White House Adviser Valerie Jarrett Met ‘Four Or Five Times’ With Illegal Immigrant Activist Group (+video)

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jonathan ErnstBy Patrick Howley.

President Obama’s senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett held a series of meetings with illegal immigrant activists during Obama’s first term and concluded that “They are the best that we have.”

Jarrett, a Chicago-era mentor to Obama and wife Michelle, is currently fighting to pass immigration reform legislation, in her words, “this summer.”

“I had met, maybe, a year-and-a-half ago, with about Four Dream Act kids,” Jarrett said in a 2012 conversation with Walter Isaacson at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival, video of which was posted by The Aspen Institute in 2014.

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Central America Newspapers Tout Open US Door for Illegal Minors

By Todd Beamon.

Newspapers in El Salvador and Honduras are promoting policies by the Obama administration that defer deportation to minors brought to the United States as children by their parents — known as “Dreamers” — and those that are housing illegal children at military bases in the South and West.

“Almost all agree that a child who crossed the border illegally with their parents, or in search of a father or a better life, was not making an adult choice to break our laws, and should be treated differently than adult violators of the law,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is quoted in a story about a new two-year extension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act published by Diario El Mundo in El Salvador.

Signed by President Barack Obama in 2012, the law grants temporary legal status to many young illegal immigrants, ending the threat of deportation for at least two years.

The policy, however, does not entitle the immigrants to state services. The law was renewed for two more years.

“With the renewal of DACA, we act according to our values and code of this great nation,” Johnson said. “But the biggest task of comprehensive immigration reform is yet to come.”

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NSA: Our Systems Are Too Complex To Stop Deleting Evidence (+video)

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Gary CameronThe National Security Agency is making an ironic excuse for why it can’t stop deleting data evidence that could be used against it, despite receiving multiple court orders to stop – it doesn’t know how.

Technology focused privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, which currently has a case pending against NSA alleging the agency illegally intercepted client data, discovered through a Justice Department email slip-up last week that the agency was deleting evidence it had already been ordered to keep by multiple courts.

After failing to comply with an order to retain data collected under both executive authority and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authority, DOJ claimed in March it misunderstood the order to read it only had to keep data acquired under the former. Pointing to documents proving otherwise, a FISA Court judge accused the department of attempting to mislead the court, and again ordered the retention of data in both circumstances.

Upon learning the destruction of such data was still going on, EFF immediately filed a restraining order against NSA and DOJ, which California U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White issued against the government the same day along with a demand for an immediate explanation from the government for violating the March order.

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Hillary Backtracks From ‘Dead Broke’ Comments (+video)

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Photo Credit: Jose Luis MaganaFormer Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was forced to explain — and recast — what she meant when she complained of her family’s financial struggles after leaving the White House.

The subject was broached on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” when host Robin Roberts asked Mrs. Clinton if she could understand America’s head-scratching reaction to her claim that the Clintons were “dead broke” upon leaving the White House and needed to hit the lucative speaking circuit to build their bank accounts.

“Yes I can, but everything in life has to be put into context,” she said, The Hill reported. “As I recall, we were something like $12 million in debt.”

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Ted Cruz Renounces Canadian Citizenship

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Photo Credit: APCanada-born U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has given up his citizenship from his birth country, making good on a promise from last summer.

Spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said the Tea Party favorite formally gave up his citizenship May 14. He received official confirmation of the action at his Houston home Tuesday.

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Alaska School Gets $127K Penalty for Animal Deaths

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Photo Credit: destination arctic circle / Creative Commons The University of Alaska Fairbanks has been penalized $127,100 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture after 12 musk oxen died from malnutrition at the school’s large animal research station earlier this decade.

An administrative law judge for the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued the civil penalty Thursday for violating of the Animal Welfare Act. An animal rights group that initially filed a complaint over the deaths in 2011, prompting a USDA investigation, announced the penalty Tuesday.

The size of the penalty “tells me the USDA is sending a message to these facilities that they are no longer going to stand for these criminals that break the law, and we’re very happy to see this,” said Michael Budkie, executive director of the group Stop Animal Exploitation Now.

The university entered into the agreement without admitting fault.

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Judge Urges Feds to Investigate Denver Police, Sheriff in Abuse Case (+video)

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Photo Credit: Lindsay Pierce, The Denver PostSaying that a Denver police investigation “smacks of a sham,” U.S. District Judge John Kane has asked federal authorities to investigate the “patterns and practices” of the Denver police and sheriff’s offices and suggested they were intimidating a key witness.

In an emergency hearing, Kane ordered Denver police internal affairs detectives to stop an investigation against witness Amos Page, who is testifying in the case of a former jail inmate.

The inmate, Jamal Hunter, has accused the city and Denver jail Deputy Gaynel Rumer of facilitating and encouraging a brutal 2011 attack against him in his cell. Rumer did not come to Hunter’s aid while the inmate screamed and fellow inmates attacked him.

Kane on Friday ordered Denver police to produce all documents in its investigation of Page, including recordings of interviews, e-mails, notes and correspondence by June 16.

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Miller Questions Opponents’ Judgment Regarding Bergdahl

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Photo Credit: SenateDemocratsJoe Miller today questioned the judgment of Senator Mark Begich and GOP primary opponent Mead Treadwell regarding the prisoner swap of five top Taliban leaders for American defector Bowe Bergdahl. Primary senate challenger Dan Sullivan has made no known public statements concerning this egregious act by the Obama Administration.

Following a White House briefing about the prisoner swap last week, Begich told The Hill, “There are still some questions, but a lot of them are answered,” he said. “We don’t leave any of our military personnel behind.”

Miller responded, “How Mark Begich could side with the President regarding the release of five Taliban prisoners for one American soldier who deserted his post is unfathomable. The Obama Administration broke the law and has put American military personnel at risk around the world.”

Treadwell issued contradictory statements regarding the Bergdahl release. In the first, issued May 31, he praised “those who worked tirelessly to liberate” Bergdahl and thanked God for his safe return. In the second, issued Friday, he called the Administration lawless for making the swap, stating it “sets a dangerous precedent.”

Miller issued a statement last Monday condemning the Obama Administration’s lawless act as “white flag diplomacy” that will only embolden our enemies.

Miller characterized Treadwell’s initial statement as “dumbfounding.” “There was ample evidence at the time of Treadwell’s first statement that trading five senior terrorist leaders, handpicked by the Taliban, for an anti-American deserter was not in our national security interests,” said Miller.

Treadwell’s statement raises serious questions about his capacity to make important decisions that will affect Alaska’s military community: (1) Is he prone to make hasty uninformed decisions in an attempt to curry favor with the public?; (2) Does he lack the judgment to deal with important national security issues?; (3) Does he have the integrity to admit when he is wrong and correct course?

“Both Mark Begich and Mead Treadwell have exercised poor judgment regarding the Bergdahl release, and Dan Sullivan’s views are still unknown in a matter with profound national security implications,” said Miller. “Alaskans deserve a senator whose judgment will be determined by principle not politics, and one who will not be afraid to speak out on issues that impact Alaska’s substantial military personnel.”

Ron Paul: Obama’s Foreign Policy Rhetoric Does Not Match U.S. Actions

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Photo Credit: TownHall President Obama’s recent foreign policy speech, delivered at this year’s West Point graduation ceremony, was a disappointment to anyone who hoped the president might be changing course. The failure of each U.S. intervention thus far in the 21st century might have inspired at least a bit of reflection.

However, the president made it clear that interventionism and American exceptionalism would continue to guide his administration in its final two years. The president said, “I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being,” adding the dubious claim that “because of American diplomacy and foreign assistance, as well as the sacrifices of our military — more people live under elected governments today than at any time in human history.”

It’s funny he would mention elections. Last week the Syrians held their first multi-candidate presidential election in 50 years. Almost three-quarters of Syrian voters participated, giving President Assad 88 percent of the vote. After three years fighting a foreign-backed insurgency, voting conditions were not optimal. However, despite State Department claims to the contrary, it can no longer be stated that Assad enjoys no popularity in his country. Even former CIA chief Michael Hayden not long ago envisioned Assad winning a fair election in Syria.

But the U.S. government completely rejected the vote in Syria, with Secretary of State John Kerry calling it “a great big zero,” because, as he put it, “you can’t have an election where millions of your people don’t even have an ability to vote.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Holder Impeachment Sought by Ringleader of Resignation Push

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Photo Credit: US NewsEric Holder made history in 2009 as the first African-American U.S. attorney general. If Rep. Paul Gosar has his way, Holder can add another first to his bio: the first sitting cabinet secretary to be impeached.

Gosar, R-Ariz., tells U.S. News he plans to either draft articles of impeachment or co-sponsor existing impeachment legislation introduced in November by Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, which has 26 co-sponsors. He anticipates deciding between the two options next week.

Gosar is upset about a slew of issues, ranging from the Obama administration admittedly ignoring a law that requires congressional notification before Guantánamo Bay detainees are transferred, to Holder’s Department of Justice failing to prosecute IRS employees who targeted political groups.

“We’ve seen a wanton disrespect for the rule of law,” he says. “Very, very poor legal counsel is being given to the president by the attorney general.”

What pushed Gosar over the edge is something he calls “illegal alien smuggling.” He says Holder has failed to stop the Department of Homeland Security from releasing in Arizona people detained in Texas for residing in the U.S. without legal permission.

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President Obama vs. George Washington on Prisoner Exchange

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Photo Credit: TownHallBy Chuck Norris.

I have four colossal disagreements with how President Barack Obama cut the deal for the prisoner swap of five senior Taliban leaders for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl; the former, the White House itself admits, could “absolutely” rejoin terrorist cells.

Sure, I have far more than four issues with how it all went down — for example, the absolute avoidance and disregard of constitutional submission and congressional consent. But this administration seems to have little regard for proper protocol with anything, so I’m going to focus here on a few different angles of argument.

No one is overlooking or minimizing the understandable elation of Bergdahl’s family over his homecoming. But was there really no other military or negotiating option than to return five of the most hardened criminals and enemies of the U.S. to the battlefield, where at least six other soldiers gave their lives trying to rescue Bergdahl?

Our whole country — including those across the political spectrum, from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. — is asking: Why, in the midst of war, would Obama release five of the greatest anti-American terrorists in exchange for Bergdahl, who, according to several of his own military colleagues and superiors, abandoned his post and platoon and likely even became sympathetic with the Taliban mission?

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Photo Credit: Carolyn Kaster, APUSA TODAY poll: Obama mishandled Bergdahl exchange

By Gregory Korte.

Public opposition to the exchange of five Taliban prisoners for captive Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has less to do with Bergdahl himself and more with how President Obama handled the transfer, according to a new USA TODAY/Pew Research Center poll.

The poll shows 43% of Americans say it was wrong for Obama to make the deal, compared with 34% who say it was the right thing to do.

Thirty percent of those surveyed have a strong opinion of Bergdahl, whose decision to leave his post in 2009 and subsequent capture by the Taliban is under investigation by the Army. Of those, half say they were sympathetic, and half say they are angry with Bergdahl.

The 128 veterans included in the poll are much more harsh in their assessment of the 28-year-old sergeant. Only 6% of veterans who responded say they sympathized with him, while 33% say they were angry. By 68%-16%, veterans say Obama made the wrong decision.

Read more from this story HERE.

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This Journalist Died After Exposing Bowe Bergdahl’s Anti-Americanism

By Kris Zane.

At the time Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings was killed under suspicious circumstances, he had recently written a huge exposé on Bowe Bergdahl, revealing that he had deserted his unit and actively sought out the Taliban. Hastings had also revealed Bergdahl’s anti-American sentiments, publishing the emails to his father that so shocked America: “I am ashamed to be an American…The horror that is America is disgusting.”

This revelation actually came in July of 2012, when Hastings published a ten-thousand word article on Bergdahl, in which he had traveled to Afghanistan to speak to his former platoon mates, the soldiers violating their gag order to speak to Hastings anonymously. Hastings had also visited Bergdahl’s parents in Idaho, where he presumably obtained the emails. When we saw Obama pawing Bowe Bergdahl’s mother and hugging his father last week in the White House Rose Garden, this wasn’t how he was treating them in 2012. The Obama administration in 2012 had “encouraged” his parents to keep their mouths shut. The father, Robert Bergdahl, had gone on a very public crusade, criticizing the Obama administration for killing Afghanistan civilians, and had even said that one of the Taliban captors of his son had had his child murdered by a CIA drone—mirroring events in the popular Showtime series “Homeland”. This was stated at a very public GOP fundraising event in 2010 hosted by former RNC head Michael Steele. Robert Bergdahl had also just posted a video on YouTube, where he appealed directly to this son’s captors, stating: “…We must also thank those who have cared for our son for almost two years…We have wept that God may show his beneficence, his mercy and that his peace may come upon the people of Pakistan. As-salamu alaykum [peace be upon you].”

After this, the Obama administration actively sought to keep the lid on Robert Bergdahl and Michael Hastings’ reporting of Bowe Bergdahl, as secret FBI documents now reveal.

Read more from this story HERE.