Back To The New Black Panthers

The lonely voice of J. Christian Adams, former DoJ attorney who resigned over the DoJ handling of the New Black Panthers Party case, gets support from former Department of Justice Voting Section Chief Christopher Coates.

Just a flavor of Coates' testimony, from his prepared statement:

"I do not believe these representations [from senior DoJ officials] to this Commission accurately reflect what occurred in the New Black Panther Party case."

The basic theme is that the Civil Rights Division under Obama and Holder will only prosecute white people.

Comments

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Damn, and I have to go to the day job. This should be fun to wach.

[Cecil Turner]

The prepared statement is hot (radioactive in fact). I'm tuning in late to the live show.

[Roman Empire, see ...]

DAMN!!

[Clarice]

I'm listening now. Unfortunately he is so soft spoken I am trouble hearing all he is saying.

[Danube of Thought]

The guy is painfully clumsy and inarticulate in delivering his prepared statement--the written words will be more effective. Hope he does well when questioned...

[Threadkiller]

--"The guy is painfully clumsy and inarticulate in delivering his prepared statement"--

That never stopped me.

[Sue]

Someone (a pundit) on F&F described him as a "conservative activist". Him being clumsy and inarticulate should dispel that notion don't you think?

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Who is a conservative activist? Coates? He was hired under Clinton.

[sbw]

Conclusion from Coates' prepared statement: "Individuals of good will, regardless of their race, ethnicity and language-minority status, should be concerned about the CRD not enforcing laws in a race-neutral manner. As important as the mandate in the VRA is to protect minority voters, white voters also have an interest in being able to go to the polls without having race-haters such as Black Panther King Samir Shabazz whose public rhetoric includes such statements as 'kill cracker babies' standing at the entrance of the polling place with a billy club in his hand hurling racial slurs. Given this outrageous conduct, it was a travesty on justice for the DOJ not to allow attorneys in the Voting Section to obtain nationwide injunctive relief against all four of the defendants."

Before the election, let's see what candidates have to say about selective enforcement of voting rights laws.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Amy and I were just trying to decide how the left will try and discredit Coates. We started with calling him a right winger, and ended with Obama staging a nuclear attack.

The guy now asking questions says he was initially against this investigation. That's a good thing.

So what is Obama up to today?

[Danube of Thought]

J. Christian Adams--the original whistleblower on this thing--has undoubtedly been a conservative activist. I think whoever said that at F&F was confused.

[Porchlight]

Who is a conservative activist? Coates? He was hired under Clinton.

Former ACLU guy also.

[Danube of Thought]

Von Spakovsky on Coates in January of this year:

Coates is a former ACLU attorney who has received many awards for his work in the area of civil rights over the past four decades. He has filed numerous voting-rights cases on behalf of minority voters. But he got in trouble because some of the ideologues who inhabit the civil-rights community don’t want to accept anyone who doesn’t share their view of Voting Rights Act (VRA) enforcement. One of their unbreakable rules is that the VRA shouldn’t be used to protect white voters from discrimination committed by racial or ethnic minorities.

[Army of Davids]

The biggest risk to our economy is still in congress.

Smoot Hawley leaves clues. We are not listening.

But we are listening to Stephen Colbert on illegal immigration appearantly.

And the media dives further into irrelevence.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Yup, the administration will need some sort of attack - or a Boehner affair to get people off of this.

We should have a contest to guess what it will be.

[Cecil Turner]

Coates is an incredibly boring witness with a fairly pronounced drawl. The written statement was dynamite, and I still nearly fell asleep watching him read it. I'll be interested to see what news bites come out of it, but doubt there'll be anything terribly dramatic out of this hearing.

That said, the prospect of the government standing idly by while thugs intimidate voters ought to enrage a vast swath of the electorate (including most independents). There's potential here to turn the election wave into a tsunami.

[Clarice]

That's my take, too, Cecil.

[Jack is Back!]

Not too many conservative activists that earn the Thurgood Marshall award from the NAACP. Someone asked on the other thread about the Judicial Watch lawsuit. Its a big FOIA for memos, emails, etc. detailing the meetings between DoJ and WH prior to dropping the NBPP voting rights case. LUN

[Danube of Thought]

For campaign red meat, I think clips of this Colbert idiocy will be more effective than Coates. These people have simply gone starkers--there can be no other explanation.

And you can sure bet we'll see a lot more of Colbert than of Coates on the news programs.

[Janet]

I'm pretty sick of slick talkers...
God bless Coates for his testimony.

[MarkO]

He is boring, but I think that helps his crdibility. Although, I would believe the worst about Holder and Obama.

[MarkO]

*credibility* Stupid keyboard.

[Jack is Back!]

The most remarkable thing to me is that all the dem appointees on the board are taking no counter-point adversary position against Coates and his testimony. In fact, Graziano and Heriot seem to be "incredulous" that this opposition to a race-neutral application of the CRA is being sponsored by Obama and Holder's political regime. Obviously there are some dems in politics and government service who are not ethically or integrity challenged.

[Rob Crawford]

Obviously there are some dems in politics and government service who are not ethically or integrity challenged.

You're giving them entirely too much credit. They have to act shocked, but you can be damned sure they knew it was happening all along.

[Janet]

Here is the CSPAN link again. Thanks Deb for the link in the other thread.

[Captain Hate]

Absolutely Rob; this has been a potential disaster for a long time so they had to find out what was going on so they could assemble their CYA position.

[Cecil Turner]

He is boring, but I think that helps his credibility.

I think so, too, but it's going to limit the exposure most folks have to the story. If there was a good 10-30 second clip in there to show on the 6 O'clock news, this thing would have legs. As it is, the news stations would be way better off with the original video from the Philly polling spot . . .

In the long run, though, his very believable testimony casts serious doubt on some of the other testimony received so far. And I strongly suspect the content of those e-mails would remove all doubt. Come January, there could be some very embarassing hearings complete with very flashy (and newsworthy) perjury allegations.

[Anonna]

--"The guy is painfully clumsy and inarticulate in delivering his prepared statement"--

Perhaps you are a poor listener. I found his statement to be compelling and powerful.

[Captain Hate]

For those of you watching it: Has Abigail said anything yet (I think I read somewhere in the pdf that she was involved with this today)? She really shocked me previously by throwing cold water on the case.

[bolitha]

I agree w/Rob. I think the Dems on the board are just pretending.

[Jack is Back!]

I just watched the first minute of Colbert's testimony and he is a poster boy for every reason Congress has lost all or any respect the American public has for them. To allow this idiot to mock the hearing on immigration and agriculture show how out of touch and begging for attention the democrats in DC are to the public. Who do they think they will win over with this charade? Acne infested 20 somethings still living in their parents basement?

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Education Week made a pre-emptive strike last week:

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on Tuesday launched what its leader ambitiously called “the start of a national conversation on formulating a new civil rights agenda for the 21st century,” but without significant input from mainstream civil rights organizations or the panel’s two Democratic members.

The low profile of those stakeholders speaks to the once-influential group’s uncertain status under the administration of President Barack Obama. Created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the commission is currently headed by Gerald A. Reynolds, a Republican who was appointed six years ago by former president George W. Bush. Of the commission’s eight members, four are affiliated with the Republican party and two are registered Independents.

But leaders of prominent civil rights groups did not serve on any panels at the full-day event, and the Democratic commissioners failed to show up.

“I think the Civil Rights Commission has lost its way; and I think the conference is a sham,” said Wade Henderson, the president and chief executive officer of the Washington-based Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, in an e-mail sent to Education Week the day before the Sept. 14 conference. He was one of the civil-rights leaders with no plans of attending the event.

I can't wait to see how the media handles this.

[Dave (in MA)]

http://cache-02.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/39/2009/07/160x120_al_franken_diaper.jpg>
Jack,
I'm shocked that you don't have any respect for that august body.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

I thought it particularly interesting that on page 2 of his statement Coates claims "the protection of all applicable federal whistle blower statutes".

He may not be a dynamic witness in person, but his written testimony will leave a mark and retaliation will be difficult. The FOIA litigation will also keep this alive.

[OldTimer]

Meanwhile in the other chamber, Colbert embarrasses Dems just by showing up to testify. Byron York has the story in the Washington Examiner. LUN

[Cecil Turner]

Jim,

Not sure if you've already seen this, but Rep Wolf sent a letter to AG Holder yesterday claiming whistleblower status for Coates.

[Jack is Back!]

There are more than 2 dems on the panel. C-Span shows Yaki, Melendez, Graziano and Heriot as dems. But according to the USCCR website Graziano is from the Heritage Foundation and is an Independent (yeah, Heritage is running over with Indies) and Heriot is an Independent. That is weird on the part of C-Span since they are supposed to be a fountain of congressional and federal knowledge.

[Extraneus]

So Conyers asked Colbert to leave, then changed his mind? What was that, an almost-faux-Sistah Souljah moment?

Anyone know if this Colbert disgrace was scheduled before the Coates testimony was?

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

I suspect Colbert was a response to Coates Ex, and apparently it is working.

[Sue]

Jane,

He was hired under Clinton.

That was description used for Coates this morning by a democratic strategist.

[Mike Huggins]

It's around 1:00 EDT and the Post website has nada about Coates; Colbert on the other hand is, of course, one of the rotating main photos that you see right away.

[Pagar]

The entire Colbert fiasco was manufactured to pull attention from Coates. Of course with the mainstream media reduced to leftist propaganda readers It worked.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Hero: Coates Negates a Year of Justice Department Spin on American New Black Panther Case

[PD]

OT, or maybe not. It's voting related.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Who is a conservative activist? Coates? He was hired under Clinton.

Of course he's a conservative activist. Only a conservative activist would think that equal treatment under the law includes white people.

[MarkO]

Most progressives lack a sense of humor. Obama laughs when someone says he sucks. Maybe that's the key.

[Bruce Hayden]

Probably seen this, but JIC: Full Text of Christopher Coates’ Testimony to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (PJM Exclusive)

[Neo]

Christopher Coates received the Thurgood Marshall Decade Award in 1991 from the Georgia NAACP; prior, he was a staff attorney for many years for the Voting Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

[Jack is Back!]

Neo,

Just as I figured - he's a racist:)

[Clarice]

Which Malik Shabazz visited the WH in July 2009 or "Malik Shabazz is my name, too, whenever I go out the people aways shout, hey Malik Shabazz!!"
http://biggovernment.com/abreitbart/2010/09/24/which-malik-shabazz-visited-white-house-in-july-2009-mr-president/>Different guy altogether, trust us

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

It doesn't take a wingnut to make obvious inferences from compelling circumstantial evidence. Many are in prison today convicted by juries on less compelling evidence proving their crime than that proving improper shenanigans in the Black Panther case.

How many Malik Shabazzes do you suppose there are in the country?

Maybe Holder's office or the WH could identify the "real" Malik Shabazz.

[Jane]

He said the same thing sbout Wright and Ayers. Who would believe him about anything.

[Clarice]

If OJ weren't in prison he could search for the real Shabazz along with his ex-wife's killer.

[JM Hanes]

Props to Politico who have a story about this up.

By expanding the scope of their testimony beyond the confines of the Black Panther case itself, Adams & Coates have given the IG a real assist. When Wolf(?) first asked him to investigate the BPP dismissal, he said individual cases were not within his purview. Just recently he announced that he could, however, initiate an investigation into patterns & practices in the Civil Rights/Voting Rights Division.

I wonder if the fact that he has chosen to do so is directly related to Coates' claiming whistleblower status in order to give testimony to the Civil Rights Commission. I assume Coates' conversations with Rep. Wolff didn't simply happen overnight, and I would think contacting the IG would have been a logical part of the process leading up to today's hearing. With Coates' confirming Adams' testimony under oath, and contradicting Perez, he would certainly seem to have a solid basis on which to proceed.

[Mike Huggins]

OK, Good on the WP, as they now have something posted, 2nd item on the website:
New Black Panther case heats up.

It's interesting to read the DOJ flack's dismissal of Coates' charges, especially when he said, "We had eyewitness testimony. We had videotape. One of them had a weapon. They were hurling racial slurs," said Coates, who originally brought the Panther case. "I've never been able to understand how anyone could accuse us of not having a basis of law in this case."

[Clarice]

JMH! Very sharp eyes there. Of course, I think you're right.

All these things are as choreographed as the most elaborate minuet.

[Mike Huggins]

...And at the Slimes, still nothing on Coates, at 16:50 EDT, but they do have time for "Stephen Colbert, testifying in character before a House panel, made an earnest appeal for the rights of immigrant laborers." (however, in a "Two-Papers-In-One" moment the reporter does note, in the article, that "His spoken testimony departed significantly from his prepared text, which was straightforward and earnest.)

[JM Hanes]

In answer to someone's question on another thread someone, I believe the the black Commissioner who was on camera so frequently was chairing the hearing. Whether he chairs the Commission as a whole or not I don't know.

Mike H:

Not so good on the WaPo though, when they call the case a conservative cause celebre.

[Mike Huggins]

You got that right, JMH. Typical WP in that they have to qualify, or put in "context," anything critical of the WH.

[Danube of Thought]

I hope someone, somewhere, will find this "other" Malik Shabazz and confirm his existence and his WH visit.

A friend was taking a deposition once and the witness referred to an A. DiGaza Neumann de Vegvar. He couldn't resist asking, "could that be tha A. DiGaza Neumann de Vegvar that I know?"

[Janet]

Different guy altogether, trust us

It is like Ruth Marcus at the WaPo saying she knew all about Obama because she had read his books. trust him....
Our media has gone limp.

[Bruce Hayden]

I don't think that it looks too good for the Administration that Malik Zulu Shabazz, national chairman of the NBPP, visited the White House a month or so after charges had been dropped against some of his members by the Holder DoJ.

[PD]

Not so good on the WaPo though, when they call the case a conservative cause celebre.

If they want to portray equal justice under law as something only conservatives are interested in, fine. Like that's some kind of bad thing.

I would think that's something all citizens regardless of ideology would be interested in having as a hallmark principle of our country.

That phrasing says more about WaPo than the case itself, perhaps.

[Neo]

So now the cat is out of the bag ...

The next time Republicans need to suppress a bunch of white liberal voters, they just hire a bunch of Blacks to go over an harass them .. the DOJ won't protect their sorry asses.

Republican wins .. Black unemployment goes down .. a win-win.

[Somewhere Ho!]

Chiaroscuro;
Black is black and white is white.
Rainbow Coalish.
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