Conservatives' phony scandal of the week: The Obama Justice Department and the New Black Panther Par

[and-justice-for-all]

While we're on the subject of manufactured scandals that respectable media outlets shouldn't take seriously, Fox News and its friends in the conservative echo chamber spent much of the week promoting phony, trumped-up allegations against the Justice Department.

In short, conservative media outlets have been aggressively promoting the charge by GOP activist J. Christian Adams that President Obama's Justice Department engaged in racially charged "corruption" when it partially dismissed a case against members of the New Black Panther Party for allegedly engaging in voter intimidation outside of a Philadelphia polling center on Election Day in 2008.

As we have documented extensively, Adams should not be trusted. He is a long-time right-wing activist with extensive ties to the Bush-era politicization of the Justice Department. Adams himself has admitted that he lacks first-hand knowledge to support his accusations. Additionally, Adams' charge that the DOJ's action in the New Black Panther case shows unprecedented, racially motivated corruption is undermined by the fact that the Obama DOJ obtained judgment against one of the defendants, and that the Bush DOJ declined to pursue similar allegations against a group of Minutemen -- one of whom was carrying a gun -- in 2006.

Even the Republican vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights called the New Black Panthers case "very small potatoes" and said an investigation into the DOJ's decision is full of "overheated rhetoric filled with insinuations and unsubstantiated charges."

And yet again, the fact that this is a completely manufactured scandal didn't stop conservative media figures from engaging in one of their time-honored traditions: attempting to obscure their own problems with race by accusing others of racism.

Radio host Jim Quinn -- who once told "race-baiting" African-American "ingrates" to "get on your knees" and "kiss the American dirt" because slavery brought them to the U.S. -- hyped the New Black Panther story by calling the civil rights community "race-baiting poverty pimps."

Rush Limbaugh -- who earlier this week announced that if Obama wasn't black he'd be a "tour guide in Honolulu" and claimed Obama is using the office of the presidency to seek "payback" for the country's history of racism -- forwarded Adams' charge that the case was dropped because of racially charged corruption.

Beck, who infamously called President Obama a "racist" with a "deep seated hatred for white people or the white culture," declared that the Obama administration is "full" of "people that will excuse" the "hatred" of the New Black Panthers. He also relied on falsehoods to try to connect Obama to the New Black Panthers, and claimed today that the New Black Panthers are part of Obama's "army of thugs."

Of course, the New Black Panthers are a fringe hate group, and only a cynical race-baiter like Glenn Beck would claim they are somehow part of Barack Obama's imaginary "army of thugs."

But I'm sure they appreciate all of the publicity, courtesy of Glenn Beck and Fox News.

[HawkerHurricane]

1. But they aren't racists.

Just ask them. The racists are only a tiny part of thier movement, and no where near as bad as...
Well, never mind. They are racists, or at the minimum cater to racists.

[Botany]

2. The truth means nothing to those people

ACORN story ..... false
Climategate ........ false
Al Gore trying to rape a women ..... false ..... Fox dropped that one PDQ
Sean Hannity's Freedom Concerts ...... con jobs
John Kerry Swift Boat Story ..... false
Obama Socialist ...... false
Cap and trade = Cap and tax ..... false
The Debt under Obama is a problem ..... where were they when W was spending $600,000.00/minute in borrowed money in Iraq?

Joseph Goebbels' big lie theory covers what they do.

[DarkValkyrie]

3. It's a shame

It's a big shame that they have to resort to lies like this just to get people on their side. Whatever happened to the idea "the truth will set you free?" This is just sad that they are so jealous and are still nursing their hurt egos. Do they really think a world with old fashioned ideas will help this country return to it's former glory?

What is wrong with these conservatives? Are they really still that bitter after two years?

[SpiralHawk]

4. "overheated rhetoric filled with insinuations and unsubstantiated charges."

sooooo republicon...

The republicons first crap out ginormous loads of poo, then start flinging it everywhich way hoping that it will stick on someone else.

But as my brother used to say about farts, so we could say of republipoo: "He who smelt it, dealt it."

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Is there more? link?

I'd like to forward this to someone ...

[pinboy3niner]

6. Link:

http://mediamatters.org/research/201007070020

There's a lot of info there. There's also more on Adams (who was a conservative embed at DOJ) from americablog (which also cites Media Matters):

Obama & the Embeds (J. Christian Adams edition)
by Gaius Publius on 7/06/2010 10:39:00 PM


I've written before about the problem of Movement Conservative embeds in the Executive branch — and not just political types, but career types as well, loyal to Bush goals and Movement Conservative dreams.

In a classic nipping at the pantlegs that out-of-power Movement Conservatism is famous for — and really good at — one of the lawyers Bradley Schlozman hired to muck up (er, fix) the Justice department's Civil Rights Division has emerged bearing tales of . . . well, you guess. HINT: It's a right-wing mash-up of very tall blacks (oh-oh), 60s radicals (oh no!), and voter fraud (of course)....
<snip>

So who is J. Christian Adams? (Man, what a great name — John Quincy Adams with a apocalyptic modernist twist.) Media Matters again (their emphasis for a change):

Adams is a longtime conservative activist reportedly hired by Bush appointee who politicized the Justice Department. A December 2, 2009, article on the legal news website Main Justice reported that Adams "was hired in 2005 by then-Civil Rights Division political appointee Bradley Schlozman, according to a person familiar with the situation" and that "Schlozman was found in this joint investigation of the Justice Department's Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility to have violated civil service rules by improperly taking political and ideological affiliations into account when making career attorney hires." The article also reported that Adams volunteered with a Republican group that "trains lawyers to fight on the front lines of often racially tinged battles over voting rights."

In the bunker days of the Bush administration, 2006–2008, Schlozman news was everywhere. .... Adams is Schlozman's man. What was Schlozman's specialty at the Bush DOJ Civil Rights voting section? Pervert civil rights enforcement so that only whites can be victims, of black injustice. Like I said, Movement operatives, and good ones.
<snip>

http://www.americablog.com/2010/07/obama-embeds-j-christian-adams-edition.html

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Thanks, I really love that this was a Bu**sh** DOJ decision --

that should really blow someone's mind.

[pinboy3niner]

8. Are you sure you're reading the OP correctly?

It describes "phony, trumped-up allegations against the Justice Department."

The BS is coming from Adams, a GOP operative and Bush loyalist who was hired at Bush's DOJ by a Bush political appointee and continued, until recently, as a conservative embed. Ironic that Adams is charging politicization of DOJ under the OBAMA Administration.

[eppur_se_muova]

9. I always write Bu**sh** to mean George W. Bu**sh**.

After all, he deserves at least two asterisks.

Apologies for the confusion. :)

"The Bush administration's Justice Department -- not the Obama administration -- made the decision not to pursue criminal charges against members of the New Black Panther Party for alleged voter intimidation at a polling center in Philadelphia in 2008"

[pinboy3niner]

10. LOL! Well, your formulation may need some work.

It's unlikely that anyone would interpret it to mean anything other than "BS".

It's not clear where your quoted statement is from. It was the Obama DOJ that reached the decision in the NBP case to proceed with a default judgement against one NBP member, and it is that decision that's the subject of the phony corruption allegations by Adams.

The Bush DOJ handled a similar case from 2006 that involved members of the Minutemen in Arizona. In that (similar) case no action was taken.