At least it was not “very, very, very serious”

Eric Holder is a national embarrassment. By the way how confident should we feel that his Justice Department will be looking into the IRS scandal?

Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters Tuesday that the leak to the Associated Press that prompted the Justice Department to secretly obtain phone records for AP reporters and editors constituted a “very, very serious leak” that “put the American people at risk.”

The AP sent a scathing letter to the DOJ on Monday, after they were informed that the DOJ had secretly obtained two months worth of phone records from April and May of 2012, a period of time during which the AP reported on a covert CIA operation in Yemen to prevent an airplane bomb plot. The Justice Department had previously said it was investigating the leak.

“This was a very serious leak. A very, very serious leak,” Holder said Tuesday at a press conference. He added that it was possibly the most serious leak he had seen, or at least top two or three.

See, it was “very serious” In fact it was “very very serious”, in his personal top three very, very serious leaks it seems. I wonder if it was more, or less serious than selling guns to Mexican cartels?

 

A perfect question for Eric Holder

Eric Holder our Attorney General, had some interesting comments on gun rights yesterday

“As a nation I think we have to ask ourselves some hard questions. We gather too often to talk about these kinds of incidents. We need to discuss who we are as a nation, talk about the freedoms that we have, the rights that we have and how those might be used in a responsible way.

Ah, so we should use our liberties in “responsible” ways. OK, but I am troubled by one thing. When someone speaks of using our rights responsibly, what do they mean? Likely they have their own definition of responsible. So, to better gauge what Holder means I have one question. If I were to give, or sell my guns to a Mexican drug cartel, would he consider that responsible?

 

Video-All you need to know about Fast & Furious

Via The Right Scoop

And remember this, we heard all about how the cartels were being armed by US gun stores. Sure, because of Fast and Furious, those gun dealers were told, by Obama’s Justice Department to sell them to KNOWN buyers for the cartels. Do not forget that this was going to be used as propaganda for more gun control in this country! Now, ask yourself how important this election will be.

Florida governor Rick Scott vs DHS

Florida is trying to clean up voter registration by purging inelligible voters, and of course, the Feds have a problem with clean elections, so, to court we go!

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) said he will sue the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to move forward with his controversial attempt to purge the voter rolls in his state of ineligible voters.

“I have a job to do to defend the right of legitimate voters,” Scott told Fox News on Monday. “We’ve been asking for the Department of Homeland Security’s database, SAVE, for months, and they haven’t given it to us. So this afternoon, we will be filing a lawsuit, the secretary of State of Florida, against the Department of Homeland Security to give us that database. We want to have fair, honest elections in our state and we have been put in a position that we have to sue the federal government to get this information.”

Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner produced the lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C. district court on Monday, shortly after, along with a statement.

“For nearly a year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has failed to meet its legal obligation to provide us the information necessary to identify and remove ineligible voters from Florida’s voter rolls,” Detzner said. “We can’t let the federal government delay our efforts to uphold the integrity of Florida elections any longer. We’ve filed a lawsuit to ensure the law is carried out and we are able to meet our obligation to keep the voter rolls accurate and current.”

Last week, the Department of Justice demanded Florida stop the voter-roll purge, saying it violated the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA) and the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and was reliant on faulty Department of Motor Vehicle records to determine who is eligible to vote.

But, but, but if only legal voters get to cast ballots, Democrats will lose! So, therefore, Rick Scott IS Jim Crow

Every MLK Day…………

People honor the memory of Martin Luther King Jr., and Liberals completely forget that King longed for a day when people were judged NOT by skin color but for their Character. Oh well, why waste an opportunity to race bait right Eric Holder?

(Politico) — Attorney General Eric Holder used Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy on the anniversary of the civil rights leader’s birthday Monday to emphasize the Obama administration’s dedication to protecting the American people from discriminatory voting practices.

“Despite our nation’s record of progress, and long tradition of extending voting rights – today, a growing number of citizens are worried about the same disparities, divisions, and problems that Dr. King fought throughout his life to address and overcome,” Holder said at an MLK Day event in Columbia, S.C.

Holder’s remarks in the Palmetto State come just weeks after the Justice Department blocked the state’s new voter ID law from taking effect, citing an unfair burden on minority voters.

Citing the “drumbeat of concern” he has encountered from Americans across the country about discrimination in the election systems, the attorney general vowed that the Justice Department was more committed than ever before to enforcing the Voting Rights Act.

Same Old S#@^

Justice Department rules that ID’s are racist!

OK, actually they ruled that making people prove who they are, and that they actually have a right to vote is racist somehow. Now you might be thinking how could THAT be racist? Well, because it might discriminate against Democrats trying to steal elections silly!

Details at The Lonely Conservative

The Washington Post reported that Eric Holder and the Department of Justice have nixed South Carolina’s voter ID law. Therefore, the state will either have to re-write the law, or take it to court.

Under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, several of the states that enacted voter-identification laws are required to receive federal “pre-clearance” to ensure that the changes don’t affect minority political power.

In its first decision on one of those new measures, the Justice Department said Friday that South Carolina’s law will discriminate against minority voters, though the department declined to take a position on whether the alleged discrimination was intentional. The law, passed in May and signed by Gov. Nikki Haley (R), requires voters to show a driver’s license or one of several other forms of photo identification.

Officials in South Carolina could not immediately be reached for comment Friday afternoon. The rejection leaves the state with the option of trying to get the law approved by a federal court or passing another law and submitting it to the Justice Department. (Read More)

If it’s discriminatory to require people to show ID to vote, why is it not discriminatory to require identification when flying, driving a vehicle, purchasing alcohol or cigarettes, entering a state or federal building or cashing a check?

Obama’s Justice Department acting in a politically partisan fashion? Imagine that

I have the perfect solution to whether or not Eric Holder keeps his job

That solution in a minute, but first via Hot Air comes news that Holder is playing the YOU-KNOW-WHAT card

Attorney General Eric Holder told The New York Times this weekend that “the more extreme segment” of his Fast and Furious critics are motivated by — you guessed it — racism. But Florida Rep. Allen West will have none of it.

In remarks to The Daily Caller, West interpreted Holder’s shameless rhetorical tactic as a sign of desperation — and called him out for his non-race-related incompetence:

“I think this is absolutely the last card in the deck, and that shows how weak their ground is,” West said in a phone interview. “But, what that means is they want to make white individuals afraid of continuing to put the pressure on Eric Holder because they don’t want to be seen as racist, and that is something that we have got to move beyond.”

West said Holder can’t logically assign race as a motivation behind the criticisms for his handling of Operation Fast and Furious. “What Fast and Furious has to do with is misleading the Congress and the American people about what you knew about this program, and if you did not know anything about this program, then who’s in charge of the Department of Justice?” West said. “It has nothing to do with your race — it has everything to do with competence, with your character and with your ability to lead the Department of Justice.”

West said Holder’s use of race as a way to attack his critics is “the most insidious thing I ever heard.”

“I grew up in the United States military and it’s not about your color, it’s about your competence, it’s about your abilities to execute a mission,” West said. “If your commanding officer turns heat on you, it’s because you have failed to achieve the mission and I think what we’re doing is we’re looking at something that was a very horrible program — this Operation Fast and Furious.”

Pathetic but sadly predictable of Holder. Now, I say we solve this in this manner. We lock West, and Holder in a room, and, well, I think you know the rest!

shameless, amoral, ideological hack of mediocre skill at best.

Smitty is right that does seem to sum up every Obama appointee, and, sadly the president himself Eric Holder, Mr. Fast and Furious himself, and Elena Kagan, who apparently is not even considering recusing herself when the Supreme Court rules on Obamacare, even though she cheered its passage

Should a justice who participated in ObamaCare’s creation recuse herself from the court’s review of that law? Of course. But then a nominee who lies in confirmation hearings shouldn’t be on the court anyway.

If Justice Elena Kagan were a person of character, she would sit out the Supreme Court’s hearing of the challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

But during her confirmation hearings in June of last year, she indicated she would not. And since this Monday, when the court announced it would take the case, she has done nothing to suggest she will recuse herself after all. Nor has the court made any statement about her recusal, a convention it usually follows when a justice takes himself or herself off a case.

Here are the facts on Kagan: She was the administration’s solicitor general when ObamaCare became law last year. She has acknowledged that she was at a meeting in which state litigation against ObamaCare was discussed, though she said she was not involved in any legal responses concerning the states’ litigation.

We also know that Kagan enthusiastically supported ObamaCare. This is made clear in emails released last week by the Justice Department.

“I hear they have the votes, Larry!! Simply amazing,” Kagan wrote on the day ObamaCare passed the House in an email to Laurence Tribe, the Harvard law professor who was working at that time in the Obama Justice Department.

On the same day that note was sent, an associate attorney general emailed Justice Department lawyers to organize a health care litigation meeting. A Kagan deputy later emailed her suggesting that she attend.

Yet, apparently she sees no issue with her ruling on a law she helped create? Hell, why not just let Pelosi or Reid decide, or Obama himself? This is a travesty, and makes a mockery of our constitution and our founding principles. Just like most the manner in which this abomination of a bill was passed in the first place. And, frankly, this type of chicanery suits this administration to a T!

We should not be surprised at this, not in the least. This president has thumbed his nose repeatedly at the constitution, and the will of the people. Lots more at The Other McCain, where Smitty offers this summation of this bunch of Neo-Marxist rabble that seemingly holds everything great about liberty, and about America, in utter contempt.

From all appearances, pretty much everyone appointed by BHO is a shameless, amoral, ideological hack of mediocre skill at best. In the case of ObamaCare, there doesn’t seem to be any obvious way to get enough lift under that pig to make it fly. The discussion, I’m guessing, will revolve around how to reject ObamaCare narrowly enough that the ground remains un-laid for the next obvious step: realizing that the SCOTUS under FDR beclowned itself by not rejecting the New Deal. Progressives have cherished 10th Amendment violations to protect, you see. Commie morons.

Step back though, and let’s consider a post-Progressive era. For surely this noise cannot continue. How in the world do we restore faith and transparency in our institutions after BHO, Holder, and Kagan? We’ve got a collection of people in higher office that don’t seem to understand anything, anything at all, except power. What do we do about that?

Is voting these clowns out, on its own, enough? Or do they leave enough residue of abuse, enough tradition of disregard, even rejection, of the Enlightenment principles that inform our founding documents that this administration completes the ‘mission kill’ of our Constitution by Progressivism?

That’s a hard thought, coming as it does in a context of economic ruin. However, as with calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme, the sooner we face fact that the effect of Progressivism has been an Article V amendment of the Constitution via ‘settled law’, the sooner we can set about unwinding the evil the Progressives wrought.

Allen West to Holder: Hit the road loser

Or words to that general affect

During an appearance on the Steve Gill Show, U.S. Rep. Allen West said the roads that appear to lead to those responsible for the botched program that was supposed to trace guns to high-ranking drug lords are alarming.

“This is just another sad chapter in the Eric Holder book of ineptness and incompetence,” West said. “Eric Holder needs to be brought before an investigative committee and if those charges are warranted he needs to be held accountable.

“At least the president needs to realize that Eric Holder needs to be removed from the Department of Justice … or else it appears President Obama is complicit and in approval of the actions of his attorney general,” he said.

Texas revives anti-groping bill

Image via Wikipedia

I was discussing this just yesterday with someone. The Lonely Conservative has an update.

Texans don’t want to be bullied by the federal government. So the anti-TSA groping bill is back on the table. Don’t mess with Texas.

The Houston Chronicle reported:

Gov. Rick Perry announced he had added legislation that would make it illegal for TSA agents to engage in “intrusive touching” at airports security checkpoints without probable cause to the list of items for the legislature to consider during the special session.

The measure had previously failed to pass in the Texas Senate after the Justice Department wrote a scathing memo against the bill that threatened legal action against the state and the bill became enmeshed in Senate politics.

This could be an important bill, and I certainly hope it passes. I also hope other states follow suit. As to the threats that were issued by the Justice Department, I say go ahead and pass it despite the tyrannical threats. are the Feds REALLY going to shut down hubs in Dallas (American and Southwest), or Houston, (Continental)?

In the letter, U.S. Attorney John Murphy warned that the legislation would “criminalize searches that are required under federal regulations” and would “conflict directly with federal law.”

Murphy also wrote that “Texas has no authority to regulate federal agents and employees in the performance of their federal duties or to pass a statute that conflicts with federal law.” He said the federal government would seek a court order to prevent enforcement of the law if it passed.

Otherwise, Murphy wrote, “TSA would likely be required to cancel any flight or series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of the passengers and crew.”

Again, the States have got to stand up against this, if not now, when?

Operation Fast and Furious, is the fit about to hit the shan

Image via Wikipedia

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has the story

The House Oversight Committee has released interviews with four ATF agents indicate that a top official in the Department of Justice may have lied to, or at the least misled, Congress on a controversial operation that put guns in the hands of Mexican drug cartels, one of which was used to kill a Border Patrol agent.  Ronald Weich, an Assistant Attorney General under Eric Holder, assured Congress in writing that the ATF and Department of Justice “made every effort” seize all illegally-purchased weapons.  However, the ATF agents testifed that the ATF and DoJ deliberately allowed hundreds of such weapons to cross the border as part of Operation Fast and Furious:

Dodson, Casa, Alt and Forcelli say they were instructed to watch weapons purchased illegally en route to criminal networks but not seize the weapons as they had been trained. …

Dodson estimates 1,730 weapons escaped to the clutches of Mexican drug cartels throughout the lifespan of “Fast and Furious.” Many were later recovered at the scene of violent crimes.

“This guy comes in, buys 10, 15, 20 AKs or … a 22-year-old girl walks in and dumps $10,000 on … AK-47s in a day, when she is driving a beat up car that doesn’t have enough metal to hold hubcaps on it. They knew what was going on. The ‘may have facilitated’ to me is kind of erroneous. We did facilitate it. How are we not responsible for the ultimate outcome of these [g]uns?” Dodson said.

The agents said they complained vociferously about the operation to superiors. Eventually, a “schism” between team members developed over whether the tactics being used were wise or even legal.

When the agents raised objections to the wisdom and legality of the operation, they were met with a rather pointed response:

David Voth, the team’s supervisor, sent a March 12, 2010 email to the team, saying the tactics of “Fast and Furious” were backed by “HQ.”

“Whether you care or not people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention to this case and they also believe we…are doing what they envisioned the Southwest Border Grouops doing. It may sound cheesy but we are ‘The tip of the ATF spear’ when it comes to Southwest Border Firearms Trafficking,” Voth wrote.

If the agents didn’t like it, “Maybe the Maricopa County Jail is hiring detention officers and you can get paid $30,000 (instead of $100,000) to serve lunch to inmates all day,” Voth wrote.

Dodson said he was told “the U.S. Attorney is on board, and it was Mr. [Emory] Hurley, and they say there is nothing illegal going on.”

Agents clearly didn’t agree, and accurately predicted the outcome of allowing the weapons to cross the border:

ATF agents interviewed by congressional investigators described supervisors trying to tamp down agents’ misgivings about the strategy to allow the weapons purchases.

Larry Alt, an ATF agent, told investigators agents opposed the weapons sales as early as December 2009 and wanted to arrest straw purchasers, who are paid to buy guns for others. Mr. Alt said he agreed with a fellow agent who expressed the view that “someone was going to die.”

And, as we know someone, a Border Agent did die. Lots more at the link, and Michelle also is on top of this

Just in from Issa’s office:

Moments ago in his opening statement at today’s hearing, Operation Fast and Furious: Reckless Decisions, Tragic Outcomes, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) released three e-mails detailing the intimate involvement of ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson and Acting Deputy Director Bill Hoover in Operation Fast and Furious:

* The first e-mail from March 10, 2010, to Operation Fast and Furious Group VII Leader David Voth indicates that the two most senior leaders in ATF, Acting Director Kenneth Melson, and Deputy Director Billy Hoover, were “being briefed weekly on” Operation Fast and Furious. The document shows that both Melson and Hoover were “keenly interested in case updates.”
* A second e-mail from March 12, 2010, shows that Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations William McMahon was so excited about Fast and Furious that he received a special briefing on the program in Phoenix – scheduled for a mere 45 minutes after his plane landed.
* A third – and perhaps the most disturbing – e-mail from April 12, 2010, indicates that Acting Director Melson was very much in the weeds with Operation Fast and Furious. After a detailed briefing of the program by the ATF Phoenix Field Division, Acting Director Melson had a plethora of follow-up questions that required additional research to answer. As the document indicates, Mr. Melson was interested in the IP Address for hidden cameras located inside cooperating gun shops. With this information, Acting Director Melson was able to sit at his desk in Washington and – himself – watch a live feed of the straw buyers entering the gun stores to purchase dozens of AK-47 variants.

Racism? What racism?

Can you say double standards? No one seems to like hypocrisy, or double standards, yet, as Chris points out, these thing exist Even if the left refuses to see them as what they obviously are!

I don’t think the leaders of the New Black Panthers understand the meaning of the word “irony.”

Hot off their denunciation of an insignificant neo-nazi rally in Trenton last week, the New Black Panthers are organizing a “National Day of Action and Unity” to, get this, boycott “all non-black business“ on April 23^rd. (h/t Nice Deb)

The New Black Panthers plan to protest non-black establishments and entities via “rallies, marches, demonstrations, programs, and confrontations” in over 60 cities.

“Because blacks worldwide are dissatisfied at their current condition,” the Panther’s announcement explain

I have never, nor will I ever grasp how the left excuses blatant bigotry when it is perpetrated by “minorities”. Of course, I get that Leftism, like all the bastard ideologies stemming from Marxism thrive on labeling then dividing people in order to gain influence and power. The Left has always divided people, whether by class, race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. For all their talk of tolerance, the left is nothing of the sort. Sure they tolerate those who agree with them, but just try to deviate from their way, and see how quickly they throw you under the bus.

The “Panthers” are just another leftist group, seeking to divide people to gain power.

The racism of the Leftist social engineers

It is sad that the Left portrays itself as color blind, then supports affirmative actions, quotas, and lowering standards for certain “minorities”

The Dayton Police Department is lowering its testing standards for recruits.

It’s a move required by the U.S. Department of Justice after it says not enough African-Americans passed the exam.

Dayton is in desperate need of officers to replace dozens of retirees.  The hiring process was postponed for months because the D.O.J. rejected the original scores provided by the Dayton Civil Service Board, which administers the test.

Under the previous requirements, candidates had to get a 66% on part one of the exam and a 72% on part two.

The D.O.J. approved new scoring policy only requires potential police officers to get a 58% and a 63%.  That’s the equivalent of an ‘F’ and a ‘D’.

I am confused. Who, exactly does this help? It certainly does not help the police departments across the nation. It does not help the people being given jobs they are not qualified for either. All it does is to further dumb down this nation. That is the folly of the Left. They NEVER seek to raise up anyone, they always seek to lower standards, and that, in the end, will cost all of us.

Chalk it up to the latest example of the Leftists and their pursuit of equality of results and outcomes. Not equality of opportunity mind you, not equality in any other meaningful sense either.

Eric Holder to head up Departmenmt of Race Pimpin’

Image via Wikipedia

He certainly is qualified as a race pimp isn’t he? Recall he called America a “nation of cowards” on the issue of race. After refusing to go after some thugs who were attempting to intimidate White voters in Philly in 2008, Holder has the unmitigated gall to play the race card?

According to Politico, Eric Holder got pissed over criticism during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing as Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas.) Culberson accused the Justice Department of failing to cooperate with a Civil Rights Commission investigation into the handling of the 2008 incident in which Black Panthers in intimidating outfits and wielding a club stood outside a polling place in Philadelphia. Holder replied:

“Think about that,” Holder said. “When you compare what people endured in the South in the 60s to try to get the right to vote for African Americans, to compare what people subjected to that with what happened in Philadelphia, which was inappropriate….to describe it in those terms I think does a great disservice to people who put their lives on the line for my people,” said Holder, who is black.

Holder must be fired or resign now! He’s already shown to be an incompetent Attorney General. Add his admitted racial bias and corrupt now, there is NO way he should be a part of the U.S. government!

Big H/T to Fire Andrea Mitchell

More bad news for ObamCare?

Might U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson halt the implementation of Obamacare in the 26 states that filed suit against the legislation? The Bluegrass Pundit sees that as a possibility

(Politico) — U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson has already dealt the Obama administration a staggering blow on health reform, and this week the administration may get another one from the fiery Florida judge.

The Justice Department asked Vinson to clarify his ruling that struck down the law as unconstitutional. Justice must file its brief on the motion by Monday, and Vinson has said he would rule quickly after that. At issue is whether Vinson meant to stop reform implementation in the 26 states that brought the suit.

The smart money says Vinson will halt implementation, and legal observers are wondering why Justice would take that risk.

I think we all know this eventually ends up being decided by the United States Supreme Court, but that does not mean I do not get a big smile reporting this.

Beware of Panthers when you vote Tuesday

Panthers, as in New Black Panthers, as in racist thugs that is! Michelle reports

Before the Philly New Black Panther Party radicals showed up at a voting booth in 2008 with billy clubs and racial epithets at the ready, my old nemesis Malik Shabazz — the NBPP thug-in-chief — put out a nationwide warning. Remember?

“We will be at the polls in the cities and counties in many states to ensure that the enemy does not sabotage the black vote, which was won through the blood of the martyrs of our people.”

Well, NBPP official Quannell X in Texas says his militant minions will return…to monitor citizen election watchdogs.

Election Law Center says: Strap in.

And bring your cameras.

I plan to have my camera handy when I go vote Tuesday, not that I expect anything to happen here. But, at least I want to share what I see, and hear. I live in a Democratic heavy precinct, and it will be fascinating to see if the turnout is higher, or lower than normal.

Terrorist arrested for plotting “peaceful religious expression”

Must have been a Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Jew, Buddhist,

The Department of Justice has announced the arrest of Farooque Ahmed for planning to assist in multiple bombings at Metrorail stations in the Washington, D.C. area. He is believed to have ties to al-Qaeda. Another naturalized Muslim plans targets his country. Watch for updates and photos when available.

Ahmed, 34, is from Ashburn, Virginia. He said he planned to kill as many people as he could, and on the list of places to bomb is the metro station close to Arlington Cemetery.

“It’s chilling that a man from Ashburn is accused of casing rail stations with the goal of killing as many Metro riders as possible through simultaneous bomb attacks,” said U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride. “Today’s arrest highlights the terrorism threat that exists in Northern Virginia and our ability to find those seeking to harm U.S. citizens and neutralize them before they can act. We are grateful for the outstanding work of the FBI in detecting and disrupting this plot.”

Yesterday, a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., returned a three-count indictment against Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, charging him with attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility, and attempting to provide material support to help carry out multiple bombings to cause mass casualties at D.C.-area Metrorail stations. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 50 years in prison.

A radical Muslim plotting mayhem, death and detruction? NO!