Ex-Black Caucus chair backs Pelosi challenger

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) secured a significant endorsement on Wednesday in his bid to challenge House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

In a statement, Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge said her fellow Ohioan offered what she believes is a necessary change after another disappointing election cycle for House Democrats.

Pelosi had predicted double-digit gains to cut into the House GOP majority in 2016, but Democrats have only netted six seats.

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/307451-ex-black-caucus-chair-backs-pelosi-challenger

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CONYERS’ Remarks at Press Conference To Condemn Senseless Violence & Call For Congress To Act

Conyers: Out of Respect for All Who Have Lost Their Lives – Both Law Enforcement and Civilian – We Must Dedicate Ourselves to Engaging the Difficult Issues

Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) joined members of the Congressional Black Caucus at a press conference today to denounce the slayings of police officers in Dallas,  and the slayings of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota. Below are Congressman Conyers’ remarks as prepared for delivery: 

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

“I stand here today with a heavy heart. From Orlando, to Baton Rouge, to Falcon Heights and Dallas – our Nation is reeling from recent acts of violence. My heart goes out to the families of every single one of the victims this week, including the fallen officers in Dallas.

“Whether mass shootings, officers dying in the line of duty, killings on our streets, or lives lost at the hands of misguided police - there are too many such tragedies. Congress cannot continue to sit on the sidelines while blood flows in our streets. There are real issues of public safety impacting Americans that must be addressed at the federal level.

“I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: we need to adopt gun violence prevention legislation to expand background checks to all gun purchases, and we need to reinstate a ban on the sale of military-style assault weapons.   And at the same time, I also believe we need to take a comprehensive approach at addressing the issue of building and strengthening trust between local police and their communities.

“As the longest serving Member of Congress, I have dedicated a major portion of my career to policing issues and gun violence prevention, introducing legislation, chairing town hall discussions across the country, and meeting with the grieving families of fallen officers and citizens alike.  As part of the now controversial 1994 Crime Bill, I was able to pass the Federal Pattern and Practice Enforcement provision that allows the Department of Justice to investigate state and local police departments, most recently like Ferguson and Baltimore, for unconstitutional and discriminatory conduct.

“Last year, the Judiciary Committee held a hearing on 21^st Century Policing Strategies to begin addressing the issue at the Federal level.  Shortly before the hearing, I introduced the End Racial Profiling Act which works to eliminate racial profiling through changing the policies and procedures underlying the practice.

“Following the hearing, I introduced the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act, which would provide incentives for local police organizations to voluntarily adopt performance-based standards to ensure that incidents of misconduct will be minimized through appropriate management, training and oversight protocols and that if such incidents do occur, that they will be properly investigated.  The bill also provides police officers -- the vast majority of whom are great people who are concerned about their communities -- with the tools necessary to work with their communities and to enhance their professional growth and education.

“Since that time, Chairman Goodlatte and I have been hard at work on negotiating a version the Law Enforcement Trust & Integrity Act to bring before the Committee.  However, like too many well intended efforts, we are stuck at the 1 yard line, trying to push toward a finish.

“We have been able to find agreement on major items, like accreditation standards, best practices, body cameras and even data collection.  The real challenge now is finding the support to bring the bill forward in the Committee.  We must find a way past objections to this most basic tenet: if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it....

“Though there has been a consistent call for mandatory data collection by law enforcement agencies – with 28 states passing some form of data collection requirements and 17 others having proposed legislation – data collection remains a serious matter of controversy in the law enforcement community. 

“The tragic shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile might have been avoided with better training, particularly in detentions and use of force, as addressed by accreditation standards and best practice provisions currently in negotiation before the Committee. 

           

“I will continue to work with Chairman Goodlatte to see this bill progress. I will also continue to work with my colleagues to push for passage of commonsense gun violence prevention bills that we know will make us safer.

           

“Out of respect for all who have lost their lives – both law enforcement and civilian – we must dedicate ourselves to engaging the difficult issues to make lasting change in our communities and heal as a Nation.”

Congressman Conyers introduced both the End Racial Profiling Act and the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act to help build trust and strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

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Senior House Judiciary Democrats, Quad Caucus Chairs Question Impact of New Restrictive Voting Laws Learn more: BEVERLY TRAN: Senior House Judiciary Democrats, Quad Caucus Chairs Question Impact of New Restrictive Voting Laws

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

WASHINGTON- Today, senior Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee and the chairs of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), and the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) issued a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking the Department of Justice to review the impact of recently implemented voting restrictions across the country.

On March 22, Arizonians in Maricopa County, the most populous county in the state, experienced abnormally longer lines at polling stations.  Several allegations have also been made that there were disproportionate waiting times for minority voters. Department of Justice officials have opened an investigation into whether civil rights were violated.

In the letter, the Members request, “…that the Civil Rights Division review the impact of recently implemented voting restrictions on primary elections to determine whether the Department should implement additional monitoring programs in preparation for the November general election.”

The number of polling stations in Maricopa County, which is more than 40 percent minority, has been reduced by seventy percent, from 200 to 60 locations since the last presidential election in 2012.

“During the North Carolina primary election on March 15, voters waited for up to four hours at inner-city polling places to cast their votes. The number of provisional ballots cast last month in the North Carolina presidential primary was almost double the number of provisional ballots cast in 2012,” said the lawmakers. “These are warning signs that we cannot, and should not, ignore. These incidents raise serious constitutional concerns under both the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fifteenth Amendment.”

After the Supreme Court decision in Shelby v. Holder removed the preclearance requirement of Section V of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, there has been an increase in the number of restrictive voting laws. The Brennan Center for Justice reports that, since 2010, twenty-one states have passed restrictive voting laws. The enforcement of many of these laws disproportionately impacts low-income, minority, student, and elderly voters.

The letter, spearheaded by House Judiciary Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI), is signed by Ranking Member on the Constitution and Civil Justice Subcommittee Steve Cohen (D-TN); Ranking Member on the Crime Homeland Security, and Investigations Subcommittee Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX); Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus; Rep. G. K. Butterfield (D-NC), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus; Rep. Linda Sánchez(D-CA), Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; and Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN), Co-Chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

U.S. House Congressional Letter to DOJ Regarding Impact of New Restrictive Voter Laws Nationwide Elections

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Was the Associated Press transcription of Obama’s CBC speech ‘racist’?

By most accounts, President Obama gave a fiery speech at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's annual awards dinner in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, telling blacks to "quit crying and complaining" and support him in the fight for jobs, according to the Associated Press. But was the AP transcription of Obama's remarks racist?

That's the subject currently being debated afterthe issue was raised on Chris Hayes' MSNBC show on Sunday.

On MSNBC, the African-American author Karen Hunter complained the news service transcribed Obama's speech without cleaning it up as other outlets did--specifically including the "dropped g's."

Via the AP version:

"Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes," he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. "Shake it off. Stop complainin'. Stop grumblin'. Stop cryin'. We are going to press on. We have work to do."

Hunter called the AP's version "inherently racist," sparring with New Republic contributing editor and noted linguistics expert John McWhorter, who argued the g-less version "is actually the correct one," noting that the president's victory in the 2008 election was due, in part, to how effortlessly "he can switch into that [black] dialect."

Whatever the reason, Hunter found it offensive. "I teach a journalism class, and I tell my students to fix people's grammar, because you don't want them to sound ignorant," she said. "For them to do that, it's code, and I don't like it."

It's worth noting that the same sorts of arguments arose during George W. Bush's presidency, with the White House cleaning up the president's speeches to make him sound smarter, and news outlets sometimes not doing so.

According to Mark Smith, the AP reporter who filed the story, Obama was making a point by dropping his g's, making the transcription a no-brainer.

"Normally, I lean toward the clean-it-up school of quote transcribing—for everyone," Smith told Mediaite. "But in this case, the President appeared to be making such a point of dropping Gs, and doing so in a rhythmic fashion, that for me to insert them would run clearly counter to his meaning. I believe I was respecting his intent in this. Certainly disrespect was the last thing I intended."

"The AP Stylebook counsels against using spellings like gonna or wanna--or in this case, complainin' and cryin'--'in attempts to convey regional dialects or informal pronunciations, except to help a desired touch or to convey an emphasis by the speaker,'" Tom Kent, the AP deputy managing editor for standards and production, said in a statement to The Cutline. "In this case, our reporter, who was there in person, felt the spellings were appropriate to convey a particular touch that President Obama appeared to be intentionally making use of."

Conservative bloggers agree--mainly because the story showed Obama pandering to a black base.

"The first job of a journalist is to report a story as accurately as possible," Howard Portnoy wrote on HotAir.com. "Part of the job of reporting Obama's speech last night was to highlight his obvious pandering, which is borne of desperation. The only element missing from the story is whether any of the listeners were offended by the president's 'blaccent.'"

"The AP did not print the words as written for the president," Mike Opelka wrote on Glenn Beck-owned TheBlaze.com, "instead choosing to transcribe the speech with what might be considered a bit more accuracy."

"He was specifically, and intentionally, using an African-American linguistic style to emphasize his message," a conservative blog called the Last Refuge noted.

"Now that the presidential campaign season has begun," Courtland Milloy wrote in an op-ed column for the Washington Post, "it's okay for President Obama to openly court black people again."

George Clinton announces campaign to reclaim copyrights at CBC 41st Annual Legislative Conference

George Clinton announces campaign to reclaim copyrights at CBC 41st Annual Legislative Conference