Some, just a little more equal than others (UPDATED)

(Please scroll down to bottom of post for update)


Hey, do you remember when they told us if we voted for McCain, it would mean a continuation of the Bush legacy of politicizing the Justice Department? Well, they were right.

‘Cause look who’s walking, now.

You remember these charming young lads at a polling location in Philly last November, don’t you?

Justice Department political appointees overruled career lawyers and ended a civil complaint accusing three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense of wielding a nightstick and intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place last Election Day, according to documents and interviews.

The incident - which gained national attention when it was captured on videotape and distributed on YouTube - had prompted the government to sue the men, saying they violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act by scaring would-be voters with the weapon, racial slurs and military-style uniforms.

Career lawyers pursued the case for months, including obtaining an affidavit from a prominent 1960s civil rights activist who witnessed the confrontation and described it as "the most blatant form of voter intimidation" that he had seen, even during the voting rights crisis in Mississippi a half-century ago.

And then it was dropped. Just. like. that. Read the whole thing, here.


And in other news this week...

A noisy, five-hour sit-in at the county clerk's office, launched when a gay couple was denied a marriage license, ended quietly without arrests yesterday evening.

At closing time, sheriff's deputies escorted about 40 people out of the County Administration Center after telling them they could be jailed for trespassing.

So, you’ve got a horde of people that essentially commandeer a county office for 5 hours, disrupting the normal operations of the office and generally making a nuisance of themselves…. and no arrests are made?

We asked one of the San Diego Tea Party organizers how it was dealing with the city as far as getting a permit to stage a protest. This person told us that one of the reasons the protests have been held at Spanish Landing is because that is Port of San Diego land and not city property. The permits get processed in a matter of hours and, to date, no fees have been charged. Obtaining permits through the city, though, are very much the pain in the ass you would imagine them to be.

And yet somehow, we don’t see an impromptu 40-strong Tea Party protest being held in a government building being handled in such a laissez-faire manner.

(UPDATE #1): Want to know just how egregious the Justice Department’s dropping of the voter intimidation case detailed above was.

A commission so divided that couldn’t organize a rock fight was virtually unanimous in a vote seeking explanation for why the Justice Department forfeited a case it had basically won.

A partisan divide has made the commission contentious in recent years. Yet the Department of Justice's decision to forfeit its voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party and three individual defendants drew a 6-0 vote with one abstention by the commission. What unified the commission was outrage at the Justice Department for letting the Black Panthers off the hook.

The Civil Rights Commission has sent two letters -- on June 16 and June 22 -- to Loretta King, acting assistant attorney general for the civil rights division, asking for an explanation, but it has not received a response. Rep. Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican, sent a June 8 letter demanding an explanation, but the congressman told us he has yet to receive an answer from the department one month later.

The Civil Rights Commission's first letter expressed its "great confusion" over the department's decision. After all, "defendants were caught on video blocking access to the polls, and physically threatening and verbally harassing voters during the November 4, 2008 general election." The video showed "one of them actually brandished a nightstick in plain view of voters and poll observers ...defendants 'made statements containing racial threats and racial insults.' "

The only response from Justice thus far has been their original one and its based on the fact that the defendants failed to appear and respond.

Well, that’s sure good news next time you receive a court summons or find yourself in a wee bit o’ legal dutch. Freaking blow it off, man! It’s Obama’s America – attendance is optional!