A pick that threatens all the work done by Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch.

It seems like racial arsonist and world-class grifter Al Sharpton has stumbled upon the truth of the matter. The left’s opposition to Jeff Sessions is not driven by a genuine fear of how he’ll approach civil rights issues-almost all of these objections are based upon falsehoods or distortions, and the primary accusers have suspect characters, to say the least-but is based upon the realization that he’ll attend to the rank corruption which has permeated the Justice Department over the past 8 years.

Senator Sessions is not a racist, and has never been a racist. The man now being slandered by cultural Marxists and those who traffic in racial calumnies is the same person who desegregated schools and put the KKK out of business in his home state. What’s occurring now is the quintessential Borking, which makes sense when you realize that Jeff Sessions was the first Republican judicial nominee to be Borked, even before Judge Bork himself. The only problem is that this tactic no longer works, as the election of Donald Trump to the presidency illustrates.

The public can no longer be intimidated into accepting bien pensant opinion or swallowing blatant lies about patriotic, normal American citizens. They realize implicitly that the stated reasons for these attacks are untruths. They’ve watched as the Obama administration has used its remaining time to force small, peaceful towns to acquiesce to the whims of Muslims and hire non-citizens to enforce American law. They’ve seen a Department of Justice willing to collude with the husband of a presidential candidate, a former President himself, under criminal investigation. They’ve watched hundreds die in the United States and Mexico as a result of this White House’s gun trafficking to Mexican drug cartels.

Leftists should be afraid, but not for the reasons they’ve outlined in hysterical cable news jeremiads over the past week. They should be fearful because Jeff Sessions is the person entrusted to drain the swamp that the Justice Department has become under President Obama.

I love the title of this blog post, because it perfectly encapsulates the contempt in which this administration holds the rule of law. For those of you who haven’t been keeping track, President Obama, via royal decree, enacted an incredibly unconstitutional administrative amnesty which would have given legal immunity-as well as jobs and a slew of federal benefits-to nearly 4 million illegal aliens currently residing in this country.

After a federal judge wisely enjoined this deranged plan, the administration continued to grant work permits to these aliens-because screw separation of powers, right? 

Are you surprised by the Obama administration’s latest flagrant violation of the law? You really shouldn’t be. If this presidency had a theme song, this would be it.

For those who believed the departure of Eric Holder from the national spotlight would be put an end to troublesome questions about Fast and Furious-and the obstruction of justice and abuse of power its failure unleashed-I have some bad news for you. The trial of several members of a Mexican rip crew for the death of Agent Brian Terry has reignited the discussion over how BATF-supplied weaponry made it into the hands of vicious Mexican criminals. Naturally, the federal prosecutors of these Mexican mobsters want to suppress any questioning and evidence that implicates the criminals who worked for the Obama administration, who are the chief culprits in the death of Brian Terry-to say nothing of the hundreds of Mexicans and Central Americans who may have lost their lives as a result of this debacle.

Whether or not they succeed in their ignoble quest remains to be seen. However, justice demands that the full truth of Agent Terry’s death-including the responsibility of those sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution and protect the lives of American citizens-be  revealed. Let’s hope this case helps speed it along.

For those of you who believed the carnage wrought by this administration’s criminally negligent-if not intentionally malicious-Fast and Furious program had ceased-or even abated-I have some troubling news to report. Thanks to the indefatigable attorneys at Judicial Watch we continue to discover weapons implicated in violent crimes which can be traced back to the ATF’s gunrunning  obscenity. Although most of the devastation and loss of human life has been confined to Mexico and Latin America, gang-related violence involving Fast and Furious firearms has struck American cities as well.

You can read the Judicial Watch press release describing one such incident, which occurred in Phoenix, Arizona last year. Despite the usual obstruction and resistance by this administration, it was also able to obtain crime scene photos that reveal the identities of the victims and the serial numbers of lethal weapons our Justice Department placed in the hands of ruthless criminal entities. Even if the mandarins of the Washington press corps prefer to bury one of the greatest Executive crimes of the past five decades, it’s reassuring to know that those who care about the Constitution and journalism refuse to give our teflon President a free pass.

With Election Day imminent, it’s only appropriate that this edition of the Daily Rattle begins with a few news items dealing with important votes taking place throughout the country. One of the most revealing contests does not involve a single political candidate, but is actually a referendum taking place in the deep-blue state of Oregon. Measure 88, a ballot proposition that would invest illegal aliens living in that state with driver’s licenses-just like their fellow lawbreakers to the north-looks to be headed towards a resounding defeat, to the surprise, no doubt, of everyone but those of us who have been paying attention. Thankfully, this ACLU-crafted invitation to further criminality-and potential mayhem in the skies-will be rejected by sensible Oregon voters, even if the pathetic incumbent-along with the lovely, immigration fraud enabler to whom he’s married-remains in the governor’s mansion.

Unfortunately, the political appeal for defending the health and security of American citizens is  a concept that’s all but lost on those currently running the Republican Party. You need look no further than Democratic political consultant-and advisor to former President Jimmy Carter-Pat Caddell to realize the utter stupidity of the GOP neglecting the most important domestic policy issue of our time. His description of the GOP as the Stupid Party encapsulates our feelings on this subject, as most of you already know. For anyone doubting the validity of this assertion, a recent survey demonstrating that the vast majority of Coloradans want all illegal aliens deported-contrary to the pro-amnesty stances proffered by candidates of both parties-should dispel your skepticism. As should the remarkably successful senatorial campaign of Scott Brown, who has bravely bucked the trend of Republican candidates dodging the subject of patriotic immigration reform, no doubt to the horror and consternation of the editors at the Wall Street Journal.

The results of these elections will have momentous consequences, not the least of them being a potential increase in crime unleashed by relaxed-or non-existent-immigration enforcement. USA Today has confirmed what almost everyone suspected regarding last year’s politically-motivated release of thousands of illegal aliens from federal custody during the sequestration process. Namely, that these individuals were not benign Dreamers, but rapists, human traffickers, and kidnappers, insincere protestations  to the contrary  by administration flacks notwithstanding. Kudos to the New Hampshire Union Leader for seeking the disclosure of the names of criminal aliens whose identity ICE bureaucrats were attempting to hide from public. And if you’re under the impression that aliens who’ve committed a serious crime will eventually be punished, no such luck. The case of Cynthia Garcia-Cisneros demonstrates that even killing two children through your own lethal negligence will not ensure prison time, let alone deportation for your crimes.

Whether or not the African immigrant who raped and mutilated his wife will be punished for his acts of barbarity remains to be seen. He does not appear to be a beneficiary of the President’s unconstitutional DACA amnesty, so the chances that he’ll be able to skate on these charges-or illegally cast a ballot in the upcoming elections-appear remote. However, the potential for increased violence visited upon innocent Americans as a result of our government’s open borders policies will no doubt increase in the days ahead, as the President amps up his de facto, patently unconstitutional administrative amnesty. In fact, the Obama White House is making no bones about its intent in this regard, as the recent speech by Leon Rodriguez celebrating its forthcoming abuse of power makes clear, as does the order for thousands of work authorization permits for the illegal aliens who will presumably be regularized once the election is over. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez’s specious assertion that the upcoming expansion of  Obama’s administrative amnesty will result in shared prosperity is no doubt intended to allay concerns over the upcoming deluge. Perhaps these propagandists should tell the scores of IT workers who were blackballed from gainful employment by favor-seeking tech firms-about the benefits of mass immigration.

The Obama administration has had its hands full, what with bypassing the constitutional process, easing the lives of criminal aliens-while simultaneously obstructing any investigation into the release of these domestic threats-and allowing over 100,000 Haitians to come to the United States without visas, but it hasn’t neglected to harm American interests in other ways. I’m thinking chiefly of the obstruction of justice related to the Fast and Furious debacle, which proceeds unabated. Thankfully, Judicial Watch continues to shine a spotlight upon one of the greatest crimes perpetrated by the Department of Justice.

As a result, the public now has access to a Vaughn index describing Fast and Furious records, including a tranche of e-mails detailing Attorney General Eric Holder’s intimate involvement in leading the spin machine devoted to exculpating this administration from blame for the fallout from Fast and Furious. Judicial Watch has also obtained information about the pivotal role Valerie Jarrett, President Obama’s Svengali-played in the potential perjury of the outgoing Attorney General before Congress. Like the true dimensions of the invasion coming across our southern border from Central America, most major media outlets have decided to ignore one of the most flagrant examples of Executive corruption within the past five decades.

Another underreported story is the Enterovirus D68 outbreak which continues to claim the lives of young children throughout the nation. In the state of California, the rate of infections has doubled within a week, while questions about its origin remain unanswered, contrary to the tendentious conclusions reached by those acclaimed epidemiologists at Media Matters. Moving on to another lethal virus, the National Border Patrol Council has confirmed that hundreds of foreign nationals from the three African nations devastated by Ebola have been detained at the Mexican-American border over the course of the past year. As others have pointed out recently, a dire scenario involving this epidemic involves the spread of the virus throughout Central America, which would make the recent surge of unaccompanied minors look positively benign by comparison. It’s unclear whether future ebola victims traveling to the United States will be entitled to reap the benefits of Obamacare, but rest assured that the procedures used to handle their cases will be based upon political opportunism as much-if not more so-than common sense.

However we deal with them, I’m sure their treatment will elicit cries of xenophobia and lectures on discrimination from the president of Mexico, who continues to believe that our immigration policies should be contoured to accommodate the aspirations of the corrupt, extraordinarily wealthy elite which rules his country. The fact that there might be legitimate economic, cultural, defense or health reasons to limit entry to the United States never occurs to those ensconced in power, whether they reside in Mexico City or in the Big Apple. Just as the concept of having a unifying culture has become anathema to the ruling class, so has the concept of having a common language which binds citizens.

Overseas, civilizational decline proceeds apace, assisted in no small part by the anti-democratic institutions which have been established to serve as a check on the bien pensant attitudes of their native peoples. More than 100,000 uninvited migrants have breached the border crossing which separates France from Italy, according to Le Figaro. The situation in Spain is not much better, as a violent confrontation between a border guard and migrant which occurred recently in Melilla-one of the last obstacles impeding refugees from access to continental Europe-illustrates. In fact, the reality of this nightmarish situation has become so glaringly evident that many European nations-the United Kingdom among them-are rethinking their support for a rescue program which has only served to encourage more potentially deadly journeys across what the Romans once called mare nostrum. I suppose we should be grateful that some European leaders are at least paying lip service to national sovereignty, although none has been as bold as Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, who wants to know why Third World refugees feel entitled to permanent resettlement in developed, First World nations.

If only America had a leader willing to resist the monolith of multiculturalism and open borders activism. Unfortunately, the one state that has thus far rejected the United Nations refugee resettlement program which has unraveled so many tightly knit, beautiful American communities is led by a man who appears ready to accede to the wishes of the UN and U.S. State Department. The consequences of continuing this long march towards oblivion could not be more dire, as the recent jihadist attacks in Canada make clear. The terror attack in Ottawa was enabled in large measure by the manipulation of the immigration system, as Debbie Schlussel points out in an illuminating post exploring some of the history behind  Michael Zehaf-Bibeau’s attack on Parliament Hill and Canada’s National War Memorial. Given the current state of our relationship with Muslim newcomers, it’s not surprising that even before the terrorist assaults in Canada Western nations were advising their soldiers to become invisible. A perfect metaphor, alas, for our current state of affairs.

A great interview of someone charged with oversight of Barack Obama’s increasingly lawless presidency. Unfortunately, as the latest decision regarding Eric Holder and the Justice Department’s response to Fast and Furious makes clear, even as the White House’s defiance of the law grows, the options we have for holding it accountable are not optimal. While the President has conceded that his decision to delay expanding upon his unconstitutional administrative amnesty is merely a political expedient intended to help Democrats salvage the upcoming congressional elections, Chairman Smith’s pairing of this outrageous plan against the continuing conflict Syria is an interesting juxtaposition. 

I suggest you listen to this illuminating interview in full to get an idea of what Obama & Co. have planned for us in the upcoming months. 

Kudos to intrepid investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson for bringing attention to a noble cause. As most of you know, the investigation into the death of Agent Brian Terry at the hands of Mexican narco-insurgents has gone nowhere for nearly the past four years, in no small part due to the obstruction of this administration. Even so, the friends and family of Brian have never stopped speaking out on behalf of justice.

One of the ways they have done so is by establishing the Brian Terry Foundation, which not only spreads awareness of the Obama administration’s Fast and Furious gunwalking debacle but helps out those who have been victimized by the failure to secure our nation’s borders.

To that end, Erik “Trek” Utrecht will bicycle from his hometown of Flat Rock, Michigan, Brian Terry’s hometown, to Bisbee, Arizona-home of the Brian Terry Border Patrol Station-beginning September 15th. You can find more information-including how you can contribute to it-on the Brian Terry Foundation website.

The mendacity of our current administration is at times stunning, even for those of us who should by now have become inured to the lies regurgitated by the Obama administration and its factotums for the better part of two terms. The disavowals by La Raza graduate Cecilia Munoz and village idiot Joe Biden notwithstanding, the systematic emigration of unaccompanied minors from their homelands to the southwestern United States is nothing if not a ploy designed by those in power to destroy whatever prophylactic measures the government currently takes to prevent the complete dissolution of our nation’s system of border controls. 

-You need look no further than ICE itself, whose bureaucrats acknowledge that a contract request to escort these youths was publicly advertised as early as the beginning of this year to realize how fatuous the current administration’s protestations of innocence are. The fact that this crisis is completely and utterly contrived seems not to have dissuaded the usual suspects in the mainstream  news media from putting the most appealing face on what has become an untrammeled invasion. Perhaps predictably, the fact that those tasked with protecting our nation’s security are now the functional equivalent of babysitters to carriers of lethal, communicable diseases has only exacerbated the existing tendency among press outlets to treat every breakdown of public order and security risk as a vessel for the classic illegal immigrant sob story.

-That the public is being largely denied pertinent information about the risks posed by these cherubic children-or a rational debate over whether surviving custodians/parents are practicing child abuse by forcing them to make a potentially lethal, 120+ mile trek through the Mexican desert-should come as no surprise. While concerned citizens might be surprised to learn that many of these “unaccompanied minors” are in fact vicious gang members, the fact that this tidbit is being overlooked by every single national broadcast network is nothing new when it comes to immigration coverage, unfortunately. Even the question of whether these individuals are being released into the care of human traffickers is probably not going to be raised by reporters invested in the wholesale erasure of American sovereignty.

-What galls, however, is the deafening silence by the fourth estate regarding the manipulation of access to the detainment cells and way stations, including military bases, housing these uninvited guests from Central America. Naturally, any critics of this administration’s  calculatedly disastrous immigration policy are being denied entry to the facilities housing the latest cohort of illegal aliens, as Arizona Speaker Andy Tobin learned recently. Likewise, any reporters seeking to engage in journalism-not merely act as stenographers for LULAC or the ACLU-are obstructed from practicing their craft, even as the Border Patrol officers who would seek to assist them are threatened with prosecution by their superiors, a la Fast and Furious. Thus, the freedom of information whose death the press routinely sheds crocodile tears for ends, not with a bang, and barely a whimper from the credentialed hypocrites.

-In contrast to the brick wall greeting those few genuinely patriotic lawmakers and intrepid journalists seeking the truth, the Spanish-speaking subjects of so many glowing personal interest stories over the past month are being provided with the best in legal representation that your tax dollars can buy. Someone should inform President Obama and his sidekick that these star-studded legal teams are promising their clients amnesty, which is open to them through a variety of means, including the notoriously porous refugee resettlement program.

-These unaccompanied aliens-and presumably, the adults who are assisting their perilous voyage north-are acting upon an entirely rational, understandable impulse. Namely, to leave behind a third world life of desperate poverty and lack of security in order to live in a, relatively speaking, prosperous and safe environment-one in which attempts to circumscribe their access to any welfare program will be met with howls of rage by indignant, open borders fanatics. They’re doing so because they have concluded that they will not be deported to their countries of origin, and despite the disingenuous protestations to the contrary by this administration and its apparatchiks, this is a largely accurate assessment of the situation, as columnist Ross Douthat has pointed out in the pages of the New York Times.

News & Notes

-Perhaps predictably, the political earthquake that vaporized Eric Cantor’s future career arc  doesn’t seem to have reached the denizens of Capitol Hill, K Street, or the White House. Valerie Jarrett’s recent comments about Rupert Murdoch and Dave Brat only serve to underscore the cosmic disconnect between those who make their living manipulating the political process in order to serve their financial and political interests and the people throughout the country laboring to sate their avarice. Unfortunately, just as we seem to be stuck with Murdoch, there is no prospect of Ms. Jarrett returning to Iran any time in the near future. GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, unlike his Australian counterpart, was actually born in the United States, therefore should presumably have a deeper attachment to American sovereignty and the quality of life of this nation’s citizens. Unfortunately, as Breitbart reports, that is simply not the case.

-One group that passionately detests the United States-at least, as it’s currently constituted-is the National Council of La Raza. Shockingly, they seem to have drawn all the wrong conclusions from Eric Cantor’s epic primary defeat, demonstrating yet again the utter futility of hispandering in  hopes of garnering that ever-elusive, much-heralded latino vote. One man who does not tailor his message in order to appeal to segmented ethnic groups is the gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo, a man whose praises we have sung repeatedly on this website. Of course, the open borders elites who control the GOP machinery despise Congressman Tancredo, which is all the more reason registered Republicans in the state of Colorado should go out and vote for him in today’s primary.

And with that important admonition, we conclude today’s Daily Rattle.

This is what happens when the institutions of the state are permitted to run amok. If the fact that the ATF hasn’t fired a single person responsible for the Fast and Furious debacle, or its subsequent coverup, surprises you, then you probably haven’t been paying attention. The only people censured in this administration are those brave enough to  expose its malfeasance.  I’m sure that the campaign to demonize critics of the White House’s systematic executive overreach, i.e. abuse of power, will continue unabated, but the fact that some congressmen are at least attempting to reassert the power of Congress is worthy of note.

Kudos to Congressman Issa!

The breathtaking abuse of power by the Obama administration in almost every area of immigration law has obscured its criminality in other areas, particularly its obstruction of justice in the Fast and Furious scheme. Now, Brian Terry’s brother has written a scathing letter calling upon the Justice Department to answer for its many transgressions-and repeated obstructions of justice-related to this notorious gun-trafficking scheme. 

The highlights of Kent Terry’s scathing missive are provided by Breitbart.com, which has maintained some excellent coverage of this issue in the face of widespread media apathy-with a few courageous exceptions. Even if the chattering class would prefer not to examine this subject, ordinary Americans need to be reminded of this administration’s inveterate hostility to the truth. If for no other reason than to do justice to the memory of  Border Patrol Agent Terry.