Judge: Obama’s DHS Facilitating Drug Cartels’ Human Trafficking

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

By Matthew Boyle.

A United States federal judge has accused President Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of being complicit in helping Mexican drug cartels and felons inside America smuggle illegal aliens into the country.

In a court order he signed on Dec. 13, 2013, U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Texas wrote that four times in the last four weeks he has heard troubling cases involving the DHS’s complicity in helping smuggle people across the border to their final destination.

This particular court opinion involved a case where Mirtha Veronica Nava-Martinez attempted to smuggle a ten-year old El Salvadorean female, whom Judge Hanen referred to only by her initials Y.P.S. to protect the minor’s identity, into the country. Nava-Martinez pled guilty and has been sentenced; Judge Hanen wrote after the case:

On May 18, 2013, Nava-Martinez, an admitted human trafficker, was caught at the Brownsville & Matamoras Bridge checkpoint. She was trying to smuggle Y.P.S. into the United States using a birth certificate that belonged to one of her daughters. Nava-Martinez had no prior relationship with Y.P.S. and was hired by persons unknown solely to smuggle her into the United States. Nava-Martinez is a resident alien and this was her second felony offense in three years, having committed a food stamp fraud offense in 2011. She was to be paid for smuggling Y.P.S. from Matamoras to Brownsville, although the identity of her immediate payor and the amount are unknown. The details as to how Y.P.S. got to Matamoros, Mexico from El Salvador, and how she was to get from Brownsville to Virginia, were also not disclosed to the Court.

Hanen noted that the “conspiracy” began when Y.P.S.’s mother, Patricia Elizabeth Salmeron Santos, “solicited human traffickers to smuggle” her daughter from their home country of El Salvador into the United States and onward to her residence in Virginia.

Read more from this story HERE.

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DHS Helps Drug Cartels Get Rich Off Human Trafficking Of Children

By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY.

Border: A federal judge finds that the Department of Homeland Security, instead of arresting cartel members and the clients who pay them to smuggle children into the U.S., helps the drug lords complete the transactions.

Read more from this story HERE.

Putin: Jealous of Obama’s Surveillance State

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Photo Credit: KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP/Getty Images

Photo Credit: KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP/Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin defended the U.S. National Security Agency, and even said he envies President Barack Obama in light of the NSA revelations “because he can get away with it.”

Putin’s comments at a Thursday news conference reflected support for the NSA surveillance as a necessary tool to fight terrorism, but added that government rules should “limit the appetite” of the data-collecting agency, CBS News reports.

The 16-year KGB veteran and former head of Russia’s primary espionage agency said that the American spy program “isn’t a cause for joy, it’s not a cause for repentance either.” He added that “on a political level, it’s necessary to limit the appetite of special services with certain rules.”

Russia granted former NSA contractor and leaker Edward Snowden temporary asylum in June, despite U.S. efforts for his return to America to face espionage and theft of government property charges.

Earlier this week, a U.S. federal judge ruled that the NSA’s mass collection of phone records is in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s ban of unreasonable searches, and a government appeal is likely to be issued in the near future.

Read more from this story HERE.

‘MUZZLED’: EPA Silenced Scientists that Challenged their Agenda

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

The Environmental Protection Agency silenced scientific advisers who expressed concerns over the agency’s proposed carbon dioxide emissions limits for coal-fired power plants, House Republicans claim.

Republicans on the House’s science committee wrote a letter to EPA administrator Gina McCarthy expressing concern that the agency ignored scientists charged with reviewing carbon emissions limits for new power plants. Scientists said that the agency rushed through the regulatory process and that the underlying science of the rule lacked adequate peer review.

“We are concerned about the agency’s apparent disregard for the concerns of its science advisors,” the Republican lawmakers wrote. “Science is a valuable tool to help policymakers navigate complex issues.”

“However, when inconvenient facts are disregarded or when dissenting voices are muzzled, a frank discussion becomes impossible,” the lawmakers continued. “The EPA cannot continue to rush ahead with costly regulations without allowing time for a real-world look at the science.”

Republicans previously asked the EPA about how it responded to the scientific reviewers’ concerns, but agency officials distanced themselves from their own advisers, according to the letter. Specifically, lawmakers questioned the agency’s requirement that coal plants must install carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology in order to be built. The agency, however, said that their new power plant rule does not need to address such concerns about CCS.

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Judge Strikes Down Utah’s Gay Marriage Ban as Unconstitutional

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Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

A federal judge struck down Utah’s same-sex marriage ban Friday in a decision that brings an increasing nationwide shift toward allowing gay marriage to a conservative state where the Mormon church has long been against it.

U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby issued a 53-page ruling saying Utah’s law passed by voters in 2004 violates gay and lesbian couples’ rights to due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment.

Shelby said the state failed to show that allowing same-sex marriages would affect opposite-sex marriages in any way.

“In the absence of such evidence, the State’s unsupported fears and speculations are insufficient to justify the State’s refusal to dignify the family relationships of its gay and lesbian citizens,” Shelby wrote.

Late Friday, the state filed both a notice of appeal of the ruling and a request for an emergency stay that would stop marriage licenses from being issued to same-sex couples. It’s unknown when the judge will make a decision on whether to grant the stay.

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Gold Price Stumbles to 6-Month Low After Fed Stimulus Trim

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Photo Credit: Zeenews.com

Photo Credit: Zeenews.com

London: Gold slid more than 1 percent on Thursday to its lowest since late June after the U.S. Federal Reserve took its first step away from the ultra-loose monetary policy that had helped drive bullion prices to record highs in recent years.

The Fed said on Wednesday that the U.S. economy was finally strong enough for it to start scaling back its massive bond-buying scheme, winding down the era of easy money that saw gold rally to USD 1,920.30 an ounce in 2011.

Spot gold was down 1.2 percent at USD 1,203.85 an ounce at 1000 GMT, having earlier touched a low of USD 1,200.25. U.S. gold futures for February delivery were down USD 32.00 an ounce at USD 1,203.00.

That move came despite the Fed blunting its taper with a continued dovish message on interest rates – that tapering was not tightening.

“This is another sign of increasing normalisation for the world economy,” Macquarie analyst Matthew Turner said. “Gold’s insurance function is less desirable in that environment.”

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Craige McMillan: America, We’re in a Death Spiral

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

Much of the national conversation now seems to be carried on by children under the age of 5, with 2 being the most common age.

The nation’s press corps, having seen the nation’s political discourse dumbed down to the point where they can now understand and report on it, eagerly encourage the resultant “debate.”

The vast majority of politicians – who understand that the nation’s memory, despite its young age, has reached the point of advanced Alzheimer’s – eagerly indulge them. After all, why try to explain what you are really doing when a pithy soundbite is what carries your re-election?

And that’s just the Republicans.

Make no mistake, folks; America is in the final stages of empireitis. I think in the aviation world it is referred to as a graveyard spiral or a death spiral. Everyone on board thinks things are fine, but the pilot has lost control of the airplane. While the Republicans and Democrats yell, scream and grandstand, arguing about who is going to spend the money on their pet projects, the ship of state is getting ready to crater.

Read more from this story HERE.

Hunters, Fishermen Targeted by Feds for Local Violations

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Photo Credit: peteSwede

Photo Credit: peteSwede

U.S. law enforcement agencies are conducting thousands of investigations using a law that makes violating state wildlife statutes a federal crime, often ensnaring hunters and fishermen for seemingly minor infractions.

Some even suffer stiff federal prison sentences.

Special agents and wildlife inspectors for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conduct about 2,500 investigative cases a year of violations of the Lacey Act, a 1900 law meant to combat illegal trafficking of wildlife. Additional probes of Lacey Act violations also are conducted by other federal agencies, as well as state and local governments.

Though a small percentage of the Lacey Act cases result in prison time, a high percentage plead guilty, consistent with a federal system in which 97 percent of cases end in plea deals.

But for those imprisoned, ensnared in costly investigations, or who pleaded guilty to reduced charges, the horrible repercussions can have a devastating impact on their livelihoods.

Read more from this story HERE.

U.S. Postal Service: First Class Bribery

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The U.S. Postal Service steered millions of dollars in contracts to companies that bribed employees or had relationships with them that violated ethics laws, according to an inspector general report released on Wednesday.

The IG identified eleven instances of employees at USPS vehicle maintenance facilities accepting bribes from contractors, receiving kickbacks for steering work to certain companies, or awarding to contracts to family members.

The report attributed many of the procurement problems to poor oversight of USPS contract awards.

“As a result, Postal Service agreements with suppliers completing vehicle repairs and maintenance are at risk of fraud, including potential conflicts of interest, bribery, and collusion,” the IG said.

More than $13 million in contracts were awarded to two companies, both owned by the same person, after he paid “cash and noncash bribes” to vehicle maintenance facility employees, the IG found.

Read more from this story HERE.

Prince Charles says Christians are Being Targeted in Middle East. Obama says….Nothing. (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

It’s Christmastime and regardless what anyone else says, this is the time when the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated and remembered. It’s a special time for Christians – like me.

However, at this time when Christians celebrate the birth of the Savior, our Messiah — sorry Barbara Walters, we’re talking about the real one — this year we’re also seeing something horrific.

As reported in The Telegraph via BizPac Review,

“The United Kingdom’s Prince Charles addressed a problem largely ignored by President Obama — Christians are being targeted for persecution in the Middle East and North Africa by fundamentalist Muslims.

The prince made his remarks at a reception for religious leaders at Clarence House, the official London residence of The Prince of Wales.

Read more from this story HERE.

Slouching Toward Bankruptcy

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Photo Credit: Tax Credits

Photo Credit: Tax Credits

In November 2004, President George W. Bush was re-elected after campaigning on personal accounts for Social Security. It was unfair, he argued at the time, to make a generation of young people pay into a system that’s going broke. Bush’s plan promised to make the program solvent, allow younger workers the option to earn a better return by investing part of their Social Security taxes in personal retirement accounts, while maintaining the status quo for current retirees.

Republicans held substantial majorities in both houses of Congress, including 55 senators. Yet there would be no Social Security reform.

Opinions vary about why that was. Writing in Forbes in 2011, Peter Ferrara, one of the strongest advocates for Social Security privatization, argued that the proposal failed because “Bush’s White House staff in charge of the Social Security reform effort never understood the politics or policy of personal accounts, and proved ineducable on the subject.” On the other side of the issue, William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, argued in 2007 that “President Bush overestimated the amount of political capital he had banked.”

In his memoir Decision Points, Bush blames the failure on the “rigid Democratic opposition” and the lack of “strong Republican backing to get a Social Security bill through Congress.” He also recognizes that he bears some responsibility himself. Bush suggests, for instance, that he might have made some progress with centrist Democrats had he not personally campaigned against Democratic incumbents in 2002 and 2004. He also thinks that if in 2005 he had started with immigration reform rather than Social Security, he could have passed both and the country would be a better place for it.

Since the Bush debacle, Republicans have not had the courage to rally behind a plan to reform Social Security. But while the political will may not exist, the 77-year-old system remains in serious need of a makeover.

Read more from this story HERE.