A Justice Department prosecutor, defying his superiors by testifying at a U.S. Civil Rights Commission hearing Friday into the department’s handling of a voter-intimidation case against a fringe African American militant group, blasted “senior political appointees” at Justice for “gutting” the case.

In his opening testimony, prosecutor Christopher Coates also suggested he was working against a dominant Justice Department culture which discouraged enforcement of civil rights laws in a “race-neutral” way that would protect whites as well as blacks.
snip

He said the division had been pressured by civil rights groups not to bring cases against white defendants. “Many of these groups act… as special interest lobbies for racial and ethnic minorities and demand not equal treatment but enforcement of the Voting Rights Act only for racial and language minorities,” Coates said.

“He appears here at great personal risk to himself. I’d like to than Mr. Coates for his courage in appearing today,” Commission Chairman Gerald Reynolds said.

Coates said his view that some in the Civil Rights Division were hostile to enforcing voting rights laws against minorities was reinforced by his experience pursuing a Mississippi case filed in 2005.

“Opposition within the voting section was widespread to taking actions under the Voting Rights Act on behalf of white voters in Noxubee County, Mississippi,” he said. “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.”

snip

Coates said a senior Civil Rights Division official also ordered him to stop asking job Justice Department job candidates if they would be willing to work on cases against minorities who violated equal-protection laws as well as cases filed against whites.

Here are his opening remarks.

Whatever. I don’t care. They have activities over there and I can sign them up for individual play-time. Mr. F. says he wants to see video of the playtime. Let me just add here… I do not always fully appreciate Mr. F.’s wit or cynicism.

Anyhoo….

There was an issue yesterday about toe-nail trimming. Since just last month, “we” (specifically Mr F.) had spent about $600 on a “well-doggie” visit…and now another almost $200 more was projected, and since Mr. F. has increased his muttering on this topic…I declined the toe trimming. ( I am a very obedient and cooperative wife) But at the desk, I was told the toe-trimming had mistakenly been done. Oh dear. Papers were shuffled, the Vet came out to say the toe-trimming was free, and I added as a conciliatory comment, ” I’m just trying to be careful. We all have to watch these things these days.” To which, one of the employees added, “Oh, Mrs F. didn’t you hear? The Recession is over. It was announced this morning on all the news channels.”

Silence followed..

then…

The whole waiting room broke into loud spontaneous guffaws. Good hearty long laughter. Then some older guy with a cat muttered some profanity linked with Obama’s name and the moment ended. I paid my bill and left.

A little vignette from a blue union city in the heartland.

Honestly, this administration, this government is so ham-handed. I mean, even if you are hard-core DEM, come on….who can stomach such an announcement “The Recession is over.” when no one can sell a house and about 10% of us are out of work. Can’t this administration just tell their brainy panel to stifle themselves…slip the note under Obama’s door? Do they know how this sounds to the rest of us great Unwashed out here? Do they understand this is now a nation of sound-bites and headline readers? Such is the sword by which Obama won the election , and it is now the sword cutting him off at the knees….slashing what’s left of his credibility. People assume that The One We Have Been Waiting For…is telling the people without government or public union jobs that happy days are here again for us.

There was, methinks, an undertone of anger and disgust at the Vets yesterday. The clerical workers behind the desk were not snorting because they think Hope and Change is working for them.

Oh wait…maybe Obama is still on one of his Recovery Summer vacations…and didn’t get the memo about the Great Economic Reveal.

The Recession Has Ended.

Did they expect to have cheering mobs gather in Time Square…women being commandeered by sailors for victory kisses? There must be a category BELOW “out of touch with the people”…Obama and his minions have seemingly boarded up the windows in the Ivory Tower, and are now just bellowing through their MSM megaphones the official Pap the Messiah demands we believe.

The Recession has ended.

Praise Obama and pass a few more Pink slips.

The Priests and Pundits from the Faculty Lounge have spoken.

And these are the Intellectual Elites mocking the inferior, common rabble over whom they currently hold sway?

The Recession Has Ended.

Ended months ago.

Remind me to tell Mr. F. to stop grumbling about the Vet bills.

HERE’S THE TEST
1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by:
a. Superman
b. Jay Leno
c. Harry Potter
d. A Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40

2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:
a. Olga Corbett
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzenegger
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. Lost Norwegians
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

4. During the 1980′s a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
a. A pizza delivery boy
b. Pee Wee Herman
c. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was
murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:
a. The Smurfs
b. Davey Jones
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was
murdered by:
a. Captain Kidd
b. Charles Lindberg
c. Mother Teresa
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

8. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Fairy
c. The Sundance Kid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton, to distract attention from Wild Bill’s women problems
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade
Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and
crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:
a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. The Supreme Court of Florida
c. Mr Bean
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

14. And now we can add: In 2009, 31 people wounded and 13 American Soldiers murdered on base at
Fort Hood by a Major that was known as…
a: You guessed it – A Muslim male extremist between the age of 17 and 40.

No, I really don’t see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you? So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President’s security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males between the ages 17 and 40 alone lest they be guilty of profiling.

Let’s send this to as many people as we can so that the Nancy Pelosis, Gloria Aldreds and other dunderheaded attorneys along with Federal Justices that want to thwart common sense, feel ashamed of themselves – if they have any such sense.

We can not allow the socialist transformation being brought on by the current administration to continue. Look at what it has done to Europe. We all must stand together before it’s too late and everything America stands for is lost.”

End of email.

(Hmmmm…and Americans need to be lectured about one Fool in Florida threatening to burn a Koran. Maybe President Apology-Tour ought to start lecturing Muslim countries on THEIR problems.)

Monday, my friend C. came for lunch. She helps Susan Lipstick and me with our business. She is also the perpetual fund-raising chair for a local charity that raises money for children in need who have cancer. This group was founded years ago by another friend’s oncologist husband. He and his professional cohorts were already providing free care but were perceptive enough to see the need was greater. Some families could not afford babysitting for other little ones so they could comfort and be with their sick child during chemotherapy. Some teens with cancer who had lost their hair were shamed to go to school without wigs. There are lots of little expenses like this that are a tremendous burden on families already under great duress. C. is part of a tireless group that addresses those needs year after year. This year they will expand their outreach to a few neighboring counties.

C. is a single woman, who supports herself as a manicurist/pedicurist….and is a powerhouse in her energy and devotion…and in taking a lead in getting problems solved in our community. She represents the kind of “community organizer” who builds bridges, not fences of resentment, envy, and class/race/gender/ warfare. And she is not looking to use anger as a fuel for self-promotion…or personal power.

She is simply trying to help.

I am privileged to know many people around this town like C. Tonight Mr.F and I will have dinner with two more….the Generals in the Army of the Unpaid. There is a fierce dedication among these folks that is accelerated by their unselfishness, their willingness to work long unpaid hours, do the ugly unpaid grunt work, and ask for little stroking or self-celebration. They are a far cry from the ugly face of our current money-sucking Political Class. They are not chumming for votes, or pimping for campaign contributions. Most of them have full time jobs and the spend their free time addressing community needs.

A few months ago I described myself as “leaning Tea Party.” I have pretty much fallen over the fence now and into the Flock. The MSM seems to want to pull me back with trivia….OMG Jan Brewer is a poor debater….OMG O’Donnell has money issues….OMG Palin is an outcast among the Eastern elites! Time and again, I watch our Harvard educated President affect his nose-raising posture of superiority as he addresses America. He actually looks like he smells something offensive when he addresses the common folk. It is the demeanor of one who believes he is special, anointed…The One We Have Been Waiting For. But the undeniable truth is …Obama has “fixed” nothing…improved nothing.

In the small city where I live, it is fair to say, our closest friends are among the people who own or run the businesses that create the jobs. They are also the same people who support the Arts and the charities here…both with financial and moral support. Over and over, they dig in their pockets to meet a long list of needs on the local level. It is their generosity of time, talent, and tithe that keeps our local Symphony alive, the Art Museum open, the public Gardens flourishing. Why does that matter? Well, let’s look at the inner city schools here. An unbending Teachers Union has driven the inner city schools to near bankruptcy…with many programs cut. Private money from local businesses and individuals has kept art and music programs going into these schools…so these children have the ability to experience what those in the affluent suburban public schools take for granted. We are working for free to give back some semblance what others greed has taken away.

This time of year, the Public Gardens, a gorgeous park located in one of the grimiest neighborhoods of the city, will host a free Pumpkin Walk, with free treats and Jack-o-Lanterns along the many pathways…for kids whose neighborhoods are loaded with drug lords and pimps. I like to call our Gardens “a borrowed backyard for a Urban neighborhood.” People around here know what that means. We are trying to give the children of the least among us some semblance of a normal childhood. For a few years, we had a beautiful experiment in a private school in probably the most dangerous part of town. Once again, local business people and private individuals paid the FULL tuition for the neighborhood children. Soon, folks from the neighborhood were wandering in, asking to be put to work…seeing the transformation of these little ones if given the slightest chance. In time, we failed. Unions and Government despise these types of initiatives , because they want the money and the power to flow ONLY through THEM.

Money and Power.

Look at the members of the CBC, scabbing off scholarships to give to their own families…that were meant to be awarded to those in need. This is not a problem of just the CBC…this is the ugliness of entrenchment. More than any others, the CBC feels “safe” in their districts, just as certain inept Union teachers, public service workers and laborers feel so safe in their jobs. This “safeness” breeds ethical sloppiness, greediness, and contempt for the very job they were hired to do. We have created a Nation of Untouchable Moral Degenerates..inside government and out.

This is the constituency Obama represents.

It’s time to send REAL PEOPLE to Washington. Anybody but the professional politicians, in it to perpetuate THEMSELVES. We need to send people to STOP the spending, STOP the growth of government. THAT is all that matters. People are finally over the Guy who looks great in the Soundbite…the Guy that gives the Media tingles but has no resume of real results…the Smooth Operator, the Sweet-Talker, the One We Have Been Waiting for.

While some are “waiting” for this Tin-God Messiah…people like C. are doing the real grunt work. People like our friends are creating the jobs…or would be…if Obama and the Dems hadn’t savaged their bottom line and thrust them under the boot heel of endless new regulations. The Other America…is awash in pink slips because we have the Faculty Dreamer who never met a Payroll experimenting their jobs into oblivion. Down in oil country, in the coal mines.,..they are waiting for Owe-bama’s Green Jobs. These are REAL families. And they wait as the Obamas swan through their lavish vacation schedule. And they STILL wait.

Michele has a beach closed for her in Spain. Obama closes down the rigs.

But any day now..a swarm of green jobs are coming. Or something. Hey, “we’re buying lobster.” Don’t bother me.

Yeah, right.

Here in Middle America, we see plants and stores closing because their entire payroll is now assaulted by Obama as the Big Wallet of Richie Rich..not the account that funds somebody’s middle class job.

Our failing President… with his nose perpetually in the air as he hectors and lectures us…. is actually smelling the stench of his own failure…the odor of having OVERSOLD his non-existent excellence…the stink of millions of Americans realizing they voted for an Incompetent, a Job-Killer.

Back home here, we will keep on doing what we can…everywhere we can…led by the Unselfish like C. and the community minded business partners…who still keep trying, although on a smaller level. We see that Obama’s race/class/ gender War has scarred a few among the affluent, but the suffering in the trenches is really among those who have a lot less…whose job prospects now are now bleak to none…whose children are now back in our Union-hostage public schools…whose property taxes (if they still have a home) continue to rise to pay for Obama’s Union patronage.

There is discouragement. There is despair. But the good news around here, is there is palpable DISGUST. At the hair salon, in the grocery line, talking to the guy at the deli…they are not angry, but FURIOUS. They see that Obama has elevated the Private Sector Unions and the UAW, etc to a protected class OVER THEM. The white collar workers at Delphi see THEIR pensions dissolved while the UAW gets fat. The clerk in the hardware store NOW understands that teachers demand pay hikes that balloon his property taxes while HIS hours are cut. Business owners get it now that the Messiah is a freaking Job-killer.

There is such beautiful anger…growing everywhere. Deliver us from the latte-drinking pseudo-intellectuals that have lived easy “tenured lives” and speak down to us.

This November…we vote for REAL. This November we send in the Roto-rooters, and flush them out. This November, God willing, we storm their bloated, bombastic, self-basting Bastille.

September is certainly a beautiful month…but, I’m thinking…November could be glorious.

Yes, the scent is in the air.

I’m 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs but job-hunting every day, I’ve worked hard since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven’t called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn’t inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there’s no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.

I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth” to people who don’t have my work ethic. I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.

I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to “keep people in their homes.” Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.

I’m tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe, the freedom of the press of China, the crime and violence of Mexico, the tolerance for Christian people of Iran, and the freedom of speech of Venezuela .

I’m tired of being told that Islam is a “Religion of Peace,” when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family “honor”; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren’t “believers”; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for “adultery”; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur’an and Shari’a law tells them to.

I’m tired of being told that “race doesn’t matter” in the post-racial world of Obama, when it’s all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.

I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.

I’m tired of a news media that thinks Bush’s fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama’s, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush’s military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn’t vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.

I’m tired of being told that out of “tolerance for other cultures” we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and mandrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America, while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.

I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore’s, and if you’re greener than Gore, you’re green enough.

I’m tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don’t think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I’m tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.

I’m tired of illegal aliens being called “undocumented workers,” especially the ones who aren’t working, but are living on welfare or crime. What’s next? Calling drug dealers, “Undocumented Pharmacists”? And, no, I’m not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it’s been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I’m willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn’t have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military. Those are the citizens we need.

I’m tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves.. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here’s the deal. I’ll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we’ll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.

I’m tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I’m tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the “Illinois Combine” of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama’s cabinet.

I’m tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I’m tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

Speaking of poor, I’m tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn’t have that in 1970, but we didn’t know we were “poor.” The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.

I’m real tired of people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and actions. I’m tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.

Yes, I’m damn tired. But I’m also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I’m not going to have to see the world these people are making. I’m just sorry for my granddaughter.

Robert A.Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.