Obama's Politicized, Lawless Executive Branch

David Limbaugh / Townhall Columnist

Under the administration of President Barack Obama, as never before in my lifetime, there is reason to be a bit afraid of the federal government.

I have written two books documenting Obama's abuses of power, his assaults on the Constitution, his wars against business and energy, his abominably reckless spending, his divisiveness, his renegade Justice Department, his regulatory expansion, his executive orders, his overall lawlessness, and more.

Obama's conduct concerning Obamacare alone would be enough to get the impeachment wheels rolling for any other president. His flagrant, deliberate lies regarding almost every aspect of that horrible law and his defiant refusal to accept any accountability for it seem unprecedented to me. Yes, Bill Clinton looked us in the face and denied his adulterous tryst with Monica Lewinsky, but Obama's lies involve the nation's health care system and affect virtually every American.

Without any basis in the Affordable Care Act -- or in any other law or constitutional provision -- he has unilaterally handed out exemptions from that "law of the land" like candy and has suspended its operation at his absolute whim.

Obama's dismissiveness over the Benghazi, Libya, scandal and his overt conspiracy to deceive the public into believing that a video was responsible for the consulate attack are mind-blowingly callous and arrogant.

His collusive protection of Attorney General Eric Holder concerning the Fast and Furious scandal and his staggering disinterest in getting to the bottom of it are beyond comprehension.

His lack of contrition for the taxpayer waste he has personally generated in Solyndra-type ventures and in the non-job-producing stimulus is unconscionable, and his brazenness in pretending he is not blocking domestic oil production rises to the level of mocking Americans who disagree with him politically.

Has any president of this nation ever behaved and spoken as though he felt that being the president gave him royal powers -- that he could just snub his executive nose at the other two coequal branches of the federal government and treat the states that didn't cow to his dictates as if they were bastard stepchildren? Has anyone in that office ever acted so entitled?

I have barely scratched the surface here, but now we have potentially explosive evidence implicating the administration and at least one Democratic congressman in a truly heinous scandal involving the Internal Revenue Service, which has used its enormous power unlawfully against certain citizens and groups based on their political views and affiliations.

As you've surely learned by now, emails just released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee reveal that there was improper communication between staff working for Democratic ranking member Elijah Cummings and the IRS during 2012 and 2013.

Cummings' staff allegedly made inquiries to the IRS about True the Vote, a conservative group dedicated to voter fraud prevention. The IRS has hassled and impeded the group in its effort to obtain tax-exempt status for two years. It appears that the IRS and Cummings asked True the Vote for almost identical information, raising the possibility there was collusion between them.

It wasn't as though this communication was innocuous. Emails show that Lois Lerner, who was the head of tax-exempt groups at the IRS at the time, apparently tried to get information to Cummings' staff about True the Vote. If no foul play was involved, why did Rep. Cummings adamantly deny that his staff had ever contacted the IRS regarding True the Vote? Why didn't Cummings disclose his contact with the IRS to the majority staff of the committee? What innocent explanation is there for the fact that the IRS and Cummings' staff were seeking identical information? And what possible purpose would they have in discussing this conservative group in the first place? This is blood-boilingly outrageous.

How can this administration get away with turning the executive branch into its own partisan instrument? We have learned that Lerner discussed the possibility of getting a job with Organizing for Action, an Obama campaign arm. In addition, reports are just emerging that a government watchdog is pursuing cases against three other IRS employees and offices who are suspected of illegal political activity in support of President Obama.

The Office of Special Counsel said it was commonplace for employees in a Dallas IRS office to have pro-Obama screensavers on their computers and to have campaign-style buttons and stickers at their offices. In another case, according to the Office of Special Counsel, an employee working with the IRS' customer help line urged taxpayers "to re-elect President Obama in 2012 by repeatedly reciting a chant based on the spelling of his last name." Finally, an IRS employee in Kentucky has reportedly been suspended for 14 days for blasting Republicans in a conversation with a taxpayer.

Information has just begun to trickle out concerning all this misconduct, but there is no denying that this president has created a climate in the executive branch of the federal government that is openly partisan and decidedly hostile to political opponents.

With all the destruction and lawlessness from this administration, many people feel our situation is hopeless, but I am confident that there will be, in the not-too-distant future, both a political day of reckoning and a radical reversal in the direction this nation is heading. I have to believe it.

The Legacy of Obama's Illegal Alien Aunt

Michelle Malkin / Townhall Columnist

 

Zeituni Onyango, President Obama's illegal alien aunt, died this week of cancer and other complications. I hope she rests in peace. America, however, should be up in arms. 

 
Auntie Zeituni is an enduring symbol of all that is wrong with this country's immigration "policy" -- or rather, its complete lack of a coherent, enforceable system of laws and rules that puts the national interest first. She was a beneficiary of the welfare state run amok, enabled by bipartisan fecklessness. To the bitter end, she bit the hand that fed her with predictable ingratitude and metastatic entitlement.

Zeituni's 14-year illegal overstay is a reminder that our temporary visa program is an abysmal joke. Like millions of foreign students, business people and tourists to this country, Auntie Zeituni obtained a short-term visitor visa in 2000. It had an expiration date. She was supposed to go back to Kenya in two years after traveling here with her son, who had been accepted at a college in Boston.

But like millions of other "temporary" visa overstayers, Auntie Zeituni never went home. And despite billions spent on homeland security and immigration enforcement, no one ever went looking for her to kick her out of the country after her time was up.

Auntie Zeituni had no job skills, no special talent, no compelling reason to keep her here in America as an asset to our culture or our economy. She didn't value the American Dream. She was a dependency nightmare. She collected $700 a month in welfare benefits and disability payments totaling $51,000. Somehow, Auntie Zeituni also drummed up money to apply for asylum and finagled her way into both federal and state public housing in Boston.

She contributed nothing to this country. The only "work" she did was gaming the system, complaining about her lot and blaming everyone else for her problems while they subsidized her 14-year illegal overstay.

Auntie Zeituni's ridiculous asylum application and what happened afterward are reminders that our asylum and deportation systems are appalling jokes. Auntie Zeituni's bogus request was rejected by the immigration court system. A judge ordered her to return to Kenya in 2003. She appealed. She lost. A judge again ordered her to leave in 2004.

But Auntie Zeituni never went home. Like an estimated 700,000 other deportation absconders, she evaded the judicial order for nearly a half-dozen years and continued to feed at the government trough. When the Bush administration had the chance to put the pedal to the enforcement metal in 2008, they caved. Pandering to pro-amnesty forces, Bush officials issued a 72-hour cease-and-desist order to all fugitive apprehension teams to spare Obama embarrassment over his auntie right before Election Day.

As an Immigration and Customs Enforcement source told me at the time: "The ICE fugitive operations group throughout the U.S. was told to stand down until after the election from arresting or transporting anyone out of the U.S. This was done to avoid any mistakes of deporting or arresting anyone who could have a connection to the election, i.e., anyone from Kenya who could be a relative.

The decision was election-driven." Such stand-down non-enforcement orders are standard operating procedure in Washington.

Auntie Zeituni's illegal activity and ingratitude were rewarded time and time again. She got multiple bites at the immigration court apple, where it ain't over till the alien wins. Despite twice being ordered to go home, the feds allowed her bogus case to be reopened. After breaking visa laws, campaign finance laws (she donated illegally to Obama three times), deportation rules and judicial orders, she was allowed to have yet another hearing. Her manufactured claim of a "credible fear of persecution" in Kenya made a mockery of every legitimate case for asylum or refugee status.

"If I come as an immigrant, you have the obligation to make me a citizen," Auntie Zeituni demanded. She griped that America had "used" her and then cashed in on a book about her travails called "Tears of Abuse." And then, after a decade of doing absolutely nothing to enhance the well-being of our country, she received a coveted green card in 2010.

Neither Republican nor Democratic leaders in Washington had the will to kick this trash-talking freeloader (or her drunk-driving, deportation-evading, amnesty-securing deadbeat brother Omar Onyango) out of our home. Auntie Zeituni's story is a disgraceful reminder that the only thing worse than the ingrates thumbing their noses at our immigration laws are the people in power on both sides of the aisle enabling them.

Congress approves bill to bar from US Iran ambassador who held 52 Americans hostage

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shugs 


It is comforting to know that at least we have a Congress that is fighting the fifth column Executive branch.

Congress approves bill to bar Iran ambassador from US, FOX News, April 8, 2014

The House has approved a bill that would bar Iran’s choice for ambassador to the United Nations from stepping on U.S. soil.

The House has approved a bill that would bar Iran’s choice for ambassador to the United Nations from stepping on U.S. soil.

By voice vote, lawmakers endorsed the measure and sent it to President Obama for his signature. The bill would deny entry to the United States to an individual found to be engaged in espionage, terrorism or a threat to national security.

American officials objected to the selection of Hamid Abutalebi because of his alleged participation in a Muslim student group that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days in the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

The Obama administration has told Iran the choice is unacceptable, but White House spokesman Jay Carney refused to say Thursday whether the president would sign the bill.

Adelson Confidant: Christie Has No Understanding of Israel

By Todd Beamon 
/ Newsmax

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A confidant of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson has said that he cannot support New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in 2016 because he used the term "occupied territories" in discussing the West Bank in a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition.

"Gov. Christie either has no understanding of the truth of the issues effecting Israel, or he is hostile to Israel," Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, told The Algemeiner an interview. "Either way, I am very uncomfortable."

Based in New York, The Algemeiner is a leading Jewish newspaper in the United States.

Klein, who has led the Zionist organization for 20 years, was referring to the embattled Republican governor's March 29 speech at Adelson's Venetian Resort and Hotel in Las Vegas. Christie was among several 2016 presidential hopefuls speaking at the coalition's spring meeting.

A conservative Zionist who believes in a strong national defense, Adelson, 80, poured $98 million into the 2012 elections — and associates say he is seeking a 2016 presidential candidate with broad electoral appeal.

Adelson, with a net worth of $38 billion, recently placed eighth on the annual Forbes billionaires list.

In his speech, Christie described a trip he and his family took to Israel in 2012. The governor said that they "took a helicopter ride from the occupied territories across and just felt personally how extraordinary that was to understand, the military risk that Israel faces every day."

The use of the term "occupied territories" immediately set off murmurs in the crowd, Politico reported.

The term refers to lands in which Palestinians live but where Israel maintains a military presence. The phrase is used in international diplomacy, but it is rejected by many conservative Zionists, who see it as validating Palestinian challenges over Israel’s presence.

In his interview, Klein told The Algemeiner that he approached Christie after the speech to inform him that the term was inaccurate and misleading.

"The term 'occupied territories' is a false term used by the enemies of Israel to make it sound like Israel has stolen Arab land,” Klein said he explained to the governor. "To be occupied, you have to have taken over someone’s legal sovereign area … the only two countries that the world recognizes in this area are Jordan and Israel."

Klein told The Algemeiner that he had asked Christie whether he would instead use "disputed territory" in the future, but that the governor had only responded, "I saw you shaking your head when I used that term."

He added: "When I gave him the opportunity to respond to me after I explained to him the truth about Judea and Samaria, the fact the he was dismissive and even caustic toward me tells me that he has no interest in understanding the truth of what is beneficial for Israel."

Christie later apologized to Adelson privately — and the casino magnate accepted the governor's comments, Politico reported.

But that's not good enough, Klein said.

"He is worried about Sheldon supporting him financially, so we can’t trust [what he said to him] on Israel or what his real beliefs are," he told The Algemeiner. "You got the real answer with me because there was no ulterior motive there. I don’t believe his apology for one second."

Russia told FBI in 2011 that Tsarnaev was “follower of radical Islam and a strong believer”

Robert Spencer  / Jihad Watch

 

 

News about this new report is circulating as an exoneration of the FBI, as it is referred to explicitly in the last paragraph of this New York Times report. However, it is not really an exoneration at all. It is an attempt to displace blame for the FBI’s dropping the ball on watching Tamerlan Tsarnaev before the Boston Marathon jihad bombing from the FBI to the Russians. The problem with this attempt, however, is that while the report says that the Russians refused to give the FBI further information, it acknowledges that they told the feds that Tamerlan Tsarnaev “was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer” and that he “had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country’s region to join unspecified underground groups.”

Those “underground groups” could in this context only have been a reference to jihad groups. And so the Russians essentially told the FBI that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a jihadi, and that wasn’t enough for the FBI to keep him under close surveillance? They didn’t pursue watching him and his brother because they hadn’t “found anything substantive that ties them to a terrorist group.” The possibility that they could have pulled off a lone wolf jihad attack apparently didn’t occur to these intel experts.

The FBI clearly failed in this case and bears some responsibility for the Boston bombing, but ultimately the responsibility lies with Barack Obama and John Brennan, who made sure that agents would be abysmally ignorant of Islam and jihad when they scrubbed all mention of both from counterterror training — so how could the FBI properly evaluate what the Russians told them?

“Russia Didn’t Share All Details on Boston Bombing Suspect, Report Says,” by Michael S. Schmidt and Eric Schmitt for the New York Times, April 9:

WASHINGTON — The Russian government declined to provide the F.B.I. with information about one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects that would most likely have led to more extensive scrutiny of him at least two years before the attack, according to an inspector general’s report.

Russian officials had told the F.B.I. in 2011 that the suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, “was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer” and that Mr. Tsarnaev “had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country’s region to join unspecified underground groups.”

But after an initial investigation by the F.B.I., the Russians declined several requests for additional information about Mr. Tsarnaev, according to the report, a review of how intelligence and law enforcement agencies could have thwarted the bombing.
At the time, American law enforcement officials believed that Mr. Tsarnaev posed a far greater threat to Russia.

The new inspector general’s report found that it was only after the bombing occurred last April that the Russians shared with the F.B.I. the additional intelligence, including information from a telephone conversation the Russian authorities had intercepted between Mr. Tsarnaev and his mother in which they discussed Islamic jihad.

“They found that the Russians did not provide all the information that they had on him back then, and based on everything that was available the F.B.I. did all that it could,” said a senior American official briefed on the review.

Mr. Tsarnaev, who was killed attempting to elude the police, and his brother, Dzhokhar, are believed to be the sole suspects in the attack, which killed three people and injured more than 200 near the marathon’s finish line. The Justice Department said in January that it would seek the death penalty against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Federal authorities have uncovered little evidence tying the brothers to an international terrorist organization. F.B.I. agents who traveled to Dagestan, a region in Russia’s North Caucasus where Tamerlan Tsarnaev went in 2012 during a particularly violent period there, found nothing that showed he received training or encouragement from terrorists.

“At this point it looks like they were homegrown violent extremists,” the senior official said. “We certainly aren’t in a position to rule anything out, but at this point we haven’t found anything substantive that ties them to a terrorist group.”

The report was produced by the inspector general of the Intelligence Community, which has responsibility for 17 separate agencies, and the inspectors general from the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and the Central Intelligence Agency. It has not been made public, but members of Congress are scheduled to be briefed on it Thursday, and some of its findings are expected to be released before Tuesday, the first anniversary of the bombings.

Its contents were described by several senior American officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the report has not been publicly released.

The review is similar to an internal review the F.B.I. conducted after the bombing. In that review, the bureau found that its agents had been restrained from conducting a more extensive investigation because of federal laws and Justice Department guidelines that prevent them from using surveillance tools like wiretapping in investigations like those conducted on Mr. Tsarnaev before the bombings.

“Had they known what the Russians knew they probably would have been able to do more under our investigative guidelines, but would they have uncovered the plot? That’s very hard to say,” one senior official said.

While the review largely exonerates the F.B.I., it does say that agents in the Boston area who investigated the Russian intelligence in 2011 could have conducted a few more interviews when they first examined the information.

The report also recommends several steps it says the F.B.I. should take to more effectively share information with state and local authorities, the officials said. The F.B.I., which has worked with police chiefs from around the country over the past year on how it can better share information, has already adopted several of the recommendations, according to the officials.

When the F.B.I. disclosed shortly after the bombing that it had received information from the Russians, congressional Republicans and a few Democrats, including Representative William Keating of Massachusetts, criticized the bureau for not continuing to track him when he left to visit Dagestan and for not questioning him on his return in 2012.

“It’s people like this that you don’t want to let out of your sight, and this was a mistake,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. “I don’t know if our laws were inefficient or if the F.B.I. failed, but we’re at war with radical Islamists, and we need to up our game.”

As part of its investigation of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011, F.B.I. agents examined his criminal and educational records and his Internet search history. They also interviewed him, his parents and people at his school. It was after those investigative efforts uncovered little that F.B.I. agents stationed in Moscow went back to the Russian authorities and requested any additional information they had on Mr. Tsarnaev, who immigrated to the United States from Dagestan a little more than a decade ago.

The exoneration of the F.B.I. stands in contrast to the findings of a similar investigation conducted after the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Tex., in which 13 people were killed.

After the shooting, a former bureau director, William H. Webster, conducted a formal review of the investigation into the gunman, Nidal Malik Hasan, before and after the attack. That review said the F.B.I. had mishandled information garnered from intelligence, and it led to changes in the way the agency shares information.

Op-ed:

'Trespassing cattle' vs. the feds 

By: Diane Sori

“We’re not pointing guns at anyone but we’re sure getting a lot of guns pointed at us.”
– Carol Bundy, wife of Nevada rancher

Ruby Ridge...a classic example of government gone horribly wrong. Briefly, Ruby Ridge was the 1992 confrontation where Federal agents surrounded separatist Randy Weaver’s mountaintop cabin near Naples, Idaho (40 miles south of the Canadian border) after Weaver failed to appear in court to address charges of possessing an illegally shortened sawed-off shotgun. Starting with the U.S. Marshals Service trying to serve a warrant for his arrest, it escalated into firefight after agents shot the family dog and ended with the deaths of Weaver's 14-year old son Samuel, Weaver's wife Vicki, and US Marshal William Degan.

Three people killed for NOTHING before the incident ended, with Weaver and family friend Kevin Harris being arrested. Weaver was acquitted of all charges except missing his original court date and violation of his bail conditions, and was sentenced to 18 months and fined $10,000. Credited with time served, Weaver served four additional months in prison, and Harris was acquitted of all charges.

And now 22 years later it's as if the government hasn't learned anything from what happened at Ruby Ridge for once again its engaging in the same outright criminal misconduct and behavior that this time could escalate into a full-fledged range-war of sorts...and all because of some so-called 'trespassing cattle' grazing on federal land where some 'endangered' tortoises wander about...or is it.

Oh give me a home where the 'trespassing cattle' roam...

Bringing in a show of force that includes dozens of armed agents in SUVs and helicopters, the Bundy Ranch...the last cattle ranch in Clark County Nevada...is now in the cross hairs of the EPA and Federal Law Enforcement officials over 'trespassing cattle'. And as federal agents surround Cliven Bundy's 150-acre ranch...blocking his access to public lands...federally hired contract cowboys have started to seize his cattle...rounding up hundreds of heads of cattle to date...cattle whose crime was sometimes grazing on public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Guess the cattle couldn't read the signs posted because they missed school the day they taught that by crossing the boundary they would be grazing on the habitat of the 'protected' desert tortoise, trespassing on land that has been off-limits for cattle since 1998.

Off-limits for cattle but NOT for tortoises...give me a break.

And while BLM officials claim that “For more than two decades, cattle have been grazed illegally on public lands in northeast Clark County,” and as they bloviate that “BLM and (the National Park Service) have made repeated attempts to resolve this matter administratively and judicially. Impoundment of cattle illegally grazing on public lands is an option of last resort," the standoff has turned dirty with Bundy saying he's grazed cattle on the land for decades, and that his father and father's father did so before him.
 

So as the government continues to push the story of this battle being over the habitat of the now federally protected desert tortoise, this battle is really about BIG intrusive government vs an American citizen. And with federal officials saying BLM enforcement agents were brought into the dispute because Bundy 'supposedly' made comments that the agency perceived as threats, and with The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, saying that federal action for getting the 'trespassing' cattle off their land was long overdue, you just know the situation will go from bad to worse.

“When threats are made that could jeopardize the safety of the American people, the contractors and our personnel; we have the responsibility to provide law enforcement to account for their safety,” 

- National Park Service spokeswoman Christie Vanover

So let's put this all into perspective...some grazing cattle...grazing on a minutely small portion of the Gold Butte 600,000 acres owned by the federal government must now be rounded-up with some killed in the process (the BLM has denied killing any cattle intentionally only saying that there may be some cases where a cow would need to be euthanized...yeah right) just so they do NOT continue to graze on the burnt and dried out grass on a plot of land that some desert tortoises dig holes on, hide under rocks on, and get their feet burnt on...desolate empty land that NO one goes to.

You'd think this bureaucratic idiocy...but like everything else our federal government does there is more to this than 'trespassing cattle' vs. a tortoise.

And the truth is that this battle goes back to 1993 when Clovin Bundy stopped paying grazing fees to the government, saying he did NOT have to continue to make payments because his Mormon ancestors had worked the land since the 1880s, giving him certain rights to the land.

While willing to pay grazing fees to Clark Count but NOT to the BLM...who claim Bundy now owes the federal government some $1.1 million in unpaid grazing fees...the simple truth is that the federal government is trying to regulate and bully this 'last man standing' off his land just as they did by regulating 52 of his fellow ranchers off their rightfully and legally owned land.

Kudos to Clovin Bundy for standing strong against a federal government run amok.

And now tensions are escalating as people in the nearby town of Bunkerville are standing strong with Bundy to try and stop the feds from taking...NO...from stealing...the cattle off the land. Saying the feds are now using "heavy-handed tactics," BLM and park rangers have actually started to taser those standing against them and in support of Bundy. In fact, Ammon Bundy, the son of Cliven Bundy, said the rangers tased him twice, and one woman has even said that federal officers hit her with their vehicle while she was protesting against them.

“No cow justifies the atmosphere of intimidation which currently exists nor the limitation of constitutional rights that are sacred to all Nevadans.” - Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval

So the bottom line in all this is the fact that the Bundy family, who settled in Bunkerville more than 140 years ago, now claim an 'inherent right' for the cows to graze in the disputed area. Refusing to pay BLM grazing fees since 1993, Clovin Bundy has argued in court filings that his ancestors worked the land long before the BLM ever came into existence, thus giving him rights that pre-date federal involvement. Bundy also says the issues he's now facing are Nevada states' rights issues NOT issues needing federal intervention.

And right he is on all accounts.

But you know what...when all is stripped away this fee...this regulating of 52 of his fellow ranchers off their land...this all amounts to NOTHING more than extortion... plain and simple.

And where is Harry Reid in all this...Nevada is his state after all...for this nonsense of 'trespassing cattle' is nothing more than an illegal federal land grab. In fact, some rummages have been heard that this is all about water rights as Las Vegas is running out of water, so the feds are trying to steal the land of the very last cattle rancher in southern Nevada. And with the feds ready to stop at NOTHING to get what they want, this could turn into another Ruby Ridge but on a grander scale...a more deadly scale...a scale that could make the old fashioned range-wars of years gone by look like a walk in the park.

So as BIG government tries once again to trample on the rights of 'We the People'...this time one brave man is fighting back and it took some 'trespassing cattle' to carry the banner into the fight.