Do you remember the voter intimidation case involving two night stick-wielding Black Panthers at a Philly voting location during the Presidential election of ’08?
These would be the same two Black Panthers of whom career Justice Department lawyers spent months putting together their case which included an affidavit from a prominent 60s 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.
These two Black Panthers are to be totally confused with the Black Panthers that completely blew off a court summons that was issued based on the strength of the DoJ case.
And these two Black Panthers are also to be confused with the Black Panthers whose case against them was inexplicably dropped by politically-appointed higher-ups in the DoJ led by that miserable hack who is currently running the show there – an action by which the Civil Rights Commission, a group so ideologically splintered they couldn’t organize a rock fight, has been rebuffed in a near-unanimous effort to seek an official explanation for Justice’s action.
Well, we’re happy to report that heads are finally beginning to roll regarding this complete travesty.
The veteran Justice Department voting rights section chief who recommended going forward on a civil complaint against members of the New Black Panther Party after they disrupted a Pennsylvania polling place in last year's elections has been removed from his post and transferred to the U.S. attorney's office in South Carolina.
What? The man who okayed the investigation is the one getting whacked?
And the reassignment to South Caroling is no insignificant legal matter as far as the Blank Panther case goes because Coates who was willing to testify to the Civil Rights Commission but denied from doing so by his DoJ superiors is forbidden from giving testimony according to 42 USC Sec. 1975 which limits the Commission’s subpoena power to within 100 miles of where the witness lives or does business.
Now, that’s just outstanding. As far as politicizing political appointees and completely undermining the concept of justice this is all blue ribbon-worthy.
Of course, we’re sure that the irony of an administration that is descendant of the efforts of the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s would work so callously and dismissively to subvert and make a mockery of those very hard-fought efforts is not lost on you all, dear readers.
And what is so puzzling to us is why? Why expend the political capital on a couple of bullies… a couple of community organizers? Guess (political) blood is thicker than water afterall.
The Trayvon Martin shooting down in Florida continues to descend into a sad spectacle of unhinged leftist hatred.
Perhaps, fortunately, for George Zimmerman, this lynch justice mob couldn't organize a rock fight...
Filmmaker Spike Lee tweeted the wrong home address for George Zimmerman, the Sanford, Fla., man who many are claiming should be arrested for shooting and killing Trayvon Martin. The tweet could have potentially put the woman who actually lives at that address in danger.
The Washington Times’ Kerry Picket went to the address that Lee tweeted as members of the New Black Panther Party were offering a $10,000 cash reward for Zimmerman’s capture, “dead or alive,” and others were demanding his arrest.
“[T]he Edgewater Circle address Mr. Lee re-tweeted out is not part of the gated Retreat at Twin Lakes where the shooting took place and where Mr. Zimmerman lives,” Picket reported. “The area is not even a gated community.”
“In fact, I took a drive to that Edgewater Circle address that so many on Twitter re-tweeted and cursed, and I discovered through a neighbor, named Tim, who lives across the street from the address, that not only does George Zimmerman not live at the lakeside house but a woman by the name of Elaine does,” Picket added.
Picket also said several news agencies have showed up at the address looking for Zimmerman, which – with the crowds the Panthers, MSNBC’s Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have whipped up into a frenzy – may have put the woman, Elaine, in danger.
It’s unclear specifically which news agencies trekked to the address Lee tweeted and why they failed to report Lee’s inaccuracy.
Nice work, Spike.
And there is a very simple reason why news agencies didn't report Lee's inaccuracies. It stems from the same mentality whereby the New York Times uses the term "white Hispanic" to describe George Zimmerman. We're voracious consumers of both print and electronic news media and we've never heard nor seen that term before. Extraordinary lengths one must go, then, to perpetuate the narrative of racial and class oppression here in this country.
And while there is indeed racial oppression in this country, it does appear to be rather inward-directed. From Victor Davis Hanson:
While it is natural that African-American activists need answers as to why the armed assailant Mr. Zimmerman was not charged in the shooting, they also cannot explain why their attention is not in commensurate fashion focused on the far greater number of young black males gunned down, many just last week in Chicago, by other black males. Nor can they explain to the non-African-American community why the far greater instances of black-on-white violent crime supports any such notion of a supposed war on young black males.
The net result of the demagoguery will be more racial polarization, as African-Americans believe that young black males are unfairly stereotyped by society and treated less fairly by police, while non-African-Americans will only be further convinced that the African-American leadership is not concerned with the vastly inordinate rates of black violent crime, given the small percentage of the African-American community within the general population, much less the much higher rates of black-on-white crime – and as both sides argue either for more money to be invested in social programs, or that too much has already been spent in counter-productive fashion.
So far all that is clear is that there is a growing anger among African-Americans about a failure to immediately arrest the shooter that in turn is provoking an even greater backlash against the antics of Al Sharpton, the creepy bounty offered by the New Black Panther Party, and others who inflame for their own careerist advantage, and no one — not the president, not the media, not the civil rights leadership, not the politicians — seems willing or able to call for a time-out until all the facts are reviewed and released. We have collectively regressed to the days of Rodney King and the L.A. riots and the O. J. Simpson trial — or to something far worse. Hope and change came and went
.
It's becoming all too apparent as the days roll on that the media, the establishment left and the race-based grievance industry (not that there should be too great a distinction drawn between them) learned no lessons from the Duke Lacrosse rape case. Again, why let the wheels of justice grind away and the facts to sort out when there are agendas to advance?
Any violence or breaking of the law that results from this whole sorry affair, for it, we have no choice but to blame the inflamed rhetoric and hateful speech emanating from the left-wing media and cultural institutions in this country. The blood will be on their hands.
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!
As predictable as the sun rising in the East, rich Marxists who have attained their wealth via the capitalist system in this country go native:
Saturday, Occupiers held a rally for "artists, musicians, writers and activists" midway between downtown LA and Beverly Hills. The website announcing the event promised a keynote speech by Van Jones and hinted at appearances by Hollywood celebrities. Yesterday, Variety reported that Hollywood did turn out:
Edward Norton, Elijah Wood, Marisa Tomei and Jason Alexander turned out for "All in for the 99%," an effort to engage artists and actors in promoting the "99% Spring," a plan to train 100,000 volunteers in nonviolent action, including protests at corporate shareholder meetings. Van Jones, founder of Rebuild the Dream, has been promoting the plans, and addressed the group.
The event was sponsored by Van Jones' Rebuild the Dream, MoveOn.org, and SEIU among others. MoveOn produced a video showing the celebrities who were on hand including Jack Black (as part of Tenacious D) and Moby.
LA Weekly has a few additional photos including Jason Alexander shaking hands with Congresswoman Maxine Waters. There's also a shot of performance artists acting like corpses wrapped in American flags. LA Weekly notes that the event raised money for Van Jones' Rebuild the Dream group.
In reading this, we could not help but be reminded of Tom Wolfe's classic Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers from 1970 and its documenting the rise of the New Left and in particular Wolfe's recounting of a cocktail party on Park Avenue in New York for the ostensible purpose of raising money for the Black Panthers. Wolfe wrote:
I just thought it was a scream, because it was so illogical by all ordinary thinking. To think that somebody living in an absolutely stunning duplex on Park Avenue could be having in all these guys who were saying, 'We will take everything away from you if we get the chance,' which is what their program spelled out, was the funniest thing I had ever witnessed.
42 years on, apparently, irony is dead as there is indeed a Occupy Hollywood sentiment:
It's time to stop paying Johnny Depp "stupid money." Celebrities make too much -- and we can do something about it
It goes without saying, perhaps, for these SAG members and proponents of intellectual and creative property rights, that this is all just window dressing as these very same people faced with real change as proposed by #Occupy would be the staunchest defenders of the status quo.
"My wife doesn't like me talking about this. But I've lived under a dictatorship before. And that's exactly what you've got coming here," he finally confessed.
He couldn't have known that I was no Obama fan. Most people my age in this area were Obama voters. But once he had decided to tell his tale, he couldn't stop.
He talked of things with which I was quite familiar, but with which most of the public would not have been: Eric Holder and the Black Panthers, the White House asking people to inform on their dissident friends and neighbors, the Obama cult of personality, and the way the media were no longer watchdogs but open supporters of the regime.
Check out the whole thing at the link.
For those that are thinking that this is a tad over-the-top or delusional, try taking yourself to a place where it was President George W. Bush that had signed legislation that gave himself the power to detain U.S. citizens indefinitely without cause or to carry out drone strikes against U.S. citizens overseas without traditionally-recognized due process, and which in the case of Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenage son, has already happened (bet you didn't know the son was killed in a separate drone strike, altogether).
And Cindy Sheehan and her set were camping out in a ditch somewhere outside of Crawford, TX because three bums were waterboarded. Got it.
Where are the outraged and aggrieved now? Seduced by a cult of personality and having their feeble minds inflicted with a case of un-democratic it's-OK-because-it's-our-guy-did-it tribalism, they have busied themselves decrying the tea party as extreme and have actually been seen lamenting the radicalization of the G.O.P., longing for the days of their ultimate tormentor, Ronald Reagan. Talk about your alternate universes.
As it stands, much of America is coming around to what many of us knew all along; Hopenchange was the ultimate con, the pitch-perfect sales campaign for one who was nothing more than another thuggish, two-bit Chicago pol.
After all the votes are tallied on November 6, we will either be celebrating victory or celebrating the 22nd amendment.
Hey, do you remember when we were told that a vote for McCain would just mean more of the politicization of the Justice Department? Well, they were right.
The mail room at the Justice Department must really be backed up.
Well, now it appears Justice may have had a role in the firing of Gerald Walpin as a condition to get stimulus money released to the Sacramento area. Recall how Walpin’s investigation into Sacto mayor and Obama supporter Kevin Johnson resulted in Johnson being suspended from receiving anymore Americorps funding. Johnson was unsuspended, Walpin went justifiable ballistic and was subsequently given the axe. But the machinations behind how it was that Johnson was unsuspended is receiving the attention of at least one member of Congress.
According to a senior Republican aide, Sessions’ interest was piqued by a statement made in a late March television interview by Rep. Doris Matsui, the Democratic congresswoman who represents Sacramento. Asked whether Johnson’s problems could prevent the city from receiving stimulus funds, Matsui said that, at Johnson’s request, she had “been in conversation with officials at the White House and OMB [Office of Management and Budget] and others to ensure that we don’t lose any money at all.”
Within days of Matsui’s statement, a settlement was reached. Johnson was unsuspended, and in a particularly unusual move, acting U.S. Attorney Brown issued a press release hailing the arrival of stimulus funds. “The lifting of the suspension against all parties, including Mayor Johnson, removes any cloud whether the City of Sacramento will be prevented form receiving much-needed federal stimulus funds,” Brown wrote.
If you are wondering what the hell a U.S. Attorney General is doing talking about porkulus outside the context of an investigation into the abuse of porkulus funds, you are not alone.
Republicans on the Judiciary Committee want to know why a U.S. attorney was touting his own actions in bringing stimulus money to the city. That’s not the normal role of prosecutors. “We need to hear whether the settlement in this case was tainted in any way by political influence or political factors,” says the senior Republican aide.
And, again, efforts to ascertain what was the role the White House and the Justice Department, and in particular, Lawrence Brown, had in the Johnson re-instatement deal is being greeted with silence.
The fact that the one man, Walpin, who stood up to this deal was fired, only makes this whole stinking ordeal that much more suspicious.
H/T: Hot Air
P.S. Good news. Walpin’s got a blog. Well, it’s not his per se, but similar to Bailout Sleuth, it will track all things Walpin and Inspector Generals-gate related.
At the time of the initial report, I saw Fatima on television and shared with friends that she didn't seem credible. But I withheld public judgment, which is more than I can say for the professional racialists who have invaded Florida to inject themselves into the Martin shooting. Here again, media bias may also be contributing to the appearance of guilt. NBC has issued a half-hearted apology for editing 911 tape to make George Zimmerman, appear to be racist. No one is willing to let the police and prosecutors do their jobs. Instead we get appeals to mob violence. One would think that the supposed heirs of the civil rights movement's leadership would recognize that as a danger to all Americans.
Maybe George Zimmerman is guilty of some crime. I certainly don't know. But I am certainly not going to make a judgment based on edited media reports. Maybe Shaima Alawadi was the victim of a racist attack, but my gut instinct, based on watching her daughter speak tells me otherwise. But I'm certainly not going to accuse people of murder when I don't know the facts. Americans need to call out the Al Sharptons of the world for the ridicule they deserve; they do nothing to advance the cause of justice.
Thankfully, cooler heads have prevailed here in San Diego where there has not been near the level of vitriol and rancor willfully and wrongly injected into this particular affair as opposed to the goat rope down in Florida.
We have heard both the edited an un-edited versions of the 911 call made by the, uh, "white Hispanic" George Zimmerman. Summary: NBC is guilty of journalistic malfeasance and of inciting racial hatred and encouraging personal endangerment. If anything untoward happens to George Zimmerman, NBC, Al Sharpton and the New Black Panthers should, by law, be held accountable.
Related: KT notes it's a been a tough stretch if you are in the race-baiting business but, wait...
And then, like a miracle from the heavens, comes George Zimmerman. Finally, some light in the darkness, a big, juicy chunk of traditional racism that everyone can latch onto! Marches! Speeches! Protests! Demands for justice! Like a battered church shaken in its faith that suddenly finds an image of Mary on a tree stump in its yard, it was too good to be true.
And it was, indeed, too good to be true. Zimmerman was a Democrat, not a Republican. He was half-Hispanic, not totally white. He's got a history of working with the NAACP. Spike Lee tweeted the wrong address and set the lynch mob out to string up an innocent, retired couple. The disappointments go on and on.
And with respect to the GOP budget plan authored by Paul Ryan (R-WI):
President Barack Obama accused Republicans on Tuesday of favoring the rich with a "radical" budget plan that focuses on cutting popular programs, which the White House sees as a potent vote winner for Democrats in this year's election.
In a week in which Mitt Romney is expected to extend his lead in the race for the Republican nomination to confront Obama in the Nov. 6 election, the president took aim at their new budget blueprint, calling it "thinly veiled social Darwinism."
Want to know what's social Darwinism? Doing nothing about our unsustainable entitlement programs. The President by his very inactions and his lack of willingness to reform Social Security and Medicare is willing to cast aside the well-being of future generations as those programs get crushed under their own weight.
The House on Wednesday night unanimously rejected an alternative budget proposal based on President Obama's 2013 budget plan, dispatching it in a 0-414 rout.
The vote came just hours after the White House cast the pending vote as a political "gimmick," an apparent attempt to downplay what many expected to be an ugly-looking vote for the White House.
Obama's budget plans have a poor track record in Congress over the last year. In May 2011, 97 senators voted against a motion to take up his 2012 budget plan — no senator voted in favor of the motion.
0-414 and 0-97 doesn't sound very mainstream, does it?
Coming to a town near you: the Arab/Occupy Spring?
An Egypt-styled “Arab Spring,” which has put radicals in charge of the government, will be launched in the United States this spring with a war on “corporate power, Wall Street greed and the political corruption of the 1 percent,” according to the group headed by former Obama green aide Van Jones.
“They’re really not going to like the 99 percent Spring,” said Rebuild the Dream in an organizing email Friday.
Comparing the collection of protests last year that are symbolized by the 99 percent campaign and Occupy movement, to those of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., the group said that “we were all inspired by the protesters of the Arab Spring who stood up to totalitarian governments, and inspired the Occupy movement here in America.”
Standing up to totalitarian governments is a great thing but how do you revolutionize towards the status quo? Occupy/Obama's Whining Squatters are totally vested in the status quo.
What they are revolting towards is a more invasive and intrusive federal government that will necessarily infringe upon some enshrined rights with respect to your wealth, property and very possibly your exercise of free speech. That doesn't sound very progressive to us and, in fact, sounds quite regressive.
And from yesterday: Louis Oosthuizen's double eagle on #2 in the final round of the Masters in which he placed second to Bubba Watson.
OK, gang, that'll be all. May try to check in later today but we will definetely be back tomorrow.
Posts
