President Obama can declare immunity for hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens and can also unilaterally order the broad refinancing of mortgages on millions of “underwater” homeowners in order to reduce principal payments and debt, The New York Times’ Paul Krugman told the liberal “Take Back the American Dream” conference on Tuesday.

One of the benefits of such a move, Krugman said, would be some additional economic activity at a time when the economy is sluggish. But another benefit is clearly political and could provide the votes Obama needs to be re-elected.

Speakers at a subsequent “Taking on Wall Street” panel agreed with Krugman’s approach and went further, declaring that “underwater homeowners” constitute a “huge powerful voting bloc” that could help re-elect Obama in November.

“That will bring voters to the polls,” Richard Eskow of the Campaign for America’s Future said of the proposals for Obama to extend debt forgiveness or principal reduction to millions of people.

The term “underwater” technically refers to owing more on a home than it is worth. Many of these homeowners, estimated at 15 million or more, might not qualify for refinancing because their current income doesn’t meet the lending criteria, or because they haven’t paid enough on the principal.

Read More at Canada Free Press. By Cliff Kincaid.

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), a freshman conservative congressman and former Army officer, said that the “breakdown of the Black family” is one of the most important causes of the economic disparity facing the black community.

“We are here today to talk about economic freedom, as opposed to economic dependency,” West said at a Capitol Hill forum Monday addressing “Economic Empowerment in the Black Community.”

“‘Husband’ and ‘Wife’ in the black community are at 28 percent; that leads to a failure in education and that leads to a failure in urban statistics and revitalization,” West said.

A panelist at the forum, West said Black unemployment remains at almost 14 percent — almost double the rate for whites.

“This is a trend that has continued for the past 50 years, during both strong and weak economies,” he said.

Read More at cnsnews.com.

Rep. Darrell Issa pressed ahead with a committee vote Wednesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, despite an 11th-hour move by President Obama to exert executive privilege over the Fast and Furious documents at the heart of the dispute.

The announcement instantly touched off a caustic debate on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, as Democrats accused Issa of prosecuting a “political witch hunt” and Republicans stepped up their criticism of Holder’s “stonewalling” over the Fast and Furious probe. Even for Washington, the tone at the hearing was decidedly bitter and accusatory.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was first informed of the president’s decision to exert executive privilege in a letter Wednesday morning, shortly before the contempt vote was scheduled.

Issa said committee staff are evaluating the letter but described the move as too little, too late as he and other GOP lawmakers questioned the basis for the assertion.

“This untimely assertion by the Justice Department falls short of any reason to delay today’s proceedings,” Issa said.

Read More at foxnews.com.

Inspired by their shared tragic experience, two fathers have forged an unlikely partnership to spread awareness of the growing number of Islamic homegrown terrorists in the U.S. and of the government’s refusal to identify the violent acts of these individuals as acts of terror.

On June 1, 2009, outside a military recruiting office in Little Rock, Arkansas, 23-year-old Army Pvt. William “Andy” Long was shot and killed, and 18-year-old Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula was wounded by self-proclaimed jihadist Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe. In an AP interview, Muhammad claimed that his act was not murder because his act was justified, and even that it displayed “common sense.” He related that “U.S. soldiers kill innocent Muslim men and women” and that Muslims need to “strike back.”

Andy’s father, Daris Long and the father of the shooter, Melvin Bledsoe, met in the aftermath of this event under the most grievous of conditions. Even so, they have since formed a friendship and mutual mission to find closure in their shared tragedy by spreading awareness among Americans of the realities of their ordeal, and by demanding that their government identify this tragedy as what it is: a domestic act of Islamic terror.

In an issued statement concerning the death of Andy Long and wounding of Quinton Ezeagwula, the U.S. Army held that there was insufficient evidence to justify their entitlement to Purple Heart awards. This statement seems curious, considering that Army Purple Heart Regulations state that “…each approved award of the Purple Heart must exhibit all of the following factors: wound, injury, or death must have been the result of enemy or hostile act, international terrorist attack, or friendly fire.” This tragedy seems to more than qualify a fallen or injured soldier for this award, and even more so when it is taken into account that Muhammad (Bledsoe) committed his violent act after an extended stay and conversion to Islam in Yemen, a country that known terroristic conspirators and masterminds have called home for years.

Read More at Western Journalism.

Years ago, I was working in Mexico City and enjoying lunch in one of those wonderful “Zona Rosa” restaurants. I was catching up with a couple of Mexican friends who happened to be PAN-istas, or members of the conservative party. (Back then, the PRI was still governing the country, and PAN never thought that they’d elect a president. They did in 2000 and 2006.)

It turned out that President López-Portillo was delivering his “informe,” or the Mexican version of the State of the Union speech, that day.

Let me add some context. Mexico was reeling from a February devaluation and more currency collapses in August. It got so bad that a Mexican delegation was sent to Washington, D.C. for an emergency meeting with President Reagan and then-Treasury Secretary Regan. It was a very bad summer for Mexicans, and capital flight was the order of the day.

López-Portillo’s informe was a boring speech, full of numbers and “I did this” and “I did that.”

At one point, López-Portillo dropped the bomb. He expropriated the Mexican private banking system. He was trying to blame the bankers for the devaluations that his own irresponsible policies had caused.

Read More at American Thinker. By Silvio Canto, Jr.