"You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker!"

The Obama administration is planning a major revival of high-impact civil rights enforcement. Obama's 2010 budget included an 18% increase in funding for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Additional lawyers will be hired to file civil rights charges in employment, housing, bank lending, and voting rights cases.

The Justice Department's renewed interest in voting rights cases is conspicuous.

In May, Eric Holder's Justice Department announced it was dropping voter intimidation charges against three members of the New Black Panthers Party. The three black men had brandished nightsticks and threatened white voters outside a polling station in Philadelphia last election day. One of the Panthers yelled, "You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker!"

Bartle Bull, a former civil rights lawyer and the publisher of the left-wing Village Voice, called the incident "the most blatant form of voter intimidation I've ever seen." Eric Holder disagreed.

In the Attorney General's mind, requiring all voters to furnish proper identification is racist, but yelling racial slurs and threatening white voters with violence is perfectly acceptable.

How's it feel to be ruled by the black man, cracker?


Eric Holder's Justice Department, which recently dropped voter intimidation charges against members of the New Black Panthers Party who threatened white voters during the 2008 election, just announced they will be hiring additional civil rights lawyers to file voting rights complaints on behalf of African-Americans.