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They just can't stop themselves, can they? Fox will just find any excuse possible to continue their bogus New Black Panther fearmongering, the latest being the possible nomination of Thomas Perez for Labor Secretary: Fox Uses Labor Secretary News To Revive New Black Panthers Nonsense:

Fox News is using reports that Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Thomas Perez may be nominated as Secretary of Labor to revive their manufactured scandal that the Obama administration favored the New Black Panther Party in a 2008 voter intimidation case.

The right-wing media has spent years propping up the bogus charge that President Obama's Justice Department engaged in racially charged "corruption" in the New Black Panther Party case. The claims, promoted by GOP activist J. Christian Adams, fell apart given the fact that the Obama DOJ obtained judgment against one defendant, while the Bush DOJ declined to pursue similar allegations in 2006.

America Live anchor Megyn Kelly highlighted news of Perez's possible appointment and said that his "fingerprints are all over some rather significant controversies," including the New Black Panthers case, during the March 11 edition of America Live.

Kelly previously led Fox's charge to tar President Obama and the Justice Department with the unsubstantiated claims of former DOJ attorney and GOP activist J. Christian Adams, who claimed in a June 30, 2009 interview with Kelly that the DOJ decision not to pursue charges in the New Black Panthers case demonstrated unprecedented, racially charged corruption. Read on...

As Stephen Webster at Raw Story noted, Perez "is likely going to face some jaw-droppingly dumb questions in the Senate if he is nominated to become President Barack Obama’s next labor secretary." I can hardly wait for the hearings to begin.

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Joe Scarborough is back at it again, apologizing for torture and telling lies about whether it works. Every time I think this show can't get much worse, I turn it on like I did this morning and realize I'm wrong. This had to be one of the more disgusting segments I've watched in a while, and that's saying a lot for this show. Scarborough and his panel members, David Ignatius and Jon Meacham, did their best to help revise history and help Scarborough play torture apologist while discussing the new film coming out this month, Zero Dark Thirty.

Glenn Greenwald has more on the problems with the premise of this movie: Zero Dark Thirty: new torture-glorifying film wins raves:

Earlier this year, the film "Zero Dark Thirty", which purports to dramatize the hunt for and killing of Osama bin Laden, generated substantial political controversy. It was discovered that CIA and White House officials had met with its filmmakers and passed non-public information to them - at exactly the same time that DOJ officials were in federal court resisting transparency requests from media outlets and activist groups on the ground that it was all classified.

With its release imminent, the film is now garnering a pile of top awards and virtually uniform rave reviews. What makes this so remarkable is that, by most accounts, the film glorifies torture by claiming - falsely - that waterboarding and other forms of coercive interrogation tactics were crucial, even indispensable in finding bin Laden.In the New York Times on Sunday, Frank Bruni wrote: "I'm betting that Dick Cheney will love the new movie 'Zero Dark Thirty.'" That's because "'enhanced interrogation techniques' like waterboarding are presented as crucial" to finding America's most hated terrorist. [...]

The claim that waterboarding and other torture techniques were necessary in finding bin Laden was first made earlier this year by Jose Rodriguez, the CIA agent who illegally destroyed the agency's torture tapes, got protected from prosecution by the DOJ, and then profited off this behavior by writing a book. He made the same claim as "Zero Dark Thirty" regarding the role played by torture in finding bin Laden.

That caused two Senators who are steadfast loyalists of the CIA - Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein and Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin - to issue statements definitively debunking this assertion. Even the CIA's then-Director, Leon Panetta, made clear that those techniques played no role in finding bin Laden. An FBI agent central to the bin Laden hunt said the same.

What this film does, then, is uncritically presents as fact the highly self-serving, and factually false, claims by the CIA that its torture techniques were crucial in finding bin Laden. Put another way, it propagandizes the public to favorably view clear war crimes by the US government, based on pure falsehoods.

And Mediaite's Tommy Christopher did a nice job of breaking down just how dishonest this Morning Joe segment was: Joe Scarborough Claims Zero Dark Thirty Torture Scene True, Screenwriter And Facts Disagree:

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Here we go again with Darrell Issa out there pushing the right-wing conspiracy theory started by Mike Vanderboegh, that the Fast and Furious debacle is really just a secret ploy to try to get more gun control laws enacted: GOP Oversight Chair Doubles Down On Wild Conspiracy Theory: Obama DOJ May Have Started Fast & Furious To Limit Access To Guns:

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) doubled down on a right wing conspiracy theory this morning, again suggesting that the failed “Fast and Furious” operation was a secret scheme by Democrats designed to promote stronger gun control regulation. But he also admitted that he had absolutely no evidence to back the theory and likely never would. [...]

Issa is more than happy to continue to promote the theory — started and peddled by Mike Vanderboegh, a man who once called for militias to break the windows of members of Congress because of the passage of the Affordable Care Act — even though even he concedes even he does not believe he will ever be able to produce any evidence of the allegations.

Transcript below the fold.

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From this Friday's PBS Newshour, in case anyone thought Fox was the only place where no matter what, IOKIYAR and if you engage in a political witch hunt, you will be given cover for your actions, look no further than The New York Times overpaid Villager and turd polisher of all things Republican, David Brooks and his regular weekly appearances on The Newshour on PBS.

Brooks excuses Issa as "doing what they're supposed to be doing" with his committee's attack on Attorney General Eric Holder, and justifies the committee having political gain as a motivation with this Fast and Furious investigation, while ignoring the fact that that Issa has used his chairmanship for issues other than going after actual corruption, which he's ignored time and time again, if he doesn't think his party can benefit from their actions politically and that anything he's actually bothered to have hearings on has been purely political.

Sorry Mr. Brooks, but you can make all the excuses you want, but that's not how these committees are supposed to work. And as a member of the media, opinion based or not, your job should be holding these people accountable for their actions, not making excuses for them and calling it playing politics as usual when they don't do their jobs, and treating the public as though they should just be accepting of how broken and corrupt our political system is right now.

David Brooks... proof that if you're willing to carry enough water for Republicans and make their horrible ideas palatable to the American public, you'll be allowed to continually fail upwards with ever larger pay checks as a reward.

Transcript below the fold.

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Our friends at NewsHounds have more on this bit of hackery from Bill O'Reilly and Karl Rove.

On Fox News, Wasting Taxpayer Money Is OK If You’re Republican Darling Chris Christie:

While the Republicans and Fox News boast about attacking spending in Washington, it’s amazing how fast they sing a different tune when it’s a Democrat trying to save taxpayer dollars. No sooner did the Inspector General at the Department of Justice release a report criticizing conservative darling Chris Christie’s extravagant travel expenses than Fox News pundits took to the airwaves to defend and spin them and to baselessly accuse the Obama Justice Department of going after Christie for political reasons.

As NJ.Com reported, the DOJ found Christie to be “the U.S. attorney who most often exceeded the government (travel-expense) rate without adequate justification” and that he offered “insufficient, inaccurate or no justification” for most of the excessive costs in 2007 and 2008. NJ.Com also noted,

Inspectors singled out a stay at the Four Seasons in Washington that cost more than double the approved rate of $233 per night, and took issue with Christie’s decision to pay $236 round trip for a car service in Boston instead of taking a taxi for four miles.

Christie declined to be interviewed as part of the examination, but his secretary at the time was questioned. Inspectors said memos submitted by Christie and his secretary contained misleading statements, saying "that the government lodging rate was not available in the particular city on the particular dates ... According to the U.S. attorney’s secretary, the language of the memoranda did not literally mean that there were ‘no hotels available at the government rate in the particular city’ but that the government rate was not available at the hotel or hotels that fit her criteria — a ‘decent’ hotel at or near the meeting site."

As NewsHounds pointed out, Fox's Megyn Kelly was carrying water for Christie earlier in the day and then we were treated to this from Bill-O and KKKarl.

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Rachel Maddow reviews the case against six New Orleans police officers who are now finally facing federal charges for shooting unarmed citizens on the Danziger Brige in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It's really sad that it has taken this long for the Justice Department to finally be doing something with this case. It's long overdue. TPM has more.

DOJ Charges Six NOPD Officers Involved In Danziger Bridge Shooting:

The Justice Department has charged four New Orleans police officers with opening fire on unarmed civilians in the days after Hurricane Katrina, killing two and wounding four. The DOJ has also charged them, and two other officers, with conspiracy relating to the resulting cover-up.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten and Attorney General Eric Holder announced the charges in an afternoon press conference today, five years after the shootings on the Danziger Bridge in New Orleans.

Four police officers -- Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Robert Faulcon and Anthony Villavaso -- are being charged with civil rights violations in connection with the shootings. If convicted, they could face life imprisonment or the death penalty.

The two others, Archie Kaufman and Gerard Dugue, are charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice. Kaufman and Dugue were the investigators in the original case, and are accused of falsifying reports and false prosecution.

Five other police officers and one civilian have already pleaded guilty to charges related to the cover-up. The four accused of the shooting had been charged with murder in connection with the incident, but the case was thrown out in 2008.

On Sept. 4, 2005, seven NOPD officers, including the four charged today in the shootings, rode to the Danziger Bridge after getting reports of officers under fire. There, they encountered a family on their way to the supermarket for supplies. For unknown reasons, the officers allegedly opened fire, killing 17-year-old James Brissette and wounding others.

The officers then allegedly drove to the other side of the bridge, where they found another group of people and again opened fire. Ronald Madison, 40, who was mentally disabled, was shot in the back and killed.

Faulcon is the one who allegedly shot Madison, according to the indictment. Bowen is accused of kicking Madison as he lay on the ground dying.

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Bill O'Reilly brought on serial liar Dick Toe-Sucker Morris to discuss Fox's latest bit of race baiting which Dave already told us about here: Fox News runs incendiary video of New Black Panther's racist rant. Here are some other racists they don't show you.

As Media Matters pointed out, it was the Justice Department under George W. Bush that decided not to pursue criminal charges in the case:

On The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly and Fox News legal analysts Lis Wiehl and Kimberly Guilfoyle criticized President Obama's administration for not pursuing criminal charges against members of the New Black Panther Party. In fact, it was the Justice Department under President Bush that decided not to pursue criminal charges in the case.

It was Bush's DOJ that decided not to press criminal charges

Bush administration decided to file a civil, not a criminal, complaint. In his May 14 testimony before the United States Commission on Civil Rights, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez said that the Bush administration's Justice Department "determined that the facts did not constitute a prosecutable violation of the criminal statutes" but instead decided to "file a civil action on January 7, 2009." From Perez's testimony:

PEREZ: Moving to the matter at hand, the events occurred on November 4th, 2008. The Department became aware of these events on Election Day and decided to conduct further inquiry.

After reviewing the matter, the Civil Rights Division determined that the facts did not constitute a prosecutable violation of the criminal statutes. The Department did, however, file a civil action on January 7th, 2009, seeking injunctive and declaratory relief under 11(b) against four defendants.

Read on...

But in the world of the O'Reilly and Morris' out there, it's Media Matters that are the liars here. And whoever the hell they're talking about at MSNBC. Who knows. All I know is that O'Reilly, Morris or anyone else as ClusterFox had no business criticizing anyone at any of the other networks. Talk about one huge case of projection.

These two clowns wrap up the segment with trying to pretend that Obama has lost the right that he never had and the center and that he's moving further to the left to keep that support. In what world they think that Obama is not a centrist is beyond me but that's their lie of the day and if called on it I'm sure the two of them are going to stick to it.

I hope Bill Clinton is proud of himself for inflicting this idiot who throws him under the bus on a weekly basis on the rest of us.

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Bigot Rush Limbaugh took Keith's top honors on the Worst Persons list for this bit of blatant racism.

Limbaugh: "If Obama Weren't Black He'd Be a Tour Guide in Honolulu":

Rush Limbaugh joined other right-wing media figures in freaking out over a remark by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden during a recent interview with Al Jazeera. In discussing Obama's efforts to improve Muslim outreach, Bolden said that Obama "wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering." Rush used this noncontroversial comment to attack the Obama administration while simultaneously stating that "most of these claims about Muslim contributions to science and math are myths."

Rush then took some time to race-bait Obama supporters and the liberal media. He said that Obama "wouldn't have been voted president if he weren't black," adding, "If Obama weren't black he'd be a tour guide in Honolulu." Rush also accused the liberal media of wanting the GOP to fire Michael Steele "so they can ... write about the Republicans firing a black guy." Read on...

UPDATE: And there's this from Digby on Limbaugh:

I'm awfully glad that racism is no longer mainstream on the right anymore or this man might have the most popular radio show in the country with 25 million listeners a week. Or this absurdity of a scandal trumped up by a GOP hitman might be breathlessly discussed by Republican operatives as the "sleeper issue for the 2010 midterms."

Thank goodness we don't have to worry about that anymore.

Yeah, thank goodness. Heaven forbid people might think Republicans were still following Lee Atwater's playbook in this day and age or that we might still have some problems with our DOJ continuing to be politicized from Bush holdovers that haven't been fired yet.

Runners up were Glenn Beck for going after Will Bunch for making money off of his Beck University that Susie told us about on Friday. And next on Keith's list was wingnut Rep. Steve King for lying and claiming that Obama refused to wave the Jones Act which Think Progress took apart in this post Promising ‘Well-Informed Truth,’ Steve King Says Obama Not Helping LA On Oil Spill Because Jindal Is A Republican.

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Apparently Rep. Steve King, R-Nutsville, doesn't think the Department of Justice has any lawyers capable of drawing up their own legal briefs and of course in the wingnuts like King's world, if the brief agrees with anything in the ACLU's lawsuit against Arizona's immigration law SB 1070, the evil commie "leftist" organizations suing Arizona are really the ones running the DOJ.

After he carried on about how terrible Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano, John Morton, President Obama, Michael Posner, amd Mexican President Felipe Calderon all were for voicing their opposition to the new law, repeating the tired talking point that none of them have read it, King had this to say about some Chinese immigrants who haven't yet been deported:

King: I'll go even further. Michael Posner, the Assistant Secretary of State, he said he brought it up early and often to the Chinese that we had a problem with a law in Arizona that could bring about racial profiling. These are the people that... we've got 40,000 Chinese in the United States that have been adjudicated for deportation... the Chinese won't take them back. And we're sending them some 550 year old bones from paleo, ah... paleo vertebrates that, so they can keep their artifacts straight. We need to send them the 40,000 Chinese that they won't take. Deport them as well as the bones, Mr. Speaker.

Nice. Should we just box them up with the bones, Steve King? What a jerk. Then we get to this wingnut hackery.

King: And I'll make this further prediction now Mr. Speaker. That is that the announcement came out today that the Justice Department under Eric Holder, it now has a legal brief that recommends that they bring suit against Arizona. Here's my prediction. ACLU has written that legal brief for the Justice Department... that a-political, nonpolitical Justice Department has a brief that one day we'll get our hands on, a draft brief... release the draft is what needs to happen from the Attorney General, but in that draft we'll find the ACLU that's already sued Arizona with a 98 page case, there's the document that they're using to put their brief together in the Justice Department. The President gave the order to the Attorney General to look into Arizona's law and a Justice Department under Attorney General Holder looked at the lawsuit that's been brought by the ACLU and MALDEF and other organizations that are hard core left wing including SEIU and they have lifted the language right out of that lawsuit and that will be the draft Mr. Speaker.

That's my prediction and I put my marker down. When we get our hands on the draft from the Attorney General's office I will take that draft and I will take the language and I will highlight the language right out of the ACLU's lawsuit and I'll show you how the Justice Department lifted that language out of the lawsuit of the ACLU and MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense Foundation and put it right into their draft advisory and the federal government will be conducting and carrying out the order of the President in a nonpolitical office, supposedly according to Holder's testimony at the direction of the ACLU and MALDEF and La Raza and the other organizations, the SEIU and many others that are hard core leftist organizations in this country. If we're going to have the rule of law it's got to be impartial, it's got to be objective, it's got to be Constitutional, it's got to be statutory and it's got to be consistent with case law. Arizona's law is all of those things but this Justice Department's unjustified attacks on Arizona is anything but.

It's a conspiracy... oh my! The leftists are telling the White House and the DOJ what to do. Don't I wish. If that were the case we'd have the Bush administration prosecuted for war crimes, Rove would be in jail for the AG scandal and his part in putting Don Siegelman in prison and that's just the start of the list. As usual there's no amount of race-baiting this wingnut won't use for political advantage.

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Larry King decides to do a bit of turd polishing for Alberto Gonzales and has him weigh in on Arizona's new "show me your papers" law. I'd like to know why King thought it was a better idea to bring Gonzo on to talk about this instead of his actions as Attorney General.

We've done a great deal of reporting on Gonzo which you can check out here. The list is absolutely too long to rehash with what he did to the Department of Justice, the Attorney General's scandal and with his defense of torture. As Jon Perr noted, Gonzo has taken to playing the victim card of late -- Alberto Gonzales: Bush DOJ Was Not Political Enough:

For most people, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is a national embarrassment, a pimple on the ass of American history. But to hear him tell it, the man George W. Bush called "Fredo" is a victim of partisan warfare. And the lesson he apparently learned in Washington is not that he politicized the Bush Justice Department, but that he didn't politicize it enough.

Those are among the head-shaking takeaways in a brief but revealing interview in Esquire titled, "Alberto Gonzales: What I've Learned." The man who repeatedly lied to Congress about the U.S. prosecutors purge, President Bush's illegal program of domestic surveillance and regime of detainee torture was just an innocent bystander caught in the political crossfire.

...But as he acknowledged to Esquire this week, Gonzales' real lament about the U.S. attorneys firings is that the Bush White House wasn't political enough. After the Republican losses in the 2006 midterm elections, Gonzales suggested, the Bush administration's error was that it simply couldn't get away it.

Now Larry King thinks he should be a political commentator. This is what happens when administrations decide to let the crimes of the previous administration go unpunished. They wind up with their ass on TV being a political commentator instead of in jail. Of course in the case of ClusterFox they can be convicted and still get air time. Sadly even if in some fantasy world Alberto Gonzales were ever put on trial and convicted, he'd likely end up like North and never serve any jail time.

CNN, the network that has been trying to paint itself as centrist and non-political seems to have more than its fair share of Bushies on their network. Whether it be Fran Townsend, Michael Chertoff, David Frum Torie Clark or Ed Gillespie among others, they're more than willing to give these mouth pieces from the failed Bush administration credibility at every turn.

And speaking of cases that nothing's been done about since the Obama DOJ took charge, I'd also love to know why the Obama administration hasn't done anything to rectify the Don Seigelman case.