Systemic Leaks Of Defense Secrets From NASA’s Ames Research Center, Investigation By FBI Being Stonewalled By Government There are so many scandals in the Obama administration, it is often hard to keep up. This one needs much more attention. Via Fox News: A four-year FBI investigation into the transfer of classified weapons technology to China and other countries from NASA’s Ames Research Center is being stonewalled by government officials, sources tell FoxNews.com. Documents obtained by FoxNews.com, which summarize these and other allegations and were given to congressional sources last week by a whistle-blower, described how a “secret grand jury” was to be convened in February 2011 to hear testimony from informants in the case, including a senior NASA engineer. But federal prosecutor Gary Fry was removed from the case, which was then transferred from one office in the Northern District of California to another where, according to the documents, “this case now appears to be stalled.” “The information is staggering,” the whistle-blower told FoxNews.com. A Justice Department spokesman on Thursday told FoxNews.com it “does not comment on grand jury proceedings,” as a matter of longstanding policy. Fry, reached for comment late Thursday, also would not confirm or deny the claim. The claims originate with several past and current NASA employees concerned with the systemic leak of highly sensitive information relating to missile defense systems, as well as what they call a troubled investigation into the leak. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/22/nasa-missile-defense-tech-leaked-to-china-sources-say/#ixzz2LpEv1ox5
Cigarette tax jumps up $1 a pack in Chicago Home - by Cardigan - March 1, 2013 - 21:00 America/New_York - 16 Comments STLToday CHICAGO • Taxes on cigarettes sold in Cook County are going up by one dollar a pack. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle says the tax, which takes effect Friday, is expected to generate more than $25 million annually for the Cook County Health and Hospitals System. She says higher taxes also will help lower smoking rates, including by discouraging people from starting. The price of a pack of cigarettes could be near $11 in Chicago, $6.67 of which is city, county and state taxes. Only New York City — at $6.86 in taxes — slaps on higher taxes. Cook County’s Department of Public Health will begin an anti-smoking campaign later this month aimed at youth. It will include television advertising and placards on buses and at bus shelters. Preckwinkle says the county Revenue Department will hire more staff to help stop tobacco smuggling and tax evasion. BTW- California just raised the tax on gasoline by another 10% per gallon...
More business for Indiana! Bobda used to drive across the Michigan-Indiana state line to buy his cigs.
Documents Show DHS Built Domestic Surveillance Into Drones-Can Track Cell Phones, ID If Citizens Are Armed Via CNET: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57572207-38/dhs-built-domestic-surveillance-tech-into-predator-drones/ The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has customized its Predator drones, originally built for overseas military operations, to carry out at-home surveillance tasks that have civil libertarians worried: identifying civilians carrying guns and tracking their cell phones, government documents show. The documents provide more details about the surveillance capabilities of the department’s unmanned Predator B drones, which are primarily used to patrol the United States’ northern and southern borders, but have been pressed into service on behalf of a growing number of law enforcement agencies including the FBI, the Secret Service, the Texas Rangers, and local police. Homeland Security’s specifications for its drones, built by San Diego-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, say they “shall be capable of identifying a standing human being at night as likely armed or not,” meaning carrying a shotgun or rifle. They also specify “signals interception” technology that can capture communications in the frequency ranges used by mobile phones, and “direction finding” technology that can identify the locations of mobile devices or two-way radios. The Electronic Privacy Information Center obtained a partially redacted copy of Homeland Security’s requirements for its drone fleet through the Freedom of Information Act and published it this week. CNET unearthed an unredacted copy of the requirements that provides additional information about the aircraft’s surveillance capabilities.
Administration Approves Chinese Company’s Takeover Of Oil Deposits, Windfall To Obama Donors If any of the multiple scandals from the Obama administration had occurred on a Republican watch, we’d be in multiple hearings now. Via WFB: The government watchdog group Judicial Watch is suing the Treasury Department for records pertaining to the department’s decision to grant a Chinese government-backed company access to oil deposits in the Gulf of Mexico, a move that will benefit Obama donors. The Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) reached a “definitive agreement” with Nexen, Inc., a Canadian energy company, announced on July 23, 2012, to buy all of the company’s outstanding public shares. Nexen has holdings in the Gulf of Mexico and Canada, giving the Chinese government access to millions of barrels of Keystone XL and Gulf reserve oil. Nexen’s holdings in the Gulf, coupled with the Chinese government’s ownership of CNOOC, meant the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States had to approve the takeover, which it did on Feb. 12. The secretaries of several major executive departments—including treasury, state, defense, and homeland security—sit on the committee. Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request for information on the deal in November, but the Treasury Department did not reply within the mandatory 20 days. Judicial Watch then filed suit on Feb. 14 to get access to the documents. Judicial Watch noted that several prominent fundraisers and donors to President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign stood to make a windfall profit from the Chinese corporation’s expansion in their press release announcing the suit. http://freebeacon.com/china-deal-benefits-obama-donors/
Breaking: Inspector General Report on Racialist Dysfunction inside DOJ Home - by Cardigan - March 12, 2013 - 20:53 America/New_York - 5 Comments PJ Media Today the Department of Justice inspector general released a report on potential Labor secretary nominee Tom Perez’s DOJ Civil Rights Division. The timing of the release to coincide with his nomination was certainly accidental, because the report paints a damning portrait of the DOJ unit he managed. The full report is here. The 250-page report offers an inside glimpse of systemic racialist dysfunction inside one of the most powerful federal government agencies. The report was prepared in response to Representative Frank Wolf’s (R-VA) outrage over the New Black Panther voter intimidation dismissal. In response to the report, Rep. Wolf said today, the “report makes clear that the division has become a rat’s nest of unacceptable and unprofessional actions, and even outright threats against career attorneys and systemic mismanagement.” Former Voting Section Chief Chris Coates and I both testified about the hostility towards race-neutral law enforcement by the Justice Department. Today’s report paints a disgusting portrait, confirming our accounts. Chris Coates, in response to today’s report: As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by the Obama administration in 2009, the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ was not enforcing the voting laws in a race-neutral manner, contrary to the Constitutional guarantees of equal protection. That pattern of racially selective enforcement of the voting laws must stop. I hope that the IG report facilitates that needed reform. Though the report took almost four years to complete, it was worth the wait. Though the report commenced as an investigation into the New Black Panther dismissal, seemingly every rock the investigators turned over resulted in more creatures fleeing the sunshine. The final report captures a range of outrageous conduct, including the following examples: – “Numerous witnesses told us that there was widespread opposition to the Noxubee case among the Voting Section career staff.” Noxubee was a case in which white voters were victimized. – DOJ employees opposed the bringing of a case against a black defendant to help white victims in Noxubee County, Mississippi. The report: “Coates and other career attorneys told the OIG that they were aware of comments by some Voting Section attorneys indicating that the Noxubee case should have never been brought because White citizens were not historical victims of discrimination or could fend for themselves. Indeed, two career Voting Section attorneys told us that, even if the Department had infinite resources, they still would not have supported the filing of the Noxubee case because it was contrary to the purpose of the Voting Rights Act, which was to ensure that minorities who had historically been the victims of discrimination could exercise the right to vote.” MORE http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/
More Than A Third Of Illegal Immigrant Detainees Released By Feds In Arizona Over Sequester Cuts Were Convicted Criminals… The Obama administration better pray one of these thugs doesn’t murder or rape someone after they released him. (AZ Central) — More than a third of the 342 illegal immigrants released from detention facilities in Arizona last month were convicted criminals, and one of them was categorized as a Level 1 offender, the highest risk, according to data released by the federal government Friday. The new information also showed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released more people in the state than the 303 originally indicated by ICE, and for higher-level offenses, said Matthew Benson, spokesman for Gov. Jan Brewer. “This has become a moving target in terms of information provided by the federal government from the very start,” Benson said. ICE officials refused to provide additional details about the criminal background of the Level 1 offender released in Arizona or to say why that person was released. Benson said the agency so far has refused to provide all the information Brewer requested in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on March 1. Some Republicans also said the release of immigration detainees could hurt bipartisan efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform this year that includes a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants The figures for Arizona were announced a day after ICE Director John Morton testified during a House subcommittee hearing that, nationally, 2,228 illegal immigrants were released during a three-week period beginning Feb. 9, far more than the several hundred people ICE officials originally said were released.
Obama Chief Of Staff: “We’re Going To Find The Votes” To Pass Assault Weapons Ban… Cue the Chicago goon squad. Via WaPo: White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said in an interview Tuesday that Senate Democrats’ decision to introduce a gun control bill that doesn’t include an assault weapons ban does not constitute a setback for President Obama’s gun control efforts. In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, McDonough said the bill can still be brought up as an amendment and that there should still be a concerted effort to pass it. “We’re going to work on this. We’re going to find the votes,” McDonough said, according to a transcript. “And it deserves a vote and let’s see if we can get it done.” The prospects for the assault weapons ban have never been good, even in the Senate, where Democrats have the majority. In announcing that it would likely not be part of the Senate’s package earlier today, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) spoke as if the effort was over and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the ban was very far from the level of support needed for passage.
It's an ill wind... http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/08/government-report-finds-taxpayer-money-getting-blown-away-by-wind/
Daughter of former Obama pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright indicted http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-daughter-of-former-obama-pastor-rev-jeremiah-wright-indicted-20130410,0,322658.story
Obama Regime Awards PR Firm $14 Million Taxpayer-Funded Contract To Run Pro-Obamacare Ads… Borderline criminal. Via NRO: In the three years since President Obama signed Obamacare into law, Democrats have failed to convince the majority of Americans that the law was actually a good idea. As its full implementation date draws near, the Obama administration is desperate to change that. So they’ve awarded a $14 million contract to a major public-relations firm to run a massive ad campaign touting its purported benefits. Who’s paying for this? Taxpayers, of course. It was bad enough that President Obama raised taxes to fund a new entitlement. Now the American people are footing the bill for our government to convince us that Obamacare — and its 20,000 pages of regulations — wasn’t a mistake. It’s going to be a tough sell. Even some Democrats are realizing that navigating this bureaucratic monstrosity will be nearly impossible for patients and small businesses, with or without a PR blitz. Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana who voted for Obamacare, told Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently that the implementation of the law is a looming disaster. “I just see a huge train wreck coming down,” he told her. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/346507/obamacare-gets-makeover-and-you%E2%80%99re-paying-it
WH In Full Retreat As FAA Sequester Stunt Backfires; Congress Passes Legislation To Halt The Obama Furloughs Ohh, burn, even his home town paper knows it’s a ploy… Via Townhall: The Obama administration’s second installment of sequester scare tactics is working about as well as its first go ’round. Run away: The White House has endorsed a plan to eliminate FAA spending cuts that have cause air travel delays across the country. The agency has been forced to furlough air traffic controllers as part of the automatic budget cuts that kicked in this spring. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to end the cuts by claiming savings from the draw down of war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan. Republicans reject his proposal calling it an accounting gimmick. Of course it’s an accounting gimmick. The point is that Democrats are desperate to extricate themselves from this mess, which they orchestrated in a bone-headed attempt to rile public anger against any spending cuts. Good luck with this, guys. Instead of hurting Republicans — which was the entire point — this entirely manufactured crisis has infuriated travelers, who inconveniently (a) seem to recall that the sequester was proposed and signed by Obama, and (b) aren’t buying the idea that a tiny reduction in the rate of spending increase is enough to justify disruptive furloughs. They’re right on both counts, and even some mainstream media outlets have taken the administration to the woodshed. Here’s the Chicago Tribune, Obama’s hometown paper that endorsed him twice, upbraiding the president. Zero words minced: http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2013/04/26/white-house-in-full-retreat-on-faa-sequester-stunt-n1578870
Fat Jobs For Fat Cats: Obama Bundlers Get Plum Posts Via CNN: President Obama announced Thursday that Penny Pritzker, an ex-national finance chair for the Obama campaign, will lead the Commerce Department. If confirmed, she will be the richest cabinet secretary in U.S. history. The president already skipped over her for the nod once. The New York Times said of Pritzker in 2008, “Ms. Pritzker’s family is renowned for finding ways to avoid paying taxes on its wealth. The Pritzkers were pioneers in using tax loopholes to shelter their holdings from the internal revenue service, and many of their dealings have never been made public.” Pritzker’s trusts were set up by her grandfather, and she has not received a dime from them, said Tommy Vietor, former White House National Security spokesman. “What we need in a Commerce Secretary is somebody who can create jobs,” said Vietor. “Those are the qualifications we should focus on, not something her grandfather did when she was a little girl.” On Wednesday, the president named another campaign bundler, Tom Wheeler to head up the Federal Communications Commission. Wheeler spent two decades as a lobbyist representing the two industry groups that represented every single cable company, and every single cellphone provider. “This guy was a lobbyist a decade ago,” said Vietor. President Obama signed an executive order the day he stepped into office putting tough new anti-lobbying rules into place. “The president took this important step, and you get kind of one day of stories about how this was sort of a good idea and a good move,” said Vietor. “Then if you do anything where you mention lobbyist afterward, he’s getting dinged for it.” “President Obama in his second term is clearly liberated enough to give really good jobs to fundraisers,” said A.B. Stoddard, associate editor with The Hill. Stoddard said nominating Pritzker is the bigger problem. If “Obama is looking at a larger budget deal that contains tax reform, he is really going to hear it about tax warfare, and loopholes from your fancy, fat cat friends from Republicans in her nomination,” said Stoddard. Oh, guess where Pritzker is from? Yup, more Chicagoland: Via The Guardian: Pritzker is the latest in a long line of friends and supporters from the president’s hometown of Chicago that he has rewarded since taking office in 2009, among them former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, now Chicago’s mayor. The appointments have led to accusations of cronyism
These 11 States now have More People on Welfare than they have employed! Last month, the Senate Budget Committee reports that in fiscal year 2011, between food stamps, housing support, child care, Medicaid and other benefits, the average U.S. household below the poverty line received $168.00 a day in government support. What’s the problem with that much support? Well, the median household income in America is just over $50,000, which averages out to $137.13 a day. To put it another way, being on welfare now pays the equivalent of $30.00 an hour for a 40-hour week, while the average job pays $20.00 an hour.
Interesting. My state is on that list. I know this.. because our unemployment numbers have improved, extended unemployment benefits will be eliminated and no longer approved. Yet our social welfare numbers are incredibly high. How is it that we have supposedly great employment numbers, yet 1970s level social welfare numbers? Oh, that's because when the trigger kicks in and puts people off of unemployment, they qualify for welfare. Well, some people. I won't.
The rats are deserting the sinking ship... <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OjyRzBu9Sjg?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0"></iframe> <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2Y14JPIW7_4?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Report: Obamacare To Hit Union Health Care Plans With 40% Tax… Love it! Via Washington Secrets: Deep in the list of taxes that the president’s Obamacare plan will hit Americans with is a 40 percent excise tax on health plans typical union members have, especially in Midwest states, according to a new analysis. The Obamacare tax won’t take place until 2018, but when it does it will smack high cost, or so-called “Cadillac” health insurance plans, according to the group Americans for Tax Reform. “This tax will most directly affect union families and early retirees, who are likely to be covered by such plans,” said ATR in a review of upcoming tax cuts in the health reform package set to go into effect in January. It will target plans whose premiums exceed exceed $10,200 for an individual and $27,500 for a family. http://washingtonexaminer.com/obamacare-socks-union-health-plans-with-40-tax/article/2529715?custom_click=rss
Claim: Obama Campaign Co-Chair Attacked Romney with Leaked IRS Docs Home - by BigFurHat - May 15, 2013 - 19:00 America/New_York - 7 Comments Big Gov One of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign co-chairmen used a leaked document from the IRS to attack GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney during the 2012 election, according to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). NOM, a pro-traditional marriage organization, claims the IRS leaked their 2008 confidential financial documents to the rival Human Rights Campaign. Those NOM documents were published on the Huffington Post on March 30, 2012. At that time, Joe Solmonese, a left-wing activist and Huffington Post contributor, was the president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Solmonese was also a 2012 Obama campaign co-chairman. Both the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein and HRC described the leak as coming from a “whistleblower.” The Huffington Post used the document to write a story questioning former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s support for traditional marriage. The document showed Romney donated $10,000 to NOM. HRC went a step further than the Huffington Post in its criticism of Romney and accused him of using “racially divisive tactics” in a press release. Solmonese, then still the HRC’s president, said in the release he felt Romney’s “funding of a hate-filled campaign designed to drive a wedge between Americans is beyond despicable.” “Not only has Romney signed NOM’s radical marriage pledge, now we know he’s one of the donors that NOM has been so desperate to keep secret all these years,” Solmonese added. Solmonese resigned his position at HRC the next day and took up a position as an Obama campaign co-chair. He had announced the then-pending resignation from HRC the previous autumn. NOM announced Tuesday that it will sue the IRS for this alleged leak. Under immense political pressure, Attorney General Eric Holder launched a criminal investigation into the IRS’s actions. Congress will conduct ts own investigation. http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/14/Obama-campaign-co-chair-attacked-Romney-conservative-group-in-2012-with-leaked-IRS-scandal-documents
Second Union Breaks Ranks With White House On Obamacare… I love how these unions wholeheartedly backed Obamacare and are now bitching and moaning when they see how it’s going to impact them. Via The Hill: Labor unions are breaking with President Obama on ObamaCare. Months after the president’s reelection, a variety of unions are publicly balking at how the administration plans to implement the landmark law. They warn that unless there are changes, the results could be catastrophic. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) — a 1.3 million-member labor group that twice endorsed Obama for president — is very worried about how the reform law will affect its members’ healthcare plans. Last month, the president of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers released a statement calling “for repeal or complete reform of the Affordable Care Act.” UNITE HERE, a prominent hotel workers’ union, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are also pushing for changes. In a new op-ed published in The Hill, UFCW President Joe Hansen homed in on the president’s speech at the 2009 AFL-CIO convention. Obama at the time said union members could keep their insurance under the law, but Hansen writes “that the president’s statement to labor in 2009 is simply not true for millions of workers.” Republicans have long attacked Obama’s promise that “nothing in this plan will require you to change your coverage or your doctor.” But the fact that unions are now noting it as well is a clear sign that supporters of the law are growing anxious about the law’s implementation. http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/300881-labor-unions-break-ranks-on-health-law