Will Eric Holder's Push for Drug Amnesty Continue Under Next Attorney General?

In a parting shot at outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, published in Organization Trends, I focus on an aspect of Holder's tenure that gotten less attention, the drug amnesty movement. The issue is something for senators to consider in the confirmation hearing for Loretta Lynch. Please read full article here.

Here's an excerpt:

In a video message earlier this year, Holder talked about the Clemency Project, which is the Obama administration’s initiative aimed at freeing as many as 20,000 drug offenders. “In 2010, President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act reducing unfair disparities in sentences imposed on people for offenses involving different forms of cocaine,” Holder said. “But there’s still too many people in federal prison who were sentenced under the old regime and who, as a result, will have to spend far more time in prison than they would if sentenced today for exactly the same crime,” he said. “This is simply not right."

The Fair Sentencing Act changed the quantity of crack cocaine and powder cocaine needed to trigger mandatory minimum sentencing laws. The statute eliminated five-year sentences for crack cocaine and reversed many of the provisions of the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act.

The Obama administration was going to use executive action to make a 2010 law passed by Congress retroactively cover sentences handed down by courts prior to the change in the law. For an administration that’s had jolly fun circumventing the legislative branch, this new initiative gave Obama and Holder a means of doing an extra-constitutional end-run around the federal judiciary.
The administration is receiving help from private groups, both large and small, that are united in a push for the relaxation of narcotics laws. Leading the way in recruiting prisoners to seek early clemency through the president’s mass pardon program are the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU Foundation Inc., 2013 assets $341.1 million; ACLU Inc., 2013 assets $34.7 million), National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (2012 assets $6.8 million), American Bar Association (2013 assets $298.1 million), and Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM Foundation, 2012 assets $1.2 million).

No one who follows the activist Left should be surprised to learn that radical philanthropist George Soros funds some of these advocacy organizations. Soros’s Foundation to Promote Open Society has provided grants to ACLU Foundation ($3,192,000 since 2009) and FAMM Foundation ($1.2 million since 2009). His Open Society Institute (recently renamed Open Society Foundations) has given grants to ACLU Foundation ($24,912,175 since 1999) and FAMM Foundation ($1,771,000 since 1999). The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers has received $20,800 from the Soros-funded Tides Foundation.

Pelosi's War on Women Against a Solider Tough Enough to Take It

Get a load of this. Rep. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, is an American hero whether you like her politics or not.

CBS News and National Journal should get credit for covering this story, and it should shame Nancy Pelosi, or Rosa DeLauro from ever claiming to be advocates for women again.

From CBS:

House Democrats decided Thursday to deny Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, a proxy vote in the Democratic leadership elections, which she requested because she can't be in Washington, D.C. for the vote.  ... the very pregnant 46-year-old Iraq War veteran who lost both of her legs in a 2004 helicopter crash, was told by doctor that it was unsafe for her to fly at this stage in her pregnancy.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, opposed the request, a day after she chastised reporters over what she suggested was a gender-based double standard: "You never ask Mitch McConnell, 'Aren't you getting a little old Mitch? Shouldn't you step aside?'"

And Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut, who has been a fierce advocate for issues that resonate with women, is one of the members who denied the request.  

... Duckworth said in a statement, "The Caucus chose not to allow me to vote via proxy. I respect the process and very much appreciated my colleagues who made sure my request was considered."
 
Duckworth deserves credit for being classy about this. But really? Whatever inside politics or axes to grind that led to this denial should provoke some national outrage.

To their credit, Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois  and Gwen Moore, D-Wisconsin were both strong advocated for the proxy vote.  

It's all part of the absurdity of the war on women. Read about the history of the intellectually and morally bankrupt political line here.

Obamacare: The Sequel Isn't Looking Much Better

Who knows? Maybe they'll pull it off this time. It's only the first day. But that's what Obama administration officials said last year when the the first day of Healthcare.gov was a disaster. Look at what's happening in a few states.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Insurers involved in HealthCare.gov’s testing said fixes were still continuing as of Friday. In a handful of states that run their own enrollment marketplaces, officials have poured millions of dollars into upgrades and have yet to fix technology flaws that could foil consumer sign-ups.

Minnesota took its exchange offline this week for testing after making some fixes, and planned to direct certain consumers with major life changes to a call center, because a piece of the site isn’t complete. Maryland won’t launch statewide online enrollment until Nov. 19 and is limiting Saturday sign-ups to a single onsite event. In Vermont, some consumers who want to renew coverage won’t be able to do so online because the technology isn’t ready.

And this from the Associated Press, via ABC News on Washington State:

Washington's health care exchange shut down after the first few hours of open enrollment Saturday as state officials and software engineers tried to resolve a problem with tax credit calculations.

Officials at the exchange said Washington Healthplanfinder, which opened at 8 a.m., appeared to be working fine at first. When the exchange's quality control system reported the problem, they decided to shut the whole system down at about 10:30 a.m. to fix it. ... On Saturday afternoon, officials estimated the site wouldn't reopen until Sunday morning, but the actual timing will depend on how soon a software fix can be tested for potential side-effects.