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Get Ready for Obama’s Department of ‘Extreme’ Justice
Radical politics will take center stage in the policies of the Justice Department over the next four years.
During Attorney General Eric Holder’s confirmation hearings, Democratic senators questioned him about the claimed “politicalization” of the Justice Department in the Bush administration. I could only smile with amusement when Holder promised that he would “restore” the supposed nonpartisanship of the Justice Department. Of course, what he really meant was restoring the primacy of radical, liberal politics in much of the key decision-making at the Department of Justice. I have little doubt that he will succeed in this endeavor, given the backgrounds of President Obama’s other nominees for leadership posts at Justice. Indeed, virtually every nominee to date is far to the left of the legal mainstream.
Expecting nonpartisanship from Eric Holder is a bit much. Holder helped Bill Clinton sell a pardon to fugitive Mark Rich for the large contributions made by Rich’s wife to the Clinton library, the president’s legal defense fund, Hillary Clinton, and other Democratic campaigns. Rich had fled the U.S. (giving up his citizenship) one step ahead of an indictment in what prosecutors described as “the biggest tax-fraud case in the history of the United States.” As former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy says, the Rich pardon “was one of the most disgraceful chapters in the history of the Justice Department.”
Holder also pushed the pardons of 16 unrepentant and violent Puerto Rican terrorists who had not even sought clemency. The FALN had carried out 130 bombings and murdered six people. As Dick Morris observed, these pardons were granted in an apparent attempt to help Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign in New York, which has a large number of Puerto Rican voters.
All of these pardons were made against the recommendations of the prosecutors involved in the cases, against the recommendations of Justice’s pardon attorney, and in violation of basic Justice Department guidelines. I guess there is no “politicalization” involved when you are benefiting Democratic officeholders and candidates.
Who has Obama nominated to fill the number two position that Eric Holder held in the prior administration? His nominee for deputy attorney general is David Ogden, another lawyer from the Clinton Justice Department. Ogden has represented clients like Penthouse and PHE (the nation’s largest distributor of hardcore pornography) in numerous obscenity cases, opposing any attempts to limit the production and distribution of pornography. Ogden opposed pornography filters in public libraries and fought requiring pornographers to verify that their models were over 18. He seems to believe that not only should children have access to pornography in public libraries, but they should be able to make it, too. Even more disturbing, he has argued repeatedly that there should be virtually no limits on abortion and has been a leading opponent of parental notification in abortion cases. In fact, he argued in a brief that abortion rarely causes any psychological or emotional problems — abortion provides women with “feelings of relief and happiness.”
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The author is an attorney who specializes in election law. The author has requested anonymity to avoid being targeted by the Justice Department for prosecution like Tan Nguyen for exercising his First Amendment rights.
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44 Comments
1. Typewriter_King:For those unfamiliar with American jurisprudence, the office of Solicitor General is something of a launching pad for nomination to the Supreme Court. For example, Robert Bork held the position. We know B.O. is the “change” President, but the custom is worth keeping in mind.
Mar 11, 2009 - 3:08 am 2. Craig:“As Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society has said, “We are on the brink of having the most Culture of Death, anti-family Justice Department ever.””
Welcome to the liberals’ Brave New World….where cognitive dissonance reaches its zenith.
Mar 11, 2009 - 4:18 am 3. ross:When does the war on the firearms industry begin?
Mar 11, 2009 - 5:14 am 4. Bob:The war on the firearms industry will begin today, the excuse will be the tragedy in Alabama. Just like Columbine.
Mar 11, 2009 - 7:47 am 5. COL.SEBASTIAN MORAN:BOB
Mar 11, 2009 - 9:41 am 6. drjohn:#4
Unfortunately, you’re correct ! Another similar mass shooting has been reported in Germany.
I’m certain that the MSM will find some way to claim that, in both instances, the involved firearms mysteriously jumped up off of a table and killed all of the victims – with no human participation involved !
I could puke ….!!!
Is being a “coward” grounds for being incarcerated?
Mar 11, 2009 - 10:07 am 7. Pee Wee Herman, Community Organizer:Never thought I’d be looking back at Janet Reno as a paragon of discretion and judgment. So when’s the next Waco going to happen?
Mar 11, 2009 - 10:16 am 8. Pope Linus:Remember Ruby Ridge? Overzealous federal agents going after scary “gun nuts”? Reno or Holder, the antipathy towards the Second Amendment and those of us who own firearms will be the same. I’m worried that me end up seeing another Ruby Ridge, or a Waco, and somehow it will end up being the fault of the Second Amendment nutters like us.
Mar 11, 2009 - 10:21 am 9. Pope Linus:“I’m worried that we might end up…”
That’s what I meant to type!
Mar 11, 2009 - 10:22 am 10. whyyeseyec:I`ve got to believe this guy Holder is going to do something so stupid he`ll have resign under pressure. He already committed strike one with the `coward` statement.
This character is such a loose cannon it`s no telling what nonsense he`ll try.
Shame on the republicans for not hammering this guy during confirmation. There is so much ammunition against this guy yet nobody said anything. Typical spineless repubs…….
Look for hate-crimes legislation targeting `whitey` to come soon to a town near you.
Obama is populating `our` administration with a slew of `angry black men` ready to carry out their wrath on American families,speech, guns and businesses….
Mar 11, 2009 - 10:56 am 11. 509th Bob:Fear the Government that Fears its People.
Mar 11, 2009 - 11:01 am 12. JD:The hits just keep on comin’…
Mar 11, 2009 - 11:48 am 13. LawhawkSF:A lot of damage is going to be done before this administration finishes out its first (and only) term of office. I’m not yet ready to give up, though. The Republicans are slowly getting a sense of themselves. And there are even Democrats out there asking themselves “how did this radical non-entity convince us he deserved to be President?” The Justice Department is filling up with race-baiting lefties, but there’s still a legal process in place that will act as a major barrier to their nefarious schemes.
And best of all, Supreme Court justices can’t retire or die fast enough for Obama to make any difference. Scalia, Roberts and Alito won’t be gone. And God love him, Justice Thomas would fight off a fatal heart attack rather than retire with Obama in office. Ginsburg? Where would Obama find someone to the left of this doctrinaire ACLU horror? Souter? Consistently left. Steven and Breyer. Ditto. Their best shot is swing-vote Kennedy who tends to vote with the conservative/originalists. He’s “only” seventy-three, and has shown no signs of retiring or suffering from a fatal illness.
And in the unlikely event that Kennedy goes, the Republicans in the Senate will re-pay the Democrats for the Bork and Thomas inquisitions. Revenge is sweet, and Republicans have learned that playing fair doesn’t earn reciprocation from the loons on the left. I doubt seriously that any ultraliberal candidate nominated by Obama (Kagan or Perrelli?) would have the guts that Thomas had, and after a few days of grilling, will remove his or her name from consideration. That leaves Obama with a swing vote, at best.
Mar 11, 2009 - 12:24 pm 14. Sonny:There will come a time in the near future when the patriots of our country will be called upon to resist the oppression of the Obama government. At first, it will be done individually and, hopefully, it will be completed collectively.
Regardless, this current government will only turn around when they are faced with the full force of the gun owners of America. Hopefully, there are enough of us to make a difference for the sake of our children and grandchildren. Most of us would like to see this country survive as the land of the free and home of the brave.
It has been worth defending before and it will most likely be necessary again.
Mar 11, 2009 - 12:45 pm 15. progressoverpeace:Economic and social “justice”.
It’s coming, baby. The Precedent is motivated by nothing but REVENGE. He wants revenge on whites (non-blacks, more generally), the rich, the smart, and the Western world. That’s what the idiot messiah’s all about and he’s going to push this until he is removed from office. Holder shares this insane world-view. I am still stunned that Holder made it through the Senate. Unbelievable.
This whole pathetic administration must RESIGN, NOW!!
The junta must go.
Mar 11, 2009 - 12:56 pm 16. MTF:Don’t forget about the immigration activist appointed to run the civil rights litigation division, whose first act is to investigate the Maricopa County sheriff for “profiling” in illegal immigrant investigations. How else is law enforcement to investigate illegal immigration from Mexico if not to talk to Mexicans?
Mar 11, 2009 - 1:49 pm 17. Gene Lalor:How about this for radical?
Obama’s/Holder’s War on Law Enforcement in Arizona
Let’s see now. A certain group of criminals is known to break certain laws. A certain law enforcement agency therefore targets that criminal group. Certain agitators for that group complain that they are being targeted. A certain president intervenes on the side of the lawbreakers against that enforcement agency.
That all makes sense, right?
Well, it makes sense if the lawbreakers, their kin, and associates constitute a significant voting bloc, if the enforcer is “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” Maricopa County’s and Phoenix’ Joe Arapaio, and if the interlopers are representatives of an attorney general named Eric Holder and the president is a guy named Obama.
Sheriff Arapaio and his approach to enforcing the laws of the State of Arizona is fundamentally to enforce the laws of Arizona, which are in place because the federal government is loath to enforce federal laws relating to the same crime: illegal entry by foreigners into the United States, part of which is Arizona. In so doing, he has, once again, incurred the wrath of the feds for picking up the slack and showing the feds how to do their jobs.
This still make sense? Less and less so, I’m afraid.
The sheriff was the subject of a previous article here, “Sheriff Joe and His Enemies,” which focused on his various enemies, who range from resident representatives of illegal aliens to the ACLU and other extra-Arizonan defenders of criminal rights: http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=885.
Those defenders have now been joined by none other than President Barack Hussein Obama’s Justice Department, which is headed by none other than terrorist-supporter Attorney General Eric Holder who also was the subject of a previous report here concerning his reference to America as “a nation of cowards:” http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=900.
Specifically, our Justice Department has put Sheriff Arapaio on notice that it “will investigate his department over allegations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures. . . . investigators will focus on alleged patterns of police discrimination based on national origin:” http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=44863.
It’s sufficiently absurd that the federal government is intervening with a state entity trying to enforce federal and state statutes and, in the process, keep Arizona and the nation safe from drug smugglers, other criminals, and possible terrorist elements.
Compounding that unwarranted interference, . . .
(Read the rest of this article at http://genelalor.com/.)
Mar 11, 2009 - 2:30 pm 18. JED:When the police are corrupt, there is no government.
Mar 11, 2009 - 2:42 pm 19. xformed:This whole soap opera in the real world of politics is leaning towards a tone that was set in Cambodia in the mid 70s….Get rid of the smart, wealthy…
Mar 11, 2009 - 3:55 pm 20. Civilian Security Corps:We know who you are.
We know where you are.
All of you.
See you soon.
Mar 11, 2009 - 4:03 pm 21. Paul A'Barge:wow. WE’re screwed ‘08.
Mar 11, 2009 - 4:37 pm 22. zanne:16. MTF:
Don’t forget about the immigration activist appointed to run the civil rights litigation division, whose first act is to investigate the Maricopa County sheriff for “profiling” in illegal immigrant investigations. How else is law enforcement to investigate illegal immigration from Mexico if not to talk to Mexicans?
Mar 11, 2009 - 4:37 pm 23. ny nick:There was a protest today in Phoenix regarding Sheriff Joe. Guess who was there to lend support? ACORN
Sir,
Eric Holder may not be your cup of tea. That’s fine. Let’s make some comparisions.
Suppose you were hiring a lawyer. Who would you want on your team? Eric Holder or Alberto Gonzalez? David Ogden or Monica Goodling? When Democrats match Alberto and Monica in terms of shear incompetence, please let me know.
Mar 11, 2009 - 4:39 pm 24. ny nick:xformed writes:
“This whole soap opera in the real world of politics is leaning towards a tone that was set in Cambodia in the mid 70s….Get rid of the smart, wealthy”
If that’s the criteria, Monica and Albert can sleep easy.
Mar 11, 2009 - 4:40 pm 25. ny nick:Sonny,
“Regardless, this current government will only turn around when they are faced with the full force of the gun owners of America.”
I’m thinking maybe you should relax. Go see a movie. Take a long walk in the woods. Please do us all a favor and don’t open the gun chest tonight. We had enough of the “full force of the gun owners of America” this week Alabama. Instead of striking a blow for liberty and justice, you’ll just end up killing a toddler before blowing your own brains out.
Mar 11, 2009 - 4:52 pm 26. M. Simon:Sheriff Joe has no respect for the Constitution. Some one had to explain to him why setting up a road block to look for criminals was not Constitutional. Something about probable cause. In other jurisdictions they at least use the fiction of “safety checks”.
Ya. Gotta give Joe credit though. He is honest about what he is doing. No fictions for him.
Mar 11, 2009 - 5:51 pm 27. darkjethro:“NY Nick
…We had enough of the “full force of the gun owners of America” this week Alabama. Instead of striking a blow for liberty and justice, you’ll just end up killing a toddler before blowing your own brains out.”
Never waste an opportunity to step on victims to make a cheap political point, Nick. Wow. Just, wow. This must be some of that hope and change I’ve been hearing about…
If ny nick is representative, the Republic is truly screwed.
Mar 11, 2009 - 5:53 pm 28. Jonathan Silber:For twenty years—twenty!—the Changey Hopey Messiah Uniter attended, with his wife, a church that was lead by a white-hating, America-hating pastor,who in his sermons gave vent to his ugly, racist views.
Is it any surprise,then, that his appointees should be left-wing radicals, who share those views; and that his agenda should reflect
Mar 11, 2009 - 5:53 pm 29. M. Simon:those same views?
ny nick,
The gun laws in Germany are very strict. Fifteen dead kids there. You might want to consider that gun control doesn’t work.
Mar 11, 2009 - 5:54 pm 30. Obamaism on the move:We are truly seeing the reincarnation of “Il Duce” (Benito Mussolini) as these socialists destroy the country.
My only hope is that these treacherous b$$$ards will meet the same end as the dictator without taking the country down with them.
Remember the good old days when street punks, robbers and looters had the shame to at least cover their faces? Now we see a two-faced punk preach to us in public before going behind closed doors to continue their selling of America’s future to the Communist Chines and any other enemy willing to pick up the tab.
Mar 11, 2009 - 7:02 pm 31. Cybergeezer:20. Civilian Security Corps:
Mar 11, 2009 - 7:15 pm 32. fireyourguns:Come and get me, a__hole!
ny nick:
Suppose you were hiring a lawyer. Who would you want on your team? Eric Holder or Alberto Gonzalez? David Ogden or Monica Goodling? When Democrats match Alberto and Monica in terms of shear incompetence, please let me know.
———————
Answer: None of the above! I’d want Johnnie Cochran, particularly if I was guilty as hell! Unfortunately, he isn’t available. My point is that your point is…pointless! Two words I do agree with however, “shear(sheer)incompetence” adequately describes not only the four attorney’s you mentioned, but also define’s the “Obamanation administration” to a friggin’ tee! Btw, if you’re in NY, how are the liberal fueled tax rates working out for you? Here in liberal infested Oregon, they’re getting ready to raise the tax on a bottle of beer by 1900 percent. That’s 19 with two zero’s! Hey, gotta pay for all those abortions, and that free health care somehow. I can’t wait for those jack-booted stormtroopers to pull me over and install a federally mandated GPS system in my truck, so I can start being taxed by the mile… can you?
Mar 11, 2009 - 7:54 pm 33. Robohobo:M Simon writes:
“…setting up a road block to look for criminals was not Constitutional…”
By that logic then our local weekend DUI/DWI roadblocks are not Constitutional? Mmmmmm, don’t think so. Public use implies consent.
Mar 11, 2009 - 11:16 pm 34. Bill Johnson:Robohoho:
“By that logic then our local weekend DUI/DWI roadblocks are not Constitutional? … Public use implies consent.”
Ummm, do you have deep enough pockets to fight this to the supreme court? Because, despite the blatant unconstitutionality of this, that is what it will take to stop it. After all, it’s revenue and power, giving your police dept incentive to harass you. Hey, don’t be carrying large quantities of cash – it’s also ‘legal’ to seize it and make you prove you didn’t get it illegally.
What part of stopping each and every car that passes is ‘reasonable suspicion’? NONE. What is constitutional about unreasonable search and seizure? NOTHING. What goes on at your local weekend DUI roadblocks? Could they search your car for guns? Drugs? Just because you drove by?
I don’t want to live in your world.
Mar 12, 2009 - 7:31 am 35. Steve Lee:There is a US Congressman using his Congressional office staff to organise a “Familias Unidas National Tour” to promote an “Amnesty’ for illegal immigrants, Click Link:
Mar 12, 2009 - 8:13 am 36. deguello:http://rebuildtheparty.ning.com/profiles/blogs/congressman-working
We wonder if the Justice Department will look into that?
What these marxoid thugs represent is the repressive infrastructure of an incipient Castroite regime,funded by the left wing plutocracy,and extended by rent a mob intimidators like ACORN.Patriots need to start creating a corresponding infrastucture of resistance, to prevent the Ohole from becoming a home-grown version of Hugo Chavez.
Mar 12, 2009 - 9:32 am 37. hawkeye:mr. nynick, sir, where i live, every man, woman , and young adult, has at the very least, one gun. we all shoot and carry for defense. i am not scared at all. the tragedy you use to pander politics,is a rare exception, to the real world, where armed civilian defense saves over a million lives a year. sir, you were uninformed. and i will not blow my brains out. live free or die
Mar 12, 2009 - 11:56 am 38. ChipD:I am a bit amused at the anti-Gov’t postings here, and the outrage over the prospect of heavy handed Gov’t restrictions on liberty….
Let’s remember that the Bush Administration claimed that the President (Obama) has the right and ability to simply point to anyone, anywhere, and declare that person to be an “enemy combatant” and then imprison that person forever, without any trial, or hearing, or charges.
That the Government has the right and ability to read your email, tap your phone, search your bank account, all without a warrant or permission, without your knowledge.
That sound you hear is the flapping wings of chickens coming home to roost.
Mar 12, 2009 - 12:18 pm 39. GOP=HISTORY:Anyone who, like the author of this article, does not believe in what he is writing enough to sign his name to it should be ignored. “Anonymous” is someone who has an axe to grind and is afraid that same axe might fall on him ! A chicken-hearted loser.
Mar 12, 2009 - 2:30 pm 40. Marie Claude:how many chicken-hearted losers are on board ? LMAO
Mar 13, 2009 - 12:29 pm 41. Tina Trent:Let us not forget Holder’s major accomplishment when he worked under Janet Reno: getting the private, ideologically-driven hate crimes industry ensconced as behind-the-scenes policy-setters in Justice. Unlike any law that preceded it, “bias crimes” laws were determined to be too nuanced for the average prosecutor or cop to understand, so Holder et.al. opened the doors to privately funded “bias trainers” who “educated” police and prosecutors on the nuances of creating hate crime statistics that resembled the propaganda they were designed to endorse.
For example, there were serious concerns in the early days of the movement that minority youth would commit the predominance of hate crimes, as they do many other crimes, were prosecutors to simply read the laws and tried to enforce them with an even hand. Couldn’t have that! Thus the great shuffle between bias crime enforcement and gang crime enforcement, based on the desirability or undesirability of promoting certain crimes as hate.
Also, some prosecutors, without proper guidance from the NGO “trainers,” might actually believe that “gender bias” applied to crimes against women, which, according to the hate crimes establishment, it does not — in practice, and by design (though not in the letter of the law), gender bias charges are reserved for prosecuting people who victimize men who dress like women or women who dress like men, not . . . women. men who target woman after woman, killing them, attacking their genitals, even writing crude slurs on their bodies, need not fear prosecution under hate crime laws. You can kill fifty women and not face a single hate crimes charge, then sexually harass one transvestite and you’re a “hate criminal.”
Holder was at the head of these efforts to impose highly subjective, ideologically-driven outcomes on the enforcement of these laws. Now, twenty years later, Holder’s back, new ethnic organizations have demanded their piece of the hate crimes pie, and the ADL is probably ruing the day that they opened the door to CAIR by demanding ethnic community-group control of enforcement of these American laws in the first place. Live and learn.
The hate crimes mess, which persists in Justice today, has far greater ramifications than any single pardon. It turns the Justice Department into a tool for ideological social engineering and the selective criminalization of speech. Expect much more of the same.
I agree with those who feel that nothing in this article merits anonymous publication. Come on — we all take risks saying what we say. Is you job more important than telling the truth?
Mar 13, 2009 - 1:28 pm 42. momof3:“Let’s remember that the Bush Administration claimed that the President (Obama) has the right and ability to simply point to anyone, anywhere, and declare that person to be an “enemy combatant” and then imprison that person forever, without any trial, or hearing, or charges.
That the Government has the right and ability to read your email, tap your phone, search your bank account, all without a warrant or permission, without your knowledge.”
And yet you don’t see Obama rescinding any of this, do you? Hmmm. As to the last sentence, um,not so much. You need to read more real data, and less dailykos.
Here in Texas, they will take our guns, when they pry them from our cold dead hands. And we’re good shots. After all, guns don’t kill people, dads with pretty daughter’s do.
Mar 13, 2009 - 8:39 pm 43. ChipD:@43 momof3:
Yes, I agree with you on that point- Obama is doing just as I feared- proving that once the Government gets a hold of a power, it will never willingly give it up.
But yes, it is real data such as the recently released memos from the Bush Admin. Justice Dept that shows that they claimed all the power I stated in post 38, and more besides-
But your comment on gun ownership is interesting- given that Obama can simply track your IP address, read your emails, tap your phone, throw you into a black site prison, without charges, without even giving you a right to file a habeas corpus motion to protest your innocence, and do all of this legally…
you STILL think that your gun rights are worth a damn?
Maybe we should be as vigilant about the other 9 Amendments as we are about the 2nd.
Mar 16, 2009 - 1:50 pm 44. TimB:Wow! With people like this protecting us where can we hide? Maybe people will understand why you need to have the right to bear arms!
As far as his “Anonymous” signiture I have no problem with it. I do believe that repercussions can and quite probably will occur to those who take a stand.
Mar 31, 2009 - 9:10 am