Obama Fail Blog

It has been rumored for some time now, but the Obama administration has officially sued to block the new Arizona immigration law. Hey, at least they waited until after the Fourth of July to declare war on another red state:

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona's new law targeting illegal immigrants, setting the stage for a clash between the federal government and the state over the nation's toughest immigration crackdown.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix argues that Arizona's law requiring state and local police to question and possibly arrest illegal immigrants during the enforcement of other laws such as traffic violations usurps federal authority.

Source: Yahoo News via Drudge Report

Does this mean Janet Napolitano and Eric Holder have finally read the law? Probably not, because all Arizonans want is for the federal government to do their job by enforcing existing immigration law. Instead, we get a lawsuit. Great...

Hey, remember when Senator Jon Kyl accused President Obama of holding border security hostage? At the time, Obama's apologists accused Kyl of lying to score political points. "Obama would never sacrifice national security by refusing to enforce our borders until he achieved his political goals," they said (paraphrasing).

Well, Obama just admitted to holding border security hostage:

"There are those who argue that we should not move forward with any other elements of reform until we have fully sealed our borders," he said. "Our borders are just too vast for us to be able to solve the problem only with fences and border patrols. It won't work."

Source: Reuters

Imagine that... The lefties kicked and screamed for a week about Senator Kyl's comments and here comes old President Bow n' Tax to confirm exactly what Kyl warned about - Obama wants amnesty before he even considers securing the border. Even then, Obama is lowering expectations of how secure the border can ever be. Keep in mind, this clown has mismanaged the BP oil spill so spectacularly that there really is no feasible way he could secure the border if he tried.

But he won't try. That's the point.

So now that Obama has confessed to taking an issue hostage, maybe Eric Holder can give him a trial in New York City? I kid... I kid...

Just like Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano hasn't read the Arizona immigration reform bill - Senate Bill 1070:

This is just bizarre. It's almost as if Holder is trying to lose his job. Of course, he could be protecting his former clients - remember Holder's ties to Covington & Burling and the Al Qaeda 7?



SPIT IT OUT, JUNIOR!

Incompetence:

In television interviews over the weekend, Attorney General Eric Holder warned that Arizona's new anti-illegal immigration law could lead to racial profiling and might prompt Latinos to stop cooperating with police. However, it emerged at a House hearing Thursday that Holder hasn't actually read the statute.

"I have not had a chance to. I've glanced at it. I have not read it," Holder acknowledged in response to questions from Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas).

"It's ten pages. It's a lot shorter than the health care bill, which was 2,000 pages long. I'll give you my copy of it, if you would like to -- to have a copy," Poe quipped during the House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing.

Source: Politico

President Obama loves to waste money. Take a look at all of the many failures of the Obama stimulus plan for proof.

But when it comes to protecting American cities from terrorist attacks, the Obama administration is surprisingly frugal. The recent attempted car bombing of Time Square has put this issue in perspective:

A car bomb in Times Square, even a malfunctioning one, is another reminder that New York remains a tempting target for terrorists. It should be a reminder to Congress and the White House of why New York deserves more support for its antiterrorism measures.

Last year, the Obama administration tried to eliminate financing for a “Securing the Cities” program designed in part to help New York City create links with law enforcement agencies nearby to prevent an attack. The administration said the city was not spending its funds quickly enough. Officials here insisted they were moving ahead but also wanted to reserve some of the money to help build up security systems inside the city.

Congress restored some $20 million in financing. And after Saturday’s incident, Senator Charles Schumer and Representative Peter King are now asking for at least $30 million more. That money should allow Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Chief Raymond Kelly to accelerate their work on two security “rings” — an idea adapted from London’s “Ring of Steel” — that deploy cameras and other surveillance equipment around the city. The first ring would guard the World Trade Center site. The second would be aimed at protecting Times Square.

Source: New York Times

So the Obama administration cut spending anti-terror programs and claims it is because the money wasn't being spend quickly enough. Sounds like the administration is soft on defense AND prone to reckless spending.

And while they were cutting the Securing the Cities program, Eric Holder and the Al Qaeda 7 were (and still are) pushing to move the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to New York City.

Meanwhile, stimulus money was being wasted on iPods, self-congratulatory roadsigns, Hillary Clinton pollster payoffs, and a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings.

Remember Neal Katyal and David Remes?

Seems people are noticing the ties between the Obama administration - specifically Eric Holder - and lawyers who have defended Al Qaeda operatives:

Via Huffington Post

Well, technically, the reports say President Obama is ordering Eric Holder to "consider" moving the trial of 9/11 terrorist conspirators out of New York City. Since Obama made sure he was in China when Holder announced the trials, he must feel like he needs to continue acting as if this whole thing was Holder's idea. Whatever:

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

The dramatic turnabout came hours after Mayor Bloomberg said he would "prefer that they did it elsewhere" and then spoke to Attorney General Eric Holder.

"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."

Source: NY Daily News

Good on the mayor. However, the final nail in this coffin of failure probably came when Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) bolstered Bloomberg's statements by urging the White House to take his request seriously. This all comes days after it was revealed that Holder lied when he said he had consulted with Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly before making the decision to hold the trials in NYC.

Pulling the trials out of NYC is as close to an admission of failure as you will ever get from these clowns - this whole thing was a fiasco, a farce and a failure from the get-go. The next step is for the trials to be canceled altogether. Fingers crossed...

Remember when President Obama skipped town so Eric Holder could announce the second half of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York City? Holder went to great lengths to make it seem like the mayor and police chief of New York City were 100% behind the decision:

"Our courts have a long history of handling these cases, and no district has a longer history than the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. I have talked to Mayor Bloomberg of New York, and both he and the Police Commissioner Ray Kelly believe that we can safely hold these trials in New York." - Eric Holder

Source: Main Justice

Er... That's a lie. At least according to a recent statement made by NYC police commissioner Ray Kelly:

“We were not consulted,” Kelly said tersely of the decision. He stated that the trial “will raise the threat level of this city,” a threat that “will not fade any time soon.” And it affects more than lower Manhattan, we learned. “We will have to look at the entire city as a potential target.”

Source: Loud Citizen

The Washington Post is slamming the Obama administration's handling of the Christmas Day terrorist attack, calling it - among other things - "myopic, irresponsible and potentially dangerous." And there's alot more:

Whether to charge terrorism suspects or hold and interrogate them is a judgment call. We originally supported the administration’s decision in the Abdulmutallab case, assuming that it had been made after due consideration. But the decision to try Mr. Abdulmutallab turns out to have resulted not from a deliberative process but as a knee-jerk default to a crime-and-punishment model.

In testimony Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, and Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, all said they were not asked to weigh in on how best to deal with Mr. Abdulmutallab. Some intelligence officials, including personnel from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, were included in briefings by the Justice Department before Mr. Abdulmutallab was charged. These sessions did provide an opportunity for those attending to debate the merits of detention vs. prosecution. According to sources with knowledge of the discussions, no one questioned the approach or raised the possibility of taking more time to question the suspect. This makes the administration’s approach even more worrisome than it would have been had intelligence personnel been cut out of the process altogether.

Source: Washington Post via Hot Air

The Post continues, citing the fiasco with the HIG - an Obama-created task force that wasn't ready to deal with the Abdulmutallab event, even after three months of preparation...

The Obama administration is being hammered on many fronts - the economy, the results of the Massachusetts Senate race and the possible death of ObamaCare, to name a few - but let's not forget about the fail-tastic job they are doing when it comes to homeland security.

The latest failure is the High Value Interrogation Group - or HIG - that was created by President Obama to signal a clean break from the Bush administration policies on dealing with suspected terrorists. It seems the HIG isn't firing on all cylinders:

Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday that officials botched the handling of terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is accused of working with a Yemen-based offshoot of al Qaeda to try to bring down the Detroit-bound jet carrying 290 passengers and crew.

In his testimony Wednesday, Mr. Blair said the HIG "was created exactly for this purpose—to make a decision on whether a certain person who's detained should be treated as a case for federal prosecution or for some of the other means."

He added: "We did not invoke the HIG in this case; we should have."

Source: Wall Street Journal

Later in the day, Blair backed off his comments slightly:

Later in the day, Mr. Blair issued a statement saying his comments were "misconstrued." "The FBI interrogated Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab when they took him into custody," his statement said. "They received important intelligence at that time, drawing on the FBI's expertise in interrogation that will be available in the HIG once it is fully operational," he said, referring to the High-Value Interrogation Group.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Why would someone as intelligent and well-informed as the director of national intelligence make such a damning statement about the HIG, only to back off the statement later in the day? And why would he include a qualifier like "once it is fully operational?"

Answer: Because the HIG - a task force created by President Obama - FAILED.

You see, the HIG had no procedures in place to deal with Abdulmutallab when he carried out his attack on December 25, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The chairwoman [Diane Feinstein (D-CA)] and vice chairman [Kit Bond (R-MO)] of the Senate Intelligence Committee said after a closed-door briefing Thursday that a panel announced by the Obama administration in August to decide how to treat potential terror suspects was still not operational as of Dec. 25.

Source: Wall Street Journal

The HIG wasn't prepared to deal with the situation, despite having at least three months to prepare for an event that should have been dealt with on day one of the Obama administration.

Is this another case of dithering in the face of national security threats? Perhaps. But let's not overlook incompetence as a potential factor. Then again, anything is possible whenever Eric Holder is involved:

All seven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have signed a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder seeking to learn who made the decision to treat Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused Christmas Day terrorist bomber, as a criminal suspect rather than an enemy combatant. On the same day he tried to detonate a bomb aboard a Northwest Airlines plane in Detroit, Abdulmutallab, who was trained by al Qaeda in Yemen, was informed of his Miranda right to remain silent and given a government-paid lawyer. He then refused to cooperate with U.S. authorities.

Source: Washington Examiner

Good luck getting a straight answer to that letter. Remember, Holder's law firm represents Islamist terrorists and Holder has close ties to radical lawyers David Remes and Neal Katyal. In fact, Katyal is now the Deputy Solicitor General of the US.

With administration officials like this, who needs terrorists?

Reports have been circulating about Carlos Allen - the third party crasher who got into a White House dinner for the Indian delegation back in November.

Much like the original White House party crasher story, I didn't post it on Obama Fail Blog right away, because the details were vague - nobody really knows how these people got into the White House, so you can't really blame the administration at this point. Unless, of course, the party crashers turn out to be radicals or the administration turns a sketchy security breach into a hilarious gaffe.

Ladies and gentleman, the Carlos Allen incident has morphed into a hilarious gaffe. Thanks to Big Government and Verum Serum we now have photos!

In the wake of the Christmas terror attack aboard Delta Flight 253, the Obama administration continues to use the phrase "connect the dots" to explain a massive intelligence failure. In his responsibility-skirting speech last night, President Obama pointed the finger of blame at the intelligence community:

"The bottom line is this: The U.S. government had sufficient information to uncover this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack. But our intelligence community failed to connect those dots, which would have placed the suspect on the no-fly list."

Source: Politico

So President Obama (dba "The U.S. Government") could have solved this caper, if it wasn't for those meddling kids at the CIA? Is that right? Really?

Well, let's "connect" some "dots" of our own, to see if there are any other underwear terrorists out there. (Spoiler Alert: There are more out there!)

Dot #1 - Eric Holder's law firm represents Islamist terrorists

Before being appointed to the post of US Attorney General, Eric Holder was a partner at the law firm Covington and Burling. C & B represented 17 terrorist detainees at Guantanemo Bay.

[Source: Michelle Malkin]

Dot #2 - Eric Holder treats the CIA like it is his enemy

Eric Holder has a long history of attacking the CIA, from blocking the release of a report that proved the agency didn't push narcotics onto young kids in inner cities to hinting that he will prosecute CIA agents for using enhanced interrogation techniques. [Source: Obama Fail Blog, CNN and The Weekly Standard]

Dot #3 - Eric Holder favors granting civilian trials to Islamist terrorists

This "dot" is fairly obvious. Do a Google search for "Eric Holder and KSM civilian trial" and read all about it. Or just click the link.

Dot #4 - Neal Katyal represented Islamist terrorists

Before being appointed as Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States, Neal Katyal represented Osama bin Laden's chauffer (Salim Ahmed Hamdan) in the landmark legal case Hamden v. Rumsfeld.

[Source: UK Telegraph]

Dot #5 - Neal Katyal worked closely with Covington & Burling to represent terrorists

While working against the US government on the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case, Neal Katyal become something of a community organizer for all anti-American leaning lawyers. Take it from David Remes of Covington & Burling:

Covington & Burling partner David Remes, who coordinated the stunning amicus effort in Hamdan-more than three dozen briefs-said, "Without the personal connection that Neal had with so many of these lawyers and amici and without being held by them in such high esteem, I don't think we could have had an amicus effort anywhere near as effective."

Source: National Law Journal

Dot #6 - Meet David Remes - the original underpants terrorist

David Remes was a partner at Covington & Burling with Eric Holder. He is also the lawyer who gushes over Neal Katyal in the quote above (see Dot #5). Remes has a history of representing Islamist terrorists - ranging from one of USS Cole bombers to assorted other Gitmo detainees.

Remes was using his underwear to terrorize Americans long before Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. In Remes' case, he didn't have a bomb under his slacks, but he dropped his drawers at a press conference in Yemen to further the cause of Islamist terrorism:

David Remes, a Covington & Burling partner who was in Yemen working on his representation of 15 Yemeni detainees at Gitmo, told the journalist that he had “two missions” during the visit: “first to meet the families of the men that I represent in Guantanamo and second, to do what I can to promote the cause of these men.”

It was in the name of this zealous advocacy that Remes (Columbia, Harvard Law) removed his pants at a news conference on Monday.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Dot #7: David Remes has targeted the CIA

David Remes has gone after the CIA many times in the past. Remember the uproar when the CIA allegedly destroyed tapes of enhanced interrogations? Yep, Remes was behind that.

Remes has also been one of the key figures behind the push to cover Islamist enemy combatants under the Geneva Conventions:

The Bush administration has agreed to apply the Geneva Conventions to all terrorism suspects in U.S. custody, bowing to the Supreme Court's recent rejection of policies that have imprisoned hundreds for years without trials.

The Pentagon announced yesterday that it has called on military officials to adhere to the conventions in dealing with al-Qaeda detainees. The administration also has decided that even prisoners held by the CIA in secret prisons abroad must be treated in accordance with international standards, an interpretation that would prohibit prisoners from being subjected to harsh treatment in interrogations, several U.S. officials said.

...

"At a symbolic level, it is a huge moral triumph that the administration has acknowledged that it must, under the Supreme Court ruling, adhere to the Geneva Conventions," said David Remes, a lawyer who represents 17 Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay. "The legal architecture of the war on terror was built on a foundation of unlimited and unaccountable presidential power, including the power to decide unilaterally whether, when and to whom to apply the Geneva Conventions."

Source: Washington Post

Remes' quote begs the question - a huge moral triumph for WHO? Islamist terrorists?

So there are your dots. Connect 'em!

David Remes - who is closely tied to both Neal Katyal and Eric Holder - believes the war on terror was illegitimate. Maybe that is why President Obama has ditched the term "war on terror" in favor of any number of euphemisms for "failure."

Janet Napolitano - the hapless Secretary of Homeland Security with a lunch lady haircut - has interfered with the FBI's investigation of terrorist suspect Najibullah Zazi:

In mid-September, the FBI arrested the Afghan-born Zazi after he allegedly tried to build bombs with "large quantities" of hydrogen peroxide purchased at beauty shops in the Denver area.

Days earlier, media reports had disclosed that Zazi, 24, and others were allegedly planning to hide the bombs in backpacks and detonate them in New York City.

On a Friday night, National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter joined Brennan, Mueller, Napolitano and Holder for a two-hour meeting, which turned into an "excited" back-and-forth over information sharing, officials familiar with the meeting said.

Mueller was "angry" and "upset" over leaks to the media, while Napolitano expressed dismay that DHS was not more involved in the Zazi case, and she relayed concerns that only limited information was being offered to local authorities through joint FBI-DHS intelligence bulletins, according to the officials.

"It was very clear that the FBI's position was: The investigation is what's important, and you can't do anything to compromise the investigation ... because it is only through these investigations that we can stop attacks," one official said.

Source: FoxNews

It isn't surprising that Napolitano would favor the dissemination of information - thereby risking and encouraging leaks - over the successful completion of the Zazi investigation. She is, after all, a political hack and a clown.

However, here is the most interesting part of the story:

Throughout the meeting, Leiter tended to side with Napolitano, and Holder often aligned with Mueller, the official said.

Source: FoxNews

That is big news. Attorney General Eric Holder is responsible for granting civilian trials to 9-11 conspirators. - a move that will almost certainly compromise current and future investigations into domestic and international terrorist threats. Yet, in this instance, Holder seems to be siding with the FBI.

Holder's actions in the Zazi case can be taken one of three ways:

1.) Even Eric Holder can't deny that Janet Napolitano is a dangerous clown...

or

2.) Eric Holder is just as incompetent as Janet Napolitano and his contradictory positions on terror investigations should come as no surprise.
or

3.) President Obama was behind the KSM/9-11 show trial idea and he is also behind Napolitano's efforts to thwart the Zazi investigation through dissemenation and leaks.

Talking tough is not the same as acting tough, but Eric Holder and President Obama are too busy failing to know the difference:

President Barack Obama predicted that professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be convicted and executed as Attorney General Eric Holder proclaimed: "Failure is not an option."

Source: Forbes

Even if a terror trial suspect were acquitted, Holder said, he would not be released in the United States.

Err... Uh... Failure already happened. A terrorist who has confessed to plotting to kill thousands of American citizens is being granted a federal trial. He is being afforded the rights of a US citizen - innocent until proven guilty, jury of his peers, all that jazz...

But, but, but, but, wait! It gets worse! These guys just won't stop talking about their idiotic policy decisions:

Even if a terror trial suspect were acquitted, Holder said, he would not be released in the United States.

In one of a series of TV interviews during his trip to Asia, Obama said those offended by the legal privileges given to Mohammed by virtue of getting a civilian trial rather than a military tribunal won't find it "offensive at all when he's convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him."

Source: Forbes

Are these guys serious? Let's review:

• KSM was the mastermind who plotted 9/11
• KSM confessed to being the mastermind
• President Obama (dba Eric Holder) is granting a trial to KSM
• Obama has declared -BEFORE HIS TRIAL - that KSM will receive the death penalty

Andrew McCarthy - who prosecuted Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman for his involvement in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center - weighs in on this madness:

In a meeting with the press in China, President Obama said that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be "convicted" and had "the death penalty applied to him" . . . and then said he wasn't "pre-judging" the case. He made the second statement after it was pointed out to him — by NBC's Chuck Todd — that the first statement would be taken as the president's interfering in the trial process. Obama said that wasn't his intention. I'm sure it wasn't — he's trying to contain the political damage caused by his decision — but that won't matter. He has given the defense its first motion that the executive branch, indeed the president himself, is tainting the jury pool. Nice work.

Source: National Review

And they said George W. Bush was a reckless cowboy...

1.) ABC News is reporting about the success of the stimulus in Arizona's 15th congressional district, except that district doesn't exist:

Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says.

There's one problem, though: There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts.

And ABC News has found many more entries for projects like this in places that are incorrectly identified.

Late Monday, officials with the Recovery Board created to track the stimulus spending, said the mistakes in crediting nonexistent congressional districts were caused by human error.

Source: ABC News

2.) New York governor David Patterson is ripping the Justice Department's decision to grant trials to terrorists, just blocks from Ground Zero:

Gov. Paterson on Monday joined critics questioning the White House's plan to put the accused 9/11 terrorists on trial in New York.

"This is not a decision that I would have made," he said when asked about the upcoming trials of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his four underlings in Manhattan Federal Court.

"It's a little inconsistent with what he told me last week," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told the Daily News last night after being honored on the East Side with the Brennan Center for Justice Legacy Award.

Source: NY Daily News

3.) Regarding Holder's claim that Paterson is contradicting himself, Holder is claiming he didn't consult with Paterson, Obama or anyone else in positions of power. Of course, these are either blatant lies or Eric Holder is the most dangerous man in the free world. Lil' bit of both, most likely:



4.) Spiegel Online is declaring that Obama has "failed the world on climate change." Author Christian Schewergel blames Obama for lying and being too self-centered and incompetent to do what is right - a sentiment that everyone can agree on, regardless of their views on climate legislation:

Obama Lied to the Europeans

Barack Obama cast himself as a "citizen of the world" when he delivered his well-received campaign speech in Berlin in the summer of 2008. But the US president has now betrayed this claim. In his Berlin speech, he was dishonest with Europe. Since then, Obama has neglected the single most important issue for an American president who likes to imagine himself as a world citizen, namely, his country's addiction to fossil fuels and the risks of unchecked climate change. Health-care reform and other domestic issues were more important to him than global environmental threats. He was either unwilling or unable to convince skeptics in his own ranks and potential defectors from the ranks of the Republicans to support him, for example, by promising alternative investments as a compensation for states with large coal reserves.

Source: Spiegel Online

A victory for America, another epic fail for Obama!

The Obama Fail-O-Sphere is buzzing...

1.) Michelle Malkin is all over the backlash caused by Obama's decision to grant civilian trials to terrorists:

If this White House thought Tea Party activists were an “angry mob,” wait until they see the backlash from 9/11 family members and their supporters nationwide. We’re not going to sit down and shut up about the reckless, security-undermining Obama 9/10 agenda and conflict-of-interest-ridden AG Eric Holder.

Source: MichelleMalkin.com

2.) Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey says Obama's decision will be dangerous:

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey said today that it is highly likely that terrorists will attack New York City as a consequence of the Obama administration's decision to send five alleged Sept. 11 plotters there for trial in federal court.

Source: Politico via MichelleMalkin.com

3.) Anita Dunn has confirmed that her attacks on Fox News was sanctioned by President Obama, in an interview with Al Hunt of Bloomberg:

HUNT: Let me ask you about your famous broadside against FOX News.

DUNN: Absolutely.

HUNT: Was that just Anita Dunn talking, or was that something you and Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod planned ahead of time?

DUNN: Well, you know, Al, I am not exactly one known for going rogue, to use a popular phrase these days.

Source: RealClearPolitics

4.) Here is video of President O-BOW-ma gettin' down in Japan (Via HotAir):




5.) The Lonely Conservative has a story on the Chinese fasination with Obama:

The Chinese have learned English from his speeches and celebrated the way he rolls up his sleeves. Now President Obama is finally coming, and he’s being greeted with “Oba Mao” T-shirts and a statue of him that bursts into flames.

Sunday’s arrival of a U.S. president admired for his charisma is already a source of profit and brief fame for some Chinese.

Strangest is the burning Obama, tucked away in a Beijing warehouse. Artist Liu Bolin hopes Obama can take time from his visit to drop by.

“He’s so hot right now, so I wanted to translate that through my work,” said Liu, who was inspired by the idea of the first black U.S. president.

Source: FoxNews via The Lonely Conservative

Attorney General Eric Holder has a history of helping terrorists - just ask the FALN. In fact, Holder was a partner in the law firm Covington & Burling LLP - a firm that represents 17 terrorists being held in Guantanamo Bay. Given his soft spot for America's enemies and the financial windfall that is sure to benefit his buddies at Covington & Burling during a show trial, this should come as no surprise:

President Obama has made his most outrageous move to date. Attorney General Eric Holder made the announcement this morning that some admitted terrorists including the self declared mastermind of the 9-11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be brought to New York City for trial.

Yes, you are reading this correctly. Our president is bringing terrorists, confessed terrorists, from Guantanamo Bay to New York where they will be tried near what used to be the shadow of the twin towers.

They will have lawyers that will use every means possible to get these terrorists acquitted on technicalities. All it will take is one liberal judge and KSM or one of the others could go free. Think about that. Can you imagine?

Source: Ross Balano, Kansas City Star

The Wall Street Journal agrees:

Attorney General Eric Holder, who dropped this legal bomb on New York yesterday, called his decision to move their trial on war crimes from a military courtroom at Guantanamo Bay to American soil "the toughest" he has had to make. Other words come to mind. For starters, intellectually and morally confused, dangerous and political to a fault.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Right on, right on, right on!

Terrorists also love a big stage, and none come bigger than New York. Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, made his civilian trial a spectacle. Not even the best judge can entirely stop KSM and others from doing the same. And Mr. Holder has invited grave and needless security risks by tempting jihadists the world over to strike Manhattan while the trial is in session.

Source: Wall Street Journal

And to deliver the finishing logical blow, the America's Truth Hammer, Charles Krauthammer:

CBS News is reporting that the Justice Department sent a formal request to an independent news aggregation website, asking for a list of the site's visitors:

The subpoena (PDF) from U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison in Indianapolis demanded "all IP traffic to and from www.indymedia.us" on June 25, 2008. It instructed Clair to "include IP addresses, times, and any other identifying information," including e-mail addresses, physical addresses, registered accounts, and Indymedia readers' Social Security Numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and so on.

Under long-standing Justice Department guidelines, subpoenas to members of the news media are supposed to receive special treatment. One portion of the guidelines, for instance, says that "no subpoena may be issued to any member of the news media" without "the express authorization of the attorney general" – that would be current attorney general Eric Holder – and subpoenas should be "directed at material information regarding a limited subject matter."

Source: CBS News

Indymedia is being represented by Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

"This is the first time we've seen them try to get the IP address of everyone who visited a particular site," Bankston said. "That it was a news organization was an additional troubling fact that implicates First Amendment rights."

Source: Source: CBS News

Could Attorney General Eric Holder be behind this? Well, not according to his own PR spin machine:

Update 1:59pm E.T.: A Justice Department official familiar with this subpoena just told me that the attorney general's office never saw it and that it had not been submitted to the department's headquarters in Washington, D.C. for review. If that's correct, it suggests that U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison and Assistant U.S. Attorney Doris Pryor did not follow department regulations requiring the "express authorization of the attorney general" for media subpoenas -- and it means that neither Attorney General Eric Holder nor Acting Attorney General Mark Filip were involved. I wouldn't be surprised to see an internal investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility; my source would not confirm or deny that.

Source: CBS News

So... If Holder ISN'T involved, it means US Attorney Tim Morrisson and Asst. US Attorney Pryor are in violation of department regulations. The only other possible explanation is that Holder knew about this and he is hanging someone else out to dry for his actions.

Let's see how long it takes for Morrisson and Pryor to be punished for their actions...

Don't hold your breath.

Flashback: In 1997, the CIA was pressured to investigate allegations that it had knowingly helped spread crack-cocaine throughout American cities. The allegations were a farce and the investigation proved as much. But when it came to releasing a report on the findings, Eric Holder stepped in to block the release, ostensibly to prevent the agency from clearing its name.

This is the same Eric Holder who dismissed charges against the Black Panthers in a voter fraud case in Philadelphia. The same Eric Holder who is intent on investigating the CIA interrogations in the war on terror.

Source: CNN.com

WASHINGTON (Dec. 18) -- Attorney General Janet Reno's deputy said Thursday that he had ordered a delay in this week's scheduled release of CIA and Justice Department reports on the racially sensitive subject of alleged CIA involvement in the introduction of crack cocaine into black neighborhoods of southern California.

Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters he stopped the release of a report by the CIA, and another by Justice Inspector General Michael Bromwich because of "law enforcement concerns," but he refused to elaborate.

Holder told reporters, "There are things we do not want to have compromised. They are not related to the underlying allegations."

Other high-ranking Justice Department officials tell CNN the unspecified concerns do not affect the central issues of government involvement in the introduction of crack.

A published report in Thursday's Los Angeles Times says the CIA report declares it has no responsibility for the crack, and rejects charges it aided drug-runners who helped fund the Nicaraguan "Contras."

Holder would not predict when the report would be released. He said he and Bromwich had briefed key lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), about the delay.

"[Waters'] reaction, I think, yesterday was a pretty good one," Holder said, but he acknowledged he had not discussed the findings of the reports with her. Holder said he had shared the full extent of the secret reports with the intelligence committees.

Waters and many African-American leaders in South-Central Los Angeles publicly accused the CIA of helping introduce crack cocaine into their community. They cited an investigation by The San Jose Mercury News which claimed CIA involvement. The report, however, was contradicted by several other news organizations.

The premise of the investigation is ridiculous - and it was ultimately refuted when the report was finally released:

Source: NDSN.org

The CIA found no evidence that the CIA "directly or indirectly" was linked to allies of the Nicaraguan contra rebels involved in crack cocaine sales in Los Angeles. The most recent allegations of such a link stem from a series in the San Jose Mercury News in August 1996, which suggested that the CIA knowingly allowed a California drug ring to sell crack cocaine in South-Central Los Angeles in the 1980s to funnel profits to CIA-backed Contras in Nicaragua (See "CIA Allegedly Linked to Crack Epidemic in Los Angeles ..." NewsBriefs, October 1996). (John Diamond, "CIA Clears Itself of Involvement with Crack Cocaine," Los Angeles Times, December 19, 1997, p. A5; Tim Weiner, "C.I.A. Says It Has Found No Link Between Itself and Crack Trade," New York Times, December 19, 1997, p. A23; Walter Pincus, "Inspectors General Find No Ties Between CIA, L.A. Drug Dealers," Washington Post, December 19, 1997, p. A2).

This incident tells us two critical things about Holder and his handling of the current CIA investigations:

1. Holder has always been gunning for the CIA. (See also: Holder Investigates CIA)
   
2. Holder is more than happy to delay a report or investigation to serve his own purposes, whatever they may be. (See also: Holder Cancels Investigation into Black Panther Voter Fraud)