Newest Obama Admin Scandal: His DHS Nominee Under Investigation For Visa Fraud

By William Teach July 24, 2013 – 8:20 am

Who’s up for yet another scandal? And we aren’t talking about credit card fraud, but using the resources of the US government fraudulently

(Fox News) Authorities are investigating the man President Obama tapped to take over the second highest spot at the Department of Homeland Security for allegedly using his position and power to unfairly obtain U.S. visas for foreign investors in a company run by Hillary Clinton’s brother, FoxNews.com has confirmed.

Alejandro Mayorkas, director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, was named by Homeland Security’s Inspector General’s Office as a target in an investigation involving the foreign investor program run by USCIS, according to an email sent to lawmakers late Monday.

The investigation was opened in September 2012 following a referral from an FBI counterintelligence analyst. The probe was first reported by The Associated Press.

The investigation into Mayorkas is based on allegations he helped secure U.S. visas for Chinese businessmen after they had been denied by his own agency’s officials. The visas had been sought by Gulf Coast Funds Management, a financing company headed by then-Secretary of State Clinton’s brother Anthony Rodham, according to an aide to GOP Sen. Charles Grassley, who had received internal USCIS emails about the matter from a department whistle blower.

So far they haven’t found any signs of criminal wrongdoing, but the investigation is still open and on-going. Also, the complaint notes that others in the USCIS Office of General Counsel obstructed an investigation by the SEC of the Visa program.

White House press secretary Jay Carney referred questions to the inspector general’s office, which said that the probe is in its preliminary stage and that it doesn’t comment on the specifics of investigations.

No, Obama only chimes in on open investigations into George Zimmerman.

If Mayorkas is confirmed, he will be in charge of DHS till Obama has a replacement, which could be a long time coming, since he will surely nominate someone who is so far outside the mainstream that they’ll be blocked in the Senate.

But, let’s be clear: this is not something to be blamed on Obama directly, but more in terms of one of the vast problems with Big Government, in which employees use their power and influence for political and personal benefit. But, Obama did pick Mayorkas to be the second ranking officer in DHS.

Read: Newest Obama Admin Scandal: His DHS Nominee Under Investigation For Visa Fraud »

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What To Watch For In Today’s “Economic” Speech By Obama

By William Teach July 24, 2013 – 8:00 am

Today begins yet another pivot to the economy by Community Organizer in Chief Obama, whose previous pivots have worked so well. Does anyone remember the one back in May? Where’d that go? Anyhow, consider this comment by Victor Davis Hanson, made it terms of Obama’s race comment

The president, I think, spoke out for three reasons: 1) He is an unbound,  lame-duck president, with a ruined agenda, facing mounting ethical scandals; from now on, he will say things more consonant with being a community organizer than with being a nation’s president; 2) he knows the federal civil-rights case has little merit and cannot be pursued, and thus wanted to shore up his bona fides with an aggrieved black community; and 3) as with the ginned-up “assault-weapons ban” and the claim that Republicans are waging a “war on women,” Obama knows, as a community activist, that tension can mask culpability — in his case, the utter failure to address soaring unemployment in the inner city, epidemic black murder rates, the bankruptcy of Detroit, and the ways his failed economic policies disproportionately affect inner-city youth.

Expect today’s speech, and any followups (I suspect this economic push will, at best, survive till his August vacation, but probably only till the end of July) to be heavy on community organizing, blamestorming, pushing his bona fides with Progressives, and ginning up division. Heck, even Ben White at the Politico notices much of this in his 5 things to watch article

How hard will he go after Republicans on the debt ceiling and government funding?

One argument for why Obama is doing this speech now: He’s laying down an early marker as the sane voice ahead of potentially bruising fights over bills to fund the government after Oct. 1 and to raise the debt ceiling sometime in November or later.

So, blamestorming and ginning up division yet again, provided he does this. The Vegas odds are 1-1 based on 5 years of being (NM) president, which, as Ben White notes, creates even more antipathy amongst Republicans, guaranteeing they do not want to work with Obama.

How bullish will he be on the economy?

Any speech the president gives about this frustrating economy runs the risk of sounding like cheerleading a recovery that most average Americans are barely feeling.

Remember all the times he’s declared victory on the economy? Recovery Summer, anyone? Remember all the pivots? Remember $838 billion wasted on his failed Stimulus? And all the other stimulus plans? How about all those who have given up on the jobs market in despair? Add your own “how about”, because we’ve seen the creeping malaise of the Obama economy for 5 years. Unlike Mr. White, I don’t expect Obama to note the stagnant wages and poor jobs market, except possible in terms of Blaming Others, especially Republicans.

How will he make the case for his economic legacy?

Another rationale behind the speech is to lay down a stronger narrative arc for the president’s stewardship of the economy, an area in which voters have often questioned his abilities.

Will he do this? It certainly wouldn’t be out of character to make this All About Obama. He spent his first term Blaming Bush, but he got his second term, and this is all on Obama. This is his economy. He can’t rationally sit there and Blame Bush and Republicans while taking credit for the few good things that happen.

Will he offer specific new proposals?

Messages out of the White House on this have been mixed.

In reality, most are expecting very little from this speech in terms of actual policy, particularly new policy. It will surely be a re-hash of all the things that have so far not worked. We’ll probably hear something about growing the economy from the dying middle class out, not top down, because we all know that it’s the middle class with all the money. Of course, even now the middle class is seeing more and more people on food stamps and other government assistance thanks to the Malaise Economy Of Obama.

What role will immigration and health care play in the speech?

One big question about the current jobs and economy tour is why Obama is doing it rather than continuing to push hard on the top current agenda items: implementing health care reform and getting a comprehensive immigration reform bill through the House.

Now that is a damned good question. Will PBO make this economic speech about the two issues? Will they be the real reason behind this push? Or is Obama simply trying to give yet another speech in an attempt to switch the focus from all his scandals and incompetence? Really, unless he has some new ideas on the economy, there is little point to Mr. Lame Duck giving a “major policy speech”. Yet, he will. But, then, Obama has always thought that all that needs to be done is to give a speech and the world changes.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

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Liberals Shriek Over NC Commonsense Voter Regulations

By William Teach July 23, 2013 – 2:22 pm

The NC Senate has proposed a few simple voting changes

Senate Republican leaders are planning to take a voter ID bill and add provisions that cut early voting by a week, repeal same-day registration, allow counties to limit Sunday voting, end pre-registration of 16- and 17-year-olds and end straight-ticket voting.

Other provisions increase the maximum donation to political candidates from $4,000 to $5,000, with future increases indexed to inflation, and limit disclosure of money spent by outside political groups that air political TV ads and send mass mailings.

It differs a big from what the House is thinking, such restricting the use of college IDs to vote (Senate against, House for). These are simply a few common sense regulations to avoid voter fraud, so, of course the liberal harpies are shrieking, and they all have the same talking point: voter suppression. 4 of those 5 links say it in their headlines.

This is all interesting, because these same loons want massive restrictions on our 2nd Amendment rights, to the point of banning private ownership of guns. Buy any basic checks on voting? Moonbat Level 11.

Read: Liberals Shriek Over NC Commonsense Voter Regulations »

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If All You See…

By William Teach July 23, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is an evil cat sucking up Earth’s resources causing heat induced snow storms, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Maggie’s Notebook, with a post on some wonderful illegal aliens.

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Warmists Now Pinpoint Ice Free Arctic 40 Years From Now

By William Teach July 23, 2013 – 11:41 am

How many times have Warmists prognosticated that the Arctic would be ice free? We’ve seen “by the end of the century”, by 2008, by 2040, 2012, 2010-2015. And, remember, we have all the folks predicting that 2013 would be ice free. Not working out too well. Especially for the Sierra Club, which predicted the sea ice would be gone this year just a few months ago. And now we get

People have been warning about an ice-free Arctic oceanfor years. But Jiping Liu, an atmospheric scientist at the State University of New York in Albany in the US and colleagues have gone one better.

They predict that the Arctic Ocean will be effectively free of ice for the first time in the month of September between 2054 and 2058.

Once again, the prediction depends on climate models, and inevitably on the decisions governments take to control greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade. But the fact that a team of scientists can spread their bets over a span of four specific years is an indicator of how fast and how inexorable the Arctic melting has become.

In other words, a (supposedly) scary prediction predicated on Someone Else Doing Something to stop it.

And if they’re depending on “climate models” done on computers, well, they’re bound to fail.

Read: Warmists Now Pinpoint Ice Free Arctic 40 Years From Now »

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Obamacare Desperation: Meeting With Celebs Who’ll Never Use It To Push It

By William Teach July 23, 2013 – 8:19 am

And then Hollywood and other entertainment will be surprised when their shows tank because people come to be entertained, not bombarded with political propaganda

(CNN) President Barack Obama, hoping to pitch his signature health care law to younger Americans, will get some help from a cadre of Hollywood stars who have volunteered to help promote Obamacare’s insurance exchanges that open on October 1.

One has to wonder why he and others have to “pitch” it at all. Isn’t it “The Law”? The young folks, who mostly voted “Obama”, have no choice but to either enroll or pay a fine/tax.

At a meeting at the White House Monday, a group that included singer Jennifer Hudson and actors Kal Penn and Amy Poehler heard Obama extol the benefits his health care law offers young people, whose participation in the exchanges is seen as essential for their long-term viability.

“The President stopped by the meeting to engage artists who expressed an interest in helping to educate the public about the benefits of the health law,” a White House official said. “The reach of these national stars spreads beyond the beltway to fans of their television shows, movies, and music – and the power of these artists to speak through social media is especially critical.”

The meeting, which was led by Obama’s senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, also included representatives for Oprah Winfrey, Alicia Keys, Bon Jovi, YouTube Comedy, Funny or Die and the organizations that put on the annual Grammy and Latin Grammy awards.

Does anyone think that any of these people will actually sign up in the Exchanges themselves? Or do they have their own Cadillac plans?

And when they start pushing O-care people will tune out. The movies and shows with specific liberal politics tend to bomb. No one wants to be patronized, especially by celebs who’ll never enroll in O-care and will do all they can to avoid that “Cadillac tax” on their own high end health insurance plans. If they push this in TV shows, movies, YouTube, you can bet people will avoid those forms of entertainment, particularly since over 50% of the nation is still dead set against Obamacare.

Same goes for the NFL and NBA, along with any other sports, if they decide to push O-care.

Read: Obamacare Desperation: Meeting With Celebs Who’ll Never Use It To Push It »

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Pelosi: We Need To Uphold The Constitution By Enacting Gun Control

By William Teach July 23, 2013 – 7:55 am

Not many people will argue that a few basic, common sense regulations regarding firearms is a Bad Idea. Surely we would like to keep them out of the hands of criminals, gang bangers, and others who would look to use them in a Bad Way. Surely we would like to keep people like, say, Eric Holder, from running them across the border into Mexico. Anyhow, here’s Nancy Pelosi, who happens to have armed security personnel protecting her, something she would prefer you not have, nor your own gun protecting yourself

(CNS News) Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D – Calif.) cited her oath to “protect and defend” the U.S. Constitution as the reason Congress should enact harsher gun control measures.

In a press release marking the one-year anniversary of the Aurora, Colorado shootings, the former Speaker of the House said: “In Congress, there can be no more fitting memorial to the lives lost in Aurora, in Newtown, and across the country than a concerted effort to enact commonsense gun safety legislation.

“We must uphold our oath to ‘protect and defend’ the constitution and all Americans by expanding background checks and keeping dangerous firearms out of the wrong hands.”

One problem is in defining “wrong hands”. The 2nd Amendment does not allow the government to restrict the right of a citizen to own a gun, but, again, I think we can agree that criminals shouldn’t have them, people with serious mental issues…which would leave most Democrats out of the mix…look, I just defined “wrong hands”. Think the Democrats won’t do the same with legislation, regulation, and other methods?

“We must restore confidence in the safety of our homes, schools, movie theaters, and neighborhoods by taking clear, concrete steps to prevent gun violence,” Pelosi added.

And apparently the best way to stop violence is to restrict law abiding citizens from owning and carrying guns. Because, as we all know, criminals follow the law and would never bring guns to schools, homes, and movie theaters.

I wonder if Barack knows that Nancy thinks she’s president?

The phrase “to protect and defend the Constitution” that Pelosi cited as the reason Congress must enact stricter gun control laws is not found in the oath that members of Congress take, but in the Presidential Oath of Office instead.

Aren’t you thrilled that Nancy doesn’t know her own Oath of office? Hers says “support and defend” the Constitution, but, like most legislation she votes for, she probably has not read it.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

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Cities Are Doomed From Hotcoldwetdry Somewhere Between 87 and 2,187 Years From Now

By William Teach July 22, 2013 – 6:01 pm

Glad they have a really good margin of error. Let’s start with the first paragraph (via Tom Nelson)

(Huff Post) A new article in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), is headlined “The Multimillennial Sea-Level Commitment of Global Warming,” and it reports that because of carbon emissions that are virtually certain, on the basis of the lack of policy-response to global warming thus far, sea levels are now set to rise anywhere from around 8 inches to 7 feet within 100 years, and around 5 yards to 10 yards within 2,000 years. The projections are clearer (within a narrower range) for the longer time-frame than for the shorter one. That’s because even if the short-term consequences of heat-rise turn out to be relatively slight, the longer-term consequences are clearer, and will be considerably larger, as delayed impacts kick in.

I already discussed this silliness and unscientific scaremongering prognostication previously, but I wanted to point out the “hey, we’re kinda unclear what will happen soon (because you might remember our predictions), but way on down the road? We nailed it!” idiocy

So, somewhere in time between, say, the years 2100 and 4200, such cities as Boston, NYC, etc., will be uninhabitable. They will be past history. It’s an interesting thought, perhaps – but just a curiosity that’s heavily discounted, so it’s not actually being given much thought. Perhaps it’s not given even as much thought as the beef that a person consumes, which had been a cow a few days before. After all, that beef has a taste, which is enjoyed now. The future is “just the future” — and it’s discounted at compounded annual rates.

If we go by the latter date, the Earth will have gone through multiple warm and cool periods, based on historical patterns. Anyhow, if this is what Warmists think is “clearer” in the long term, yikes!

Read: Cities Are Doomed From Hotcoldwetdry Somewhere Between 87 and 2,187 Years From Now »

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If All You See…

By William Teach July 22, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrid fossil fueled machine causing the Sun to burn down on the Earth, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Last Tradition, with a post on Melissa Harris-Perry wearing tampon earings.

Read: If All You See… »

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Aaaand, Now Warmists/Enviroweenies Want To Ruin Alcohol Consumption

By William Teach July 22, 2013 – 11:42 am

Hey, they’re ruining everything else they can think of for Other People (never for themselves), might as well go for liquor

That’s the spirit: A guide to sustainable liquor

Questionable drunk texts aside, many of us believe that our occasional (or frequent, no judgment!) nightcap is basically harmless as long as we’re not doing something stupid or dangerous like operating a motor vehicle. Unfortunately, though, like pretty much everything else we do, what we imbibe has a direct and substantial impact on the environment. According to the June 2012 Research on the Carbon Footprint of Spirits report by the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER), a 750-milliliter bottle of liquor produces, on average, 6.30 pounds of CO2. That’s more than six giant exercise balls full of carbon dioxide for every bottle of whiskey, rum, vodka, gin, or tequila that you consume.

According to the BIER report (which specifically focused on the lifecycle of a North American whiskey but is meant to reflect a typical American spirit), distillation is the No. 1 contributor to a spirit’s carbon footprint, accounting for more than a third of its emissions. That’s largely because in addition to the energy required to power the process, distillation also creates a lot of waste in the form of spent mash, wastewater, and liquor-specific goop like tequila’s acidic pulp and rum’s fibrous leftovers, known as “mostos.” “The actual distillation itself,” says Dänny Ronen of DC Spirits, a food, wine, and spirits organization focused on efficiency and sustainability, “is a very, very wasteful, destructive process.”

So, what can you do? Drink sustainable and “carbon” friendly liquor!!!!!! Check the glass, the packaging, the labels, how it is made…

If you haven’t done your homework before you get to the store, do it once you’re there. “Most people have a smartphone on them,” Ehrmann astutely observes. “Pick up your phone and Google the company.”  But if doing homework at a liquor store sounds like a buzzkill (totally fair), then at least take the time to find a top-notch retailer, even if it means venturing farther than the one on your corner with the bulletproof glass. “The right store has the right people who actually know very, very well all the products they have in front of you,” Ronen says. So pre-party time, let the experts do the work.

Read: Aaaand, Now Warmists/Enviroweenies Want To Ruin Alcohol Consumption »

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