by Glenn Littrell
links:
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/14/the-new-black-panther-party-is-the-new-acorn0.html
http://mediamatters.org/columns/201003020001
My view of the case against NBPP is that they should be prosecuted. Their are no different than the many cases and accusations
Every election there are instances of loonies across the spectrum, from far right wing extremist to these guys, who show up at polling places. Sometimes there are even Poll workers who take on the role of ‘intimidators’ at some level. Many of these people, like the NBPP in this case, rise to a level that should be prosecuted, but quite often after the initial uproar they are not. This doesn’t excuse the NBPP for me, but it is why such an irrelevant group shouldn’t be afforded national attention which only serves to provide them with free publicity and recruitment tools.
The problem with Adams, besides the possibility that he comes with his own ‘baggage’ is that he withholds specifics [in his interview with M.Kelly] and seems to have toned it down in front of the commission. Plus, his accusations of partisanship and defense of career attorneys in the Civil Rights division ring hollow when his hiring occurred during the conservative house cleaning at DOJ under Bush.
Fox as usual promotes the dismissal of the charges as unprecedented and proof of anti-white racism by liberal appointees, Holder and of course, Obama. Yet they ignore the testimony of AGG Thomas Perez before the Civil Rights Commission in regards to the difficulty of prosecution under Section 11b of the Civil Rights Act. He points out cases of failed prosecutions and failure to bring prosecutions in cases that appear to be just as much of a ‘slam dunk’ as the NBPP case.
Two of the four examples given:
“…regarding events in Pima, Arizona in the 2006 election when three with well-known the anti-immigrant advocates affiliated with the Minutemen, one of whom was carrying a gun, allegedly intimidated Latino voters at a polling place by approaching several persons, filming them…”
“In 2005, the Division received allegations that armed Mississippi State investigators intimidated elderly minority voters during an investigation of possible voter fraud in municipal elections by visiting them in their home, asking them who they voted for, in spite of state law protections that explicitly forbid such inquiries.”
Of course these occurred pre-Obama, is old news and would undercut the FOX racial preference narrative.
The whole reason the NBPP case receives the attention at FOX that it didn’t elsewhere is that it fits their prime criteria for promoting that narrative:
1. It posses elements that FOX can promote as examples of ‘reverse racism’.
2. It provides an opportunity to play six degrees of separation in connecting Obama to nefarious characters, causes or events.
3. Everyone else has deemed the story back page material allowing FOX to control the source material that is used.
Like other cases where the above criteria has been met FOX presents the claimed transgressions as further proof of their Obama/liberal conspiracy theories.
The NBPP case, by itself, is a theory in search of a conspiracy. Adams provides the ‘smoking gun’ but not the ‘magic bullet’, but even so it contributes to the ‘connect the fuzzy dots to make a suspicious pattern’ game that FOX so loves.
The NBPP nuts, the Arizona idiots and the Mississippi investigators should all be locked up…together. That would be front page material.
GlennDL
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/14/the-new-black-panther-party-is-the-new-acorn0.html
Updates:
TPM: …Voter fraud "exists, and anyone who denies it has no credibility," J. Christian Adams told TPMmuckraker recently. "But it doesn't affect the outcome of elections as much as people say. I don't think that if there's 100 or 1,000 dead voters in, let's say, Texas ... I don't think it's going to affect the outcome of statewide elections."…
Indianapolis Times: …Outgoing Republican Secretary of State Todd Rokita has made a career of lecturing about clean elections. If he doesn't agree to look into White's case, as Democrats have requested, he will look like he is taking care of one of his political buddies.”…