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.

Sensible Response to 'War on Women' Rhetoric

Something so absurd can’t work twice. Democrats spent 2012 talking down to women, and women and most other voters have finally had enough. This piece from TheFederalist is worth a read regarding the hotly contested Colorado Senate race between Corry Gardner and Mark Udall. It might remind you of Ronald Reagan's response to Jimmy Carter's over the top allegations by saying, "There you go again."

From The Federalist:

Instead of responding to Udall’s incessant fear-mongering by twisting himself into a rhetorical pretzel, Gardner simply dismisses this ludicrous mischaracterization, shrugging off these accusations for the wild blather they are. He then reinforces a reform he, along with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, champions: permitting the sale of contraception over the counter without a prescription. Udall, Colorado’s heralded Rosie Riveter, mysteriously opposes this proposal …

Still, the Udall gynecological obsession, inevitably buoyed by liberals’ previous political success with this topic, rages on. Even after serving Coloradans on Capitol Hill for 16 years, Udall seems to speak of virtually nothing else. This bizarre political tunnel vision has drawn mockery from the press, who nicknamed the two-term senator “Mark Uterus” and have openly ridiculed his apparent policy dearth.

President Obama Doesn’t Understand – McCain was Right

That first of three debates in 2008 between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain was mostly memorable for the Arizona Republican continually saying, “Sen. Obamadoesn’t understand…”

Obama vs. McCain (ipdigital.usembassy.gov)

At the time, the media narrative was of the mean and grumpy McCain standing against the hopeful and energetic Obama, past vs. future, etc…

This week, President Obama shows he doesn’t understand by spending about 30 seconds talking about a plane crash that killed almost 300 people – then making Joe Biden jokes, then racing off to raise money for Democrats in New York. (The press conference the next day wasn’t much better.)

This is after he couldn’t visit the border in Texas because he needed to make it to other fundraisers.

Retreating to fundraisers every time a crisis breaks out in the world is the natural refuge for a campaigner-in-chief that never liked being commander-in-chief. It allows him to be surrounded by the only people who still absolutely adore him, wealthy Democrats comfortable enough not to worry about a failed presidency at home and abroad. With plummeting approval ratings and even lower ratings for competency, Obama isn’t even getting adoration from the media anymore.

He’s not giving us that much confidence in how he will deal with ISIS. But we do know his hasty pullout in 2011 for the sake of a 2012 campaign theme of “ending the war in Iraq” is a paramount reason for the rise of the Sunni rebel group.

In 2008, McCain said, "Sen. Obama still ... doesn't quite understand -- or doesn't get it -- that if we fail in Iraq, it encourages Al Qaeda. They would establish a base in Iraq,” or, “I'm afraid Sen. Obama doesn't understand the difference between a tactic and a strategy.”

That’s not necessarily to say McCain would have gotten everything right. His claim this week that he wouldn’t have taken the country to war with Iraq had he been elected president in 2000 is a little dubious. While the characterization of McCain as a war monger is unfair, it seems quite likely the U.S. might have involved itself in more needless conflicts such as Syria or even with Iran had the 2008 election gone differently.

But, McCain was right about President Obama, who doesn’t seem to understand the nature of extremism in the Middle East or the ambitions of Vladimir Putin. So McCain’s redundant theme from the 2008 debate comes to mind this week as he has no doubt been vindicated.

How Elizabeth Warren can Beat the Clinton Machine

This week, news surfaced that President Barack Obama’s preferred candidate for 2016 is Elizabeth Warren, based on the president’s concerns that Hillary Clinton would undermine his agenda – based on the book by author/journalist Edward Klein “Blood Feud.”

Warren.Senate.gov

My most recent piece for the Capital Research Center is about Elizabeth Warren’s campaign infrastructure in challenging the Clinton machine. It comes from the nonprofit group Demos:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the freshman Massachusetts senator who pioneered the “you didn’t build that” philosophy, is using her new book, Fighting Chance, to throw red meat to the Left and position herself to the left of Democrats like Hillary Clinton, who are more comfortable with Wall Street donors. Warren’s book tour was well received among fawning liberal supporters across the country, many of whom are looking for an un-Hillary in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.

“I’d spent nearly twenty years fighting to level the playing field for the middle class, and I’d seen millions of working families go over the economic cliff—and it was getting worse,” Warren writes in her book, explaining why she decided to run for Senate in 2012. “What kind of country would my grandchildren grow up in? What if the conservatives and the big banks and the big-time CEOs got their way and Washington kept helping the rich and powerful to get richer and more powerful? Could I really stand on the sidelines and stay out of this fight?”

State.gov

The New Republic has called Warren “Hillary Clinton’s Worst Nightmare,” and much reporting since has followed similar themes, even as Warren feigns uninterest in presidential politics (just as she claims public clamor forced her to run for the Senate).

Still, many political observers claim former Secretary of State Clinton is invincible. Of course, similar claims were made in 2008. That year, in addition to her official campaign organization, Hillary had close allies in the nonprofit sector propping her up, such as the Center for American Progress (founded by a former Clinton White House chief of staff, John Podesta) and targeting her enemies, as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) did.

How can Warren compete with that?

Should Warren run, she will likely have her own infrastructure in place with Demos, the research and advocacy group whose slogan is “An Equal Say and Equal Chance for All.” Notice the similarity to the title of Warren’s book.

Of course, the Left’s vision of equal opportunity is usually based on some absurd equality-of-outcome scheme, which is part of the core policy positions of Demos: to spend more, tax more, redistribute more, restrict political speech more, and convince the public that big government is good for them. The organization’s mission statement even calls for “rethinking American capitalism as it exists today as a system of political economy.”

The name Demos is actually an ancient Greek word meaning “people” or “the mob.” The Greek term is the root of the English word democracy—and also of demagogue.

Before she was a senator, Demos honored Warren at its 10th anniversary gala in 2010 with its “Transforming America” award, because Warren was the architect of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation (New York Times, April 10, 2010). Demos aggressively advocated for the Dodd-Frank bill and has long supported Warren. In 2003 Demos helped promote Warren’s previous book, The Two Income Trap. But that’s understandable, given that the senator’s daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, is a co-founder and currently chairman of the governing board for Demos.

 

Read full article.

If Thad Cochran's Sleazy Tactics were Legal – Then So What

We might learn that Chris McDaniel is correct. No one disputes the voters who put Sen. Thad Cochran over the top in the Mississippi runoff (after he lost the primary) were Democrats. McDaniel contends they are indeed ineligible voters, having already voted in the Democratic primary.

Other chicanery is being looked into as well. If that's true, then ultimately the election should be reversed and some people should even be prosecuted.

But if it's not true, then conservatives should stop howling about the outcome.

We know for a fact that Cochran and his establishment Republicans allies used what amounted to race baiting to draw minority voters and scare tactics to draw seniors. As a practical moral matter, we ought to be outraged by this. We ought to be even more outraged that a Republican senator wins by promising to spend more money. I mean really, we can't even get a solid conservative in Mississippi of all places.

As political scientist Aaron Wildavskysaid, “A negative campaign is one in which the wrong candidate loses.”

Whining about the campaign tactics of the winner is unbecoming of conservatives. It's what the left does when they lose. It's actually what the left does even when they win.

Conservatives have to live to fight another day. That's not to be confused with always settling for the lesser of two evils. Nor is this a “let's rally around the nominee” pep talk. I'm not even sure Cochran deserves his party's support in November if he's so certain he can win without them. Mississippi conservatives might understandably sit this one out in November.

But this is politics. Cochran is an old bull who is going to cling to power and perks for as long as possible. He embodies all that is wrong with Washington. And he is unfortunately a Republican. It would be nice if he went out in a gentlemanly manner realizing his time is up. But that's not what these guys do on either side of the aisle and no one should be expecting that politics is suddenly going to turn into a high minded debate about ideas when these incumbents have so much to lose.

Under Mississippi law, primaries are open to voters in both parties. As long as the voters were eligible, Cochran won it fair and square by the laws of the state. He didn't “cheat” by getting Democrats to vote for him. He worked the rules in his favor.

As for McDaniel, no one should blame him if he has sincere concerns about voter irregularities. Given the closeness of the election and unusual circumstances, any candidate would have these same concerns. But he must be careful to avoid looking like a “sore loser.”

He nearly pulled off a miracle and could have a great future. If after a thorough review (assuming there is one), Cochran's win is proven legitimate, he should suck it up and endorse the GOP nominee, paving the path for a future McDaniel campaign.

Hillary's War on Women

In late April, Vice President Joe Biden correctly condemned law enforcement or university and college officials that are accusatory of rape victims. It could very easily be aimed at former Secretary of State, former First Lady and former Arkansas public defender.

State.gov

And if Biden is really upset about it, it could be a great issue to take against Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical 2016 Democratic primary. In his April 29 speech, Biden was specifically talking about college age adults. So actions by Ms. Clinton as a young attorney were even worse – accusing a 12-year-old of bringing it upon herself.

From ABC News:

In 2008, during the height of her presidential primary campaign, Newsday published an in-depth story about Clinton's involvement with the trial. Newsday argued that Clinton's account in "Living History" left out "a significant aspect of her defense strategy - attempting to impugn the credibility of the victim." She reportedly sent an affidavit during the trial requesting the girl undergo a psychiatric examination at the university's clinic, and without offering any source, alleged that the victim had often sought older men. The case, Newsday claimed, "offers a glimpse into the way Clinton deals with crisis. Her approach, then and now, was to immerse herself in even unpleasant tasks with a will to win."

The victim, now 52, first believed Clinton was just doing her job as an attorney, but became enraged upon hearing that Clinton openly laughed about how clever she was as a lawyer in getting a light sentence for someone she knew was guilty.

"Hillary Clinton took me through hell," the victim told the Daily Beast in an emotional interview published today. The woman said that if she saw Clinton today she would say, "I realize the truth now, the heart of what you've done to me. And you are supposed to be for women? You call that [being] for women, what you done to me? And I heard you on tape laughing."

Don’t expect a court case from the 1970s to define a presidential contest. But, it should give Hillary – and her supporters – pause before presume she represents all women.

Death of the 'Tea Party is Dead' Narrative

Tea Party candidate Dave Brat trouncing of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is a great American story that shows elections and people matter. It was a low turnout in one Congressional District (Virginia-7), but it has national reach.

Eric Cantor (HouseMajorityLeader.gov)

This comes a week after Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel all but defeated the establishment Republican Sen. Thad Cochran in Mississippi. 

This wipes away some of the so called "Empire Strikes Back" glee of establishment GOP victories across the country, led by Sen. Mitch McConnell destroying his Tea Party challenger in Kentucky.

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

"I'm as stunned as anybody," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "I've yet to find one person nationally or in the state outside the Brat circle who thought Cantor would be beaten." 

"This is one of the most stunning upsets in modern American political history," Sabato said. "This is the base rebelling against the GOP leadership in Washington as represented by Eric Cantor." 

"Everybody agrees that if immigration reform was on life support before, they're pulling out the plugs," because no other House Republican will want to end up like Cantor, Sabato said. 

"The Republican electorate has become very conservative and that was demonstrated in conventions like last year," and occasionally in primaries, Sabato said.

Komorowski: No Secondary NATO Members

President Komorowski reminded the world about the importance of Poland in the 20^th Century when he mentioned the Solidarity motto in a toast along with President Obama.

Photo Credit: ipdigital.usembassy.gov

“We were able to bring that wall down,” invoking Reagan. “We also totally destroyed it and we made it possible for Europe to be whole and free again.”

He then mentioned the Solidarity’s slogan: “There is no freedom without Solidarity.” And added, “There also is no freedom if there is no solidarity with nations who want have freedom but have not claimed it yet.”

Solidarity of nations is as important to Polish people and other nations of Eastern Europe now. And the strength of NATO is imperative.

“What is most important for us is to make sure that there are no second-category member states of NATO, that there are no countries about whom an external country, a third country like Russia can say whether or not American or other allied troops can be deployed to these countries,” Komorowski said. “ That is why the decision of the United States of America to deploy American troops to Poland is really very important for us, both as an element of deterrence, but also as a reconfirmation that we do not really accept any limitations concerning the deployment of NATO troops to Poland imposed for some time or suggested for some time by a country that is not a member of NATO.”

On the eve of June 4, the 25^th anniversary of Polish freedom, he said during a press conference with Obama that relations with Russia are important. Things have never been that smooth with Russia.

“NATO-Russia relations, I can tell you that the Western world -- including Poland, and I’m sure it goes for all other countries of NATO -- everyone is very much interested in developing as good relations with Russia as possible, and as good cooperation as possible,” he said. “Poland is also very much interested in the continuation of this uneasy process of the reconciliation beyond difficult history and painful history and bloody history.”

“A few years ago it was Georgia; now it is Ukraine, with a special focus on Crimea,” he later added. “President Putin didn’t hide -- he didn’t hide that these were elements of the Russian armed forces, and this is something that we have to acknowledge -- just the same way Russia never hid that for the last four years it has increased its defense budget twofold. We, ourselves, have to ask the question, why? For what purpose? And what does it have to mean for member states of NATO?”

“All of us are interested in Russia to get modernized so that it is possible to do not only good business modernizing Russia, but also develop relations of good neighborhood and cooperation in many dimensions, in many areas,” he continued. “But today we have to answer this situation that has come up by supporting independence of Ukraine and it tried to choose a pro-Western direction. We have to support the modernization of Ukraine, too.”

The Cold War is not returning because Russia is not yet a super power again. But it wants so badly to be again. That’s why it’s still a threat to its neighbors and potentially to the United States.