Let me start by saying its the Ny Post that first broke this, so we should be cautious, But if this is true, WOW...I'm totally gobsmacked. Its entirely out of nature for Obama to take a confrontational stance on a polarizing topic, and against a politician, Bloomberg, who he may need in 2014. But then when you think about it, it's not entirely surprising because the single best department in the entire government, under Obama, has been the DOJ Civil Rights division, and it isn't even close.
Whether its actively going to court to intrusively oversee Seattle PD for their racial profiling, going after New Orleans PD for similar behavior, aggresively opposing the state of Maryland on their ability to prevent cops being recorded while arresting people and taking a more confrontational and legally broad opposition to the state than the actual plaintiffs. Or how about their amazing work on LGBT issues, particularly with schoold districts and bullying. You really should read up on how they approached GLSEN pro-actively to find a school district that had a history of abuse with LGBT kids so they could be taken to court and have reforms placed on them to serve as a national model. Well that's exactly what happened and that school district is Minnesota-Hennepin, which was successfully sued and will basically be overseen by the feds over the next five years as the reforms are implemented. There is a reason why Glenn Greenwald, as tough a grader as there is, has gone out of his way to lavish praise ob the DOJ Civil Rights division under Obama.
Its a shame that the DOJs pathetic record in prosecuting Wall St. and there defense of he administrations aggressive anti-terrorism policies have basically drowned out what has been the best civil rights division the federal government has had in decades, if not longer. This is also why Tom Perez, its chief throughout all of this, is having difficulties being comfirmed because he wouldbe bad news for many people as Labor Secretary.
