Editorials

Using the “Holder-Hold” to Stifle the Dream Act Bypass

…and other unconstitutional circumventions.

This is an idea I stole from Saul Alinsky and Eric Holder.

Illegal Orders

Every Army private has been schooled on his duty to refuse to obey an illegal order. It has a long tradition, but few know how it works.

This duty goes beyond recent whistleblower protection laws, which are aimed at bureaucratic corruption (usually financial). This duty is only to say “No, Sir,” but not necessarily to snitch. It offers no rewards. And there’s no protection from prosecution.

Rather this duty is based on a glaring truth almost every private understands, and that is: he is the one most likely to carry out any illegal order, and will be the first one the finger of blame will be pointed at.

So, to refuse to obey an illegal order imposes an affirmative duty on the soldier in part based on self-preservation. And duty. To execute it, he must say “No, Sir” at the front end of the order, rather than write a CYA Memo-to-Self, or send an email, or make a whispered phone call to the IG at the back end of the order.

That understood, I need to remind the federal bureaucracy, who are probably unaware that they, too, shoulder this duty:

To the extent that you can understand the law and your duties under the law, you are required to refuse to carry out any illegal order…and as Eric Holder himself has reminded you, the Eichmann defense, “I was only following orders” won’t wash if things unravel.

A current example which bears serious watching: We are witnessing now, in another Holder story (that may yet bring several administration bigwigs down), Operation Fast and Furious, where 1500 AK-47-style weapons were purchased by ATF, then allowed to filter into Mexico, everyone now involved will put their life’s savings into defending themselves because those at the top who issued the orders will be looking to point fingers at the bottom, all because no one said “No.”

As I will lay out here, let ATF be a lesson to you.

The “Holder-Hold”

…is similar to the choke hold used in professional wrestling.


I used as my source here the chief law enforcement officer in the land, Eric Holder, who has already chosen to pursue criminal investigations against not only federal employees (CIA interrogators) for using enhanced interrogation techniques (water-boarding) against terrorists, although such techniques had not been deemed to be illegal, BUT ALSO has opened investigations against the several attorneys from several agencies who told these CIA interrogators that those techniques were legal.

Everyone thinks this is horrible, especially since the people involved are in all likelihood guilty of no wrongdoing.

But what do you think about using this tool when all the people involved are likely guilty as sin?

Cringe if you will at this practice, but the Attorney General of the United States has this power, and his only restraints are 1) his boss, the President and 2) Congress, and 3) the courts, which, on a case-by-case basis only can say his charges were wrong.

That’s right, case-by-case, as we saw with the acquittal of the White House Travel Office. The court cannot then issue sanctions against the government for malicious prosecution, although in that case it likely would have liked to.

The Holder-Hold is based on Politics, but what if it were based on both Law and Politics?

We all know Holder developed this “Hold” to use in politics, not law, since his chances of prevailing in either set of cases over water-boarding are very slim. The politics of it all is intended to cast a chilling effect over not only interrogators, but attorneys who advise them, all of whom he could bankrupt. That has apparently worked.

So, if you think the Holder-Hold works, a la Saul Alinksy, by threatening innocent people for carrying out legal duties, just imagine its power when leveled against men and women actually carrying out duties that bear a much higher probability of illegality.

The Dream Act Bypass

We already know that the “Dream Act,” which would have established a new track toward citizenship for illegals in this country, was turned down by the Congress…

…..only to be put into law by the Director of ICE, John Morton, on June 17 with a memorandum.

Now putting anything into even regulatory law by a single memorandum…no hearings, no open period for debate… is probably illegal on its face. But to place “into law” rules 1) that have been expressly rejected by the Congress, and which 2) expressly contravenes current law, as expressed by prior congresses, is to my mind, nearing the criminal.

Enough to issue a Holder-Alert. It’s illegal, no question. So be on notice, get all the agency lawyers to tell you you’re on solid ground here. Then, to be safe, start searching for counsel, for when it’s over, they’re going to own your house.

Every member of ICE, all the way down to the agent level, had better be on notice, because of the breadth of the Holder-Hold, they will not automatically be immune from “criminal investigation.” And by this, I mean having to reach down into that retirement savings. Just as the Clintons bankrupted Billy Ray Dale and his travel office staff out of sheer meanness, again, for doing a “legal act,” and Holder has done to all the Bush lawyers, they risk lose it all by following illegal orders.

This illegal Dream Act is Serious Stuff

Because of what’s at stake, I personally would have no problem calling down the thunder on even the most bright-eyed, bushy tailed GS-9 at ICE, and bankrupting them all to hell and back if they are guilty of setting into process this series of illegal moves designed in part to bring another million “illegal” voters into the Democrat camp….for once they get the ICE bypass, the rest will be easy.

ICE, top to bottom, needs to be told this NOW

Morton’s timing of the ICE memo is not to be overlooked. While calculated to help keep this president in office, its damage can be irreparable if  allowed to proceed from this day until Feb 2013, even if this president is removed.

While Congress can hold hearings…not just to pass a law to squash this ICE memo (Senate Dems’ can still drag it out a year or more, while illegals are being registered) …it should also serve notice on all the bureaucrats that they may be involved in an illegal plan, and may be held personally, and criminally liable.

But the greatest bullhorn should come from the people who have the loudest bully pulpit in the Republican Party right Now. The candidates. Whichever GOP candidate wins, it will be that person who appoints the next AG, so each of them needs to say now, today, that they will investigate and pursue through their newly appointed AG’s office prosecutions in every agency, where there has been an intentional circumvention of the law.

You, know I think this Holder-Hold holds some promise in the coming months of rough and tumble politics.

Let ATF be a lesson to you. The price of following illegal orders just went up.

Next stop, EPA and NLRB

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