McCarthy: Let the Benghazi Facts Speak for Themselves
Hat Tip: BB
Hat Tip: BB
From The Daily Caller: Ted Cruz Releases Definitive List of 76 ‘Lawless’ Obama Actions
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz released a definitive list Wednesday of 76 “lawless” Obama administration actions and abuses of power.
Cruz’s “The Legal Limit Report No. 4,” obtained by The Daily Caller, delves into little-known and little-reported details of President Obama’s executive actions. Cruz was set to discuss his report at the Federalist Society in the Promenade Ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel in Washington at 2:15 PM Wednesday.
“Of all the troubling aspects of the Obama presidency, none is more dangerous than the President’s persistent pattern of lawlessness, his willingness to disregard the written law and instead enforce his own policies via executive fiat,” Cruz stated in the report’s introductory remarks.
“President Obama has openly defied [rule of law] by repeatedly suspending, delaying, and waiving portions of the laws that he is charged to enforce. When President Obama disagreed with federal immigration laws, he instructed the Justice Department to cease enforcing the laws. He did the same thing with federal welfare law, drug laws, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act,” Cruz wrote. “In the more than two centuries of our nation’s history, there is simply no precedent for the White House wantonly ignoring federal law and asking others to do the same.”
Ted Cruz:
Of all the troubling aspects of the Obama presidency, none is more dangerous than the President’s persistent pattern of lawlessness, his willingness to disregard the written law and instead enforce his own policies via executive fiat.
The President’s taste for unilateral action to circumvent Congress should concern every citizen, regardless of party or ideology. The great 18th-century political philosopher Montesquieu observed: “There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or body of magistrates.” America’s Founding Fathers took this warning to heart, and we should too.
Rule of law doesn’t simply mean that society has laws; dictatorships are often characterized by an abundance of laws. Rather, rule of law means that we are a nation ruled by laws, not men. No one—and especially not the president—is above the law. For that reason, the U.S. Constitution imposes on every president the express duty to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”
Rather than honor this duty, President Obama has openly defied it by repeatedly suspending, delaying, and waiving portions of the laws that he is charged to enforce. When President Obama disagreed with federal immigration laws, he instructed the Justice Department to cease enforcing the laws. He did the same thing with federal welfare law, drug laws, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
In the more than two centuries of our nation’s history, there is simply no precedent for the White House wantonly ignoring federal law and asking others to do the same.
For all those who are silent now: What would they think of a Republican president who announced that he was going to ignore the law, or unilaterally change the law? Imagine a future president setting aside environmental laws, or tax laws, or labor laws, or tort laws with which he or she disagreed.
That would be wrong—and it is the Obama precedent that is opening the door for future lawlessness. As Montesquieu knew, an imperial presidency threatens the liberty of every citizen.
Because when a president can pick and choose which laws to follow and which to ignore, he is no longer a president.
Governing by Executive Fiat:
1. Disregarded 1996 welfare reform law in granting broad work waivers for work requirements of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
2. Implemented portions of the DREAM Act, which Congress rejected, by executive action.
3. Ended some terror asylum restrictions, by allowing asylum for people who provided only
“insignificant” or “limited” material support of terrorists.
4. Allowed immigrants in the U.S. illegally, who are relatives of military troops and veterans, to stay in the country and get legal status.
5. Extended federal marriage benefits by recognizing, under federal law, same-sex marriages created in a state that allows same-sex marriage even if the couple is living in a state that doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage.
6. Recognized same-sex marriage in Utah, even though the Supreme Court stayed the court order recognizing same-sex marriage in Utah and Utah said it would not recognize same-sex marriages performed before the stay.
7. Refused to prosecute violation of drug laws with certain mandatory minimums.
8. Issued signing statements, refusing to enforce parts of congressional-enacted statutes.
9. Illegally refused to act on Yucca Mountain’s application to become a nuclear waste repository.
National Security:
1. Falsely portrayed the Benghazi terrorist attack as a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim YouTube video, and then lied about the White House’s involvement.
2. Illegally revealed the existence of sealed indictments in the Benghazi investigation.
3. Failed to enforce the Magnitsky Act as required by law, by not adding Russian human rights abusers to a list of people not permitted to travel to or do business in the U.S.
4. Killed four Americans overseas in counterterrorism operations without judicial process.
5. Continued to give Egypt aid after the military took over its government, even though federal law prohibits aid to Egypt in the event of a coup.
Obamacare:
1. Granted a “hardship” exemption from the individual mandate for people whose health plans were canceled because their plans weren’t Obamacare compliant.
2. Delayed the individual mandate for two years.
3. Allowed individuals to buy health insurance plans in 2014 that did not comply with Obamacare. Extended this delay until 2016—past the mid-term elections.
4. Extended the deadline to enroll in Obamacare.
5. Illegally granted businesses a waiver from Obamacare’s employer mandate. Twice.
6. Illegally continued the Obamacare employer contribution for congressional staffs.
7. Illegally delayed the Obamacare caps on out-of-pocket healthcare payments.
8. Illegally delayed Obamacare verification of eligibility for healthcare subsidies.
9. Illegally required people to violate their faith via the Obamacare contraception mandate.
10. As of May 2011, over 50% of Obamacare waiver beneficiaries were union members (who account for less than 12% of the American work force).
Economy:
1. Ordered Boeing to fire 1,000 employees in South Carolina and shut down a new factory because it was non-union.
2. Implemented a moratorium on offshore drilling after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill without statutory authority, and continued to enact new versions after federal courts repeatedly invalidated the moratorium.
3. Treated secured creditors worse than unsecured creditors in the Chrysler bankruptcy.
4. Terminated the pensions of 20,000 non-union Delphi employees in the GM bankruptcy.
5. Had SWAT teams raid a Gibson guitar factory and seize property, on the purported basis that Gibson had broken India’s environmental laws—but no charges were filed.
6. Government agencies are engaging in “Operation Choke Point,” where the government asks banks to “choke off” access to financial services for customers engaging in conduct the Administration does not like—such as “ammunition sales.”
Executive Nominees and Personnel:
1. Made illegal “recess” appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board when Congress wasn’t in recess. Ignored the rulings of three federal courts of appeals that held those nominations unconstitutional.
2. Appointed czars to oversee federal policy specifically because czars do not require Senate confirmation, earning criticism from stalwart Democrats such as West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd and Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold.
3. As of January 2012, 36 of the President’s executive office staff owed $833,970 in back taxes.
4. As of 2011, 311,566 federal employees or retirees owed $3.5 billion in taxes.
Free Speech and Privacy:
1. Illegally targeted conservative groups for heightened IRS scrutiny.
2. Circumvented the Freedom of Information Act, by requiring White House Counsel review of all documents to be released under the Freedom of Information Act that the Administration believed pertained to “White House equities”—and then delayed in producing many of these documents by FOIA’s statutory deadline, or didn’t produce them at all.
3. Got secret permission from the FISA Court to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency’s use of intercepted phone calls and emails, permitting the NSA to search American’s communications in its databases.
4. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking to monitor about 80% of U.S. credit card transactions.
5. Targeted Fox News reporter James Rosen by falsely labeling him a possible “co-conspirator” in a criminal investigation of a new leak.
6. Secretly obtained phone records from staff at the Associated Press.
7. Had meetings with lobbyists in coffee shops near White House to avoid disclosure requirements.
Other Lawless Acts:
1. Aided drug cartels instead of enforcing immigration laws—as found by a federal judge. Border Patrol agents, multiple times, knowingly helped smuggle illegal immigrant children into the U.S.; “the DHS is encouraging parents to seriously jeopardize the safety of their children.”
2. Illegally sold thousands of guns to criminals, in the operation known as Fast and Furious, and then refused to comply with congressional subpoenas about the operation.
3. Dismissed charges filed by Bush Administration against New Black Panther Party members who were videotaped intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling station during the 2008 election.
4. Argued for expansive federal powers in the Supreme Court, which has rejected the Administration’s arguments unanimously 9 times since January 2012.
5. Sued Louisiana to stop school vouchers and keep low-income minorities trapped in failing schools.
6. Threatened to arrest military priests for practicing their faith during the partial government shutdown.
7. Muzzled the speech of military chaplains.
8. Sued fire departments saying their multiple-choice, open-book written employment tests were racially discriminatory.
9. Gave 23,994 tax refunds worth more than $46 million to aliens here illegally using the same address in Atlanta, GA.
Other Abuses of Power:
1. Released a mentally ill Guantanamo detainee, who had been a high-risk al Qaeda fighter in jihad combat since the 1980s.
2. Backed release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.
3. President Obama told NASA administrator to “find a way to reach out to the Muslim world.”
4. Claimed the Fort Hood shooting was “workplace violence” rather than terrorism.
5. Signed a stimulus bill that spent money on bonuses for AIG executives, and then acted shocked and outraged at the bonuses.
6. Gave $535 million to Solyndra, which went bankrupt; Solyndra shareholders and officials made substantial donations to Obama’s campaign.
7. Reneged on a campaign promise to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
8. Increased the national debt more in one term than President Bush did in two terms.
9. Extended mortgage assistance to people who bought multiple homes during the housing bubble.
10. Proposed rules that would have decimated family farms, by prohibiting children under 18 from doing many forms of farm work.
11. Former “safe schools czar” has written about his past drug abuse and advocated promoting homosexuality in schools.
12. Nominated Timothy Geithner—who had significant tax issues—to head the Treasury Department, which enforces tax laws.
13. Reneged on campaign promise to broadcast healthcare reform negotiations on C-SPAN.
14. Reneged on a campaign promise to wait five days before signing any non-emergency bill (at least 10 times during first 3 months in office).
15. Unilaterally, increased the minimum wage for federal contract workers from $7.25 to $10.10, via executive order.
16. Cancelled all White House tours after sequestration—purportedly saving $18,000 per week—even though President Obama had spent more than $1 million in tax money to golf with Tiger Woods one weekend a few weeks before.
17. Adopted pro-union “ambush election” rules.
18. Pressured Ford to pull an anti-auto-bailout TV ad.
19. Actively, aided in George Zimmerman protests.
20. Tried to seize a privately owned motel when guests used illegal drugs at the motel.
21. Shut down the Amber Alert website, while keeping up Let’s Move website, during the partial government shutdown.
22. Gave supervised release to a convicted criminal (an alien here illegally) who later killed a nun in a DUI.
23. Shut down an Amish farm for selling fresh unpasteurized milk across state lines.
24. Spent $7 million per household in “stimulus funds” to connect a few Montana households to the Internet.
25. Spent $205,075 in “stimulus” funds to relocate a shrub that sells for $16.
26. Fired an inspector general after investigating an $850,000 AmeriCorps grant received by a nonprofit run by former NBA star and Obama supporter Kevin Johnson (now mayor of Sacramento).
***Please see the original document for footnotes and references here.
By: James Simpson
DC Independent Examiner
Wisconsin Democrats have gone to the mats to destroy Governor Scott Walker and anyone associated with him. There was the occupation of the capital for a month by “paid volunteers” of Wisconsin public employee unions in an attempt to stop Walker’s union reforms, while state senate Democrats fled the state to deny the chamber a quorum for a vote. Then there was the recall, fraught with petition fraud that the very partisan Wisconsin Government Accountability Board – WI’s state election board – refused to even consider. There were the endless vicious attacks in the press and numerous death threats. Then there were the “John Doe” investigations, which have already ruined at least one defenseless individual. Democrats’ catalog of sins in Wisconsin can be read in full HERE.
Democrats owned Wisconsin for ages. It is the state where public employee unions – bane of our existence – were born. “Fightin’ Bob” La Follette, an early “progressive” U.S. Senator, introduced legislation in 1912 that paved the way for the first such union, the National Federation of Federal Employees. Having had control of the levers of power in the state, Democrats feel free [to] abuse all kinds of little devices to keep power. One is the so-called “John Doe” law where the state can launch secret investigations based on anonymous tips, and require no grand jury to initiate.
Democrats have launched two against Walker, and have carried them on for years, despite no evidence and no convictions. But in the process they have put a vice grip on conservative political activity in the state and fostering an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. Does this sound familiar? One was stopped a short while ago, but the other persisted.
Well, free speech finally got a break. A federal judge has ruled this investigation completely without merit. He said:
The Defendants (the John Doe prosecutors) must cease all activities related to the investigation, return all property seized in the investigation from any individual or organization, and permanently destroy all copies of information and other materials obtained through the investigation.
He added, “Any attempt to obtain compliance by any Defendant or John Doe Judge Gregory Peterson is grounds for a contempt finding by this Court.”
The judge ruled that Democrats had either deliberately disregarded or misinterpreted the law. Even the judge originally appointed to oversee the investigation agreed, halting some of the subpoenas because prosecutors had not shown probable cause that investigation targets had violated any campaign laws.
The latest is really good news. The despicable, partisan Democrats who have slimed Wisconsin for decades are finally getting something of a comeuppance. Not to be deterred from their lawlessness, however, the Democrats are doubling down, planning to waste still more tax dollars with another appeal in state court. Walker needs to launch his own “John Doe” investigation to uncover and expose the criminal conspiracy that is behind these extremist, partisan prosecutors’ efforts, and send those prosecutors to jail where they belong.
By Marion Algier
askmarion
As the adage goes… ‘Sunshine is the greatest disinfectant’ and in the case of Benghazi… Persistence finally brings the disinfecting sunshine and the truth.
Thanks to Judicial Watch and several new informants coming forward to speak out… the truth about Benghazi is finally coming to the forefront and will come out, especially with the appointment of a special committee headed up by Congressman Trey Gowdy. Gowdy tweeted: I applaud @SpeakerBoehner for his decision to establish a Select Cmt on #Benghazi and am honored to serve as Chairman. Rep. Trey Gowdy said Friday that he has evidence of a “systematic, intentional” effort by the Obama administration to withhold documents from Congress (see video) about the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed four Americans. Gowdy is a ruthless, winning and spiritual prosecutor and is the perfect man for this job! Something positive that Speaker Boehner can finally take credit for. The newly-named chair of the Congressional select committee on Benghazi says he wants to see ‘every solitary, single document’ related to the deadly terror attack in a segment on Greta Van Susteren’s “On the Record” via Fox News Monday.
The White House is so worried right now that Benghazi is at the forefront of their target agenda. They dangled Press Secretary Jay Carney out in front of the White House press corps, that has finally found their voice, to be skewered again… first thing on Monday morning 05.05.14, for what certainly must have seemed like an eternity to him. We can always be sure that when the White House or anyone becomes this defensive and focused on any issue that in their words ‘Doesn’t Matter’ or ‘Are Lies’ or ‘Exaggerations’… that the sunshine has found its mark! It proves ‘It Does Matter’, ‘It Does Make a Difference’ and that ‘They Are Guilty of something, if not everything’!! Persistence and the truth finally prevail! It all just took far too long to get to this point because of the mainstream media’s bias and collusion to cover-up for the White House and the Democrats and the total lack of transparency from the Obama administration, State Department and the DOJ.
Over the weekend former CBS anchor Sheryl Attkison talked about the email trail and why the White House and Democrats are still trying to dismiss Benghazi.
And let us take a little walk down Watergate memory lane (history)… Watergate was all about subverting an election… and the ensuing cover-up that involved the Nixon administration. Excuse me, one might want to ask Gov. Romney, if this Benghazi cover-up wasn’t in large part about subverting an election… his, plus hiding a lot lot more. And let us also remember that nobody died because of Watergate!
Rush Limbaugh reminded his audience that the cover-up links back to Cairo remembering that somebody in our embassy in Cairo, Egypt apologized for something that hadn’t even happened yet. Do you remember? “This whole thing has been a cover-up from the start,” Rush said. Even “Ron Fournier, who used to be and maybe still is one of the biggest promoters of Obama and ‘the Regime’, made it clear on TV today (5.1.14) that as far as he’s concerned now everything the Regime has done in the aftermath of Benghazi has been political. It has not had anything to do with foreign policy.” noted Rush.
And then we come to Ms. Hillary…
Hillary Clinton was fired from the Watergate investigation by Jerry Zeifman, former counsel to the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, “…Because she was a liar. She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the Committee and the rules of confidentiality.” And now she wants to hide from this committee. Presidential material? Not in my book!
We can only hope and pray that this committee can finally get to the bottom of this scandal and cover-up. The more engaged Americans are, the better the chances. Many are concerned as the Democrats are already saying that they will not participate… will boycott the committee. Jay Carney refused to answer whether the White House will cooperate. In my book that alone is an admission of guilt, for who wouldn’t want to get to the truth in the murder of 4-American heroes, one of which was an American Ambassador? The truth about Benghazi should matter to every American!, no matter what their politics.
Update 05.06.14: Since this was written (overnight), the Progressive Democrats and the White House have circled the wagons.
The White House says they will not cooperate with the special committee.
The Democrats say that Hillary Clinton cannot be subpoenaed because she is now a private citizen.
The Left has rallied their minions to repeat the mantra… “This is old news and the Republicans are on a witch hunt.”
Originally House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced their side (the Democrats) wanted nothing to do with this investigation or committee. Just this week she, Pelosi, said Republicans are engaging in “diversion, subterfuge” by continuing to talk about the attack in Benghazi. “Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi,” Pelosi said to reporter. But today they want an equal number of seats at the table… so they can stonewall every request and subpoena and subvert the process.
*Committee structure has been announced… 7 Republicans and 5 Democrats will make up Special Committee on Benghazi.
For those who watched and followed the attack as it happened, overnight on 9-11.12, and then followed the ensuing farce perpetrated by the Obama administration and the State Department through the 2012 election, as we did, they are grateful to finally hear that a Special Committee has been appointed. But now we all know that it is time for results… past time for the truth to come out and time for “heads to roll”!! Hillary questioned, “what difference does it make?” Check out these two interviews below with the parents of the heroes and Hillary’s question is answered!! Plus if it had been Chelsea Clinton… you can bet that it would have made a difference, no matter how long it had been!
Former GOP Presidential hopeful and TV host, Governor Mike Huckabee, has also had both these parents on his show several times and has followed this story and timeline closely. He called President Obama out this past weekend saying, “I’m coming after you!”
For anyone who has not followed BenghaziGate, check out the timeline at: Bombshell: Pentagon ‘didn’t know’ Benghazi annex existed. The links there will certainly give anyone interested a good overall understanding! And as for nobody knowing what was going on the ground… I had lunch with a friend that has strong ties to the Republican Party, just about a month after the event. At one of their gatherings, the possibility of gun running was already being discussed. Fox News also has confirmed that the intelligence community (including Brennan, Rhodes and Tom Donilon) knew it was terrorism within the first 24-hours… so could there really be any chance that Obama and Hillary didn’t know that? Yet they kept peddling the video story nonsense and lied directly to the faces of the victim’s parents.
Obama administration withholding full contents of emails over Fox News Benghazi report.
And now there is new shocking evidence that links the U.S. Federal Government to the FILMMAKER behind Benghazi fiasco. That’s right… the explosiveness of a ‘smoking gun’ email from a White House Deputy who directed then U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to blame a video for the Benghazi attack is missing an essential link, a U.S. Federal informant. The man who made the inflammatory movie himself – Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. It seems that Nakoula became an informant for U.S. Federal agents in a deal to capture his recruiter in exchange for leniency; this was granted. When Nakoula’s recruiter was caught, he was amazingly let go by U.S. Federal agents. Read more HERE.
For anyone out there that doesn’t believe in miracles… the fact that Judicial Watch won the battle to get the documents released which included the smoking gun email that now has resulted in Rep. Trey Gowdy being chosen to head up the Special Committee on Benghazi when the Establishment wanted Lindsay Graham, plus the Supreme Court just announced today that prayer at council meetings is Constitutional, should give everyone hope and shore up a few weakened believers that if the American people stand-up, stand-together, get-involved and pray, there is still hope to turn America around. God Bless America and God bless the souls of our murdered Ambassador, 4 American heroes and their parents who deserve closure and the truth!
Sometimes the Lord works in mysterious ways. Perhaps the American people needed this information to be fresh in their minds in order to stop them from making another Obama size mistake? Perhaps the timing of this ray of sunshine is God’s way of saying… “Stop Hillary” and of saving the nation that our Founders felt was under God’s direction and care?!?
But be aware, President Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Progressive Democrats will do everything in their power to stop the sunshine from getting through to the American people!
Welcome to the Watcher’s Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the ‘sphere and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday morning.
Council News:
THE COUNCIL IN ACTION!!
Nice Deb’s new piece over at Breitbart, Keystone Pipeline Causing Heartburn for Vulnerable Democrats, is a great read. And I’m feeling that heartburn myself, every time I fill up at the pump!
This week, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion and The Pirate’s Cove earned honorable mention status with some great articles.
You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.
To bring something to my attention, simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title and a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address (which won’t be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6 PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it comes out Wednesday morning.
Simple, no?
It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members, while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?
So, let’s see what we have this week…
Council Submissions
Honorable Mentions
Non-Council Submissions
Enjoy! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter… ’cause we’re cool like that!
By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal
Watch this… then repeat after me… “Russia is our friend… Russia is our friend…”