The Attorney General, ACORN, and the New Black Panthers
[Guest post by DRJ]
On election day 2008, the New Black Panthers were caught on tape in questionable activities at a Philadelphia polling place:
The incident was the subject of a civil Voting Rights complaint filed in January 2009 in federal court. The defendants refused to appear or answer for almost 5 months. Accordingly, “two separate [Department of] Justice offices had recommended proceeding to default judgment before political superiors overruled them.” Instead, Attorney General Eric Holder’s DOJ surprisingly dismissed the case over the objections of career DOJ lawyers.
GOP lawmakers requested an investigation that was initiated by and is still pending in the Office of Professional Responsibility. In addition, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission voted to begin an inquiry but has seen its requests repeatedly ignored by Holder’s DOJ:
“Commission Chairman Gerald A. Reynolds, in a letter, said the department has been “largely non-responsive” to requests for information since questions about the dismissal were first raised in June and had turned over “none of the documents” being sought.
Mr. Reynolds said that after seeking to work with department subordinates to get access to the documents, the commission turned directly to Mr. Holder in August but had still not received any of the requested information, including documents on previous voter intimidation investigations “so we could determine whether the departments action in the NBPP case constitutes a change in policy and, if so, what the implications of that change might be.”
According to the Washington Times, a civil rights activist and poll-watcher gave the government an affidavit documenting the intimidation — an affidavit that the DOJ surprisingly did not offer in the civil case. The poll-watcher, Bartle Bull, reportedly believes the DOJ dismissal was intended to protect ACORN-registered voters from being challenged by poll watchers:
“Bartel Bull, a longtime Democratic activist, told Fox News he believes charges were dismissed by Eric Holder to protect the New Black Panther Party’s ability to prevent ACORN-registered, ineligible voters from being challenged by poll watchers. Bull said,
…it is not the voters the New Black Panthers want to intimidate, it is the poll watchers…”
ACORN keeps popping up now that President Obama is in office, but it looks like Attorney General Holder isn’t interested in ACORN or its protectors. Too bad Holder doesn’t remember or didn’t mean what he told the Washington Post in April 2009:
“The job of other department heads is to put into place the president’s policies. Holder advises the president on law enforcement policy, but the attorney general’s job is to uphold the laws, even laws that the president may not like.
The fact that the United States was created to run on laws and not on the whims of a dictator has set this country apart from many others.
That, Holder said, is something he never forgets: “Ours is a nation of laws, guided by principles that reflect the essential goodness of the American people. . . . The true test of our nation’s greatness is whether we uphold our most cherished principles, not when it is easy, but when it is hard. Our nation . . . has met this test in times past. We will do so again.”
Which cherished American principles were you following when you dismissed the New Black Panther case, Mr. Attorney General?
— DRJ
Holder was put in the AG position precisely because of his ability to ignore principle. Anyone doubting that can speak to Marc Rich.
This administration makes Nixon’s look clean.
Apogee (e2dc9b) — 10/10/2009 @ 12:35 amWhen white people protect white groups because they are white we call them bigots and racists.
When black people protect black groups because they are black we call them Noble Prize winners.
highpockets (712bc0) — 10/10/2009 @ 3:33 amNever have I prayed so hard for my America. By the way, I bought another box of ammo yesterday.
krusher (1c5999) — 10/10/2009 @ 3:47 amThis administration has reintroduced a sort of spoils system in government with lots of old “new” leftists burrowing into the woodwork where they will hide for years after Obama has gone. We will be a long time regaining clean government, if we ever will. The worst aspect of it has already been pointed out by people like Clarence Thomas and Thomas Sowell. Blacks will be assumed to be beneficiaries of affirmative action for a generation or more. This will poison the accomplishments of American blacks for a long time. A very long time. I see it in students. The only way to escape the taint is to adopt a West Indian or African accent.
Mike K (2cf494) — 10/10/2009 @ 4:31 amGood work, DRJ. The pieces are beginning to fall into place, but there is much still to do to expose all of the Chicago Way tactics and networks before 2010 and 2012.
Paul F. Villarreal (206841) — 10/10/2009 @ 4:33 amThis will not end well for Gerald Reynolds.
JD (1f8ada) — 10/10/2009 @ 5:16 amThanks for keeping this issue up front and center. We can’t let this slide into obscurity like Holder and Obama are wanting it to.
I hope the investigation continues to proceed aggressively by issuing subpoenae and when the DOJ still doesn’t turn over the documents, to take it to the next level and go after specific people for Contempt for failure to produce the documents. I fear that this will be the only way to get them. A sad day for law enforcement in America when the DOJ blantantly chooses to ignore the rule of law.
J. Raymond Wright (e8d0ca) — 10/10/2009 @ 5:38 amCan you imagine the mainstream media’s reaction if this had happened in the rural South, and the guys carrying the pipes had been white…standing outside a mostly black polling station?
I mean…this would have been “news” 24/7 for weeks. The Democrats in congress would have fallen all over themselves demanding a federal investigation and prosecution.
Default judgment??? And Justice won’t prosecute further?
Something evil is happening in this country.
Increase Mather (4deffc) — 10/10/2009 @ 5:57 amThis administration has gone the fastest to self – parody that I’ve ever seen or heard of previously; at least it took Carter almost four years to get to the level of this crew. The true irony will be if a bungled ME problem finally undoes them, just as before.
Dmac (5ddc52) — 10/10/2009 @ 6:19 amEveryone relax. When you have such obvious and blatant politicization of the DOJ all the liberal bloggers and columnists that railed against Gonzales and the Bush administration will quickly demand Holder resign.
After all, the critics of the Bush administration are only concerned with justice and not politics. The fact that Holder is a democrat is irrelevant to the people at kos or huffpost.
Hey, if Obama can win the NPP, anything is possible.
MU789 (3f9d29) — 10/10/2009 @ 6:26 amAnyone else find it funny that Eric Holder was sent to Chicago for that school violence thinging in light of how they’ve handled this New Black Panthers thinging…
yarrrrr (ee03f0) — 10/10/2009 @ 7:25 amDRJ asked a key question.
No cherished American principles were followed, the guiding principle at work in this case was “Might Makes Right.” Elections have consequences, don’t you know? Obama’s DOJ is about as interested in upholding election law as OJ is in revealing who butchered Nicole and Ron.
But wait, there’s more. Obama’s blackshirts will be out in force next election intimidating poll watchers and election officials to pave the way for ACORN and SEIU thugs to flood America’s voting booths with phony ballots. You can agree to vote for Obama’s list of enablers, or you can get your teeth knocked out, your ballot disqualified, and your health insurance canceled.
That’s why Democrat leaders don’t fear the consequences of governing against the will of the people. They can ram through government health care, cap and tax, pork disguised as “stimulus” and any other criminal enterprise they can push and still keep a straight face. They can do it because they’re going to get reelected anyway, the fix is in.
Free and honest elections are a thing of the past. The next American election will be conducted along the same lines as in Kenya, Iran, Venezuela, and Chicago. It’s going to be a fundamental transformation, just like the man said.
If Obama’s thugs can get away with abandoning the secret ballot in union elections what’s to prevent them from using similar measures in general elections? Imagine trying to vote under the supervision of Obama’s blackshirts looking over your shoulder and you get the general idea.
ropelight (2e34d2) — 10/10/2009 @ 7:31 amObviously, Holder wasn’t put in office because of proven virtue, integrity, or intelligence. He is there to push the progressive agenda of the Billionaire Boys Club. He’s one of those politicians who is able to stifle any honorable impulse in the pursuit of his master’s goals. He gives off that familiar scent of “just following orders” that is the hallmark of true goon.
Only 21 Republicans had the courage to vote against “the first black AG”. Apparently, Holder’s past performance had no bearing on the vote. Rather, his promise to obey the Constitution (this time) is the deciding factor….
jkstewart2 (817383) — 10/10/2009 @ 7:52 amEric Holder is such a coward
Neo (7830e6) — 10/10/2009 @ 8:06 amThere’s always voting by mail.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 10/10/2009 @ 8:08 amWe are setting up a group of “super citizens” in this country with different standards of behavior and different laws. They are black and they are democrats. From slavery to super citizen in 6 generations.
Huey (b957d9) — 10/10/2009 @ 8:14 amObama & Co. are black nationalists.
End of story.
Patricia (c95a48) — 10/10/2009 @ 8:25 amIt makes me wonder if some Acorn-friendly DOJ careerist under Bush started making a big deal about the perfectly legal/ethical USA firings as a way to put the pressure on about who would be hired to replace them. People who still would not go after voter fraud.
MayBee (34a54a) — 10/10/2009 @ 9:13 amHolder Justice is a lawless dirty socialist puppet of a dirty socialist hungarian muppet and the very real and very emphatic screwing of our little country has not yet even begun, and what I think people overlook about the enthusiasms of these dirty socialist street trash mongrels is they don’t always care how they taint and enfeeble the institutions of our little country just so as they do.
But M’chelle’s arms, they are fine and toney.
happyfeet (6b707a) — 10/10/2009 @ 9:36 amby which I mean this isn’t a black thing it’s just a dirty socialists of a feather flock together thing and then they shit and molt all over the place and someone else has to clean up after them
happyfeet (6b707a) — 10/10/2009 @ 9:49 amis there like a record for most-filtrated commenter person?
happyfeet (6b707a) — 10/10/2009 @ 9:50 amWell, Mr. Feet, I don’t much like cold-filtered beer. You?
Eric Blair (8484db) — 10/10/2009 @ 10:00 amTom Davis has a pithy “letter to the editor” on this and the Gerald Walpin firing at
Ira (28a423) — 10/10/2009 @ 10:03 amhttp://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/oct/09/no-headline—101009letters/
I need to learn to drink more beer… Mikey NTH told me to look for this one and my little brother is gonna see if he can find it during the holidays. I think it was Mikey. Pretty sure. Mostly when I drink I like to just drink chilled vodka. I might could be a little Russian.
happyfeet (6b707a) — 10/10/2009 @ 10:10 amForget it, Jake…It’s Chinatown!
AD - RtR/OS! (877de6) — 10/10/2009 @ 10:12 amWhat’s the big deal? This is the way things are done in the 3rd World. Kenya, for instance.
Houston Native (8b6c5a) — 10/10/2009 @ 10:21 am“is there like a record for most-filtrated commenter person?”
feets – Filtration is supposed to get rid of the impurities, so I’m not sure what Patterico is saying about your thinking.
daleyrocks (718861) — 10/10/2009 @ 10:32 amThe principle being followed is “he won!”
htom (412a17) — 10/10/2009 @ 10:39 amBut M’chelle’s arms, they are fine and toney.
They are indeed fabulous arms, and I wish she would take those toney arms and smack Holder upside the head and tell him to Snap Out of It! because someone is clearly not cherishing the principles of our nation and is failing the true test miserably.
Dana (863a65) — 10/10/2009 @ 10:49 amCan we get Sheriff Joe from Az to travel to D.C. and arrest Holder, Peeloshi. Reid and the nut running the office of Homeland Insecurity? He can take a few hundred congress critters to his barbwire cages at the same time. President O’Dumbo will flee to his Islamic homeland to be protected by his terrorists family. The entire administration is an organized criminal enterprise and would be convicted by any sane jury.
Scrapiron (4e0dda) — 10/10/2009 @ 10:58 am# 5 Blacks will be assumed to be beneficiaries of affirmative action for a generation or more.
Hate to tell you sport, but they most certainly are. What is worst is they are even benefiting moreso than other “minorities” who actually need it and “deserve” it more.
Blacks have been taking advantage of, and recklessly squandering, the opportunities AA and Gov.t Programs have provided for well over 40 years. With a “black” POTUS who believes in a permanent victim class dependent of Gov.t for resources and with that POTUS dependent on their votes …… IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE.
Remember the Female Black Voter saying that now she did not have to worry about their mortgage or phone bills because POTUS would pay it for them?
WTF do you think that bitch was saying?? Let me translate ……
Now with a black guy in charge and white america so delusionaly bought in to the concept of collective guilt, we are going to have the Government forcibly take more from productive white folks. Fuck the white devil. I deserve shit. Hallelujah!!!!!
HeavenSent (01a566) — 10/10/2009 @ 12:37 pmThis is what you get when you don’t challenge these guys in confirmation hearings. Win or lose, his involvement in the Rich fiasco should have been delved into.
mojo (74ba73) — 10/10/2009 @ 12:55 pmI was once a poll watcher in inner city Philadelphia. I can tell you that every poll watcher stops hundreds of fraudulent votes merely by his presence there.
They actually read the machines when poll watchers are present.
Amphipolis (8cd9a3) — 10/10/2009 @ 6:43 pm[…] in General on Oct.11, 2009 Doug Ross: Attorney General Eric Holder failed to prosecute the New Black Panthers after they intimidated voters in Philadelphia. He has failed to investigate ACORN, despite ongoing […]
Deep inside ACORN - Techlog (54cb0f) — 10/10/2009 @ 11:21 pm[…] only to dismiss in May — is heating up. Earlier posts on this topic are here, here, here and here, and here is a summary of the initial legal action, including the unexpected dismissal of the case […]
Patterico's Pontifications » DOJ-Black Panther Case Update (e4ab32) — 12/20/2009 @ 4:55 pm