Text 14677, 315 rader
Skriven 2011-01-05 19:40:00 av TIM RICHARDSON (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av ROSS SAUER
Ärende: Good day
================
On 01-04-11, ROSS SAUER said to TIM RICHARDSON:


TR> When armed thugs stand at a polling place intimidating voters who
TR> arrive to cast their ballots, and the U.S. Justice department's
TR> Attorney General doesn't even deign to investigate, that needs to be
TR> investigated by Congress.


RS>One thug.


RS>No voters reported being "intimidated" by that ditwit.


Here's something on that for you:



Conservatism 2.0American Hero: Coates Negates a Year of Justice Department
Spin on New Black Panther Case


We no longer must consult history for a lawyer-hero willing to take personal
risk for sacred principles such as the rule of law and racial equality. Our
age can claim Christopher Coates.


September 23, 2010 - by J. Christian Adams


It has been a very bad week for the dwindling number of people defending the
dismissal of the voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party
by Eric Holder's Justice Department. Today might have been the worst day of
all.


Former Voting Section Chief Christopher Coates testified to the United States
Civil Rights Commission that Obama political appointees dismissed the case
because they are opposed to enforcing civil rights laws in a racially neutral
fashion.


And that was just the beginning.


In a dramatic hearing in Washington, D.C., Coates simply destroyed the year-
long spin from the Justice Department regarding the dismissal. Coates is the
former Voting Section chief, and served as lead attorney on the Black Panther
case. He has practiced voting rights law longer than any other lawyer at the
Justice Department. His testimony today was the worst possible nightmare for
the Obama political officials responsible for the dismissal.


I testified before the Commission in July that Obama political appointee Julie
Fernandes made it clear that the Voting Section at the Justice Department
would not be bringing any more cases against traditional national racial
minorities, like the members of the New Black Panthers. Under oath, Coates
corroborated my testimony.


The public has been wondering for over a year why the case was dismissed.
Coates testified why today:


[There is a] deep-seated opposition to the race-neutral enforcement of the
Voting Rights Act against racial minorities and for the protection of whites
who have been discriminated against.


Coates verified that the DOJ is infested with racially motivated hostility
towards equal enforcement of the law. Like me, Coates testified about the
history of open and pervasive hostility inside the Voting Section to
protecting the rights of white voters. This hostility first emerged in the
case against Ike Brown in Noxubee County, Mississippi, going back as far as
2004:


The opposition within the Voting Section to taking actions on behalf of
white  voters in Noxubee County, Mississippi, was widespread.


Coates confirmed that senior managers didn't even want to open the
investigation into discrimination against white voters in Noxubee County:


The Deputy Chief who was leading that election coverage asked me: "can you
believe that we are going to Mississippi to protect white voters?"


Coates described how his memoranda were doctored by former Voting Section
Chief Joe Rich, confirming my testimony as well as an article that appeared
here at PJM this week.


Coates also testified that he was reprimanded by Acting Assistant Attorney
General Loretta King when he asked attorneys in job interviews if they could
enforce the law equally. Coates asked them if they were willing to enforce the
law in a racially neutral fashion, regardless of the race of the wrongdoer,
even if the wrongdoer was black. Naturally, this inquiry into the applicant's
sense of fairness greatly offended the racially obsessed King. Her agenda was
quite different than Coates' agenda. Coates testified he was summoned to the
senior political offices for a tongue-lashing by King, and the interview
questions Coates was asking had to go:


King took offense that I was asking such a question of job applicants and
directed me not to ask it again because she does not support equal
enforcement   of the provisions of the Voting Rights Act.


King wanted like-minded attorneys who were corruptly willing to turn a blind
eye toward racial discrimination committed by national racial minorities. Soon
thereafter, Coates was stripped of his power even to interview applicants.
King wasn't taking any chances that fair-minded, law-abiding attorneys might
slip through; only the corrupt need apply.


He testified, as I did, that Justice Department attorneys and staff flatly
refused to work on cases where the wrongdoer was black:


[An attorney told Coates in] no uncertain terms that he had not come to the
Voting Section to sue African American defendants. … One of the social
scientists who worked in the Voting Section and whose responsibility it was
to   do past and present research into a local jurisdiction's history flatly
refused to participate in the investigation. On another occasion, a Voting
Section career attorney informed me that he was opposed to bringing voting
rights cases against African American defendants "until we reached the day
when the socio-economic status of blacks in Mississippi was the same as the
socio-economic status of whites living there."


All of the employees Coates discusses here are still employed by the Civil
Rights Division.


I testified that DOJ officials have made inaccurate statements to the public,
to Congress, and to the Civil Rights Commission about the NBPP dismissal.
Coates agreed, and testified:


I do not believe the representations to this Commission accurately reflect
what occurred in the NBPP case and do not reflect the hostile atmosphere
that
has existed within the Civil Rights Division for a long time against
race-neutral enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.


Coates also said that he was testifying because the Department has made
misrepresentations to Congress, to the Civil Rights Commission, and to the
public, sometimes under oath.


Coates described the significance of these misrepresentations. He testified:


If incorrect representations are going to successfully thwart an inquiry
into   the systemic problems regarding race-neutral enforcement of the Voting
Rights   Act by the Civil Rights Division, problems that were manifested in
the disposition of the NBPP case, that end is not going to be furthered or
accomplished by my sitting silently by at the direction of my supervisors
while incorrect information is provided. I do not believe that I am
professionally, ethically, legally, much less, morally bound to allow such a
result to occur.


Coates provided even more detail about a disgusting case of racially motivated
harassment that occurred in the Voting Section:


A young African American who worked in the Voting Section as a paralegal
volunteered to work on the Ike Brown case, and he later volunteered to work
on   the NBPP case. Because of his participation in the Ike Brown case, he and
his   mother, who was an employee in another Section of the Civil Rights
Division,   were harassed by an attorney in that other Section and by an
administrative   employee and a paralegal in the Voting Section.


The employees responsible for this disgusting behavior should be fired, or
should resign in shame. The perpetrators know who they are, and so does the
political leadership. They are not fit to work in the Civil Rights Division.


There was much howling and complaining about the Bush administration hiring
attorneys without experience working for left-wing civil rights groups. But
now the public learns the truth: perpetrators of genuine racial harassment and
gangster intimidation infest the Civil Rights Division, worked for civil
rights groups, and were not hired by the Bush administration. (Look for more
details here at PJM in a future article about the individuals responsible.)


Coates also corroborated my testimony that Kristen Clarke of the NAACP Legal
Defense Fund lobbied to have the lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party
dismissed. How far this once proud civil rights organization has fallen.
Kristen Clarke acted as an advocate for racist thugs.


Finally, Coates testified as I did that the Department is unwilling to use
Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to protect a white minority. Indeed, he
confirmed, the Department refuses to even conduct an analysis whether a voting
change will harm a white minority in places like Noxubee County, Mississippi.


It is disingenuous for some in the media to ignore this spiraling scandal. It
will be even harder for critics like Commissioner Abigail Thernstrom to ignore
testimony like we heard today. Today offers reasonable people like Thernstrom
a chance at a redeeming reversal of course. Coates said:


The final disposition of the NBPP case, even in the face of a default by the
defendants, was caused by this incorrect view of civil rights enforcement,
and   it was intended to send a direct message to people inside and outside
the   Civil Rights Division. That message is that the filing of voting cases
like   the Ike Brown and the NBPP cases would not continue in the Obama
administration. The disposition of the NBPP case was not required by the
facts developed during the case or the applicable law, as has been claimed,
but was because of this incorrect view of civil rights enforcement that is at
war with  the statutory language in the VRA and with racially fair enforcement
of federal law.


Overall, Coates painted a picture of racially motivated lawlessness inside the
Department of Justice. I testified about the same circumstances, and there are
many others who could provide sworn accounts of the same racially corrupt
state of affairs.


America has only heard from two of us, but there are many more who know the
truth.


The Department would do well to admit wrongdoing and fix the problem, else
they might suffer a cascade of current employees meeting with congressmen in
preparation for potential hearings next year. Under law, DOJ staff cannot be
fired for sharing information with members of Congress, such as
Representatives Lamar Smith, Frank Wolf, or Darrell Issa. You can find their
numbers on the internet.


While today was a particularly bad day for the Department and their deceitful
spin about the New Black Panther dismissal, the rest of the week saw other
significant developments. On Wednesday, Judicial Watch filed a new Freedom of
Information Act lawsuit; they are seeking documents relating to the scope of
direct White House involvement in the dismissal of the case.


Also on Wednesday, Mike Roman had a blockbuster piece that reveals
Philadelphia New Black Panther Jerry Jackson, one of the polling place
stormtroopers, is a felon in possession of a firearm. The Holder Justice
Department is failing to enforce federal felon in possession statutes against
Jackson, which make it a crime for him to possess a firearm.


Earlier in the week, Judicial Watch released logs, which I covered here at
PJM, showing the Department has not been telling the truth about the extent of
senior political appointee involvement in the dismissal. Instead of merely
being informed about the decision of lower political appointees, the highest
levels of the Justice Department were telling their underlings what they
thought should be done. All along, the DOJ has characterized the dismissal as
a disagreement between civil servants. This week we learned that testimony
"sometimes under oath" was false.


Finally, the DOJ inspector general assured Republican Congressmen Frank Wolf
and Lamar Smith that he was opening an investigation into whether the Voting
Section enforces civil rights laws in a racially discriminatory fashion and
harasses employees who bring cases like the New Black Panther lawsuit.


It was a very bad week for the DOJ.


Yet Americans have a new hero today. The extraordinary courage it took for
Coates to risk his job, his career, even his safety to come forward and
testify
is extraordinary. Aspiring lawyers looking for a role model can find in Coates
a
noble reason to enter the profession.


We no longer must consult history for a lawyer-hero willing to take personal
risk for sacred principles such as the rule of law and racial equality. Our
age can claim Christopher Coates. My profession has not seen a hero like
Coates since the giants of the civil rights movement convinced the courts to
eradicate legal racial discrimination. Coates has dedicated a lifetime to
following in their footsteps, to ensuring free access to the ballot.


Today, in the twilight of his career, America witnessed his finest hour.


J. Christian Adams is an election lawyer who served in the Voting Rights
Section at the U.S. Department of Justice. His website is

www.electionlawcenter.com.


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RS>The Bush justice department got a court injunction against the Panthers,
RS>all 6 of them.


Well.....through efforts of the new republican Congress, there will probably
be a thorough investigation, and one result of that investigation might be the
thug who's a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, just might go back to
prison. I surely hope so.


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