Eric Holder: School Fights are "Relatively Minor Transgressions"

    Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech at Frederick Douglas High School in Baltimore, MD.   I wrote about the announcement of the appearance at The Weekly Standard earlier in the day.  The event was billed as "Solutions to Enhance School Climate/Improve Discipline Policies and Practices".  Holder was there with Education Secretary Arne Duncan as part of President Obama's anti-gun violence initiative launched in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
    Part of the president's plan was to "disseminate best practices on school discipline policies and to help school districts develop and equitably implement their policies."  In fleshing out this proposal, Holder made a rather strange, even alarming, statement:

As it stands, far too many students across the country are diverted from the path to success by unnecessarily harsh discipline policies and practices that exclude them from school for minor infractions.  During critical years that are proven to impact a student’s later chances for success, alarming numbers of young people are suspended, expelled, or even arrested for relatively minor transgressions like school uniform violations, schoolyard fights, or showing “disrespect” by laughing in class.

    Holder's formulation conflates "schoolyard fights" with school uniforms violations and laughing in class, clearly a false equivalence.  While the latter two items might be characterized as "relatively minor transgressions," does a physical altercation really fit the bill?  Fights do not begin spontaneously - usually there is an aggressor, which probably indicates an assault and battery has occurred.  Certainly not all fighting in school rises to the level of arrest, but shouldn't suspensions or even expulsion be on the table?  And has anyone ever really been arrested, or even expelled, for a uniform violation or laughing in class?  Unlikely.
    Why would Holder muddy the waters in this way?  How does preventing violence in schools square with downplaying the seriousness of... violence in schools?  As I pointed out in my Weekly Standard post, the whole Baltimore event seemed predicated on the idea that unfair, discriminatory, and ineffective school discipline could lead to gun violence.  If Holder truly subscribes to that line of thinking, he should stop trying to get schools to go easy on violent offenders by comparing them to the merely disrespectful and dress code violators.

Organizing for Action Fundraising Off Navy Yard Massacre

    Organizing for Action (OFA), President Obama's old campaign organization-turned lobbying group, sent out an email tonight from the Executive Director, Jon Carson, with the subject "Navy Yard."  It begins, "If you're like me, you heard the news about the 12 Americans who died in D.C.'s Navy Yard shooting -- and you had those familiar feelings of grief and frustration."  Included in the email are two links to the Barackobama.com website where visitors are invited to "Add your name to tell Congress to take action and, if you'd like, tell us why you're fighting," and enter an email address:

    Upon entering an email addresses, visitors are then taken to the now familiar donations page, where a donation of up to $1,000 is solicited:

    OFA has a history of fundraising off tragedies, such as the Sandy Hook shooting last December.

    Here is the Navy Yard email in it's entirety:

Note: The Lonely Conservative picked up on this as well, having received the same email.

Obama for America/Organizing for Action Raising Funds on Sandy Hook Massacre Again [Updated]

    Last night I noted that the town of Newtown, CT had posted a list of funds, more than fifty, set up in memory of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. Today, Vice President Biden sent out an email via Obama for America (or Organizing for Action, as it is apparently slowly morphing into) that calls for support for President Obama's gun violence legislation.  In the email, Vice President Biden invokes the Newtown tragedy:

Right now, President Obama is counting on you.
Each one of us needs to speak up and demand action. It doesn't matter whether you live in a big city or a small town like Newtown, Connecticut. When our fellow Americans are victims of senseless violence, we all pull together as one American family.
Let's get this done, folks.
Whether the action we take saves one life or 1,000, it matters.
Thank you,
Joe

    And then this appears:

    However, this button takes readers not to any of the Newtown memorial funds, but rather to the Obama for America donations page for "general election debt retirement."

    The last time I noted the Obama campaign raising funds from the Newtown tragedy, some protested that the email link simply took readers to the BarackObama.com blog where the donation buttons were simply part of the blog structure.  Such an excuse will not work here.  The button is right in the email. As I noted back in December, the "Never let a crisis go to waste" mentality still rules the day with the president and his team.

UPDATE:  I just received another email, this one from Jim Messina, Obama for America's campaign manager and the Organizing for Action national chairman. He doubles down on Vice President Biden's appeal to contact Congress, even including the full text of Biden's email from this morning, with the "Donate" button intact. Messina, using the targeted nature of OFA's email database, listed the names and phone numbers of my senators and my representative to make it easier to contact them, as well as a link for a page to "report back" on how the conversation went.

Sandy Hook Memorial Funds Number More Than Fifty

    On Thursday, the town of Newtown, Connecticut posted a list on its website of more than 50 individuals and organizations that are collecting funds in memory of those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012.  These range from Facebook pages to Rotary Clubs to groups selling bumper stickers. The town posted a rather blunt disclaimer at the top of the list:

This is a draft document listing the titles, mission statement, and contact person(s) for funds which have been created in response to the tragic events of December 14, 2012.  Please be aware that the list is incomplete and may be inaccurate in some respects.  There funds are NOT under the jurisdiction of the Town of Newtown. We are ‘cataloging’ the funds as a service to the community. We have not vetted any of these funds nor do we represent them in any way. This is information only. We will publish updated lists as more information becomes available.       January 24, 2013

    The sheer number of memorial funds is at once heartening and worrisome.  Heartening that so many wish to help, and worrisome in that in the crowded field, the opportunity for inefficiency at best and fraud at worst increases.  The town's list may be a good resource for those wishing to help, but at the same time should be approached with caution.  There is no tragedy so terrible that some will not seek to exploit it for their own gain.

Barack Obama: "The Price of Our Freedom"

    President Barack Obama, December 16, 2012 - Interfaith Prayer Vigil in Newtown, CT after Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre:

Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?

President Barack Obama, January 16, 2013 - White House Press Conference announcing gun violence proposals:

Because while there is no law or set of laws that can prevent every senseless act of violence completely, no piece of legislation that will prevent every tragedy, every act of evil, if there is even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there is even one life that can be saved, then we've got an obligation to try.

State Senator Barack Obama, March 30, 2011 - Illinois General Assembly debate on bill to provide medical care to a child born live during an abortion procedure. (This is rather lengthy, and excerpts have appeared before, but I believe it is useful to read Barack Obama's words in context.)

    I reproduced Barack Obama's words in full, but I'd like to again highlight some of what he said:

"...that brief period of time that they were still living..."

"...keep that child alive..."

"...or child... still temporarily alive..."

"...caring for fetuses or children..."

"...to kill a child ...if this is a child..."

    Fast-forward again to January 16, 2013:

...if there is even one life that can be saved, then we've got an obligation to try.

    Back to 2001: "And as a consequence, I'll be voting Present."  When it comes to the unborn, and even the briefly born, Barack Obama has been voting "present" ever since.