Obama to ignore federal law, grant 800k illegal aliens immunity from deportation

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Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the administration’s new program for young illegal immigrants is “not amnesty” despite the fact that it will remove them from the deportation process.

The program, announced Friday, would grant as many as 800,000 younger illegal immigrants immunity from deportation and allow them to qualify for federal work permits.

“The granting of deferred action under this new directive will not provide an individual with permanent lawful status and it will not provide a pathway to obtaining permanent lawful status or citizenship,” Napolitano said in Friday morning conference call with reporters.

“This grant of deferred action is not immunity, it is not amnesty,” Napolitano said.  “It is an exercise of discretion so that these young people are not in the removal system.”

However, on the same conference call, senior administration officials told reporters that the program would “eliminate” qualifying illegals from the “universe of people subject to immigration enforcement.”

Read more at CNS News HERE.

Panetta thanks gay soldiers, Pentagon prepares to celebrate Gay Pride Month

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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Friday thanked gay and lesbian military members for their service, as the Pentagon prepares to mark June as gay pride month with an official salute.

In a remarkable sign of a cultural change in the U.S. military, Panetta said that with the repeal last year of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that prohibited gays from serving openly in the military, gays and lesbians can now be proud to be in uniform.

“Now you can be proud of serving your country, and be proud of who you are,” Panetta said.

The defense chief also said he’s committed to removing as many barriers as possible to making the military a model of equal opportunity.

Panetta’s video message was part of a Pentagon salute to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender troops as the Pentagon joined the rest of the U.S. government for the first time in marking June as gay pride month.

Read more at CNS News HERE.

Tea Party Challenger Liljenquist Accuses Sen. Orrin Hatch of “Fiscal Child Abuse”

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Former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist accused Sen. Orrin Hatch of “fiscal child abuse” during their only debate Friday, lacing into the six-term incumbent for repeatedly voting to increase the nation’s debt ceiling.

“Sen. Hatch has held the line on overall tax raises,” Liljenquist said during a one-hour GOP Senate primary debate on KSL radio in Utah. “What he has not held the line is the worst kind of taxation, where you spend a future generation’s worth of wealth and you foist it on a whole bunch of Americans who didn’t have the chance to vote for you, with interest.”

“That is fiscal child abuse and that’s what’s happened in this Congress under your watch as you’ve voted over and over to raise the debt ceiling,” Liljenquist added. “That is a tax increase, that you’ve deferred on a whole generation of Americans.”

Hatch, who is favored to survive the June 26 primary challenge, responded with indignation.

“Apparently I’m responsible for everything that’s wrong in the federal government. That’s total BS and everybody knows it,” Hatch said, before arguing, as he has throughout the race, that his seniority is a boon to the state.

Read more at Politico.com HERE.

Reagan: A leader loved by the nation, the antithesis of Obama

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I had recently moved to Los Angeles when the nation received the news in early June of 2004 that former President Ronald Reagan’s health was rapidly declining. In true LA fashion, helicopters began flying overhead and news trucks zipped near my apartment on the West Side. I knew Reagan’s home was fairly close by, but until that day, I didn’t realize how close: a mere two miles away.

When news came of Reagan’s death, the outpouring of support in Southern California was immediate and phenomenal. People stood in mile-long lines, lasting many hours, to board shuttles to his Presidential Library in Simi Valley just north of LA in order to view his casket. I recall riding back on the shuttle from the Library after the viewing (one of over 105,000 who did so during the course of 3 days) just as the beautiful western sky was turning to dusk. As we crossed over the Ronald Reagan Freeway, there were cars lined up along the side of the road with their headlights on, for as far as the eye could see, trying to get off at the Library’s exit. It was like something right out of the end of Field of Dreams (which was the released the year Ronald Reagan left office, incidentally).

A similar outpouring happened in Washington, DC, where again over 100,000 viewed his casket. On the day of his funeral (which was this week eight years ago) hundreds of thousands more lined the procession in Washington and in Southern California. As Field of Dreams’ character Terrance Mann, played by James Earl Jones, would say, “People most definitely came.”

This public display of adoration and respect was a reflection of what Americans thought of the 40th President. Seemingly unfathomable in today’s political climate, Reagan won his 1984 reelection with 49 of 50 states, topping his 1980 landslide of 44 states. Neither number has been matched since. He sold me, when I was 13 years old: I spoke in support of him at an all-school assembly, and I’m happy to report he won that election far-and-away too. Later, I was thrilled when President Reagan came to speak at West Point, while I was a cadet there.

Why did so many come to love and believe in him so much? As he humbly acknowledged in his Farewell Address, people nicknamed him the Great Communicator, but he felt what was really the case was that he was communicating great, time-tested ideas, which resonated as true. He noted they didn’t “spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation — from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries.”

Read more at TownHall.com HERE.

Obama raises millions at Sarah Jessica Parker’s home, says entertainers are “ultimate arbiters” of direction of US

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President Barack Obama soaked in the support – and the campaign cash – of Manhattan’s elite entertainers Thursday as his re-election team sought to fill its fundraising coffers.

The president and first lady Michelle Obama made a rare joint fundraising appearance when they visited the home of actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. The intimate dinner banked about $2 million, with 50 people paying $40,000 each.

The dinner was the Obama campaign’s latest attempt to bank on celebrities for fundraising help in countering the growing donor enthusiasm from Republicans supporting Mitt Romney’s presidential bid.

Speaking in a dimly lighted, art-filled room, Obama told supporters they would play a critical role in an election that would determine a vision for the nation’s future.

“You’re the tie-breaker,” he said. “You’re the ultimate arbiter of which direction this country goes.”

Read more at the Washington Examiner HERE.

Holder Refuses to Provide Testimony on Kagan’s Involvement in Obamacare

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Attorney General Eric Holder has refused to provide written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in response to “questions for the record” submitted to him by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R.-Ala.) that focus on Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s involvement in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act–AKA Obamacare–while she was President Barack Obama’s solicitor general.

Question: “Are you aware of any instances during Justice Kagan’s tenure as Solicitor General of the United States in which information related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and/or litigation related thereto was relayed or provided to her?”

Question: “When did your staff begin ‘removing’ Solicitor General Kagan from meetings in this matter? On what basis did you take this action? In what other matters was such action taken?”

Question: “Did you ever have a conversation with Justice Kagan regarding her recusal from matters before the Supreme Court related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act? If so, please describe the circumstances and substance of those conversations.”

These are three of the eight questions that Sessions submitted to Holder on Nov. 15, 2011 to be included as part of the official record of Holder’s testimony in an oversight hearing that the Senate Judiciary Committee held on Nov. 8, 2011. Sessions is a senior member of the committee.

Holder did not provide the committee with a formal response to Session’s questions until June 7, 2012—seven months after Sessions submitted them.

When he finally did officially respond, Holder did not answer any of the questions.

Instead, in responding to each, he simply referred the Judiciary Committee to a letter Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich had sent to Sessions on Feb. 24.  This letter, in turn, responded to a letter Sessions had sent to Holder on Jan. 31 noting that Holder had not yet answered the questions that Session had submitted in November.

Read more at CNS News HERE.

US families’ wealth drops 40% in last 3 years

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The net worth of the American family has fallen to its lowest level in two decades, according to government data released Monday, driven by a more than 40 percent drop in their stakes in their homes.

The Federal Reserve’s detailed survey of consumer finances showed families’ median wealth plunged from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010 — a 39 percent decline. That put them on par with median wealth in 1992.

The Fed’s data underscore the depth of the wounds of the Great Recession and how far many families remain from healing. The median value of Americans’ debt did not change between 2007 and 2010. Meanwhile, the housing market crash inflicted particularly severe damage, with the Fed showing that the median value of Americans’ equity in their homes plunged 42.3 percent between 2007 and 2010.

Read more at the Washington Post HERE.

Obama guts Iranian sanctions, exempts India, South Korea, 5 other nations

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday that the United States will exempt India, South Korea and five other nations from sanctions targeting Iranian oil exports because the nations have “significantly reduced their volume of crude oil purchases from Iran.”

Clinton said the countries, for at least 180 days, won’t be hit with sanctions that target banks in nations that purchase Iranian oil.

She announced the waivers — which are also being granted to Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Taiwan — in a statement that claimed progress in efforts to isolate Iran over its nuclear program.

“We have implemented these sanctions to support our efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and to encourage Iran to comply with its international obligations. Today’s announcement underscores the success of our sanctions implementation,” Clinton said.

“By reducing Iran’s oil sales, we are sending a decisive message to Iran’s leaders: until they take concrete actions to satisfy the concerns of the international community, they will continue to face increasing isolation and pressure,” she said in announcing the waiver from sanctions that go into effect June 28.

Read more at the Hill.com HERE.

EPA attempting unprecedented power grab; wants to regulate private property with ditches, gullies

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Lawmakers are working to block an unprecedented power grab by the Environmental Protection Agency to use the Clean Water Act (CWA) and control land alongside ditches, gullies and other ephemeral spots by claiming the sources are part of navigable waterways.

These temporary water sources are often created by rain or snowmelt, and would make it harder for private property owners to build in their own backyards, grow crops, raise livestock and conduct other activities on their own land, lawmakers say.

“Never in the history of the CWA has federal regulation defined ditches and other upland features as ‘waters of the United States,’” said Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), the ranking committee member, and Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio), chairman of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.

“This is without a doubt an expansion of federal jurisdiction,” the lawmakers said in a May 31 letter to House colleagues.

The unusual alliance of the powerful House Republicans and Democrat to jointly sponsor legislation to overturn the new guidelines signals a willingness on Capitol Hill to rein in the formidable agency.

Read more at Human Events HERE.

House moving forward with contempt proceedings against Holder

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The House of Representatives is moving forward with proceedings to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress — a major escalation in the separation-of-powers battle over “Fast and Furious,” the Obama administration’s botched gun-walking operation.

Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said his panel will take up the contempt issue next week, and the move has the blessing of House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.

“The Justice Department is out of excuses,” Mr. Boehner said in a statement Monday morning. “Either the Justice Department turns over the information requested, or Congress will have no choice but to move forward with holding the Attorney General in contempt for obstructing an ongoing investigation.”

Both Mr. Holder and President Obama have acknowledged the operation — which allowed guns to be sold to straw purchasers in the U.S. with the knowledge they were being sent across the border to Mexican cartels — was wrong. But they said the operation was handled entirely by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives employees, with little oversight at the Justice Department.

Mr. Issa, though, is investigating who in the Justice Department knew of the operation’s tactics. He has obtained sealed affidavits supporting wiretaps that he says indicate top Justice officials knew the tactics.

Read more at the Washington Times HERE.