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from the whoa dept Okay, here's one that's just crazy. A few weeks ago, lots of folks, including us, covered the story of how the Justice Department claimed to a court that reporter James Rosen was "an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator" in a leak of some State Department info concerning North Korea. He was none of the above. He was a reporter, but the DOJ was abusing its power in order to spy on his email and phone records, to try to find the source of the leak. Soon after that, it came out that the DOJ had been...

(snip) Holder responded, “With all due respect, Senator, I don’t think this is an appropriate setting for me to discuss that issue. I’d be more than glad to come back in a — in an appropriate setting to discuss the issues that you have raised." Kirk, a Naval intelligence officer, pressed Holder remarking, “I would interrupt you and say the correct answer would be say no, we stayed within our lane, and I’m assuring you we did not spy on members of Congress.” Holder remained defiant saying, “And I would be more than glad, as I said, in an appropriate...

President Obama has said the outrage over the federal government’s decision to monitor citizens’ phone activity is all “hype.” He might want to share his opinion with the Air Force, which is ordering members of the service not to look at news stories about it. WND has received an unclassified NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) that warns airmen not to look at news stories related to the data-mining scandal. The notice applies to users of the Air Force NIPRNET (Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network), which is the only way that many troops stationed overseas and on bases in the U.S. are...

Eric Holder was asked, in a meeting about the 2014 DOJ budget, if the DOJ was monitoring phones of members of Congress. Holder refused to answer, saying that he'd be glad to answer in the appropriate forum. That clearly says that, in fact, the DOJ did monitor phones used by members of Congress. If such monitoring hadn't occurred, then Holder could have just said no. The Senator who asked the question, Kirk (R-Il), said, "The correct answer would be to say, 'No, we stayed within our lane, and I am assuring you we did not spy on members of Congress.'"...

Obama gave quite a filibuster answer to a question from the press, but I think this is a really important moment in his presidency. Suddenly, he’s forced to defend something he campaigned vigorously against, and he spends a lot of time with “ummm” and “I think” and repeats several of his points over and over again. The best line comes right at the end of this clip:

Within hours of the disclosure that federal authorities routinely collect data on phone calls Americans make, regardless of whether they have any bearing on a counterterrorism investigation, the Obama administration issued the same platitude it has offered every time President Obama has been caught overreaching in the use of his powers: Terrorists are a real menace and you should just trust us to deal with them because we have internal mechanisms (that we are not going to tell you about) to make sure we do not violate your rights. Those reassurances have never been persuasive — whether on secret warrants...

From the movie "True Stories." Apologies for the forced commercial at the beginning of this YouTube excerpt.

ttorney General Eric Holder has missed the deadline set by Republicans to personally explain questionable testimony he gave on reporter surveillance, as lawmakers threaten to subpoena Holder if necessary. The deadline set by House Judiciary Committee Republicans was close-of-business on Wednesday. An aide told FoxNews.com they have "not received a response."

June 5, 2013 Former Rep. Allen West calls Atty General Holder a bigger threat than al-Qaeda Katie LaPotin Former Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) believes that Attorney General Eric Holder is a more dangerous threat to the United States than the terrorist organization al-Qaeda.West, who lost his bid for re-election in November and is now a Fox News contributor and the Director of Programming for Next Generation TV, made the claim in a fundraising email for his political action committee, the Allen West Guardian Fund.After posting a side-by-side picture of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda, and Holder, West asked the...

Changes to the AP stylebook show that we’re blinding ourselves to the connections between Islamic extremism and terrorism. It was a report of the now numbingly familiar sort. Witnesses at the synagogue in Paris recounted that an Iranian immigrant had been screaming “Allahu Akbar!” while he chased the rabbi and his son. When he finally caught up, he slashed away at them with a box-cutter, causing severe lacerations. Nevertheless, the Associated Press assured readers that “[a]n official investigation was underway to determine a possible motive.” Quite a mystery, that.

“Been pretty good guy on most of the issues.”Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, told PJ Media that Attorney General Eric Holder has been put in a “bad fix” but remains a “pretty good guy on most of the issues.” Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, told PJ Media that Attorney General Eric Holder has been put in a “bad fix” but remains a “pretty good guy on most of the issues.” Conyers was asked for his opinion on the panel investigating Holder’s role in seizing the emails...

<p>This is about the best cliff notes version of the Obama regime ever.</p>

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange feels vindicated at the moment that his source, Bradley Manning, goes on trial for handing over hundreds of thousands of pages of sensitive material. The US government eschewed a plea bargain (and Manning’s guilty plea to lesser charges) in order to try Manning for “aiding the enemy.” The prosecution made its opening argument yesterday: In an hour-long opening statement for the prosecution on Monday, Captain Joe Morrow told the court martial that the US army private had been motivated by a craving for “notoriety” that had led him to disregard his extensive training and to...

The Associated Press has uncovered what may become a vast new scandal for the Obama administration: the possibly widespread use of covert email accounts by political appointees, enabling evasion of sunshine laws designed to protect the public. Jack Gillium of AP reports: Some of President Barack Obama's political appointees, including the Cabinet secretary for the Health and Human Services Department, are using secret government email accounts they say are necessary to prevent their inboxes from being overwhelmed with unwanted messages, according to a review by The Associated Press. The scope of using the secret accounts across government remains a mystery:...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Some of President Barack Obama's political appointees, including the Cabinet secretary for the Health and Human Services Department, are using secret government email accounts they say are necessary to prevent their inboxes from being overwhelmed with unwanted messages, according to a review by The Associated Press. The scope of using the secret accounts across government remains a mystery: Most U.S. agencies have failed to turn over lists of political appointees' email addresses, which the AP sought under the Freedom of Information Act more than three months ago. The Labor Department initially asked the AP to pay more...

Republican leaders of the House Judiciary Committee on Monday accused Attorney General Eric Holder of having "something to hide," after the Justice Department issued a formal defense of his questionable testimony on reporter surveillance -- a defense Republicans rejected as inadequate. "This response is insulting and further proof that Attorney General Holder refuses to hold himself accountable," Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said. Holder was facing a Wednesday deadline, set by the committee, to explain his May 15 testimony. At the time, the attorney general said under oath he knew nothing of the "potential prosecution" of the press. Days later, it...

Goodlatte and Sensenbrenner asked attorney general to explain May 15 statements to committee on reporter probes; what they got today was "insulting."Leading Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee received an “insulting” response from the Justice Department in response to their inquiry about whether Attorney General Eric Holder perjured himself before their panel last month. Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) asked Holder last Wednesday to explain the investigation of reporters in light of testimony he delivered at a May 15 oversight hearing. In response to a question from Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) about using the...

The Internal Revenue Service, already under fire after officials disclosed that the agency targeted conservative groups, faces increased scrutiny because of an inspector general’s report that it spent about $50 million to hold at least 220 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012.The report by the Treasury Department’s inspector general about conference spending is set to be released Tuesday. The department issued a statement Sunday saying the administration “has already taken aggressive and dramatic action to reduce conference spending.” The White House and the agency were on the defensive before the report on conference spending. Agency officials and the Obama...

In their letter, Mr. Goodlatte and Mr. Sensenbrenner asked Mr. Cole to document what day Mr. Holder had recused himself from the investigation; to explain how Mr. Cole learned of the recusal; to say whether Mr. Holder had specifically told Mr. Cole of his intent to recuse himself from the inquiry; and to say whether the recusal was made in writing or memorialized in any manner.

The entire pretext by which the Obama Justice Department justified spying on James Rosen was flimsy enough. They trumped up the notion that they might charge him as a criminal co-conspirator to justify the warrant that allowed them to read his e-mails and access his phone records. This was always absurd, based on ridiculous notions about how Rosen approached his reporting work.