This "no balls" AG has vigorously protected voting rights

[BainsBane]

and the 14th amendment, not only for Civil Rights for African Americans but in recognizing rape as a civil rights issue covered by Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. None of this of course matters to some, because their basic civil rights aren't attacked and undermined on a daily basis. In fact, some here have been quite vocal in opposing DOJ's use of Title IX to go after universities and colleges that have allowed rape to proliferate without consequence on their campuses. Men's rights, they insist, are hurt by using DOJ to crack down on rape.

And now we see an emasculation of the AG, a black man, for failing to devote himself to certain concerns. This encapsulates the extent to which politics are often unconsciously defined as white and male. Any efforts to protect our rights aren't even worth noting. A man who works to protect them has a career that amounts to so little, he can't even be considered a real man; he has "no balls."

[Gothmog]

1. AG Holder is my hero on the issue of voting rights

AG Holder and the DOJ have done a great deal of work to protect voting rights. I have worked on voter protection issues in Texas and AG Holder's and the DOJ's leadership on the voter id case have been very valuable

As far as I concerned, AG Holder has been a truly great Attorney General and I have see the intense effort made in Texas to protect voting rights

[BainsBane]

2. Damn, this wasn't supposed to be an OP

Not sure what happened. Is this going to be considered a call out?

[Gothmog]

4. I am curious as to what you were responding to

In any event, my views on AG Holder and voting rights remain the same. I have been very active in voter protection efforts and attempting to deal with the Texas voter id. I have followed the Texas voter id case closely and I know that AG Holder and the DOJ really helped in that case.

AG Holder and the DOJ have done an amazing job trying to defend voting rights

[BainsBane]

7. A post in this forum that uses the "no balls" label.

I've seen a lot of posts about how useless Holder is for not prosecuting Bush and Wall Street, though DOJ has waged a number of civil prosecutions of banks and won massive settlements. I've never seen them discussed here.
Any rate, the OP isn't on voting rights, but its assessment of Holder as lacking balls gets at what I see as lacking in a good deal of the political discussion here.

[Gothmog]

17. Sen. Cornyn on the VRA and Voter ID

If you want to get a sense as to the good job done by AG Holder, these comments from Senator Boxturtle from Texas will show that AG Holder is doing a great job http://electionlawblog.org/?p=70926

Q Have you talked to Leader Mitch McConnell, who has a deep history in the Civil Rights movement, about moving legislation that would fix that formula? You mentioned that one of your concerns is that the original law unduly affects places that have made progress on this front, but there are still places where people are having difficulty voting. Do you think it’s important for Congress to address that formula and to amend it, as the Supreme Court (which you can see here, from this office) has asked Congress to do?

A =I think Eric Holder and this administration have trumped up and created an issue where there really isn’t one. For example, the attorney general sued my state for requiring a voter ID, saying somehow that suppressed minority votes, when you can get one for free. And the Supreme Court has passed, in an opinion by John Paul Stevens, who is not exactly a conservative, that this is a reasonable way of protecting the integrity of the ballot and it doesn’t unduly burden the ability of minority voters to cast a ballot. [Editor’s note: Justice Stevens has said his judgment was specific to the case and “should not be taken as authority that voter ID laws are always OK.”].

So a lot of this is, I think, theatrics, to try to create division where there isn’t [any]. That, to me, is one of the shames of… the first African-American president of the United States. You would think this would be a great time of national pride and great national healing, but unfortunately, this president has tried to use his bully pulpit and his presidency to try to cause division, and that’s a shame.

The fact that Senator Boxturtle from Texas is unhappy with AG Holder on the issue of voting rights is high praise in my book

[MADem]

10. Probably disruptive meta if anything. Maybe you would do well to just put the post where it belongs

and avoid any potential difficulty?

[BainsBane]

11. I did PM a host

who said she thought it was okay. I thought I'd leave it because of the replies.

[MADem]

12. Maybe edit your 2nd paragraph then.

Take out the reference to a post and re-work it to something more generic, like "complaints" or "objections" that could come from places outside this website as well as on the board.

Hosts don't make you bulletproof from "the system."

[BainsBane]

14. Good suggestion

and done.

[Gothmog]

16. I still agree with your revised post

Voting rights are a passion for me and I am strong believer in the good works done by AG Holder

[MADem]

19. That works nicely!! nt

[BainsBane]

3. Responding to the content of your post

That's really great to hear. Voting rights are everything. Nothing matters in politics without the right to vote.

[Gothmog]

5. I agree

Voting rights are very important. As a person who had to deal with the effects of Shelby County v. Holder and the Texas voter id law, I can tell you that voting rights are important.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. Appears Mr.Holder was stuck with tons of

Bush/Cheney moled employees that he just could not fire by law. Sounds like State has the same issue.

[BainsBane]

8. I believe only the top levels turn over with new administrations

The rest are civil service.

[Gothmog]

9. President Obama and AG Holder had to rebuild the DOJ and the Civil Rights Division

One of the idiots forced out was that fool, Christian Adams, who pushed the New Black Panther stupidity. Adams is a truly bad attorney who was too stupid to be hired in the DOJ without bushie help

[1StrongBlackMan]

13. So true ...

Here's a story I re-told a couple years ago. I was working in DC for about a week. Every evening, I stopped in a the bar next to my hotel. One evening three guys took seats near me at the bar. The three were buddies getting together to catch up. Two of the guys, by their dress, were coming from work, while the third looked like he was coming from a Grunge concert.

As they drank, they got louder so I (and just about everyone sitting at the bar) could hear their conversation. I picked up that they were G'Town Law grads. One worked as an attorney doing media relations for corporations; the second worked at a firm I recognized as a White shoe firm, doing typical associate work; the third was unemployed ... apparently, he was between his third and fourth post law school jobs (no one had recognized him for the genius he was). I was kind of feeling sorry for the guy because he was saying some real funny stuff about his former employers and his job search.

Then, he related to his buddies that he did have a great job prospect ... he asked if they remembered one of his former girl-friends ... well, it appears he got her pregnant and her father was pressing him to marry her; but, dear old dad couldn't allow his daughter to marry an unemployed guy ... so dad made a call and got unemployed guy a meeting with an under-secretary for the DoJ ... I say meeting, because a job interview it wasn't ... dear old dad promised that all unemployed guy had to do was go in, "sober and NOT call the under-secretary an a$$hole, and (he) would be in ... even if it's just the Civil Rights Division."

[Gothmog]

15. The GOP tried to destroy the civil rights division

Remember Monica Goodling who was from the Jerry Falwall law school and could only get hired at the DOJ due to political connections. Monica and her crowd did their best to destroy the civil rights division.

Christian Adams was one of their hires. Adams is a truly stupid person who graduated from a tier IV law school. This idiot pushed the New Black Panther stupidity until the DOJ IG showed that there was no case. Adams was supposed to be a sleeper who was hired as a civil service hire but luckily Adams was too stupid to stay on at the DOJ without his bushie protectors. Christian Adams is now counsel to the True the Vote racists and is still making a fool of himself

[Wellstone ruled]

18. Heard a similiar story from my

childhood buddy. And he was assigned to the Spook Brigade as a liaison from the Fly Boys. It was not what you know,it's who you know. Always mentioned there was so many little rich kids that couldn't find their way out of a paper bag with flash light and a map. Always make sure you kept your back to the wall or some asshole would stab you just to move up the ladder.

[joshcryer]

22. Bush appointed judges.

We won't be rid of them until 2024. That's why it's imperative we keep the White House.

Look at how badly the SEC has fared with enforcing even the smallest of things, only to be overruled by Bush appointed judges.

[Hoppy]

20. This is all very nice. It is good that Holder worked on voting rights violations.

However, the job of A.G. is not limited to enforcing laws he agrees with or finds to be important. It is to enforce all laws.

How many Bush war criminals are in jail? Bush? Cheney, Gonzalez, Rice? You get the idea.

How many bankers are in jail? There was a daily post years ago. Its title was "---- days since Obama was inaugurated. How many bankers are in jail?" The answer never changed. In fact, it remains "0" even today.

[BainsBane]

21. What laws do you think the prosecutions should have taken place under?

Or should take place under? I too would like to see accountability for war crimes, but I think it should be done at the Hague, which is where such prosecutions are typically handled. To do that would mean the US would have to become a signatory to the International Criminal court. Insults to Holder's masculinity do noting to achieve that.

The problem with terms like "no balls" and other similar ones used around here all too often is not the words themselves but what they signal about people's conceptions of society and politics. They show a view of politics and justice bound to your interests and experiences and allow no space for the majority of Americans who are born different from you. Civil rights--the right to vote and the right of say over one's own body--are not nothing, and prioritizing those issues over prosecuting war crimes does not make an AG effeminate or a eunuch. You don't have to worry about the right to vote or whether you can control access to your own body. Many of us do, and our lives matter. I for one am glad we have an AG who cares about that.


BTW, I didn't mean to make this a separate OP, but somehow I accidentally posted in that way.

[John Poet]

23. I think you misplace the blame, there.

"How many Bush war criminals are in jail? Bush? Cheney, Gonzalez, Rice? You get the idea."


I think if President Obama wanted any investigations or prosecutions to take place,
they would have been done. AG Holder works for HIM.

Obama, like Clinton before him, put priority on promoting their own program,
rather than trying to mete justice out to the criminals that came before them.

I don't personally agree with that either, but there it is. Holder wasn't going to go off the reservation doing stuff that Obama didn't want done.

[Hoppy]

24. There is validity to your point. However, the A.G. is supposed to be independent of the W.H.

You may recall the A.G.'s who quit, rather than follow Nixon's orders. So choose one... no balls or no integrity.

Still, it was Holder who was quoted as saying that to attack the bankers would disrupt the financial system.