Free Republic

What’s Holder’s hold-up? One major factor of course is that ACORN serves as a taxpayer-funded Democrat army. As with unions, it behooves Democrats to ignore corruption amongst the ranks of the powerful forces that elect them. What appears on the surface to be mere political payback for a job well done is in fact much more insidious. One family’s involvement with ACORN and the Obama administration is of particular interest

Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, has apparently hired a cadre of left-wing, Democrat campaign bloggers to troll through the Internet looking for news stories and blog posts that denigrate the Obama agenda. After such websites are found it is the job of these secret lefty bloggers to leave comments that come to the support of Obamaism in the comments sections. It seems that Eric Holder has created his own little propaganda unit in a valiant effort to become the Bloggi Riefenstahl of the Obama era. As reported at The Muffled Oar, a blog that first broke the story of Holder's...

Federal authorities have opened an investigation into allegations of “discriminatory policing” by the Suffolk County Police Department over how officers responded to reports of crimes against Latinos, a Justice Department spokesman said Monday. Latino residents and their advocates have accused the police in that Long Island county of systematically failing to fully investigate allegations of assaults on Latinos. After the highly publicized stabbing death of an Ecuadorean immigrant last November — prosecutors said that his attackers were driven by prejudice against Latinos — residents stepped forward with accounts of other attacks they believed were racially motivated. Some of those cases...

South Phila. Native: ‘I Am A Believer In The Voting Rights Act’ Rep. Frank Wolf R- Va., told The Bulletin in an exclusive interview, that he fully intends to learn why Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department voluntarily dismissed a lawsuit — for which they already obtained a judgment — against two members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense for violation of the Voting Rights Act that occurred last Election Day in North Philadelphia. Mr. Wolf is the ranking member of the House subcommittee, which has jurisdiction of the Dept. of Justice (DOJ). He is an unapologetic staunch...

Calls Dismissal of New Black Panther Case “Corrosive to Rule of Law” An August 10, 2009 letter sent to Attorney General Eric Holder by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, contained a stinging rebuke to the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ). A footnote in the letter states that the explanation for the dismissal of a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (NBP) “is even more corrosive to the rule of law than the dismissal without comment.” The DOJ filed a lawsuit in January under the Voting Rights Act against ...

... It is therefore surprising that in the first seven months of the Obama administration, a series of hyper-partisan decisions, questionable appointments, and the inexplicable dismissal of a high-profile voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther party have once again fanned suspicions that the Justice Department is a pawn in partisan political battles. ... Sitting in his Capitol Hill office, Texas Republican Lamar Smith, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, speaks in careful, clipped sentences, rephrasing at times to convey precisely what he means. His irritation is apparent. "The whole concern here is an administration that would...

Three Black Panthers, Minister King Samir Shabazz, Malik Zulu Shabazz and Jerry Jackson were charged in a civil complain in the final days of the Bush administration with violating the voter rights act by using coercion, threats and intimidation. Shabazz was seen holding a nightstick or baton that prosecutors said he pointed at people and menacingly tapped it. The men hurled racial slurs at both blacks and whites.

The potential loss of tens of billions of dollars in damages is not what the Saudis fear most, should the Supreme Court allow this lawsuit to move forward. Way down in the Washington Times' article today about the Obama administration irking 9/11 families by asking the Supreme Court to deny their appeal of a ruling barring a lawsuit against Saudi princes was this gem: "A Justice Department spokesman said the administration held the meetings to hear from family members and declined to discuss details. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said that while he sympathized with the families, the State...

Executive Order 13493 on Jan. 22 appointed Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. co-chairman of the Special Task Force on Detainee Disposition, the interagency group charged with determining the status of persons captured or apprehended in connection with armed conflicts and counterterrorism operations. But according to Justice Department regulations, Mr. Holder is required to recuse himself from certain detainee matters because his law firm represented the detainees.

But I see your true colors Shining through Cyndi Lauper, 1984 President Barack Hussein Obama received the votes of the Howard Dean wing of the Democratic Party, the fringe leftists, because they thought he was going to enact their vision of “civil liberties.” They believed he would undo what they said were the Bush’s authoritarian policies and hypocrisy. So far during his short tenure in office President Barack Hussein Obama has: • Continued the Bush’s policy of invoking “state secrets” to dismiss a lawsuit about a CIA extraordinary rendition case. • Continued Bush’s policy of not allowing prisoners at Bagram...

Only one congressman has the courage to ask why the Justice Department dropped the case. http://www.thebulletin.us/articles/2009/06/01/top_stories/doc4a23b1ae4c1bd410553609.txt

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts directed employees earlier this month not to log onto the Drudge Report website with government-issued computers due to potential viruses on the site. In an e-mail message sent May 4, Paul Harvey, an information-technology official for the Boston office, wrote that security specialists with the U.S. Attorney’s Office at the Department of Justice asked them “to reformat/reimage two computers because the user visited the drudgereport.com site.” “Please avoid the Drudgereport website from the [United States Attorney’s Office] computers,” Harvey wrote. Harvey said that if employees had a “work-related reason to visit the site,” access...

From White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs’s press briefing today: Q ... Is this something that is being considered, by the president, for reversal? Or is this the policy that will go forward? And does he have any anxiety about the potential consequences of the release of these photographs? MR. GIBBS: Well, obviously the president has great concern about any impact that pictures of potential detainee abuse, in the past, could have on the present-day service members that are protecting our freedom either in Iraq, Afghanistan or throughout the world. That's something the president is very cognizant of. And we are...

Link Only:http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/20090505_Weldon_probe_may_be_over____without_indictment.html

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr. Attorney General of the United States United States Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20530-0001 Dear Attorney General Holder: This letter is respectfully submitted to inform you that I must decline the invitation to participate in the May 4 roundtable meeting the President’s Task Force on Detention Policy is convening with current and former prosecutors involved in international terrorism cases. An invitation was extended to me by trial lawyers from the Counterterrorism Section, who are members of the Task Force, which you are leading. The invitation email (of April 14) indicates...

The Justice Department has secured more than three dozen bribery-related convictions in the awarding of reconstruction contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least 25 theft investigations are underway. SNIP In a federal indictment last month, prosecutors alleged that (Capt. Michael Dung) Nguyen managed to skim more than $690,000 in cash as the civil affairs officer overseeing millions of dollars intended for reconstruction projects and payments to private Iraqi security forces northeast of Baghdad. The 28-year-old West Point graduate is accused of packing stacks of cash into boxes and mailing them to his family's home in Beaverton, OR.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has decided to drop all charges against former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens amid charges of prosecutorial misconduct, NPR reported on Wednesday, citing Justice officials.

Detainees being held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan cannot use US courts to challenge their detention, the US says. The justice department ruled that some 600 so-called enemy combatants at Bagram have no constitutional rights. Most have been arrested in Afghanistan on suspicion of waging a terrorist war against the US. The move has disappointed human rights lawyers who had hoped the Obama administration would take a different line to that of George W. Bush. ...

February 10, 2009 Part Two: Islam in American Prisons By Kathy Shaidle RightSideNews Copyright © 2009 "One in 10 inmates behind bars turns to Islam." It was small story in a local newspaper called the Daily Herald out of Everett, Washington, but it spread quickly around the internet, thanks to that startling claim. The paper's February 2009 investigation declared that so-called "prison Islam" was the fastest-growing religious group in U.S. correctional facilities. Some of those worshippers claim affiliation with the Nation of Islam (NOR), a black separatist movement that was launched and promoted by two convicts, Elijah Mohammed and his...

NEVER-BEFORE-REVEALED TERRORIST TRAINING VIDEO EXPOSES 35 COMPOUNDS ON AMERICAN SOILBy Steve Foley - Posted on February 9th, 2009 Press Release from the Christian Action Network “Act like you are his friend. Then kill him.” – Sheik Muburak Gilani explaining how to kill American infidels Washington, DC—Christian Action Network will show Homegrown Jihad at the Landmark Theater in Washington, DC, on February 11, 2009, at 7:30 pm. There is no charge to attend the viewing. Copies can also be obtained at www.christianaction.org. The American public was never supposed to know. The 2006 Justice Department document that exposes 35 terrorist training compounds...

The leading candidate to head the Justice Department office that oversees legal policy and judicial nominations recently has been a lobbyist for several business clients, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and would require a waiver from the Obama administration's recently imposed ethics rules. The likely nominee to head Justice's Office of Legal Policy, Mark Gitenstein, worked as a lobbyist for the chamber between 2000 and 2008, helping his firm earn more than $6 million in fees, according to federal lobbying records.

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama won applause from legal adversaries of the recording industry. Stanford law professor Larry Lessig, the doyen of the "free culture" movement, endorsed the Illinois senator, as did Google CEO Eric Schmidt and even the Pirate Party. That was then. As president-elect, one of Obama's first tech-related decisions has been to select the Recording Industry Association of America's favorite lawyer to be the third in command at the Justice Department. And Obama's pick as deputy attorney general, the second most senior position, is the lawyer who oversaw the defense of the Copyright Term Extension Act--the...

In the summer of 1984, 10th-grader Irwin Nanofsky and a friend were driving down the Apalachee Parkway on the way home from baseball practice when they were pulled over by a police officer for a minor traffic infraction. After Nanofsky produced his driver’s license the police officer asked permission to search the vehicle. In less than two minutes, the officer found a homemade pipe underneath the passenger’s seat of the Ford Aerostar belonging to the teenage driver’s parents. The minivan was seized, and the two youths were taken into custody on suspicion of drug possession. Illegal possession of drug paraphernalia...

12.10.08 VIDEO: Secretary of State Mark Ritchie discusses the Recount of the 2008 Senate Race in Minnesota between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. These remarks are part of a forum held on "The Minnesota Tradition of Fair Elections" hosted by the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. 12.12.08 VIDEO: Ritchie On Counting Improperly Rejected Absent Ballots # # # # # 11.20.08 VIDEO: Minnesota Majority (Standing Together for Traditional Values) blasts commie Soros puppet SOS Mark Ritchie. Announce they are filing a formal complaint with the U.S....

According to Newsweek President-elect Obama has decided to tap Eric Holder as his attorney general, putting the veteran Washington lawyer in place to become the first African-American to head the Justice Department, according to two legal sources close to the presidential transition. Holder, who served as deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration, still has to undergo a formal “vetting” review by the Obama transition team before the selection is final and is publicly announced, said one of the sources, who asked not to be identified talking about the transition process. But in the discussions over the past few days,...

A federal judge today ordered the Justice Department to release documents that explain why investigators suspected Steven J. Hatfill in the 2001 anthrax mailings. Hatfill has since been exonerated.

I’m leaving blow-by-blow coverage of election results to the approximately one million sites that will be looking at them in detail all through the night, but in the true spirit of election day, here’s a really nasty trick to consider. As an article by Scott Berinato in this month’s Wired magazine describes, distributed denial-of-service attacks can shut down the web servers of companies and organizations within minutes, even if they’ve taken measures to protect themselves. How do they work? Hackers penetrate inadequately protected computers (yours?) and install software (a “bot”) that hides in the background until it’s triggered by a...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jurors in Ted Stevens' corruption trial discovered a mistake in the Alaska senator's indictment Monday, an embarrassing gaffe for Justice Department prosecutors that could benefit the senator. Stevens, the Senate's longest-serving Republican, is charged with lying on Senate financial documents about $250,000 in home renovations and gifts he received from a millionaire oil contractor. Among the seven charges in the indictment, prosecutors said that Stevens checked "no" on financial documents when asked whether he received any gifts in 2001. Actually, he checked "yes," — and jurors asked the judge what they should do about that. Prosecutors insisted...

Posted by /Plain Dealer Washington Bureau Chief October 15, 2008 11:22AM WASHINGTON -- Ohio's Republican U.S. senator has stepped into the fray over claims of attempted voter fraud, asking the Justice Department this morning to assist the Ohio secretary of state in investigating alleged law-breaking involving ACORN. Jennifer Brunner, the secretary of state, has not asked for that help. But Voinovich's office says it can't hurt to have another set of eyes. "It's necessary because there have been enough allegations out there, enough suggestions, and right now the people of Ohio don't have confidence" that the election will not be...

GOP Senator John Cornyn of Texas has requested the Attorney General to break out the thumb screws on Obama’s Commie thugs trying to steal the election. Good timing on Cornyn’s part because if Obama wins, his AG probably won’t even return Cornyn’s call. After all, why would a Commie AG investigate the newly created Democracy Czar, headed by the former Chairman of ACORN? The Honorable Michael B. Mukasey Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001 Dear General Mukasey: I am increasingly concerned by reports of widespread election fraud by the Association of Community Organizations...

Mika Brzezinski is appalled to learn that the Bush Justice Department had a hiring preference for politically simpatico people. Meanwhile, Joe Scarborough says his MSNBC staff is Republican-free. Oh, and Mika apparently believes Joe mischaracterizes her as a liberal. The jumping off point on today's Morning Joe was Mika's reading of a news item on an article in today's New York Times about an internal Justice Department report concluding that "senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales broke Civil Service laws by using politics to guide their hiring decisions." Scarborough saw this as SOP in Washington, which in...

Internal investigation concludes that former attorney general aides Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson broke department policies and federal civil-service laws. Former White House liaison, Monica Goodling, was singled out for violating federal law and Justice Department policy by discriminating against job applicants who weren't Republican or conservative loyalistsWASHINGTON -- Top aides to former Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales employed a political and ideological litmus test to weed out candidates for career and other positions at the Justice Department, an internal department report concluded Monday. The audit by the department's Office of Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility concluded that...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department approved Sirius Satellite Radio's $5 billion buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio on Monday, saying the deal was unlikely to hurt competition or consumers. The deal was approved despite opposition from consumer groups and an intense lobbying campaign by the land-based radio industry. The buyout received shareholder approval in November. The companies said the merger will save hundreds of millions of dollars in operating costs—savings that will ultimately benefit their customers. The Justice Department, in a lengthy news release explaining its decision, said the two companies compete not just with each other but also...

Earlier this year I published a post (What Is Bush Thinking? Ask Fred on 2nd Amend. Rights) that revealed that the Justice Department of the Bush Administration had applied a “friend of the court” request to the Washington, DC gun control case that had been taken up by the Supreme Court. For years, DC had banned gun ownership (leading to its position as the murder capitol of the USA), but a federal appeals court finally threw out the ban. The case was appealed by DC to the Supreme Court, and gun owners have been hoping and expecting that our 2nd...

When their forensic test proved to be flawed, the FBI and the Justice Department fell short. THE POST'S John Solomon and "60 Minutes" teamed up this week to report that hundreds of defendants have been convicted with the help of a forensics test considered so shoddy that the FBI stopped using it more than two years ago. Yet, shockingly and inexcusably, the agency failed to unequivocally alert defense lawyers and judges about the serious problems with this test. The Post-"60 Minutes" investigation centered on comparative analysis of lead in bullets, a technique first used after the assassination of President John...

United States Marine Colonel James E. Sabow was murdered sometime between 0835 and 0900 on January 22, 1991. The murder occurred in the backyard of his home on the El Toro MCAS during the height of Desert Storm. Security on the base was much tighter than usual, yet, somehow the assailant or assailants managed to carry out the homicide. The Department of Defense (DoD), despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, has maintained that Colonel Sabow committed suicide. Colonel Sabow flew more than 200 missions in Vietnam. He had a reputation of being a no-nonsense, by the book officer. One would...

This is something I wish my dad lived to see. Today, our friend, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino, was acquitted on all charges--Trumped Up Charges!--contained in a politically-motivated, baseless, and terrorist-pandering federal indictment against him. Readers of this site know I've been writing about Rick and his fight against Islamic terrorism (and the Justice Department that loves Islamofascism) since 2003, when I first wrote of his situation in a New York Post column. And I've been writing about the Federal attempt to mob-lynch him. In yet another deserved defeat for the "Justice" Department and FOUR(!) years of wasted time...

Despite being warned months ago that a shady Chinese fundraiser ran an illegal enterprise, Hillary Clinton gladly accepted his hefty donations and now federal authorities have launched an investigation into his businesses. The New York senator disregarded valuable information about Norman Hsu’s questionable business dealings and proudly crowned him a “HillRaiser” because he pledged to raise at least $100,000 for her 2008 presidential campaign. Hsu has raised $1.2 million for Clinton and other Democrats and his decades-long legal problems evidently don’t bother the recipients of the cash. So what if Hsu is a fugitive wanted on a 15-year-old warrant for...

Republican lawmakers are urging the Justice Department not to participate in a convention held by the Islamic Society of North America — a group named as an unindicted co-conspirator in an ongoing terrorism-financing case. In a letter to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Reps. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sue Myrick of North Carolina called the Justice Department's involvement a "grave mistake." "In light of the threat that our nation ... is currently facing from radical jihadists, and because of the president's commitment to fighting the war on terror on...

MANASSAS, Va., Aug. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is an open letter to President Bush from Richard A. Viguerie, author of Conservatives Betrayed (Bonus Books, 2006), suggesting 10 persons for consideration as replacements for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: Dear Mr. President: I know you and I have had our differences in the past, but the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales gives you a great opportunity to energize the Republican Party, the conservative movement, and your approval ratings all at the same time. As I explained in a news release, the Democrats will not be appeased by the nomination of...

Topic for discussion: Would the Bush appointment of Utah Senator Orin Hatch to replace Attorney General Gonzales, help or hurt Mitt Romney's visibility in the Presidential Election? Hatch is listed as a possible candidate for the job. Bush already has a Mormon in his cabinet, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. Hary Reid is also a highly visible LDS political figure. Is the Mormon issue only important in the Presidential race? ________________________________________________________________________ Portfolio.com thinks Hatch would not want the job, they may be right. "If Orin Hatch was willing to give up his Utah Senate Seat for a year...

A veteran California senator recently forced to resign as chair of a powerful military committee for abusing the position to enrich herself has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. At a pep rally in Washington this week, longtime Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein enthusiastically announced that her good friend Hillary would shatter a great barrier to become the nation's first female president. A former San Francisco mayor, Feinstein was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992 and she is one of California's most powerful and popular politicians as well as one of the wealthiest members of Congress with a net worth of...

The Bush administration's vow this week to block contempt charges from Congress could prove to be a successful strategy for protecting White House documents about the multiple firings of U.S. attorneys, Democratic legal scholars and legislative aides said yesterday. This week, Bush administration officials disclosed that they will never allow a U.S. attorney to pursue contempt charges on behalf of Congress, noting that the Justice Department cannot be required to act against a decision by the president. But administration officials and other legal scholars, including some Democrats, noted that Justice Department lawyers in the Clinton administration made a similar argument...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Internet search leader Google Inc. is trying to convince federal and state authorities that Microsoft Corp.'s Vista operating system is stifling competition as the high-tech heavyweights wrestle for the allegiance of personal computer users.

A group of Democratic senators plans to introduce legislation reversing a new law allowing U.S. attorneys to live outside the districts they are appointed to serve. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Max Baucus (Mont.) and Jon Tester (Mont.) plan to drop a bill Monday that will undo a provision inserted into last year’s Patriot Act reauthorization. That language, included at the Department of Justice’s request, allows U.S. attorneys to live outside their districts if the attorney general gives them dual or additional responsibilities. The senators’ planned bill would require that U.S. attorneys reside in the district they are...

If anyone watched the Fox News report titled, "Socks, Papers, Scissors" hosted by David Asman, the conclusion was that the Justice Department was aware that Berger stole and destroyed some of the most sensitive documents in the National Archives - and yet failed to notify the 911 Commission priof to Berger testifying. Berger was sworn in under oath - and gave his testimony to the commission who was unaware of what he did? It wasn't until much later that they were told - after the report was printed and distributed. A commission member said he was shocked to hear that...

Congressional Democrats are in full cry over the news this week that the Administration's decision to fire eight U.S. Attorneys originated from--gasp--the White House. Senator Hillary Clinton joined the fun yesterday, blaming President Bush for "the politicization of our prosecutorial system." Oh, my. As it happens, Mrs. Clinton is just the Senator to walk point on this issue of dismissing U.S. attorneys because she has direct personal experience. As everyone once knew but has tried to forget, Mr. Hubbell was a former partner of Mrs. Clinton at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock who later went to jail for...

The Justice Department’s inspector general has prepared a scathing report criticizing how the F.B.I. uses a form of administrative subpoena to obtain thousands of telephone, business and financial records without prior judicial approval. The report, expected to be issued on Friday, says that the bureau lacks sufficient controls to make sure the subpoenas, which do not require a judge’s prior approval, are properly issued and that it does not follow even some of the rules it does have. Under the USA Patriot Act, the bureau each year has issued more than 20,000 of the national security letters, as the demands...

The Justice Department is completing rules to allow the collection of DNA from most people arrested or detained by federal authorities, a vast expansion of DNA gathering that will include hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, by far the largest group affected. The new forensic DNA sampling was authorized by Congress in a little-noticed amendment to a January 2006 renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, which provides protections and assistance for victims of sexual crimes. The amendment permits DNA collecting from anyone under criminal arrest by federal authorities, and also from illegal immigrants detained by federal agents. Over the...

WASHINGTON - Bush administration officials are scrambling to demonstrate that they're addressing sharp jumps in violent crime in some cities, in an attempt to reclaim a traditionally Republican issue amid criticism from some Democrats, mayors and police chiefs. Senior Justice Department officials sought Tuesday to highlight the administration's multipronged programs for combating growing gang violence and outbreaks of juvenile crime. The renewed emphasis comes as some experts, as well as politicians, cite federal cuts in city and state law enforcement funding as a possible contributor to spikes in murders, robberies and assaults in medium-sized cities. While criminal justice experts stress...