundation President Michael Keegan released the following statement:
"As the Supreme Court swerves further to the right, our constitutional liberties continue to take a beating. Today, the Supreme Court seriously undermined an important piece of the premier civil rights legislation of the past century – legislation that civil rights heroes gave their lives for. This decision sends a chilling message to all those Americans who continue to face politically-motivated hurdles on their way to the ballot box.
"In his confirmation hearings, Chief Justice John Roberts pledged to behave like an umpire—just calling balls and strikes, and staying out of the game. Today that umpire upended decades of civil rights law. His decision substitutes his own opinions for the findings of America's elected representatives in Congress, who found numerous cases of ongoing, racially-based political gerrymandering and trickery. Moreover, it does so in an area in which the Constitution specifically and intentionally gives Congress wide discretion. Reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act received near unanimous support in both houses of Congress just a few years ago, and was signed into law by President Bush. Today's decision is a blatantly inappropriate exercise in legislating from the bench. Conservatives who have spent decades decrying judicial activism should take note.
"In two separate cases yesterday, Justice Ginsburg called on Congress to fix the damage done by decisions handed down by our nation's highest court. That need is even greater today. Congress should move quickly to enact a coverage formula under Section 4 to protect voters whose right to participate in our democracy was badly undermined today. The American people deserve no less."
TO: Reporters and Editors
FROM: Jamie Raskin, Senior Fellow, People for the American Way Foundation
DATE: May 24, 2013
RE: Blockbuster Decisions Coming Soon from the Supreme Court . . .Will Conservative Justices Twist the Constitution to Subvert Equal Protection?
The Roberts Court will soon release major decisions shaping the future of voting rights protection, affirmative action in university admissions, and the rights of marriage for gay and lesbian Americans. In each case, the promotion of equal rights under law in our society is opposed by a conservative agenda that seeks to enshrine inequality in the name of "federalism," "color-blindness," or "social tradition." What is at stake in these cases is whether America continues its journey towards strong and inclusive multi-racial democracy or accepts conservative arguments that undermine constitutional and social progress.
Congressional Protection of Voting Rights versus "Federalism Costs":
The Voting Rights Act on the Chopping Block in Shelby County v. Holder
In Shelby County v. Holder, conservatives seek to dismantle the essential machinery of modern voting rights protection, which is the pre-clearance procedure for voting changes in covered jurisdictions. This procedure is contained in Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the monumental statutory achievement of Congress in the last century. Chief Justice Roberts, in a near-miss decision on the same subject in 2009, has already expressed the sentiment of his conservative colleagues that the provision now "raises serious constitutional questions." At oral argument in Shelby County, Justice Scalia offered his view that the Voting Rights Act has become nothing more than a "racial entitlement." Despite broad bipartisan support in Congress for the Voting rights Act, including Section 5, the conservative legal movement is mobilized for its destruction.
Section 5 obligates covered states and jurisdictions to "pre-clear" changes affecting voting with the Department of Justice or the federal district courts in Washington. This procedure affects states and counties that were the worst offenders against voting rights and has been in place for nearly a half-century. Section 2 of the Fifteenth Amendment clearly gives Congress the "power to enforce" voting rights "by appropriate legislation." The Court has four times—in South Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966), Georgia v. U.S. (1973), City of Rome v. U.S. (1980), and Lopez v. Monterey County (1999)—rejected invitations by states to declare Section 5 as outside of Congress' powers under the 14th and 15th Amendments. Thus, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Arizona, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and later Alaska (along with certain jurisdictions in California, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota) have had to prove that proposed changes in election laws do not disadvantage minority voters. While the Justice Departments and the courts routinely approve more than 99 percent of submitted plans, the VRA remains a critical stop against laws meant to disenfranchise racial minorities. Hundreds of state plans and thousands of proposed changes have been rejected under the law, preventing a backslide in the project of building a strong interracial democracy.
But the case against Section 5 today turns on neither constitutional precedent nor text nor the facts of political life on the ground, but rather on the talk-show fallacy that a nation which twice elects an African-American president simply cannot contain any states or counties where minority voters face actual barriers to participation. Backing up this non-sequitur intuition are constitutional myths: that Congress has to treat all states and counties the same and cannot distinguish among them based on their records of committing voting rights violations. and that the pre-clearance mechanism in the Voting Rights Act and its "coverage formula" impose far too high "federalism costs" on covered areas (i.e., it allegedly takes too much power from the states). All of these taking points are supposed to justify the Court's substituting its judgment for that of Congress and to find that Section 5 is no longer a "congruent" or "proportional" remedy, under either the Fourteenth Amendment or the Fifteenth Amendment, for threats to voting rights. But the lower courts in this case reviewed more than 15,000 pages of Congressional findings and testimony and were convinced of the continuing need for preclearance to deal with the disingenuous disenfranchising and diluting schemes in the covered areas, including voter photo ID laws, tightening restrictions on registration and at the polls, and racist gerrymanders.
The arguments against Section 5 appeal to the racial fatigue of Supreme Court arch-conservatives, who are willing to give state legislatures, a majority of which are in conservative Republican hands today, the freedom to restrict voting rights. The pre-clearance procedures of Section 5 are the major obstacle to this goal because they mean that all of the traditional hijinks of Jim Crow politics must be submitted in advance to federal judges or DOJ civil rights lawyers for approval. Rather than placing the burden on African-Americans and other minority voters to find lawyers and make the case against repressive practices after they go into effect, the covered jurisdictions have to affirmatively show that their innovations are not discriminatory or "retrogressive" before the damage is done. As the Supreme Court put it approvingly in South Carolina v. Katzenbach, "After enduring nearly a century of systematic resistance to the Fifteenth Amendment," Congress chose "to shift the advantage of time and inertia from the perpetrators of the evil to its victims."
The word "federalism" does not appear in the Constitution, nor does the opaque and mysterious phrase "federalism costs," which has become the key mantra for the conservatives. At least four Justices—and we'll see about Justice Anthony Kennedy—appear poised to use these malleable concepts to override the clear enforcement powers that the Constitution explicitly assigns to Congress through Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment and Section 2 of the Fifteenth Amendment. Thus, the Supreme Court is on the brink of usurping Congressional power plainly granted by the Constitution by thwarting Congressional decisions to enforce the equal rights of Americans to vote and participate in the political process.
Racial Integration, Inclusion and Diversity versus "Color-Blindness":
Affirmative Action Walks the Plank in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin
The ceaseless attack on affirmative action returns again this Term with Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, a sweeping challenge to a modest use of race and ethnicity in UT's admissions process that was adopted to correct for continuing weakness in the numbers of minority students on campus. The twist here is that most UT students are admitted through a policy guaranteeing admission to students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their public high school classes. About one-fifth of the class is admitted outside of that race-neutral policy, and affirmative action plays a role in this small part of the process.
Most people thought that the lawfulness of such a policy was settled for at least 25 years in 2003, when the Court decided Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, cases testing the constitutionality of affirmative action programs as practiced, respectively, at the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Michigan's undergraduate program. The majority upheld the Law School's "holistic" use of race and ethnicity in the process to promote diversity in the educational experience because all consideration of applicants remained individualized and there were no quotas and no numerical targets used in the selection process. (The University of Texas modeled its law school's affirmative action program after that upheld in Grutter in 2003.) Meanwhile, the majority invalidated the undergraduate plan because racial or ethnic minority status was quantified and treated as adding bonus points in a rigid numerical weighing system, a process that the Court said leaned towards being a quota system. While rejecting the college plan as a blunt instrument, Justice O'Connor found that the kind of diffuse and holistic use of minority status embodied in the law school program was permissible. She thought such affirmative action would be warranted for a period of what she predicted to be another quarter-century. Given that most public universities remained segregated through the 1950s and 1960s, this seemed like a sensible time-line.
The Grutter decision reaffirmed and updated Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the 1978 high Court decision which struck down numerical quotas for minority admission but approved the generalized use of race in the admissions process to promote the compelling interest in having a diverse student body. Grutter was met with relief and enthusiasm throughout American academia, in the business sector, by the armed services, and across American society.
Now, once again, conservatives hope to turn the Constitution against the project of equal rights and equal opportunities. The key move is to claim that Equal Protection mandates absolute "color-blindness" and therefore forecloses any conscious efforts to build diversity and inclusion into the educational experience of students. But the history of the Equal Protection Clause demonstrates that its Framers clearly contemplated that government would seek to take account of the racial implications of official discrimination in the past to fashion consciously inclusionary policies going forward.
Equal Protection of the Rights of all Citizens in Marriage versus "Social Tradition":
United States v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry
Two significant cases raise the important issue of whether gay and lesbian Americans enjoy an equal right to marry and to enjoy all the rights of marriage. Here, straightforward understandings of Equal Protection clash with an extra-constitutional commitment to the "social tradition" of discrimination against gay people.
One case, United States v. Windsor, deals with the constitutionality of Section 3 of "DOMA," the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act, which provides that the word "marriage" in any federal law or regulation—including the Social Security Act, the Internal Revenue code, immigration law, and more than 1,000 others—shall apply only to the "legal union of one man and one woman as husband and wife." This sweeping discrimination means that, although hundreds of thousands of gay and lesbian Americans have won and exercised the right to marry in twelve states and the District of Columbia, the rights, benefits, and duties that they should receive as married people under federal law are categorically withheld from them. Under federal law, married couples who are gay are treated as legal strangers to one another and as unworthy of the rights enjoyed by other citizens.
This discrimination has dramatic consequences. The respondent in Windsor, Edith Windsor, was forced to pay $363,000 in federal taxes on the estate she inherited after her wife (and life partner of 40 years) died, since DOMA prevents same-sex spouses from inheriting marital property on a tax-free basis, a benefit that heterosexual couples take for granted. Windsor won a clean victory in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which found that discrimination against gay people triggers Equal Protection "intermediate scrutiny" and that Congress could not even demonstrate a valid, much less an important, interest for defining marriage at the federal level so as to exclude from its benefits thousands of married couples in the states.
The other case taken up by the Supreme Court is Hollingsworth v. Perry, which tests the constitutionality of California's infamous Proposition 8 ballot measure, which revoked the marriage rights that gays and lesbians had enjoyed in the state under a landmark California Supreme Court decision. Proposition 8 was voided in a broad pro-marriage decision handed down by California United States District Court Judge Vaughn Walker, a decision that was reaffirmed on narrower grounds by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which essentially found that California had no rational basis for taking away from its gay citizens the marriage rights that it had previously granted.
Both cases involve government refusing to recognize the equal rights of gay people, either in married couples or couples who want to get married. With DOMA, Congress denied the same equal rights and benefits to gay married people as it offers to straight married people, and with Proposition 8, California actually revoked the marriage rights of gay people and prohibited the legislature from ever restoring those rights. The Proposition 8 proponents even sought to use the measure to annul gays' and lesbians' existing marriages without their consent. The discrimination in both cases is plain to see, all of it justified on the grounds of "traditional marriage" and "social tradition."
The right to get married as a basic civil right has frequently been addressed by the Supreme Court, but the Court has never addressed whether that right extends to gay and lesbian Americans, and the Court could successfully dodge the underlying issue here.
One good possibility is that the Court will strike down DOMA as a naked Equal Protection violation, saying that states need not necessarily extend marriage rights to gay and lesbian residents but that, if states do extend equal marriage rights, the federal government may not discriminate against people who avail themselves of those rights. Pro-marriage forces expecting this result place a high burden of hope on Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has written excellent majority opinions upholding the equal rights of gay and lesbian Americans in Romer v. Evans (1996) and Lawrence v. Texas (2003). But Kennedy may instead decide purely on federalism grounds, potentially providing a fifth vote to strike down DOMA but preventing any pro-equality legal rationale from having a majority that would bind lower courts in the future.
In the California Proposition 8 case, the Court could say that states that give all of the state-law rights of marriage to gay and lesbian citizens cannot withhold from them the title of marriage; this would affect eight states in a similar situation as California. Another possibility, more remote, is that Justice Kennedy would agree to join the moderate-liberal faction in simply declaring that gay people have equal rights to marry, which would mean invalidating discriminatory laws still on the books in the vast majority of states. Conversely, the Court might also say that there is no obligation for California to protect the right of gay and lesbian citizens to marry at all. Or, finally, it could dismiss the whole case on either standing grounds—the Attorney general of California refused to defend Proposition 8, leaving that task to anti-marriage advocates who put the initiative on the ballot—or on the grounds that cert was improvidently granted. There are still many ways to escape the basic issue of discrimination, even though all of the momentum in the states is towards marriage equality and the rationales for discrimination have been collapsing everywhere like a giant house of cards.
Equal Protection versus the Politics of Inequality
As we await the Supreme Court's decisions in these cases, Americans should not miss the big picture of this constitutional moment. In a society that disenfranchised African-Americans and other minorities for centuries and discriminated openly against racial minorities and the gay and lesbian population, we are living through giant progressive changes in political democracy and voting rights, educational opportunity, and marriage rights for all. Yet, in politics, as in physics, every action creates an equal and opposite reaction, and a huge ideological undertow has formed on today's Supreme Court, which has replaced the values of the long-ago Warren Court with commitments to corporate power over government and government power over people. What is at stake in these cases is whether the Supreme Court will interpret the Constitution to be the instrument of equal protection for all or will twist it to make it the guarantor of inequality and injustice.
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Jamie Raskin, a Senior Fellow at People for the American Way Foundation, is a professor of constitutional law at American University's Washington College of Law and a State Senator in Maryland.
My family is from Selma, Alabama. My grandmother, aunt and mother (both teenagers at the time) were on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965, what the history books now record as Bloody Sunday. Due to the terrible violence that occurred, my grandmother, a nurse, was called to the hospital to help treat the numerous people who had been injured, one of them being Civil Rights icon Congressman John Lewis.
I grew up hearing my family members' Civil Rights Movement stories, continually in awe of their courage and determination. They had to deal with fire hoses, dogs, and police batons in order to receive what my generation now takes for granted, the right to vote.
Yesterday, nearly 50 years after Bloody Sunday and the passage of the Voting Rights Act, I stood outside the Supreme Court with many others who chanted, sang and rallied to protect the VRA's Section 5. Yes, the dogs and the cattle prods are gone, but the spirit to oppress some of America's citizens remains.
It saddens me that we still have to fight for our right to vote, and that there are those who are still trying to deny others their rights at the ballot box. But I was encouraged by the number of people who were outside the Supreme Court yesterday, people of all races and creeds and ages who are dedicated to and invested in protecting the right to vote! Together we sent a message to the Justices and to the nation that Section 5 is still needed, because while our country has come a long way from that grainy black and white footage of people getting beaten while fighting for their rights, discrimination and attempts to disenfranchise still exist, especially in the states covered by Section 5.
It's often said that we are standing on the shoulders of giants, but in my case, I am truly a descendant of Civil Rights heroes whose names will never be in the history books. They took a risk, put their lives on the line, not just for themselves but for me, someone who would not be born for another 15 years. When I hear my grandmother at 86 years old say that she will put on her marching shoes if she has to, then I know that I have no choice but to put on mine. I was proud to be at the rally to protect Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act yesterday. I was proud to honor the legacy of my family and anyone else who participated in the Movement. I was proud to continue the fight to ensure that no one is denied the right to vote.
In Supreme Court oral arguments on Shelby County vs. Holder today, Justice Antonin Scalia reportedly stated that the renewal of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act represents "the perpetuation of racial entitlement."
Minister Leslie Watson Malachi, Director of People For the American Way Foundation's African American Ministers Leadership Council, responded:
"Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act doesn't represent the 'perpetuation of racial entitlement,' as Justice Scalia states. Rather, it is one of the most important tools we have for confronting the entitlement of those who believe some people's votes and voices should matter more than others. Section 5 boldly confronted a reality of American life that still exists today: the routine devaluation of the lives and voices of people of color. Justice Scalia's statement carries disturbing echoes of the 'perpetual entitlement' that has kept bigotry, discrimination, homophobia, disempowerment, sexism, and classism alive in America. I hope that Scalia's fellow justices will approach this issue more thoughtfully, and with a greater awareness of the reality in their country."
Tomorrow morning, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a challenge to a pivotal section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The part of the VRA that's under attack is Section 5, which requires the Justice Department or a federal court to approve changes to voting laws in states and counties that have a history of racially discriminatory voting practices before those laws can go into effect. The lead-up to last year's elections, in which state legislatures passed a slew of discriminatory voter suppression measures, showed just how much Section 5 is still needed.
Today, People For the American Way Foundation released a new report from Senior Fellow Jamie Raskin detailing the history and continued need for Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and what progressives can do to ensure equal voting rights in the years to come. Raskin writes:
A decision against Section 5 preclearance or the Section 4(b) coverage formula would likely spell the political demise of the Voting Rights Act, even if it is theoretically salvageable by an updated coverage formula or an even more relaxed preclearance procedure. Our paralyzed, deadlocked Congress will never come to terms on how to revive and renovate it if the Court knocks it down or puts it into a tiny little straitjacket.
Win, lose, or draw, progressives should reckon with the prospect that the days of this landmark statute might be numbered. This means that we need to take up an ambitious democracy and voting rights agenda of our own for the new century, this time with explicitly universalist aims and general terms that deal with the complex suppression of democracy today. The voting rights struggles of the new century relate not just to old-fashioned racial trickery in Alabama and Texas but new-age vote suppression in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio; they involve not just traditional vote dilution in the South but the increasingly untenable disenfranchisement of 600,000 Americans in Washington, D.C and 3.6 million Americans in Puerto Rico.
Also today, PFAW Foundation's Director of African American Religious Affairs, Minister Leslie Watson Malachi, wrote in the Huffington Post about the challenges that people of color still face at the ballot box, nearly half a century after the passage of the Voting Rights Act:
In 2011 and 2012 I organized faith leaders from 22 states in combating voter suppression efforts and turning out the vote among specific communities. This election cycle offered many powerful reminders why Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is still needed. Texas, for example, passed a discriminatory voter ID law that would have required voters to present government-issued photo ID at the polls, which would have especially burdened poor people and people of color. But because Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act still stands, this law was defeated and the right to vote was protected. Reverend Simeon L. Queen of Houston, Texas, a comrade in the struggle, reflected: "It is inexcusable that nearly 50 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, politicians are still trying to make it harder for African Americans in Texas to vote. I wish the Voting Rights Act wasn't still necessary, but thank the Lord it's still there."
Since 1980 I have been fortunate to work with men and women, some who started before I was born, to fight for laws protecting the right to vote. Despite the commitment of those who devoted their lives to voter protections, the right to vote remains fragile for many Americans. From voter ID laws to restrictions on early voting, as a country we cannot allow anyone to say "this isn't a problem anymore" to communities who are experiencing, as others witness, those problems at the polls each election.
This week, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Shelby County v. Holder, a case challenging the protections of the Voting Rights Act. Based on a simple idea, one that is enshrined in our Constitution, the right to vote cannot be denied on the basis of race. It is considered by the Department of Justice to be "the most effective civil rights statute enacted by Congress," prohibiting voting discrimination in order to protect the right to vote for all Americans.
When President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965, he called the vote "the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice" and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called it the "foundation stone for political action." I call it a sacred right!
The centerpiece of that Act and the case is Section 5. It requires that all or portions of sixteen states with a history and a contemporary record of voting discrimination seek and gain approval federally before they put any changes in election practices into effect. Preclearance as it is known is intended to stop voter disenfranchisement before it can start.
In 1970 and again in 1975, Congress voted to extend the Voting Rights Act. At that time US Representative Barbara Jordan, my (s)hero and co-founder of People For the American Way, sponsored legislation that broadened the provisions of the Act to include Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans.
As recently as 2006, Congress voted overwhelmingly to reauthorize Section 5 of the law with some critics then and now misguidedly asserting that it overstepped its boundaries, that voting discrimination really isn't a problem anymore, or that voting discrimination in other parts of the country somehow delegitimizes Section 5. I'd like to invite those critics to hear directly from people across the country who devoted countless hours to ensuring that marginalized communities were able to vote this past election.
In 2011 and 2012 I organized faith leaders from 22 states in combating voter suppression efforts and turning out the vote among specific communities. This election cycle offered many powerful reminders why Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is still needed. Texas, for example, passed a discriminatory voter ID law that would have required voters to present government-issued photo ID at the polls, which would have especially burdened poor people and people of color. But because Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act still stands, this law was defeated and the right to vote was protected. Reverend Simeon L. Queen of Houston, Texas, a comrade in the struggle, reflected: "It is inexcusable that nearly 50 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, politicians are still trying to make it harder for African Americans in Texas to vote. I wish the Voting Rights Act wasn't still necessary, but thank the Lord it's still there."
Since 1980 I have been fortunate to work with men and women, some who started before I was born, to fight for laws protecting the right to vote. Despite the commitment of those who devoted their lives to voter protections, the right to vote remains fragile for many Americans. From voter ID laws to restrictions on early voting, as a country we cannot allow anyone to say "this isn't a problem anymore" to communities who are experiencing, as others witness, those problems at the polls each election.
President Johnson called the vote "a powerful instrument," Dr. King the "foundation stone," and for me it's a sacred right for breaking down injustice, removing obstacles to democracy and empowering the dis-empowered. When discriminatory laws threaten Americans' fundamental right to vote, we are called to utilize every tool available. Across the country we have seen the importance of courts in successfully fighting back against voter suppression efforts. Section 5 remains a key to protecting communities, my community from future attempts at disenfranchisement. Hopefully, prayerfully, the Supreme Court will realize this.
This post originally appeared at the Huffington Post.


text:
Hang tight!
Recipe by Nancy
"Have too much zucchini from your garden? Try this quick and delicious summer recipe using your grill."
Watch video tips and tricks
1 large
1/4 cup
Italian-style salad dressing
Very Good!! I just halved the zucchini lengthwise, and added some salt and pepper after grilling. Cutting it the long way really saved on time, plus made it easier to move on and off the grill. Thanks!
My husband and I both thought these tasted like warm pickles. I kept my opinion to myself to see if it was just me, but then he pushed his portion onto my plate and said the same thing!
289 Ratings
It's simple, fast and gives the squash a good flavor. I pan fried instead of grilled and it works just as well.
The first time I tried this I added a little Parmesean and it was fantastic! I have a vegetable basket for the barbeque grill which made it easy to flip them. Plus, it makes the taste amazing! The second time I tried this, I added too much dressing and it overpowered the zucchini, so be careful on your proportions. A favorite in my home!
We make this by cutting the Zucchini into spears and letting it marinate in a Italian dressing bath for 3 days, yes 3 days! It sounds ridiculous but it makes the Zucchini much better and zingy, while the grill marks add a caramelized type of sweetness. I wasn't a fan of Zucchini until I had it like that! Really good for low carbers.
5 stars for flavor and easiness. I sliced my zucchini in spears (they looked like pickles), and after bringing them inside, I topped them with some grated parmesan cheese while still hot. The parmesan on top is a wonderful addition!
YUM-YUM! At my local farmers market, I found what they call an 8-ball....no, not that kinda 8-ball...It is a zucchini that they said "has gone wild". It looks like a small pumpkin, meaning it is round, which made for perfect larger slices to grill! This is a simple side that is sure to please, as Linda put it, what's not to like about it?? Thanks Nancy!
I don't usually care for Italian dressing, but I love Zucchini so I thought that I'd give it a try. Boy, am I ever glad that I did.
Thanks for sharing it with us Nancy.
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
Grilled Zucchini II
Serving Size: 1/3 of a recipe
Servings Per Recipe: 3
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 74
Calories from Fat: 52
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Balsamic vinegar gives grilled zucchini delicious caramelized flavors.
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See how to make a creamy, delicious zucchini side dish.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Understanding Express js
Understanding Express js
This is aimed at people who have some familiarity with Node.js. They know how to run Node scripts and can install packages with npm. You don't have to be an expert, though — I promise. This guide was last updated for Express 3.4.0 (and Connect 2.9.0). It's an introduction and mostly deals with concepts.
Express.js describes itself better than I can: "a minimal and flexible node.js web application framework". It helps you build web apps. If you've used Sinatra in the Ruby world, a lot of this will be familiar.
Like any abstraction, Express hides difficult bits and says "don't worry, you don't need to understand this part". It does things for you so that you don't have to bother. In other words, it's magic.
It's good magic, too. Express catalogs some people using it, and there are some big names: MySpace, Klout, and even some stuff I've made. Me. I'm a huge deal. I've got a blog.
But all magic comes at a price: you might not understand the inner workings of Express. This is like driving a car; I drive a car just fine without intimate knowledge of its workings, but I'd be better off with that knowledge. What if things break? What if you want to get all the performance you can out of the car? What if you have an insatiable thirst for knowledge?
So let's understand Express from the bottom, with Node.
Bottom layer: Node's HTTP server
Node has an HTTP module which makes a pretty simple abstraction for making a webserver. Here's what that might look like:
// Require what we need
var http = require("http");
// Build the server
var app = http.createServer(function(request, response) {
response.writeHead(200, {
"Content-Type": "text/plain"
response.end("Hello world!\n");
// Start that server, baby
app.listen(1337, "localhost");
console.log("Server running at http://localhost:1337/");
And if you run that app (if that file is called
app.js, you'd run
node app.js), you'll get a response of "Hello world!" if you visit
localhost:1337 in your browser. You'll get the same response no matter what, too. You can try visiting
localhost:1337/anime_currency or
localhost:1337/?onlyfriend=anime, and it's like talking to a brick wall: "Hello world!"
Let's break this down a bit.
The first line uses the
require function to load a built-in Node module called
http. It puts this lovely module inside of a variable called
http. For more about the require function, check out Nodejitsu's docs.
Then we put a server in a variable called
app by using
http.createServer. This takes a function that listens for requests. We'll get back to this in a minute because they're Super Duper Important. Skip over it for the next two sentences.
The last thing we do is tell the server to listen for requests coming in on port 1337, and then we just log that out. And then we're in business.
Okay, back to the request handler function. That thing is important.
The request handler
Before I start this section, I should say that there's a bunch of cool HTTP stuff in here that I don't think is relevant to learning Express. If you're interested, you can look at the docs for the HTTP module because they have a bunch of stuff.
Whenever we make a request to the server, that request handler function is called. If you don't believe me, try putting a
console.log in there. You'll see that it logs out every time you load a page.
request is a request that comes from the client. In many apps, you'll see this shortened to
req. Let's look at it. To do that, we'll modify the above request handler a bit:
var app = http.createServer(function(request, response) {
// Build the answer
var answer = "";
answer += "Request URL: " + request.url + "\n";
answer += "Request type: " + request.method + "\n";
answer += "Request headers: " + JSON.stringify(request.headers) + "\n";
// Send answer
response.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/plain" });
Restart the server and reload
localhost:1337. You'll see what URL you're requesting, that it's a GET request, and that you've sent a number of cool headers like the user-agent and more complicated HTTP stuff! If you visit
localhost:1337/what_is_anime, you'll see the request URL change. If you visit it with a different browser, the user-agent will change. If you send it a POST request, you'll see the method change.
response is the next part. Just like the prior argument is often shortened, this is often shortened to the three-letter
res. With each response, you get the response all ready to send, and then you call
response.end. Eventually, you must call this method; even the Node docs say so. This method does the actual sending of data. You can try making a server where you don't call it, and it just hangs forever.
Before you send it out, you'll want to write some headers. In our example, we do this:
response.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/plain" });
This does two things. First, it sends HTTP status code 200, which means "OK, everything is good". Then, it sets some response headers. In this case, it's saying that we're sending back the plaintext content-type. We could send other things like JSON or HTML.
I thirst for more
You want more? Okay. You asked nicely.
One could imagine taking these APIs and turning them into something cool. You could do something (sorta) like this:
var http = require("http");
http.createServer(function(req, res) {
// Homepage
if (req.url == "/") {
res.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/html" });
res.end("Welcome to the homepage!");
// About page
else if (req.url == "/about") {
res.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/html" });
res.end("Welcome to the about page!");
// 404'd!
else {
res.writeHead(404, { "Content-Type": "text/plain" });
res.end("404 error! File not found.");
}).listen(1337, "localhost");
You could clean this up and make it pretty, or you could be hardcore like the npm.org folks and tough it out with vanilla Node. But you could also build a framework. That's what Sencha did. And they called it Connect.
Middle layer: Connect
Fitting that Connect happens to be the middle layer of this JavaScript cake, because it calls itself "a middleware framework for node". Don't go searching "what is middleware" just yet — I'm about to explain it.
A little bit of Connect code
Let's say we wanted to write the "hello world" app that we had above, but with Connect this time. Don't forget to install Connect (
npm install, baby). Once you've done that, the app is pretty similar.
// Require the stuff we need
var connect = require("connect");
var http = require("http");
// Build the app
var app = connect();
// Add some middleware
app.use(function(request, response) {
response.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/plain" });
response.end("Hello world!\n");
// Start it up!
So let's step through this.
First, we require Connect. We then require Node's HTTP module just like we did before. We're ready.
Then we make a variable called
app like we did before, but instead of creating the server, we call
connect(). What's going on? What is this madness?
We then add some middleware — it's just a function. We pass this to
app.use, and this function looks an awful lot like the request handlers from above. In fact, I copy-pasted it.
Then we create the server and start listening.
http.createServer took a function before, so guess what –
app is just a function. It's a Connect-made function that starts going through all the middleware until the end. But it's just a request handler like before.
(Worth noting that you might see people using
app.listen(1337), which just defers to
http.createServer. This is true in both Connect and Express.)
Okay, now I'm going to explain middleware.
What is middleware?
I want to start by saying that Stephen Sugden's description of Connect middleware is really good and does a better job than I can. If you don't like my explanation, read his.
Remember the request handlers from a few sections earlier? Each piece of middleware is a request handler. You start by looking at the first request handler, then you look at the next one, then the next, and so on.
Here's what middleware basically looks like:
function myFunMiddleware(request, response, next) {
// Do stuff with the request and response.
// When we're all done, call next() to defer to the next middleware.
When we start a server, we start at the topmost middleware and work our way to the bottom. So if we wanted to add simple logging to our app, we could do it!
var connect = require("connect");
var http = require("http");
var app = connect();
// Logging middleware
app.use(function(request, response, next) {
console.log("In comes a " + request.method + " to " + request.url);
// Send "hello world"
app.use(function(request, response) {
response.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/plain" });
response.end("Hello world!\n");
If you run this app and visit
localhost:1337, you'll see that your server is logging some stuff and you'll see your page.
It's important to note that anything that works in the vanilla Node.js server also works in middleware. For example, if you want to inspect
req.method, it's right there.
While you can totally write your own, Connect comes with a bunch of cool middleware andthere's a bunch of third-party middleware too. Let's remove our logger and use the one built into Connect:
var connect = require("connect");
var http = require("http");
var app = connect();
// Fun fact: connect.logger() returns a function.
app.use(function(request, response) {
response.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/plain" });
response.end("Hello world!\n");
localhost:1337 and you'll see some logging!
I thirst for more
One could imagine stringing together some middleware to build an app. Maybe you'd do it like this:
var connect = require("connect");
var http = require("http");
var app = connect();
// Homepage
app.use(function(request, response, next) {
if (request.url == "/") {
response.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/plain" });
response.end("Welcome to the homepage!\n");
// The middleware stops here.
} else {
// About page
app.use(function(request, response, next) {
if (request.url == "/about") {
response.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/plain" });
response.end("Welcome to the about page!\n");
// The middleware stops here.
} else {
// 404'd!
app.use(function(request, response) {
response.writeHead(404, { "Content-Type": "text/plain" });
response.end("404 error!\n");
"This is ugly! I need to build a framework," you say. You savage. You're never satisfied, are you? Will there ever be enough?
Some people saw Connect and they said, "this code can be even easier". And so they built Expresss. (Actually, it seems like they saw Sinatra and stole it.)
Top layer: Express
We've finally arrived at the third act of our nerdy quest. We're at the peak of our abstraction mountain. There is a beautiful sunset. Your long, golden locks wave in the cool breeze.
Just like Connect extends Node, Express extends Connect. The beginning looks very similar to Connect:
var express = require("express");
var http = require("http");
var app = express();
And so does the end:
But the middle is what's different. Where Connect gives you one cool feature (middleware), I think that Express gives you three cool features: routing, better request handlers, and views. Let's start with routing.
Cool feature 1: routing
Routing is a way to map different requests to specific handlers. In many of the above examples, we had a homepage and an about page and a 404 page. We'd basically do this with a bunch of
if statements in the examples.
But Express is smarter than that. Express gives us something called "routing" which I think is better explained with code than with English:
var express = require("express");
var http = require("http");
var app = express();
app.all("*", function(request, response, next) {
response.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/plain" });
app.get("/", function(request, response) {
response.end("Welcome to the homepage!");
app.get("/about", function(request, response) {
response.end("Welcome to the about page!");
app.get("*", function(request, response) {
Ooh. That's hot.
After the basic requires, we say "every request goes through this function" with
app.all. And that function looks an awful lot like middleware, don't it?
The three calls to
app.get are Express's routing system. They could also be
app.post, which respond to POST requests, or PUT, or any of the HTTP verbs. The first argument is a path, like
/about or
/. The second argument is a request handler similar to what we've seen before. To quote the Express documentation:
[These request handlers] behave just like middleware, with the one exception that these callbacks may invoke
next('route')to bypass the remaining route callback(s). This mechanism can be used to perform pre-conditions on a route then pass control to subsequent routes when there is no reason to proceed with the route matched.
In short: they're basically middleware like we've seen before. They're just functions, just like before.
These routes can get smarter, with things like this:
app.get("/hello/:who", function(req, res) {
res.end("Hello, " + req.params.who + ".");
// Fun fact: this has security issues
Restart your server and visit
localhost:1337/hello/animelover69 for the following message:
Hello, animelover69.
The docs also show an example that uses regular expressions, and you can do lots of other stuff with this routing. For a conceptual understanding, I've said enough.
But it gets cooler.
Cool feature 2: request handling
Routing would be enough, but Express is absolutely ruthless.
Express augments the request and response objects that you're passed in every request handler. The old stuff is still there, but they add some new stuff too! The API docs explain everything, but let's look at a couple of examples.
One nicety they give you is a
redirect method. Here are some examples:
response.redirect(301, "http://www.anime.org"); // HTTP status code 301
This isn't in vanilla Node and it's also absent from Connect, but Express adds this stuff. It adds things like
sendFile which lets you just send a whole file:
The request gets a number of cool properties, like
request.ip to get the IP address and
request.files to get uploaded files.
Conceptually, there's not much to know, other than the fact that Express extends the request and response. For everything Express gives you, check out the API docs.
Cool feature 3: views
More features? Oh, Express, I'm blushing.
Express can handle views. It's not too bad. Here's what the setup looks like:
// Start Express
var express = require("express");
var app = express();
// Set the view directory to /views
app.set("views", __dirname + "/views");
// Let's use the Jade templating language
app.set("view engine", "jade");
The first block is the same as always. Then we say "our views are in a folder called 'views'". Then we say "use Jade". Jade is a templating language. We'll see how it works in just a second!
Now, we've set up these views. How do we use them?
Let's start by making a file called
index.jade and put it into a directory called
views. It might look like this:
doctype 5
h1 Hello, world!
p= message
This is basically HTML without all the brackets. It should be fairly straightforward if you know HTML. The only interesting part is the last line.
message is a variable! Woah! Where did that come from? I'll tell you.
We need to render the view from within Express. Here's what that looks like:
app.get("/", function(request, response) {
response.render("index", { message: "I love anime" });
Express adds a method to
response, called
render. It does a bunch of smart stuff, but it basically looks at the view engine and views directory (the stuff we defined earlier) and renders
The last step (I suppose it could be the first step) is to install Jade, because it's not bundled with Express. Add it to your
package.json or
npm install it.
Bonus cool feature: everything from Connect and Node
I want to remind you that Express is built on top of Connect which is built on top of Node. This means that all Connect middleware works with Express. This is useful! For example:
var express = require("express");
var app = express();
app.use(express.logger()); // Inherited from Connect
app.get("/", function(req, res) {
If you learn one thing from this post, it should be this. If your brain has room for another fun fact: hippo milk is pink!
Actually building something
Most of the stuff in this post is conceptual, but let me push you in the right direction for building something you want to build. I don't want to delve into specifics.
You can install Express as an executable in your terminal. It spits out boilerplate code that's very helpful for starting your app. Install it globally with npm:
# You'll probably need `sudo` for this:
npm install -g express
If you need help, use
express --help. It spits out some options. For example, let's say I want to use EJS templating and LESS for CSS. My app is called "myApp". Here's what I'd type to get started:
express --ejs --css less myApp
It'll generate a bunch of files and then tell you to go into that directory and
npm install. If you do that, you'll have a basic app running with
node app! I'd recommend looking through the generated files to see some boilerplate, and then messing with it a bunch. It's hardly a full app, but I found it very helpful to poke through these files and mess with them when getting started.
Some concluding miscellany
- If you love CoffeeScript like I do, you should know that all of this stuff works with CoffeeScript. You don't even need to compile it! Instead of starting your server with
node app.js, start it with
coffee app.coffee. This is what I do in my apps. Me. I'm a big deal. I've got a blog.
- I was confused when I saw
app.use(app.router)– doesn't Express always use a router? The short answer is that
app.routeris Express's routing middleware, and it's implicitly included when you define a route. You can explicitly include it because you want the router middleware to come before other stuff, which is sometimes desirable. This StackOverflow answer explains it well.
- This guide was written for Express 3, and the version 4 roadmap shows the possibility of some dramatic changes. Most notably, it looks like Express might be split up into a bunch of small modules and eat some of Connect's features. It's up in the air, but the "plans" are worth a look.
I thirst for more
Is there no satisfying you? You glutton. You make me sick. Soon you're gonna be sitting in an opium den, eyes half-open, drooling out the last drop of your programming talent.
Just like Rails is the de-facto way to build web apps with Ruby and demonic masochism is the de-facto way to build web apps in PHP, I get the impression that Express is the de-facto way to build web apps in Node. But unlike Rails, Express is much lower-level. It seems like no high-level Node library has stuck out. I think this is going to change. Keep your eyes out.
I won't go into them here, but just as Express was built on Connect and Connect on Node, people have built things on top of Express. The Express wiki lists them and many of them are Pretty Cool. You can use these frameworks if you'd prefer, or you can stick to the lower-level Express. Either way, go build cool stuff!


text:
A movie directed by Richard Linklater
The Hi Life Bar is the center of the events that take place in this romantic comedy starring Eric Stoltz as the catalyst for a wacky chain reaction of events that begins when he lies to his girlfriend so that she will raise the cash to pay off his bookie. … see full wiki
What did you think of this review?
A movie directed by Richard Linklater
A movie


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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Months after Louisiana's construction budget got so tight that some projects appeared threatened with shutdown, state officials have been helped by brightened revenue forecasts and low interest rates.
Now, the state is on track to keep up with projects in the pipeline and a new bond sale is on the horizon.
At one point, Louisiana was teetering so close to its constitutional limit on debt that Treasurer John Kennedy said the state's pool of money to pay for ongoing construction projects was running dry and there was little room to borrow more.
Gov. Bobby Jindal's top budget adviser, Kristy Nichols, says the situation never was as bad as that.
But both sides now agree the state has the wiggle room to borrow again, to replenish the fund for construction projects.


text:
- Gabriela Ybarra
- Brooklyn, NY
- United States
Ms in Integrated Marketing, New York University
This conversation is closed.
How do you see the future of literature? Do yo think that shorter forms such as poetry and microstories will gain more weight?
Now that immediacy seems to be ruling our world, many have the fear that less people will take the time to read and write long novels.
Do you believe in this? Why or why not?
Which genres and themes do you think will gain more weight and why in the following years
Topics: future literature microstories poetry
Closing Statement from Gabriela Ybarra
Thank you very much for your contributions!
Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.
Mar 13 2011: I think that novels will be important tomorrow, as they are now. It is currently the only way to be immersed in a version of reality, that is specifically not one's own. While movies and tvs may give a person the satisfaction of a short story, a novel can thread one through complicated understandings.
Mar 15 2011: Hi Patricia, I totally agree that movies are not a substitute for literature, they are their own thing. I recently red a comment by Paul Auster that said:
"And that's why books are never going to die. It's impossible. It's the only time we really go into the mind of a stranger, and we find our common humanity doing this. So the book doesn't only belong to the writer, it belongs to the reader as well, and then together you make it what it is."
There will always exist people who will need to enter the mind of strangers and let go their imagination. My question is if the novel will still be the main genre to do so. As Tamara Hoffman mentions earlier in a comment, a development in style might occur. I think this makes a lot of sense as the Internet revolution is probably one of the most profound changes that humanity has experienced, and this must be reflected somehow in literature.
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Make a holiday rental home or cottage in Siorac en Perigord, France your home away from home.
Siorac en Perigord is a picturesque village, full of stone-built cottages, leafy green trees and bubbling brooks, making it a popular destination for a romantic weekend getaway. Don't let the calm exterior fool you though. Beneath the laid back atmosphere, the village has a whole host of different activities on offer – enough to keep any active family entertained for one or two weeks over the summer holidays.
Although far from the rowdy nightlife of the South Coast, Siorac en Perigord has various bars and restaurants, ideal for reading a book with a cup of coffee in the summer sunshine, or sampling the local wines into the late evening.
For those looking for something slightly more active, there are tennis courts and an 18-hole golf course within 2km of your chosen Siorac en Perigord holiday home. There are also a number of more adventurous alternatives on the doorstep, including go-karting and hot air ballooning, which offers spectacular views over the valley.
Siorac en Perigord is also set on the edge of the Dordogne River, which is a great place to participate in one of France's favourite outdoor pastimes – canoeing. The river is suitable for all ages and abilities, from beginners to experts alike, with equipment hire available nearby. The river is also an excellent spot for fishing, and licenses are easily obtainable at the post office in the village.
The Dordogne
The world-famous Lascaux Caves are also only a 20km drive from Siorac en Perigord self-catering accommodation, where visitors can view Paleolithic cave paintings, which are estimated to be more than 16,000 years old.
The weather in Siorac en Perigord is similar to the rest of the south of France. Summers can be very hot, with temperatures of more than 30°C a regular occurrence. The spring and autumn remain quite warm, making Siorac en Perigord an ideal destination for a break during these half-term holidays, or as a base for a long weekend escape.
Siorac en Perigord self-catering accommodation is most easily reached via Bergerac Airport (EGC), which is approximately 46km west of the village. Ryanair and Flybe flights land daily, arriving from a number of different UK airports, including London Stansted, Liverpool, Bristol and East Midlands Airports.


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Posted 12/28/2009 12:11:23 EST
Pretty sure Kavalier and Clay is on the list (as it should be). And so in agreement about White Teeth -- it was weird to see how many lists have touted On Beauty, which is a fine book but White Teeth more »


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Raise kids to be entrepreneurs
By Matt Hern on July 14, 2010
The wealthiest people in the world are entrepreneurs – not passive investors in residential property (the backyard BBQ favourite.) In my experience of working with people many want to start their own business. But their traditional education and employee experience often has not given them the toolkit to succeed. In the video below Cameron Herold [...]
Posted in Self-employment (Business) | Tagged entrepreneurism, video | Leave a response
Why now is the time to cash in on your passion
By Matt Hern on March 11, 2010
If you would love to be pursuing and profiting from your passion then I am excited to be sharing this book with you. I've just finished reading Crush It! by Gary Vaynercuk. Gary Vaynerchuk passionately believes that now is the time to be cashing in on your passion, and I wholeheartedly agree with him. In [...]
Posted in Profitable Passions & Careers | Tagged book reviews, personal brand, video | Leave a response
Wealth Insights for Young People
By Matt Hern on February 13, 2010
There is such a myriad of ideas for how to manage you money it is very difficult to know where to start and what is appropriate for you. In one of my regular interviews on Wake Up! WA we discussed money tips for young people, including students. IN the later half of the interview we [...]
Posted in Saving | Tagged children, Managing your money, media mentions, video | Leave a response
How To Save Up To Buy Your First Home
By Matt Hern on January 29, 2010
Owning your own home is one major goal for many young Australians. But with property prices so high a first mortgage may appear out of reach. In this interview on Wake Up WA, Certified Financial Planner professional Matt Hern shares three strategies that first home buyers (especially young people) can use to save up to [...]
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Principles of Economics Translated
By Matt Hern on January 26, 2010
Confused by economics? Then you may enjoy this humorous video by Yoram Bauman, The Stand-Up Economist.
Posted in Economics | Tagged economics, humour, video | Leave a response
Solving The Financial Decisions On Your Mind
By Matt Hern on December 6, 2009
On Thursday I conducted a webinar in which I addressed the top three types of financial decisions that are on your mind, as submitted in the recent survey. Almost all respondants said that they think about these things daily or a few times a week. That is a lot of time and energy consumed on [...]
Posted in Featured, Growing, Planning, Saving | Tagged video | Leave a response
The credit crisis explained visually
By Matt Hern on June 4, 2009
For those still a little bit baffled by how the credit crisis started and then snowballed I recommend you spend 11 minutes watching this video. The concepts are very simply explained including: leverage, collaterised debt obligation and sub-prime. The knowledge will help you become a better investor in the future so that you can better understand [...]
Posted in Economics | Tagged Global financial crisis, video | 1 Response
What a CFP represents
By Matt Hern on June 3, 2009
Certified Financial Planner, or CFP is the top level certification for financial planners. It takes quite a bit of knowledge, skill and experience to be awarded this certification. When seeking financial planning advice, especially for the first time I recommend that you start by speaeking with CFPs. You can find them on the Financial Planning [...]
Posted in Getting Advice | Tagged certified financial planner, financial advice, Financial Planning Association (FPA), video | Leave a response
Don't Stress About Losing Your Job
By Matt Hern on April 28, 2009
Are you worried about how you will cope if your job is made redundant? Is this occupying your mind for too much of the day, taking some of the joy out of life or even worse, causing you to lose sleep? If you have the three elements shared in this video in place then you [...]
Posted in Retrenchment | Tagged Global financial crisis, redundancy advice, video | 1 Response
Media "experts" finally held to account
By Matt Hern on April 28, 2009
"Even if nothing happened in the financial markets that day there would still be a 60 page edition of The Australian Financial Review published the next day." That was the view shared by one of my first lecturers in financial planning back in 2000. (I wish I could remember which lecturer so I could give [...]
Posted in More Tips | Tagged financial media, Global financial crisis, humour, video | Leave a response
Deciding when to start investing again
By Matt Hern on April 7, 2009
At some time during the recent bear market did you sell most or all your investments to cash? Or maybe have you been holding out on your regular investment plan because you haven't felt comfortable? Watch the video below for some insights into how to decide when to start investing again.
Posted in Featured, Growing | Tagged behavioural finance, Global financial crisis, investment, market timing, video | 3 Responses
Creating Wealth: Should you D.I.Y. Or Outsource?
By Matt Hern on June 29, 2008
To create wealth is it better to do it yourself or outsource? Is an active approach better than passive? If you do outsource some parts, how do you know what to outsource? In this interview on Wake Up WA, I answer these questions with a unique model I have developed. Watch the video now.
Posted in Getting Advice | Tagged financial advice, investment, media mentions, video | Leave a response
Keep it simple to ride out market emotions
By Matt Hern on March 20, 2008
In his latest article, Robin Bowerman of Vanguard Investments Australia suggests: "There is one clear lesson investors can learn from the recent sharemarket turmoil – the smart way to invest is to keep things simple." It is an excellent article that discusses behavioural finance and draws on research from Steve Utkus, the head of Vanguard's [...]
| Tagged investment, video, wealth mindset | Leave a response
Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams: by Dr Randy Pausch
By Matt Hern on March 17, 2008
There is a tradition at Carnegie Mellon University called "The Last Lecture" – if you knew you were about to die what would you share with your students in your last lecture? Dr Randy Pausch recently gave such a lecture, with a twist. My passion is helping people achieve their lifestyle goals through the wise [...]
| Tagged success formulas, video | Leave a response
The value of TPD Insurance
By Matt Hern on January 31, 2008
When you're fighting fit and rarely see a doctor it can be hard to imagine ever needing insurance. Watch this true story of David Blakeway, a middle-age professional who suddenly suffered an aneurism. David describes his surgery, time in hospital and how his Total & Permanent Disability (TPD) claim allowed him to 'put his life [...]
Posted in Personal Insurance | Tagged video | Leave a response


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Date of Award
Degree Type
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Dr. J.D. Alsop
Early English maritime expansion, and, in particular, the Anglo-Spanish war, have been analyzed by generations of historians. Until recently, the focus has been placed on events and participants "at the top". In the following pages, we will revisit that period but we shall scrutinize it from a different perspective: this is an examination of the men of the seafaring community and their experiences during a particularly volatile period of maritime history. Without a doubt, the seafaring community had to content with simultaneous pressures from many different directions: shipowners and merchants, motivated by profit, hired seamen to sail voyages of ever-increasing distance which taxed the health and capabilities of sixteenth-century crews and vessels. International tensions in the last two decades of Elizabeth's reign magnified the risks to all seamen, whether in civilian employment or on warships. The advent of open warfare with Spain in 1585 ushered in two major developments. Firstly, there was the privateering war against the Spanish empire, seen by seamen as one of the few economic benefits of the conflict. Seamen, however, were not the only ones who went to sea for pillage and plunder: unprecedented numbers of landsmen were also anxious to participate in the very popular privateering war. This influx tested the cohesion of the maritime community, largely unprotected by a guild or trade group. The other major development was the introduction of large-scale impressment, a deeply resented aspect of any naval war and one that brought uncertainty and great hardship to seamen and their families. During the second half of Elizabeth's reign, seamen were forced into their sovereign's service in large numbers, a rude shock to labourers accustomed to a great deal of employment freedom. The Crown wrongly assumed that these men would be content to act out their parts in a play which it had scripted, wherein the needs of a state in crisis would take precedence over seamen's health and ability to earn a living. Without a naval caste of seamen, the Crown was frustrated by the intractability of a labour group accustomed to a high degree of "shipboard democracy" and a higher standard of working conditions. The relationship between the Crown and its seafarers was a "pull-haul" between a government beset by financial problems of fighting a protracted war on several fronts and frustrated by its limited infrastructure, and employees forced to work in dangerous conditions for substandard wages in an expanding economy. The stresses of the war years tell us much about the dynamic of the maritime community, its members' expectations and their coping strategies. What follows is an examination of a group of labourers whose livelihood, customs, and traditional freedoms were under attack. Unable to take advantage of the increasing societal need for skilled seamen because of the power of the state, the growing number of "outsiders", and their weakness as a collective, semen fought a defensive war: they tried to combat their deteriorating status by holding on tenaciously to their customs in an effort to survive their clash with the state. The fact seamen were ultimately successful is a testament to the tenacity of early modern work culture.
Recommended Citation
Fury, Cheryl Anne, "Tides in the Affairs of Men: The Social History of Elizabethan Seamen, 1580-1603" (1998). Open Access Dissertations and Theses. Paper 2203.


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NISKAYUNA, N.Y. – The Schenectady man accused of placing a suspicious package at Mohawk Commons appeared in court Wednesday.
A judge ordered 21-year-old Joshua Usher to undergo a mental evaluation.
Usher allegedly placed a suspicious package in the area between Target and Famous Footwear Tuesday. Witnesses said they saw Usher place the package and walk away.
Several stores were evacuated as the bomb squad was called to the scene. The package was not dangerous.
Usher was arrested and charged with Disorderly Conduct and Placing a False Bomb or Hazardous Substance. His family said Usher suffers from psychological issues.
341 Northern Blvd.,
Albany, NY 12204
Telephone: 518.436.4822
Fax: 518.426.4792
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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A 'ritual' is a type of behavior regularly and invariably followed by someone.
What would you think if I said that in English culture, a person may ask a question...and not expect or WANT the truth!! On the contrary!
This happens when someone says, "Hello. How are you?" And to deviate from the ritual of replying, "Fine thanks." could be seen as very odd, depending on the seriousness and privacy of the information then divulged. The person speaking does NOT want to know any details about 'how you are' in terms of health, marital or job problems, or kids playing up at home.
This is one of the rituals when people communicate, converse with each other.
So that you can understand more about this, see this site:
Conversation Rituals


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I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, 'OMG, she's finally lost it'. But before you start getting all logical and wondering why on earth you might need an enormous pencil or gigantic earphones… bear with me!
As a props buyer and sometime events stylist – I have actually had to source oversized items such as these more often than you might imagine. Thank God You're Here was especially fond of these wacky props – I recall requests for a giant toothbrush, a 6ft fountain pen, a 3m high cricket bat and oversized kitchen utensils on more than one occasion. And frankly, I am quite excited to know that if I ever need an oversized paintbrush, I don't have to find a props maker at short notice and fork out $3000 to get one made. Because Third Drawer Down has them for just $245.00! That's great value!
Ok ok I hear you… not everyone requires such peculiar items in their everyday working life. But just take a moment to consider the possibilities…
- Office workers! Encourage a smile in your dreary cubicle by offering guests an oversized hamburger instead of a chair to sit on.
- Teachers! Set up an oversized pencil or ruler in your classroom for instant 'cool teacher' cred.
- Parents! Imagine the photos at your kid's next birthday party with one or more of these props on hand! Stick French berets and moustaches on all the kids and have them pose at an easel with the oversized paintbrush!
- Students! Cause a stir at your maths exam with this ruler under your arm…
- Architects / designers! – Talk your client into ordering 20 x corn cobs as outdoor seating for their new cafe! (Come on now – there are enough plywood stools in the world already!)
- Retailers! - draw customers to your shopfront! Hang that pencil (or ruler) horizontally, attach hooks side by side along it's length… ta dah! – an instant eye-catching display for accessories, clothing, hangsell items… at least it'll guarantee a smile!
IF YOU TOO have a vivid imagination and are just a little bit bonkers (like me), perhaps you can think of the perfect spot for an oversized corn cob in your home / office / workplace! Third Drawer Down are very excited to offer this wacky prize to one lucky Design Files reader!
Please leave a comment here today to be in the running! Entries close at midnight tonight – May 6th 2010. A winner will be picked at random and announced tomorrow… good luck!! (Australian residents only, sorry!).


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SAN JOSE-Given the way things have been going for the San Jose Sharks, it's hard to overstate just how important Joe Pavelski's tying goal was against Colorado on Monday night.
Pavelski, who has been a clutch goal scorer throughout his career earning the nickname "The Big Pavelski", scored with 20 seconds remaining to tie the score at four a piece. The goal came on the heels of two Colorado goals just 12 seconds apart to take the Avalanche from down one to up one with less than two minutes remaining.
At that point it was just more of the same for the Sharks who have been treading water the last two weeks. After completing a six game win streak from Nov. 21 through Dec. 3, San Jose had since gone just 3-5-1 heading into the final game before the Christmas break.
During that stretch San Jose has failed to hold on to numerous multi-goal leads and their win Saturday against Dallas was far from pretty. The Sharks allowed a whopping 48 shots on goal, and were down 2-0 to the Stars before managing to tie the game and win in a shootout.
Against the Avalanche however, the Sharks were dominating through 40 minutes in terms of possession. They had out-shot attempted Colorado 62-34 at that point but held just a slim 3-2 advantage.
While they weren't terrible in the third, the Sharks didn't come out with the same energy that saw them control the second period and subsequently left the door open for the Aves. Back-to-back goals by Erik Johnson and (who would have guessed) former Shark Jamie McGinn gave Colorado the lead.
Had Pavelski not scored, the Sharks would be heading into the Christmas holiday on a 3-6-1 stretch. They may be a veteran group that likes to claim to be even keeled but a loss like that can be a tough pill to swallow. Considering their recent struggles to hold leads, who knows how that loss would affect the room.
I tried to ask Sharks head coach Todd McLellan if it were possible to overstate how big Pavelski's goal was but he wouldn't go in the direction I was hoping.
"They're all big" commented the coach. "Without Burnzie getting us going, without a couple of the other goals, Matt Irwin, the power-play, were not even talking about Pavs' goal. So they're all important. Pavs has been a real clutch player over the past two weeks for us. He's kind of the go-to guy right now. He seems to be getting it done and he did it again tonight."
With the goal and the shootout win, a 4-5-1 record doesn't look too bad, especially with back-to-back wins heading into the break. When you factor in the Tomas Hertl injury with the team struggles, you could say there had been a dark cloud hovering over this team.
Even though he's remained effective, Logan Couture has been in a goal scoring drought, Marty Havlat is once again in and out of the lineup, Brent Burns recently went eight games with no goals and just one assist, and Antti Niemi has struggled between the pipes.
But in spite of all that, Pavelski turned a near brutal collapse into a big, big, two points in the ever competitive Pacific Division. For whatever reason nobody but the Sharks can seem to beat the Anaheim Ducks, whom along with the LA Kings and Vancouver Canucks have all won at least eight of their past 10 games.
The 5-4 shootout victory keeps San Jose entrenched in third place in the division, up two points on fourth place Vancouver (with two games in hand) and just two points back of second place LA (with one game in hand) . Division leading Anaheim is up seven points on the Sharks but San Jose holds two games in hand there as well.
As always, for more on the Sharks follow Andrew on twitter: @ViewFromBensch


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Black and White
Gallery not found. Please check your settings.
I am a self-proclaimed card maker. I was wondering if I could use your spidey image and use it in a card I am making for a little boy I nanny. Please email me either way.
Can you put a spot on this sight so people can sign their crehdlin up for sports online just in case they can't make it to the sign ups in person?


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SF Unzipped
Revealing San Francisco's secret love of fashion, beauty and shopping
Monthly Archive for February, 2010
ZIP Code: Skunkfunk blowout; shoes at Bloomie's
Skunkfunk Skunkfunk sale/94117 Get 25 percent off at when you mention this flyer/post, and up to 75 percent off at this casual chic purveyor. Sat. & Sun. @ 1475 Haight St., SF; 415-829-2899. Other happenings: Meet Pour La Victoire's David Giordano this Saturday at Bloomingdale's. Free; 1-4pm Feb. 27 @ Bloomingdale's San Francisco Centre, SF. […] [Read More]
New! The week in pitches!
As long as the deluge of publicity firms pitching products to The Chronicle keeps up, SFUnzipped is committed to bringing you a selection of our favorites that would otherwise never see the light of print, or cyberspace. Think of it as a sort of lowbrow New Yorker cartoon captions contest, and feel free to leave […] [Read More]
Thinking pink, the "Glammy" Awards and more …
Have you spotted Bare Escentuals' "Rethink What Matters" little pink van/cart thingie making its way through Bay Area streets? Its sides pop out creating an instant street boutique where passersby can get instant "make-unders" and deluxe samples as part of a promotion for the line's mineral foundations. Bare Escentuals The pink "Rethink" van in action. […] [Read More]
ZIP Code: Oakland cheers on "Project Runway"; Mission Statement turns 2
"Project Runway" viewing party/94612 Lifetime Oakland designer Amy Sarabi is holding strong on "Project Runway," and is scheduled to stop by the party tonight. Oakland Councilmember Nancy Nadel teams up with the Office of the Mayor, Cultural Arts & Marketing Division, and fashion label Skylier Wear to celebrate "Project Runway" contestant Amy Sarabi with a […] [Read More]
We're lookin' good …
Yes, yes, true beauty is on the inside, I know. But when it comes to outer beauty, there are aisles of options that can enhance and /or maintain what you've got. Page 26 of the current issue of WWD's Beauty Biz. Apparently here in the Bay Area we're spending more time and tender there than […] [Read More]
McQueen memorial
As mourners continued Friday to leave flowers and remembrances at the London, New York and Melrose boutiques of the late British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, the Saks Fifth Avenue Men's store just off Union Square mounted its own tribute. Just hours after learning of McQueen's death, by apparent suicide, on Thursday, staffers pulled pieces of […] [Read More]
'Runway' recap: A-plus effort from ?
Episode 5/Spoiler Alert Kannie Yu LaPack/Lifetime Entertainment Services The challenge winner: A Klum-worthy dress. Jay Sario and Amy Sarabi managed to stay in the middle of the pack last night in an episode that had Tim Gunn rhapsodizing about the epic proportions of the challenge, "one of the biggest in 'Project Runway' history!" As we […] [Read More]
San Franciscans remember Alexander McQueen
News of the death of prodigiously talented British designer Lee Alexander McQueen on Thursday stunned the fashion world as New York Fashion Week was just getting under way. The 40-year-old designer was the head designer for Givenchy before establishing his eponymous line and McQ with the Gucci Group. He was named British Designer of the […] [Read More]
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Gateways To Commerce. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' 9-Foot Channel Project on the Upper Mississippi River is the second in a series of National Park Service monographs about cultural resources in the Rocky Mountain Region. The first monograph, published in 1989, focused on archaeological resources within Canyonlands National Park. Gateways to Commerce, which documents the construction of one of the Nation's largest navigation improvement projects, is the result of three Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) studies that were completed under the direction of the Rocky Mountain Regional Office.
The Historic American Engineering Record program was established in 1969 by the National Park Service, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Library of Congress. The purpose of the program is to document the Nation's historic industrial, engineering, and transportation resources, as well as the working and living conditions of the people associated with them. Under the tripartite agreement, the National Park Service administers the HAER program with funds appropriated by Congress and supplemented by outside donations. The Rocky Mountain Regional Office of the National Park Service is responsible for preparing and reviewing HAER documents in a 16-state region encompassing Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Funding for the HAER documentation of the Upper Mississippi River 9-Foot Channel Project was provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Between 1986 and 1990, the St. Paul, Rock Island, and St. Louis Districts of the Corps of Engineers entered into interagency agreements with the Rocky Mountain Regional Office to document the 9-foot channel. The St. Louis District also provided funding to produce Gateways to Commerce, a result of that HAER documentation.
Many people have worked on this publication. William Patrick O'Brien, Mary Rathbun, and Patrick O'Bannon wrote and researched the individual district histories of the 9-Foot Channel Project, and graciously allowed their work to be synthesized into this single document. Christine Whitacre, an historian with the Rocky Mountain Regional Office, edited the three highly technical HAER manuscripts into a very readable book. Martin Reuss, Senior Historian for the Corps of Engineers, reviewed the manuscript, as did Leland Johnson, author of several histories about the Corps of Engineers, and Donald Jackson, Assistant Professor of History at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Cultural resource specialists in the Corps' district offices also reviewed the manuscript, and assisted in obtaining research materials and photographs. These include John Anfinson of the St. Paul District, Ron Deiss of the Rock Island District, and Terry Norris of the St. Louis District. While many photographs in this publication are historic, the contemporary photographs are the work of Clayton Fraser, Peter Rathbun, and John P. Herr.
Many National Park Service staff persons contributed their time, effort, and ideas to this project. Rodd L. Wheaton, Chief, Division of Cultural Resources of the Rocky Mountain Regional Office, provided support and direction, as did Robert L. Spude, Chief of the Branch of National Preservation Programs. Senior Historian Gregory D. Kendrick supervises the HABS/HAER program in the Rocky Mountain Region, and coordinated this project. Historians Julie A. Corona and Joan M. DeGraff provided technical support. Architect Catherine Colby drew the map and illustrated cross-section. Caroline Russell, an historian with the National Park Service's HABS/HAER office in Washington, D.C., assisted in obtaining the photographs. Special thanks are also offered to Richard M. Kohen of the Rocky Mountain Regional Office for his excellent book design and layout.
Researchers wishing to learn more about the 9-Foot Channel Project are encouraged to read the original HAER reports. The reports are located in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; copies are in the files of the National Park Service, Rocky Mountain Regional Office. In addition to containing more detailed information, the HAER reports acknowledge the efforts of the many other individuals, too numerous to mention here, whose work contributed to this publication.
Michael D. Snyder
February 1992
Last Updated: 01-Feb-2008