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Politics

Bowe Bergdahl prisoner exchange

Clockwise from top left: President Obama with the Berghdal family; Bowe Berghdal in Taliban’s prisoner exchange video; the Taliban Five; and, National Security Advisor Susan Rice.

A new internal investigation concluded that the Pentagon violated the law when it swapped the notorious Taliban Five for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a  deserter who was held prisoner in Afghanistan for five years after abandoning his post.

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, an internal government watchdog agency, said Thursday that the Defense Department’s failure to notify the relevant congressional committees at least 30 days in advance of the exchange, was a clear violation of the law. The executive branch is prohibited under law from releasing Guantanamo Bay detainees without first giving the aforementioned notice and receiving approval.

While many lawmakers had raised the first point of illegality over the swap, the GAO also said the Pentagon’s used funds to conduct the transfer that were not available or legally appropriated, which was a violation of the Antideficiency Act. The law bars spending by federal agencies above the amount of money that Congress has obligated and appropriated.

Bergdahl, who had deserted his post back in 2009, was traded for five Taliban leaders who were characterized by lawmakers as the worst of the worst. The five leaders are statistically very likely to return to the battlefield and one was responsible for the death of literally thousands of innocents alone. Under exchange terms, the five Taliban are to remain in Qatar for a year, but many lawmakers say they have information suggesting they are free to move and under little to no supervision as promised.

A new internal investigation concluded that the

Politics, Video

Bill O’Reilly, host of the “O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News, returned to work early this week to address the irresponsible coverage of the police shooting in Ferguson. O’Reilly ripped Rev. Al Sharpton for being a “charlatan” who has to whip up racial animosity for his personal benefit.

In a bit of a backstory, O’Reilly was at the top of Sharpton’s rolodex for people to call when raising money for poor black communities, and for good reason. On at least one occasion during Christmas, O’Reilly responded to a call from Sharpton who said he needed several tens of thousands of dollars to feed poor families and buy children toys.

O’Reilly obliged.

The two were also together as featured guests during the president’s announcement of his “Brother’s Keeper” initiative, which has lost traction in the last year. Now, O’Reilly is one of Sharpton’s biggest critics and, though he was also hard on the so-called civil rights activist during the Trayvon Martin case, O’Reilly has really ramped up the rhetoric now.

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com Bill O'Reilly,

News, Video

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz accepted the ALS ice challenge and then went on to challenge conservative media personality Sean Hannity.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, named after the famous Hall-Of-Fame baseball player Lou Gehrig.

Americans, both famous and everyday, are accepting and challenging others to accept the ice challenge, which is an effort to raise awareness to the devastating disease.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz accepted the ALS

Politics

eric holder

Aug. 20, 2014: Attorney General Eric Holder speaks during his meeting at the FBI building in St. Louis. (Photo: AP)

A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to provide Congress with a slew of documents that Eric Holder has long tried to keep from Congress, and are at the center of the controversy over Operation Fast and Furious. Holder’s Justice Department conducted the gun-walking scheme that resulted in the death of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brain Terry.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an appointee of President Barack Obama, set an Oct. 1 deadline Wednesday for the Justice Department to produce the list to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is the government watchdog committee headed up by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA).

The Justice Department had denied Congress access to the documents, claiming they should remain confidential. In a move that was a throwback to the Nixonian Era, President Obama invoked executive privilege, which is typically used in matters of national security, in an effort to keep their contents from Congress and the public.

House committee members say the documents should be able to shed light on why it was that Holder refused to admit that federal agents had engaged in a controversial law enforcement tactic known as gun-walking for nearly a year, and repeatedly attempted to link the operation to another under the Bush administration.

The Justice Department has long prohibited the risky practice. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives used it with disastrous results in a federal law enforcement probe in Arizona, Operation Fast and Furious.

In the operation, federal agents permitted illicitly purchased weapons that were cartel-bound to be transported in what they say was an effort to track them to high-level arms traffickers. However, according to whistleblowers, they provided little oversight to track the guns, leading many to draw the conclusion it was intentionally designed to increase violence with a true aim to push gun control measures.

Federal agents lost control of some 2,000 weapons and many of them wound up at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S., and two of the guns were eventually found at the scene of the December 2010 slaying of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry near the Arizona border city of Nogales.

Congress is trying to get documents that were created after Feb. 4, 2011 — the day the Justice Department told Sen. Chuck Grassley that ATF “makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico.” In court papers, the Justice Department has said that if the courts were to reject a confidentiality claim, Congress could have unfettered access to all information from the executive branch of government aside from presidential communications.

The judge disagreed.

Chairman Issa said that the privilege log “will bring us closer to finding out why the Justice Department hid behind false denials in the wake of reckless conduct that contributed to the violent deaths of border patrol agent Brian Terry and countless Mexican citizens.”

On May 2, 2011, the Justice Department told Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, that “it remains our understanding that ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious did not knowingly permit straw buyers to take guns into Mexico.”

Only three days later a senior Justice Department official informed the committee that “there’s a there there,” in reference to the to congressional inquiry. On Dec. 2, 2011, the Justice Department withdrew the original Feb. 4 letter which denied that gun-walking had taken place.

A federal judge has ordered the Justice

Politics, Video

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is taking heat from Reverend Al Sharpton, the head of the grievance industry, for not commenting on the events in Ferguson, Missouri.

“I’m amazed that we’re not hearing from leading candidates … Chris Christie or Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton,” Sharpton said on Tamron Hall’s News Nation. “I land in New York this morning, and I see Chris Christie dancing with Jamie Foxx.”

However, as usual, Sharpton prematurely made a rush to judgement when he didn’t have all of the facts or know what he was talking about. Speaking at a town hall event in Long Branch, New Jersey, the still-popular governor criticized the media and agitators for inciting anger and prejudgement in the shooting of Michael Brown.

“When something like this happens, like happened in Ferguson, people have already jumped to the conclusion about not only what happened in Ferguson, but also about how does that apply to every other police force across the country,” Christie said. “There’ll be plenty of time for us to examine this, and to learn lessons from Ferguson, as all the facts come out, not just when the TV anchorpeople are sitting there in Ferguson making a spectacle of this.”

Initially, Sharpton and other so-called civil rights activists, as well as so-called journalists on MSNBC, reported that Officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown in the back when he was running away. Then, the good Reverend’s story evolved into Brown being gunned down in the streets by a white cop when he was surrendering. Now, whether or not Brown attacked Officer Wilson as he attempted to exit his patrol car — which transpired just moments after Brown committed a strong arm robbery — or, reached for the police officers gun during a struggle, is irrelevant.

And the story continues to change, a development that lends more credence to Christie’s comments. A report claims Wilson suffered severe facial injuries, including an orbital (eye socket) fracture, and was nearly beaten unconscious by Brown moments before firing his gun. Further, a video taped in the aftermath of the shooting captures a voice of a witness heard saying the 18-year-old charged at the officer who fired in self-defense.

“I mean, the police was in the truck [sic] and he was, like, over the truck,” the witness says. “So then he ran, police got out and ran after him. The next thing I know, he comes back towards them. The police had his guns drawn on him.”

Christie blasted the media for convicting Wilson in the court of public opinion before all of the facts were made. Even Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon drew staunch criticism with comments calling for a quick prosecution of Officer Wilson before the justice system or the facts even had a chance to bear truth.

“But I just don’t believe we should be drawing any generalizations or conclusions yet from what we know after just about ten days of this,” Christie added. “We’re going to learn a lot more in the time to come, and then we should have an intelligent conversation about whether anything that happened out there is something we need to learn from and apply in New Jersey, but until we know all the facts, public figures who jump out now, and politicians who jump out now, they’re just trying to get their name in the newspaper, and I don’t think that’s the way you should do it.”

Christie continued his comments:

So, I’d be reluctant to say anything more than that just because I know I don’t know enough. I used to say all the time when I was a U.S. attorney, privately to our staff, like, I’d hear a politician make a statement about a case they thought we were working on or whatever, and I’d say: I hate when those guys who don’t know anything act like they know everything. Now that I’m in public office, I don’t want to be guilty of the same thing I used to criticize them for, so until I know more, I think I’m going to give the police the benefit of the doubt here in New Jersey. And as for Missouri, let’s let those guys work it out and learn whatever lessons we need to learn when we have all the facts.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is taking

Politics, Video

 

Speaking from Martha’s Vineyard Wednesday afternoon, President Obama made a statement on the killing of journalist James Foley by the ISIS terrorist group. He was only 40 years old.

“The entire world is appalled by the brutal murder of Jim Foley,” President Obama said. “Jim was a journalist, a son, a brother, and a friend. He reported from difficult and dangerous places, bearing witness to the lives of people a world away.”

Foley was taken hostage in Syria nearly two years ago while reporting on the current conflict between Syrian President Assad and so-called freedom fighters, who have now been totally consumed by ISIS, otherwise known as ISIL or the Islamic State. The terror group now controls vast amounts of territory in Syria and Iraq, which they plan to establish an Islamic Caliphate in and, many would say they already have.

“So ISIL speaks for no religion,” Obama said. “No just God would stand for what they did yesterday, and for what they do every single day.”

In what was a clear reference to the hooded man’s statements in the video depicting the decapitation of James Foley, which blamed the U.S. airstrikes in Iraq for their horrific actions, President Obama slammed their claims and their ideology.

“Their ideology is bankrupt,” he said. “They may claim out of expediency that they are at war with the United States or the West, but the fact is they terrorize their neighbors and offer them nothing but an endless slavery to their empty vision, and the collapse of any definition of civilized behavior.”

The attempt to intimidate and threaten President Obama into changing strategy in Iraq, has not work. In fact, U.S. fighter jets and drones stepped up attacks on ISIS targets in Iraq and the Obama administration is now weighing putting more boots on the ground.

Defense Department officials confirmed Wednesday afternoon that U.S. aircraft have conducted another 14 strikes near the Mosul Dam, which Kurdish forces recently re-took from Islamic militants, with help from the U.S. and Iraqi Security Forces. Now, the cowardly killing of Foley is putting more pressure on the White House to not only act in a more aggressive fashion, but to be more aggressive while setting the national tone.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) called the “brutal execution” of a defenseless Foley “the clearest indication to date that ISIL has declared war on the United States.” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) echoed that sentiment Wednesday afternoon.

“America got a glimpse of exactly who they are,” Rogers said. “This is a group you need to deal with.”

But Rogers also said that helping Iraqi and Kurdish forces retake the Mosul Dam and other positions from ISIS militants must be part of a “bigger strategy.”

“That ought to get us off our backsides and get to work on dismantling this organization. It’s dangerous,” he told Fox News earlier Wednesday.

Still, the president sounded more resolute today, though he remained on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, where he is contemplating sending up to 300 more U.S. special operation forces to train and target ISIS militants and hardware.

“People like this ultimately fail,” President Obama said. “They fail, because the future is won by those who build and not destroy and the world is shaped by people like Jim Foley, and the overwhelming majority of humanity who are appalled by those who killed him.”

White House officials wanted to make it clear that the president intends to do whatever is necessary to protect the American people.

“We will be vigilant and we will be relentless,” he said. “When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done. And we act against ISIL, standing alongside others.”

Speaking from Martha’s Vineyard Wednesday afternoon, President

Politics

Dan Sullivan Alaska Senate

Former Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Alaska and will now go on to face incumbent Democrat Sen. Mark Begich. (Photo: AP)

Former Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Alaska and will now go on to face incumbent Democrat Sen. Mark Begich.

Sullivan had been seen as the front-runner by many in the three-way race, which PPD rated a “Toss-Up,” but former 2010 nominee Joe Miller embarrassed the pollsters again. Mead Treadwell, who was widely and incorrectly considered Sullivan’s biggest threat, badly trailed both Sullivan and Miller with 21,557 votes, or 25.06 percent.

Because Sullivan had the backing of Washington, D.C. establishment Republican Party and raised about four times as much as Mead Treadwell, the establishment vote broke strongly enough in his favor that Miller took second place with 27,392 votes, or 31.84 percent. Miller conceded the race early this morning and said he will strongly support the Republican nominee, which Sullivan no doubt will need if he hopes to defeat Begich.

“While there are still over 20,000 absentee ballots to be counted and several major precincts yet to report, it seems unlikely we will be able to close the 7,000-vote gap, given the current trends,” Miller said. “I have called and congratulated Dan Sullivan for running a strong campaign.”

Miller had picked up big endorsements in the final days of the campaign, which would have likely done his campaign more good earlier in the race, including from Sarah Palin, conservative talk show host Mark Levin, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and the Anchorage Tea Party.

Meanwhile, Sullivan had the backing of other hard-hitting conservative groups, such as The Club For Growth, who will vigorously support him up until November.

“Congratulations to Dan Sullivan, a pro-growth conservative who will defeat Mark Begich,” said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola in an email to PPD. “Mark Begich is a reliable vote for the Obama agenda, which has killed jobs and harmed Alaska. Voters in Alaska want to send a message to President Obama, and they’ll do it by electing taxpayer hero Dan Sullivan in November.”

From the onset of the cycle, Sullivan was the focus of attacks by a super PAC supporting Begich, which according to the pollsters, supposedly hurt his favorability ratings going into Tuesday’s primary. However, the pollsters were off the mark again, and Sullivan performed considerably stronger than they had anticipated, taking 34,549 votes, or 40.16 percent.

The Alaska Senate race is rated “Leans Republican” on PPD’s 2014 Senate Map Predictions model despite recent polling showing Begich holding on to a lead. Polling the Last Frontier, as we have once again been reminded, is notoriously difficult. In 2008, Begich defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Stevens by under 4,000 votes just weeks after Stevens was convicted on bogus felony charges, which were vacated shortly before his tragic death in an airplane crash.

The polls forecast Begich would run away with the election, including one left-leaning pollster who found Begich with a 22-point lead.

Former Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan won

News

ferguson riots

So-called protesters light a Molotov cocktail in Ferguson, Missouri. (Photo: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Chris Lee)

Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson said 31 people were arrested after so-called “peaceful” protestors clashed with police Monday night into early Tuesday morning. Two handguns and a molotov cocktail were confiscated during the night.

However, if we include violations of the newly adopted no-standing rule, then 78 were arrested and, just 4 were from Ferguson, Missouri. Consequently, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was denied their request for a restraining order that would have prevented authorities from enforcing the no-stopping rule.

“We are going to make this community whole, and we are going to do it together,” Captain Johnson said. “I am not going to let the criminals that have come here from across this country, or live in this neighborhood, define this community. We do not want to lose another life in this community.”

The no-standing rule, according to Captain Johnson, will help the police discern and separate peaceful protesters from the criminal opportunists. But simply reporting on the developments in Ferguson, Missouri, doesn’t truly do the American people justice if the story isn’t told in the context of exposing the abysmal, disgraceful media coverage over the past week.

Amid all of the chaos Monday night, Fox News host Shepard Smith pushed a patently false narrative regarding the situation on the ground in the streets of Ferguson, insinuating that members of the crowd were merely walking around with their hands up in protest. Smith appeared perplexed attempting to understand why police were launching tear gas at those merely walking around with their hands up.

But, like so many other irresponsible mediates, rather than waiting for the facts to come in from his correspondents on the ground, Smith decided to make up his own. Several times his own correspondent, Steve Harrigan, had to instruct the cameraman to turn around and film protestors repeatedly taunting the police, including one instance with a man who was threatening to run his car through the police barricade.

Out of all the people who filled the streets of Ferguson on August 19, the greatest number were members of the media hoping to cash their to tickets to fame, while the number of police were slightly less than the media. The protestors represented the smallest group on the streets and, out of those people, most were not even from Ferguson.

Captain Ron Johnson, who is in charge of responding to these protests, has repeatedly pointed out the fact that there are “violent outside agitators” using these protests as a “cover” to commit crimes. Last night, immediately after shots were fired, the police attempted to contain the situation by releasing tear gas and smoke canisters, all the while taking up defensive positions behind their vehicles.

At approximately 10:00 PM (EST) some protesters started throwing bottles and rocks at police officers, causing the police to clear the street using a high frequency sound cannon. A group of protesters began marching toward the police line in a deliberately defiant action, but fortunately a group of pastors intervened by linking their arms with one another, ultimately walking the protesters back.

Shortly after, St. Louis County Police Chief Sam Dotson reported shots had been fired and the media were told to go to a designated area about a quarter of a mile away, which has been corroborated by Captain Johnson, who also said officers had come under fire from protestors. Four officers were injured and the police, themselves, did not fire a single shot. The protestors, however, did. Two people were shot in the protests Mr. Smith repeatedly characterized throughout the night as non-violent.

The St. Louis County police are trying to prevent the situation from escalation into a full-blown riot, which would be both a short- and long-term disaster for the community. In 1967, riots in Detroit, Michigan, left communities with 43 dead, 1,189 injured, over 7,200 arrests, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed.

The cost to Detroit residents and businesses were grave and many of them never recovered, while some left and never returned. And let us not forget Al Sharpton’s personal favorite riot — the 1992 Los Angeles Riots — or, a six-day period of wide-spread assaults, arsons, looting and murders. The riots rocked L.A. and resulted in zero change, but a total of 53 people were killed and over 2,000 injured.

This is exactly what the Ferguson Police and Missouri Highway Patrol want to prevent, not peaceful protests by those who were “just walking around” mingling with responsible members of the media. It is understandable that the needs of the media demand that events are reported in a timely and personal fashion, but when the police ask you to move back or to clear an area for your own safety and theirs, it must be done.

A police officer’s number one job is to keep the citizens of the community safe and, if there are extra distractions that the police have to contend with, it not only puts the police in danger but Ferguson residents, as well. However, another outsider is making his way to Ferguson, Missouri, who has a far greater potential to agitate an-already inflamed situation than any mediate or common crowd criminal.

United States Attorney General Eric Holder is set to arrive in Ferguson on Wednesday to meet with investigators and other leaders of the community. Holder is hardly a uniting figure and his integrity is still very much in question.

Holder, who is widely criticized for “Operation Fast and Furious,” a gun-running scheme that resulted in the death of at least one U.S. Border Patrol Agent, is currently being held in contempt of Congress for lying under oath regarding Justice Department wiretaps on members of the media. But it is Holder’s incendiary racial comments made during NAACP rallies and appearances at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network that fuel a lack of trust on racial issues. Holder also dropped federal charges filed against the New Black Panther Party in a voter intimidation case, despite video footage showing NBPP members threatening elderly white people coming into voting stations and hurling racial slurs.

If the media, Holder, the president and the protesters truly did have the best interest of the community in mind, then they would consider the residents of Ferguson and the hardship they are currently causing them. The children of the community need to go to school, but yet still await for the school district to sound the “all clear” so the school year can begin, offering a chance to get an all-important education. The parents want and desperately need to go back to work to pay their bills. At the end of the day, the decent, law–abiding citizens and families of Ferguson are the ones that suffer.

Mediates have pushed a false narrative regarding

Politics, Video

Charles Krauthammer on Monday criticized President Obama’s response to the violence that has occurred at the protests in Ferguson, stating on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that “we’re a democratic society, you don’t do that.”

President Obama’s statement on Monday addressed two aspects of the conflict in Ferguson — the looters and police force — but he is perceived by protestors in the St. Louis suburb to “have thier back.” Since the fatal police shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, protestors have turned violent and stores have been destroyed and looted.

Krauthammer, a syndicated columnist and a Fox News contributor, said Obama’s statements didn’t go far enough in condemning the violence.

“He said, you know, if you riot and use guns and attack the police it serves only to raise attention and stir chaos,” he said. “Well that’s an instrumental way of criticizing it, you’re not going to achieve your goals. What he should be saying is that it’s wrong. We’re a democratic society you don’t do that.”

Krauthammer said he would like to see Obama ringingly condemn the violence, saying it is clear those perpetuating violence in the city are in the wrong.

“We really have the law on the one hand. We rioters on the other. It isn’t a hard choice between them,” he said.

Charles Krauthammer on Monday criticized President Obama's

Politics

Rick Perry indictment

Gov. Rick Perry makes a statement in Austin, Texas on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2014 concerning the indictment on charges of coercion of a public servant and abuse of his official capacity. (Photo: AP)

National Democrats are pressuring the Texas State Democratic Party to force the withdrawal of what they even see to be a politically-motivated prosecution of Texas Governor Rick Perry. While behind the scenes party leaders grow more concerned over the potential backlash, prominent talking heads have publicly begun to fire warning shots of criticism.

Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, an outspoken liberal Democrat, compared the Perry indictment to a Soviet Union show trial. Lanny Davis, special counsel to former President Bill Clinton, said the indictment should be considered “outrageous to anyone who cares about due process and civil liberties” in an op-ed that appeared Monday in The Hill.

From the older, more moderate Clintonian Democrats to the modern, more liberal leftists in the Obama administration, big-name Democrats across the nation are abandoning and denouncing the Texas Democratic Party. What most certainly was intended to derail the aspirations of a 2016 Republican presidential hopeful is widely and openly being called out for what it is — a political witch hunt.

“The idea of indicting him because he threatened to veto spending unless a district attorney who was caught drinking and driving resigned, that’s not anything for a criminal indictment,” Professor Dershowitz told Newmax’s “American Forum.” “That’s a political issue.”

Even former top Obama advisor, David Axelrod, a man known for his Chicago-style political tactics, was quick to weigh in on the decision by the Democrat-controlled Travis County District Attorney’s Office. To seek a grand jury indictment against Texas Governor Rick Perry for lawfully exercising his veto power “seems pretty sketchy,” Axelrod tweeted Saturday.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz over the weekend characterized the office as having a “sad history” of politically motivated prosecutions. In fact, there is a laundry list when you dive into it.

“There is no doubt [the case] is politically motivated,” former House majority leader Tom DeLay said. “Once again, the district attorney of Travis County presented a case, not unlike mine, that was very weak, if it was a case at all. … It’s a conspiracy to use the legal system to politicize politics.”

DeLay was also indicted in 2005 by a Travis County grand jury for allegedly conspiring to break election laws, and was convicted in January 2011 and sentenced to three years in prison. However, as a result of a rare action taken by the Texas Court of Appeals, DeLay was formally acquitted. The court threw out the conviction in September, 2013, generously claiming that the evidence in the case was “legally insufficient.”

Travis County is the only reliably Democratic county in what is otherwise a deeply conservative state. Gov. Rick Perry has capitalized off of the large gains the Texas Republican Party made under then-Gov. George W. Bush among Hispanics in the four Valley counties, a strategy that Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott has successfully continued. During the same period Democrats have been able to widen their margin of support among Hispanics nationwide, the Texas State Democratic Party has been bleeding support among Hispanics, while Republicans have been building up their numbers.

The trend-line for the state party is heading in the wrong direction, as evident by the fact Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wendy Davis lost three of the four Valley counties, including Hidalgo, to her little-known opponent. Since the Texas State Democratic Party has largely been shutout of statewide elected office, they have long-used the Travis County government and judicial system to pursue a political agenda.

“They used the legal system to take me out. It is a conspiracy to use the legal system to criminalize politics,” DeLay said. “You better take this seriously,” he said to Gov. Perry. “All of the judges are Democrats. And we polled 300 jurors, and the best I got was a Green Peace activist.”

The arbitrary treatment and punishment of elected officials by party affiliation has also been more than questionable. Perry was indicted by an Austin grand jury on felony counts of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant, which carries a maximum punishment on the first charge from 5 to 99 years in prison, and 2 to 10 years on the second, a steep punishment for an act no one disputes was well-within the authority granted to the governor in the Texas Constitution.

Meanwhile, Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, an outspoken Democrat and known political enemy of Gov. Rick Perry, served about half of her 45-day jail sentence after she pleaded guilty to drunk driving in April 2013. Lehmberg was pulled over and arrested after police observed her car swerving in and out of a bicycle lane and discovered an open bottle of vodka in the front seat with her. Her blood alcohol content measured in at three times the legal limit.

A video of Lehmberg’s shameful behavior while being charged and jailed, which depicts the head of the public integrity unit threatening the careers of the officers through her relationship with “Greg” the Sheriff, led to an investigation by a separate grand jury. Astonishingly, the jury ruled that she should not be removed from her post for official misconduct.

Popular former Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison was also a frequent target of the Travis County District Attorney’s Office. Hutchison was indicted and charged not once but three times on trumped-up charges that were dismissed each and every single time. However, to the Democrats who run the judicial system in Travis County, the end result isn’t nearly as important as the smear campaign waged during the period between the bogus indictments and the inevitable acquittals.

(Correction: The initial version of this story had Kay Bailey Hutchison spelled Hutchinson, which an astute reader who perhaps should apply to be an editor so pointedly noted. It has been amended to reflect the change.)

This tactic used by the Texas State Democratic Party to convict their political enemies in the court of public opinion on bogus charges, according to long-time Democrat Lanny Davis, betrays the very principles he and other national Democrats hold true and dear.

“It is even more outrageous to anyone who cares about due process and civil liberties to read the comments from local and state Democrats in the state Texas Democratic Party about the Perry indictment,” Davis wrote. “The double standard cannot be tolerated.”

“Democratic elected officials, especially Democratic attorneys general and district attorneys across the nation, must call on the Travis County DA to withdraw this absurd indictment, and Democratic Party leaders should publicly ask Texas Democrats who have rushed to public judgment of Gov. Perry to withdraw their comments … and apologize.”

Top Democrats nationwide are pressuring the Texas

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