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When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; When the government fears the people, there is liberty.  ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

Entries from April 29th, 2010

Obama: ‘There may not be an appetite’ to tackle immigration this year

April 29th, 2010 · Deception, Government, Immigration, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Politics

By Debbi Wilgoren Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 29, 2010; 8:44 AM

President Obama said late Wednesday that “there may not be an appetite” to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws this year, even though he believes there is a pressing need to do so.

“It’s a matter of political will,” Obama said during a rare visit to the press section of his presidential plane. ” . . . This is a difficult issue. It generates a lot of emotions . . . I need some help on the Republican side.”

Obama has called repeatedly for comprehensive immigration reform, saying he wants to tighten control of the nation’s borders but also chart a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants who are in this country illegally.

Sen. Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said last week that he wanted to push forward with legislation regardless of whether lawmakers can forge a bipartisan compromise. But he later backed off that pledge, and Obama told reporters on the plane that he is willing to wait in order to work with Republican senators.

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Justice Department considers suing Arizona to block immigration law

April 29th, 2010 · Accountability, Deception, Government, Government Control, Immigration, Immigration, Politics, States

By Jerry Markon and Anne E. Kornblut Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 29, 2010

Officials in the Obama administration are urging the extraordinary step of suing Arizona over its new immigration law, and the Justice Department is considering such an action to block the legislation from taking effect, government officials said Wednesday.

The Arizona law criminalizes illegal immigration by defining it as trespassing and empowers police to question anyone they have a “reasonable suspicion” is an illegal immigrant. President Obama and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. have blasted the legislation, with Obama saying that it “threatened to undermine basic notions of fairness.”

“The president had strong words to say and the attorney general had strong words to say,” said one law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because no decision has been made. “Considering that it’s signed into law, and Arizona is doing a lot of pomp and circumstance, do you see a friendly way out of this?”

A key legal ground being considered, officials said, is the doctrine of “preemption” – arguing that the state’s law illegally intrudes on immigration enforcement, which is a federal responsibility.

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Supreme Court overturns objection to cross on public land – ‘In God We Trust’

April 29th, 2010 · Government, Supreme Court

By Robert Barnes Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 29, 2010

A splintered Supreme Court displayed its deep divisions over the separation of church and state Wednesday, with the court’s prevailing conservatives signaling a broader openness to the idea that the Constitution does not require the removal of religious symbols from public land.

A 5 to 4 decision by the court overturns a federal judge’s objection to a white cross erected more than 75 years ago on a stretch of the Mojave Desert to honor the dead of World War I.

Six justices explained their reasoning in writing, often using stirring rhetoric or emotional images of sacrifice and faith to describe how religion can both honor the nation’s dead and divide a pluralistic nation.

The bottom line, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote, is that “the Constitution does not oblige government to avoid any public acknowledgment of religion’s role in society.” Although joined in full only by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Kennedy’s opinion will be closely parsed as courts across the country consider challenges to religious displays in public settings.

But it is a narrow ruling, offering less guidance for the future than a stark acknowledgment of the fundamental differences between the court’s most consistent conservatives and its liberals in drawing the line between government accommodation of religion versus an endorsement of religion.

To Kennedy, the cross “is not merely a reaffirmation of Christian beliefs” but a symbol “often used to honor and respect” heroism.

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Republicans end filibuster of financial overhaul bill in Senate

April 29th, 2010 · Accountability, Congress, Dissention, Ethics, Finance, Government Control, Politics, Republicans

By Shailagh Murray and Brady Dennis Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 29, 2010

Republicans ended their three-day filibuster of a financial regulatory overhaul Wednesday, reaching agreement with Democrats to begin debate on a bill aimed at curbing the risky investment practices that brought the U.S. economy to the brink of collapse.

After voting three times this week to block debate, GOP senators decided to reverse course and attempt to reshape the bill through the amendment process. The change in tactics came after Senate banking committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and the ranking Republican on the panel, Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), announced that they had again reached an impasse in their efforts to reach a bipartisan compromise.

Democrats had embraced the GOP filibuster as an opportunity to portray Republicans as defenders of powerful special interests, in particular major banks and investment houses. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) had threatened to keep the Senate in session overnight Wednesday to reap maximum political benefits.

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CBO Update

April 29th, 2010 · CBO Update

The following has been added to CBO’s Web site (www.cbo.gov):

  • H.R. 2062, Migratory Bird Treaty Act Penalty and Enforcement Act of 2009
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on April 21, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11465
  • H.R. 1700, National Women’s History Museum Act of 2009
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on April 21, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11464
  • S. 1382, Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act of 2010
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on April 13, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11467
  • S. 1237, Homeless Veterans and Other Veterans Health Care Authorities Act of 2010
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on January 28, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11466
  • Life-Cycle Costs of Selected Navy Ships
    Letter to the Honorable Jeff Sessions
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11431
  • Evaluating Military Compensation
    Testimony before the Subcommittee on Personnel, Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11463

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Administration continues to defy Senate subpoena for Fort Hood documents

April 28th, 2010 · Deception, Ethics, Government, Homeland Security, National Security, Non-Transparency, Obama Exposed, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, Terrorist Attack, Treason

By Craig Whitlock Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Obama administration said Tuesday that it will provide more information to Congress about the Fort Hood shootings but continued to defy a subpoena request for witness statements and other documents.

After days of negotiations, the Defense and Justice departments informed a Senate committee that they will not comply with congressional subpoenas to share investigative records related to the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood, Tex., which killed 13 people. The agencies said divulging the material could jeopardize their prosecution of Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the alleged gunman.

The Pentagon said, however, that it will give the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs access to Hasan’s personnel file, as well as part of an Army report that scrutinized why superiors did not intervene in Hasan’s career as an Army psychiatrist, despite signs of his religious radicalization and shortcomings as a soldier.

Leslie Phillips, a committee spokeswoman, said the refusal to hand over all the material was “an affront” to Congress’s duty “to conduct independent oversight of the executive branch.”

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the agency has tried to cooperate as much as possible.

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Democrats still trying to pass any bill fast before mid-term election

April 28th, 2010 · Deception, Democrats, Immigration, Immigration, Non-Transparency

Reid amends his pledge for fast action on immigration

By Shailagh Murray and Anne E. Kornblut Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid backed off Tuesday from his pledge to fast-track an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, after fellow Democrats voiced skepticism and a key Republican supporter abandoned the effort.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the Justice Department may sue Arizona over a new state law that authorizes police to question the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally. “I’m very concerned about the wedge it could draw between communities that law enforcement is supposed to serve and those of us in law enforcement,” Holder said.

Reid (D), who is facing a tough reelection battle in his home state of Nevada, surprised the White House and many of his Capitol Hill colleagues April 10 when he said that a broad immigration bill “cannot wait.” He told a cheering crowd in Las Vegas, “We’re going to have comprehensive immigration reform now.”

That angered Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), the chief GOP negotiator on immigration, who accused Reid of engaging in a “cynical political ploy” to win Hispanic votes, given that the House has not even called up an immigration bill. Graham withdrew his support from a separate climate-change proposal that he had been prepared to endorse, and on Tuesday, he announced that he would oppose any immigration measure until U.S. border security had been improved.

With the fate of two Democratic priorities suddenly thrown into question, Reid said Tuesday that he would not dictate the sequencing of the two measures. He added that both remained on the horizon after the Senate concludes its current debate on financial regulations.

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Poll finds Americans in an anti-incumbent mood as midterm elections near

April 28th, 2010 · Accountability, Change of Power, Corruption, Deception, Defense, Democrats, Economy, Ethics, Federal Spending, Government, Government Control, Greed, Obama Exposed, Reform, Taxes

By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Members of Congress face the most anti-incumbent electorate since 1994, with less than a third of all voters saying they are inclined to support their representatives in November, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Dissatisfaction is widespread, crossing party lines, ideologies and virtually all groups of voters. Less than a quarter of independents and just three in 10 Republicans say they’re leaning toward backing an incumbent this fall. Even among Democrats, who control the House, the Senate and the White House, opinion is evenly divided on the question.

“I’m not really happy right now with anybody” in Washington, Sandy Davis, 64, a Republican from Decatur, Ill. said in a follow-up interview. Although she expressed “mixed feelings” about a fresh crop of lawmakers, she added: “When the country was founded, those guys were all pretty new at it. How bad would it be?”

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Setting the Record Straight – U.S. District Judge in Wisconsin ruled that the annual National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional

April 27th, 2010 · Accountability, Deception

As much as I despise Obama’s actions in office, this may be the one thing he has done right, he observed the ‘separation of church and state’ and yet Obama issued a proclamation last year but did not hold public events with religious leaders as former.

The following article was posted by CBSNEWS

National Day of Prayer Deemed Unconstitutional, but Obama Will Recognize it Anyway

Posted by Brian Montopoli:April 16, 2010 1:34 PM

Yesterday, a U.S. District Judge in Wisconsin ruled that the annual National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional.

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Senate GOP blocks action on financial regulation bill again. Not willing to Pass bill just to pass it.

April 27th, 2010 · Accountability, Deception, Federal Spending, Finance, Government Control, Greed, Non-Transparency, Politics, Senate

By Brady Dennis and Shailagh Murray Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 27, 2010; 5:18 PM

Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked for the second straight day efforts to begin debate on a sweeping overhaul of financial regulations, saying the bill represented a “dramatic overreach” of government power.

A procedural vote to bring the measure to the Senate floor for full debate fell short of the 60-votes required for passage. Fifty-seven senators voted in favor of advancing the bill, while 41 voted against it. Two senators did not vote.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had scheduled the vote after a similar attempt failed on Monday. Democratic aides said another vote was planned for Wednesday if the Tuesday tally also fell short.

“We need to keep the pressure on to get a deal as quickly as possible,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley said.

Democrats say they want to hold an open debate on the bill on the Senate floor, but Republicans insist that the measure still needs substantial revision that would better handled in private negotiations before making.

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