Thursday, November 20, 2008

Eric H Holder Right Person for New Attorney General?

Holder Seen as Obama Choice for Justice Post - NYTimes.com

President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team has signaled to Eric H. Holder Jr., a senior official in the Justice Department in the Clinton administration, that he will be chosen as attorney general, but no final decision has been made, people involved in the process said Tuesday.

His last days at the Justice Department in 2001 were marred by his peripheral involvement in Mr. Clinton’s pardon of the fugitive financier Marc Rich, as Republicans sharply criticized Mr. Holder as failing to oppose the pardon and allowing the White House to bypass the normal pardon review process at the Justice Department.

Mr. Holder told the Clinton White House at the time that he was “neutral, leaning toward favorable” on the idea of pardoning Mr. Rich, whose former wife, Denise Rich, had contributed heavily to Mr. Clinton’s presidential library.






Eric H. Holder Jr. New Attorney General?


Who is Eric H. Holder? As a young attorney in Justice's fledgling Public Integrity Section, Mr. Holder helped bring cases against Philadelphia judges. President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the D.C. Superior Court. There, Mr. Holder gained a reputation as a thoughtful and even-handed jurist. He favored neither the government nor criminal defendants; nor did he reflexively favor the little guy against business, or vice versa. So far very good!


As the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in the early 1990s, Mr. Holder presided over the high-profile corruption prosecution of former Democratic powerhouse Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois. Rostenkowski, as chairman of the congressional Ways and Means Committee, was in a position to help the Clinton administration to implement its agenda for health care reform. Nonetheless, Holder persisted with the investigation and even widened its scope. He told the Washington Post that matters of criminal prosecution must be handled without regard to partisan politics. "The idea that a Democratic U.S. attorney is going to do something different than a Republican U.S. attorney is pretty close to ridiculous," Holder observed. This even sounds better!

But in the last days of the Clinton administration, Eric H. Holder stood by and said nothing when President Clinton's pardon Dan Rostenkowski, the former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee who pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges in 1996, This was a misuse of the presidential pardoning power in order to pay back a loyal political lieutenant. Where was Mr. Holder?

The largest blemish on Mr Holder's record is the last minute pardon, by President Bill Clinton, of fugitive and Democratic contributor Marc Rich. Between November 2000 and January 2001 Jack Quinn, Rich's lawyer and former White House Counsel from 1995-96, had been contacting Holder, testing the waters for the political viability of a presidential pardon. After presenting his case to Holder in a November phone call and a last minute January 17th letter, Quinn arranged a phone call between the White House and Holder, asking the Deputy Attorney General to share his opinion on the Rich pardon. Even though Holder gave a "neutral, leaning towards favorable" opinion of the pardon to Clinton, Holder had played a significant role in facilitating the Rich pardon, first by recommending the well-connected Jack Quinn to Marc Rich legal representatives, and by eventually delivering a favorable opinion of the twilight pardon to the President from a position of authority.

Now here are the things that bother me about Eric H. Holder Jr. Holder represented Chiquita. In 2004, Holder helped negotiate an agreement with the Justice Department for Chiquita Brands International in a case that involved Chiquita's payment of "protection money" to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a group on the U.S. government's list of terrorist organizations.

In 2008, Holder joined the Reno-led amicus brief, which urged the Supreme Court to uphold Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban and said the Department of Justice from Franklin Roosevelt through Bill Clinton had always believed that the Second Amendment does not protect the rights of individuals to own guns for personal use.

In April 2004, Holder voiced his opposition to the Bush Administration's implementation of the Patriot Act, saying it is "bad ultimately for law enforcement and will cost us the support of the American people."

Eric H. Holder Jr. believes that the Second Amendment does not protect the rights of individuals to own guns for personal use. Not the right Person for Attorney General.

Other post on Politics.
Democrats William Jefferson Bribery Case Continues
Democrat House Waves off Impeachment Against Bush


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Sunday, November 16, 2008

NASA'S GISS Dr. Hansen Global Warming Blunder

The world has never seen such freezing heat - Telegraph

A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark
about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.



Global Warming,"Freezing Heat"

Former Vice President Al Gore said that Americans must abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of power, or risk losing their national security as well as their creature comforts.

Lose our creature comforts? Al Gore just bought a houseboat bout 100 feet long. To get an idea about how large this boat is, let's compare it to your house. An average three bedroom two bath home is about 1500 square feet. This boat on the main deck is about 2000 square feet. If you would count the lower deck and the top deck, it's over 4000 square feet.

How did all this global warming warming crap get started? One scientist more responsible than any other for the alarm over global warming it is Dr Hansen, who set the whole scare in train back in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Dr. Hanson even supported Greenpeace when they criminally damaging a coal-fired power station in Kent, on the grounds that the harm done to the planet by a new power station would far outweigh any damage they had done themselves. So do you think he is bias?

Now the United Nations wants the United States to reduce our carbon footprint to remedy a problem which may actually not exist, is a question which should give us all pause for thought.

More post on global warming.
UN Children's Book Promotes Global Warming Fears to Kids
Democrats Push for Climate Change Bill

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Sunday, November 9, 2008

Pelosi, Reid take Mortgage Money give some to the Auto Industry

Pelosi, Reid Press for TARP Aid for Auto Industry - WSJ.com

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urging him to assist the Big Three auto makers by considering broadening the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program to help the troubled industry.

The two top Democratic leaders in Congress are likely to make the request in a letter to the White House, which could be forwarded as soon as Saturday afternoon, said individuals familiar with the matter. President-elect Barack Obama is generally supportive of the appeal, but at the moment is moving on his own track to assist the industry, these individuals said.



Helping out the auto industry


Here we go, Reid and Pelosi wants to use the $700 billion, which is marked for the banking industry and give part of it to the auto industry. I thought we needed this money to improve credit flows and calm turmoil in financial markets incited by the downturn in the housing economy. Congress has already authorized a $25 billion loan package meant to help the industry retool to meet higher fuel economy standards. And already the Democrats want to take money from one source and give it to another. Share the wealth.

On October 27th John McCain said “Let’s get the first $25 billion to them first, see how that works before we say we’re going to give you some more.” The Democrats don't even know how much money the auto makers need, just throw money at the problem to solve it. Or are they taking the auto makers at their word of how much money they need?

How did the Bush administration and Congressional leaders, Reid and Peolsi, come up with the $700 billion to buy distressed mortgages? Answer; The recovery package cannot go higher than $700 billion without additional legislation. As for that figure, it lies between the optimistic estimate of $500 billion and the pessimistic guess of $1 trillion about the cost of fixing the financial mess.

So we don't know how much it will cost us, the tax payers, to fix the mortgage crises but we can take $25 billion of it and give it to the three US auto makers. What about the other auto makers here in the United States? Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai all have plants here in the States and employ American workers. States give them tax cuts so they can build a factory in their state. Are we going to help them? Or do they need help?

How is the President-elect going to help the auto industry? Obama said the auto industry would benefit from his $150-billion, 10-year plan to develop alternative energy sources, including fuel cells to power vehicles. So does the auto industry needs the $50 billion that Reid and Pelosi wants to give them or can they wait for the $150 billion that Barack Obama will invest in alternative fuels? Will the cars built with the $50 billion run on the $150 billion alternative fuels?

When it comes to our money, the Democrats know how to spend it. One thing we have learned from the Democrats here is, to fix a problem, just throw money at it. Money is the magic pill that cures all. Let's just do what John McCain said. First loan them the $25 billion and lets see what happens. Then make a decision later on how they used the first money. Sounds smart?

More post on economy.
Global Economic Slowdown Predicted by G7 CountriesJob Lost for First Time Since 2003

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