Floyd Reports opines: The chief congressional investigators of Operation Fast and Furious released explosive testimony from the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) that they say indicates the Obama administration tried to stonewall Congress, deny witnesses the ability to testify freely, and fire employees who refused to conceal damning information. According to acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson not only did the Justice Department play fast-and-loose with Fast and Furious, but other government agencies may have known – and funded – the straw purchasers the ATF program was designed to catch. The agency’s investigation, which has resulted in at least two deaths, may have been entirely unnecessary.
Scorn on the Fourth of July
Congressman Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley
sent a joint letter to Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday, revealing that Melson gave a transcribed interview on the Fourth of July, with only his personal lawyer present. The news must have come as a shock to Holder. Melson’s testimony had been scheduled to take place July 13, with Melson’s counsel
and Obama administration lawyers from the DoJ and ATF taking part.
According to the letter, Melson testified that the administration had not informed him of his legal right “to attend a voluntary interview with [his] own lawyer… rather than participate with counsel representing the Department’s interests.”
Justice Department officials directed them not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress. The result is that Congress only got the parts of the story that the Department wanted us to hear.
Catherine Papoi of the Department of Homeland Security. Papoi
testified that Obama officials are “breaking the law by knowingly and intentionally delaying and obstructing the release of agency records” after Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
http://floydreports.com/whistleblower-testifies-obama-obstructed-fast-and-furious-investigation/
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The New York Post quotes more from the letter to Obama from Congress: "It is one thing to argue that the ends justify the means in an attempt to defend a policy that puts building a big case ahead of stopping known criminals from getting guns. Yet it is a much more serious matter to conceal from
Congress the possible involvement of other agencies in identifying and maybe even working with the same criminals that Operation Fast and Furious was trying to identify."
Law-abiding gun owners and dealers think they already know [what the purpose might be of having this failed program]. With the Obama administration wedded to the fiction that 90 percent of the guns Mexican cartels use originate
here -- they don't -- many suspect that "Fast and Furious" was a backdoor attempt to smear
domestic gun aficionados as part of its stealth efforts on
gun control by executive fiat.
"I just want you to know that we're working on it," Obama was quoted as saying to gun-control advocate
Sarah Brady in March. "We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar."
Unfortunately for the administration, this one's out in the open now.
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American Thinker opines: By now, the word is probably spreading like wildfire on the country's Spanish language radio stations that cater to illegal immigrants. Get pregnant, or conceive a child with your spouse or significant other, and you likely won't be deported.
Already have a child? Bring them here to America illegally. If you can prove you are the guardian of a minor, the government will likely take deportation off the table.
It's all part of what appears to be a new Obama Administration plan to incentivize illegal immigrants not just to come to America, but to stay, have and expand families, and put down roots that will hold them here.
It was widely reported last week that the Obama Administration used executive fiat to pass the DREAM ACT, which allows illegal immigrants brought here as children to stay. But the administration actually went much further than that. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) memo virtually decreed that it is now immigration enforcement policy in this country not to deport anyone except those with violent criminal histories. And even those with criminal histories may be eligible for a pass on deportation because their histories will be considered on a case by case basis, according to the memo. [Who needs Congress any more?]
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/07/ice_memo_reveals_new_obama_administration_plan_to_incentivize_illegal_immigrants.html
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Daily Caller writes: Agenda 21 is a UN initiative that 178 governments at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of saving the environment. It bills itself as a coordinated plan of action to help nations and local government ensure “sustainability.”
“Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment,” the U.N. website explains.
While the aim sounds innocent enough, Tea Partiers argue that it is just a means to an end. The end, they say, is the usurpation of American sovereignty, a planned economy and redistribution of the wealth.
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Judicial Watch reports: While the Obama Administration halts deportations to work on its secret amnesty plan, hospitals across the U.S. are getting stuck with the exorbitant tab of medically treating illegal immigrants and some are finally demanding compensation from the federal government. The group that represents most of the nation’s hospitals and medical providers recently urged President Obama to work with Congress to reimburse them for the monstrous cost of treating illegal immigrants. Federal law requires facilities to “treat and stabilize individuals” regardless of their immigration status, but federal support for the services remains “virtually nonexistent,” according to a letter submitted by the American Hospital Association to the president. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: Across Atlanta Public Schools, staff worked feverishly in secret to transform testing failures into successes.
Teachers and principals erased and corrected mistakes on students’ answer sheets.
Area superintendents silenced whistle-blowers and rewarded subordinates who met academic goals by any means possible.
Superintendent Beverly Hall and her top aides ignored, buried, destroyed or altered complaints about misconduct, claimed ignorance of wrongdoing and accused naysayers of failing to believe in poor children’s ability to learn.
For years — as long as a decade — this was how the Atlanta school district produced gains on state curriculum tests.
http://www.ajc.com/news/investigation-into-aps-cheating-1001375.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Washington Times reports: It was an awkward moment, to say the least. Testifying before a
House Appropriations subcommittee, President Obama’s science adviser,
John P. Holdren, was describing the Obama administration’s ongoing discussions with
China to develop joint space projects.
Problem is, a law Mr. Obama had signed just weeks before prohibits
NASA or Mr.
Holdren's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from engaging in any bilateral activities with
China.
When challenged (“Do you understand the meaning of the word ‘prohibits’?”)
Mr. Holdren asserted on advice of counsel that the president was construing the law as consistent with his inherent constitutional authority to conduct negotiations (lawyer-speak for “You can’t tell us what is off limits”).
here are two schools of thought about space cooperation with
China, each with its own self-fulfilling prophecy:
c The Chinese are determined to steal our technology and get ahead militarily at our expense, so any cooperative space projects are a lose-lose for us. (The national security realists.)
c Chinese espionage will succeed no matter what we do, so we might as well get what we can out of cooperative projects. (The science and technology “realists.”)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jul/6/working-with-china-opens-door-to-espionage/?page=all#pagebreak
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Daily Caller writes: Much has been made of President Barack Obama’s repeated demonizing of corporate jets and the people who fly on them in his June 29th press conference.
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPO) President Craig Fuller told The Daily Caller that Obama’s comments have cast a pall over the industry, causing many who were considering buying a plane to back away from making a purchase.
“The industry has suffered terribly in the last two and a half years and it has just started to recover. Most of the signs were starting to look good,” said Fuller. “We are so angry as an
industry and we have all come together to try to bring a more fair and balanced description to the debate.”
[Contrary to what our President repeatedly says, he is most effective when killing jobs, not creating them.]
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