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For Immediate Release
June, 05 2015, 03:30pm EDT
Contact:
David Vance,,dvance@commoncause.org
Common Cause Urges Action This Year To Strengthen Voting Rights
Americans shouldn't have to wait for the election of a new President to get strong federal and state action to protect and strengthen voting rights, Common Cause said today.
"It's encouraging to see voting rights and voter participation emerging as issues early in the race for the White House," said Common Cause President Miles Rapoport. "But Congress should be working now, as many of our state legislatures already are working, to make it easier for Americans to register to vote and to cast their ballots.
WASHINGTON
Americans shouldn't have to wait for the election of a new President to get strong federal and state action to protect and strengthen voting rights, Common Cause said today.
"It's encouraging to see voting rights and voter participation emerging as issues early in the race for the White House," said Common Cause President Miles Rapoport. "But Congress should be working now, as many of our state legislatures already are working, to make it easier for Americans to register to vote and to cast their ballots.
Rapoport praised proposals for expanded early voting, online registration and improved election administration outlined this week by candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. "These ideas ought to be a starting point for bipartisan action to ensure that every qualified American has the right to vote, is able to cast his or her ballot easily and can be confident that the ballot will be counted as cast," he said. A bipartisan commission created by President Obama after the 2012 election already has put forth a series of comprehensive, common-sense steps to shorten voting lines and increase efficiency.
"This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. This month marks two years since the Supreme Court gutted key provisions of that law in Shelby County v. Holder. And yet Congress has done nothing to restore the act; the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee refuses even to convene a hearing," Rapoport said.
"There is no reason - none at all - why this should be a partisan issue," he added. "The original Voting Rights Act and the revisions that have been adopted over the years all enjoyed bipartisan support. Those laws have made it possible for millions of Americans who once were shut out of our democracy to become full partners in the American experiment."
Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.
(202) 833-1200LATEST NEWS
'I Don't Want to Take My Kids Back to That': Ohio Residents Fear Toxic Aftermath of Train Crash
"None of us have the money to completely start over somewhere," said one resident. "We're not going to have a choice but to take our children back to that place, and it's not fair."
Feb 13, 2023
Residents of East Palestine, Ohio are voicing alarm and mistrust of officials after a 150-car train carrying hazardous materials—including vinyl chloride—crashed in their small town, prompting emergency evacuations and a "controlled release" of chemicals into the air to prevent a catastrophic explosion.
Norfolk Southern, the company that owns the derailed train, has insisted that public health is not at risk, a sentiment echoed by local authorities. Just five days after the fiery crash, top officials—including Ohio's Republican governor, Mike DeWine—effectively gave the all-clear, telling residents they can safely return home.
Many, lacking viable alternatives due to their limited resources and incomes, have done just that, despite lingering fears of the impacts that the train crash and subsequent unleashing of toxic gases into the atmosphere may have had on their town. Some have reported strong chemical odors and unsettling sights, such as a stream blackened by substances released from the train and dead fish.
"I don't want to take my kids back to that," one East Palestine resident told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "None of us have the money to completely start over somewhere. We're not going to have a choice but to take our children back to that place, and it's not fair."
On Sunday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a document from Norfolk Southern that lists the cars involved in the derailment and the materials they contained at the time of the crash, which rail workers say was an entirely predictable consequence of Wall Street-backed policy decisions and company moves that have sacrificed safety for profit.
Vinyl chloride, which five of the Norfolk Southern train cars were carrying, has garnered particular concern, given its link to cancer. The Associated Press noted that the controlled burn of chemicals following the crash spewed "phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air."
"Phosgene is a highly toxic, colorless gas with a strong odor that can cause vomiting and breathing trouble and was used as a weapon in World War I," the outlet reported.
"If there were toxic chemicals being released in a wealthy suburban area, there would be outrage."
The EPA has said it is still monitoring local air and water and conducting screenings in individual homes.
Norfolk Southern, which has offered a mere $25,000 donation to help affected residents, claims in an FAQ posted to its website that "vinyl chloride and other substances associated with the derailment exist in the air as a vapor," "evaporate quickly," and "do not absorb into household materials."
"It is not necessary to undertake any special cleaning of household items or air, and any odors present in indoor air will dissipate," added the company, which announced a $10 billion stock buyback program last March.
Despite assurances from Norfolk Southern, The Washington Postreported that "residents returning to homes in a neighboring Pennsylvania town were advised by state officials to open their windows, turn on fans, and wipe down all surfaces with diluted bleach."
One resident told the Post that her family experienced headaches and nausea in the wake of the derailment. She expressed concern that local officials are suppressing information about the health consequences of the crash and release of chemicals, which sent an alarming plume of dark smoke into the air.
"I've watched every news conference and I haven't heard anything that makes me think that this is a data-driven decision," the resident said of claims that it's safe to return to East Palestine. "We don't feel like we have a whole lot of information."
Another person told the Post that he and his wife aren't planning to go back to their home, which is near the train track.
"The amount of... chemicals that were spilled and burned don't simply just go away," he said. “I don't believe there is any way to know the full effect until enough time passes. And that just isn't worth the risk."
\u201cOn February 3, a horrifying railroad accident took place. A Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. You might've seen images of the flames, but you probably haven't heard that unions were trying to prevent this exact accident. \ud83e\uddf5\n\nhttps://t.co/pnynoFHSnm\u201d— More Perfect Union (@More Perfect Union) 1675991969
Others have questioned officials' focus on the one-mile radius surrounding the train crash, warning that toxic substances could have drifted much further through the air and waterways.
"There was no wall in the sky. There was no wall in the waterways. It's definitely floating in the airways whatever direction it has gone in and our waterways as well," one resident told a local news outlet. "I just have concern for the water in general, horses, and people alike. There had to be quite a concentration in our local smaller waterways that is actually making an impact on the larger waterway of the Ohio River. So obviously I've got a lot of concerns for the people locally not only now but for the future."
In the 10 days after the derailment, observers have lamented the lack of media attention the situation in East Palestine has garnered relative to other recent stories, including the U.S. military's downing of several unidentified objects over the past week.
Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator, argued that "one of the reasons the media is so silent about the Norfolk Southern disaster in East Palestine, OH is due in part to classism."
"If there were toxic chemicals being released in a wealthy suburban area, there would be outrage," Turner wrote on Twitter. "The silence is inexcusable."
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Anti-War Voices Accuse Super Bowl of 'Hijacking the Pat Tillman Story'
One journalist reminded readers that the NFL star and Army Ranger "called the Iraq invasion and occupation 'fucking illegal' and was killed by friendly fire in an incident the military covered up and tried to hide from his family."
Feb 12, 2023
Advocates of peace, truth, and basic human decency on Sunday excoriated the National Football League's "whitewashing" of former Arizona Cardinal and Army Ranger Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan by so-called "friendly fire" and the military's subsequent cover-up—critical details omitted from a glowingly patriotic Super Bowl salute.
As a group of four Pat Tillman Foundation scholars chosen as honorary coin-toss captains at Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona were introduced via a video segment narrated by actor Kevin Costner, viewers were told how Tillman "gave up his NFL career to join the Army Rangers and ultimately lost his life in the line of duty."
The video did not say how Tillman died, what he thought about the Iraq war, or how the military lied to his family and the nation about his death. This outraged many viewers.
"Obviously the army killing Pat Tillman and covering it up afterwards is the worst thing the U.S. military did to him, but the years they've spent rolling out his portrait backed by some inspirational music as a recruiting tool is a surprisingly close second," tweeted progressive writer Jay Willis.
\u201cI worry that young people may not know,& older folks may have chosen to forget,the true story of Pat Tillman,an NFL player, a soldier, & great man whose disturbing \u201cfriendly fire\u201ddeath was used by our govt to perpetuate the justification for an unjust war. https://t.co/W4C7mWvbpv\u201d— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sherrilyn Ifill) 1676251540
"Pat Tillman called the Iraq invasion and occupation 'fucking illegal' and was killed by friendly fire in an incident the military covered up and tried to hide from his family," tweetedWashington Post investigative reporter Evan Hill.
"I'm writing a book for FIRST GRADERS on Pat Tillman that contains more truth about his life and death than the NFL just provided at the Super Bowl," wrote author Andrew Maraniss.
"Another year of hijacking the Pat Tillman story and not telling that he hated the Iraq War and was killed by the military," said one Twitter user.
"Tell the real story of Pat Tillman or get off the screen," fumed yet another.
Tillman, 25 years old at the time, turned down a $3.6 million contract with the Cardinals to enlist in the U.S. Army in May 2002 after the 9/11 attacks on the United States. He expected to be deployed to Afghanistan. Instead, he was sent to invade Iraq—a country that had no ties to 9/11. Tillman quickly came to deplore the "fucking illegal" war, and even made "loose plans" to meet with anti-war intellectual Noam Chomsky, according toThe Intercept's Ryan Devereaux.
\u201cPat Tillman was a beautiful soul. That he thought the war in Iraq was "illegal as hell" is not something to hide. It is part of what made his soul so beautiful.\u201d— Dave Zirin (@Dave Zirin) 1676245035
As Tillman's brother Kevin sardonically wrote:
Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can't be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.
Pat and Kevin were sent to Afghanistan on April 8, 2004. Stationed at a forward operating base in Khost province, Pat was killed on April 22, 2004 by what the army said was "enemy fire" during a firefight.
However, the army knew in the days immediately following Tillman's death that he had been shot three times in the head from less than 30 feet away by so-called "friendly fire," and that U.S. troops had burned his uniform and body armor in a bid to conceal their fatal error.
"The deception surrounding this case was an insult to the family, but more importantly, its primary purpose was to deceive a whole nation," Kevin Tillman testified before Congress in 2007. "We say these things with disappointment and sadness for our country. Once again, we have been used as props in a Pentagon public relations exercise."
Hearing on Tillman, Lynch Incidents: Kevin Tillman's Openingwww.youtube.com
Tillman's father, Patrick Tillman Sr., told the Washington Post in 2005 that after his son was killed, "all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this. They purposely interfered with the investigation, they covered it up."
"I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out," he contended. "They blew up their poster boy."
The following year, Tillman's mother Mary was interviewed by Sports Illustrated and blamed U.S. military and George W. Bush administration officials all the way up to then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for covering up her son's killing.
"They attached themselves to his virtue and then threw him under the bus," she said. "They had no regard for him as a person. He'd hate to be used for a lie. I don't care if they put a bullet through my head in the middle of the night. I'm not stopping."
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Israel 'Legalizes' 9 Apartheid Settler Colonies in Occupied Palestine
"Make no mistake; this isn't about retaliation for the recent terror attacks," said one critic. "This is nothing else than colonialism, and the U.S. and E.U. won't do anything about it; instead, they say that they are 'deeply concerned.'"
Feb 12, 2023
Israel's far-right Security Cabinet on Sunday approved the immediate "legalization" of nine Jewish-only settler outposts in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem over what critics called the empty objection of benefactor the United States and in violation of international law—under which all Israeli settler colonies are illegal.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich both claimed responsibility for the action, in which they sought government recognition of 77 illegal settler outposts. The ministers and other Israeli officials said the move was in response to recent deadly attacks against Jews by Palestinian resistance fighters, including a vehicular assault that killed three people—two of them young children—near East Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood on Friday.
"Legalizing war crimes won't lead to peace or stability."
"It is not enough and we want more, but it is an important start," Ben-Gvir, who leads the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, tweeted Sunday. "The training of the settlements will join the extensive police activity in East Jerusalem, and another series of measures to deter terrorism," he added, a reference to the cabinet's move to increase the number of security forces in Jerusalem and ramp up operations in Palestinian neighborhoods of occupied East Jerusalem.
The nine settler outposts—Avigayil, Beit Hogla, Givat Harel, Givat Ha-Roeh, Givat Arnon, Mitzpe Yehuda, Malchai HaShalom, Asa-el, Sde Boaz, and Shaharit—were considered illegal even under Israeli law. Under international law, all settlements, in which anti-Arab apartheid is strictly enforced, are illegal. Most were built on land seized from Palestinians through terrorism and ethnic cleansing during the Nakba, or catastrophe, when more than 700,000 Arabs were expelled during the establishment and consolidation of modern Israel in 1947-49, and during the conquest of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the Syrian Golan Heights in 1967.
\u201cMake no mistake; this isn\u2019t about retaliation for the recent terror attacks or that the Palestinian Authority went to the International Criminal Court of Justice for judicial advice about the Israeli occupation.\nIt was a question of time before Israel would legalize the outposts.\u201d— Omar \ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf8|\ud83c\udf49 \u0639\u064f\u0645\u064e\u0631 (@Omar \ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf8|\ud83c\udf49 \u0639\u064f\u0645\u064e\u0631) 1676240987
\u201cThis is nothing else than colonialism, and the U.S. and EU won't do anything about it; instead, they say that they are \u201ddeeply concerned.\u201d\n\nFor every day that passes, I lose more and more faith in a peaceful two-state solution and only see a more violent future ahead of us.\u201d— Omar \ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf8|\ud83c\udf49 \u0639\u064f\u0645\u064e\u0631 (@Omar \ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf8|\ud83c\udf49 \u0639\u064f\u0645\u064e\u0631) 1676240987
Israel's Civil Administration is set to meet in the coming days to green-light the construction of thousands of homes in existing apartheid colonies and to build more infrastructure to connect the communities with each other and Israel.
Ben-Gvir also told police to prepare for a new Operation Defensive Shield—a reference to the 2002 offensive that killed more than 400 Palestinians during the second intifada, or general uprising—"to root out terror nests... and reach the terrorists at their homes," according to the Times of Israel.
A senior Israeli official quoted anonymously by the Times of Israel slapped down Ben-Gvir's call, explaining that "decisions of such a scale are not made in statements by one minister or another on a sidewalk at the scene of an attack."
The group Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East tweeted a reminder that "every settlement is illegal under international law," while Richard Burden, the vice-chair of the U.K. group Labour Friends of Palestine, said that "whatever the Netanyahu government decides to authorize, under international law the entire West Bank remains occupied territory, all the settlements built there are illegal, and Israel is in breach of its obligations under Geneva Convention."
\u201cSIGN: Our landmark European Citizens\u2019 Initiative (ECI) to #StopTradeWithSettlements demands the EU to ban trade with illegal settlements worldwide. \n\nPut an end to the #EthnicCleansing & forced displacement of Palestinians.\n\nAdd your voice NOW: https://t.co/cywDEdOZXz\u201d— BDS movement (@BDS movement) 1676214723
Both Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the International Criminal Court Rome Statute prohibit settlement activity. According to Article 8(2) of the Rome Statute, "the transfer, directly or indirectly, by an occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory" are unlawful. In 2021, United Nations Palestine expert Michael Lynk said Israeli settlements should be classified as war crimes under the Rome Statute.
From 1978 until 2019, the United States State Department also considered Israeli settlements unlawful.
The decision to grant legal status to the nine settlements came despite the stated objections of the United States, which provides Israel with $3.8 billion in annual military aid, as well as diplomatic cover for what former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called "worse... apartheid than what we saw in South Africa," invasions, ethnic cleansing, and other repression.
"Our position on these matters has been clear and consistent," an unnamed Biden administration official toldAxios Middle East correspondent Barak Ravid. "We strongly oppose expansion of settlements, and we're deeply concerned by reports about a process to legalize outposts that are illegal under Israeli law."
According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, more than 620,000 Jews currently reside in around 140 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. While Israel grants every Jew in the world the right to settle in Israel, it has—against U.N. resolutions and international law—refused to allow the approximately five million Palestinian refugees alive today to return to their homeland.
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