Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

TESTIMONY: Obama's Executive Amnesties Violate Federal Law AND The Constitution

By Kris Kobach

The Senate Judiciary Oversight Subcommittee held a hearing yesterday on the implications of Texas v. United States - the case 26 governors and attorneys general brought against President Obama’s executive amnesties. Kris Kobach, the Kansas Secretary of State and former immigration advisor to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, cited three reasons why the executive amnesties are unlawful: “(1) the executive actions do not comply with the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA); (2) even if they did comply with the APA, they would still be in direct violation of substantive provisions of federal law; and (3) even if they did not violate federal law, they would still be unconstitutional.”

Below are excerpts from his testimony.

On APA Non-Compliance:

“The APA requires that agencies implementing federal statutes in whole or in part do so through rulemaking… An administrative action that establishes criteria for exception from removal from the United States and defines a class with affirmative eligibility for benefits is quintessentially a “rule” under the APA… DHS has set out in [directives] a determination of future rights, privileges, and benefits. In so doing, the Administration has attempted to bury, outside of the APA, rulemaking decisions that have the ‘inherently arbitrary nature of unpublished ad hoc determinations.’… A central facet of the APA is the exposure of a proposed rule to public comment and criticism…By attempting to make this policy change through executive fiat, DHS avoided this public scrutiny and plainly violated the terms of the APA.”

On Violations of Federal Law:

“In 1996…(f)rustrated with executive non-enforcement of federal immigration laws, Congress enacted the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA)…Congress inserted several interlocking provisions…to require removal when immigration officers encounter illegal aliens…8 U.S.C. § 1225(a)(1) requires that “an alien present in the United States who has not been admitted…shall be deemed for purposes of this chapter an applicant for admission.” This designation triggers 8 U.S.C. § 1225(a)(3), which requires that all applicants for admission “shall be inspected by immigration officers.” This in turn triggers 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A), which mandates that “if the examining immigration officer determines that an alien seeking admission is not clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted, the alien shall be detained for a proceeding under section 1229a of this title.” The proceedings under 8 U.S.C. § 1229a are removal proceedings in United States Immigration Courts.

“The DACA and DAPA Directives order the ICE officers to violate these provisions of federal law by declining to place certain aliens into removal proceedings, when federal law clearly requires them to place such aliens into removal proceedings...

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

YES, REALLY: Obama Tacitly Endorses Iranian EMP Attack on U.S.

By Investor's Business Daily

Threatened: A translated military handbook showing Tehran's support for a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack on the U.S., and the presence of Iranian warships off our coast, show that Israel isn't the mullahs' sole target.

Last month in a speech to his air force commanders, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, boasted of Tehran's achievement in enriching uranium to the 20% level.

A BBC transcript of his speech showed that twice the assembled air force commanders chanted, "Death to America." Is there something about this that President Obama does not understand?

This is the same ayatollah, Obama assured us in his speech to the Iranian people five years after he ignored and failed to hear cries during the 2009 Green Revolution, who had issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons.

Fatwa? Fat chance. Sadly, we have reached the point where a U.S. president trusts American security not even to a piece of parchment but to an Iranian mullah's fatwa.

Iran's true intentions were documented by a column by Peter Vincent Pry, executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, a congressional advisory board.

PEACE IN OUR TIME: Ayatollah Khamenei Rebuffs Obama’s Overtures, Calls for “Death to America”

By The Tower

As the deadline looms for a political framework deal between the P5+1 nations and Iran, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei struck a defiant tone on Saturday in response to a conciliatory message offered by President Barack Obama to commemorate Nowruz, the Iranian new year.

In his statement, Obama said:

This year, we have the best opportunity in decades to pursue a different future between our countries. Just over a year ago, we reached an initial understanding regarding Iran’s nuclear program. And both sides have kept our commitments. Iran has halted progress on its nuclear program and even rolled it back in some areas. The international community, including the United States, has provided Iran with some relief from sanctions. Now, our diplomats—and our scientists—are engaged in negotiations in the hopes of finding a comprehensive solution that resolves the world’s concerns with Iran’s nuclear program.

Obama stated that the nuclear agreement presented a “historic opportunity” for Iran and the West to reconcile their differences.

LOVELY: Obama Accused of Obstructing Battle against Boko Haram to Promote Axelrod's Nigerian Muslim Client

By James Simpson

When the notorious Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram, kidnapped 278 school girls from the town of Chibok in northeastern Nigeria last year, Michelle Obama began a Twitter hashtag campaign, #BringBackOurGirls. But behind the scenes, the Obama administration was undermining Nigeria’s efforts to take the battle to the terrorists. Obama refused to sell Nigeria arms and supplies critical to the fight, and stepped in to block other Western allies from doing so. The administration also denied Nigeria intelligence on Boko Haram from drones operating in the area. While Boko Haram was kidnapping school girls, the U.S. cut petroleum purchases from Nigeria to zero, plunging the nation’s economy into turmoil and raising concerns about its ability to fund its battle against the terrorists. Nigeria responded by cancelling a military training agreement between the two countries.

The Nigerian presidential election is coming up Saturday, March 28, 2015. AKPD, the political consulting group founded by Obama confidante David Axelrod, is assisting Retired Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim presidential candidate from Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria, where Boko Haram was spawned and wields the most influence. Buhari is well-known throughout the country, having led as “Head-of-State” following a military coup in 1983. He was dislodged following another coup in 1985.

Monday, March 23, 2015

TREY GOWDY: Hillary must turn over her illegal email server or "face the full powers of the House"

By Victoria Taft

Congressman Trey Gowdy, who heads the Select Committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack, sent a letter this week to former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Gowdy’s letter firmly requests that Clinton turn over her email server by April 3rd to a neutral third party, or he plans to litigate:

Sunday, March 22, 2015

How Obama has destroyed America’s free enterprise system, in 2 charts

By James Pethokoukis

011414startups1

The decline in business startups may not be news to my readers, but these charts and stats from Gallup (h/t to John Dearie) are still startling to me:

— The U.S. now ranks not first, not second, not third, but 12th among developed nations in terms of business startup activity. Countries such as Hungary, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Israel and Italy all have higher startup rates than America does.

American business deaths now outnumber business births. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the total number of new business startups and business closures per year — the birth and death rates of American companies — have crossed for the first time since the measurement began. I am referring to employer businesses, those with one or more employees, the real engines of economic growth. Four hundred thousand new businesses are being born annually nationwide, while 470,000 per year are dying.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

FOUNDER OF GREENPEACE: Why I am a Climate Change Skeptic

By Dr. Patrick Moore

I am skeptical humans are the main cause of climate change and that it will be catastrophic in the near future. There is no scientific proof of this hypothesis, yet we are told “the debate is over” and “the science is settled.”

My skepticism begins with the believers’ certainty they can predict the global climate with a computer model. The entire basis for the doomsday climate change scenario is the hypothesis increased atmospheric carbon dioxide due to fossil fuel emissions will heat the Earth to unlivable temperatures.

In fact, the Earth has been warming very gradually for 300 years, since the Little Ice Age ended, long before heavy use of fossil fuels. Prior to the Little Ice Age, during the Medieval Warm Period, Vikings colonized Greenland and Newfoundland, when it was warmer there than today. And during Roman times, it was warmer, long before fossil fuels revolutionized civilization.

The idea it would be catastrophic if carbon dioxide were to increase and average global temperature were to rise a few degrees is preposterous.

BLUE STATE UTOPIA: Chicago Public Schools Circle the Drain

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Chicago Public School system is facing a catastrophic penalty as a result of decades of borderline criminal Democrat fiscal mismanagement.

Chicago’s deep financial problems worsened Friday as a Wall Street bond-rating agency dramatically downgraded the credit of the city’s school system — triggering penalties that could come to more than $200 million.

...Chicago Public Schools is required to maintain a certain credit rating under the terms of complex debt “swap” deals with financial institutions. Failure to do so could activate termination clauses in the deals and CPS could have to make payments to the financial institutions.

Friday’s report from Fitch means CPS has dropped below the threshold for terminating the deals. According to Fitch, CPS could be forced to pay $263 million in penalties as a result...

...Even after closing a record number of schools, cutting administrative costs and raising property taxes, CPS has projected a budget deficit of more than $1 billion for the coming school year.

Interestingly, the Chicago Democrat machine is being torn asunder by the conflict between the unions and city leaders like Rahm Emanuel. Union leadership continues to fleece taxpayers while insisting that their unsustainable retirement benefits can be maintained. Emanuel, faced with these mathematical impossibilities, is suggesting that the unions must be reined in. Pass the popcorn.

Friday, March 20, 2015

As Relations With Israel Plummet To New Low, Obama Cuts Video for Iran Praising the Ayatollah

By Weasel Zippers


Anyone think it’s a coincidence Obama chose today to release his Nowruz message (it begins on the first day of spring)?


Who, then, is "treasonous"?


Read more at WeaselZippers.us

CHART: The Obama Islamic Threat Advisory System

Spotted at LiberalLogic101:


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

U.N. finally finds the worst abuser of women's rights and it's... Israel

By Sara Noble

It’s hard to understand why we allow the U.N. to take up the most expensive East River real estate in New York. They are an organization of anti-Israel and anti-American socialists, dictators and fascists.

This year they selected Israel as the worst abuser of women’s rights – of Palestinian women’s rights. Their selection was posted in a U.N. report titled, “Situation of and assistance to Palestinian women.” Forty-five states participated and only Israel and the U.S. opposed the censure. Thirteen members of the European Union abstained.

The U.N.’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) chose Israel out of 193 nations, which includes countries that allow women to be beaten by their husbands, women who need four witnesses to prove they’ve been raped, women who suffer sexual mutilation, and women who have to walk around covered up from head to toe.

They did not choose China with its millions of women who face forced abortions and sterilizations.

One of the members of the CSW is Iran where adultery is punishable by stoning and women who kill their rapists are executed. Women in Iran need the consent of their husbands to hold a job. An Iranian woman must not step beyond her house for her presence in society breeds sin. She must stay at home, serving her husband’s carnal desires and taking care of the household. Women of Iran can’t be judges and they can never be president. Harsher punishments are issued for women, their credibility as witnesses and inheritance rights are half those of men in Iran.

The CSW will say the alleged Israeli occupation prevents Palestinian women from advancing and becoming self-reliant. It’s not their religion and traditions. It’s the Jews' fault.

The Incredible Economic Benefits of Right-to-Work

By Richard Larsen

This week Wisconsin became the 25th state in the union to pass and sign into law so-called “right to work” legislation. Despite the pejorative light oftentimes associated with right to Work (RTW) laws, in reality all they do is proscribe the requirement that a worker join or pay dues to a union as a qualification for employment.

Unions often view laws removing compulsory union membership for work in the private sector as “anti-union,” while advocates of right to work laws maintain it’s a matter of personal liberty and economic freedom. They argue that workers in given trades or industries should have the option to choose whether to join a union or not. Arguably, if a union is doing a good job representing the interests of its members, it should not be threatened by the freedom to choose, as the benefits of union membership would be self-evident.

Even some union leadership supports such a sentiment.

BEFORE AND AFTER PICS: Lying Takes Its Toll

Relayed by Dan from New York:


Courtesy of @PC_GoneWild.


HEY, DEMOCRATS: Attack the GOP Using This One Weird Trick!

By Investor's Business Daily

Politics: Sen. Dick Durbin, who says Republicans have shoved attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch to the "back of the bus," once filibustered and opposed the GOP nominations of black and Latino appeals court judges.

Last week, Durbin accused Republicans of forcing Lynch, President Obama's African-American nominee to replace Eric Holder, to "sit in the back of the bus" until a vote on a controversial sex trafficking bill could be held.

That thinly veiled reference to the moment in 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to move from her seat in a Montgomery, Ala., bus was meant to paint Senate Republicans as racists. This came as news to Tim Scott, R-S.C., the first black elected to the Senate from the Deep South since reconstruction.

"It is helpful to have a long memory and remember that Dick Durbin voted against Condoleezza Rice during the 40th anniversary of the March (on Selma)," Scott noted.

"So I think, in context, it's just offensive that we have folks who are willing to race-bait on an issue as important as human trafficking."

Rice was the first African-American woman, and only the second woman, to serve as secretary of state. Durbin opposed her views on the Iraq war, which Durbin said were "just plain wrong." Opposition to Rice, who succeeded Colin Powell, was Durbin's privilege, but by his standards he was a racist for doing so.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

LEVIN: Mr. Obama, you reek of anti-semitism

The Right Scoop has the video and the transcript:

Eric Holder said that this nation is full of cowards because we won’t have a discussion about race.

Well I think this nation needs to have a discussion about what’s going on in this White House and this administration, about anti-Semitism.

Because this White House is reaching out to Sharpton, the Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR, all these radical nut jobs and groups.

Their policies which are — it’s not just Netanyahu. They’re willing to throw Israel over the side for the Islamo-regime in Tehran. This president’s former relationships with Khalidi, the professor at Columbia now, with Wright, the so-called reverend from Chicago — this president has a lot to answer for and his conduct is contemptible.

I don’t care how many liberal Democrat donors he has who are Jewish. He can hide behind them all he wants. But Mr. Holder, Mr. Obama, let’s have a national discussion about the anti-Semitism that reeks from your administration!

Mark Levin noted that Obama doesn't like Democracy, he doesn't like Netanyahu; he has more ability to work with dictators and genocidal maniacs than with people elected democratically.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Why does he ignore this one simple lesson from the Eighties?

By James Pethokoukis

President Obama pushed hard his “middle class economics” message during a Cleveland speech yesterday. And in the process, offered his take on recent US economic history:

For the first eight years of this century, before I came into office, we tried trickle-down economics. We slashed taxes for folks at the top, stripped out regulations, didn’t make investments in the things we know we need to grow. At the end of those eight years, we had soaring deficits, record job losses, an economy in crippling recession. In the years since then we’ve tried middle-class economics. Today we’ve got dramatically lower deficits, a record streak of job creation, an economy that’s steadily growing.

The president modified his usual argument just a bit to frame the economic battle as middle-out Obamanomics vs. trickle-down Bushonomics, But in the past, he has subtlety lumped Bushonomics in with Clintonomics and Reaganomics. All part of the same tax-cutting, regulation-slashing, neoliberal wave from 1981 through 2008 that overall benefited the 1% at the expense of everyone else.

Yet despite the president’s critique, many voters probably recall the 1980s and 1990s with great fondness. For instance: A 2014 Quinnippiac survey founds American consider Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton to be the best two postwar presidents.

What’s the matter with Kansas? What’s the matter with America?

Both Reagan and Clinton pushed deregulation. Both cut taxes for wealthier Americans. Yes, inequality rose. The share of market income going to the top 1% doubled from 1981 through 2001. But it was also a period when nonfarm payrolls increased by 42 million. The employment rate rose to 63% from 59%. Median incomes — when adjusted for transfers, taxes, benefits, and changing household size — rose by 30%. While the middle class shrank, it wasprimarily caused by more Americans climbing the economic ladder into upper-income brackets,” the New York Times recently noted. A recent Brookings study found that through the 1980s and 1990s, “households of virtually every type experienced large, steady income gains, whether they were headed by men or women, by blacks, whites or Hispanics, or by people with high school diplomas or college degrees.” Clearly there was a lot happening during those decades other than just the rich getting richer.

Obama's Iranian partners in peace endorse nuclear EMP attacks on U.S.

Yesterday, Iran's leaders were quoted as saying: "...a society steeped in the spirit of homicide bombings is unstoppable."

Today, we discovered that Iran plans to engage in a nuclear EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack on the U.S., which would effectively destroy the electric grid and kill tens of millions. Paul Bedard reports:

Suspected for years of plotting to dismantle the U.S. electric grid, American officials have confirmed that Iranian military brass have endorsed a nuclear electromagnetic pulse explosion that would attack the country's power system.

American defense experts made the discovery while translating a secret Iranian military handbook, raising new concerns about Tehran's recent nuclear talks with the administration...

The issue of a nuclear EMP attack was raised in the final hours of this week's elections in Israel when U.S. authority Peter Vincent Pry [warned] of Iran's threat to free nations... "Iranian military documents describe such a scenario — including a recently translated Iranian military textbook that endorses nuclear EMP attack against the United States," he wrote.

A knowledgeable source said that the textbook discusses an EMP attack on America in 20 different places.

Arizona Republican Rep. Trent Franks, who is leading an effort to protect the U.S. electric grid from an EMP attack, has recently made similar claims based on the document translated by military authorities.

Once sneered at by critics, recent moves by Iran and North Korea have given credibility to the potential EMP threat from an atmospheric nuclear explosion over the U.S.

Pry has suggested ways for Iran to deliver a nuclear attack: by ship launched off the East Coast, a missile or via satellite.

Either way the result could be destruction of all or part of the U.S. electric grid, robbing the public of power, computers, water and communications for potentially a year.

Such an attack would be horrific to contemplate. Let "Operation Starfish" paint the scenario for you, if you have the stomach.


Wednesday, March 18, 2015

THE BETRAYAL PAPERS: Colonized by the Muslim Brotherhood

NOTE: This essay is a supplement to the first four parts in a five-part series from the Qatar Awareness Campaign. Previously: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

This supplementary article puts Parts I-IV in some perspective. It’s a condensed version that attempts to paint a picture of the domestic problem in terms that are easily accessible to those who are not already deeply familiar with the issues. A variety of factors are explored, from Congressional complicity to the silence of the press.

Part V will be released next week.


The Betrayal Papers — And the Press Says Nothing…

The United States of America, primarily through the political left and Democrat Party, has been virtually colonized by the Muslim Brotherhood. Also known by their Arabic name, Ikhwan, they are a totalitarian, terrorist Islamic group that seeks our destruction because we are a free people.

We witness the Muslim Brotherhood’s planned destruction of America in many areas of contemporary life. A purposefully weak economy fails to produce the capitalist dynamism that has defined America for generations, and many millions remain unemployed. Abroad, the Muslim Brotherhood’s domination of American foreign policy instigated and backed the failed “Arab Spring,” which may ultimately result in Iranian domination of the Middle East. We feel their suffocating effects on our democracy every day, as our freedoms, traditions, opportunities, and rule of law slip away. The people suffer as prices continue to rise and the public sinks into a bottomless pit of debt.

The hostile, conquered government in Washington strangles our liberty each time Obama, like a self-crowned emperor, passes new regulatory laws without Congress.

OBAMA'S IRANIAN PARTNERS IN PEACE: "A society steeped in the spirit of homicide bombings is unstoppable"

What could possibly go wrong with the Obama-Kerry plan to appease Iran's march to secure nuclear weapons?

Iranian Leader Khamenei: A Society Steeped In The Spirit Of Martyrdom Is Unstoppable; Khamenei's Representative In IRGC Qods Force: We Shall Not Rest Until We Raise Flag Of Islam Over The White House


In statements on February 26, 2015, both Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Ali Shirazi, his representative in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) elite Qods Force, stressed the need to instill the values of jihad and martyrdom in Iranian society, and reiterated the ideological principles of the Islamic Revolution – enmity towards the U.S. and opposition to American hegemony and the existing world order.

At a closed meeting, Khamenei urged daily dissemination of the culture of martyrdom and jihad in society, and enshrining it as an eternal truth and as a necessary sacrifice on the path towards long-term goals. He explained that this would inoculate Iranian society against defeat, rendering its enemies unable to halt its progress. He also stressed Iran's role as the standard bearer of opposition to the existing world order, and as a country that could stand fast against the U.S. despite the latter's technological advantages, thanks to its revolution that relies on God's support.

Ali Shirazi, speaking at a ceremony attended by families of martyrs, emphasized that Iran would persist in fighting the U.S. until it had "rais[ed] the banner of Islam over the White House." He too praised the culture of martyrdom as a supreme value, and noted that it had spread to many countries in the Islamic world, including Nigeria, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Yemen. This, he said, showed that the Islamic Revolution had penetrated deep into these countries and had become a model for emulation across the region. Shirazi added that Iran was determined to avenge the January 18, 2015 killing in Quneitra of IRGC Gen. Mohammed 'Ali Allahdadi and the Hizbullah commanders, and that Hizbullah's operation against Israel in late January 2015 was only the beginning of this vengeance.

In a 2009 post entitled "The Atomic Mahdi", I described the historical background underpinning Iran's race to acquire nuclear weapons:

The Little Pantsuit That Couldn't (Tell the Truth)

By Investor's Business Daily

Emailgate: The refusal of State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki to answer a simple yes or no question — did Hillary Clinton sign separation form OF-109? — is proof of a cover-up of a felony by the former secretary of state.

You'd think that if Clinton didn't sign separation form OF-109 or was not asked to, the State Department and Team Hillary would have just said so.

After all, it would be easier to deflect questions about getting special treatment than acknowledging the committing of a felony by essentially lying under oath with the false claim that you have returned all government materials in your possession, including your emails.

As former DOJ lawyer Shannen Coffin first pointed out, OF-109 is more than a promise that you have not absconded with some office supplies.

It's meant as a reminder that you can't take your work product with you, and that the employee is required to sign under penalty of perjury something akin to the threat of prosecution that looms just above the signature line on your Form 1040 at tax time.