We got screwed

I should be studying, but I want to share this Washinton Post story which shows how top Justice Department officials had a hand in screwing over Texas voters during redistricting.

Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay (R) violated the Voting Rights Act, according to a previously undisclosed memo obtained by The Washington Post. But senior officials overruled them and approved the plan.

The memo, unanimously endorsed by six lawyers and two analysts in the department's voting section, said the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts. It also said the plan eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial, though not necessarily decisive, influence in elections.

The 73-page memo mentions Congressional districts 15 and 25, which of course ended up stretching from the border to Central Texas. And the report notes that it "received 335 comments against the proposed [redistricting] plan, none in favor of it."

So to sum it all up: The plan was unfair, the GOP knew it was unfair and rammed it down our throats anyway.