Liberals In A Hurry: Krauthammer On Barack The Lawgiver

Charles Krauthammer's column in National Review offers his view on the Obama administration's recent actions:

As a reaction to the crack epidemic of the 1980s, many federal drug laws carry strict mandatory sentences. This has stirred unease in Congress and sparked a bipartisan effort to revise and relax some of the more draconian laws.

Traditionally — meaning before Barack Obama — that’s how laws were changed: We have a problem, we hold hearings, we find some new arrangement, which is ratified by Congress and signed by the president.

That was then. On Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder, a liberal in a hurry, ordered all U.S. attorneys to simply stop charging nonviolent, non-gang-related drug defendants with crimes that, while fitting the offense, carry mandatory sentences. Find some lesser, non-triggering charge. How might you do that? Withhold evidence — e.g., about the amount of dope involved.  

In other words, evade the law, by deceiving the court if necessary. “If the companies that I represent in federal criminal cases” did that, said former deputy attorney general George Terwilliger, “they could be charged with a felony.”

But such niceties must not stand in the way of an administration’s agenda.

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/355932/barack-lawgiver-charles-krauthammer

Zimmerman Trial And Verdict: Attorney General Eric Holder's Cynical Threat

The editors of National Review offer a piece on Attorney General Eric Holder's actions regarding the Zimmerman trial and verdict.

The jury has spoken in Florida, acquitting George Zimmerman of all state murder and manslaughter charges arising out of the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

It was a prosecution that should never have been brought: That was the judgment of the veteran police officers who first investigated it and concluded that Zimmerman had acted in self-defense. But because it was brought, we have seen the severe weaknesses of the case against Zimmerman: the absence of intent to commit murder, and the utter dearth of evidence that Zimmerman is a racist or that racism played any part in the tragic death of Martin, a 17-year-old African American.

The lack of racist indicia was why, in a reprehensible touch, the New York Times felt compelled to invent a new category for Zimmerman — “white Hispanic.” For the Left, racism is America’s unredeemable sin, the driver of the American narrative. And when the narrative collides with contradictory facts, it is the facts that must give way. Contorting the facts beyond recognition was essential to creating the climate that resulted in murder charges.

In that endeavor, the brazenly political Obama Justice Department was a significant contributor. Attorney General Eric Holder traveled to Florida to fan the flames at a joint appearance with infamous race-hustler Al Sharpton. His minions in Justice’s “Community Relations Service,” under the guise of “peacekeeping,” helped promote anti-Zimmerman rallies.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/353523/eric-holders-cynical-threat-editors

Jay Leno On The Obama Administration Scandals

Jay Leno offered the below funny comments on the Obama administration scandals on The Tonight Show:

A new report shows that the Obama administration has been collecting the telephone records of millions of customers of Verizon under a top-secret court order. Here's the sad part. It turns out that 90 percent of the phone calls Americans make are to order a pizza.

When I was growing up, we were afraid of Big Brother watching us. Now with Obama, we actually HAVE a brother watching us.

Attorney General Eric Holder said that despite all the controversies, he has no intention of stepping down. Hey Eric, I didn't either. Sometimes it just happens. That's show biz...

Note: NBC is making a huge mistake in replacing Jay Leno at The Tonight Show. He killed all of the other late night shows in the May ratings sweeps. He will be missed, but I suspect Jay Leno's next show, perhaps at Fox, will be successful.   

Attorney General Holder And FBI Director Mueller Were Mum On Petraeus For Weeks

Shaun Waterman and Kristina Wong at the Washington Times report on Congressional leaders who are asking questions about what the Obama administration knew about former CIA Director Petraeus's prior to the presidential election. 

Congressional leaders are calling on Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. (seen above in his official DOJ photo) and FBI  Director Robert S. Mueller III to explain why their agencies kept information about former CIA Director David H. Petraues extramarital affair from the White House, Congress and the U.S. intelligence community as the scandal expanded and ensnared the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan..

Lawmakers also said they intend to call on Mr. Petraeus to testify about the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya as soon as this week.

The Pentagon inspector general Tuesday opened an investigation of Marine Gen. John Allen after the FBI  found “inappropriate” emails among tens of thousands he had sent to a Florida socialite during a cybercrime probe that uncovered Mr. Petraeus affair and forced his resignation last week.

Mr. Holder knew that the FBI investigation had stumbled across evidence of Mr. Petraeus' affair weeks ago “but chose not to disclose it until after the presidential election — yet another example of Mr. Holder's politicized leadership of the Justice Department,” Rep. Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican, said in a letter Tuesday to House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/13/pentagon-opens-ig-probe-allen-emails/

Remember Operation Fast And Furious' Mexican Victims

 

Deroy Murdock suggests we remember the Mexican victims of Operation Fast and Furious in a piece that appears in National Review Online.

Largely overlooked is this plan’s calamitous impact on Mexico, its people, and U.S.-Mexican relations. Fast and Furious has spilled American blood. But south of the border, it has made blood gush like an oil strike.

“One of the things that’s so offensive about this case is that our federal government knowingly, willfully, purposefully gave the drug cartels nearly 2,000 weapons — mainly AK-47s — and allowed them to walk,” Representative Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah) told NBC News. These arms were supposed to lead federal agents in Phoenix to the Mexican thugs who acquired them. Instead, Fast and Furious guns melted into Mexico without a trace.

These weapons became invisible, but not silent.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/304835/remember-fast-and-furious-s-mexican-victims-deroy-murdock

You can also read an earlier post on Operation Fast and Furious via the below link:

http://pauldavisoncrime.blogspot.com/2012/07/operation-fast-and-furious-timeline.html

'Fast And Furious' Whistleblower Says He's Disappointed One Year Later

 

More than a year after ATF Special Agent John Dodson first blew the whistle on the scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious, Dodson tells FoxNews that he's disheartened and disappointed by the congressional investigation and Attorney General Eric Holder's gunrunning probe.

You can read the story via the below link:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/18/fast-and-furious-whistleblower-says-disappointed-one-year-later/

You can also read John Fund's piece on Eric Holder at National Review Online via the below link:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/303069/will-holder-s-politicking-finally-end-john-fund

One More Reason Why Attorney General Eric Holder Should Go: Attorney Who Defended Terrorist Promoted To Head Gitmo Policy At Justice Department

As if his conduct and failed leadership in the Fast and Furious case were not enough to cause the president to fire Attorney General Eric Holder, he recently promoted Tony West, an attorney who defended a terrorist, to the number three position at the Justice Department.

Foxnews.com offers a piece on J. Christian Adams, a former Justice Department attorney who questions Tony West's  promotion.

Judicial Watch, a government watchdog group, noted that in Holder's announcement of West's promotion, he "conveniently omitted" West's role as the defense attorney for convicted Al Qaeda terrorist John Walker Lindh, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being captured in Afghanistan in 2001 while fighting with the Taliban.

"He actually pleaded guilty to aiding the Taliban and carrying explosives while fighting U.S. troops in the region," Judicial Watch noted of Lindh.

Adams said not only did West represent Lindh, but his firm was also involved in two other defense cases for terrorists working against the U.S.

"Tony West took on, and his firm, took some of the most radical causes for America's enemies before coming to the Justice Department," he said.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/04/attorney-questions-promotion-terrorist-defender-to-head-gitmo-policy-at-justice/#ixzz1oEyc58Di  

Congressman Issa to Attorney General Holder: Come Clean To The American People Regarding Operation Fast And Furious

Foxnews.com reports that Congressman Darrell Issa has responded to Attorney General Eric Holder's letter to Congress regarding his testimony about the failed "Gunwalking" program. Holder, seen in his official photo above, claims he did not know about the program.   

Despite a federal holiday, the lawmaker leading a congressional investigation into "Operation Fast and Furious" launched his latest salvo Monday against Attorney General Eric Holder, insisting it's time for the nation's top cop to "come clean to the American public about what you knew, when you knew it, and who is going to be held accountable."

"Whether you realize yet or not, you own 'Fast and Furious,'" Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said in a letter to Holder. "It is your responsibility."

...the broader back-and-forth focuses on a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigation in Arizona targeting major gun-runners. Launched in late 2009, the investigation planned to follow gun purchasers in hopes that suspects would lead them to the heads of Mexican cartels. But high-powered weapons tied to the investigation ended up at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States, including the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry late last year.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/10/issa-responds-to-holder-letter-with-matching-gusto/

You can also read a previous post about Operation Fast & Furious vai the below link:

http://pauldavisoncrime.blogspot.com/2011/09/atfs-operation-fast-and-furious-screw.html

ATF's Operation Fast And Furious: Screw Up, Move Up, Cover Up

Michelle Malkin wrote an interesting column that appeared in National Review Online that covered how  Obama administration officals involved in the bust of an operation called Fast and Furious are being given new government positions.

There are now enough Operation Fast and Furious officials playing hide-and-seek in the Obama administration to fill a “rubber room.”

That’s the nickname for taxpayer-subsidized holding pens — such as the ones in the New York City public schools — where crooked employees are separated from the system and paid to do nothing. Perhaps the White House can stimulate a few construction jobs by adding an entire rubber room annex for “reassigned” scandal bureaucrats at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It’s getting mighty crowded.

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/275928/screw-move-cover-michelle-malkin

You can also read an earlier post on Operation Fast and Furious via the below link:

http://pauldavisoncrime.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-atf-delivered-assault-weapons-to.html

There ought to be some firing, in my view, beginning with Attorney General Holder.

How ATF Delivered Assault Weapons To Drug Cartels

Kevin Ferris, a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, wrote an interesting column about President Obama and Eric Holder, his Attorney General, and their misguided gun control policies.

... What did happen was Fast and Furious, a new operation out of the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives that turned the world of fighting gun trafficking upside down.

You can read the rest of Ferris' column via the below link:

http://articles.philly.com/2011-07-31/news/29835873_1_gun-trafficking-cartels-assault-weapons

You can also read two earlier posts on Operation Fast and Furious via the below link:

http://pauldavisoncrime.blogspot.com/2011/07/atf-agents-denounce-operation-fast-and.html

http://pauldavisoncrime.blogspot.com/2011/07/answers-needed-on-operation-fast-and.html

Attorney General Refers 9/11 Conspirators To Military Tribunal

By Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 4, 2011 - The 9/11 co-conspirators will be tried by a military tribunal, Attorney General Eric Holder announced today.

This means the cases of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (seen in the above photo), Walid Muhammed Salih Mubarak Bin Attash, Ramzi Bin Al Shibh, Ali Abdul-Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed Al Hawsawi –- the alleged conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States -– will be referred to the Office of Military Commissions.

Navy Capt. John Murphy, chief prosecutor of the Office of Military Commissions, said that in light of the attorney general's decision, his office intends to swear charges against the men in the near future. "I intend to recommend the charges be sent to a military commission for a joint trial," he said in a written statement.

The trials will take place under the Military Commissions Act of 2009, and the captain stressed that just as in civilian trials, those accused are presumed innocent until their guilt is proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

The men will be tried at the Expeditionary Legal Complex at Guantanamo Naval Station in Cuba.

Holder said that he believes the trials could have been held in New York or Virginia, but that Congress imposed restrictions on where the trial could be held, taking the decision from his hands.

"Those restrictions are unlikely to be repealed in the immediate future," the attorney general said. "We simply cannot allow a trial to be delayed any longer for the victims of the 9/11 attacks or for their family members who have waited for nearly a decade for justice. I have talked to these family members on many occasions over the last two years. Like many Americans, they differ on where the 9/11 conspirators should be prosecuted, but there is one thing on which they all agree: We must bring the conspirators to justice."

If charges are sworn, the convening authority –- retired Navy Vice Adm. Bruce MacDonald -– would conduct a thorough review of the evidence supporting the charges, Defense Department officials said. It is MacDonald's responsibility to make an independent determination as to the appropriate disposition of the charges. If he determines the evidence supports the charges and that referral to a military commission is appropriate, he would refer the charges.

At that point, a military judge would be detailed by the chief trial judge for military commissions, and the accused would be arraigned within 30 days of the referral.

DOD is committed to conducting military commissions that are fair, credible and transparent, while simultaneously protecting U.S. national security, Pentagon officials said. Prosecutors from both the Defense and Justice departments have been working together throughout this process.