Obama Sells Out America's Youth and Defenders of Civil Liberties with Eric Holder

Living to see the first African-American elected as President of the United States was supposed to feel a lot better. But, it's hard to get excited about Barack Obama, who seems to have never met an issue he can't take both sides on, and who has elevated "selling out" to an art form. Obama is the Magna Cum Laude, Zen master, and Oracle of All Sell Out Knowledge. He has once again affirmed his exalted position as the King of Masquerade when he chose Eric Holder to be his Attorney General and sold out American youth, particularly black youth.

Holder, yet another ex-Clintonite, was Clinton's Deputy Attorney General and US Attorney General for the Washington DC area. He is an extreme drug warrior who believes that harsher and longer sentences should be enacted for minor crimes such as marijuana use and prostitution. This, in spite of the mounting evidence that the "war on drugs" is a failure and has amounted to nothing more than a war on black people, which also appears to be it's original intent. He wants harsher sentencing for marijuana, which will impact American youth more than any other demographic, and it will specifically impact African-American youth, who are already targeted to be shuffled off to America's new plantations, US prisons.

Perhaps this was Clinton's, now Obama's plan for getting more Black men employed by major corporations, because once inside of prison, many get hired by some of America's top corporations. Of course, they're only paid about 25 cents an hour and they have no benefits. But at least they have a job, something that cannot be said for an increasing number of Americans who are not part of this "affirmative action" program. Some American companies are actually closing up shop, laying off workers, and re-opening in a prison to take advantage of this bonanza of prisoner/slaves. Funny, but America's new slaves look an awful lot like the old ones.

You are aware that slavery is still legal in America, aren't you? If you aren't, be assured that American corporations are.

Holder was part of the Clinton Justice Department that enacted harsh and racially biased laws that exploded America into becoming the greatest prison nation in human history and Bill Clinton into becoming the greatest incarceration president in American history. Clinton ran away from signing legislation that would have addressed the injustice of crack and power cocaine laws. America has more prisoners than all the totalitarian nations we like to look down our noses at. America locks up more prisoners than China, which has 4 times our population.

I wonder how much it costs to be the greatest prison nation in human history?

In 1996, as U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C, Holder petitioned the City Council to enact mandatory minimum sentencing laws and to make marijuana sale offenses a felony, even for first time offenders. He said he wanted to "Nip it in the bud." He wanted to turn a misdemeanor into a five-year prison sentence. Holder said in an interview that he is considering not only prosecuting more marijuana cases but also asking the D.C. Council to enact stiffer penalties for the sale and use of marijuana. His policies achieved none of its stated goals.

Obama supporters, particularly the youth, who stood in hours-long lines to vote for him thinking him a fresh approach to politics and society have been sold out. If you thought Obama once saying that our prisons are too full with first time offenders or that our prisons are too full of young people was a good reason to support him, you've been sold out.

However, Holder's appointment, which will fly through confirmation by the lemming-like Democratic Congress, is not only bad news for America's youth, it's bad news for those who thought Obama was about protecting civil liberties in this country and reversing the atrocities of the Bush Administration. If you didn't get a clue when Obama reversed himself on FISA and the Patriot Act, Eric Holder is your next clue. Holder was part of the team that developed strategies for the re-authorization of the Patriot Act in 2005, and had this to say about opponents of it: "We're dealing with a different world now. Everybody should remember those pictures that we saw on September the 11th. The World Trade Centers aflame, the pictures of the Pentagon, and any time some petty bureaucrat decides that his or her little piece of turf is being invaded, get rid of that person. Those are the kinds of things we have to do." Get rid of those who oppose it. I voted for someone, although not "petty" by any means, Cynthia McKinney, who certainly opposed it, and the system got rid of her just as he said.

Holder was also involved in Clinton's pardoning of Mark Rich, and as a corporate lawyer in private practice after leaving the Clinton team, played a key role in negotiating an agreement with the Justice Department that got Chiquita Brands International executives off the hook for paying protection money to right-wing death squads in Colombia.

Of course many African-Americans will be dancing to the beat of seeing the first black Attorney General and never notice the words they're dancing to. But those who stand against the attack on civil liberties that emanated from the Bush Administration, and America's youth, Black, White, Hispanic, and Asian college students, who rallied to Obama's side, have now joined the antiwar crowd and those looking for genuine change as pawns in the mindfuck called "Change We Can Believe In."

Everybody's dancing .. but the election is over, and it's time to listen to the words.

Richard Searcy can be contacted at searcy21@juno.com