The Obamanation

[TheMercenary]

Members of the commission issued what should be regarded as a stinging indictment of AG Holder and the Justice Department in one paragraph of a news release issued today about the investigation trying to answer the question of whether DOJ practiced race-neutral enforcement of the law:
Although such testimony supported the need for thorough investigation, DOJ continued to withhold relevant documents and preclude relevant officials and supervisors from testifying. The Commission was thus limited in its ability to complete a final report. As a result, the Commission has issued an interim report that describes the evidence that has been collected up to this point and the lack of cooperation by the Department of Justice.
In a separate paragraph, appearing on page iii of the interim report addressed to President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio), Commission members highlighted the dilemma they face as a result of the DOJ’s obstruction:
The Commission, by a separate 5-2 vote breaking down along the same lines, found that although its statute authorizes the Commission to subpoena witnesses and written material and requires federal agencies to cooperate fully with its investigations, its authority to seek legal recourse when the Attorney General refuses to enforce Commission subpoenas, as has occurred repeatedly during this investigation, is unclear.

http://biggovernment.com/bmccarty/20...ation-charges/

[BigV]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Well, the beat goes on....

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=174&load=3751

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

It just doesn't get any better than this, Obamy in his own words.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/achenblog/

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Great article.

Backdoor Big Government
Americans sent a small-government message in November, but Obama isn’t listening.

http://city-journal.com/2011/21_1_sn...overnment.html

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

ACLU and Eric Holder in Bed together.... Imagine that.

http://www.patriotactionnetwork.com/...veal-collusion

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

http://biggovernment.com/bmccarty/20...ation-charges/

so mercy, I looked through these links, and thought of your comments in a different thread... I have a question for you. Do you consider these examples of news or commentary?

[TheMercenary]

All commentary. Esp if from a Blog.

But what is important to remember that it also includes news. And if you are careful it is pretty easy to extract the news bits that is being commented on and how it is presented. Let me show an example....

[TheMercenary]

Last link....

News:

Attorney General Eric Holder and others within the U.S. Department of Justice prevented members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from conducting a complete and thorough investigation of the department’s decision to drop charges against members of the New Black Panther Party for their 2008 election day actions in Philadelphia.

Commentary:

Members of the commission issued what should be regarded as a stinging indictment of AG Holder and the Justice Department in one paragraph of a news release issued today about the investigation trying to answer the question of whether DOJ practiced race-neutral enforcement of the law:

News:

Although such testimony supported the need for thorough investigation, DOJ continued to withhold relevant documents and preclude relevant officials and supervisors from testifying. The Commission was thus limited in its ability to complete a final report. As a result, the Commission has issued an interim report that describes the evidence that has been collected up to this point and the lack of cooperation by the Department of Justice.
In a separate paragraph, appearing on page iii of the interim report addressed to President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio), Commission members highlighted the dilemma they face as a result of the DOJ’s obstruction:
The Commission, by a separate 5-2 vote breaking down along the same lines, found that although its statute authorizes the Commission to subpoena witnesses and written material and requires federal agencies to cooperate fully with its investigations, its authority to seek legal recourse when the Attorney General refuses to enforce Commission subpoenas, as has occurred repeatedly during this investigation, is unclear.

Commentary: Black
News: Red

Video of the Nov. 4, 2008, incident that triggered public outcry is clear to any objective viewer: Billy club-carrying members of the New Black Panther Party were intimidating voters outside a Philadelphia polling place.
It will be interesting to see whether any state-run media outlets report AG Holder’s obstruction of justice and apparent racist enforcement of the law.

Pretty easy...

[Fair&Balanced]

Another perspective:

As voter-intimidation exercises go, it wasn’t much. In 2008, a lone white voter reported he had encountered two black men dressed all in black, one carrying a nightstick, at his Philadelphia polling place in a predominantly black neighborhood. The armed man was escorted away by police, and no one reported the incident to the local district attorney. But the incident was caught on camera, making it great fodder for cable news because political campaigns were actively scouting for voter-intimidation cases they could use against opponents.

Several months after the 2008 Election Day incident (and 13 days before President Obama was sworn in) the Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit against the NBPP under the Voting Rights Act, alleging voter intimidation. In May 2009, Justice—now led by Attorney General Eric Holder, Obama's appointee—successfully obtained an injunction against King Samir Shabazz, the man who carried the nightstick, then dropped the suit, Fox News reported. A spokeswoman at Justice says a career attorney made the call, which was then affirmed by an appointee, because "the facts and the law did not support pursuing claims against the other defendants in the case. A federal judge determined that the relief requested by the Department was appropriate."

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/14/t...ew-acorn0.html

Voter intimidation cases are exceedingly hard to prove which is why there have so few in the 40+ years of the Voting Rights Act.

To have any chance of success, at the very least, there was be claims by voters that they were intimidated and at least some evidence to support it. This case had neither, which perhaps explains why the DoJ took the option of a civil injunction against the one guy rather than commit resources to a case they felt they could not win.

One final thought or question for The Mercinary:
Why is this case any different than the circumstances at a Arizona polling place where an avowed anti-immigrant Minuteman was at a poll place in 2006 armed with a 9mm Glock and questioning Hispanic voters to determine if they spoke English? The Bush DoJ chose not to pursue it.

[Fair&Balanced]

IMO, it is a stretch to describe as factual that "billy club carrying members of the New Black Panther Party were intimidating voters" given that no voters filed any complaint about voter intimation.

As to the US Civil Rights Commission, the conservative Vice Chair would disagree with the assessment in your links:

A scholar whom President George W. Bush appointed as vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Abigail Thernstrom has a reputation as a tough conservative critic of affirmative action and politically correct positions on race.

But when it comes to the investigation that the Republican-dominated commission is now conducting into the Justice Department’s handling of an alleged incident of voter intimidation involving the New Black Panther Party — a controversy that has consumed conservative media in recent months — Thernstrom has made a dramatic break from her usual allies.

“This doesn’t have to do with the Black Panthers; this has to do with their fantasies about how they could use this issue to topple the [Obama] administration,” said Thernstrom, who said members of the commission voiced their political aims “in the initial discussions” of the Panther case last year.

“My fellow conservatives on the commission had this wild notion they could bring Eric Holder down and really damage the president,” Thernstrom said in an interview with POLITICO....

...Three Republican poll monitors filed complaints of intimidation — itself a federal crime — but no voters attested to being turned away. The Justice Department, while Bush was still president, investigated the incident and later, after Obama took office, decided that "the facts and the law did not support pursuing" the claims against the party and against a second, unarmed man, Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said....

...And other conservatives have weighed in on her side.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39861.html

A column from the Vice Chair herself in the conservative National Review:

Forget about the New Black Panther Party case; it is very small potatoes. Perhaps the Panthers should have been prosecuted under section 11 (b) of the Voting Rights Act for their actions of November 2008, but the legal standards that must be met to prove voter intimidation — the charge — are very high.

In the 45 years since the act was passed, there have been a total of three successful prosecutions. The incident involved only two Panthers at a single majority-black precinct in Philadelphia. So far — after months of hearings, testimony and investigation — no one has produced actual evidence that any voters were too scared to cast their ballots. Too much overheated rhetoric filled with insinuations and unsubstantiated charges has been devoted to this case....

...There are plenty of grounds on which to sharply criticize the attorney general — his handling of terrorism questions, just for starters — but this particular overblown attack threatens to undermine the credibility of his conservative critics

http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...ail-thernstrom

IMO, the Commission "investigation" is partisan political theater conducted by the conservative majority. Much like the investigation of voter intimidation in Florida in 2000 conducted by the liberal majority on the Commission at the time.

As a critic of political theater on both sides, I would give this one a - highly partisan, boring and predictable.

[Undertoad]

Well investigated and stated F&B. (welcome)

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Fair&Balanced

One final thought or question for The Mercenary:
Why is this case any different than the circumstances at a Arizona polling place where an avowed anti-immigrant Minuteman was at a poll place in 2006 armed with a 9mm Glock and questioning Hispanic voters to determine if they spoke English? The Bush DoJ chose not to pursue it.

Never heard of it....

[TheMercenary]

[quote=Fair&Balanced;710610][size="2"]IMO, it is a stretch to describe as factual that "billy club carrying members of the New Black Panther Party were intimidating voters" given that no voters filed any complaint about voter intimation.[quote]DOJ didn't think so at the time. But hey, we have a racist DOJ now so I guess anything is possible.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Fair&Balanced

[size="2"]IMO, the Commission "investigation" is partisan political theater conducted by the conservative majority. Much like the investigation of voter intimidation in Florida in 2000 conducted by the liberal majority on the Commission at the time.

I would give this one a - highly partisan, boring and predictable.

Right out of the Media Matters website.

[Fair&Balanced]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Well investigated and stated F&B. (welcome)

Thanks.

I'll be browsing around the place when I have more time.

[Fair&Balanced]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Never heard of it....

Here is an article from the Tucson paper:

http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/2006...er-harassment/

So whats the difference?

In Philly, you have a Black man, affiliated with the New Black Panther Party, carrying a billy club at a predominately Black polling station but not approaching anyone directly.

In Tucson, you have a White man, affiliated with the Minutemen, carrying a gun at a predominately Hispanic polling station and questioning voters to determine if they spoke English.

I have issues with both of the groups (NBP Party and Minutemen) and their actions but in neither case did the acts reach the level of voter intimidation, but if I had to chose, getting in the face of voters and questioning them comes closer to intimidation.

[TheMercenary]

How's that Hopey Changey thing working out for ya?

Job Growth Grinds to a Halt

The U.S. economy slammed into a wall in August, failing to add any jobs for the first time in nearly a year and ratcheting up pressure on President Barack Obama to find a way to kick-start the sputtering recovery.

Underscoring the political problem posed by the dearth of hiring, Mr. Obama on Friday asked the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw an air-quality proposal that Republicans and business groups said could kill thousands of jobs and cost hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...157206548.html



SO how did that work out fer ya????

[BigV]

those fucking greedy capitalist blood sucking corporations!! they have record amounts of money and they're just hoarding it. I hope the fucking choke on their gold. spend any of that money on hiring people--no fucking way. just keep it, keep piling it up.

Soon though, your customer base will erode to the point where your accumulation of will slow, then stop, then you'll cry to the government that you're being crippled by all those regulations. mother fucking liars.

Fuck you.

[TheMercenary]