This man puts Rush Limbaugh’s term ”Drive-By Media” to shame!
John Colson: Hit and Run
Sheriff Joe Arpaio used to be just Arizona’s problem
I’ve been reading for too long now about how Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the madman with a badge and a gun down in Maricopa County, Ariz., has hooked his star to the Teabaggers’ incessant campaign to prove that President Obama is not fit for office because he was born somewhere else.
Before I go any further, in the name of full disclosure, I should say that I know all about Sheriff Joe. He’s a self-promoting, bigoted crook and sadist who could only be elected in Arizona, the state that gave us Barry Goldwater.
FILE: A deepwater drilling rig operates near the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico on June 8, 2010. -- AP
A House Committee voted Wednesday to clear the way to subpoena the Obama administration over two separate probes — one concerning allegations dating back to the BP spill that it misrepresented a report on the temporary offshore drilling ban.
The 23-17 vote along party lines allows GOP Rep. Doc Hastings, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, to issue the subpoenas, which will go to such agencies as the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.
One probe concerns officials rewriting coal-production regulations. The other investigation centers on an administration report on oil production following the April 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig off the Louisiana coast.
Local ad agencies in Washington, D.C., should be encouraged to create ads to “really brainwash people” to give up their interest in guns, Eric Holder once told a Democratic women’s group, according to a newly dug-up video showing a younger version of the current attorney general.
In the 1995 video, Holder, who at the time was U.S. attorney for the crime-ridden District of Columbia under President Bill Clinton, said persuading kids to reject guns was not going to be easy to do since they were so prevalent in movies, TV and music.
But, he told the group, really innovative strategies from the “creative community” in Washington, including ad agencies that “make me buy things I don’t really need,” could change the perception.
Two top Republican lawmakers are questioning the independence of the Obama administration investigator tasked with probing Operation Fast and Furious, saying it appears her office is choosing not to interview high-level political employees in the Justice Department.
Rep. Darrell Issa of California and Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa wrote a letter Thursday to Cynthia Schnedar, inspector general at the Justice Department, suggesting the office could be shielding close aides to Attorney General Eric Holder from scrutiny.
“Apparently, despite the advanced stage of its review, your office has not interviewed several key figures in Fast and Furious,” they wrote of the controversial and defunct gunwalking operation undertaken by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF.
The lawmakers asked why it appears Schnedar has failed to interview three deputy attorneys generals, all appointees close to Holder. They are worried Schnedar’s report, which is expected later this year, will avoid casting blame on the Justice Department.
The Senate on Thursday blocked a move to speed along the approval and construction of the controversial Keystone pipeline, after the White House lobbied Democrats to oppose it.
A total of 11 Democrats, though, ended up breaking with the president to vote for the Republican-backed amendment — at a time when gas prices are rising and pipeline supporters are using that trend to pressure the administration to act.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said after the vote that the Democrat-controlled Senate had “turned its back on job creation and energy independence in a single vote.”
McConnell, referring to reports later confirmed by the White House that Obama personally lobbied Democrats to oppose the measure, also used the vote to place blame for the pipeline’s delay squarely on the president.
A conservative civil liberties group accuses the Internal Revenue Service of attempting to “intimidate and silence” a number of tea party groups that have applied for tax-exempt status.
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) says IRS requests for information about the groups included “probing questions” that violate the free speech and freedom of association rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.
“This appears to be a coordinated attempt to intimidate Tea Party organizations by demanding information that is outside the scope of legitimate inquiry and violates the First Amendment,” said Jay Sekulow, ACLJ’s chief counsel.
“These organizations have followed the law and applied for tax exempt status for their activities as Americans have done for decades. The problem here is the IRS has gone beyond legitimate inquiries and is demanding that these organizations answer questions that actually violate the First Amendment rights of our clients.”
Read the rest.
Ross D. Franklin/AP -- Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is looking into the authenticity of President Barack Obama's birth certificate.
PHOENIX — America’s self-proclaimed toughest sheriff finds himself entangled these days in his own thorny legal troubles: a federal grand jury probe over alleged abuse of power, Justice Department accusations of racial profiling and revelations that his department didn’t adequately investigate hundreds of Arizona sex-crime cases.
Rather than seek cover, though, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is seeking to grab the spotlight in the same unorthodox fashion that has helped boost his career as a nationally known lawman.
Just when the Fast and Furious investigation seemed to hit a lull, and many were wondering what was going to come of it or whether it might quietly fade away without anyone being prosecuted, another weapon that was obtained via a straw purchase in the U.S. and carried across the Mexican border has been identified. This one is “connected to the murder of Immigration and Customs (ICE) Agent Jaime Zapata,” which took place in February 2011. And suffice it to say, AG Eric Holder is on the hot seat all over again.
