PrintDecember 22, 2011
Eric Holder, Fear and Intimidation
This past weekend, Attorney General Eric Holder attempted to intimidate his critics by accusing them of racism. Under the Attorney General's watch more than a thousand weapons have been walked across the border by the ATF and more than 300 people are dead as a direct result. Even Holder himself admits that the 'Fast and Furious' guns will be used in more crimes. Innocents on both sides of the border have more to fear.
The mixture of fear and intimidation has existed since Holder's first days in office. Who can forget his first major speech after confirmation? In that speech the Attorney General said "Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards". Shortly thereafter the AG dropped the voter intimidation case against a New Black Panthers Party member that stood outside a polling station hurling racial slurs and carrying a night stick.
The same DOJ that is suing the state of Arizona for daring to enforce immigration laws is led by a man that admitted that he hadn't read the law in question. With that fact in hand the entire idea to sue can only be interpreted as an attempt to intimidate the state legislature. More fear for people that live on the border and whose lives are directly impacted by the various illegal drug and human traffickers.
A new example of intimidation came on Wednesday as Attorney's from the DOJ sent formal requests to WordPress to freeze logs and records from 3 climate-skeptic blogs. One of the blogs, ClimateAudit.org, is authored by the Canadian whose research proved that the famous "Hockey Stick" was bogus. The DOJ's case revolves around a second dump of emails known as Climategate 2.0 which has shown climate scientists engaging in certainly unethical and perhaps criminal behavior -- case of the DOJ going after the whistle blowers.
We can expect more intimidation from the DOJ and the people looking for the department to uphold the law have much to fear. Holder's DOJ has hired nothing but political ideologues in every DOJ section from Employment to Voting (including litigators). With the 2012 election looming, the selection of such hardened ideologues is troubling, especially in light of the New Black Panther voter intimidation case.
From ignoring and refusing to honor Freedom of Information Requests to refusal to enforce laws that are on the books, the Attorney General has fallen from an office entrusted to be the chief law enforcement officer of the Federal Government to a politically motivated strong arm of the Obama administration. Enough! No more fear and intimidation from our government officials. It's time for Eric Holder to resign and for Congress to clean house at the DOJ.
Aaron Gee is a U.S.-based IT consultant who started the blog foundingideals.com.
