Former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke (AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) – Dennis K. Burke, who as a lawyer for the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 1990s was a key player behind the enactment of the 1994 assault-weapons ban, and who then went on to become Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano’s chief of staff, and a contributor to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential primary campaign, and then a member of Obama’s transition team focusing on border-enforcement issues, ended up in the Obama administration as the U.S. attorney in Arizona responsible for overseeing Operation Fast and Furious.
When Obama nominated Burke to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, Burke told the Arizona Capitol Times he believed he understood what the president and his attorney general wanted him to do.
“There’s clearly been direction provided already by President Obama and Attorney General Holder as to what they want to be doing, and this is an office that is at the center of the issues of border enforcement,” said Burke.
First it was a penalty. Then it was a tax. Now it’s a penalty again. [Flippidy-Floppidy]
The war of words over what to call the fine attached to the federal health care overhaul’s most controversial provision continued Friday, as the White House took issue with the Supreme Court’s argument — even though that argument alone spared President Obama’s law.
The five-justice majority argued that, while the fine imposed by the law for not buying health insurance would otherwise be unconstitutional, the fine is actually legal under Congress’ authority to tax.
Ergo, the fine is officially a “tax” in the eyes of the court. The law stands.
But in a case of biting the hand that feeds, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Friday the fine is still just a “penalty.”
Although no one knows how the Supreme Court will rule, Thursday, on ObamaCare, journalists over the past few months have dismissed and derided the concept that the President’s signature legislation could be declared unconstitutional. CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin predicted an eight-to-one vote upholding the law. Former New York Times Court reporter Linda Greenhouse said that Americans who think the law is unconstitutional are “wrong.”
Appearing on the March 23 Situation Room, Toobin hyped, “I actually think that Chief Justice Roberts and perhaps even Justice Scalia and Justice Alito might join Justice Kennedy in upholding the law.” He added, “In striking this law down, it would really be a big change in constitutional law, and I’m not sure this court is ready to do it.”
On March 19, Toobin appeared on Starting Point and rejected the anti-ObamaCare argument as “weak”:
ANCHOR SOLEDAD O’BRIEN: So the bottom line is, is making people buy health insurance a legitimate use of the power of Congress?
JEFFREY TOOBIN: Correct, and the challengers in these laws have said, ‘No, this is not something Congress can do.’ What I wrote in The New Yorker this week, what I think is that basically that is a really weak argument, in that the United States Congress has been regulating health care for years, has been involved in this market for years, and this is a perfectly ordinary use of Congress’s power.
(Once he heard oral arguments, Toobin reversed himself. The journalist declared the Obama position a “train wreck” and suggested it would be shot down.)
Officials in Stockton, California had until 11:59 p.m. on Monday to reach a deal to restructure the city’s debt to avoid bankruptcy under a new California mediation law. That deadline has passed and, according to the Associated Press, a Stockton spokesperson said what happened in those negotiations was confidential and would not be announced until Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, where members will meet to potentially discuss and vote on a plan to restructure their debt, according to The Fresno Bee.
If Stockton city officials failed to gain concessions, mainly from public sector employees and their representatives, the city manager will file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy on Wednesday, making Stockton the largest U.S. city to be in bankruptcy.
According to the Bee, the city already made drastic cuts to the public sector but previous “multi-year labor contracts for city workers with escalating costs and generous retirement plans” prevented the city from digging out of its fiscal hole.
Another city in California, Vallejo, filed for bankruptcy and is getting back its fiscal solvency by, as Walter Russell Mead has written, ditching the “blue model” of expensive labor contracts and unsustainable pensions.
It is something Stockton should be aware of. But, as Mead has also noted, the time to ditch the “blue model” before the city is a step away from falling off the fiscal cliff.
Barack Hussein Obama has decided that in order to punish Arizona for having dared enforce American immigration laws, he has ordered his federal agencies to basically stop working with Arizona’s law enforcement agencies concerning illegal immigrants. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr has also made it known as the nations chief law enforcement officer that he too is only going to selectively enforce immigration laws that he personally likes. More to the point, Holder will only enforce what is beneficial to his boss’s re-election campaign. If I’m not mistaken, this attitude by both men is blatantly UNCONSTITUTIONAL and falls under the heading of “high crimes and misdemeanors’, an IMPEACHABLE offense!
Mr. Obama, how in the world can you look at the people of Arizona and tell them that YOU are not willing to give them EQUAL PROTECTION under the laws of the United States? Brian Terry, an American Border Patrol Agent, was shot in the back 18 miles INSIDE the border of the United States! Jaime Zapata, an ICE agent, was also killed because of an illegally run and botched program known as Fast & Furious. Being an accomplice to murder, Mr. Obama, is a crime punishable by prison time. Maybe you and Mr Holder could share a cell? Anyway, I digress…..again!
My feelings are, Mr. Obama, that you should be impeached before any more American and Mexican bodies pile up because of your insanity. Mr. Holder should be found guilty of contempt of Congress and charged with negligent homicide in the cases of the two dead federal agents. You and Holder should also have to face justice in the death of the Arizona rancher and others who were killed by your illegal compadres coming across our borders and onto American’s rightfully-owned land. I have an idea for a reverse gun walking program that I would like to run called “Slow & Deliberate”! It’s a program whereby I legally get to use federal funds to LEGALLY buy guns from LEGAL gun shop owners and arm American citizens to help guard the American border from the intrusion of illegals from everywhere. No problems, no paperwork, no questions! All neat, tidy, and LEGAL!
As the ObamaCare decision looms large on the horizon, the Left is doing their best to defame the Supreme Court in anticipation of a defeat of the president signature legislative accomplishment.In the past two days, liberal journalists Michael Tomasky and James Fallows have published histrionic tirades at their respective publications, the Daily Beast/Newsweek and The Atlantic.
The Obama campaign is so frightened at this point that they have taken an unprecedented step.
They’re telling the truth.
In the latest of the “personal” e-mails that the Obama campaign is sending out, they don’t sugarcoat their appeal for money with saccharine stories about Obama shoveling snow for his wife, or working hard late into the night. They panic:
For the first time in modern American history, the incumbent (that’s us) will get outspent in a re-election campaign — by some estimates as much as 3-to-1.
Over the last 10 days of this month alone, GOP outside groups will spend $20 million attacking President Obama on TV.
Think about that, then think about what they’ll spend over the last 10 days in October.
We have to take this seriously. Four months to go in this election, and we have a huge fundraising deadline coming up in less than a week — any day we’re not chipping away at that disadvantage, we’re falling behind.
We all know “The MOST Interesting Man in the World.” Long greying beard, a lot of girlfriends. He doesn’t always drink beer, but when he does, etc., etc.
But the LEAST – it’s a more difficult decision. So PJ Media and PJTV set out on a search a few weeks ago, just about the time the RightChange crew was working on “The Most ARROGANT Man in the World,” and, lo and behold, we both came up with the same person.
Arrogant? Uninteresting? Somehow they go together.
Anyway, here’s “The LEAST Interesting Man in the World” — PJ Media/PJTV version. (Feel free to suggest new versions in the comments — the possibilities are endless. Who knows — PJTV may use your suggestions for a sequel. Or make it yourself and we’ll link.)
While the White House, Eric Holder, and the liberal talking heads continue blaming Bush for the Obama administrations fumbles in the Fast and Furious gun walking operation gone bad, they cannot see the distinct difference between operation Wide Receiver and operation Fast and Furious. The differences are fairly profound and distinct.
The main differences are these: Wide Receiver involved Phoenix-based ATF agents, working with Mexican law enforcement in an attempt to build a case against violent Mexican drug smugglers. Fast and Furious on the other hand was an effort to make a case against American gun dealers and the Second Amendment of the United States. Both were orchestrated by their respective administrations with completely different goals. One was to go after criminals and the other was to go after the Constitution and law abiding citizens.
President Barack Obama has taken the Hispanic vote for granted, according to Mitt Romney in a much-anticipated speech to the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) in Florida on Thursday.
“He’s taking your vote for granted,” Romney said of Obama. “I’ve come here today with a simple message: You do have an alternative. Your vote should be respected.”
Romney was referring to Obama’s inaction on immigration even though Democrats were in the majority in the House and Senate when he became president.
Romney said Obama, because he cannot sell his economic policies that have left more Latinos (11% as opposed to 8%) unemployed than the general population, will simply tell Hispanics that “things could be worse” and “imply that you really don’t have an alternative.”
BAIL REVOKED: Sandusky Heads To Center County Correctional Facility
BELLEFONTE, Pa. (CBS/AP) —Jerry Sandusky showed little emotion as the jury in child sex abuse trial read the verdict finding him “guilty” on 45 counts and “not guilty” on three. The judge immediately revoked his bail and he was handcuffed and sent to the Center County Correctional Facility.
“The Sandusky family is very disappointed obviously by the verdict of the jury but we respect their verdict, said defense attorney Joe Amendola. “We have some appeal issues, we’ll pursue.”
The 68-year-old former Penn State assistant football coach fought 48 counts that accused him of abusing 10 boys over 15 years.
Word of a verdict broke at about 9:30 p.m. and a court official alerted the media it would be returned at about 9:50 p.m. The courtroom was closed by the time the jury and attorneys assembled for the verdict, and no one was be allowed to leave until court until it was adjourned, the judge said in a court order earlier in the week. The verdict was read count by count. Media was barred from transmitting any results of the verdict until adjournment, with the judge promising sanctions for any reporter or media organization violating his order and jurors did not grant any post-trial interviews.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney surged ahead of President Barack Obama in fundraising for the first time last month — and a senior Obama adviser concedes that Obama will be the first incumbent president to be out-raised by his opponent.
Romney’s campaign and the Republican Party together raised more than $76 million in May, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission, while Obama and the Democrats brought in $60 million.
Obama campaign officials predict that Romney will also outdo Obama and the Democrats in June with a $100 million haul.
“I think Romney is going to continue to have big months,” an Obama campaign official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters. “Combine that with the Super PAC stuff, and we are going to be the first incumbent outspent. That’s clear.”
Senior advisers in the Obama campaign told The New York Times that Romney and groups supporting him will spend $1.25 billion on television advertising.
“Republicans are betting they can win this thing on the air,” one adviser said. “Make no mistake, we will be outspent.”
On Wednesday, Romney enjoyed what campaign officials described as his single best day of fundraising yet, taking in between $6 million and $8 million during a swing through Michigan.
‘It was liberalism on parade. It’s who these people are’
Radio giant Rush Limbaugh is coming down hard on the Obama administration’s “Fast and Furious” operation today, calling it “liberalism on parade” in a misguided attempt to promote stricter gun control in America.
“The whole point of Fast and Furious was to create mayhem in Mexico among drug cartels with American-made weapons easily procured so that you and I would stand up in outrage and demand tighter gun laws,” Limbaugh said.
“It was deceitful. It was sneaky. It was going against the will of the American people. It was liberalism on parade. It’s who these people are. They want tighter gun laws.”
The White House today tried to undercut a congressional investigation of the scandal in which the Department of Justice allowed guns to be sold and delivered to Mexican drug cartels by announcing tens of thousands of documents were covered by executive privilege.
NEXT STEP: THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WILL VOTE FOR A RESOLUTION TO UPHOLD CONTEMPT CITATION; if upheld, CIVIL CRIMINAL PROCEDURES FOLLOW.
A House panel voted Wednesday in favor of holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, a move that inflamed partisan rancor on Capitol Hill and sets up the possibility of legal action against the attorney general himself.
Holder has not yet been formally held in contempt of Congress. The full House would still need to approve the resolution in order for that to happen — Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., afterward told Fox News that such a floor vote can still be avoided.
But the 23-17 party-line vote on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee marked a significant turn in lawmakers’ 16-month investigation into the botched anti-gunrunning operation Fast and Furious. With the vote, Republicans on the committee signaled they had exhausted all other means to extract sought-after documents from the Justice Department — though Democrats had insisted there was still an opportunity to sort out the mess without a contempt vote.
“We and the American people need answers sooner, not later,” said Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the committee.
Photo: AP – Does Mitt Romney have the full backing of the queen mama grizzly?
While Sarah Palin has made it concretely clear that she’s opposed to President Barack Obama’s re-election, the former governor of Alaska has not yet offered a formal endorsement of the presumptive Republican nominee for president.
Palin — the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, who admitted to voting for Newt Gingrich during the GOP primary — said earlier this year that she would support Romney “100 percent” if he became the nominee.
But she hasn’t been very enthusiastic about supporting the former Massachusetts governor since he clinched the nod.
“I honestly believe that anybody running on a GOP ticket would be infinitely better than what we have today, with these failed socialist policies,” Palin said on NBC’s “Today” show in April — after it was clear that Romney would be the nominee.
GOP Rep. Darrell Issa said his face-to-face meeting Tuesday with Attorney General Eric Holder failed to produce the documents requested for the congressional investigation into the Justice Department’s botched Fast and Furious gun walking operation and suggested he needs them by Wednesday morning to stop a scheduled vote to put Holder in contempt of Congress.
Issa told reporters after the roughly 20-minute meeting that Holder instead briefed them on the documents in lieu of delivering them. And he suggested he might delay the contempt vote, called for because Holder and the department have not responded to two subpoenas requesting additional information.
“The deadline will always move to the last minute,” said Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “We’re not looking to hold people responsible. We’re looking for document production.”
Issa also acknowledged being “disappointed” that he and Holder could not reach a deal that would stop the contempt vote.
The failed Fast and Furious operation attempted to selling thousands of guns to arms dealers along the U.S.-Mexico border to trace them to leaders of drug cartel. However, many of them showed up in crimes scenes, including where U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed in a shoot out.
Accused Penn State pedophile Jerry Sandusky came off a lot creepier in that exclusive sitdown with NBC last November than anyone knew, but the Peacock Network oddly chose not to air what sounds a lot like an admission of guilt — and now prosecutors want the whole transcript.
“I didn’t go around seeking out every young person for sexual needs that I’ve helped,” Sandusky told Costas in footage that never made the November airing.
“I didn’t go around seeking out every young person for sexual needs that I’ve helped.”
- Jerry Sandusky, in unaired portion of NBC interview FoxNews Video
The disturbing answer first came to light when NBC’s “Today” show aired previously unseen transcripts last Tuesday. That prompted prosecutors from the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office to contact NBC lawyers on Friday to request that the network turn over and authenticate the entire transcript from the interview that was used to tape the segment that aired on the news program, “Rock Center with Brian Williams.”
The unaired segment includes a back-and-forth between Costas and Sandusky about his work with young people through his charity for troubled kids, the Second Mile.
NBC’s Nightly News on Friday offered a one-sided segment touting Barack Obama’s decision to lift the threat of deportation to young people who came to America illegally. The Pete Williams report featured six clips of individuals or groups thrilled by the reaction, only two against and one nuanced response by Mitt Romney. The other networks followed a similar pattern.
Williams began by touting, “Young people covered by the new policy cheered the announcement outside the White House.” An unidentified woman enthused, “I can’t describe it. It’s so amazing. I’m so happy.” A crowd in front of the White House chanted, “Yes, we did! Yes, we did! Yes, we did! Yes, we did!”
The NBC correspondent’s segment was heavily weighted with people who applauded the decision:
JANET NAPOLITANO (Homeland Security Secretary): They’ve grown up here, they speak the language here, they’ve stayed out of trouble here. They’re getting their education here. They have wonderful talents to contribute to our country.
‘Their citizenship is not something … we would not have any way of knowing that’
A nationwide voter-registration effort encouraging participation by minorities effectively is encouraging noncitizens to vote.
The Washington, D.C.-based Voter Participation Center is using large mailing lists from commercial and nonprofit organizations to send voter registration forms to people they believe have been underrepresented in the political process.
“The mission of the VPC is to boost the civic engagement of unmarried women, people of color and 18-29 year olds – the three demographic groups who comprise the Rising American Electorate,” the VPC says.
“These Americans make up 53 percent of the voting-eligible population and are responsible for almost all of the U.S. population growth in recent years, but were only 42 percent of the 2010 electorate and 47 percent in 2008,” the organization explains.
(CNSNews.com) -Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the administration’s new program for young illegal immigrants is “not amnesty” despite the fact that it will remove them from the deportation process.
The program, announced Friday, would grant as many as 800,000 younger illegal immigrants immunity from deportation and allow them to qualify for federal work permits.
Relations between Bill Clinton and Barack Obama appear strained.
My, my, my. Is it my imagination, or are things starting to get a bit testy between the most popular former Democratic President in America, Bill Clinton, and the current occupant of the White House?
There’s been a rumor floating around Washington for weeks that the Clintons and President Barack Obama are going to cut a deal to make Hillary Clinton the Vice Presidential candidate. Joe Biden would plead health reasons for stepping down, and Hillary Clinton would resign as Secretary of State to run in the No. 2 slot. This would give the Democrats a much stronger ticket for 2012 — and Hillary Clinton a virtual lock to be the Democratic nominee four years from now.
It’s a juicy tidbit, but I don’t believe it for a moment. I suspect Dick Morris was much closer to the truth when he appeared on Sean Hannity’s TV program last week. The glee was obvious in his voice when the Republican pundit declared, “Bill Clinton does not want Barack Obama to win.”
The Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus, Angela Rye, claims that Barack Obama’s first term has languished because of racially motivated opposition from conservatives who don’t like having a black president.
Appearing on CPAN, Rye said, “I think that a lot of what the president has experienced is because he’s black. You know, whether it’s questioning his intellect or whether or not he’s Ivy League,” she continued. It’s always either he’s not educated enough or he’s too educated; or he’s too black or he’s not black enough; he’s too Christian or not Christian enough. There are all these things where he has to walk this very fine line to even be successful.”
“There’s an ad, talking about the president is too cool, is he too cool? And there’s this music that reminds me of, you know, some of the blaxploitation films from the 70s playing in the background, him with his sunglasses,” Rye said. “And to me it was just very racially-charged. They weren’t asking if Bush was too cool, but, yet, people say that that’s the number one person they’d love to have a beer with. So, if that’s not cool I dont know what is.”
The director claims that she has no idea if black support and enthusiasm is lower since 2008. She also didn’t mention the Obama campaign’s own urban styled radio spot.
In 2010, former President Bill Clinton made a statement that President Obama would probably rather not be reminded of today. “The Democrats are saying something like this: ‘We found a big hole that we did not dig. We didn’t get it filled in 21 months, but at least we quit digging,’” Clinton said “‘Give us two more years. If it doesn’t work, vote us out.’”
President Obama famously told NBC News’ Matt Lauer that his presidency would be a “one term proposition” if his policies did not turn the economy around by 2012.
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The Scripture Call for God’s People:
II Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
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Fool Me Twice: Obama’s Shocking Plans for the Next Four Years Exposed
Former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke (AP Photo)
First it was a penalty. Then it was a tax. Now it’s a penalty again. [Flippidy-Floppidy]
On March 19, Toobin appeared on Starting Point and rejected the anti-ObamaCare argument as “weak”:
Posted CWN: June 23, 2012
out-raised by his opponent.
The NBC correspondent’s segment was heavily weighted with people who applauded the decision:
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