Left-Wing Groups “Closely Allied” With Obama Administration Rally Around Holder

May, 31, 2012 by nicedeb

It would appear that a gaggle of left wing groups which CNN reports is “closely allied with the Obama administration” has been mobilized to rally around the our embattled Attorney General, Eric Holder.

The group sent the wavering Boehner a letter on Tuesday, urging the Speaker to kindly put a stop to the Republicans’ “harsh attacks” which they claim are intended to divert the Attorney General from “the vigorous enforcement of the nation’s laws—including those protecting civil rights, voting rights, disability rights” etc, and a partisan attempt to discredit the Attorney General which they find oh-so deeply troubling.

Remember Trayvon Mr. Speaker?

CNN reported:

With the threat of a contempt charge hanging over Attorney General Eric Holder, 14 civil rights, labor, and liberal activist groups Tuesday urged Speaker of the House John Boehner not to proceed to a contempt vote.

The organizations which are closely allied with the Obama administration charged that to hold the attorney general in contempt for failing to turn over demanded documents on the “fast and furious” investigation “seems to be a rush to judgment intended to create a stain on the office of the attorney general.”

The two-page letter, written by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights repeats the claims made by the Justice Department in refusing to provide sensitive internal law enforcement documents. The organizations said Holder has already turned over the disputed documents to the inspector general for his ongoing investigation into the flawed gun-smuggling operation. “They reportedly include law enforcement information, grand jury transcripts, and other information that would compromise ongoing investigations and prosecutions,” the letter said.

House Republican leaders had no immediate comment on the letter sent to Boehner.

The Letter from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights:

Attempt to Cite Attorney General Eric Holder for Contempt Seems to Be a Rush to Judgment

Advocacy Letter – 05/29/12

Source: The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Recipient: Speaker John Boehner

The Honorable John Boehner

Speaker of the House

U. S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Speaker Boehner:

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the undersigned organizations, we write in response to a May 21, 2012 report in Politico that the House of Representatives will vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress if he fails to provide additional information related to the “Fast and Furious” program. We are deeply troubled by the prospect that the Attorney General will be cited for contempt by the House, and believe that such action is unwarranted. We urge you to reconsider that decision.

While we believe that a review of the Fast and Furious program is a legitimate exercise of congressional authority, we are concerned that the tenor and approach you are reportedly taking does a disservice to Congress, the Attorney General’s office, and the public, and may also be a partisan attempt to discredit the Attorney General.

The Attorney General has acknowledged problems and flaws in the Fast and Furious program. According to reports, the Attorney General and the Department of Justice have submitted more than 7000 pages of document to Congress, and the Attorney General has appeared before Congress on this issue a reported seven times. The Department has also reportedly made several senior officials available for testimony, interviews, and briefings.

In addition, the Attorney General has ordered the Inspector General to investigate and has provided him with tens of thousands of additional documents—documents that would be inappropriate to turn over to Congress, because they reportedly include law enforcement information, grand jury transcripts, and other information that would compromise ongoing investigations and prosecutions.

To put it simply, the attempt to cite General Holder for contempt seems to be a rush to judgment intended to create a stain on the office of the Attorney General. It is contributing to an environment of accusatory vitriol and malignant suspicion that is both unwarranted and a significant distraction at a time when the Attorney General needs to focus on the nation’s core problems. The harshness of the attacks themselves is misplaced, and to the extent these attacks are intended to divert the Attorney General from the vigorous enforcement of the nation’s laws—including those protecting civil rights, voting rights, disability rights, and other core concerns—we are deeply troubled. We are concerned that the contempt threat is intended to create a hostile environment aimed at pressuring the Attorney General to resign. This development is particularly disturbing because of the exemplary job the Attorney General has done in enforcing the nation’s civil rights laws.

The constituencies that we represent are eager to see our leaders focus on job creation, the continued reinvigoration of our economy, and the rooting out of waste, fraud and abuse. We urge you to reconsider this course of action. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

African American Ministers in Action

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

AFSCME

Asian American Justice Center, member of Asian American Center for Advancing Justice

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

NAACP

National Association of Human Rights Workers

National Association of Social Workers National Center for Transgender Equality

National Partnership for Women and Families National Fair Housing Alliance

National Urban League

People For the American Way

Women in Federal Law Enforcement Foundation

Cc: The Honorable Eric Cantor

The Honorable Darrell Issa

The Honorable Elijah Cummings

Ever notice how every time a Republican is considering making a decision Democrats don’t like, no matter how long the deliberation process has been – it’s always a “rush to judgement”?

After 16 Months of Letters, Reports and Subpoenas, slapping the stonewalling AG with a contempt citation is “a rush to judgement”?

Hat tip: Sipsey Street Irregulars

Linked by Doug Ross, thanks!

Dems Are Switching Parties in Droves

May, 31, 2012 by nicedeb

If it were just one or two stories, I wouldn’t think much. Pols that never quite fit in in the first place, finally leave their party – it happens – jumping Jeff Jeffords, Joe Lieberman, and Arlen Specter come to mind.

But what we’re seeing here in the age of Obama – is something else altogether. He was supposed to stop the rise of the oceans but it looks like he’s stopping the rise of the Democrat party.

Am I exaggerating? Just look at all these recent defections – I think I detect a pattern, here.

PA:

The Daily Caller: Citing Catholic faith, Democrat switches parties:

The defection of a prominent Pennsylvania Democrat to the Republican Party is raising some eyebrows.

Jo Ann Nardelli, a state committeewoman and founding president of the Blair County Federation of Democratic Women, has switched her political affiliation to the GOP, citing her Catholic faith and President Obama’s embrace of gay marriage as reasons.

During a press conference last week, Nardelli cited President Obama’s recent announcement in support of gay marriage as a central reason for her defection, endorsed Mitt Romney for president and changed her party registration to Republican,

VA:
This one must hurt:

Newsbusters: Psst, Don’t Tell Anyone: Four-term Former Congressman and Obama 2008 Co-Chair Artur Davis Announces That He’s a Republican:

Former Ala. congressman Artur Davis shifts voter registration to Va.; eyes bid as Republican

Former Alabama congressman Artur Davis is shifting his voter registration to Virginia and says that if he seeks public office again, it will be as a Republican.

Davis, who represented Birmingham in Congress for four terms and then unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for Alabama governor in 2010, announced his decision on his website.

He wrote that people whose judgment he values have asked him to consider running for Congress in northern Virginia in 2014 or 2016 or for that state’s General Assembly in 2015.

“The short of it is: I don’t know and am nowhere near deciding. If I were to run, it would be as a Republican,” wrote Davis, who moved to Virginia in late 2010 to join a Washington law firm, then left to become a fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics.

A Harvard-educated lawyer, Davis was a House member two years ago when he tried to become the first black governor elected in Alabama. He started out leading in the polls for the 2010 Democratic primary, but then voted against President Barrack Obama’s federal health care overhaul and decided not to seek the endorsement of black political groups. Former Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks picked up those endorsements and won with 62 percent of the vote.

Artur Davis noted on his website, “I am in the process of changing my voter registration from Alabama to Virginia, a development which likely does represent a closing of one chapter and perhaps the opening of another.”

TX:

The Texas Tribune: Rep. J.M. Lozano Confirms Plans to Switch to GOP:

State House Rep. J.M. Lozano, D-Kingsville, will announce this week that he will join the Republican Party. He said that his decision is based, in part, on the new makeup of his district, whose constituents he said are in line with Republican values.

“It’s been a long weekend,” said Lozano, who was first elected in 2010. “Basically, I was sad to lose the counties I did, but at the same time it was very fortunate to pick up Jim Wells, San Patricio and Bee counties.

“I had a conservative voting record this session, which was pro-life, pro-oil and gas development, and pro-small-business. And I am a small-business owner,” he said. “Those values and these voters are in line with the Republican Party.”

NC:

Libertarian Republican: North Carolina Mayor switches from Democrat to Republican:

First fall-out from recent NC Democrat Gay Sex Scandal?

From Eric Dondero:

The North Carolina Democrat Party has been in the news the last couple weeks for a growing scandal involving the former Democrat Party Executive Director and the State Chair.

E.D. Jay Palmry was accused of sexual harrassment of a junior employee, a male Hispanic communications director. Graphic details were released two days ago, including Palmry simulating oral sex to the employee and grabbing his crotch, while making suggestive remarks. Democrat Governor Bev Purdue has since called for State Chair David Parker to resign, citing the scandal as a great distraction to NC Dem efforts to progress on a variety of issues.

Now, the Mayor of Kings Mountain, NC has announced that he and his wife have switched parties to the GOP. Rick Murphrey told the Shelby Star, that he has been a registered Democrat since his 18th birthday.

MS:

Clarion Ledger: 7 local elected officials switch to GOP:

A sheriff in central Mississippi said Wednesday he’s switching from Democrat to Republican because of President Barack Obama’s support of same-sex marriage.

***

State Republican Party chairman Joe Nosef announced during the news conference that Waggoner and Newton County Sheriff Jackie Knight are among seven local officials switching to the GOP. The others were a Justice Court judge and a constable from Jones County and the coroner, a supervisor and a Justice Court judge from Leake County.

AL:

Tuscaloosa News: Ala. Rep. Alan Harper switches to Republican Party

TUSCALOOSA | State Rep. Alan Harper of Aliceville is switching to the Republican Party.

Harper, who was selected Monday night to be Northport’s economic development director, has been a Democrat throughout his time in the Legislature. He was first elected to represent District 61 in the House in 2006 and was re-elected in 2010.

“This is a decision that has taken many months of deliberation and thought,” Harper said. “In the end, I made the decision because it is best for District 61. I was elected to serve my district to the best of my ability and this decision reflects that.”

GA:

Georgia Tipsheet: Georgia Democrats hemorrhaging rural pols in ballot qualifying:

Fomenting a political trend long in the works, rural Georgia Democrats are defecting wholesale their one-time Dixie powerhouse in this week’s ballot qualifications. Bleckley County’s partisan pols have near-unanimously filed for reelection Wednesday as Republicans. All countywide Democratic elected officials officials save for surveyor have broken rank with the party.

Their names and offices listed at the link.

Georgia Tipsheet: Three Democratic DA’s file for reelection under GOP banner:

Ballot qualifying has produced at least three party defections for Georgia Democrats.

Democratic District Attorneys Cathy Helms, Bob Lavender and Paul Bowden have all filed for reelection as Republicans, according to qualifying reports from the Secretary of State’s office.

UPDATE: Today’s bloodletting continues for rural Peach State Democrats. A host of local officials have jumped parties in Franklin, Hart and Stephens counties, boosting today’s defection rate to at least 10.

At GA Political Review, a pundit asks, Is Georgia’s Democratic Party Dying?

From the election of James M. Smith in 1872 until the failed re-election campaign of Roy Barnes in 2002, Georgia had a Democrat in the Governor’s Mansion (three mansions, in fact). Democrats controlled both houses of the General Assembly from 1891 to 2003, and the state swung for the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate consistently from 1868 until 1960. During this time, Democratic primaries generally decided who ultimately won elections, as the Democratic nominees rarely if ever faced quality challengers from another party.

Following this long reign, the Democratic Party began slipping – slowly at first, but eventually snowballing. Now it is easy to forget that the Republican stronghold of Georgia was not long ago considered a Democratic base. Despite this, President Barack Obama’s campaign is determined to make Georgia a battleground state in hopes of winning Georgia’s first Democratic victory in a presidential election since 1992.

Are the odds stacked against a Democratic resurgence in the state in 2012? Does the Republican Party have as strong a hold on the state of Georgia as the Democrats once had? Most importantly, is the Democratic Party of Georgia dying?

For more on the sad state of affairs for Dems in Georgia, see GaPundit: Georgia Politics, Campaigns, Elections, for May 31, 2012.

Keep in mind, I haven’t done an exhaustive state by state search for party defections – these are just the ones that jumped out at me.

Is anything similar happening on the Republican side? A Google search brings up very few examples like City Councilman in Queens, NY switching to Democrat, last January:

Peter Koo, one of only five Republicans on the 51-member City Council, is set to announce early next week that he will switch parties to become a Democrat, according to people briefed on the decision.

It’s not happening on a large scale in the Republican party like it is in the Democrat party.

No doubt the Blue Dogs who are leaving the party feel more like the party left them. In a way, they’re right. The Democrat Party has been morphing into the Democrat Socialists of America for many years, now. Under Obama, the transformation appears to be complete.

Linked by Hyscience, and Truth Before Dishonor, and Small Dead Animals, thanks!

Fox’s Anti Obama Ad: “Hope and Change”

May, 30, 2012 by nicedeb

You know it must be good because Media Mutters is spitting mad about it: Fox’s Anti-Obama Attack Ad (Huff!) Is Nearly (Huff!) $100,000 In Free Advertising (Huff!) For GOP (Spit!) — is only one of the many articles they’ve posted already about the new ad.

40 different laws probably broken, here. Enjoy it while you can.

Some hand-wringing from Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

Note that F&F isn’t just playing a campaign ad or a YouTube spot from an outside political action committee. Nor does this come from the production company of one of its opinion-program hosts. The video starts with “Fox and Friends Presents” on the screen, making this an explicit argument from the news channel itself.

Should a news organization produce and publish attack ads like this? I know the initial response will be that other news organizations offer biased perspectives and hagiographies of Obama that go well beyond a single video … and that response is entirely valid. However, we usually criticize that kind of behavior with other news organizations, too. If anyone wanted to look for evidence that the overall Fox News organization intends to campaign against Obama rather than cover the campaign, this video would be difficult to refute as evidence for that claim.

If we didn’t live in a world where a major motion picture can be produced using White House talking points about a President’s “gutsy call” and originally set to be released right before the November election, I might be bothered.

And given the fact that Fox and Friends is an opinion show, and the other news channels are virtually running free Obama Campaign ads with their 24/7 sycophantic Obama-friendly coverage — it doesn’t bother me, at all.

See also:

Legal Insurrection: Network shamelessly produces campaign advertisement

Doggone it. Looks like conservative Tweeps were mocking @mma hours before I was….

Twitchy: Our aching sides: Media Matters whines about media bias against Obama

Linked by Legal Insurrection and Michelle Malkin, and The Other McCain, thanks!

Why Is Holder Briefing Black Pastors on Campaign 2012?

May, 30, 2012 by nicedeb

image via Weasel Zippers

The news is taking on an almost surreal quality of late – can this really be happening in America?

Via The Blaze: Eric Holder and IRS Administrators Due to Advise Hundreds of African-American Pastors on How to Best Participate in 2012 Election:

Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri revealed on MSNBC Tuesday that lawyers from the ACLU, IRS administrators, and even Attorney General Eric Holder will soon be speaking with hundreds of pastors in the African-American community on how they can best comport themselves throughout the 2012 election.

(Related: Obama Does Damage Control Among Christian Pastors Following Gay Marriage Endorsement)

“We will have representatives from nine denominations who actually pastor somewhere in the neighborhood of about 10 million people,” he said, “and we’re going to first of all equip them with the information they need to know about what they can say and what they cannot say in the church that would violate their 501c3 status with the IRS.” [Emphasis added]

While they won’t specifically tell people whom to vote for, the respected speakers will discuss “draconian” (hint) voter identification laws, and the Congressional Black Caucus expects the move will only help the Obama’s campaign.

No they won’t tell people who to vote for. That will be understood. (wink-wink).

This is the same Attorney General who dropped charges of voter intimidation by the New Black Panthers because it “demeans [his] people” despite the the fact that a crime had been committed.

Ace asks a rhetorical question:

Do the DoJ and IRS represent one political party, or all citizens?

Hahaha. Good one.

He suggests that “similarly-situated conservative-leaning pastors should band together and demand a similar briefing from high government officials.”

But of course the purpose of the briefings is not to advise pastors of what they’re allowed to say in church….what does the Obama administration care about how a liberal Pastor comports himself in church? We’ve got a President who sat in Reverend “G** damn the US of KKK-A” Wright’s church for twenty years, for crying out loud. During the 2008 primaries, he joked in church about Obama’s Democrat opponent’s hubby “riding dirty!” with Monica Lewinsky.

As if they are in any way sensitive to a church’s political etiquette.

The idea is to inflame their congregants. Cleaver gave away the real motive when he brought up “draconian voter ID laws” which Democrat race hustlers call racist because they supposedly disenfranchise blacks who can’t be bothered with getting IDs.

This has been a major theme of Holder’s for some time.

Last year, John Hinderaker of Powerline kept a watchful eye on the Obama administration’s efforts in consort with far-left organizations (including CPUSA) to demonize and frustrate the states’ efforts to protect ballot integrity by preventing voter fraud. See his posts here and here for background.

In a major speech in Austin, TX, last December, Holder laid down the markers. DOJ whistleblower J Christian Adams wrote at the time:

He supported restrictions on political speech which will criminalize campaign falsehoods. He vowed hyper-scrutiny of voter integrity laws such as voter ID and vowed to run states like Texas through a nasty gauntlet on redistricting. If this doesn’t send a signal to Texas and South Carolina to pull their Voter ID laws out of Justice and go to court, nothing else will. Also in attendance was Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez, a staring character in my book Injustice.

As you may remember, he and Valerie Jarrett grossly politicized MLK Day back in January. A CBS Atlanta reporter said the church service Jarrett spoke at sounded like a political rally. I said at the time, “we haven’t seen political propaganda this obnoxious, spoken from the pulpit, since Jeremiah Wright. It’s feeling like 2008 all over again.”

Eric Holder, speaking at MLK Day event in Columbia, SC, used the day as a pretense to blast “draconian” voter ID laws.

(Politico) — Attorney General Eric Holder used Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy on the anniversary of the civil rights leader’s birthday Monday to emphasize the Obama administration’s dedication to protecting the American people from discriminatory voting practices.

“Despite our nation’s record of progress, and long tradition of extending voting rights – today, a growing number of citizens are worried about the same disparities, divisions, and problems that Dr. King fought throughout his life to address and overcome,” Holder said at an MLK Day event in Columbia, S.C.

Holder’s remarks in the Palmetto State come just weeks after the Justice Department blocked the state’s new voter ID law from taking effect, citing an unfair burden on minority voters.

Make no mistake – this has nothing to do with protecting a church’s 501c3 status. No liberal black church is in danger of losing that under an Obama administration.

That’s just a fig leaf to cover the Obama administration’s divide and conquer campaign strategy. They need every single black vote they can get on election day, and they plan to do that by rallying the troops where they meet on Sundays. They’ll do that by demonizing Republicans who stand for voter integrity.

Here’s the only advice Holder needs to give the black community. If you want to vote, get a valid state ID. It’s really not that complicated.

Take a bow, you gatekeepers in the media! You have done your jobs well.

Redstate: DOJ Not Even Pretending to be Nonpartisan Anymore

Obama Awards Medal of Freedom to a Socialist — Again

May, 30, 2012 by nicedeb

It used to be that there was a certain amount of stigma attached to being a Socialist in this country- but to our first Socialist President it is resume enhancer.

He awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Tuesday to Dolores Huerta, an 82-year-old labor activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers union. She’s also a board member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

The Discover the Networks profile on Huerta:

Co-founder and First Vice President Emeritus of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO (“UFW”)

Board member of the Democratic Socialists of America

Founding board member of the Feminist Majority

Board member of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

Opposes War on Terror

“It’s always been a part of U.S. foreign policy to first put a dictator in power and than to get rid of him.”

The Foundry reported:

Huerta is also an honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America.

DSA describes itself as “the largest socialist organization in the United States, and the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International.”

Huerta has claimed, “Republicans hate Latinos,” and has spoken fondly of Hugo Chavez’s despotic regime in Venezuela.

The Medal of Freedom is awarded to individuals who have made “especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

This isn’t the first time Obama has awarded a Socialist with the Medal of Freedom.

In August of ’09, he awarded the medal to Sidney Poitier, who was described as a “classic poolside Socialist”, after the actor had publicly recommended that the salaries of CEOs everywhere be capped to $500,000 per year.

And in 2010, Obama named AFL-CIO President Emeritus John Sweeney a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Sweeney is an advocate of European-style democratic socialism. He has opened the AFL-CIO to participation by delegates openly linked to the Communist Party, which enthusiastically backed his ascent. The U.S. Communist Party [CPUSA] says it is now ‘in complete accord’ with the AFL-CIO’s program.

Three and a half years into this disastrous Presidency, it’s hard to be shocked by anything he does, anymore.

SEE ALSO:

More on how the important Medal of Freedom ceremony was “upstaged by ignorance and incompetence”:

The All American Blogger: Smartest President Ever Screws Up Awards Ceremony and Insults An Entire Culture In One Swift Move

While posthumously awarding Jan Karski the Medal of Freedom, he referred to Nazi Concentration Camps located in Poland during World War II as “Polish Death Camps.”

The Poles took offense, and rightly so…

Yeah, he’s definitely got his “cool” back.

UPDATE:

The Right Scoop: Rush Limbaugh: Awarding a professed Marxist the Presidential Medal of Freedom tells us who Obama really is

Linked by Michelle Malkin, thanks!

PREVIOUSLY:

Uncovered Ad Shows Obama Appeared At 1996 Event Hosted By Democratic Socialists of America

Don’t Let the Organized Left’s Charges of “McCarthyism” Deter You – Allen West Is Right

The First Time The Ayers Family’s Mailman Heard of Barack

An Obama Ally Weighs In On America’s Journey To A “Democratic, Economically Just, Egalitarian, Ecological, and Peaceful” Society

New Ben Howe Video: Two Paths

May, 29, 2012 by nicedeb

” There are two paths! There are two paths! Anyone that’s willing to stand next to me in the fight against the progressive left, I will be in that bunker…and if you’re not in that bunker because you’re not satisfied with this candidate – more than shame on you – you’re on the other side.”

I watched the late, great Andrew Breitbart give this admonishment to fellow conservatives at CPAC 2012, last February. And I couldn’t have agreed more – in fact I may have let out a little whoop!

The purpose of this excellent Ben Howe video is back up our beloved “conservative Pied Piper” by reminding us what that other side is all about: