My latest at Pajamas Media: “Dems Should Seek Holder Resignation.” Involves miltary voting, Black Panthers and Harold Koh.
Some would certainly like to see the festering mess at the Justice Department continue through 2011. But I know firsthand how the resignation of an attorney general can help rejuvenate both the DOJ and the White House.
Add this to the long list of reasons why redistricting commissions are a bad idea. More from the press release:
My first piece at Family Security Matters is here. It pertains to the Department of Justice not appealing a ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding an immigration decision.
The Institute for Justice will be back in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, this time in Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett. The lawsuit, according to the IJ press release, challenges Arizona’s system of government-funded political campaigns—one of the broadest campaign finance regimes in the nation. This program forces taxpayers to fund politicians’ campaigns and punishes not only candidates who refuse government subsidies but independent groups that support them as well. Arizona’s program has been held out as a model by those calling for greater government restrictions on free speech in the guise of campaign finance “reforms” in local, state and federal elections. A rather funny video describing the challenged law is here.
The Houston Chronicle has this editorial suggesting Democrats shouldn’t waste time fighting over Voter ID anymore:
More at the link above. State Representative Debbie Riddle is sponsoring the Voter ID bill and it is fast tracked to passage. As I and others familiar with the Justice Department have written, it would be wise for Texas to bypass DOJ approval of the Voter ID law and go straight to the United States District Court for approval. This Justice Department is looking for a Voter ID bill to object to. Texas cannot get a neutral and fair review of whatever bill passes. It would be cheaper and more efficient to go straight to court. Just ask the State of Georgia. They have figured out how to get approval of new voting laws – go straight to court and bypass the Section 5 review process. Texas should also if they want their voter identification law to become effective.
“I would respectfully suggest to my Democratic friends that it is time to punt on this issue and get it behind us. There are three reasons why this would be advantageous to them.
First, the American people are overwhelmingly in favor of it. Opinion polls consistently show that 70 percent to 80 percent of Americans favor some kind of voter identification at the polls. At that level, it is not only Republicans who think this is a good idea. Most independents and even a fair number of Democrats favor it as well. As a general proposition, it is not good politics to defy 70 percent to 80 percent of the American people.”
Second editorial in one day:
“From the Civil Rights Commission’s report last week on the voter-intimidation case, here’s what Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez said in written testimony about why the Justice Department dropped charges against Black Panther Jerry Jackson: “The Department placed significant weight on the response of the law enforcement first responders to the Philadelphia polling place on Election Day. A report of the local police officer who responded to the scene … indicates that the officer interviewed Mr. Jackson, confirmed that he in fact was a certified poll watcher, and concluded that his actions did not warrant his removal from the premises.”
Fine: The officer merely had no evidence Mr. Jackson had broken local laws. However, Mr. Jackson’s status as poll watcher was irrelevant to the later federal charges. Poll watchers have no more right than anybody else – indeed, they probably have less excuse – to threaten or menace voters.”
Editorial here. “Among the other controversies in Mr. Holder’s brief 22-month tenure is one in which an already-guilty perpetrator did walk scot-free: Black Panther Jerry Jackson, against whom no sanctions were imposed after his violent voter intimidation in Philadelphia. Yet the New Black Panther case was child’s play compared to testimony about broader policy that grew from that case. Mr. Holder’s department stands accused of refusing to enforce two different provisions of federal voting laws. Separately, evidence indicates Justice was tardy or negligent in ensuring that overseas military personnel had a timely opportunity to vote. On the other hand, when the black-majority town of Kinston, N.C., voted to hold its municipal elections in nonpartisan fashion, Mr. Holder’s minions threw out that election on the theory that only by having Democrats identified on the ballot could that same black majority elect its real “candidates of choice.” How condescending.”
My first blog at the NewsReal blog is here.
Eric Holder’s Bipartisan Rebuke
Although the story was completely ignored by the mainstream media, Attorney General Eric Holder received a rare bipartisan rebuke last Thursday by the House Judiciary Committee. At issue was Holder’s decision to ignore the committee’s invitation to have a Justice Department representative testify on whether religious organizations may make religious-based employment based decisions while accepting federal funds. Full posting at: NewsReal blog.
Hans von Spakovsky says everything that needs to be said this Thanskgiving over at Town Hall. A Thanksgiving Sacrifice By Hans A. von Spakovsky As we sit down to feast with our families this holiday, the blessing might well include a word of thanks to the men and women of our armed forces. While we celebrate our national holiday in the warmth and comfort of homes, they serve at grave peril in faraway places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of our troops are in Korea. There an unprovoked attack from the North killed four South Koreans on Tuesday. That outrage reminds us of the continuing danger posed by the murderous thugs in Pyongyang. But it should also spur us to remember those Americans who, 60 years ago, spent Thanksgiving fighting at the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. It was a vicious, brutal battle and one of the Marine Corps’ finest hours. By Thanksgiving of 1950, X Corps (a joint force composed of American Army and UN troops), had advanced along with the 1st Marine Division deep into North Korea, almost to the Yalu River. But in an attack that caught the Americans by surprise, Chinese troops poured across the border and attacked in almost overwhelming waves. Many units of X Corps disintegrated under the relentless attacks. The Marines, under the command of General Oliver Smith and Marine Corps legend Colonel Chesty Puller, along with elements of the 7th Infantry Division and the British Royal Marines, fought a rear guard action throughout a slow retreat from Chosin. Of course, Smith famously declared, “Gentlemen, we are not retreating. We are merely attacking in another direction.” And he was correct. As a military historian later observed, you can’t retreat when you are completely surrounded. The Marines and their brethren fought against almost overwhelming odds. They were outnumbered five to one. The conditions were atrocious. Temperatures plunged to 30-, then 40- degrees below zero. Snow and ice coated them and their weapons. Sometimes the blizzard conditions made it impossible to see more than a few yards. Weapons and blood plasma froze. Medics carried morphine ampoules in their mouths to keep them warm. Trucks and jeeps had to be kept running constantly because it was almost impossible to get them started again. From the hills and mountains surrounding the narrow roads, the Chinese rained machine gun fire and mortar shells on the Marines. Leatherneck battalions had to leapfrog each other as they moved south, fighting“yard by bitterly contested yard” to clear the heights commanding the road in front of them. Dedicated pilots from Marine Air Wings and Navy and Air Force units flew interdiction missions when the weather allowed. But for the most part, it was constant close quarter fighting–grenades, small arms and blades. The Marines won those fights. At one point, the Marine advance halted. For a third time, the Chinese had destroyed a bridge over a gorge in the Funchlin Pass—this time, beyond repair. Air Force C-119’s parachuted eight bridge sections into the Marine perimeter. Six were recovered undamaged, allowing the Marines and an Army engineering unit to bridge the gorge. Although the Chinese inflicted severe casualties, they could not break the Marine companies. As Max Hastings wrote in his history of the Korean War, “It is a tribute to the quality of units reconstituted only three months earlier, heavily manned by [Marine] reservists, that they mounted so dogged a defense under the most appalling conditions.” Unlike many of the retreating American Army forces that wanted to simply abandon their heavy equipment and artillery, the Marines doggedly refused to leave anything behind. General Smith was adamant about conducting “an orderly and honorable withdrawal.” As they fought their way out of the mountains to the Korean coast, the Marines brought their equipment, their wounded, and their dead. When they reached “Hellfire Valley” (between Hagau and Koto-ri), the situation looked impossible. Chesty Puller was unfazed. He climbed up on a ration box and told his men: “I don’t give a good goddamn how many Chinese laundrymen there are between us and Hungnam. There aren’t enough in the world to stop a Marine regiment going where it wants to go! Christ in His mercy will see us through.” Christ, the Marines’ raw courage and dogged determination, and their lead-from-the-front officers saw them through. Puller later told reporters, “Remember when you write, this was no retreat. All that happened was we found more Chinese behind us than in front of us. So we about-faced and attacked.” The Marines and the US X Corps were able to reach the port city of Hungnam. They were evacuated by a 193 ship armada, which also took out 100,000 civilian Korean refugees. The 1st Marine Division paid a heavy price: 4,418 battle casualties, including 718 dead and 192 missing. They suffered 7,313 non-battle casualties too, mostly cases of frostbite from the severe cold. But their valor and sacrifice saved the remnants of the American Army from what could have been one of its worst disasters. So this Thanksgiving, let us remember the American warriors who went through hell 60 years ago to keep the forces of repression and totalitarianism at bay. We owe them a debt that neither we—nor the free peoples of South Korea—can ever repay.
One of the brilliant legal minds died in Florida. Texas Lawyer has details. Coleman was instrumental in setting up the challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, a challenge which many predict will be successful shortly.