Let's Get out of DOJ

Timothy Birdnow

The Department of Justice - the DOJ - should have it's name changed to the Warehouse of Titanic Folly (WTF); it seems to be engaged in everything EXCEPT justice.

I recently visited the DOJ website and was greeted with some eye-opening things. For example:

1. "Let's Read, Let's Move!" The Department of Justice promotes Moochechelle Obama's exercise parade.
http://blogs.usdoj.gov/blog/archives/1452

2. "Have a safe fourth" telling people to be careful with firecrackers.

3. "A focus on Youth and the Environment" touting Green values to kids.

4. The DOJ has sued the Mortgage Guarantee Insurance Corporation (MGIC) for discriminating against mothers on paid maternity leave.

According to the article:

"The suit, filed on July 5, 2011, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, alleges that MGIC required women on paid maternity leave to return to work before the company would insure their mortgages. Most mortgage lenders require applicants seeking to borrow more than 80 percent of their home’s value to obtain mortgage insurance, meaning MGIC’s denials to women on maternity leave could cost those women the opportunity to obtain a home loan.

“No woman should be denied the opportunity to receive a mortgage loan simply because she has just given birth,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Our nation’s fair housing laws prohibit this kind of discrimination, and the Justice Department is committed to aggressive enforcement of those laws.”

“It defies belief that, in 2011, any institution would discriminate against a mother for legally and properly taking leave after the birth of a child,” said U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania David Hickton. “My office will not stand idly by while parents suffer discrimination in lending simply for taking maternity or paternity leave.”'

End excerpt.

So, not content with having destroyed the U.S. economy by inflating a redlining bubble, the DOJ is going to continue to ruin the recovery by suing companies that do not want to close loans to women who are not working. We were told that mortgage lenders had been giving ridiculous loans because they were greedy, and now we learn they aren't giving loans because they are pernicious and discriminatory. Which is it? If they were half as greedy as claimed they would be eager to make such loans.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. This is one brilliant way to help the mortgage industry heal, and to get the economy moving again.

5. "Defending Childhood" which is described as a DOJ program to:

http://www.justice.gov/ag/defendingchildhood/

Defending Childhood is an initiative of Attorney General Eric Holder that strives to harness resources from across the Department of Justice to:

* Prevent children’s exposure to violence;
* Mitigate the negative impact of children’s exposure to violence when it does occur, and;
* Develop knowledge and spread awareness about children’s exposure to violence

All worthy goals, but since when is the psychological well-being of children the province of the DOJ?

6. The DOJ seems to have gotten into the lending business, too, offering loans and grants to businesses and organization.
http://www.justice.gov/10grants/business-grants.html

I seem to be missing something; isn't the DOJ supposed to be about crime and punishment?

The DOJ mission statement is as follows;

"To enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans."

Seems to me that this DOJ is becoming the threat to public safety that it is charged with protecting; it has become hopelessly intrusive into the lives and pocketbooks of the average citizen. Childhood obesity, childhood psychological well-being, lending money, suing lenders for attempting to practice responsible lending, promoting environmentalism, etc. are all well outside of the mission envisioned for this organization, and any overstepping of authority by any agency of the government of the United States makes that agency an enemy of the People, in violation of the Tenth Amendment which states plainly:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

or, for that matter, article I of the Constitution which states quite clearly what the government of these United States may do.

Oh, and where was this self-same DOJ when members of the New Black Panther Party were threatening voters with billyclubs at polling places? Eric Holder seems quite eager to send G-men into homes and businesses, but isn't too thrilled with actually enforcing real laws.

In short, this Justice Department under the tutelage of the Artful DOJer Eric Holder has turned into a tool of social engineering and repression. IT is the threat to public safety. It is the criminal enterprise that Americans need protection from.

Whoever beats Obama in the next election must make reform of the DOJ a top priority.