Holder To The Rescue, Except Not

- August 19, 2014

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Latest from Ferguson
Yesterday Barack Obama took the time out of his vacation schedule to go to Washington and make some remarks on the situation in Ferguson, Missouri. Now he heads back to Martha's Vineyard as Attorney General Eric Holder heads to Ferguson tomorrow. In the meantime, tensions have not subsided. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon deployed the National Guard yesterday, but that failed to quell the tensions. The St. Louis NAACP condemned the calling of the National Guard, by the way. On Monday, police came under "heavy gunfire" and Molotov cocktails were thrown at officers as they attempted to keep the protesting crowds moving. According to reports, at least two people were shot last night and over 30 people were arrested. Guns were also used by protesters to get into businesses that were locked. Not a single shot was fired by police. Breitbart's Kerry Picket reported that gas masks are selling out quickly. And have you seen the chilling "ISIS here" sign among the protesters? On top of all this, we are also getting reports that liberal activists and Jesse Jackson are setting up voter registration drives in Ferguson amidst the violent protests.

Holder To The Rescue, Except He's Not
Tomorrow, Attorney General Eric Holder will arrive in Ferguson to oversee the federal investigation into the shooting of Michael Brown on August 9th. Holder has pledged "full resources" to help in the investigation, though he has already been critical of the way local police have handled information. For example, he is "troubled" by the "selective" release of the video of Brown allegedly stealing cigars from the convenience store on the day of his death. For all of the focus both the president and the attorney general have put on Ferguson, one has to wonder why there has never been such a national outrage over the shooting deaths taking place on a daily basis in cities like New York or Chicago. I'm going to spend some time in Chicago in October and, if you haven't heard, they have some real issues there as well! In Chicago alone over the last few days, seven people have been killed and 29 have been wounded. Why is there no outrage, protests and investigations on any of these deaths? Why the selective moral outrage? Dr. Ben Carson offered his opinion on this, saying that it is politically incorrect to blame the wrong people. Nonetheless, it's a tragedy what is happening on a daily basis in these cities that is gaining little attention from Obama, Holder and the Department of Justice. Unfortunately, it smacks of political expediency. President Obama felt the need to weigh in on highly charged racial topics in the past including Trayvon Martin and the Cambridge police who "acted stupidly." At least in this case he reserved a bit of judgement, but he has still chosen to speak out twice on this single issue in the last few days.

Criminalizing Political Differences
The political witch hunt is on for Texas Governor Rick Perry. Last Friday he was indicted on felony charges for allegedly coercing a public servant and abuse of powers for carrying out a veto threat. Perry vetoed $7.5 million of state funding for a public integrity unit, which is overseen by a woman with a drunken driving charge. Perry did not believe someone of her character could supervise such a department and has been asking for her resignation. Even the New York Times says that this "appears to be the product of an overzealous prosecution." It goes on to say that an "ill-advised veto still doesn't seem to rise to the level of a criminal act ... Governors and presidents threaten vetoes and engage in horse-trading all the time to get what they want, but for that kind of political activity to become criminal requires far more evidence than has been revealed in the Perry case so far." This is a dangerous precedent and nothing more than a political vendetta, targeting Perry for simply doing his job and exercising free speech.

>>TV Tonight (10pm ET on Fox News)
Sean has the latest on Attorney General Holder's visit to Ferguson.