First They Came For……….. Kirsten Powers’ Anger at the Media over DOJ’s Trampling on Freedom of Press

From Kirsten Powers @ Daily Beast:

It’s instructive to go back to the dawn of Hope and Change. It was 2009, and the
new administration decided it was appropriate to use the prestige of the White
House to viciously attack a news organization—Fox News—and the journalists who
work there. Remember, President Obama had barely been in office and had enjoyed
the most laudatory press of any new president in modern history. Yet even one
outlet that allowed dissent or criticism of the president was one too many. This should have been a red flag
to everyone, regardless of what they thought of Fox
News. The math was simple: if the administration would abuse its power to try
and intimidate one media outlet, what made anyone think they weren’t next?

For Ms. Powers’ full column:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/21/how-hope-and-change-gave-way-to-spying-on-the-press.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Farticles+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Latest+Articles%29

Update: Latest reports show that the DOJ not only spied into James Rosen’s email accounts and phone records, as well as those of FOX News, including their phone lines at the White House, State Department, and Capitol Hill, but they also pried into the records of James Rosen’s parents in Staten island NY. Where is the outrage in the MSM?

Holder DOJ Seeks to Recruit “Dwarfs, Schizophrenics, and the Intellectually Disabled”…… The Latter Already Heads the DOJ!!

First of all, the PC term is “Little People”, and I can understand their recruitment. But SCHIZOPHRENICS and the INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED……

Holder Justice Department Recruits Dwarfs, Schizophrenics, and the ‘Intellectually Disabled’

The PJ Tatler has obtained documents from the Justice Department detailing efforts to recruit attorneys and staff who are dwarfs or who have “psychiatric disabilities” or “severe intellectual disabilities.”  On May 31, 2012, Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez issued a directive to affirmatively recruit people with these “targeted disabilities.”

This DOJ policy does not merely involve prohibitions against discrimination, but rather the documents reveal deliberate recruitment efforts to hire as attorneys and staff for the Department of Justice people suffering from psychiatric disorders and intellectual disabilities.  Moreover, applicants can “self-identify” their disability by means of the “Standard Form 256, Self Identification Disability.”

Those with “targeted disabilities” may be hired through a “non-competitive” appointment. That means they don’t have to endure the regular civil service competition among applicants, but can be plucked from the stack of resumes and hired immediately instead.

According to the documents, those with these “targeted disabilities” may be hired “before the position is advertised” and even “before the position’s closing date.” Moreover, lawyers with psychiatric disabilities and “severe intellectual” disabilities receive a waiver from the requirement that a new DOJ employee have practiced law for one year before being hired.

You can read the detailed Civil Rights Division “Hiring of Persons With Targeted Disabilities Policy” memo here.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/08/21/justice-department-recruits-dwarfs/

Obama Avoids Gitmo Detentions by….. Taking No Prisoners…….. Drone Strikes Eliminate Need for Detentions

The administration has made little secret of its near-total reliance on drone operations to fight the war on terror. The ironies abound. Candidate Obama campaigned on narrowing presidential wartime power, closing Guantanamo Bay, trying terrorists in civilian courts, ending enhanced interrogation, and moving away from a wartime approach to terrorism toward a criminal-justice approach. Mr. Obama has avoided these vexing detention issues simply by depriving terrorists of all of their rights—by killing them. (emphasis added)

for full OpEd: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303665904577452271794312802.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

FYI; John Yoo worked for the Bush DOJ, and was one of those targeted by the Obama administration regarding their legal memorandums that greenlighted what the Obama White House has deemed “Torture”.

 

How Secure Do You Feel? Top HomeLand Security Advisors Have NO Law Enforcement Experience

from the Daily Caller:

President Barack Obama’s Homeland Security secretary, Janet  Napolitano, has presided over the hiring of at least four senior staffers  and advisers who have no law enforcement experience but align politically with  the president.

Jordan Grossman was a special adviser and deputy to the deputy chief of staff  at the Department of Homeland Security, for instance, yet his resume shows no  law enforcement experience. Before Grossman got his post in January 2009, he was  a “special assistant” at the Obama-Biden presidential transition team after  working for Obama’s 2008 election campaign.

Before that, Grossman worked as a research assistant at the Annenberg Public  Policy Center, a communications think tank at the University of Pennsylvania.  Grossman also interned for the left-wing Center for American Progress, and for  the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

He lists no law enforcement experience on his resume, even though the Obama  administration had hired him into a senior law enforcement role. Grossman  has since left his government position for to attend Harvard Law School. *

Read more:  http://dailycaller.com/2012/05/14/senior-homeland-security-staffers-have-no-law-enforcement-experience/#ixzz1uxsoMaZF

Public School District Must Pay Teacher (on staff less than a year) For Not Allowing Her To Travel to Mecca Because School was in Session

A public school district in the U.S. must pay a Muslim teacher tens of thousands of dollars and establish a religious accommodation training program for refusing to let the instructor take three weeks off to make a pilgrimage to Mecca.

The settlement marks the conclusion of the first lawsuit filed by Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) as part of a pilot program designed to ensure “vigorous enforcement” of civil rights in the workplace. “Employees should not have to choose between practicing their religion and their jobs,” said Thomas Perez, the open borders advocate Obama appointed as Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.  

The math teacher (Safoorah Khan) sued the Berkeley Illinois district when her middle school denied the leave request because she was the only math lab instructor and her absence would come at a crucial time right before exams. To further back its case, the district pointed out that the union contract did not allow that sort of leave for any teacher.

So Khan, who had worked at McArthur Middle School for barely a year, resigned and sued the district for religious discrimination. The DOJ’s bloated civil rights division quickly moved to help her. In a December lawsuit, the DOJ accuses the Berkeley School District of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to reasonably accommodate Khan’s religious practices. By denying Khan a “religious accommodation”, the district compelled Khan to choose between her job and her religious beliefs, the DOJ claimed.

for complete story: http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2011/oct/public-school-dist-pay-muslim-teacher-over-mecca-trip

DOJ to Protect Teachers with Bad “Lebels” of English Fluency; You Really Can’t Make This Stuff Up

from the GateWay Pundit:

It’s an Obama World…
The Obama Department of Justice moved in this week to protect teachers with unacceptable English skills.
Judicial Watch reported:

Public school teachers with unacceptable English pronunciation and grammar are being protected by the Obama Administration, which has forced one state to eliminate a fluency monitoring program created to comply with a 2002 federal education law.

Singling out teachers who can’t speak proper English in American schools—funded by taxpayers, no less—discriminates against Hispanics and others who are not native English speakers, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). As a result it violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the teachers must remain in their current position.

Unbelievable as this may seem, it’s a true story reported this week by Arizona’s largest newspaper. Ironically, the state launched the fluency monitoring program to comply with the bipartisan-backed No Child Left Behind Act, which requires states to create standardized tests that show public school students are reaching proficiency in core subjects like English, math and science.

With only a small proportion of low-English proficiency students (reading between the lines they are referring to illegal immigrants) passing the state’s standardized reading test, Arizona education officials started to look at the teachers in those classrooms. They found a common thread in dozens of districts throughout the state; many instructors don’t speak proper English and, in fact, teach in Spanish, using Spanish-language materials. Some have “unacceptably heavy accents” that causes them to mispronounce words. Others use poor English grammar.

Here are some examples of state monitoring reports listed in the article; a teacher who asked her English learners “How do we call it in English?” and teachers who pronounced “levels” as “lebels” and “much” as “mush.” Last year a monitor documented teachers who pronounced “the” as “da” and “lives here” as “leeves here.”

Protected by the power of their union, no teachers have been fired for fluency issues.

And you wonder why the national SAT scores are on the decline?
Hat Tip Mara

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/09/obama-doj-takes-action-moves-in-to-protect-teachers-with-unacceptable-english-skills/

Gibson Guitar CEO will be Seated in Boehner’s Box During Obama’s Speech

     Claiming that the DOJ’s raids on Gibson Guitars is politocally motivated, and that the DOJ is trying to interpret and enforce the laws of another country, Gibson’s CEO has been invited to attend Obama’s economy speech before the Joint Session of Congress tomorrow. He was invited by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and will be seated in Speaker John Boehner’s box.

from the National Review:

Sources tell National Review Online that Gibson’s chairman and chief executive, Henry Juszkiewicz, will attend President Obama’s joint address to Congress on Thursday. Federal agents recently raided Gibson’s manufacturing facilities, suspecting that the company was using illegally-imported wood. 

Juszkiewicz has vocally defended Gibson’s practices and denied the allegations. “There’s no doubt we’re being persecuted,” he said in an interview with the Tennessean. “But while I was sitting in my conference room, while agents blocked the door to my office, I decided two things. One, we were going to try and fight this in court. Secondly, we were going to give this issue visibility.”

Juszkiewicz will be the guest of Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican. Blackburn represents numerous Gibson employees, many of whom reside in the Nashville suburbs.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/276481/embattled-guitar-exec-attend-obamas-speech-robert-costa

 

DOJ Realizes that Judge in ObamaCare Case Understands Their “Feet Dragging” Strategy

The administration’s most notable effort to drag out the litigation came earlier this month in a bogus “motion to clarify” Judge Roger Vinson’s decision, which held that the individual mandate was unconstitutional and struck down the whole law.  As Hans von Spakovsky and I explained last Thursday, that strategy backfired spectacularly with a stunning and deserved rebuke from the district court.  As Judge Vinson explained in his order last week, the court expected that DOJ would rush to stay the court’s order and then file an immediate appeal.  But, the Judge wrote, “It was not expected that they would effectively ignore the order and declaratory judgment for two and one-half weeks, continue to implement the Act, and only then file a belated motion to “‘clarify.’”  The Administration, he concluded, was just playing games.

To get things moving, Judge Vinson gave the government an ultimatum: appeal within a week and seek expedited briefing in the appellate courts (either the Eleventh Circuit or the Supreme Court), or the implementation of Obamacare will come to an immediate halt.  Wisely, DOJ took the judge at his word—this time—and filed its notice of appeal.

But will DOJ take the next required step and ask the appeals court for an expedited schedule going forward? Until tonight, it seemed like the government would wait out every deadline to the last possible moment.  Now, however, DOJ may have come to the realization that the courts have seen through its strategy, and further delay will prejudice the next level of judges further.

So here’s to hoping that DOJ has changed its ways.  And even if not, we can thank Judge Vinson for putting the appeals court on notice so that it won’t put up with any attempt to do an end run around the judicial process and, ultimately, the Constitution.

for full article: http://blog.heritage.org/2011/03/08/did-obama-finally-accept-that-he-lost-the-obamacare-lawsuit/

The Feds & Tracking Credit Card Activity in Real Time

“A 10-page Powerpoint presentation (PDF) that security and privacy analyst Christopher Soghoian recently obtained through a Freedom of Information Act Request to the Department of Justice reveals that law enforcement agencies routinely seek and obtain real-time surveillance of credit card transactions. The government’s guidelines reveal that this surveillance often occurs with a simple subpoena, thus sidestepping any Fourth Amendment protections.”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2637188/posts

DOJ Atty to Ignore Bosses & will Testify @ Civil Rights Commission Hearing on Black Panther Voting Intimidation Case

In a dramatic development that could shake the political leadership of  the Justice Department, career lawyer Christopher Coates has sent a letter to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights offering to testify Friday on matters related to the controversial New Black Panthers voter-intimidation case. Click here or on the screen capture below to read Coates’ letter in PDF form:

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/bombshell-defying-doj-instructions-christopher-coates-will-testify-on-new-black-panther-case-%e2%80%a6-tomorrow/