Octoberfest At The White House and Novemberfest At The Justice Department

The Voter Intimidation Case Against 3 Members Of The Black Panther Party Was Dropped Despite Recommendations To Pursue It

This While The President Puts On His Public Relations Beer Party At The White House

First, for those who are interested (and why you would be is beyond me), the good Professor requested a Red Stripe, the Cambridge cop requested a Blue Moon and the President a Bud Light. For the record no domestics among them. The beers I mean.




The following story in the Washington Times goes into the fact that a voter intimidation case against 3 Black Panthers outside a Philadelphia polling place was order to be dropped by the number three man at the Justice Department, Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli, despite the fact that the career civil rights lawyers at Justice recommended that it move forward.

On a day when President Obama is having some beers at the White House to smooth over his statements regarding his perception of the treatment of his black friend by a white officer, the report that his Justice Department number 3 is dropping this case is a somewhat puzzling development. I do not know all of the facts in this case, but I have watched the video and have to put some amount of credence in the fact that those lawyers who worked on the case probably had a better vantage point of the facts to make their recommendation than did Perrelli.

As I said, just another puzzling development. Read on...

(Newsroom America) Report: No. 3 Justice Official Drops Black Panthers Complaint
2009-07-30 03:51am

The No. 3 official at the Obama administration's Justice Department, Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli, has decided to drop charges against members of the National Black Panther Party accused of intimidating voters in Philadelphia during the November election.

The Washington Times reported Thursday that career civil rights lawyers at Justice, who worked on the case for five months, had recommended the department seek sanctions against the NBPP and three of its members, after the federal government had already won a default judgment against the men.

The Times said front-line attorneys were nearly finished completing that work when, in late April, they were told to seek a delay after a meeting between political appointees and career supervisors within the department.

The delay was ultimately ordered by then-acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King, after consultations with Perelli.

King, a career senior executive service official, had been named by President Obama to temporarily fill the vacant political position of assistant attorney general for civil rights until a permanent replacement could be found.

King and other career supervisors "ultimately recommended dropping the case against two of the men and the party and seeking a restraining order against the one man who wielded a nightstick at the Philadelphia polling place," the Times reported. Perelli then approved the plan.

A Republican blogger hired to monitor the polling place in question in Philadelphia videotaped the alleged intimidation by the NBPP members, the paper reported.

Some members of Congress are questioning why the case was dropped. Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-Va., told the paper he has been prevented from meeting with and interviewing the frontline lawyers in the case.

"Why am I being prevented from meeting with the trial team on this case?" he told the Times. "There are many questions that need to be answered. This whole thing just stinks to high heaven."

Obama had come into office promising a new era of racial harmony and government openness but, critics say, the NBPP case is indicative of neither.

Perrelli, a prominent private practice attorney, served previously as a counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno in the Clinton administration and was an Obama supporter who raised more than $500,000 for the Democrat candidate in the 2008 elections, the Times reported.