In the August 19th edition of the Frederick News-Post, Roscoe Bartlett attempted, feebly, to explain his “no” vote recently on the Voting Rights Act Reauthorization bill. I wrote the following in response:

Dear Editor,

Congressman Roscoe Bartlett’s attempt to explain his vote on the Voting Rights Act Reauthorization published on August 19th is gibberish.

His statement that “institutional racism” no longer exists shows that he is out of touch with reality. There have been real and troubling questions raised during the last several elections regarding the availability of voting machines and purged voter roles. The fact that these problems occur in predominately poor and minority neighborhoods clearly demonstrates that voting rights issues continue to exist.

In the past few days we have seen the confirmation of what has long been suspected regarding the Bush Administration's mishandling of intelligence. In one case, Scooter Libby has testified that his "superiors" instructed him to leak selected information from the classified National Intelligence Estimate. In another case, the former CIA official responsible for Middle Eastern intelligence stated that the Bush Administration "cherry picked" intelligence which bolstered their case, while disregarding other intelligence.

It is now clear that the Bush Administration manipulated the intelligence that was available, through selective leaks, to mislead members of Congress and the American public. The Bush Administration has knowingly, deliberately ignored valid intelligence, while manufacturing suspect reports to validate their plans. This sort of conduct is inexcusable.