DOJ investigates Nebraska parade float critical of Obama

[lostinblue 1,989]

DOJ investigates Nebraska parade float critical of Obama

y Jessica Chasmar

-

The Washington Times

Sunday, July 13, 2014

The U.S. Department of Justice has sent a member of its Community Relations Service team to investigate a Nebraska parade float that criticized President Obama.

A Fourth of July parade float featured at the annual Independence Day parade in Norfolk sparked criticism when it depicted a zombie-like figure resembling Mr. Obama standing outside an outhouse, which was labeled the “Obama Presidential Library.”

The Nebraska Democratic Party called the float one of the “worst shows of racism and disrespect for the office of the presidency that Nebraska has ever seen.”

The Omaha World-Herald reported Friday that the Department of Justice sent a CRS member who handles discrimination disputes to a Thursday meeting about the issue.

Also at the meeting were the NAACP, Norfolk mayor Sue Fuchtman and the Norfolk Odd Fellows, which coordinated the parade.

The float’s creator, Dale Remmich, has said the mannequin depicted himself, not President Obama. He said he is upset with the president’s handling of the Veterans Affairs Department, the World-Herald reported.

“Looking at the float, that message absolutely did not come through,” said NAACP chapter president Betty C. Andrews.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/13/doj-investigates-obama-presidential-library-parade/#ixzz37Pq8eAly

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I said last week Holder will not be looking at any real scandal's Have to watch out..... the IRS will be pulling their tax papers

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Who cares. Presumably the premise here is that the administration is so small minded and petty that they'll formally "investigate" an effing parade float.

You don't have to like Obama to reach a conclusion that this is fanciful nonsense.

http://www.justice.gov/crs

[UncleBeer 244]

Holder should do hard time for subverting the role of the "Justice" Dept. He's nothing but a goakeeper for the preznit, making sure no righteous legal scrutiny comes the preznit's way. Feh.

[Neonred 3,672]

Better to investigate a parade float than an IRS scandal.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Well that implies that the one somehow precludes the other. I kind of doubt that a community relations team would be investigating an irs scandal.

[UncleBeer 244]

Holder's made it plain he's only going to look out for "his people", at the cost of his integrity, real justice, and Americans' trust in the system.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

If you say so Gary.

[UncleBeer 244]

One of my favorite bloggers, Instapundit opines that Holder sending goons to investigate a parade float mocking the preznit is in itself a civil rights violation. I agree.

Law professor & blogger Ann Althouse expands. Excellent commentary:

It is intimidating the local Nebraska people who had the nerve to make fun of the President within an unsophisticated folk tradition, the 4th of July parade. (We talked about the depiction of the Obama Presidential Library as an outhousehere.) But it doesn't seem to be an "investigation" in the sense of looking for evidence of a criminal violation.

Should we object to the deployment of the Community Relations Service team when the Justice Department seriously believes there is an outbreak of racial hatred in some little place in America? That's a separate question from whether we object to the participation of the Community Relations Service team in this instance, which doesn't entail any sort of threat to people of a particular race. It's mockery of the President. And there is something seriously wrong with deploying even the mellow-sounding Community Relations Service team to get out the message: If you criticize the President, the forces of the federal government will descend upon your community and make it look as though a shameful racial problem is festering.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

You right wing nutters just ought to blow that gasket already and get it over with. It's painful to watch you suffer.

[UncleBeer 244]

Better to investigate a parade float than an IRS scandal.

Speaking of which: It appears DOJ has interviewed NONE of the folks at "True the Vote", the highest-profile conservative organization targeted by the IRS:

Group At Center Of IRS Scandal Has Never Been Interviewed By FBI Investigators

No one from True The Vote, the highest profile organization targeted by the IRS in the scandal involving improper scrutiny of conservative-leaning non-profits, has been interviewed by the FBI or investigators from the Department of Justice, according to the group’s President, Catherine Engelbrecht.

This stunning revelation comes just days after Attorney General Eric Holder rebuffed the suggestion that an independent investigation is needed into the growing scandal. Holder told ABC News this weekend that a special investigation was unnecessary because “career people” and FBI agents were “doing a good, professional job” investigating the matter.

When I raised Holder’s assertion to Engelbrecht Monday morning during an interview on WMAL radio in Washington, DC, I asked her what her involvement and experience has been with the FBI and the DOJ, considering Holder’s claim that they were doing a “good and professional job” investigating the IRS scandal.

“That would be exactly ‘no.’ Zero. at no time have they approached us. Only when they are investigating us. Only when they are being adversarial towards us do we ever hear anything from the Department of Justice. There has been no outreach to try and get to the bottom of the scandal at any time. “

For those who may have forgotten what "True the Vote" suffered at the hands of the preznit's willing minions (including IRS, FBI, DOJ), here's their story:

Up until the past few years I hadn’t been involved in political activities at all. My husband and I were busy running our small precision parts manufacturing business in Rosenberg, Texas which Bryan began two decades ago. But then I began to become more and more disturbed witnessing politicians making statements and decisions that stood in stark contrast to fundamental American ideals: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This prompted me to get involved in the Tea Party movement with others that share the same concerns. After attending rallies, I became motivated to see if more might be done to make a difference. This has taken me away from our family business, and thankfully, Bryan has been wonderfully supportive.

In 2009 I volunteered to serve as a polling place alternate judge for Fort Bend County. That was a well- managed system, although there was a need for many more volunteers. However this sort of honest operation wasn’t the case I began to hear about during meetings with officials from polling stations across the much larger Harris County. The gross irregularities many of them reported were very similar. In numerous reports people showed up at polls with multiple voter registration cards. In other prevalent instances, individuals were “delivered” to the polls telling workers they didn’t remember who they “were supposed to vote for”. They were then taken into booths by judges who directly “reminded” them who to vote for.

The offensive and shocking horror stories prompted me to create the King Street Patriots as an umbrella organization to support and defend American exceptionalism, constitutional governance and civic duty. True the Vote was founded for the specific purpose of working to ensure election integrity as a voter’s rights organization. Those rights apply equally to all legal voters, regardless of party or candidate preference.

Larry: Then after you filed, there were many more shocks in store for you. And while your story has been getting a great deal of national media attention, literally hundreds of other organizations that share common values have been similarly targeted for abusive treatment by government entities entrusted to protect us from tyranny. What makes your experience particularly chilling is that multiple government agencies appear not only to have launched costly and intimidating coordinated assaults upon your non-profit public service organizations, but against your personal finances and business operations as well.

Catherine: Yes, my personal, family and business circumstances began to change very dramatically soon after those July 2010 IRS filings.

First, FBI investigators appeared in December with questions about a person who had attended a couple of King Street program events. We don’t have members, didn’t know the individual well, and told them so. FBI people then contacted us again in January 2011 and questioned our director of operations about whether there was anything more to report. There wasn’t.

In May 2011 the FBI called once more for a general inquiry about King Street Patriots. That was the same month that the IRS audited our business tax accounts. The following month when the IRS audited my personal tax returns, the FBI returned again. In October 2011 we received a round of IRS questions about True the Vote…and another contact came from the FBI in November.

In February 2012 we received a third round of IRS questions on True the Vote, along with the first round of questions on King Street Patriots. That same month, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms did an unscheduled audit of our machine business. Although we had a license to make firearms parts, we had never done so. That was the first time BATF had ever come to our shop, and they examined it for five or six hours. They had showed up unannounced, and it struck us as very strange. BATF visited us again last April. We still don’t make any gun parts.

OSHA conducted its first-ever unscheduled audit of our facilities in July 2012. After the inspector minutely examined our premises and talked with our managerial staff and employees, she found only a couple of small problems…the wrong type of safety glasses on an employee…the wrong type of seat belt on a forklift. And although the inspector complimented us on a tightly-run shop, we later got slapped with a $25,000 fine. That represented quite a lot of money for our small business. We eventually negotiated it down to $17,000, but that was still a lot. It meant that instead of giving an employee a raise or hiring another worker, we wrote a check to the government.

In November 2012 we received more IRS questions on True the Vote, followed by more questions in March 2013. BATF returned in April 2013 with a second audit.

Larry: What sort of questions did the IRS ask?

Catherine: They asked more than 300 questions over four rounds of exchanges, and many were truly amazing. For example, they wanted to know every Facebook post and Tweet I had ever written , what groups I had spoken to and what I said, whether I had ever sought public office or ever intended to…it was endless. They also wanted to know backgrounds of our board members, and who all of our King Street Patriot speakers were. In response we submitted thousands of pages of answers. Some of those individual submissions have involved 500 pages – 600 pages – and that has required an enormous amount of time.

If the large number and strange nature of those IRS questions weren’t reason enough, it was when those other agencies began to appear at our doorsteps that we realized things were seriously and alarmingly amiss.

Larry: It seems all of that must have been very expensive for you, not to mention, unnerving, to suddenly find yourself and organizations subject to all that multi-agency scrutiny.

Catherine: This was certainly a very new, unpleasant and financially draining experience. Direct costs for IRS responses alone amounted tonearly one hundred thousand dollars…time and expenses for collecting and putting together mounds of materials in response to questions, accounting costs, and attorney charges. These expenses have and are placing a big burden on our family and business finances. The government has no such budget limitations, thanks to taxpayers such as us.