President Obama and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer had what was described as an intense encounter on the tarmac after the president arrived in the Grand Canyon state on Wednesday.
Brewer greeted the president as he arrived off Air Force One, as governors often do when the president visits a state, and handed him a letter that she described as a “welcome” note to the state, and an invitation to talk about a comeback for her state.
Obama put the letter in the limo before going to greet Arizonans waiting nearby.
The Republican governor later told pool reporters accompanying the president that Obama brought up that he was a little disturbed (her wording) by the book she published last year called “Scorpions for Breakfast.” In the tome, she said the president was “patronizing” in a one-on-one meeting about border security.
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In a scathing letter sent to Barack Obama this morning, Senator Marco Rubio said that under the President’s first term in office, “more and more people have come to believe that America is becoming a deadbeat nation.”
Rubio went on to pledge that he would challenge any further increase in the debt ceiling, arguing that “we [Congress] need to make it routine to actually spend no more than we take in.” In the letter obtained by HUMAN EVENTS, the Florida Senator said that President Obama’s upcoming request to increase the debt ceiling by a whopping $1.2 trillion will cause the nation’s public debt to surpass the $16 trillion mark.
“I will oppose your request to continue borrowing and spending recklessly.”
President Obama is expected to request the new borrowing power from Congress once the Senate and House return from their holiday recess.
‘[A] minority of Americans have an absolute right to be protected from a non-natural-born-citizen being elected President’
On Jan. 3, 2012, Georgia Administrative Law Judge Michael M. Malihi, who consolidated several cases challenging Barack Obama’s eligibility to be placed on the primary ballot in Georgia, issued an order denying Obama’s motion to dismiss those challenges.
In a footnote, Malihi stated, “Because defendant’s motion to dismiss is denied, in the interest of efficiency, the court finds it unnecessary to wait for plaintiffs’ responses before denying the motion.”
Shortly after his visit to Phoenix where he addressed the Arizona 2012 Project, Attorney Van Irion of the Liberty Legal Foundation filed a challenge in the Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearings on behalf of Plaintiff David Welden, challenging Barack Obama’s eligibility to be placed on the state’s primary election ballot.
A politician is described as a “lame duck” once he or she has been defeated or announced their retirement, and is simply finishing out the remainder of their term in office. And even after Nov. elections are over and a large number of Senate and House members are voted out, the lame duck Senators and House members are usually just that – lame. But occasionally, they are fierce because the defeated office holder is bitter and has approximately two months to wreak havoc with his or her vote before leaving DC. When this happens, ideologues will use the time where they’re completely accountable to voters to score points for their side. We saw this after the Nov. 2010 elections when defeated Senators and House members banded together in late Dec. to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” so homosexuals could serve openly in the military. Yet as bad as this is, the opportunities for a lame duck office holder to attack our freedom grows exponentially when said office holder is in the White House, and when he’s an ideologue who hates private gun ownership, the right to self defense, and the 2nd Amendment.
And this brings us to a crucial point. Namely, that if Obama wins re-election in 2012, he will be awarded four years of lame duck status in which to do anything and everything he wants to lessen our ability to own and use guns. He knows he won’t have to answer for it because he will not be running for re-election in 2016.
BY LINDA BENTLEY | DECEMBER 28, 2011
U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow ruled any Hispanics stopped since Jan. 1, 2007 may file suit against MCSO in a class action complaint
PHOENIX – As they say in Hollywood, it’s all in the timing. And the timing of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division (DOJ) Dec. 15 report to Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery stating it has reasonable cause to believe the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) engages in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing, couldn’t be met with more skepticism.
For starters, the report was released on the anniversary of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder, a result of the flawed Operation Fast and Furious gun-walking program that allowed straw buyers to purchase guns and place them in the hands of drug cartels across the Mexican border, while U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has been simultaneously frying on the hot seat of a congressional investigation into the matter.
The report was also released the day after Terry’s family issued a statement calling for criminal indictments to be pursued against those responsible for the gun-walking program that resulted in the murder of Terry and hundreds of others.
As Holder has done his best to stonewall the investigation into the Fast and Furious program by the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has likened Holder’s behavior to President Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell, who was sentenced to 19 months in prison for his involvement in the Watergate scandal.
A new report from the Justice Department accuses America’s toughest sheriff of racially profiling?illegal immigrants from Mexico! Moreover,the man who wrote the report appears to have perjured himself before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission over the Black Panther voter intimidation case.
The Justice Department report cum hit piece accuses Sheriff Joe Arpaio of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office of “systematic disregard”for the Constitutional rights?of illegal immigrants.
“We found discriminatory policing that was deeply rooted in the culture of the department,a culture that breeds a systematic disregard for basic constitutional protections,”according to Thomas Perez,the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under Eric “My People”Holder.
The report’s most “serious”allegation was that Arpaio racially profiled illegal immigrants. That is,too many of the illegals he arrested were Mexican. The fact that the vast majority of illegal aliens are from Mexico,and 90 percent of illegal immigrants are of Hispanic origin may explain the racial homogeneity of Arpaio’s prisons. Hell,it may explain the increasing racial homogeneity of large swaths of Arizona,where native-born residents now press 2 for English.
The DOJ has given Arpaio until January 4th to tell the feds how he is going to obey their edicts. Arpaio responded,”We are going to cooperate the best we can. And if they are not happy,I guess they can carry out their threat and go to federal court.”
Read the rest.
Hat Tip: Seeing Red AZ
Senate Republicans Block Obama Judge Pick Caitlin Halligan
Caitlin Halligan is currently general counsel in the New York City district attorney’s office.
Arguing that she is too activist for a position on the federal circuit court, Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked President Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals seat previously held by Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.
The vote Tuesday, 54-45, was far short of the 60 votes needed under Senate rules.
Democrats called Caitlin Halligan, currently general counsel in the New York City district attorney’s office, well qualified for the D.C. Court of Appeals.
Lawmakers tap fund three times within a year
In cash-strapped Washington, President Obama‘s $1 trillion health care law is presenting a tempting target for lawmakers seeking funds for other projects, as Congress last week raided the health care piggy bank for the third time in less than a year.
Congress last week axed a part of Democrats’ signature domestic achievement to find $11 billion to cover the cost of repealing a withholding tax that otherwise would have hit government contractors in 2013. Mr. Obama signed that bill into law on Monday.
The withholding bill follows two other efforts – one in December and another in April – that reworked the health care law to squeeze savings for other priorities. The December bill funded higher payments for doctors who treat Medicare patients, and the April legislation repealed a paperwork provision in the original health care law that businesses said would be onerous.
All told, Congress and the president have tapped some $50 billion earmarked to pay for benefits and programs in the health care overhaul in future years to fund more-immediate spending needs.
Both earlier efforts dealt with health care issues, but the bill Mr. Obama signed Monday marks the first time that the massive 2010 law has been tapped to fund something completely unrelated.
“They don’t want to open it up. They’re getting forced to open it up now and then, but to open it up for budgetary reasons, I think the pressures are pretty real,” said former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Holtz-Eakin, who said it’s easier to cut future benefits than it is to cut programs that are already paying out.
Most of the health care law’s benefits won’t begin paying out for several years, and Mr. Holtz-Eakin said he expects legislators to revisit the law again before then.
Opposition beware: It’s too soon to write off Barack’s re-election
“Barack Obama wins historic second term!” Get ready; you may be reading that headline a year from now.
Granted, the macro indicators don’t look good for President Obama. Unemployment is over 9 percent and not expected to decline dramatically. Economic growth is anemic. Federal budget deficits are through the roof, and most voters think the country has veered into a ditch. Mr. Obama‘s Gallup weekly public-approval rating is lower than those for every postwar president except Jimmy Carter. The poll also shows the incumbent losing to any generic unnamed Republican opponent by eight points. The Obama team is already touting its candidate as the underdog, thinking it will be easier to manage expectations with a “lead from behind” campaign.
Republicans who think the election is in the bag are in for a shock. The electoral map is not as one-sided as national polls might suggest. Mr. Obama can still count on a strong electoral-vote base and will be competitive in enough battleground states to be able to pull off a win. It may not even be that close.
Then-Solicitor General Elena Kagan appearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2010 during a confirmation hearing for her nomination to the Supreme Court.
“I hear they have the votes, Larry!! Simply amazing,” Kagan said to Tribe in one of the emails.
The Justice Department released a new batch of emails on Wednesday evening as its latest response to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by CNSNews.com and Judicial Watch. Both organizations filed federal lawsuits against DOJ after the department did not initially respond to the requests. CNSNews.com originally filed its FOIA request on May 25, 2010–before Elena Kagan’s June 2010 Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
The March 2010 email exchange between Kagan and Tribe raises new questions about whether Kagan must recuse herself from judging cases involving the health-care law that Obama signed–and which became the target of legal challenges–while Kagan was serving as Obama’s solicitor general and was responsible for defending his administration’s positions in court disputes.
