Time for Change: Gov’t Must Address Lawlessness Uncovered by Christopher Coates
Friday’s testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights by Christopher Coates — a career Justice Department lawyer and supervisor — knocked down the Potemkin Village that the Obama administration has built to obscure why Justice officials dismissed a voter-intimidation case against two members of New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia.
Coates, former chief of the Voting Section in the Civil Rights Division, testified that Justice officials purposefully dropped the New Black Panthers case because they didn’t want to enforce the Voting Rights Act against minority defendants accused of violating the law.
Coates’ sworn testimony to the independent Civil Rights Commission supported accusations made previously in testimony by J. Christian Adams, a former career lawyer in the Voting Section.
In a long and detailed opening statement, Coates sought to confirm the truth of Adams’ charges.
Most disturbing was Coates’ description of a culture of animus within the Civil Rights Division toward race-neutral enforcement of federal voting rights laws. He described an atmosphere of harassment directed at lawyers and paralegals who worked on the NBPP case, and on an earlier case filed in Noxubee, Mississippi, against Ike Brown, a twice-convicted felon and political activist who runs Noxubee County. Like the defendants in the Philadelphia case, he is black.
Lawyers and other staff within the Voting Section also refused to work on the Brown case, Coates testified, because they did not believe the Justice Department should prosecute blacks or other racial minorities — no matter what law they violated. Coates testified that he had complained about this attitude and unwritten policy to Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Thomas Perez, a political appointee.
When Perez testified before the Civil Rights Commission, he said no such policy or problem existed.
Coates, in a lawyerly manner, dismantled the Obama administration’s justifications for dismissing the case against the New Black Panthers accused of intimidating white voters on Election Day 2008:
To understand the irrationality of these articulated reasons for gutting this case, one only has to state the facts in the racial reverse.
Assume that two members of the KKK, one of which lived in an apartment building that was being used as a polling place, showed up at the entrance in KKK uniform, and that one of the Klansman was carrying a billy stick. Further assume that the two Klansmen were yelling racial slurs at black voters who were a minority of people registered to vote at this polling place, and the Klansmen were blocking ingress to the polling place. Assume further that a local policeman comes on the scene and determines that the Klansman with the billy club must leave, but that the other Klansman could stay because he was certified as a poll watcher for a local political party.
In those circumstances does anyone seriously believe that the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights would contend that on the basis of the facts and law, the CRD [Civil Rights Division] did not have a case under the VRA [Voting Rights Act] against this hypothetical Klansman because … he was allowed to stay at the polling place by a local police officer because he was a poll watcher?
I certainly hope Mr. Perez would not find that hypothetical case lacking in merit, and I will guarantee you that Ms. King, Mr. Rosenbaum, Mr. Kappelhoff, and Ms. Clarke would not either. However, such reasons are a part of the publicly articulated grounds for the CRD’s decision to instruct me to dismiss a significant portion of the NBPP case.
Coates also recounted directives received from political appointee Julie Fernandes, deputy assistant attorney general for Civil Rights. He supported Adams’ testimony that Fernandes made it clear in meetings with Voting Section staff that the Obama administration was interested only in filing “traditional types” of voting rights cases that would “provide political equality for racial and language minority voters.” Coates testified that everyone in the room understood what that meant: “No more cases like the Ike Brown or NBPP cases.”
Coates also testified that in another meeting with Voting Section staff, Fernandes said the Obama administration was not interested in enforcing the provision of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act that requires states to maintain voter registration lists by regularly removing ineligible voters — for instance, the names of voters who have died or moved away.
In September 2009, Coates testified, he sent a memorandum to Fernandes and the “Front Office” of the Civil Rights Division (the assistant attorney general’s political staff) in which he recommended opening investigations of eight states that appeared to be in non-compliance with the list-maintenance procedures. He did not get approval for the project, and it has yet to be acted on, Coates said — suggesting political appointees are not pursuing possible violations of law.
Prosecutorial discretion does not allow prosecutors “to decide not to do any enforcement of a law enacted by Congress because political appointees determined that they are not interested in enforcing the law,” Coates testified. “That is an abuse of prosecutorial discretion.”
Coates made another incident public for the first time. He testified that when he became chief of the Voting Section in 2008, he began asking job applicants a new question after seeing experienced employees refuse to work on the Ike Brown case. He would ask applicants “whether they would be willing to work on cases that involved claims of racial discrimination against white voters, as well as cases that involved claims of discrimination against minority voters,” Coates testified.
Coates added that he “did not want to hire people who were politically or ideologically opposed to the equal enforcement of the voting statues the Voting Section is charged with enforcing.”
When Loretta King was named acting assistant attorney general for Civil Rights after President Obama’s inauguration, Coates testified, she called him to her office. King had heard about the question Coates was asking. She “specifically instructed” Coates that he “was not to ask any other applicants whether they would be wiling to, in effect, race-neutrally enforce the VRA.”
King took offense that Coates was asking that question, he testified, “because she [did] not support equal enforcement of the provision of the VRA and had been highly critical of the filing and civil prosecution of the Ike Brown case.”
Coates, a veteran voting rights litigator whose awards include honors from the NAACP, testified that he believes King, Fernandes, and other lawyers within Justice violated their oath to faithfully execute the law when they selectively enforced the Voting Rights Act based on the race of the victim and the perpetrator.
Biased enforcement, he testified, will encourage violations by election officials who happen to be minorities, because they will not fear repercussions from the Justice Department. In our “increasingly multiethnic society, that is a clear recipe to undermine the public’s confidence in the legitimacy of our electoral process,” he told the commission.
Unless senior officials at Justice take steps to repudiate such policies, they will destroy public confidence in the legitimacy of the Civil Rights Division’s enforcement of voting rights laws, and its stewardship of the election process. If Fernandes and King have the views described by Coates, they should resign or be fired. And Perez has a responsibility to explain why he misinformed the Civil Rights Commission and why he took no steps to investigate problems Coates identified to him.
The public needs to know that such policies are not approved by Obama appointees within the Justice Department. Because if it is the case, Americans will hold the highest officials of the Obama administration to account.
The public needs to know that such policies are not approved by Obama appointees within the Justice Department. Because if it is the case, Americans will hold the highest officials of the Obama administration to account.
Really? Will this include the same 50+ million people that elected him..?
There is blood in the water now and in spite of Congressman Wolf’s warning to DOJ look for some very vicious paybacks shortly.
How does Obama restore trust in the DOJ, other than by firing Holder? The vaunted post-racial administration is racist.
So lets see the Black Racist Attorney General running the Racist DOJ refuses to prosecute the Black Panthers or indeed ANY Black on White crimes and this is sanctioned and approved by the Black Racist in the White House who at the same time has the Racist Black Panther over for dinner.
This stinks and so does the White House impeach this Racist usurper now.
This story was dead before Coats or Christian ever opened their mouths.
Thats why he testifies on a FRIDAY, to be obscured by weekend sports news. Or, hopefully for the MSM, maybe a police shooting of a minority, or impending execution of a black man in California will become the main news story on “race relations” for the rest of the season.
If that doesn’t pan out, something will be “fitted” to the narrative, I’m sure.
This “story” is no story at all….its the same expected behavior we get from the Left, time and time again.
The “outrage” over it is going to what, open any eyes to something new?
Go to any college campus, and see what truth or fairness means in the last 20 years. One set of behavior (often violent, usually bigoted) encouragement by the administration to shut down debate and de-legitimatize the other side.
If a murderer like Che’ is cool enough to be a hipster role model on campus, throughout Hollywood and the MSM am who gives a rats ass about some angry blacks at election time?
The media? Its their RIGHT to be angry according to them.
Please, get a grip.
If the President can hang out with a known, admitted BOMB PLANTER, whats a little racial intimidation in a majorly black city like Philly going to mean to anyone?
I LIVE near Philly, blatant racially motivated (black on whomever) violence is tolerated in the schools and on the streets, because “thats how it is”, and NOBODY has the guts to say anything, lest they be called “racists”
This story is, unfortunately, a tempest in a “tea party” cup.
Its only FOX, that racist “non-news” entity that keeps it going, like all their racist coverage of poor Rev. Wright
Come Monday, it will be gone….
I’m sorry did i say gone?
How can something be gone if it never “WAS” at all?
Your statement is both unhinged and nonsensical.
One example. You first apparently decry the bias of the MSM:
Then you turn around and bash Fox:
In short, your rant reeks of desperation. Could it be that you see the wheels coming off your party’s totalitarian “transformation” of America, and that it scares the living c**p out of you?
While I agree that it was poorly worded, I took Root ’83′s line about Fox News to be a paraphrase of liberal views of Fox News, NOT an endorsement of those views.
It’s obvious he was being sarcastic/sardonic on the subject of Fox. Please don’t give lectures about ‘unhinged’ and the rest. You, along with Blotto and a few others here, are the resident ‘It’s all the Jews’ fault that we can’t get rid of Obama and the Democrats.’ Hinge yourself, then start pointing fingers and name-calling. Better yet, stop worshiping false idols, stop praying to the G-d of Conservatism and deal with your own junk.
UMMM….My comments might have been a little over your head…
My rant was not against FOX, I was staking out the position the MSM would take in order to discredit FOX, and anyone else who diverges from their standard narrative.
Its my belief that is state of affairs in this country vis a vis Political Correctness.
Read it again, you’ll probably get it this time
Hmmm… I guess you should try reading that again….
I wasnt blaming Fox, I was illustrating the hopelessness of this story getting anywhere, by staking out the expected position of the MSM.
Its a NON STORY to the media, it happened on a Friday, It will be gone before Monday.
Like the recent Bill Ayres Story, how many “news” sources outside “the usual suspects” will mention his book was dedicated to Sirhan Sirhan, and Kennedys son led the vote?
A friend and confidant of the POTUS, dedicating a book to a political assassin?
Will get about the same in depth coverage as these two WHITE GUYS complaining about black racism.
It’s not gone, it’s pushed underground. It’s poisoning the wells. We have Glenn Beck celebrating Martin Luther King and the “civil rights movement” condemning Beck, Tea Partiers, Republicans, Americans, Whites, anyone not aligned with their leftist agenda. What’s going to happen, if White Americans determine that “Civil Rights” was just a scam to start race discrimination against Whites? Just a scam to tax Whites for the benefit of Blacks (better said their Black and White power brokers)? That Obama is the most racist President, since Woodrow Wilson, that other Progressive bookend?The charge of racism has already be neutered, it’s meaningless now. Which opens the way for true racists to be legitimized and come to the fore. Thank you “civil rights movement”, progressives, liberals and the criminal Democrat Party.We’ll remember this November and we are not going to forget. The Tea Party is not through in November, it’s just starting.
You are exactly correct. and we of the Tea Party are not going anywhere…after November, we WIll watch and learn just Who is on Americas team, and who is not. We wll be there in 2012 and beyond as well. We are just getting started.
Even tho the Obama, Reid and Pelost et.al. with the help of the MSM are doing all they can to bury this, This is Nuclear…they will not be able to on Nov. 3rd.
We Must return Washington and our goverment to ‘We the People’
Boy, do you ever have it right. Every point.
I LIVE near Philly, blatant racially motivated (black on whomever) violence is tolerated in the schools and on the streets,
White on black violence was once tolerated in the Deep South because that’s “just the way it is” but the Times They Are A Changin.
Even the Inquirer has started mentioning race in the school beating stories.
Great…Mentioned…MENTIONED, boy that makes a racial attack more palatable.
How about federal civil rights prosecutions?
How about marches in the streets…
Oh, thats right, the perps were BLACK, the victims were NOT black.
In Philly, “mentioned” has to suffice for JUSTICE.
“Unless senior officials at Justice take steps to repudiate such policies, they will destroy public confidence in the legitimacy of the Civil Rights Division’s enforcement of voting rights laws, and its stewardship of the election process.”
Unless?!?
I don’t know about the rest of the public, but Washington state, Al Franken, and pretty much everything since 2007 has done it for me. “If it’s not close, they can’t cheat” — and the CRD is institutionalized cheating.
There need to be indictments, jail time, and disbarments. Instead, we’ll get a media embargo, confusion, and delay.
“Unless senior officials at Justice take steps to repudiate such policies, they will destroy public confidence in the legitimacy of the Civil Rights Division’s enforcement of voting rights laws,…”
Whoops. I think that ship has already sailed. As of about noon eastern time today.
“refudiate”
Yeah, refudiate, because it will give a lot of liberals nose bleeds that they deserve.
“Unless senior officials at Justice take steps to repudiate such policies, they will destroy public confidence in the legitimacy of the Civil Rights Division’s enforcement of voting rights laws, and its stewardship of the election process.”
Too late. This, and other incidents, have totally destroyed it’s credibility, and it’s legitimacy in prosecuting any violations of any laws.
Ace at AoSHQ has an interesting take on the subject:
“Laws can be struck, and convictions overturned, for different reasons.
If a law violates the Equal Protection Clause by containing a racially discriminatory element in its very text, it gets knocked down as being ‘facially’ discriminatory. Impermissibly discriminatory ‘on its face.’
But a lot of laws get struck down not for containing some obvious on-its-face discriminatory element, but for being discriminatory ‘as applied.’ If a law purporting to neutrally require ID from all voters is usually only applied to Hispanic voters, or black voters, or even white voters, it can be knocked down, and all prosecutions secured under it overturned, as being discriminatory ‘as applied.’
The incompetence here, and pathological payback punitive racism, is therefore astounding. For even if one ‘understands’ why some people would only want to prosecute whites under this law, you’d have to be incompetent to not realize that actually implementing that policy could result in all of your prosecutions of white malefactors being overturned due to discriminatory purpose as applied.
So even if all you want to do is prosecute whites, and don’t give a fig if white voters are being intimidated by blacks in places where blacks have the power to do so, you still have to go ahead and do that unless you want to bring the entire law crashing down and set loose all your white criminals too.
This is a very basic thing; it’s a Kevin Pollack situation: Were you absent the day they taught law in law school?”
Root ’83 in in full denial. When a senior career attorney with impeccable credential defies his line of command at the DOJ, you cannot ignore his testimony. The commissioner who was systematically (and clumsily) trying to discredit the witness only made a fool of himself. Who is going to unscramble these eggs? They may use all the smear tactics and all the delaying tactics in the book and beyond, but the cat is out of the bag. Who can erase the Christopher Coates written testimony?
Could the opposition research dream of a more prolific gold mine at this particular juncture? How can the dots not be connected with Malik Shabazz name on the White House visitor’s list?
Guvinoff, Root ’83′s piece has irony and sarcasm that might go a little wide of the mark with some, but he’s on target.
DOJ most certainly CAN ignore the testimony as they’ve ignored all past criticism.
The “opposition research team” you refer to does not exist. They’re either chicken, already co-opted or too dirty themselves — have you ever heard from them before?
And anyway, MTV et al won’t let it get to the mouth-breathing indoctrinees, so it won’t affect the vote. And the =:obambagang will only laugh. It’s over, you know.
DoJ can ignore the testimony, but will the voters let it go?
Time for change at the CNN too. Klein is gone, but i still doubt they will report the news.
Our Department of Selective Justice
. . . Adams’ charges needed no collaboration; his record and reputation spoke for themselves. However, now they have been seconded in spades by an equally-well respected DOJ prosecuter, Christopher Coates.
Coates ”defied his superiors by testifying at a U.S. Civil Rights Commission hearing Friday, where he leveled an explosive allegation: Top officials in the department gutted a voter intimidation case against a fringe African American militant group [the New Black Panther Party] because the suspects were black and their alleged victims were white.”
Coates went even further, saying that, “the downgrading of the case against the New Black Panther Party was evidence of a Justice Department culture which discouraged ‘race neutral’ enforcement of civil rights laws, frowned on prosecuting minority perpetrators and folded under pressure from black and Latino rights groups. After President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder took office, the culture intensified.”
In Coates’ own words, “They [the Department of Justice] have not pursued the goal of equal protection of the law for all people:” http://tiny.cc/jihx8 . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1960)
I don’t think we’re at the ‘restore the public trust’ stage in this narrative. We should be at the kick posterier and take names house cleaning stage, then get around to reassuring everyone. Have been watching this story unfold on PM for some time, but I still feel astonished as Coates holds the curtain back and we see the ugliness. I appreciate that at least someone is telling the story and giving us a chance to see.
Remember when Bush was accused of politicizing the justice department because Gonzales replaced about 7 federal attornys? Of course Clinton sacked 70 attornys and he was exercizing executive perogative.
Lets get real. We knew that Holder was a terrorist sympathizer. We knew of the associations of this president with the left. You know elections have consequences..Duh!!
This behavior will not end until all these rotten scum bags are thrown out of office. We need ethical people in government and you can bet that these losers don’t give a crap about the white man’s constitution.
I really do not know where to start. You could see this coming as far back as the Clinton years. The Democrats are ruthless and power hungry and willing to do anything to have their way and the other party does not have the guts to stand up to them.Starting back with Ruby Ridge and really going at Waco we saw the killing of innocent children at the hands of our government. We saw a Congress cover it up.I have no doubts as to the last 48 years as to the government running amuk over white America and I truly believe that. We are paying for the sins of great,great grandparents.This preferential treatment does not solve anything it only gives the lawless more room to operate.I started watching a TV show called Outlaw and I love Jimmy Smits acting but it is like all the old Law & Order shows it has a line of propaganda to spew.America is being fed a line of crap and lies and by browbeating us they can makes us feel guilty and allow them to do what they please. If it were not for my children and grand children I would say the hell with it, America is not worth saving anymore.Call me what you like but White America is being persecuted in such a vindictive way it is unreal.
James: I am in complete agreement with you. The white left who hates America have used the marxist dogma of separating the races and pitting them against each other here in America in order for his communist acolytes of today to come to power. It has worked beautifully.
White progressives/communists have used blacks and hispanics to gain power by giving them untold riches stolen from white Americans.
Odummer and his administration and this Congress are the epitome of these many decades of work by the left. They are the culmination of these efforts to destroy America.
I am not advocating for a return to Jim Crow days. But I am advocating for a return to merit and the discontinuation of blacks being preferred for jobs, education, contracts and advancement in rank and responsibility. I am saying that white Americans not be treated as second class citizens in a country they made into the greatest nation on earth. I am saying I want an end to racial preferences, an end to DOJ racialism for blacks and against white Americans. I am saying I want an end to equality of outcomes and advocate equality of opportunity. I am saying I want an end to the white progressives covering up for black crime, anti-social and boderline psychotic and tribal behavior and crime against white Americans; I am saying I want an end to the threats by the NAACP, SPLC and other hostile groups against white Americans and the further denigration of white America.
Finally I am saying I want an end to the multiculturalism that is downgrading our American culture; and end to hyphenated-Americans; an end to illegal immigration and benefitting them with our hard earned money and resources and finally an end to America bending over backwards for people who do not want to assimilate into our culture but want us to assimilate into theirs. If you don’t want to be American then leave.
Think this will happen? Neither do I. Only another civil war will make it happen. As long as the left controls everything, white Americans and America will continue to be degraded until we reach third world status.
There is a reason for the abysmally low trustworthiness ratings of today’s supposedly “most ethical” Congress, there is a reason why Barack Hussain Obama’s “post-racial” Presidency is perceived by increasing numbers of Americans as racist, anti-White, anti-Christian (and pro-Muslim) both at its core and at its perimeter, and, now, here is unmistakable evidence–from a highly regarded and decorated career employee who is an eye-witness and an insider–of the corruption and bias that infects and permeates the Obama DOJ; apparently many of the people running and staffing the DOJ are merely a higher order of criminals, crooks with degrees and pricey suits.
Is it any wonder that the American people are increasingly loosing faith in the entire Obama regime and in Obama & Co.’s false and twisted versions of “Equity” and “Democracy?”
It is long past time to clean out the “Augean Stables,” to flush out the stinking offal of this regime, time to take the first steps in November to bring this whole corrupt, far Left, Democrat edifice crashing down.
Where the heck is our ubiquitous poll-watcher, Jimmah Carter, defender of voters’ rights a around the world?
…that is funny.
me thinks he would need to remove his head from his ..s to answer that question.
Nah…it’s much easier if he drilled a couple holes through his abdominal wall to see more clearly…ya think?
If you are not perpared to vote, are you prepared to shoot?
Everyone:
Check and see if you can still become an official poll watcher in your state. If you can, do so. Take concealed audio and video equipment to every stage of the process. If possible, make it streaming audio and video to an external server. Fraud will be rampant. We need to document as much of it as possible.
Eric Holder should be impeached. Surely such perfidy qualifies as high crimes and misdemeanors.
Almost as upsetting as the travesty of justice in the NBPP case is that some states are, intentionally, ignoring the section of the voting rights act that requires them to clean up their voting rolls.
(This is so ACORN voters can cast multiple votes (again) and even some dead goldfish can get in on the deal)
(Coates) also indicted Missouri’s Robin Carnahan during his testimony. He told the commission that Robin Carnahan refused to clear dead people from the voter rolls in Missouri.
Carnahan is running for Senator from Missouri.
This section of the article jumped out at me:
“..the Obama administration was not interested in enforcing the provision of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act that requires states to maintain voter registration lists by regularly removing ineligible voters — for instance, the names of voters who have died or moved away.”
If there is no continual removal of such former voter names, there must be a “usable” list that is continually being compiled, else, why be concerned… just let the names “reside” un-used (i.e. without votes of these former voters being cast.)
What then, would be the “purpose” of allowing them to remain… as a useful factor in some politically expedient statistical analysis?
Or more insidiously, is there a possiblitiy that some “trusted individuals” or political entities in every American locality “maintain” such lists “for a purpose”?
If that purpose is to systematically “salt” elections polls results with election-changing votes cast “on behalf” of dead or absent, formerly registered voters, there is a much greater voting fraud conspiracy afoot… one that “poisons the electoral well” of every voting district in our republic. Such lists must of necessity be maintained by one or more individuals with the ongoing “blessings” of others who condone the practice. Each and everyone of these fellow conspirators are “guilty” of voter fraud.
If this conspiritorial practice is allowed to remain “un-discovered” by those who are commissioned to “police the process,” or un-reported by honest and objective (not partisan) investigative reporters, or “tabled” by government-funded, duly-directed, contitutionally-mandated, non-corrupted civil servants, our republic is already “lost.” Our “Grand Experiment” can be written off as a failure.
If there are such lists…. those in evey voter precinct who are compiling them and “using them” should be found, procecuted, and jailed. There should be no “mistakes were made” defenses. The jail cells in every jurisdiction should be established in such a way as to provide an un-fettered public viewing of the culprits (in the same way as miscreants were once displayed in public stocks.)
You expect the Obama Regime to clean up the DOJ? What a joke!!!
With the felons occupying the Congress and White House at this time, We The People have the nuts running the nut house. Madame Pelosi acting as dominatrix over the House, and Harry Reid in Congress.
Our recent history is going to make someone rich when they make a movie out of it. Great comedy.
I have first hand, documented evidence of the selective/biased enforcement of EEO statutes from as far back as the 1980′s. Discrimination against white employees was, and still is, rampant in U.S. Government employment.
All ethnic based legislation should be repealed, and basic enforcement of the Constitution would implement equal treatment for all employment, and employment conditions.
The EEO statutes, Voting Rights Act, as being implemented and enforced at this time is totally un-Constitutional.
The Dem strategy of having a narcissistic comedian testify the same day as Coates, was you’d have to admit, pretty smart. It gave the MSM something else to talk about; they couldn’t be happier. Even DRUDGE has the Colbert story at top for 2 days and Coates buried somewhere.
I listened to Mr. Coates on TV, a lengthy, detailed, exacting, and tragic testimony of a man, who is risking his entire career to expose illegality in the US Department of Justice. He is a peer of those who took a bullet at Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, Omaha Beach, or Khe Sanh, he has put it on the line for our country. The consummate professional, he walked a razor’s edge of protecting the legal mandate that prosecuting attorneys must never try a case in the press. He repeatedly declined to divulge DOJ secrets, in honor of his oath of office. By his rigor, he proved, beyond a shadow of doubt, that the DOJ Civil Rights Division is knowingly not obeying the law. They are openly hostile to any civil rights case in which the victim is white. And they refuse to police fraudulent voter registration cases, e.g. whereby 130% of the eligible voters are on the approved lists. If dead people vote, you get the caliper of office holders, we now enjoy.
We are not far from the Nazi brown shirts, when thugs with clubs block the doorway to the election booths, and shout threats of violence at entering voters, but our government invents absurdities to excuse their conduct, e.g. they live upstairs.
We walk a dark road in America.
these criminals have been entrenched in the government well before Regan. we are still suffering the damage of Carter.
I venture that nothing will happen to anyone in the DOJ. Holder proved his bias with Clinton.
To fix this would require mass criminal charges (most unlikely) and a clean sweep of government workers with open biases (even less likely).
The problem with Republicans and conservatives is they think they can work with the progressives and liberals. not unlike obama thinks he can work with rogue nations.
As long as you lie still and take it, you’re just going to get the boot in the other side of the head. The more people are out in the streets, the more the fence sitters will be convinced to join the fight. Support the tea party demonstrations!
without doubt that is what will happen. I sincerely hope that a new congress has the stomach to go on the offensive and return to the constitution.
…..it hasn’t happened in the past. Republican administrations had difficulty holding the status quo while in office largely because of non elected government employees.
look how O’Donnell’s win in Delaware has brought some prominent republicans out as elitists. It is not just Gergen and Brooks and Frum who are left of centre in US politics.
“entrenched” is right. Not since Carter.
Since Bibbity-Bobbity Kennedy, JFK’s brother and USA’s AG.
1960′s live! And it’s killing us.
tanstaafl: I would say that Holder needs to be FIRED, and if he is not, it is obama who should be impeached. obama has accomplished two thing in his short tenure. He has destroyed the Democrat party, and, unfortunately, he has made the majority of the country extremely distrustful of black politicians. I doubt that another black will be elected to the Presidency in my lifetime, though there are many for whom I would gladly vote.
Americans will hold the highest officials of the Obama administration to account. Really? Will this include the same 50+ million people that elected him..?
Yes, really. Most of that 50 million are the sorts that fought for race-blind civil rights laws in the 60s and 70s. They are the ‘independent’ voters who try to decide on the merits of issues, instead of running on knee-jerk obedience to party leaders. Partly because of the media-induced hatred of GWB, partly because of the opportunity to elect a ‘black’ President who promised wonderful things, they elected Barack Obama. But now that his ‘Justice’ Department is shown to make race-based decisions on who is to have their civil rights defended, many of that 50 million will wish to reaffirm the race-blind enforcement of laws which are made to apply to all citizens.
Provided, of course, that our viciously biased ‘mainstream’ media actually does its job of informing the public of all the news, and not just the parts agreeable to the left half of the electorate.
Not so sure about that… I saw it writen recently in one of those circulating e-mails something to the effect that “… America can survive a Barack Obama who is after all just a fool, but she cannot survive the multitude of fools who would elect him their president…”. Whatever their motivations for pulling the lever for him, the end result stands for all to see.
I carefully looked through the first section of the Denver Post this morning and NOTHING. If there is nothing tomorrow, I am going to cancel my subscription along with a letter explaining my reason.
Are your local papers or news programs covering this at all? If not, why not cancel?
The official line from the DOJ, trumpeted by all the usual liberal spinmeisters is that the NBPP dismissal was based on the “merits of the case”.
Of course, they NEVER get around to explaining what precisely those ‘merits’ might be.
To call Holder and crew sleazy lawyers is a gross insult to sleazy lawyers.
Yeah, “time for a change” — that’s the ticket: let’s go back to the good ol’ days of Republican management of voting rights.
Do modern Republicans, whether vanilla or Tea flavored, have any real ethics?
Interesting BitChie, you propose those present pay for the sins of their ancestors. The list is long, but the technique continues to be a cry of totalitarians everywhere, and no doubt is used by you in the same vein as the “vanilla” or for that matter chocolate “cool” bigotry. Wow! Is that a scab or BitChie’s world view on display? Cool bro’, side with the present forces of oppression. Maybe you could get a grant and re-enact the skull crush scene from 2001. Which part will you play? “Yeah”, the club!
It could be supposed in your own mind that you are somehow the gatekeeper of the bigot/ethics meter that dominates your viewpoint. Circular! Then again The Constitution and those duly sworn to enforce it might get in your way.
Just use the club, you’re in power NOW. Go for it bro’! Crunch!
Uh, BC… everyone that’s gotten past 3rd grade should know that “they did it too!” is not a valid defense of wrongdoing.
The question is, why don’t you seem to comprehend that?
I heard about 20 seconds worth of this issue on the news this morning.
I also heard endless coverage of who ever he is talking to congress about illegal aliens.
The timing is amazing.
A Republican president and congress need to clean house of traitors, criminals, and crooks in the DofJ, State Dept. HUD, and elsewhere in the bureaucracy. Coates would be a good point man to start with DofJ. I hope we will see more of him again.
Historically, the democrats are the party of the KKK and of the soviet spies in the administrations they controlled. So, it DOES make sense that they now support a form of black supremacism:
ANY form of totalitarian idea is liked by the naturally totalitarian.
The “idea” is always the same: someone “knows better” and will use ANY means to reach the established goal.
First they didn’t vote for civil rights, now they manage to intimidate the white voters: it’s always the same frame of mind, violent and oppressive.
The absence of a moderate, truly Western, reformism in the democratic party is a serious trouble for our Country.
Vote against the totalitarians in November, and if their pawns try to intimidate you: PRESS CHARGES !!!
I have been a registered voter in California, Texas, West Virginia, and now Ohio. I didn’t unregister when I left the other states. Wouldn’t know how, if it is even possible. How would I go about finding out if I voted in any of the states that I have moved away from? Sorry to have to admit that my civics education is so poor. I have never voted in more than one state in an election cycle, and would like to backtrack to find out if anyone has been abusing my good name. Thanks.
Mi> Unless senior officials at Justice take steps to repudiate such policies, they will destroy public confidence in the legitimacy of the Civil Rights Division’s enforcement of voting rights laws, and its stewardship of the election process.
Hans, the heroic steps taken by Christopher and Christian merit our heartfelt gratitude and our unabashed praise. These actions were noble and necessary.
And they will be universally ignored by the leg tingling cheerleaders in our mass media apparatus.
Because we lack a free press that should be motivated and inclined to hold a rabidly leftist government accountable for its misdeeds and malfeasance, and not only isn’t, but is instead a conspirator in cover ups, distortions, and fabrications… we get “no account” senior officials and their Wild West underlings who do the bidding of the higher ups with the scruples of Deadwood or a medieval bazaar.
Christopher spoke on a number of occasions in his testimony about “cliche’s”. “We are open for business”….and such.
Systemic racial discrimination will not be solved by spouting empty platitudes and vacuous homilies about “fairness” “equality” and “transparency”. And, Hans…that is exactly what we are going to get. If anything.
If Fernandes and King have the views described by Coates, they should resign or be fired.
“If”, suggests that a question exists. Fernandes and King represent the totality of the sentiment that is pervasive throughout the system. Whites do no warrant protection, do not deserve fair treatment, do not merit equality, and are not the “suspect class” for whom these laws were designed. Period.
A game we used to play as kids was called “running bases”. We would throw a ball around with my dad, and we would make up rules wherein he was always the “all time fielder” and someone might declare that they were the “all time runner”.
My dad (a great athlete in his own right) never was a runner. I am reminded of those games by this situation.
White voters are permanently shut out of one part of the system. They can never be aggrieved. No matter how blatant, how vile, how criminal the actions taken against them, it would ruin the “blame game” of victimology to allow them to assert a grievance. Moreover, the corollary is also in place. A non-white can never do anything that would merit prosecution for discrimination against a white. There is no act whatsoever, that crosses the line, because there is no line.
Ike Brown is so far across any moral or ethical line, the line wouldn’t be visible to the naked eye from where he stands. And the New Black Panthers with their billy club and “kill cracker baby” poll booth theater…well, the line would be a pin head from there.
If THOSE actions are not enough, what can one think of that would be enough to warrant protection? White voters simply are not part of the “protection equation”.
This isn’t about Fernandes, or King or Perez, however. They are the malignant moles on the back of our “justice” department. They signal that cancer has spread and metastasized. The warped and twisted sense of “justice” that is pervasive and rampant, leads the entirety of these folks to believe that their position is justifiable. They believe this. And our mass communication apparatus is going to cover for them. They are going to bury this story as best they can. They are going to twist and distort the truth. They are going to employ a smear campaign. They are going to write puff pieces to prop up the offenders. Book it, bank on it, bet the south forty on it, Hans.
And Perez has a responsibility to explain why he misinformed the Civil Rights Commission and why he took no steps to investigate problems Coates identified to him.
Because he doesn’t have to, Hans. The administration isn’t going to call him on the carpet and the mass communications system is going to conspire with him, not hold him accountable. They will combine to stall, hinder and delay the investigation until such time as (January), new commissioners can be appointed to sweep it under the rug.
The public needs to know that such policies are not approved by Obama appointees within the Justice Department. Because if it is the case, Americans will hold the highest officials of the Obama administration to account.
Hans, the policies are de facto, not written. Even a full throated, mea culpa…would just be a pacifying pablum. You can’t change a system rotted to the core, by announcing that the “official policy” of the system is “against rottenness”. This administration is not about equality for all Americans, it is about “redistribution” of income, savings, land, property, benefits,….and justice.
And getting one of their senior officials to declare that isn’t true, won’t make any difference on the ground. The “soldiers” know what the battle plan is and they will continue to execute it. To a tee.
Unless senior officials at Justice take steps to repudiate such policies, they will destroy public confidence in the legitimacy of the Civil Rights Division’s enforcement of voting rights laws, and its stewardship of the election process.
Hans, the heroic steps taken by Christopher and Christian merit our heartfelt gratitude and our unabashed praise. These actions were noble and necessary.
And they will be universally ignored by the leg tingling cheerleaders in our mass media apparatus.
Because we lack a free press that should be motivated and inclined to hold a rabidly leftist government accountable for its misdeeds and malfeasance, and not only isn’t, but is instead a conspirator in cover ups, distortions, and fabrications… we get “no account” senior officials and their Wild West underlings who do the bidding of the higher ups with the scruples of Deadwood or a medieval bazaar.
Christopher spoke on a number of occasions in his testimony about “cliche’s”. “We are open for business”….and such.
Systemic racial discrimination will not be solved by spouting empty platitudes and vacuous homilies about “fairness” “equality” and “transparency”. And, Hans…that is exactly what we are going to get. If anything.
If Fernandes and King have the views described by Coates, they should resign or be fired.
“If”, suggests that a question exists. Fernandes and King represent the totality of the sentiment that is pervasive throughout the system. Whites do no warrant protection, do not deserve fair treatment, do not merit equality, and are not the “suspect class” for whom these laws were designed. Period.
A game we used to play as kids was called “running bases”. We would throw a ball around with my dad, and we would make up rules wherein he was always the “all time fielder” and someone might declare that they were the “all time runner”.
My dad (a great athlete in his own right) never was a runner. I am reminded of those games by this situation.
White voters are permanently shut out of one part of the system. They can never be aggrieved. No matter how blatant, how vile, how criminal the actions taken against them, it would ruin the “blame game” of victimology to allow them to assert a grievance. Moreover, the corollary is also in place. A non-white can never do anything that would merit prosecution for discrimination against a white. There is no act whatsoever, that crosses the line, because there is no line.
Ike Brown is so far across any moral or ethical line, the line wouldn’t be visible to the naked eye from where he stands. And the New Black Panthers with their billy club and “kill cracker baby” poll booth theater…well, the line would be a pin head from there.
If THOSE actions are not enough, what can one think of that would be enough to warrant protection? White voters simply are not part of the “protection equation”.
This isn’t about Fernandes, or King or Perez, however. They are the malignant moles on the back of our “justice” department. They signal that cancer has spread and metastasized. The warped and twisted sense of “justice” that is pervasive and rampant, leads the entirety of these folks to believe that their position is justifiable. They believe this. And our mass communication apparatus is going to cover for them. They are going to bury this story as best they can. They are going to twist and distort the truth. They are going to employ a smear campaign. They are going to write puff pieces to prop up the offenders. Book it, bank on it, bet the south forty on it, Hans.
And Perez has a responsibility to explain why he misinformed the Civil Rights Commission and why he took no steps to investigate problems Coates identified to him.
Because he doesn’t have to, Hans. The administration isn’t going to call him on the carpet and the mass communications system is going to conspire with him, not hold him accountable. They will combine to stall, hinder and delay the investigation until such time as (January), new commissioners can be appointed to sweep it under the rug.
The public needs to know that such policies are not approved by Obama appointees within the Justice Department. Because if it is the case, Americans will hold the highest officials of the Obama administration to account.
Hans, the policies are de facto, not written. Even a full throated, mea culpa…would just be a pacifying pablum. You can’t change a system rotted to the core, by announcing that the “official policy” of the system is “against rottenness”. This administration is not about equality for all Americans, it is about “redistribution” of income, savings, land, property, benefits,….and justice.
And getting one of their senior officials to declare that isn’t true, won’t make any difference on the ground. The “soldiers” know what the battle plan is and they will continue to execute it. To a tee.
@blotto, in response to comment #12: “Only another civil war will make it happen.”
It may indeed come to that one day of the current pattern of events is allowed to continue. How much corruption can the American people really stomach?
Why the media are afraid of this is obvious and why they are trying to keep it damped is also obvious–what would happen if it became common knowledge that this administration clearly and simply does not believe in equal rights for all Americans?
That, essentially, is what the testimony showed and I note the administration has not refuted it.
Obama MUST know that his word or integrity can never again be trusted so long as Holder is on his payroll. UNDER THE BUS WITH HOLDER!!
“Following Friday’s explosive testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the Department of Justice and the Obama administration now must restore the public trust in civil rights enforcement, as they will be held accountable by Americans.”
Wow, that’s funny! Obama is the one who is pushing this. He has no interest in restoring any public trust. He just gives it the middle finger. Don’t you know in his mind, he can do what he wants, and so far, no one has stopped him.
After hearing from Mr Coates that white voters rights don’t matter, I say all you white people tht voted for Obummer are getting what you deserve. Hopefully your votes won’t be protected in 2012 and a Conservative will win. Afer all you liberals love to move into black neighborhoods and think they’re cool with you. Holden and his ilk b*tch slapped you all in the face.
The Barack Regime will do something. He`ll appoint a commission to look into it. That way he can have no official comment on the matter until the commission releases its findings….which will be never
Of course, the White House must be repulsed and taken aback at all this. Will they say that the DoJ is vigilante, or that they misread the memo to “not” discriminate against white people? Hard to tell at this point. We have to wait for the MSM to force themselves to report about something they obviously have no interest in.
Well, we’re seeing how the mainstream media is dealing with these revelations – they’re ignoring them. ABC, CBS and NBC all ignored the story altogether, though all covered Colbert’s “testimony” – NBC even using the story as the lead on its nightly news.
I wonder if Liberals even understand that the virtue in a white person, the difficulty thereof, to rise above racism and discrimination is equivalent to the virtue and difficulty for a black person to do the same?
What is Equality? Perhaps, Conservatives would be wise in trying to develop a national discourse on the subject. Because, as far as Democrats define it, it seems to be entirely material. I doubt most Americans feel that way.
In fact, the idea that America needs a discourse on Racism is a no-go at this point. No party is willing to really engage such a topic because whites are sure to lose, and blacks are sure to be found out. Start with the easily digestible, non-offensive, and, upon considering, profound subject of Equality.
Would it be too far fetched to wonder (1) if, under the protection of Eric Holder and the DOJ, the Black Panthers have now become the “Civilian Defense And Security Force” that President Obama said that he wanted, and (2) if black leaders and white collaborators are now trying to establish a separate shadow government or a government of their own within our government or some other insideous takeover of our government, with which they’re receiving the full cooperation of Nancy Pelosi, her ilk and perhaps even Muslims. Black Muslims included??? Am I the only one who is having those anxieties?
Great wisdom, KevinB in Comment #42
No Brian in Comment # 43, you are not the only one!
They obviously wanted this crime of blacks blocking and intimidating voters at the polls out of the public eye asap and without there being a conviction.
And it looks more and more that civil rights is a one way street where only certain people are allowed.
Taking race into consideration when deciding whether or not to investigate or prosecute is a perversion of justice.
Aka racism, Charles.
The Left’s ideas on racial equality are predicated on the idea that America will never be a ‘good’ country until black folks are just like white folks in their desire to achieve in a variety of fields that are stunning in their scope. Never gonna happen. Lack of ambition or disinvolvement doesn’t make one inferior, merely different. In Malaysia, they have had a law called ‘bhumipatra’ for many years where non-ethnic Malays need a Malay partner in certain business ventures because the Chinese minority in particular are very savvy and aggressive in business. Doesn’t mean Malays are inferior, they just don’t want to be forced to emulate another culture’s predilections in order to not be economically overwhelmed by a minority. Don’t make black Americans emulate white achievement before declaring an end to racism because with that as a standard America will always be considered a racist culture. Do I have to wear a hood until the ‘hood is filled with string theorists?
I enjoy the efforts you have put in this, thanks for all the great blog posts.