*LIVE STREAMING* AP Phone Records Scandal: House Judiciary Committee On DOJ Oversight Hearing – 05/15/13 (1:15 PM ET)

NOTE: LIVE STREAMING OF THIS EVENT HAS ENDED

.
Click HERE to watch the entire hearing on video.

.

…………………….Click on image above to watch stream.

.

At least it was not “very, very, very serious”

Eric Holder is a national embarrassment. By the way how confident should we feel that his Justice Department will be looking into the IRS scandal?

Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters Tuesday that the leak to the Associated Press that prompted the Justice Department to secretly obtain phone records for AP reporters and editors constituted a “very, very serious leak” that “put the American people at risk.”

The AP sent a scathing letter to the DOJ on Monday, after they were informed that the DOJ had secretly obtained two months worth of phone records from April and May of 2012, a period of time during which the AP reported on a covert CIA operation in Yemen to prevent an airplane bomb plot. The Justice Department had previously said it was investigating the leak.

“This was a very serious leak. A very, very serious leak,” Holder said Tuesday at a press conference. He added that it was possibly the most serious leak he had seen, or at least top two or three.

See, it was “very serious” In fact it was “very very serious”, in his personal top three very, very serious leaks it seems. I wonder if it was more, or less serious than selling guns to Mexican cartels?

 

Kansas Secretary Of State To Eric Holder: Stay Out Of Kansas, You Don’t Understand The Constitution

Kansas Secretary Of State To Eric Holder: Stay Out Of Kansas, You Don’t Understand The Constitution – Gateway Pundit

Kansas signed the Second Amendment Protection Act (SB 102) into law last month. The bill protects gun owners from from new federal gun control laws and would actually make it illegal to enforce those laws within the state of Kansas.

Eric Holder threatened Kansas last week calling the new state law unconstitutional.

In response Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, fired back. The general gist of the message was,

“You’re wrong. You don’t understand the Constitution. Bring it on.”

Via Guns Save Lives:

.

Kobach insisted the State of Kansas was determined to restore the Constitution to protect the right of its citizens to keep and bear arms.

So far, Holder has not responded.

.
Click HERE For Rest Of Story

.

I think we all owe Bill Clinton an apology

To think we Conservatives considered Bill Clinton the most shameless liar once. Then, we were introduced to President Barack Obama. If Clinton was Pinocchio then Obama is Mega-Pinocchio. Bob Owens has the presidents latest batch of whoppers

There is a special sort of loathing that Barack Obama has for the United States that seems to manifest itself seemingly every time he steps foot on foreign soil. Speaking in front of an audience in Mexico, he blamed the United States for supplying Mexicowith the guns used in cartel drug violence that has terrorized much of that country:

“Most of the guns used to commit violence here inMexico come from the United States,” President Obama said during a speech at Mexico’s Anthropology Museum. “I think many of you know that in America, our Constitution guarantees our individual right to bear arms. And as president, I swore an oath to uphold that right, and I always will.”

“But at the same time, as I’ve said in the United States, I will continue to do everything in my power to pass common-sense reforms that keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people. That can save lives here in Mexico and backhome in the United States. It’s the right thing to do,” Obama added.

Obama has blamed the American people numerous times for gun violence in Mexico. In 2009, the President, Attorney General Eric Holder,  and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton repeatedly claimed that “90-percent” of guns recovered from cartel crime scenes were traced to the United States.

The “90-percent lie” was conclusively debunked by Obama’s own Department of Justice in sworn testimony before Congress, as an ATF official was forced to admit that just 8% of firearms recovered from the scenes of gun crimes in Mexico came from the United States.

Of the 8% of American “civilian” guns recovered at crime scenes, 302 murders of those murders were traced directly to guns smuggled to the Sinaloa cartel via Operation Fast and Furious, a weapons smuggling plot that transferred 2,500 guns to narco-terrorists that the Obama Administration wants to ban.

Via Operation Fast and Furious and up to nine other gun smuggling operations, the Obama Adminstration provided potentially tens of thousand of “civilian” guns to different cartels. Put bluntly, the Obama Administration is likely the greatest supplier of American“civilian” firearms to the Mexican cartels.

The Obama Administration also definitively the top supplier of military weapons to the cartels, via massive arms shipments to the Mexican government, despite the fact that significant amounts of military arms shipped to the Mexican government winds up in cartel hands via corruption. At least 10,30 Ar-15s were known diverted to drug cartels… and yet, the Obama Administration kept supplying them with massive amounts of weapons, nearly 10 times what was sold during the Bush Administration

Also remember that one of the goals of Fast and Furious was to use it to push for more gun control here in America. Lies, lies, and still more lies from the Democrats. They have proven themselves to be willing to say anything to further their agenda. Remember something else too. Remember that the lap dog media makes it possible for the Democrats to lie about Fast and Furious, Obama’s past and radical ties, and about the events in Benghazi. Odd that one of the biggest problems in this nation is a media that refuses to use their right to uncover the truth.

 

 

*VIDEO* Ted Cruz Grills Eric Holder Over The Constitutionality Of Drone Strikes On American Citizens Within The U.S.

.

Your Sunday Best

Smitty has video of Ted Nugent. I cannot agree more Ted

Zilla has an appreciation for gun appreciation

Allergic to Bull mocks Time Warner’s double standards

Steve: The population control nuts are back

1389: Muslim Thuggery

 

Ted sums up Mayor Bloomberg: That’s funny.  Most people I know are not Socialist Elitist Power Mad Authoritarians with around the clock armed bodyguards.

Donald Douglas has a video with an incredibly sexy Marina Lambrini Diamandis singing in the shower with a bunch of Metrosexuals

Bob Belvedere honors Emmanuelle Chriqui

Matt debunks the false racial narrative

Matt also has this cartoon

Bill Quick: Some idiots should not have guns

Doug Ross: Eric Holder, a gun-runner pursuing himself

EBL has the naughty Anna Kendrick

Gateway Pundit has your demagogue of the day

BC is not a fan of Michelle Obama’s new do

 

Feral Irishman has one cool pooch

Maggie: It is not the guns, it is the lax sentencing

William Teach has his Blogelss Pin Up Post

Randy: If Joe Biden donated his brain to science….

Proof has your links 

Reaganite Republican: That Miss Croatia makes me feel funny

Rio Norte. Liberals really are that ignorant!

That Mr. G Guy: Media Malpractice

Classic Liberal: PORK

Last Tradition has Rush saying what I have been saying for weeks now

Lonely Conservative: Newsweek still sucks

The Right Scoop: God Bless General Lee

Theo: TOTTY

 

Troglopundit: I still love BJ and the Bear

 

Milton Wolf goes Napolean Dynamite on Manti and Barack

Wyblog: When Liberals face the truth of “free”

Zion’s Trumpet: Schuck you Senator Fumer!

 

A perfect question for Eric Holder

Eric Holder our Attorney General, had some interesting comments on gun rights yesterday

“As a nation I think we have to ask ourselves some hard questions. We gather too often to talk about these kinds of incidents. We need to discuss who we are as a nation, talk about the freedoms that we have, the rights that we have and how those might be used in a responsible way.

Ah, so we should use our liberties in “responsible” ways. OK, but I am troubled by one thing. When someone speaks of using our rights responsibly, what do they mean? Likely they have their own definition of responsible. So, to better gauge what Holder means I have one question. If I were to give, or sell my guns to a Mexican drug cartel, would he consider that responsible?

 

As College Student, Eric Holder Participated In ‘Armed’ Takeover Of Former Columbia University ROTC Office

As College Student, Eric Holder Participated In ‘Armed’ Takeover Of Former Columbia University ROTC Office – Daily Caller

As a freshman at Columbia University in 1970, future Attorney General Eric Holder participated in a five-day occupation of an abandoned Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) headquarters with a group of black students later described by the university’s Black Students’ Organization as “armed,” The Daily Caller has learned.

Department of Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler has not responded to questions from The Daily Caller about whether Holder himself was armed – and if so, with what sort of weapon.

………………

Holder was then among the leaders of the Student Afro-American Society (SAAS), which demanded that the former ROTC office be renamed the “Malcolm X Lounge.” The change, the group insisted, was to be made “in honor of a man who recognized the importance of territory as a basis for nationhood.”

Black radicals from the same group also occupied the office of Dean of Freshman Henry Coleman until their demands were met. Holder has publicly acknowledged being a part of that action.

The details of the student-led occupation, including the claim that the raiders were “armed,” come from a deleted Web page of the Black Students’ Organization (BSO) at Columbia, a successor group to the SAAS. Contemporary newspaper accounts in The Columbia Daily Spectator, a student newspaper, did not mention weapons.

Holder, now the United States’ highest-ranking law enforcement official, has given conflicting accounts of this episode during college commencement addresses at Columbia, but both the BSO’s website and the Daily Spectator have published facts that conflict with his version of events.

Holder has bragged about his involvement in the “rise of black consciousness” protests at Columbia.

“I was among a large group of students who felt strongly about the way we thought the world should be, and we weren’t afraid to make our opinions heard,” he said during Columbia’s 2009 commencement exercises. “I did not take a final exam until my junior year at Columbia – we were on strike every time finals seemed to roll around – but we ran out of issues by that third year.”

Though then-Dean Carl Hovde declared the occupation of the Naval ROTC office illegal and said it violated university policy, the college declined to prosecute any of the students involved. This decision may have been made to avoid a repeat of violent Columbia campus confrontations between police and members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1968.

The ROTC headquarters was ultimately renamed the Malcolm X lounge as the SAAS organization demanded. It later became a hang-out spot for another future U.S. leader, Barack Obama, according to David Maraniss’ best-selling “Barack Obama: The Story.“

Holder told Columbia University’s graduating law students during a 2010 commencement speech that the 1970 incident happened “during my senior year,” but Holder was a freshman at the time. “[S]everal of us took one of our concerns – that black students needed a designated space to gather on campus – to the Dean [of Freshmen]’office. This being Columbia, we proceeded to occupy that office.”

Holder also claimed in his 2009 speech that he and his fellow students decided to “peacefully occupy one of the campus offices.” In contrast, the BSO’s website recounted its predecessor organization’s activities by noting that that “in 1970, a group of armed black students [the SAAS] seized the abandoned ROTC office.”

While that website is no longer online, a snapshot of its content from September 2010 is part of the archive.org database.

In a December 2010 GQ magazine profile of Holder, one of his Columbia friends confirmed that he and Holder were both part of the ROTC office takeover.

Holder particularly “connected with four other African-American students” at Columbia, correspondent Wil S. Hylton wrote. “We took over the ROTC lounge in Hartley Hall and created the Malcolm X Lounge,” said a laughing Steve Sims, one of those students.

Hylton described Sims as “the attorney general’s closest friend” and “a man Holder describes as his ‘consigliere.’”

The SAAS was part of a radicalized portion of the Columbia student body whose protest roots were hardened in the late 1960s. Its members collaborated with the SDS to stage a series of protests on the New York City campus in 1968, the year before Eric Holder arrived on campus.

Those earlier protests culminated in a separate armed takeover of Dean Henry Coleman’s office in which students held him hostage and stopped the construction of a gymnasium in the Morningside Heights neighborhood, near the campus.

The BSO reported on its website as recently as 2010 that those students were “armed with guns.”

Emboldened by their successes, SAAS leaders continued to press their demands, eventually working with local black radicals who were not college students. A young Eric Holder joined the fray in 1969 as a college freshman.

The SAAS also actively supported the Black Panthers and the Black Power movement, according to Stefan Bradley, professor of African-American studies at Saint Louis University and author of the 2009 book “Harlem vs. Columbia University.” He has described the Columbia organization as being separatist in nature.

“In 1969, SAAS has taken up a new campaign to establish a Black Institute on campus that would house a black studies program, an all-black admissions board, all-black faculty members, administrators and staff and they wanted the university to pay for it,” Bradley told an audience in 2009.

Though Columbia never met all of the black militants’ demands, it brought more black students to campus through its affirmative action program, introduced Black Studies courses and hired black radical Charles V. Hamilton – co-author of “Black Power” with Black Panther Party “Honorary Prime Minister” Stokely Carmichael (by then renamed Kwame Ture).

“The university hadn’t thought of all of this by itself,” said Bradley. “It took black students [in the SAAS] to do this.”

In March 1970 the SAAS released a statement supporting twenty-one Black Panthers charged with plotting to blow up department stores, railroad tracks, a police station and the New York Botanical Gardens.

The SAAS, along with the SDS and other radical campus groups, staged a campus rally on March 12, 1970 featuring Afeni Shakur – one of the Panthers out on bail and the future mother of rapper Tupac Shakur.

The rally’s purpose, The Columbia Daily Spectator reported, was to raise bail money for the twenty other Panthers and to call on District Attorney Frank Hogan to drop the charges. All 21 defendants would later be acquitted after a lengthy trial.

The April 21, 1970 SAAS raid on the Naval ROTC office and Dean Coleman’s office came one month after the Black Panther arrests. The Columbia Daily Spectator released a series of demands from the student leaders on April 23 in which they claimed to be occupying the ROTC office for the purpose of “self-determination and dignity.” They needed the space, they said, because of “the general racist nature of American society.”

In their statement, the SAAS leaders also decried “this racist university campus” – in particular its alleged “involvement in the continued political harassment of the Black Panther Party’ – along with what they called a “lack of concern for Black people whether they be students or workers” and a “general contempt towards the beliefs of Black students in particular and Black people in general.”

“Black students recognize the necessity of not letting the university set a dangerous precedent in its dealings with Black people,” the statement read in part, “that is letting white people direct the action and forces that affect Black people toward goals they (white people) feel are correct.”

Among the black professors who publicly supported Holder and the SAAS during this period was Black history teacher Hollis Lynch, who is one of four professors Holder later said “shaped my worldview.”

Entering Columbia Law School in September 1973, Holder joined the Black American Law Students Association. Less than a month later, that organization joined other minority activist groups in a coalition that demanded the retraction of a letter to President Gerald Ford, signed by six Columbia professors, that argued against affirmative action and racial quotas.

“Merit should be rewarded, without regard to race, sex, creed, or any other external factor,” the professors wrote to President Ford. Following a campaign marked by what two of those professors called “rhetoric and names hurled” at them, they changed their position and denied they actually opposed affirmative action.

The Columbia Spectator’s editorial page later argued against affirmative action as a factor in university admissions, touching off another controversy with the coalition that included the Black American Law Students Association. “Affirmative action is just a nice name for a quota, and quotas are just a nice name for racism,” the editorial board wrote.

In response, the minority students’ coalition responded that “traditional academic criteria have a built-in bias” that leaves many minority students “automatically excluded.”

“[A]ffirmative action is neither racist nor sexist,” they wrote. “Rather it is opposition to it, which fails to provide alternative means for eradicating bias, that supports the racist and sexist status quo.”

As attorney general, Holder has defended the affirmative action policies that are now the status quo. In February 2012, Holder said during a World Leaders Forum at Columbia University that he “can’t actually imagine a time in which the need for more diversity would ever cease.”

“Affirmative action has been an issue since segregation practices,” Holder said. “The question is not when does it end, but when does it begin… When do people of color truly get the benefits to which they are entitled?”

Holder has also come under fire for presiding over a Justice Department that declined to prosecute members of the New Black Panther Party who allegedly intimidated white voters outside a Philadelphia polling precinct in 2008.
Click HERE For Rest Of Story

Issa Pulls A Cunning Move To Detail Secret ‘Fast And Furious’ Wiretap Applications

Issa Pulls A Cunning Move To Detail Secret ‘Fast And Furious’ Wiretap Applications – The Blaze

The ongoing tug-of-war between Attorney General Eric Holder and Rep. Darrell Issa (R- Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, climaxed on Thursday with a historic vote in which Congress held the attorney general in both civil and criminal contempt over his refusal to provide subpoenaed “Fast and Furious” documents.

And now less than 24-hours following the vote, it is being reported that Issa has seemingly dealt another devastating blow to the Justice Department. Roll Call reports that in a very sly move: the chairman has inserted a May 24 letter he wrote to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), in which he quotes from and explains in detail some of the content found in secret wiretap applications from the failed federal gun-walking operation, into the Congressional Record.

Issa argues the wiretap applications are extremely detailed in identifying some of the tactics employed in Fast and Furious, which Holder and the senior DOJ officials still argue they were completely unaware of even though senior Justice Department officials signed off on the applications.

Holder has repeatedly said the wiretap applications are sealed court documents, which is why Issa has been unable to simply release the documents to the public. Issa himself said he got his copies from a group of “furious whistleblowers.” Holder and the DOJ have refused to comment on the applications, therefore details have remained extremely fuzzy.

In other words, because he couldn’t release the wiretap applications outright, he released a letter describing them. And he made that letter part of the official record while using Congress’ protection under the speech and debate clause to avoid legal ramifications.

Roll Call has the latest developments in the Fast and Furious saga:

In the midst of a fiery floor debate over contempt proceedings for Attorney General Eric Holder, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) quietly dropped a bombshell letter into the Congressional Record.

The May 24 letter to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), ranking member on the panel, quotes from and describes in detail a secret wiretap application that has become a point of debate in the GOP’s “Fast and Furious” gun-walking probe.

The wiretap applications are under court seal, and releasing such information to the public would ordinarily be illegal. But Issa appears to be protected by the Speech or Debate Clause in the Constitution, which offers immunity for Congressional speech, especially on a chamber’s floor.

According to the letter, the wiretap applications contained a startling amount of detail about the operation, which would have tipped off anyone who read them closely about what tactics were being used.

Holder and Cummings have both maintained that the wiretap applications did not contain such details and that the applications were reviewed narrowly for probable cause, not for whether any investigatory tactics contained followed Justice Department policy.

The wiretap applications were signed by senior DOJ officials in the department’s criminal division, including Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco and another official who is now deceased.

While Issa has since said he has obtained a number of wiretap applications, the letter only refers to one, from March 15, 2010. The full application is not included in what Issa entered into the Congressional Record, and names are obscured in Issa’s letter.

In the application, ATF agents included transcripts from a wiretap intercept from a previous Drug Enforcement Administration investigation that demonstrated the suspects were part of a gun-smuggling ring.

The wiretap applications also reportedly explain how ATF officials watched firearms purchased by suspected straw purchasers walk and ended their surveillance without intercepting the guns, according to Issa’s letter. In at least one instance, the guns were recovered at a police stop at the U.S.-Mexico border the next day, Roll Call reports.

“Although ATF was aware of these facts, no one was arrested, and ATF failed to even approach the straw purchasers. Upon learning these details through its review of this wiretap affidavit, senior Justice Department officials had a duty to stop this operation. Further, failure to do so was a violation of Justice Department policy,” the letter reads.

In a June 5 letter, Cummings responded to Issa’s May 24 letter and argued that Issa “omits the critical fact that [redacted].” Roll Call reports the entire first section of his letter is also blacked out.

“Sadly, it looks like Mr. Issa is continuing his string of desperate and unsubstantiated claims, while hiding key information from the very same documents,” a Democratic committee staffer told Roll Call. “His actions demonstrate a lack of concern for the facts, as well as a reckless disregard for our nation’s courts and federal prosecutors who are trying to bring criminals to justice. We’re not going to stoop to his level. Obviously, we are going to honor the court’s seal and the prosecutors’ requests. But if Mr. Issa won’t tell you what he is hiding from the wiretaps, you should ask him why.”

Some of the important highlights from Issa’s letter:

* The financial details of four suspected straw purchases showed they had made $373,000 in gun purchases in cash but had nearly no reportable income from past year.
* The applications detailed how many guns specific suspects had bought from straw purchasers.
* Wiretap Applications reveal ATF agents did not interdict guns when possible.
* “Although ATF was aware of these facts, no one was arrested, and ATF failed to even approach the straw purchasers.”
* The wiretap applications were signed by senior DOJ officials
* Holder has refused to address the documents.

Click HERE For Rest Of Story

Today’s Marxist Moron Award winner might actually be beneath a Marxist Moron Award

Some people, I will call them Leftists because they are, well, leftists, are so deep in the Pit of Eternal Leftist Stupidity, that they are actually not as bright as the average recipient of a Marxist Moron Award. Eleanor Holmes Norton is, I believe, such a person 

And you thought Joe Biden was a dim bulb

Washington, D.C., Democratic Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the city in Congress, claimed the National Rifle Association is responsible for Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder and Operation Fast and Furious on Thursday, in what appears to be a last-ditch effort to protect Attorney General Eric Holder before he’s voted in contempt of Congress.

“Any doubt that today’s contempt resolution is political was put to rest when the NRA joined in to blow-torch vulnerable Democrats to vote for contempt today,” Norton said on the House floor. “The gun lobby is directly responsible for the gap in federal law that allowed purchases of guns here that were sold in Mexico and ultimately for the tragic death of a border agent. Yet our committee spent no time on the root cause of the tragedy because of a political mandate from the gun lobby.”

Ah, actually, it was not the NRA telling gun dealers to sell guns to cartels, it was the ATF. But, do not let that fact trip you up on your way to the Stupidity Hall of Shame there. In fact the NRA would be the LAST group to support a program such as Fast and Furious. But, again, don’t let silly facts get in the way as you insert your feet, yes both of them, into your mouth, which appears to be extremely large while your brain is, well, tiny.

House Holds Attorney General Eric Holder In Contempt

House Holds Attorney General Eric Holder In Contempt – Fox News

The House of Representatives voted Thursday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal contempt for refusing to turn over documents tied to the botched Fast and Furious gun-running sting – a discredited operation that has become a sharp point of contention between Democrats and Republicans in Washington.

The 255-67 vote marked the first time in American history that the head of the Justice Department has been held in contempt by Congress. Almost every House Republican backed the measure, along with 17 Democrats.

A large number of Democrats – including members of the Congressional Black Caucus and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi – walked off the House floor in protest and refused to participate in the vote.

The criminal contempt charge refers the dispute to District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen, who will decide whether to file charges against Holder. Most legal analysts do not expect Machen – an Obama appointee who ultimately answers to Holder – to take any action.

House members are also expected to pass a civil contempt measure Thursday afternoon. The civil measure would allow the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to file a lawsuit asking the courts to examine the Justice Department’s failure to produce certain subpoenaed documents, as well as the validity of the administration’s recent assertion of executive privilege over the documents in question.

Click HERE For Rest Of Story

Just think how much better Congress would be if they just kept walking?

Dear CBC: Please don’t go away mad, just go away

Let’s face it. They don’t give a damn about who killed border agent Brian Terry.
The Hill reported:

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) plan to stage a walkout during Thursday’s vote on whether to place Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.

The CBC is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. on Thursday to discuss the details of the walkout and is planning to circulate a letter to House Democrats requesting that they join them on the Capitol steps for a press conference during the contempt vote.

The move comes less than 24 hours before the House plans to vote for the first time in history to hold a sitting attorney general in contempt of Congress for not complying with a congressional subpoena. Holder is the first black attorney general in U.S. history.

The walkout is reminiscent of a similar move made by Republicans in 2008 during a Democratic-led vote on whether to hold two senior staffers in President George W. Bush’s administration in contempt of Congress.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) — then the minority leader — led the walkout with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) following closely behind him. Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is the sponsor of the contempt resolution against Holder.

“The House floor is the scene of a partisan, political stunt,” said Boehner at the time. House Democrats have been expressing similar comments about the Holder contempt measure.

CBC Chairman Cleaver released this statement on the Fast and Furious investigation this week.

“During this critical moment in our nation’s history, the attention of our country’s chief law enforcement officer should be focused on addressing ongoing law enforcement challenges and championing real issues, instead of being distracted by manufactured, partisan political ones. This is an extremely low moment in our body politic. The cause for civility has been met by an unnecessary and unfortunate partisanship.”

These miscreant racists bottom feeders are a disgrace

DaleyGator DaleyThought Is Fast and Furious catching up to Holder and Obama?

Click the pic to listen

Fast And Furious Cover-Up Continues: Obama Asserts Executive Privilege Over Documents

Obama Asserts Executive Privilege Over Fast And Furious Documents – Daily Caller

President Barack Obama has asserted executive privilege over documents pertaining to Operation Fast and Furious. The move followed Attorney General Eric Holder’s last-second request for him to do so, ahead of a scheduled House Oversight Committee vote to begin contempt of Congress proceedings against Holder.

Obama granted the 11th-hour request after negotiations between Holder and the committee’s chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, fell apart again on Tuesday evening after a 20-minute meeting. Holder had agreed beforehand that he would provide internal DOJ documents to Issa ahead of the meeting. He did not bring the documents. On Tuesday evening, Issa gave him one final chance to provide the documents before the 10 a.m. scheduled vote to hold Holder in contempt.

Holder again did not provide the documents to Congress. Then, on Wednesday morning, minutes before the meeting, it was announced Obama had agreed to assert executive privilege over those documents.

Appearing on Fox News shortly after the announcement, Arizona Republican Rep. David Schweikert said the next steps are for Congress to move forward with contempt proceedings. According to Fox News, Issa’s committee is expected to move forward with the contempt proceeding.

Ranking Member Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings said the assertion of executive privilege doesn’t block the committee from access to all documents, only some.

“As I understand it, the assertion does not cover everything in this category, such as whistleblower documents, and the administration has indicated that it remains willing to try to come to a mutual resolution despite its formal legal assertion,” Cummings said. “As a member of Congress, I treat assertions of executive privilege very seriously, and I believe they should be used only sparingly. In this case, it seems clear that the administration was forced into this position by the committee’s unreasonable insistence on pressing forward with contempt despite the attorney general’s good faith offer.”

The Hill reported that this is the first time Obama has ever asserted the executive privilege.

Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said this assertion raises more questions than answers.

“The assertion of executive privilege raises monumental questions,” Grassley said. “How can the President assert executive privilege if there was no White House involvement? How can the President exert executive privilege over documents he’s supposedly never seen? Is something very big being hidden to go to this extreme? The contempt citation is an important procedural mechanism in our system of checks and balances. The questions from Congress go to determining what happened in a disastrous government program for accountability and so that it’s never repeated again.”

Indiana Republican Rep. Dan Burton, a former chair of the oversight committee for six years, said Issa has been “patient.” He said the president’s decision to assert executive privilege to withhold documents makes him wonder if Obama knew of Fast and Furious.
“The attorney general has asserted on numerous occasions that he didn’t know about this, now the president of the United States has claimed executive privilege,” Burton added. “And now that brings into question how much Holder knew about this, and that the president knew about this. My question is, who knew about this, how high up did it go, did it go to the attorney general or president of the united states and when did they know about this?”

New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney said she was “horrified” that Issa was moving forward with contempt proceedings after Obama asserted the executive privilege. She accused Issa of conducting a “political witch hunt” against Holder.

Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash tweeted that Obama’s assertion of executive privilege means Fast and Furious “must rise all the way to Pres. Obama.”

“Stunning admission by White House,” Amash tweeted.

House Speaker John Boehner’s spokesman Michael Steel told The Daily Caller that President Obama’s claim of executive privilege implies a startling new allegation pertaining to Fast and Furious: The White House was either involved with the operation or a cover-up.

“Until now, everyone believed that the decisions regarding ‘Fast and Furious’ were confined to the Department of Justice,” Steel said in an email. “The White House decision to invoke executive privilege implies that White House officials were either involved in the ‘Fast and Furious’ operation or the cover-up that followed. The Administration has always insisted that wasn’t the case. Were they lying, or are they now bending the law to hide the truth?”

Click HERE For Rest Of Story

Video-All you need to know about Fast & Furious

Via The Right Scoop

And remember this, we heard all about how the cartels were being armed by US gun stores. Sure, because of Fast and Furious, those gun dealers were told, by Obama’s Justice Department to sell them to KNOWN buyers for the cartels. Do not forget that this was going to be used as propaganda for more gun control in this country! Now, ask yourself how important this election will be.

Sunday’s Best of the Blogroll Updated throughout the day

Picked fresh from the best blogroll in existence, here are the links that will make you smile, cry, think, and get you angry, oh, and there will be babes too!

Smitty at The Other McCain asks, and answers the question of the day. Why IS Eric Holder still AG?

Paul Lemmen uses the word of the day, TWATWAFFLE!

The Evil Blogger Lady, who seems nice enough to me, in an evil way, is all about odd dining habits

BC of I’m a Man, I’m 41 diagnoses me with Jungle Fever. To which I reply, I love beautiful women of all colors

Nathan Martin has moved! Here!

The NeoSexist features Natalie Portman on her birthday

Roxeanne de Luca: Chevy Volts still suck! 

Stacy on the Right takes a Wisconsin Victory lap

Truth Before Dishonor has some sexy musicians, and has a thing for the fiddle player! I cannot blame him

1389 Blog hails good news from Canada

A Man , a Dog, And A Gun considers Amanda Peet slighlty NSFW

Kurt P: You damned dirty penguins!

View FRom the Beach has Crazy naked Canuck women

Adrienne: My but that Obama fellow is kind of, ah, uninspiring isn’t he?

Duane Lester: I won, I won!

Robert: You know, when I think of Wisonsin, I think of Hope, and Cheese, and not that fake Obama Hope, which stinks like old government cheese!

Aleister has Lanny Davis ripping Team Obama

Donald Douglas: DUDE! also Minka Kelly!

An Old Broad: A picture really is worth…..

Astute Bloggers: More headache inducing PC from our schools

Zion’s Trumpet has the smoking hot Gaby Elizalde CALIENTE!

Wyblog: Obama just does not get it does he?

Woodsterman has a great way to correctly honor Obama

Milton Wolf tells us how to know if we are racist

American Perspective: Hey TSA, READ THIS!

So, What Would the Founders Think?

Western Hero has BBQ!

Barking Moonbat: Humpty Dumpty goes PC!

Blazing Cat Fur has a story that will break your heart

Blogsense by Barb has Special Operations Speak

Bring the Heat honors a warrior

Bunkerville has Mark Levin audio

Bob Belevedere: Carlotta Champagne

Conservative Hideout: Sunday Links

Copious Gasser has Hope Dworacyzk

Da Tech Guy: Is the GOP like Gen. Braxton Bragg?

Daily Pundit: Who really cares about what Peggy Noonan says?

Daniel Greenfield: What Clinton knows

Doug Powers: What Salma Hayek is too sexy, Sheila Jackson Lee is to stupidity!

Doug Ross: Democrats suck at governing

Dustbury: Give me a woman with a sitar!

Troglopundit has motivators madness!

Richard McEnroe: Rockstar Babe video!

Theo Spark has video featuring April Rose Oh my

The Right Way likes Brooklyn Decker

The Lonely Conservative ponders the state of the Democrats

The Last Tradition has a beautiful woman, Dambisa Moyo making Bill Maher look like a moron

The Hostages BIG Boob Friday!

The Classic Liberal brings us Hotties for Paul

That Mr. G Guy: Whither self-defense?

Teresamerica has body painting hotness

Wyatt Earp: Winnie Cooper is single

Sister Toldjah Obam is not Liberal ENOUGH?

Sentry Journal: Ben Franklin would approve these links

Say Anything: TSA Tyranny

Saberpoint: Who is funding Kimberlin?

Jamie Jeffords: Carolina Ardohain

Gateway Pundit: Those nutty Netroot types

Rio Norte Line: The wonders of universal health care

Dan Riehl: What did Charlie Crist swallow, and when did he swallow it?

Reaganite Republican has Sunday funnies

Randy has his Thursday night Tart -Bree Conden

Postal Dog, has been sick, but still does some babe blogging

Jill: Hollow Man 

Public Secrets. Really Mr. President?

Proof Positive Shilba Shetty!

PJM: Let me tell you something Ms Pelosi!

Political Jungle: Where is Al Sharpton?

POH Diaries: Woman charged with malicious castration, like there is any OTHER kind?

Pitsnipes loves Asian women

Pirates Cove: Your Sunday Blogless Pinup 

Pat Dollard US OUSTS ISRAEL FROM COUNTERTERRORISM FORUM OBAMA CAVES TO ISLAMIC TURKEY

Paco sums up the Obama campaign nicely

Irons in the Fire: Take a Midol and shut the Hell up!

Old Virginia: Bill Press, you just hate America

Nice Deb: Shame on Obama and his leaks

King Shamus on Obama’s dirty joke

Motor City Times: RVs as art?

Moonbattery: David Axlerod dodges, ducks, and dodges some more

William Jacobson: MSNBS’s heart break lampooned

Wirecutter: Yes it is inappropriate, that is why it is so funny

Feral IrishmanL A Scotsman, a Brit, and an Irishman walk into a bar…

Texas Rep. Gohmert lights into Eric Holder

Via The Right Scoop

Take a gander at who has entered the Brett Kimberlin fray

More on that headline in a  moment but first, some other developments worth noting

Da Tech Guy notes that the dam might be breaking in on poor Brett

Since May 17th when Aaron Worthing first went public about his encounters with Brett Kimberlin & company and Robert Stacy McCain followed up that same day with the first of what is now dozens of posts on the subject the question arose when the media would take notice while others paid the price for defending their first amendment rights.

Even as bloggers took over Memeorandum, Patterico went public on his Swatting, Glenn Beck took notice, Aaron Worthing was jailed and Erick Erickson of Red State & CNN was swatted the media remained silent.

Well now there has been a development that can’t be ignored:

Today, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder regarding recent reports that several conservative political commentators have been targeted with harassing and frightening actions. Chambliss demanded that Holder examine these cases to determine if federal laws have been violated.

These dangerous hoaxes, also known as “SWAT-ting,” occur when a perpetrator contacts local police to report a violent incident at a target’s home. These callers are believed to utilize voice-over IP (VOIP) and other less-traditional telecommunications methods to make the call appear to come from the target residence and to hide the caller’s true identity.

Yup that’s US senator Saxby Chambliss contacting the Justice Department on the Swatting issue, and while the MSM might have ignored bloggers this is a different kettle of fish to wit:

ABC News spoke with two prominent conservative bloggers who were victims of SWAT-ting, a hoax tactic used by some hackers to infiltrate a victim’s phone system, often through voice over IP (VOIP) technology to make calls appear as if they are coming from a residence. The perpetrators call police to report a violent crime at that home to which the police respond, sometimes with SWAT teams.

and yup again, that’s ABC news (and amazingly someone other than Jake Tapper) writing about the story of bloggers getting SWATTED (yes CNN you’ve been scooped on your own story again!)

Now, the BIG news! And it is bad for whoever is SWATting, or harrassing, or threatening Conservative bloggers. In fact it is VERY BAD! Stacy McCain has the news via Michelle Malkin The ACLJ has stepped up to defend Ali Akbar

I’ve been telling you about First Amendment lawyers working behind the scenes to help the targets of Brett Kimberlin and his online cabal.

Kudos to the ACLJ for stepping up to the plate in the face of ongoing threats and smears. Just released:

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 7, 2012

ACLJ DEFENDS FREE SPEECH IN BLOGOSPHERE – REPRESENTING TOP CONSERVATIVE BLOGGERS TARGETED FOR HARASSMENT

(Washington, DC) – The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which focuses on constitutional law, announced today it is providing legal representation to a top conservative blogger and his organization that represents hundreds of bloggers who are facing threats and intimidation tactics by those opposed to their viewpoint.

“Free speech is under attack,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ. “Conservative writers are now facing threats against themselves, their families, and their livelihoods merely because they’ve aggressively investigated the history and funding of radical liberals. The ACLJ has a long history of successfully defending free speech, and we look forward to defeating this latest attempt to threaten and intimidate conservatives into silence.”

The issue involves targeting a number of conservative bloggers with a dangerous and illegal tactic that’s become known as SWAT-ing (making false 911 calls sending police to the homes of bloggers, claiming a crime has occurred.) The tactic is used in retaliation for posts the conservative bloggers have written.

The ACLJ is representing Ali Akbar, a top blogger and president of the National Bloggers Club, a coalition of 300 conservative bloggers who reach millions of readers. Akbar has seen his mother’s home photographed and placed on the internet. He has also received formal notification that he may soon be sued for publishing truthful information about radical liberals and their wealthy donors.

“I’m grateful for the support of the ACLJ, and I’m confident we’ll defeat any and all legal challenges to our fundamental right to free speech,” said Akbar. “We will not be deterred in our quest for the truth.”

The ACLJ will aggressively defend the constitutionally-protected free speech rights of Akbar and his organizations.

The ACLJ’s representation of Akbar comes as Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) is calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the SWAT-ting cases to see if federal laws have been violated. In a letter to the Attorney General, Sen. Chambliss wrote: “Any potentially criminal action that incites fear, seeks to silence a dissenting opinion, and collaterally wastes the resources of law enforcement should be given close scrutiny at all levels. . . Regardless of any potential political differences that may exist, threats and intimidation have no place in our national political discourse.”

That is big! The ACLJ gets it done in the court room

Hell has frozen over! I mean it must have, because I am in agreement with House Minority Leader Face Lift

Well, one this one issue.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi wants President Barack Obama to lay off the weed.

Reacting to an ongoing crackdown on medical marijuana facilities in California, Pelosi said in a Wednesday statement, “I have strong concerns about the recent actions by the federal government that threaten the safe access of medicinal marijuana to alleviate the suffering of patients in California.”

The California Democrat said that medical marijuana is “both a medical and a states’ rights issue.”

California legalized the use of medical marijuana in a 1996 initiative vote. It’s comically easy for many residents to acquire the necessary medical diagnosis to legally purchase the drug.

In 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Obama administration would “effectively end the Bush administration’s frequent raids on distributors of medical marijuana.”

There are far better things for the feds to be doing than these crackdowns. California passed this law, and that is, I believe, a legitimate role for the state government of California. 

Yes, voter fraud is a big problem

With moere states requiring people show a proper ID to vote, and more Liberals saying that these laws are racist, and indeed just an effort to suppress the minority vote, I thought it proper to link this piece by John Fund

“Unfortunately, the United States has a long history of voter fraud that has been documented by historians and journalists,” Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in 2008, upholding a strict Indiana voter-ID law designed to combat fraud. Justice Stevens, who personally encountered voter fraud while serving on various reform commissions in his native Chicago, spoke for a six-member majority. In a decision two years earlier clearing the way for an Arizona ID law, the Court had declared in a unanimous opinion that “confidence in the integrity of our electoral processes is essential to the functioning of our participatory democracy. Voter fraud drives honest citizens out of the democratic process and breeds distrust of our government. Voters who fear their legitimate votes will be outweighed by fraudulent ones will feel disenfranchised.”

Indeed, a brand-new Rasmussen Reports poll finds that 64 percent of Americans believe voter fraud is a serious problem, with whites registering 63 percent agreement and African-Americans 64 percent. A Fox News poll taken last month found that 70 percent of Americans support requiring voters to show “state or federally issued photo identification” to prove their identity and citizenship before casting a ballot. Majorities of all demographic groups agreed on the need for photo ID, including 58 percent of non-white voters, 52 percent of liberals, and 52 percent of Democrats.

These numbers are important. They show that Americans of all races and political beliefs want every vote to be cast in a legitimate fashion. It is, after all a crucial issue. The Left has continued to make the claim that there really is no voter fraud, so, voter ID laws are unneeded. Really? Fund continues

But filmmaker James O’Keefe demonstrated just last month how easy — and almost impossible to detect — voter impersonation can be: A white 22-year-old assistant of O’Keefe’s was offered the Washington, D.C., primary ballot of Attorney General Eric Holder, the most visible opponent of ID laws.

Just this week in Fort Worth, Texas, a Democratic precinct chairwoman was indicted on charges of arranging an illegal vote. Hazel Woodard James has been charged with conspiring with her non-registered son to have him vote in place of his father. The only reason the crime was detected was that the father showed up later in the day to vote at the same precinct. Most fraudsters are smart enough to have their accomplices cast votes in the names of dead people on the voter rolls, who are highly unlikely to appear and complain that someone else voted in their place.

Go read the whole thing. Pass it around. Voter fraud is very real, and you can bet that those screaming that it is not have a very real agenda, to cheat, or at the very least they think that the cheating will help them at the ballot box.