Did DOJ Help Spark Riots By Agitating Ferguson Residents Over 'White Privilege?'

 

Apparently officials from the Obama Justice Department had a dual mission when they arrived in Ferguson, Missouri after the death of Michael Brown. Aside from investigating the incident, a separate group of Justice Department officials were there to amp up the outrage and sense of grievance of the inhabitants with meetings on topics like “white privilege.”

The DOJ’s Community Relations Service arrived in Ferguson purportedly to lessen the tension between protesters and city officials. But sources who attended the DOJ’s private gatherings with Ferguson residents tell NRO that the Justice Department also sought to educate and question the community about the issues of white privilege and racism. The political nature of the Justice Department’s intervention in Ferguson may not be exclusive to its interactions with residents; it also might have affected its ongoing investigations into the Ferguson Police Department and officer Darren Wilson. {...}

'Political nature?' That couldn't have anything to do with this, could it?

In an e-mail to NRO, a Justice Department spokeswoman said the meetings were designed to ease tension. The spokeswoman requested that NRO not quote her e-mails and added that it’s not the role of Community Relations Service officials to take a position on issues of race. Robert Driscoll, who from 2001 to 2003 was the DOJ Civil Rights Division’s chief of staff, says it’s not standard for these officials to educate the community about white privilege, and he called such action unfortunate. “Their function is supposed to be on the ground . . . and to talk to people and let them know what the processes are at the Department of Justice,” he says. “The hope is that it’s a way to channel public sentiment to avoid civil unrest.” Rioters still managed to burn down much of the town in the aftermath of the grand jury’s decision not to indict Wilson, but Knowles says he thinks the Community Relations Service’s involvement has been constructive nonetheless.

However, the mayor says he thinks the DOJ’s investigators misled him from their very first encounter, and he has concerns about DOJ’s ability to conduct a fair investigation. He says the investigators, including Jonathan Smith, the Civil Rights Division’s special litigation chief, told him that the purpose of their first meeting was to determine whether an investigation was necessary. But by the time Knowles got home from the meeting, Attorney General Eric Holder was on television announcing the investigation. “Clearly the decision was already made before they even met with me,” he says.

In other words, officials in the Department of Justice weren't trying to cool down what was already an inflamed situation...they were trying to turn up the heat.After which, of course, rioters and looter burned down a fair amount of the city. And why not? They had a license..it was payback for 'white privilege!'

 

Just imagine how much anguish is behind those words, 'rioters and looter burned down a fair amount of the city.' People had businesses and property they had scrimped and saved for years to build and establish destroyed because of an attempt to gin up black turnout to keep Democrats in control of the senate.

And the mayor's statements about these meeting being constructive seem odd in view of his other statements that the meetings usually ended with a number of people 'angry and screaming.'

In another interesting remark, Mayor Knowles said that he thinks that Attorney General Eric Holder's public statements have built up expectations of legal payback against police officers like Darren Wilson. Which, when they fail to do so, will unleash another wave of violent riots that are of course justified..no 'justice' no peace, remember?

But apparently the Department of Justice is using Ferguson as a template in other 'investigations', even when there's no evidence any civil rights violations have been committed:

The Civil Rights Division’s pattern of behavior elsewhere indicates that Ferguson is not the only community receiving special attention from the Justice Department. During the past five fiscal years, the Civil Rights Division has opened more than 20 “pattern or practice” investigations into police departments throughout the country — such as the one involving the Ferguson Police Department — which is more than twice as many as were opened in the previous five years, according to a statement from Holder on Thursday. These investigations are conducted to determine whether local law-enforcement officers have engaged in a pattern or practice that deprives people of rights protected by U.S. law or the Constitution.

While a grand jury decided not to indict Wilson in November, the Department of Justice seems to be hunkering down for the long haul. Holder pledged in a Post-Dispatch op-ed published earlier this summer that, “long after the events of Aug. 9 [Brown’s death] have receded from the headlines, the Justice Department will continue to stand with this community.” He did not say what it would take for DOJ to walk away from Ferguson, and that remains to be seen.

The force behind the Justice Department’s lasting presence in Ferguson may be Vanita Gupta, who was selected to lead the Civil Rights Division in October after heading up the American Civil Liberties Union’s efforts on Ferguson. Before beginning her new job, Gupta advocated for the Justice Department to take a more proactive role in its independent federal investigations and called for racial-bias training for forces that receive federal grants. A week ago, Holder announced his intention to “institute rigorous new standards — and robust safeguards — to help end racial profiling once and for all,” which were specifically directed at police. He said the Justice Department is preparing to implement these changes in the coming days. After announcing the changes, Holder went on to say, “In recent weeks, there have arisen great sparks of humanity, and hope, that illuminate the way forward.”

'Sparks' was perhaps a poor choice of words in view of what the DOJ helped ignite in Ferguson, but it could be that's exactly what our attorney general means to encourage.

 

Will Eric Holder Extradite A Hamas Terrorist Involved In Murdering A US Citizen?

 

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder had received a formal request to extradite a Hamas official involved in the kidnapping and murder of an American citizen.

Israeli civil rights attorney, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner sent a letter to Attorney General Holder and  Assistant AG Leslie Caldwell, requesting the Department of Justice extradite Hamas West Bank commander, Saleh al-Arouri, for his role in the kidnapping and murder of Naftali Fraenkel, one of the three teens abducted and slain in the 'operation' in Israel that Hamas has claimed credit for.

 

Al-Arouri, who runs Hamas in the West Bank from his country of residence, Turkey, was seen on a video last week, making a speech at the fourth conference of the World Union of Islamic Sages in the Islamic Republic, and saying openly  that Hamas’ Qassam Brigades had carried out the June kidnapping and killing of Fraenkel and the two other  Israeli teenagers, Eyal Yifrach and Gil-ad Shaar.

Al-Arouri claimed that he was "speaking on behalf of Hamas leader Khaled Masha'al.”

The Israelis have also captured one member of the three man cell, Hussam al-Qawasmi, who confessed and gave evidence on Al-Arouri's involvement.

Darshan-Leitner, Founder and Director of the Shurat HaDin–Israel Law Center, a non-governmental organization (NGO), mentioned the video in her letter to the Attorney General and asked the Department of Justice to “take all necessary steps to compel the government of Turkey to extradite” as well expresses confidence “that an investigation into the evidence of the kidnapping and murder of Fraenkel will result in the indictment and extradition of senior Hamas leader al-Arouri from Turkey.”

According to existing treaties between the U.S. and Turkey,  the Islamic Republic is legally obligated  to extradite al-Arouri if he “committed a criminal act that would be punishable by Turkey, had the offense been perpetrated within its territorial jurisdiction,” wrote Darshan-Leitner. “The US is the only country that can bring Arouri to justice.”

Israel and Turkey likewise have a similar extradition treaty, but the Islamist  Erdoğan government has repeatedly refused to honor it, something understandable if you look at  President Tayyip Erdoğan's support of Hamas, history of anti-semitic outbursts and anti-Israel statements.

Once al-Arouri has been extradited and tried in America, Israel could then request that the US extradite him to Israel to face charges in the kidnap and murder of the other two Israeli teens.

Well, the Obama Administration came out with a number of sympathetic statements and pro-forma condemnations when the three boys were first kidnapped and then murdered by Hamas. Now they have a chance to do something concrete to bring the murderer of an American citizen  to justice. Will they?

 

Before you answer, here's a factoid to chew on. According to U.S. law, the FBI is required to investigate the death of an American citizen overseas. That policy has never been implemented when either Fatah or Hamas have been the perpetrators.

Blackgammon: Eric Holder Plays the Game in Ferguson

 

Backgammon, on the surface,  is a pretty straight forward game. You roll the dice and move your pieces. But beneath that seeming openness are hidden strategies that may only reveal themselves later.

Today, Eric Holder traveled in person to Ferguson, Missouri, where the Aug. 9 shooting of black teen& Michael Brown by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson during an altercation has sparked massive violence, looting, protests and media coverage.

Holder's version of the game was revealed as he made his moves today in Ferguson.Ostensibly he was there to oversee the massive Federal investigation of the Brown shooting with the goal  of trying to arraign Officer Darren Williams on civil rights charges should the St. Louis County Grand jury fail to charge him with murder ala' George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case in Florida. But this was essentially a campaign stop at government expense.

Read his remarks here and note the parts I've emphasized:

"I am the Attorney General of the United States, but I am also a black man," Holder told Ferguson residents at a community meeting. "I can remember being stopped on the New Jersey turnpike on two occasions and accused of speeding. Pulled over. ... 'Let me search your car' ... Go through the trunk of my car, look under the seats and all this kind of stuff. I remember how humiliating that was and how angry I was and the impact it had on me."

"The eyes of the nation and the world are watching Ferguson right now," Holder told a group of community leaders assembled at a local community college. "The world is watching because the issues raised by the shooting of Michael Brown predate this incident. This is something that has a history to it, and the history simmers beneath the surface in more communities than just Ferguson."

Let's translate this, shall we?

"See Y'all, I'm black just like you are and that comes first before anything. So I understand your totally justified rage and anger against the white power structure. It's them that are on trial, not just a police officer although he'll do as a symbol of everything you feel whitey and the police have done to you over the years.That white power structure, you know, those white Republican Tea Partyers have always oppressed you,and this is just the latest outrage. I understand that, and that police officer looks just like them so they're going to try to protect him. But since we're in charge, we're going to do our very best to see that you get what you want. Because remember, I'm black and I look like you and so does the president, so you all need to vote Democrat in November to make sure we stay in charge."

 

It gets even better.

Holder arrived as a local grand jury began hearing evidence to determine whether Wilson should be charged in the fatal shooting.

The Justice Department is conducting a parallel investigation into possible civil rights violations related to the shooting. In an extraordinary move, he also ordered a federal autopsy — the third forensic examination of the body, which was hit at least six times by gunfire.

Before a briefing on the investigation at local FBI headquarters, Holder said the Justice Department had assembled "very experienced" prosecutors and agents to pursue the federal civil rights inquiry.

"Our investigation is different," Holder said in a meeting room surrounded by top local federal officials, including FBI Agent in Charge William Woods and U. S. Attorney Rich Callahan.

"We're looking for possible violations of federal civil rights statutes," the attorney general said.

Holder also met with Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who is coordinating law enforcement response to the protests. Asked whether he had confidence in the local investigation led by the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney, Johnson said: "General Holder, by being here, is a guarantee on that."

Johnson said he understood that the protests that have wracked Ferguson are not just about the shooting of Michael Brown.

"The community does not feel there is a connection," he said. "And that has to change."

 

You thought this was about the law? Hah! It's about community.

Normally, federal investigations for civil rights violations occur after a criminal trial or if a grand jury fails to indict someone and there's reason to believe they were biased and/or didn't look at all the evidence for bigoted reasons.You know, after there appears to be actual evidence someone's civil rights might have been violated.

That's not the way Eric Holder and the Obama Justice Department do things. They don't drag their feet, unless it's in response to congress asking about Benghazi, Fast and Furious, IRS-Gate, something like that. But AG Holder has hit the ground running, with forty plus FBI agents, a team of federal prosecutors and auxiliary personnel, and even a third autopsy, all of which the taxpayers are footing the bill for..before there's even any evidence that Brown's civil rights might have been violated, or that the state and county investigations and the grand jury are going to quash things. Of course, that's the whole point.

By conducting a high profile investigation  like this, Holder is signalling to his audience that the police, the grand jury and the local prosecutor are all racist, but that he and the Justice Department can be depended on to address black grievance and get them the lynching they want. Just imagine if Whitey takes over after November is the implicit message. He's also signalling the same thing to the Grand Jury, putting pressure on them to prove they aren't racist by coming up with an indictment, a murder charge or at least manslaughter for the policeman. Think back - the Attorney General did exactly the same thing in the Trayvon Martin Case, leaning on the Grand Jury to come up with a ridiculous charge because of the politics involved. But the difference was that in the Florida case, Holder was a few months late to the game. George Zimmerman had already been released without being charged and it took Al Sharpton and the New Black Panthers to start the fire.

This one is too important for that. Holder's job here is to play racial politics and to gin up as big a black turnout as he can to try and keep the Senate in Democrat hands, so that the various scandals don't get any worse, gridlock continues for another two years and President Obama's de facto amnesty for illegal aliens continues to be viable without undue interference from the likes of congress.

Holder's mission has absolutely nothing to do with justice, or with law and order. If he was at all concerned about that, he'd at least wait and see what the grand jury comes out with before getting involved.But this is strictly about politics.

Holder's game of blackgammon is all about the politics. And it's going to be emphasized by an organized 'Day of Rage' in Washington DC put on by the New Black Panther Party and a number of their political soul mates.Thanks to Holder's 'separate investigation' even to the extent of getting a third autopsy, it doesn't matter if Darren Wilson isn't charged or if he's charged, tried and gets acquitted, the grievance mongers can still use it to get out the vote. Real justice is blocked, and Holder is setting himself up to win either way.


 

Backgammon players will recognize the strategy of blocking of the opponent's side of the board and then bumping one of his pieces so it remains stuck and there's no way to bear off (remove from the board) any of his pieces no matter what, unless he rolls a very large double number on the dice. And meanwhile, the other player who's doing the blocking has a number of turns to bear off his pieces or get them in position to do so.

That's exactly what Eric Holder is trying to do, cynically using the black pieces. Blackgammon is a highly appropriate name for it.

The GOP Has Just Picked Up Another Senate Seat

 

Republicans already have three for sure senate pickups in the mid terms in West Virginia, Montana, (Dem. John Walsh just dropped out over a plagiarism scandal) and South Dakota.

A federal court ruling today has likely added North Carolina to the list.

 

Eric Holder and the Obama Department of Justice have fought every attempt by the states to combat voter fraud tooth and nail. Last month, the Justice Department requested an injunction to prevent the state of North Carolina from implementing changes the North Carolina State legislature made to state election law,including strict voter ID laws to combat voter fraud and ensure more honest elections.

Today, a Federal district court refused to grant the injunction,which means that the new laws will remain in place through the midterms, and Democrat incumbent Nina Hagen, already trailing in the polls to Republican Thom Tillus has sustained a major blow to her re-election hopes.

 

The provisions are almost a checklist for honest elections. From the opinion:

Apart from the voter ID provisions, which were new, the bill largely purported to repeal, amend, or update existing law. Other amendments included:
(1) making it illegal to compensate persons collecting voter registrations based on the number of forms submitted (Part 14);
(2) reducing the number of signatures required to become a candidate in a party primary (Part 22);
(3) deleting obsolete provisions about the 2000 census (Part 27)
(4) changing the order of candidates appearing on the ballot (Part 31);
(5) eliminating straight-ticket voting (Part 32);
(6) moving the date of the North Carolina presidential primary earlier in the year (Part 35);
(7) eliminating taxpayer funding for appellate judicial elections (Part 38);
(8) allowing funeral homes to participate in canceling voter registrations of deceased persons (Part 39); and
(9) requiring provisional ballots to be marked as such for later identification (Part 52).
The bill also proposed mandating that several matters be referred for further study, including requiring the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee to examine whether to maintain the State’s current runoff system in party primaries. (Part 28.)

The court held that, although the court didn’t justify simply dismissing the DOJ lawsuit, the attorneys for the plaintiffs failed to show clearly the legal merits of their claims or that they would suffer irreparable harm before trial if an injunction wasn't granted.

Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, whose organization helped defend the law said,  “It is an embarrassing defeat for the Holder Justice Department. The court’s decision eviscerates Eric Holder’s politicized and racially inflammatory legal assault on commonsense election integrity measures. The court expressly rejected the Department of Justice’s contention that minorities are harmed by commonsense measures that help secure honest elections. The court’s dramatic rejection of Holder’s legal theory shows that that the DOJ’s lawsuit, which was coordinated with political activists at the White House, was always more about cynical political and racial appeals than upholding the law.”

 

The Wisconsin voter ID law, which was struck down by a partisan judge in Dane County is likewise proceeding through the justice system and the North Carolina decision makes it fairly likely the issue will proceed to the Supreme Court. It far too early to bring out the champagne yet, but we may yet see a time when Democrats are unable to prevail using illegal aliens, felons and the deceased to win elections.

IRS-Gate..All Roads Lead To The Same Cesspool

Today, the House Ways And Means Committee voted along party lines to refer former IRS official Lois Lerner to Attorney General Eric Holder and request him to file criminal charges:

“The Ways and Means Committee, led by Chairman [Dave] Camp [R-Mich.], has conducted a serious and thorough investigation of the IRS, uncovering abuses and criminal acts that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said of the referral. "As I've said, if Lois Lerner continues to refuse to testify, then the House will hold her in contempt. And we will continue to shine the light on the administration's abusive actions and use every tool at our disposal to expose the truth and ensure the American people get the answers they deserve.”

OK, now that you've stopped laughing, what's going on here is a sort of ritual dance. No one seriously believes Holder is actually going to investigate one of his minions for selectively targeting the president's political enemies in something that could very well end up not working out to well for our AG and the president if the truth came to light, which is why they've been stonewalling. No one expects him seriously to file any charges.Let's remember that Eric Holder is the only attorney general in our history to be held in contempt of congress, and he has essentially laughed it off.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was our attorney general himself who talked to Lois Lerner after the nasty stuff hit the fan and worked out a deal from the Regime in exchange for her keeping her mouth shut. That's mere speculation on my part, but there are elements of Holder's work history - shilling for fugitive and Democrat donor Marc Rich, for example during Mr. Bill's final days - that shows he at least is an experienced hand at this kind of thing.

The committee is referring it to Holder because that's process, it's how things are done in DC. Holder can do his own mickey mouse investigation and say he finds no grounds for charges (the most likely scenario, IMO), he can simply ignore the request of the committee or he can appoint a special prosecutor from an office totally controlled by the Department of Justice, since President Clinton got rid of the Independent Prosecutor's office as one of his last tricks he turned in office.

As a sideshow, House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa openly accused ranking Democrat member Elijah Cummings of colluding with the Internal Revenue Service in its targeting of the conservative nonprofit group True the Vote.

Cummings, (who deserves one of President Obama's presidential medals of freedom for his service to the Regime in delaying the committee's attempt to perform its legal function) apparently made a special project out of True The Vote.

Issa on Wednesday accused the Maryland Democrat of colluding with the Internal Revenue Service in its targeting of the conservative nonprofit group True the Vote, whose founder, Catherine Engelbrecht, said she received multiple letters from Cummings in 2012 and personal visits from the IRS and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Explosives. Engelbrecht’s True the Vote is one of the many conservative groups that claims to have been improperly targeted by the IRS while it scrutinized the applications of tea-party groups.

In a letter signed by his five subcommittee chairmen, Issa raised the possibility that Cummings coordinated with the IRS, “surreptitiously” contacting the agency to request information about True the Vote.

E-mails unearthed in the course of Issa’s investigation into the IRS’s inappropriate targeting of right-leaning groups show that in January 2013, a member of Cummings’s staff contacted the IRS asking for any publicly available information on True the Vote. The matter was discussed by IRS officials that included Lois Lerner, the former exempt-organizations chief who retired in the wake of the targeting scandal.

The bottom line? It's patently obvious that President Obama used the IRS as his personal hit squad to go after those he perceived as his political enemies.The House can initiate legal proceedings on its own, but going through the courts takes years. Realistically congress has one remedy, the House's “inherent contempt” authority under the Constitution, which could put Lois Lerner in the slammer until 2015 when the new congress sits, after which a new subpoena can be issued to toss her in jail again for another two years if she still refuses to testify.

The nuclear option if that happens is a presidential pardon, which the president can issue any time he feels like it for any reason he wants to.They're almost always issued in a president's last days in office, so as not to affect election prospects ala' Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon. But President Barack Hussein Obama can issue a pardon for Lerner, Eric Holder or anyone else he deems necessary if things get hot. And it's solid gold, inviolate.

Normally, the check on presidents pardoning associates of theirs who might have been involved in criminal proceedings is media fallout that generates public outrage and bad PR. Given the state of much of the media today, that won't happen. The media won't even mention that our attorney general and our president aren't exactly neutral when investigating their tools or themselves.

Our Founders envisioned a lot of what a democratic republic would have to face, and made provisions for it. They unfortunately had no idea how dumbed down and dependent on government patronage and welfare a portion of the electorate would become, and they certainly never imagined anyone as corrupt and utterly lawless as President Obama sitting in the Oval Office.They never dreamed that we would someday have an attorney general boasting about how he and the president he served were only going to uphold the laws they felt like enforcing and ignore any others they didn't, based on their political agenda.

They did, however leave us a remedy. It's called impeachment.And if we're unable to at least bring charges and examine them honestly after the blatant way this sort of thing has been foisted upon us,  perhaps we're no longer worthy of the gift our Founders bequeathed to us.

If I were Speaker John Boehner, I'd be filing charges right now, voting on them in the House and forcing Democrats to go on record as voting against them in the House and Senate. Come next January, when there might just be enough senators in office willing to vote for something other than their opwn partisan values, things might be different. But Boehner owes it to the country to at least make an attempt and get the numerous high crimes and misdemeanors of President Obama on the record.

Needless to say, he's not that kind of man and certainly not that kind of Speaker. But we'll see what happens in November.

AG Holder To Congress:'We'll Enforce The Laws We Feel Like Enforcing'

 


Attorney General Eric Holder was giving testimony today before the House Judiciary Committee and revealed in this exchange exactly how much contempt the Obama Administration have for our laws, the legislative branch and our Constitution. This took place in response to a question by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who asked Holder whether he believed there were any limits to the administration’s prosecutorial discretion:

“There is a vast amount of discretion that a president has — and more specifically that an attorney general has,” Holder responded. “But that discretion has to be used in an appropriate way so that your acting consistent with the aims of the statute but at the same time making sure that you are acting in a way that is consistent with our values, consistent with the Constitution and protecting the American people."

(emphasis mine)

What the attorney general of the United States is saying in no uncertain terms that he and the president reserve the right to enforce those laws they agree with, and to selectively ignore other laws they don't happen to like..

Their 'values',or more precisely their political agenda take precedence...not the law, not the will of the American people, and certainly not their oaths of office.

AG Eric Holder Says He Will Resign This Year - And What's Behind It

In a New Yorker interview with Jeffrey Toobin, President Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he plans to step down sometime this year.

It was just last November that Holder told CBS that he planned to stay on through President Obama's second term.

Given that we're talking about Eric Holder and this president, a few things come to mind in trying to figure this out.

What's changed in 3 months? And what are the angles involved? And most importantly, who benefits and how?

The first thing twe have to do is flip the telescope a bit. Because of the low key way this was announced, casually to a friendly source, a lot of people are bound to assume that this is Eric Holder's decision. In reality, while they may have worked out the details together this is almost certainly President Obama's decision, especially since just 3 months ago Holder was certain about staying on. Holder serves at the president's pleasure, and every cabinet officer submits an unsigned letter of resignation to the White House upon taking office as standard operating procedure.

There are several reason why President Obama might have wanted Holder out of the picture.

While the media still is doing a decent job of covering up for the regime, the scandals surrounding the Obama Administration are gradually heating up,and we can expect them to heat up even more as the mid terms approach. Holder has been involved with all of them except Benghazi up to his neck, especially in the cover up phase. And he is a direct path to the White House and President Obama, particularly in Fast and Furious and IRS-Gate.

In fact, as I write this, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee led by Rep. Darrell Isa is suing him for civil contempt of congress over Fast and Furious for ignoring a subpoena to obtain internal Justice Department memos the committee requested. And a federal judge has already slapped down the Department of Justice's request to have the lawsuit dismissed.A lot of this material was shielded by President Obama in the most egregious misuse of executive privilege in our history.

Now that the lawsuit is ongoing, there no real reason that Holder can give in court for not complying with the congressional subpoena except taking the Fifth ala' IRS commissioner Lois Lerner. And since this is a civil action, the court can still demand that the material be turned over, with failure to do so being subject to criminal penalties. That material may end up not looking too sanitary once it surfaces, and there's a good chance it might implicate the president, since some of it involves direct interaction between the president and his attorney general, the very basis the president used to claim executive privilege.

Holder and the president may very well have cut a deal wherein Holder chooses the time of his 'retirement' takes the flak, pleads the Fifth and keeps his mouth shut in exchange for a presidential pardon and perhaps some other considerations under the table afterwards.It's a good deal on both sides, since AG Holder has the leverage to be certain the president sticks to his end of it. After all, if Eric Holder were to open up and tell what he undoubtedly knows about this most lawless of administrations, the odds on President Obama finishing his term without being impeached plummet significantly. We're talking Watergate on steroids.

This is exactly how the Clintons dealt with Wade Hubbel and Susan McDougal...'well, you're gonna do a littel time, but if you keep your mouths shut it'll be real easy time in some white collar country club facility, as opposed to the alternative. And when it's appropriate, we'll make sure you get a presidential pardon and there will be a nice somethin' somethin' waiting for you when you get out.'

Another possibility, a remote one but still a possibility is that President Obama ordered Eric Holder to do something like destroying evidence that would have exposed him to direct criminal liability and Holder refused. At which point, the president and Holder had a sit down, Holder was informed that he was 'resigning', and they worked out the details of the actual resignation and the rewards involved for Holder keeping his mouth shut.

That scenario pretty much answers all three questions.

AG Holder To Prohibit Federal Agents From Considering Religion, National Origin, Immigration Status In Investigations

 

Our attorney general is in the process of issuing new 'guidelines' that will make it a lot harder for federal agents to catch Islamist terrorists, illegal aliens and probably foreign espionage agents.

The Justice Department will significantly expand its definition of racial profiling to prohibit federal agents from considering religion, national origin, gender and sexual orientation in their investigations, a government official said Wednesday.

The move addresses a decade of criticism from civil rights groups that say federal authorities have in particular singled out Muslims in counterterrorism investigations and Latinos for immigration investigations.[...]

Since taking office, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has been under pressure from Democrats in Congress to eliminate those provisions. “These exceptions are a license to profile American Muslims and Hispanic-Americans,” Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said in 2012.…

“Putting an end to this practice not only comports with the Constitution, it would put real teeth to the F.B.I.’s claims that it wants better relationships with religious minorities,” said Hina Shamsi, a national security lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Adding religion and national origin is huge,” said Linda Sarsour, advocacy director for the National Network for Arab American Communities. “But if they don’t close the national security loophole, then it’s really irrelevant.”

Ms. Sarsour said she also hoped that Mr. Holder would declare that surveillance, not just traffic stops and arrests, was prohibited based on religion.

It is huge, and I'll just bet she hopes that all surveillance on jihadi mosques here in America ends. So do a great many Islamists with terrorist attacks or illegal fund raising in mind.

Remember just what a great idea it is when the next Boston Marathon-style bombing takes place. Elections have consequences.

AG Holder's New School Discipline Diktats: "Stop Targeting Blacks And Hispanics":

Attorney General Eric Holder has a new crusade.He says that schools discriminate against blacks and Latinos when it comes to meting out discipline in public schools, and he wants it stopped.

The Justice Department and the Department of Education have issued new guidelines for disciplining students in public schools, and claim that their internal investigations show racial bias.

The wide-ranging series of guidelines issued today in essence threatens schools with strong action if they are seen as 'not adhering to standards of fairness and equity in student discipline.'

"In our investigations, we have found cases where African-American students were disciplined more harshly and more frequently because of their race than similarly situated white students," the Justice Department and Education Department said in the letter to school districts. "In short, racial discrimination in school discipline is a real problem."

Could it maybe have something to do with a higher percentage of black students constituting major discipline problems perhaps? Nah, couldn't be. Must be racism.

According to government civil rights data collection from 2011-2012, black students make up 15% of the population of America's public schools. Yet they were more than three times as likely as white students students to get expelled or suspended.They made up more than a third of students suspended once, 44 percent of those suspended more than once and more than a third of students expelled. According to one study I saw, blacks were ten times more likely to get suspended or expelled than Asian students.

More than half of students involved in school-related arrests or referred to law enforcement were Hispanic or black, according to the data.Racism obviously. Although not in California or some other jurisdictions, where the huge Los Angeles Unified School District has a policy now of not suspending students for what's called 'willful defiance'..in other words, repeatedly disrupting class, creating a climate where learning is impossible and refusing to pay any attention to a teacher's efforts to stop it. This has now gone statewide with pending legislation, AB40, that's going to make it fairly difficult for a public school to suspend or expel any student. This too was largely sparked by complaints that black and Hispanic students are being 'suspended too often'.

There's teeth in the new policies too. For instance, in Brevard County Florida, where the public schools suspend black students about two-and-a-half times as often as its white students, the NAACP has filed a complaint against the school district and the Justice Department and The U.S. Department of Education are helping them proceed.

Holder said in a statement that he blames the high rates of black suspension and expulsion on "zero-tolerance" policies that too often inject the criminal justice system into school discipline. The zero tolerance policies he's talking about are mandated set penalties for things like truancy, drugs on campus, or carrying a weapon, and our attorney general thinks it's time that stopped.

It used to be that trouble makers guilty of multiple offenses were sent to a specific school set up for exactly that purpose and placed under stricter discipline to both benefit themselves and the other children who actually wanted to learn. That sort of common sense arrangement is a thing of the distant past.

While the new Obama guidelines are said to be exactly that, they're clearly a warning and will be taken as such by the schools. So if your child is assaulted, bullied or cheated out of the education you paid for by someone's else's activities in the classroom and the perpetrator just happens to be black or Hispanic, don't even bother complaining, even if you yourself are black or Hispanic, let alone white or Asian. Ditto if you're a teacher,especially in one of the large urban politically correct school districts.

Or to put it another way, is there a reason you haven't started homeschooling or put your kids in private school yet?

MSNBC: "Eric Holder Is The Moses of Our Time"

MSNBC contributor Michael Eric Dyson called Attorney General Eric Holder “the Moses of our time” Wednesday on “Martin Bashir”:  


 MARTIN BASHIR: Professor, we heard Mr. Sensenbrenner say the attorney general should stop down. Congressman Bob Goodlatte is also calling for resignation. Of course, he did that two years ago over fast and furious. Is this actually going to lead to something, do you think, or more of the same, more continuous calls for the attorney general to step down?   

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: I think the attorney general should step down to off of that plateau where he resides on high principle and whip some head. But he shouldn’t give up his office. What he should understand is that he is the chief law giver of the United States so to speak. He’s the Moses of our time and at least for this administration. [...]

Now, if Jews were like Muslims, I'd be calling for a fatwa on both of them for insulting my religion and for blasphemy. As it is, I'll just note the despicable anti-semitism involved and move on. This coflating Moses with a corrupt ideologue who perjured himself and has done nothing but lie and engage in racism throughout his tenure shows you exactly how insane the Left has become. In fact, it appears he even lied to a judge when he was judge-shopping in order to get a warrant:



Right and wrong, legal and illegal, holy and unholy simply have no meaning for these people any more. It's all about the Agenda, and in Dyson's case, racist solidarity über alles.

Turns Out AG Holder Judge Shopped To Get Warrant To Snoop On FOX Reporter

What a surprise, eh?

It took three judges before Attorney General Eric Holder could find one partisan enough to OK the Obama Department of Justice request for a secret warrant. Two judges separately ruled that the Justice department was required to notify senior FOX News Washington correspondent James Rosen of the warrant even if there was a delay..upon which they looked around and found Judge Royce C. Lamberth, the chief judge in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia who signed off on it.

Holder's story that there was nothing unusual or wrong in the request for a secret warrant in this case would seem to be just a wee bit....dishonest.

More here at the New Yorker.

(H/t Breitbart.com)

AG Holder Perjures Himself Under Oath On Press Surveillance Scandal

Here's a smoking gun for you. Attorney General Holder is speaking to Democrat Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia of the oversight committee about the AP scandal...and at 5:00 Holder says clearly, under oath that he never had anything to do with signing off on spying on the press:

"In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material. This is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy."

Today, it came out that it was Eric Holder who personally signed off on the warrant to spy on FOX News senior correspondent James Rosen...and who knows how many others.

Not only that, but it was Holder's decision to keep the warrants secret for years.

Can you say 'fishing expedition'? Can you say clear violation of the First Amendment?

Sure you can.

And who was the DOJ attorney who filed in district court to keep the illegal surveillance ongoing and secret for years even though they hadn't found anything? That would be U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen - the same attorney who was charged with deciding whether to pursue the House’s contempt citation against his boss, Eric Holder, over Fast and Furious.And - what a coincidence - he just happens to be leading the FBI investigation into the leak that involved the DOJ subpoenaing AP reporters’ phone records.

And who appointed him to that position? None other than James Cole, Holder's deputy, who took over after Holder recused himself.

Even more disgusting, President Obama acted socked, just shocked about all this and proclaimed yesterday in that faux sincere baritone of his that he had  ordered the Attorney General to review the DOJ’s guidelines for spying on reporters.

In other words, Eric Holder will be in charge of investigating what Eric Holder did. And in the areas where he recused himself , he has a couple of loyal, dependable  soldiers to take care of things.

Yet the fact remains that Holder committing perjury and likely obstruction of justice, and that particular cat is now out of the bag.

DHS Is Training Law Enforcement To Give Muslim Brotherhood, Radical Islamists A Pass

 

This is dhimmitude on steroids.

In an official training manuals given to national and local law enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security is still emphasizing 'Right Wing extremists' but gives the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamists a pass, advising law enforcement to defer to them.

In contrast to that famous 2009 report talking about the dangers of veterans, pro-life advocates, critics of same-sex marriage, 2nd Amendment advocates and Evangelicals, the training manuals on Islamists cautions law enforcement, “Don’t use training that equates radical thought, religious expression, freedom to protest, or other constitutionally-protected activity, including disliking the U.S. government without being violent” when it comes to Islamists.

The manual, which was produced by an inter-agency working group from DHS and the National Counterterrorism Center, advises, “Trainers who equate the desire for Sharia law with criminal activity violate basic tenets of the First Amendment.”

This would be a hoot if the DHS wasn't deadly serious - Sharia law violates the First Amendment and most of the rest of the Bill of Rights explicitly!

DHS CRCL CVE Training - Dos and Donts

The checklist also advised against using Muslim “trainers who are self-professed ‘Muslim reformers’” - i.e, non-jihadi moderates - because they “may further an interest group agenda instead of delivering generally accepted, unbiased information.”

I don't know which is worse...what the DHS is saying about itself or what it's saying about Muslims, that they're naturally radical and only generally accept the Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood point of view.

The manual also tells law enforcement not to rely on “unsubstantiated theories” and “conspiracies,” that say that “many mainstream Muslim organizations have terrorist ties” or are “fronts for Islamic political organizations whose true desire is to establish Sharia law in America.”

And this manual advises advises trainees not to assume Muslim groups are “using democratic processes, like litigation and free speech, to subvert democracy and install Sharia law.”

Never mind that our own Justice Department proved just that in Federal Court in the Holy Land Foundation trail, and that U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis said as much in his 2010 ruling, writing, “The government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR [Council on American-Islamic Relations], ISNA [Islamic Society of North America], NAIT [North American Islamic Trust], with the Islamic Association for Palestine, and with Hamas.”

As a matter of fact, most of the senior executives of these Muslim Brotherhood fronts would be sitting in jail for money laundering and material aid to terrorism if Attorney General Eric Holder and the Obama Justice Department hadn't filed declinations to prosecute motions on all of the individuals and groups cited as unindicted co-conspirators. That ended what would have been the second Holy Land Foundation trial, an open and shut case because the groups appealed the first one, leading to Judge Solis' ruling. Obama's Justice Department essentially let CAIR, ISNA, and NAIT off the hook, as well as the executives involved.

Instead, we now have people in influential positions in the Obama Administration with strong Muslim Brotherhood ties and an official 'training manual' for law enforcement that could have been put out by the Brotherhood itself.Aside from the chilling effect this will have on law enforcement actually working to prevent jihad in America, it will also have the effect and stigmatizing American Muslims whom choose not to toe the Islamist line.

In later years - perhaps, unfortunately after we have a few more incidents that end up with more dead Americans - it will come out that the Obama Administration was just as thoroughly penetrated by the Ikhwan, the Muslim Brotherhood as the Truman Administration was penetrated by Soviet spies and sympathizers.

And it will have cost us dearly in the meantime.


(h/t to Charles C. Johnson at the Daily Caller)

Rand Paul To Filibuster on Drones: "I will not let Obama shred the Constitution"

After receiving Attorney General Eric Holder's letter refusing to rule out the use of drones on American citizens within U.S. borders without due process, Senator Rand Paul has decided to mount a one man, old school filibuster.

“I will speak until I can no longer speak,” Paul said. “I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important, that your rights to trial by jury are precious, that no American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court.”

Paul called Holder’s refusal to rule out drone strikes within the United States “more than frightening.”

On Wednesday, Paul elaborated on his concerns: “When I asked the president, can you kill an American on American soil, it should have been an easy answer. It’s an easy question. It should have been a resounding an unequivocal, ‘No.’ The president’s response? He hasn’t killed anyone yet. We’re supposed to be comforted by that. The president says, ‘I haven’t killed anyone yet.’ He goes on to say, ‘And I have no intention of killing Americans. But I might.’ Is that enough? Are we satisfied by that?”

Paul said on the Senate floor, “No American should ever be killed in their house without warrant and some kind of aggressive behavior by them. To be bombed in your sleep? There’s nothing American about that . . . [Obama] says trust him because he hasn’t done it yet. He says he doesn’t intend to do so, but he might. Mr. President, that’s not good enough . . . so I’ve come here to speak for as long as I can to draw attention to something that I find to really be very disturbing.”

“I will not sit quietly and let him shred the Constitution,” Paul added.”No person will be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process,” he said, quoting the Fifth Amendment.

Full on old school filibusters are extremely rare in Washington, but legal. Any Senator can hold the floor for as long as he or she likes, according to the rules, but filibusters are usually done by legislative mechanisms rather than by physically holding the floor.

The record? The Palmetto State's own Strom Thurmond holds it, filibustering as a Dixiecrat for for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957, according to U.S. Senate records. Of course, he had help from his fellow Democrats, who managed to keep things going for 57 days, filibustering between March 26 and June 19, the day the Civil Rights Act of 1957 passed.

A close second place is held by one of my favorite Senators of all time, New York's Alfonse D'Amato. He spoke for 23 hours and 30 minutes to stall debate on an important military bill in 1986 that contained an amendment that would have cut off funding for a jet training plane built by a company headquartered in his home state.

The amendment was removed.

It will be interesting to see how Rand Paul does. If it were me, I'd be reading whole sections of William L.Shirer's "Rise and Fall of The Third Reich" aloud, particularly the parts of about hiow Hitler was democratically elected, and the parts about the 'emergency' of the Reichstag Fire that enabled him to shred the German Constitution and take full power.

You go, Senator. Let 'em have it. And let's see if any other Republicans have the gonads to help you out on this one.

AG Holder: Drone strikes against Americans on U.S. soil are legal

 

Yesterday, I reported that Senator Rand Paul was holding up John Brennan's confirmation until he got an answer from the White House on whether drone strikes would ever be used within the United States, since U.S. laws restrict the use of our military within our borders.

Today, he got an answer from Obama's Attorney General:

“It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States,” Holder replied in a letter yesterday to Paul’s question about whether Obama “has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, and without trial.”

Holder noted that Paul’s question was “entirely hypothetical [and] unlikely to occur,” but cited the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as the type of incidents that might provoke such a response.

“Were such an emergency to arise, I would examine the particular facts and circumstances before advising the President on the scope of his authority,” he concluded.

Emphasis mine.

In other words, Holder and the president feel that in an 'emergency' or anything they determine as such, they're free to use drones, those spiffy new heavily armored APC's Homeland Security is stocking up on, any military force they want against our own citizens without due process.

Strange days...

Major Fast And Furious Report Out Today

 
A major report on Fast and Furious is out today, and it was an obvious attempt by the Obama Administration to find a fall guy or two and protect AG Eric Holder at all costs.

The long-awaited 400 page report was issued by the Department of Justice Inspector General hit a whole slew of federal agencies for the operation that had the Department of Justice buying thousands of weapons and shipping them to Mexican drug cartels, resulting in the death of over 300 Mexican nationals and Brian Terry, a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

 Here's a shocker...this internal probe of the DOJ, by the DOJ, while spewing condemnations at the irresponsibility of a few carefully selected players found “no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder was informed about Operation Fast and Furious, or learned about the tactics employed by ATF in the investigation.”

Not only that, but in an unprecedented move , Attorney General Eric Holder, who was one of the people who was supposedly to be investigated  was allowed to view and edit the report before its release.

The designated fall guys are Jason Weinstein, the deputy assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division who the report names as the highest DOJ official who had oversight over Fast and Furious and former ATF acting director Ken Melman, who abruptly retired.

Weinstein didn't exactly go quietly.He claims he took issue with the report's conclusions about him and gave the inspector general a 32-page document laying out alleged errors and suggested changes for the draft report, but "virtually none" of those were incorporated, according to Michael Bromwich, who is representing Weinstein. I guess they didn't make his role as sacrifice quite clear to him:

 The report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz found the ATF and U.S. attorney's office in Arizona shared equal responsibility for the gun-walking programs. It also said senior leaders did little immediately after Terry's death to inquire about Operation Fast and Furious. It faulted ATF headquarters for insufficient oversight of the program. And it cited the "inappropriate" effort to encourage dealers to sell firearms in transactions they knew were unlawful for weapons they did not intend to seize. Now here's the contradiction in the whole matter. If Eric Holder didn't know about Fast and Furious until 2011 ( which by the way, contradicts his sworn testimoney to congress)Then why the rush to put whole swaths of subpoenaed documents under executive privilege? If it wasn’t to cover Eric Holder's personal behind from legal culpability, the only other possible reason for the use of executive privilege and the extensive stonewalling of congress was to buy him time to cover up his mismanagement of the Justice Department.

 Holder also used the coming report as an excuse not to release documents to the House committee which has investigated Fast and Furious, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa. Now that it's out, does that mean that now that he's been 'exonerated' that he'll cooperate with congress in trying to get to the bottom of this? Will President Obama release those documents he protected by what now appears more and more to be an inappropriate use of executive privilege?

Of course not. Here's the Issa Committee's response to this bolshoi:


House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, issued the following statement on Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s findings of widespread failures by both senior DOJ and ATF leaders in both Operation Fast and Furious and the Department of Justice’s false denials of reckless conduct to Congress. Issa and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have led the Congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious following Justice Department denials of reckless conduct that were later retracted. Guns from the reckless program contributed to the deaths of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and an unknown number of Mexican citizens. It also created an ongoing public safety hazard on both sides of the border.

“The Inspector General’s report confirms findings by Congress’ investigation of a near total disregard for public safety in Operation Fast and Furious. Contrary to the denials of the Attorney General and his political defenders in Congress, the investigation found that information in wiretap applications approved by senior Justice Department officials in Washington did contain red flags showing reckless tactics and faults Attorney General Eric Holder’s inner circle for their conduct. 

Former Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer who heads the Criminal Division, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein, Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, and Holder’s own Deputy Chief of Staff Monty Wilkinson are all singled out for criticism in the report. It’s time for President Obama to step in and provide accountability for officials at both the Department of Justice and ATF who failed to do their jobs. Attorney General Holder has clearly known about these unacceptable failures yet has failed to take appropriate action for over a year and a half.

The Inspector General has indicated he will continue his investigation of matters related to Operation Fast and Furious, including retaliation against whistleblowers and an effort to have the Justice Department unseal wiretap applications sealed by courts that were approved by senior officials. The Congressional investigation will also continue to seek documents wrongfully withheld from Congress.

The question remains- what did Eric Holder know and when did he know it? And given the use of Executive privilege, the same question remains for President Obama.

Obama Campaign Sues To Suppress The Military Vote

The Obama Administration has had a lot to say about voter ID laws 'suppressing people's votes', and Attorney General Eric Holder and the Obama Department of Justice have engaged in widespread lawfare to try and keep those laws off the books.

Voter fraud, of course is a lot more widespread than they'd like us to realize, and they're depending on it to help them win this year's election.

As you might guess, the democrats are not really all that concerned about voter suppression. They just want the right votes suppressed,if you know what I mean.

One constituency they'd rather didn't vote at all is active duty military, who vote predominantly Republican when their votes actually get counted.

So the Democrats have actively been involved in suppressing those votes.

In 2010, Eric Holder and the Obama Department of Justice prior to the 2010 midterms engaged in a systematic campaign to encourage states to seek waivers not to comply with the Federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (the MOVE Act), which among other things mandated that ballots be in the hands of ourtroops overseas no less than 45 days prior to elections. in order to suppress the military vote. Congress found out in a subsequent investigation when it was too late to do anything about it that the worst offenders were states and counties run by Democrats. In fact, the Justice Department employee who was the chief contact person in encouraging jurisdictions not to comply with the law and seek waivers was actually promoted.

The pattern is repeating itself this year, as Mike Flynn over at Breitbart reports:

On July 17th, the Obama for America Campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the Ohio Democratic Party filed suit in OH to strike down part of that state's law governing voting by members of the military. Their suit said that part of the law is "arbitrary" with "no discernible rational basis."

Currently, Ohio allows the public to vote early in-person up until the Friday before the election. Members of the military are given three extra days to do so. While the Democrats may see this as "arbitrary" and having "no discernible rational basis," I think it is entirely reasonable given the demands on servicemen and women's time and their obligations to their sworn duty.

Felons, illegal aliens, dead people and people too inept to score a photo ID even when they're given out free? That's the Democrat's preferred constituency, for very obvious reasons.

Active duty military? Not so much.

And every American whose either served in uniform or has a family member or someone close to them who has ought to outraged and vote accordingly.

President Obama loves the military when he can pose with them for photo-ops,or pound his chest and take credit for their achievements.

Just not when they vote.

Simply disgraceful.

AG Holder Held In Criminal Contempt By Congress In Bi-Partisan Vote

The House of Representatives voted today to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal contempt of Congress and pursue a civil action in the courts. The vote was 255 ayes, 67 nays, and 1 present, with 17 Democrats voting with the Republicans in favor.

Over 100 democrats walked out during the voting in a protest led by the Congressional Black Caucus. In fact, one CBC member, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) even introduced a resolution calling for the House to reprimand oversight committee chairman Darrel Issa ( R-CA), accusing him of having “engaged in a witch hunt.”

Holder is the first attorney general ever cited for contempt by Congress. The charges stem from his failure to provide documents subpoenaed by the oversight committee relating to an alleged coverup of Fast and Furious,an Obama Administration operation that allowed thousands of weapons to be illegally purchased and 'walked' across the border to be sold to Mexican drug cartels. Th eweapons were not electronically tracked, most of them have never been recovered and they have been linked to over 300 murders, including that of border patrol agent Brian Terry.

Rep. Issa closed out the contempt debate by speaking in front of a giant poster of Agent Terry in his Border Patrol uniform.

“We were lied to repeatedly, and over a 10-month period,” Mr. Issa said. “That is what we’re here for.”

Black Lawmakers Plan 'Walkout Strategy' During Holder Contempt Vote

The Congressional Black Caucus is circulating a letter encouraging its membership not to participate in the vote on citing Attorney General Eric Holder for contempt:

Dear Colleague:

We write to urge you to stand with us in the pursuit of justice for the Attorney General of the United States of America, Eric H. Holder. In its history, the United States House of Representatives has never held a United States Attorney General, or any other Cabinet official, in contempt.

Instead of focusing on job creation and other critical issues before this Congress, we have been asked to engage in a political stunt on the floor of the United States House of Representatives. Our constituents elected us to do real work, not to engage in meaningless partisan activity.

Over the past 15 months, Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice have cooperated with the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's requests for information on "Fast and Furious", an unfortunate operation that began under the Bush Administration and, in fact, was terminated by Attorney General Holder. The Department has made extraordinary efforts to accommodate Congress by turning over almost 8,000 documents--including all the documents that relate to the tactics in this investigation and the other flawed investigations that occurred in Arizona during the Bush Administration. The Attorney General also participated in a bicameral meeting in a good faith effort to satisfy the Committee's information requests. While the Attorney General has advised House Republicans that he is willing to work with them in attempting to reach an agreement, the Republican Leadership is instead rushing recklessly to a contempt vote.

Contempt power should be used sparingly, carefully and only in the most egregious situations. The Republican Leadership has articulated no legislative purpose for pursuing this course of action. For these reasons we cannot and will not participate in a vote to hold the Attorney General in contempt. We adamantly oppose this partisan attack and refuse to participate in any vote that would tarnish the image of Congress or of an Attorney General who has done nothing but work tirelessly to protect the rights of the American people. We must reflect upon why we are elected to this body and choose now to stand up for justice.

We call upon all members of Congress to stand with us during a press conference on the Capitol Building steps during this appalling series of votes to discuss our nation's most significant priority--creating jobs. At this critically important time in our nation, we must work as colleagues rather than political enemies.

Translation? 'It's ra-aa-aacism!'

Among the other fairy tales in this letter, I absolutely must correct one charming bit of disinformation.

Fast and Furious did not originate with the Bush Administration.That program was called Wide Receiver and it differed from Fast and Furious in some important ways;it involved only a small number of weapons, the weapons were equipped with tracking devices, no one was killed, the sales were closely monitored and done under surveillance and most importantly, Wide Receiver was done with the knowledge and cooperation of the Mexican government and was curtailed by the Bush Administration when it's deficiencies became evident. Fast and Furious was entirely an Obama Administration product and involved a large number of untracked weapons, over 400 people were murdered including a U.S. border patrol agent, and the Mexican government was not informed about what was going on until the whole operation became embarrassingly public and corpses stated piling up.

Obviously, the Congressional Black Caucus can demonstrate racial solidarity über alles and walk out. As a matter of fact, given the attitudes and performance of many of its members, I rather hope they make it a regular habit at voting time.

Eric Holder Gets Spanked: Judge OK's Florida Voter Rolls Purge

Another bad day for fans of voter fraud...a federal judge has tossed out a suit by the U.S. Department of Justice that attempted to block the State of Florida from purging ineligible voters from its rolls:

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle said Wednesday that there was nothing in federal voting laws that prevent the state from identifying non-U.S. citizens even if it comes less than 90 days before the Aug. 14 election.

Hinkle ruled that federal laws are designed to block states from removing eligible voters close to an election. He said they are not designed to stop states from blocking voters who should have never been allowed to cast ballots in the first place.

Gov. Rick Scott praised Hinkle's decision, saying "irreparable harm will result if non-citizens are allowed to vote."

Heh! Epic fail.