Exclusive: Pentagon Lawyers Push Back Against Holder’s GITMO Attorneys

Some Defense Department lawyers are worried. Actually, quite a few of them are. They see a train wreck coming with the Obama administration’s evolving Guantanamo Bay detainee policies. Since it is DOD lawyers tasked with much of the footwork for administration decisions, they see firsthand how disorganized, inept, and ideologically extreme the handling of the issue has been. The DOJ, now thoroughly politicized and partisan under Eric Holder, is lock step with Obama’s White House on the issue, and is thoroughly at odds with its legal counterparts in the DOD. At a time when former Guantanamo Bay detainees are battling US forces in Afghanistan, and Jihadists are resurgent worldwide, the country can ill afford the administration’s criminalizing of admitted terrorists or of enemy combatants captured in battle against US forces.

What DOD lawyers are worried about are second-order effects. Namely, the unanticipated consequences of decisions made without due consideration or examination of facts. They are deeply concerned that the administration’s political appointees making decisions on the issue are as likely to be chosen for ideological purity as they are for their acumen on applicable laws. The political appointees are perceived by many in the DOD as caring more for their political ideological creed than for the safety of US citizens, or for the responsible stewardship of tax dollars. It is Leftist canon that Guantanamo Bay be closed, the risks and consequences be damned. Every policy decision pursuing that goal equates to thousands of man hours for DOD lawyers and millions of dollars.

DOD attorneys, including prosecutors and defense attorneys of all political stripes, are of the opinion that closing Guantanamo Bay is an illogical and irresponsible political move made without the facts, and one that will cost billions. No stateside facility has the resources Guantanamo Bay does. As for which stateside facility should replace Guantanamo, the administration cannot make up its mind. As Obama’s minions position for optimum political influence, they have flitted from military sites in Leavenworth, Kansas and Charleston AFB, South Carolina, to civilian facilities in Standish, Michigan and Thomson, Illinois.

The MSM has been telling Americans less that the truth on the detainee issue. Americans have not been told how well thought out was the construction of Guantanamo Bay. Its courtroom was designed by the William and Mary Law School – it is state of the art, capable of handling testimony involving top secret evidence. It has a media center. As for the detainees, forget the horror stories that represent the disinformation tactics of terrorist sympathizers who aim to sway public opinion. Detainees receive the best in medical and dental care. They have daily access to soccer fields. They have exercise areas that overlook the Caribbean, books and movies, as well as a menu where they can choose from several entrée’s cooked to Islamic Halal standards.

They are not tortured and they never were.

(more…)

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Tags: detainees, eric-holder, Gitmo, Guantanamo Bay, jihadists
Posted Mar 8th 2010 at 5:28 am in Defense, Featured Story, Justice/Legal, Obama, Politics | 8564273 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2010/03/08/exclusive-pentagon-lawyers-push-back-against-holders-gitmo-attorneys/Exclusive%3A+Pentagon+Lawyers+Push+Back+Against+Holder%27s+GITMO+Attorneys2010-03-08+13%3A28%3A57Capitol++Confidential

Holder Admits Nine Justice Dept. Officials Worked for Terrorist Detainees

From Washington Examiner’s Byron York:

Attorney General Eric Holder says nine Obama appointees in the Justice Department have represented or advocated for terrorist detainees before joining the Justice Department. But he does not reveal any names beyond the two officials whose work has already been publicly reported. And all the lawyers, according to Holder, are eligible to work on general detainee matters, even if there are specific parts of some cases they cannot be involved in.

Holder’s admission comes in the form of an answer to a question posed last November by Republican Sen. Charles Grassley. Noting that one Obama appointee, Principal Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal, formerly represented Osama bin Laden’s driver, and another appointee, Jennifer Daskal, previously advocated for detainees at Human Rights Watch, Grassley asked Holder to give the Senate Judiciary Committee “the names of political appointees in your department who represent detainees or who work for organizations advocating on their behalf…the cases or projects that these appointees work with respect to detainee prior to joining the Justice Department…and the cases or projects relating to detainees that have worked on since joining the Justice Department.”

(more…)

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Tags: eric-holder, Guantanamo Bay, Guantanamo Bay detainees, justice-department, terror detainees
Posted Feb 19th 2010 at 1:44 pm in Defense, News, Obama | 77490355 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/02/19/holder-admits-nine-justice-dept-officials-worked-for-terrorist-detainees/Holder+Admits+Nine+Justice+Dept.+Officials+Worked+for+Terrorist+Detainees2010-02-19+21%3A44%3A04Publius

O’Keefe: The Persecution of an American Patriot

James O’Keefe, along with Hannah Giles, broke one of the biggest investigative news stories since Watergate on the systemic corruption of radical left governmental organizations. It was, for new media, a defining moment. And while the historic implications of the O’Keefe/Giles expose are not yet fully understood, the media landscape was forever changed.

Despite this seismic shift in modern journalism, the mainstream media scornfully ignored the biggest story of the Obama administration. ACORN, Obama’s personal community organizing group, funded with taxpayer dollars, was shown to be a criminal, rapacious, and predatory organization. In clip after clip from O’Keefe and Giles, ACORN’s indecency became more obvious and outrageous, and the little remaining trust that the American people had in government/community service organizations morphed into outright contempt.

And the mainstream media yawned.

(more…)

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Tags: Abdulmutallab, ACORN, ACORN videos, doj, eric-holder
Posted Feb 2nd 2010 at 1:01 pm in ACORN, Defense, Justice/Legal, Media Criticism, News, Obama, Politics | 68406273 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/pgeller/2010/02/02/okeefe-the-persecution-of-an-american-patriot/O%27Keefe%3A+The+Persecution+of+an+American+Patriot2010-02-02+21%3A01%3A10Pamela+Geller

White House Orders: No Terror Trials in NYC

From the New York Daily News:

The White House ordered the Justice Department to consider other places to try the 9/11 terror suspects after a wave of opposition to holding the trial in lower Manhattan.

The White House took the action hours after Mayor Bloomberg called Attorney General Eric Holder to say he would “prefer that they did it elsewhere.”

“It would be an inconvenience at the least, and probably that’s too mild a word for people that live in the neighborhood and businesses in the neighborhood,” Bloomberg told reporters.

“There are places that would be less expensive for the taxpayers and less disruptive for New York City.”

State leaders have railed against a plan to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Manhattan federal court since Holder proposed it last month.

(more…)

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Tags: eric-holder, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Manhattan federal court, Mayor Bloomberg, Mohammed
Posted Jan 28th 2010 at 7:41 pm in Defense, Justice/Legal, News, Obama, Politics | 66802134 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/01/28/white-house-orders-no-terror-trials-in-nyc/White+House+Orders%3A+No+Terror+Trials+in+NYC2010-01-29+03%3A41%3A56Publius

DOJ Defends ACORN Funding Ban While Gutting It

The Harshbarger investigation is getting a lot of attention this week; and rightly so.  ACORN hired former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger to conduct an “independent” review of the organization in an effort to provide ACORN some cover to show that they were serious about reform.  The Harshbarger report concludes that ACORN was not at fault, rather the blame should rest with its founder Wade Rathke, the intrepid aspiring journalists Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe who revealed ACORN’s most recent corruption, and the low level ACORN employees and members who were featured in the videos.

This attempt to whitewash ACORN and its employees’ wrongdoing has been appropriately decried by Representative Darrell Issa, the Republican National Lawyers Association, and contributors to Biggovernment.com.

ACORN’s pending litigation against the federal government has received less attention.  Last week, unbeknownst to all but avid court or ACORN watchers a pivotal moment occurred in the lawsuit.  Peter D. Leary, an attorney at the Department of Justice filed a brief defending the Congressional efforts to defund ACORN.  His brief defended the defunding, while severely narrowing its scope and application.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN defunding, ACORN lawsuit, acorn scandal, acorn video
Posted Dec 8th 2009 at 3:21 pm in ACORN, Justice/Legal, News, Politics | 4303021 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/cberg/2009/12/08/doj-defends-acorn-funding-ban-while-gutting-it/DOJ+Defends+ACORN+Funding+Ban+While+Gutting+It2009-12-08+22%3A21%3A23Chris+++Berg

Sweetheart, Get Me Frank Ross: Crouching ACORNS, Hidden Cameras

On Monday, I discussed some of the background in the ongoing journalistic argument about the tactics used by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles in their ACORN takedowns, first released here at Big Government.  This is part two of that discussion.

Since the freewheeling days of the 1920s celebrated in The Front Page, there has been a profound shift in the way journalists view themselves and their societal role.  We might locate its origins in the 1947 report by the Commission on the Freedom of the Press, known today as Hutchins Commission after its chairman, Robert M. Hutchins, of the University of Chicago, and funded by Henry Luce of Time Inc.   In answer to the question, “is the freedom of the press in danger,” the commission answered yes, and issued “five ideal demands”:

1) A truthful, comprehensive, and intelligent account of the day’s events in a context which gives them meaning.

2) A forum for the exchange of comment and criticism.

3) The projection of a representative picture of the constituent groups in the society.  (“The Commission holds to the faith that if people are exposed to the inner truth of the life of a particular group, they will gradually build up respect for an understanding of it.”)

4) The presentation and clarification of the goals and values of the society.

5) Full access to the day’s intelligence. (more…)

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Tags: ACORN, acorn scandal, acorn video, Ben Bradlee, Bob Woodward
Posted Dec 2nd 2009 at 8:11 am in ACORN, Culture, History, Media Criticism, Obama, Politics | 3949016 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mwalsh/2009/12/02/sweetheart-get-me-frank-ross-crouching-acorns-hidden-cameras/Sweetheart%2C+Get+Me+Frank+Ross%3A+Crouching+ACORNS%2C+Hidden+Cameras2009-12-02+15%3A11%3A14Michael+Walsh

De-Fund Holder’s Manhattan Transfer

Ex-White House counsel Greg Craig thought it was a good idea to transfer Elián Gonzalez from the arms of his loving family in Miami into the arms of Fidel Castro. Transfer Elián from Florida to Cuba. Bad idea. Attorney General Janet Reno thought she might have to prove her toughness by transferring dozens of women and children from a Waco cult headquarters to eternity. Really bad idea.

But Eric Holder’s plan to transfer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from Guantánamo Bay to Manhattan for a civilian trial is perhaps liberals’ worst idea in years. KSM and his cohorts had agreed to plead guilty before a military tribunal, accept a sentence of death, and speedily rendezvous with their 72 ladies-in-waiting.

This offer of an efficient way out for the administration was not good enough for Attorney General Eric Holder. He insists on trying the terrorists before a civilian jury in federal court, just a few hundred yards from Ground Zero. Next to martyrdom and a free trip to paradise, this has to be the terrorists’ wildest dream.

No turbaned genie ever appeared out of Aladdin’s lamp to grant three greater wishes than these. KSM to Genie: One, I want to exploit my status as mass-murdering terrorist; Two, I want to inflict even greater pain and suffering on the families of those thousands whom I’ve murdered; Three, I want to make my trial a magnet for my brother jihadists throughout the world.

(more…)

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Tags: Barack Obama, Branch Dividians, Dred Scott, Elian Gonzales, eric-holder
Posted Dec 1st 2009 at 10:37 am in Justice/Legal, News, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized | 3873853 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kenandken/2009/12/01/de-fund-holders-manhattan-transfer/De-Fund+Holder%27s+Manhattan+Transfer2009-12-01+17%3A37%3A20Ken+Blackwell+and++Ken+Klukowski

Eric Holder Won’t Investigate His Radical Friends at ACORN

Attorney General Eric Holder has made it abundantly clear he has absolutely no interest in investigating his radical friends at ACORN.

Holder’s Justice Department released a legal opinion last week that allows the Obama administration to ignore the will of Congress which has voted overwhelmingly to suspend federal funding of ACORN until at least Dec. 18. He’s also ignored the 88-page report on ACORN’s systemic corruption and flagrant racketeering activities that was issued this summer by Republican investigators on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Apparently, public outrage at the continuing antics of the corrupt radical advocacy group that used to employ President Obama and White House political director Patrick Gaspard counts for nothing.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder (center) with ACORN ally Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (left), and former California Gov. Gray Davis (right).

But Americans really shouldn’t be surprised that Attorney General Holder is bending over backwards to help his radical friends at ACORN.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, American Constitution Society, Barack Obama, Barbra Streisand Foundation, Bill Mason
Posted Nov 30th 2009 at 7:01 am in ACORN, Featured Story, Justice/Legal | 3792298 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2009/11/30/eric-holder-wont-investigate-his-radical-friends-at-acorn/Eric+Holder+Won%E2%80%99t+Investigate+His+Radical+Friends+at+ACORN+2009-11-30+14%3A01%3A13Matthew+Vadum

Time to Pass The Buck and Start Pointing Fingers: Obama Living Up to His Absentee Legislator Past

During the Presidential “Media Fest” Campaign of 2007/08, many tried to impress upon the American people that Obama was an empty suit.  Quite simply, he had no significant legislative achievement to call his own.  Heck, as an Illinois State Senator, Obama voted “present” nearly 130 times, according to the New York Times:  “effectively sidestepping” issues.  The point of those who pressed Obama’s lack of executive experience and sidestepping tactics was that we could not afford a President who would do the same.

Ten months into the Obama Presidency, it is pretty clear that Obama is living up to his Absentee Legislator past.  Painful examples abound:

1. Trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Criminal Court.  Arguably one of the most detrimental legal and foreign policy decisions of our time, and Obama openly admits it wasn’t his call – it was an underling’s call – Eric Holder.  It was a terrible decision and, as Senator Lindsey Graham pointed out, an unprecedented decision.  While I doubt Obama sat purely on the sidelines on this decision, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that someone other than Obama has to take responsibility for this decision – good or bad.  And when it goes bad, then Obama will simply dump Holder.  Problem solved.
2. Health Care.  What’s a President to do when he is devoid of any significant legislation to his name?  Allow the most significant piece of legislation in the last 40 years to be written and managed by others.  Literally.   Before us is the biggest makeover of the relationship of the private sector and government since the Great Depression and Obama is merely a passenger on a bus being driven by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.  When it fails the American people, and it will, Obama will rightfully claim it wasn’t his bill.  Such is the prerogative of an Absentee President.
3. The Stimulus Bill.  It’s failing.  Indeed, over 3 million jobs have been lost since the Stimulus Bill was passed – a bill laden with pork because its passage was driven by someone other than Obama (not to say he would have passed a trimmed down bill).  Beyond that, we find out that the AIG bailout money was misspent – who would have thought?  Since the President can’t be in charge of such failures, and Obama can’t blame Pelosi or Reid,  the fall guy will be Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner – because, in time, simply blaming President Bush won’t be effective anymore.
4. The November Elections.  Even though Obama went and put his personal prestige on the line for New Jersey Governor Corzine, Corzine was soundly beat – as was the Democrat candidate in Virginia – a race Obama wouldn’t touch.  But those results, according to Obama, had nothing to do with him – those were races with local implications not national influences.

(more…)

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Tags: AIG bailout, Barack Obama, bush tax cuts, campaign 2008, civilian terror trials
Posted Nov 29th 2009 at 10:03 am in Congress, News, Obama, Politics | 34338162 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2009/11/29/time-to-pass-the-buck-and-start-pointing-fingers-obama-living-up-to-his-absentee-legislator-past/Time+to+Pass+The+Buck+and+Start+Pointing+Fingers%3A+Obama+Living+Up+to+His+Absentee+Legislator+Past+2009-11-29+17%3A03%3A53Thomas+Del+Beccaro

Another Obama Gitmo Official Resigns: Who is Accountable Now?

Earlier this month President Obama fired Greg Craig, his main counsel on matters concerning the Guantanamo Bay Facility. And this week Obama sheds another one of his GITMO team with the resignation of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense for Detainee Policy, Phillip Carter.

It appears that Obama’s GITMO team is being systematically eliminated. One has to ask, why? The only real answer has to be that Obama is setting up some plausible deniability by firing or forcing the resignation of officials involved with GITMO policy. Once enough of these people are gone, Obama can look wide-eyed to the public and claim that he was badly served by his GITMO advisers and, therefore, it isn’t his fault.

Unfortunately for Obama the failure is not with the staff but with the chief himself, Obama.

(more…)

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Tags: Attorney General, civilian terror trials, detainee policy, eric-holder, Gitmo
Posted Nov 28th 2009 at 12:33 pm in Defense, Justice/Legal, Obama | 3760665 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/wthuston/2009/11/28/another-obama-gitmo-official-resigns-who-is-accountable-now/Another+Obama+Gitmo+Official+Resigns%3A+Who+is+Accountable+Now%3F2009-11-28+19%3A33%3A53Warner+Todd++Huston

Whatever Became of ACORN’s ‘Internal Investigation’?

On September 29th, when ACORN is under full public scrutiny in the aftermath of the undercover video sting, it announced with great fanfare that it was launching a thorough and independent  review of its operations. It named Scott Harshbarger, former Massachusetts Attorney General, to head up this review.

STATEMENTFROMACORNADVISORYCOMMITTEE_092909 –

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN internal review, ACORN Investigation, acorn review, acorn scandal
Posted Nov 27th 2009 at 9:01 pm in ACORN, Big Labor, Justice/Legal, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 37866112 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/11/27/whatever-became-of-acorns-internal-investigation/Whatever+Became+of+ACORN%27s+%27Internal+Investigation%27%3F2009-11-28+04%3A01%3A14Publius

Hosting Terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: The New Growth Industry

Lawmakers in New York and Illinois were quick to recognize that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s trial offered a new opportunity to secure billions of additional taxpayer funds.

Both states are reeling from the combined effect of economic slowdown and years of profligate spending on government, grown far beyond what the tax base will support.   Thanks to President Obama’s decision to transfer terrorists from GITMO to U.S. soil, both states, and the city of New York, are going to be paid almost $3 billion dollars to secure, transport, administer, house, and contend with the requirements associated with having these terrorists in the United States.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the four other terrorists and all Americans associated with the trial, will require rigorous, differentiated security measures: twenty-four hour a day surveillance, transportation, housing and judicial security.  Certainly, New York will be required to raise its threat level to better prepare and respond to the new threat of  sympathetic  jihadists using the trial, as a showpiece of their own, to make a violent, retaliatory public statement.

Federal security and law enforcement agencies, such as DHS, FBI and US Marshals  will be working round the clock to provide the appropriate security, but will be unable to do all of the work required. New York, state and city, law enforcement officers will be required to share the burden, and will expect compensation from the federal government to provide this level of support.  Heavily-unionized, public employees in both states, are about to receive the most coveted of all Labor Union prizes, unlimited overtime that extends for years.

Bringing KSM to trial will be hugely expensive and will essentially represent a federalization of much of the New York state and city law enforcement and public services for the 5+ years that the trial process is likely to run.

(more…)

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Tags: Attorney General, Barack Obama, Blagojevich, Chuck Schumer, DHS
Posted Nov 23rd 2009 at 12:57 pm in Big Labor, Congress, Justice/Legal, Obama, State Politics | 35110142 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/ldoan/2009/11/23/hosting-terrorist-khalid-sheikh-mohammed-the-new-growth-industry/Hosting+Terrorist+Khalid+Sheikh+Mohammed%3A+The+New+Growth+Industry2009-11-23+19%3A57%3A12Lurita+Doan

ACORN Scandal, Part 2: The Evidentiary Phase

The last two months of the growing ACORN scandal have focused on the damning videos shot by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles.

In seven out of eight offices, ACORN employees attempted to aid and abet O’Keefe and Giles’ illicit “scheme” to establish a brothel for underage illegal-immigrant prostitutes from Central America. .

That phase has been tabled for a future date, as I forthrightly stated last Thursday evening to Attorney General Eric Holder on FOX NEWS’ Hannity show.

The next phase will be the evidentiary phase.  Starting with, but not limited to an extraordinary document dump at the San Diego office that was one of the offices  O’Keefe and Giles exposed, causing the firing of a single employee.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN document dump, ACORN dumpster, ACORN San Diego, acorn scandal
Posted Nov 23rd 2009 at 12:14 pm in ACORN, Featured Story, Justice/Legal, Media Criticism, News, Politics, State Politics | 35602194 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/abreitbart/2009/11/23/acorn-scandal-part-2-the-evidentiary-phase/ACORN+Scandal%2C+Part+2%3A+The+Evidentiary+Phase2009-11-23+19%3A14%3A31Andrew+Breitbart

Why Isn’t Anyone Really Investigating ACORN?

As we rapidly approach December 18^th, the day when ACORN is again eligible to receive federal funds, we still have yet to see a meaningful investigation of ACORN.

Last week,  the Inspector General of the Department of Justice released a “Review of Department of Justice Grants to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Inc. (ACORN) and its Affiliated Organizations.”  Unsurprisingly this report “did not find any DOJ direct grants to ACORN.”  The report did however reveal approximately $200,000 in sub-grants to ACORN affiliates.  This number pales in comparison to the amount of federal money ACORN and its affiliates have received from other agencies.

ACORN and its affiliates have received over $54 million in federal grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  These are the grants that the government should be investigating.  How did ACORN spend these federal tax dollars?  Were they used for their designated purposes?  Does ACORN owe the federal government a refund?

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, acorn scandal, ACORN videos, Andrew Breitbart, Bertha Lewis
Posted Nov 23rd 2009 at 10:38 am in ACORN, Justice/Legal, Politics | 3446671 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/cberg/2009/11/23/why-isnt-anyone-really-investigating-acorn/Why+Isn%27t+Anyone+Really+Investigating+ACORN%3F2009-11-23+17%3A38%3A42Chris+++Berg

Thanks for Paying Attention Big Journalism

In response to the Columbia Journalism Review’s accusing me of “blackmailing” the Attorney General of the United States, I must take notice that the mainstream media as a journalistic establishment IS paying attention to the ongoing ACORN scandal.  Good.  I thought so.

What the Columbia Journalism Review is doing is very similar to what Media Matters is doing: protecting the Democrat-Media Complex, the natural alliance of the Democratic Party and the mainstream media.  This ACORN investigation has been going on for two months and Hannah, James, and I have proven to be truth-tellers every step of the way, while the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now has been proven time and again to be liars.

Yet instead of engaging the real, newsworthy issues of ACORN’s possible corruption, malfeasance and illegal behavior, the CJR, like its more overtly political online counterpart Media Matters, and indeed every other MSM outlet, has been sitting it out on the sidelines, waiting – rooting – for Hannah Giles, James O’Keefe and me to make a mistake.  In fact, my appearance Thursday night is the only time in which the media has introduced itself into this ongoing narrative: proof that it’s paying attention and taking sides.

Neither, by the way, has the CJR challenged James Rainey, a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, who has consistently shaded his coverage favorably toward ACORN since we first broke the story back in September, evincing little interest in the truth but instead muttering about the standards of the Society of Professional Journalists (take link, be sure to read the comments).  “But the Society of Professional Journalists has set a standard that deception should be used only when every other reporting approach has been exhausted and only then in certain cases, most notably to reveal a severe social problem or to prevent people from being harmed.” (more…)

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Tags: ACORN, Attorney General Holder, Census, Columbia Journalism Review, Democrat-Media Complex
Posted Nov 21st 2009 at 7:16 am in ACORN, Featured Story, Media Criticism | 34894241 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/abreitbart/2009/11/21/thanks-for-paying-attention/Thanks+for+Paying+Attention+Big+Journalism2009-11-21+14%3A16%3A22Andrew+Breitbart

Columbia Journalism Review: Breitbart ‘Blackmailing’ Attorney General

From the Columbia Journalism Review:

Memo to Sean Hannity, who is calling for James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles, and Andrew Breitbart to get a “journalism award” for their video sting of ACORN: Generally, when in possession of what one believes to be newsworthy information, the journalistic thing to do is get it out to the public—not attempt to blackmail the attorney general.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN LA, Andrew Breitbart, eric-holder, Hannah Giles
Posted Nov 20th 2009 at 4:54 pm in ACORN, Media Criticism, News | 34538200 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/11/20/columbia-journalism-review-breitbart-blackmailing-attorney-general/Columbia+Journalism+Review%3A+Breitbart+%27Blackmailing%27+Attorney+General2009-11-20+23%3A54%3A57Publius

Your Move Mr. Holder: ACORN Received $200,000 From Justice Department

From The Hill:

ACORN and its affiliates received $200,000 in Justice Department grants between 2002 and 2009, according a report issued today by the department’s Inspector General.

No DOJ grants went directly to ACORN, but a handful of grants were awarded either to ACORN affiliates or to other organizations that sub-contracted with ACORN.

The report, requested by House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), also found a few instances of ACORN mismanagement of federally contracted work.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN fraud, ACORN Institute, ACORN Investigation, acorn scandal
Posted Nov 20th 2009 at 12:44 pm in ACORN, Justice/Legal, News, Obama, Politics | 34382115 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/11/20/report-acorn-received-200000-from-justice-department/Your+Move+Mr.+Holder%3A+ACORN+Received+%24200%2C000+From+Justice+Department2009-11-20+19%3A44%3A32Publius

Breitbart to AG Holder: Investigate ACORN or We’ll Release More Tapes Just Before 2010 Election

Earlier tonight Andrew Breitbart, James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles discussed the final chapter of the ACORN L.A. saga on “Hannity,” but more interestingly, Breitbart disclosed where the story goes from here.  Transcript (below) starts from 3:50 into the clip:

Breitbart: There’s a lot of hypocrisy and the dust has settled for ACORN and at the end of the day they’ve recognized that Eric Holder, the Attorney General, has not initiated an investigation into ACORN after we now have seven tapes.  There were five initially that came out, ACORN was defunded by the Senate, was defunded by the House, lost it’s link to the Census; while all that damage occurred, Congress didn’t come in to investigate them, obviously not the Attorney General’s office, and they’ve now realized let’s get back into business because they realized that the dust settled and they were not being investigated, it was Hannah, James, and me who were being investigated, that’s why we’ve been forced to offer this latest tape.

Hannity: Are you saying, Andrew, that there are more tapes? (more…)

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Tags: ACORN L.A., acorn prostitute, ACORN prostitution scandal, ACORN tapes, Andrew Breitbart
Posted Nov 20th 2009 at 1:36 am in ACORN | 34218332 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/11/20/breitbart-to-ag-holder-investigate-acorn-or-well-release-more-tapes-just-before-2010-election/Breitbart+to+AG+Holder%3A+Investigate+ACORN+or+We%27ll+Release+More+Tapes+Just+Before+2010+Election2009-11-20+08%3A36%3A51Publius

Internment, CSI and Eric Holder’s Disarming of America

According to the American Historian Will Durant, “Animals claw each other to death, men consume each other by due process of law.”  And with that sentiment in mind, it is easy to see why the Obama Administration has made one of the worst foreign policy decisions in American history.

Of course, I am talking about the decision to try terrorists for “crimes” in New York City in a criminal court using the laws of our land.  Let us count the ways this decision is beyond negligent; it is a gross dereliction of duty:

1.  An Unprecedented Act Providing A Terrible Precedent.  Throughout our history, we have treated enemy combatants as those committing an act of war.  That is so because (a) they are not US citizens, and (b) their acts were acts of war.  In other words, they were not criminal acts of a US citizen committed during peace time.  Now however, Obama has allowed at least one enemy combatant to be tried in a US criminal court subject to the constitutional laws of our country.

Here is what logically can flow from that legal precedent, keeping in mind that the first right granted is never the last:

a)      Other enemy combatants will claim that they are not being treated “separately but fairly,” that they too have a right to due process, and so they will claim that they have a right to tried in a US criminal court as well – effectively ending military tribunals; and

b)      Thereafter, enemy combatants will not only make use of our appeal process, they will also claim that they have a right to sue in our civil courts for any claimed “civil rights” injustices as a result of the process by which they were captured, detained and/or questioned – regardless of any existing laws to the contrary which they will claim are  – you guessed it  – unconstitutional;  and

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Tags: Barack Obama, criminal courts, eric-holder, internationalism, military tribunals
Posted Nov 19th 2009 at 7:51 am in Culture, Defense, Justice/Legal, Obama | 3346676 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2009/11/19/internment-csi-and-eric-holders-disarming-of-america/Internment%2C+CSI+and+Eric+Holder%E2%80%99s+Disarming+of+America2009-11-19+14%3A51%3A36Thomas+Del+Beccaro