Eric Holder: Fast and furiously seals documents

Judicial Watch’s blog, Corruption Chronicles, recently provided an in-depth report detailing the Obama administration’s abrupt sealing of court records containing the sordid facts related to the murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry by Mexican drug smugglers. The Arizona agent was killed with a gun connected to the infamous “Operation Fast and Furious,” a botched federal scheme that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico, in the hopes they might eventually be traced to drug cartels.

The Corruption Chronicles report states the information will now be kept from the public as well as the media and poses the question, “Could this be a cover-up on the part of the “most transparent” administration in history?”

Think of the implications: The murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent is related to the Justice Department willingly placing thousands of guns in the hands of Mexican criminal gangs, and Obama’s administration astonishingly hides information about the agent’s death from the public.

Watch as Attorney General Eric Holder passes the buck and stonewalls on Fast and Furious, saying he can’t speak until Cynthia Schnedar, the Acting Inspector General and former television reporter, concludes her investigation. She once worked for Holder. Don’t count on an impartial investigation.

Currently, 52 members of Congress have called upon Eric Holder to resign.*

* H/T The Daily Caller

Advertisement

McCain: Daughter Meghan “went over to dark side”

Speaking to Don Imus on the FOX Business Network, Sen. John McCain facetiously weighed in on his daughter Meghan’s recent career move as a contributor on MSNBC. It was, he said, an indicator that she’d gone to the “dark side.”

“She went over to the dark side I guess,” McCain said. “I am very proud of her. She’s feisty. Being over there she is going to have to have quite a bit of that. I’m sure she will fight for the things she and I believe in over there and I wish her every success.”

Meghan McCain — lacking her mother‘s grace and savoir-faire — joined the liberal network earlier this month and has since opined on the state of the GOP primary and Republican presidential candidates. Newt Gingrich isn’t fazed by criticism from Meghan McCain, that his campaign is just a “vanity project.”

“How would she have a clue?” asked the former Speaker of the House. 

Mitt Romney is probably trying to think of a gentlemanly way of sidestepping her stated support of his campaign.

The alphabet networks are becoming a haven for daughters of former presidents. Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of former President George W. Bush, works as a correspondent for NBC’s “Today” show. Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, also joined the network earlier this month. 

Meghan McCain’s father never made it to the Oval Office, but he did his bit to assist Barack Obama to the plush office.

Illegal immigration: Sowell speaks to Gingrich

Human Events runs a commentary by Thomas Sowell, titled Gingrich and Immigration. As usual, the brilliant Dr. Sowell knocks it out of the park with his cogent thoughts, which we enthusiastically share with our readers.

A sample from his column:

“The purpose of American immigration laws and policies is not to be either humane or inhumane to illegal immigrants. The purpose of immigration laws and policies is to serve the national interest of this country.”

We encourage you to read Sowell‘s instructive column.  It’s a safe bet you’ll never find it on the op-ed page of The Periódico de la República de Arizona (Arizona Republic).

AZ Senate race tightening up?

Public Policy Polling has recently released an intriguing survey. In a U.S. Senate race pitting Republican Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake against Democrats — former Surgeon General Richard Carmona and former state Democrat party chair Don Bivens — Flake holds a slim four percentage point (40% -36%) lead over Carmona and bests the virtually unknown Bivens by just ten points (42% -32%).

Political newcomer Wil Cardon, an East Valley Republican businessman, fares surprisingly well in a head-to-head against Carmona, tallying 35% to Carmona’s 33%. At this point in all match-ups, undecideds are still a major factor.

Carmona, who has an interesting background, rising from high school dropout to a medical doctor, served in the George W. Bush administration, perhaps making him more palatable to Republicans. But Carmona later complained the administration muzzled him on his bent toward embryonic stem cell research. “Anything that doesn’t fit into the political appointees’ ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried,” groused Carmona to a House of Representatives committee.

Arizona Democrats have all but given up on capturing an Arizona Senate seat since it was 1988 the last time one of the political prizes was won.

After nearly 11 years in Congress, and officially in the senate race to replace retiring Sen. Jon Kyl, for the better part of a year, Jeff Flake must be unhappy with the results of this poll.  The good news for him is that his numbers are up slightly from the last survey in May.

500 Arizona voters participated in this survey.

Linda Valdez cheers Sheriff Arpaio’s endorsement

Say it isn’t so, Joe

In the oddest of the odd, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has made his much-sought-after endorsement in the 2012 Republican presidential primary.

And who did the strong enforcement official, who has garnered national support for his sweeps of businesses employing illegal workers, decide to endorse?

The Periódico de la República de Arizona’s (Arizona Republic) resident Liberal-in-Chief and open borders aficionado Linda Valdez is pontificating and doing simultaneous handstands as she opines that Arpaio has “gone soft on immigration.”  [Valdez can never quite bring herself to distinguish between “legal” immigrants and “illegal” criminals whom she cunningly refers to as “migrants.’]

Meanwhile, the rest of us are left to wonder why Sheriff Arpaio has abandoned illegal hardliner Mitt Romney, who won Arpaio’s endorsement during the 2008 run for the White House or scholarly Congresswoman Michele Bachmann in favor of this clown, who can’t even articulate his own thoughts.

Would you really like this guy’s finger on the button, Joe?

Secret loans to banks revealed, Barney Frank retires

Sordid dots easy to connect

First read this Bloomberg report, disclosing that the Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. At the top of the article is a fascinating interactive graph allowing readers to compare the banks’ net incomes or losses over the time frames.

The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble — so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates.

A spokesman for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner declined to comment.

Barney Frank, 71, a 16-term Massachusetts Democrat who chaired the House Financial Services Committee, has accumulated more than $760,000 in campaign funds in the third quarter of this year and had $389,606 in cash on hand. He’s obviously well-funded for yet another term.  It’s the scrutiny, not redistricting as he‘ll claim during his afternoon press conference, forcing him to make this retirement decision. Watch as Frank lies about his actual motives with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pushing home loans to those who had no hope of repaying their debt.

Judicial Watch (JW) has actively pursued documents regarding the unprecedented explosion in the size and reach of the government through its use of $24 trillion for “TARP” (Troubled Asset Relief Program) bailouts, “bank rescues” and the Obama administration’s economic “stimulus” plan. The $200 billion taxpayer bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is arguably the biggest government corruption scandal in our nation’s history.

The watchdog group’s efforts have revealed documents showing Congress’ awareness of the poor business practices of Fannie and Freddie at the same time key members of Congress continued to block attempts to regulate the two Government Sponsored Enterprises.  A Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that JW filed against the Department of the Treasury resulted in documents that revealed details of how the government coerced the CEOs of several major banks to accept TARP funds.

So far this year, sixteen House Democrats have announced their plans to retire; half are running for higher office.

What? We agree with today’s editorial

As longtime readers of this site are well aware, it’s a rare occasion we see eye-to-eye with the daily newspaper. The Periódico de la República de Arizona (Arizona Republic) holds obtuse and extreme positions on a wide variety of issues, routinely veering far left of the political center. Like the harping of a bitter shrew, the relentless rant becomes wearisome. Whether the topic is illegal immigration (which the newspaper supports) or conservative elected officials (which the editorial board, reporters, columnists and cartoonist work in unison to disparage), the aim is the same. The unified, shrill cry from various staff corners is an irksome assault on reasonable sensibilities.

Today is that rare occasion when we actually agree with an editorial. This one, Suit may garner answers, asks the question, “Why in the world is a public agency like the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission spending what looks like a healthy fortune on promoting itself in advertising?”

The editorial states, “Former state lawmaker Jonathan Paton, with the legal assistance of the conservative Goldwater Institute, claims the commission is illegally spending taxpayer dollars on self-promotion.” Here is the Goldwater Institute‘s take on the issue. Arizona Capitol Times reports on the lawsuit here.

This morning’s editorial takes on the costly expenditures of the commission and rightly calls its “Closed Door Syndrome” television ad, featuring a residential front door with arms and legs, “bizarre.”

Equally bizarre is the fact that we agree.

Seeing Red AZ has previously written about the taxpayer funded scheme:
Clean Elections money: Look what you bought, (November 29, 2010)

SCOTUS guts “Clean” Elections matching funds, (June 28, 2011)

Food for thought: Robb does “clean” elections, (July 1, 2011)

Obama frustration drives businessman’s decision

“New Company Policy: We are not hiring until Obama is gone”

Bill Looman, a Georgia businessman who owns U.S. Cranes, LLC, tells the local NBC-TV affiliate that he simply can’t afford to bring on new workers under the policies of the Obama administration. “I’ve got people that I want to hire now, but I just can’t afford it. And I don’t foresee that I’ll be able to afford it unless some things change in D.C.”

Looman has posted the attention-grabbing signs on his company’s trucks, for all to see as they travel the roads, highways and interstates: “New Company Policy: We are not hiring until Obama is gone.”

Stanton: “My transition team looks like Phoenix”

Getting “ready to rock and roll” over invisible Republicans?

Phoenix Mayor-elect Greg Stanton has named his transition team, which he describes by saying “It’s big, it’s diverse and it’s substantive.”  Stanton also says, “My transition team looks like Phoenix.”

Apparently he has forgotten the makeup of the city he will preside over as mayor. Along with the 33.6% Democrats, are 34.8% registered Independents or PNDs, 1.1% Libertarians, a negligible sum (less than 1%) of other assorted proclivities — and, oh, yeah — that pesky 30.2% base of Republicans in the city of Phoenix– the sixth most populated city in the nation.

Republicans are a sizeable slice of Phoenix’s registered voters. They routinely get trampled by unionists and city workers who climb out to vote their self-interests when the traditionally low-voter turnout city elections take place.

Greg Stanton’s oversized 24-member transition team includes self-described “community activists,” along with far-left liberals, Cindy Hensley McCain’s beer distributorship’s CEO, executives of nebulous social service organizations and a few lawyers tossed in for good measure. The daily lists them all here.

And as icing on the cake, Stanton has aligned himself with liberal grande Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, and was on hand for her recent re-election announcement.

Hold onto your hats, folks. When the incoming mayor doesn’t even see us, you can count on the fact that we’re in for a bumpy ride.

Jimmy Obama: Separated at birth?

Listen carefully to their words