WASHINGTON DC – A member of Congress used to have to specifically report the details if they traveled on someone else’s dime. As of last week, that rule was lifted with no public announcement. National Journal reports:

The move, made behind closed doors and without a public announcement by the House Ethics Committee, reverses more than three decades of precedent. Gifts of free travel to lawmakers have appeared on the yearly financial form dating back its creation in the late 1970s, after the Watergate scandal. National Journal uncovered the deleted disclosure requirement when analyzing the most recent batch of yearly filings.  (link)

For a group of officials that considers an adjustment to their burrito order worthy of a press release and a television appearance, that this change was made literally behind closed doors tells us everything we need to know about it. Members of both parties reached across the aisle and kept their mouths shut about it. (more…)

MEMO

To:                   House Colleagues

From:              Speaker Boehner

Re:                  “[T]hat the Laws Be Faithfully Executed. . .”

Date:               June 25, 2014

For years Americans have watched with concern as President Barack Obama has declined to faithfully execute the laws of our country – ignoring some statutes completely, selectively enforcing others, and at times, creating laws of his own.

Article II, Section III of the Constitution of the United States dictates that the president, as head of the Executive Branch of our government, “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” even if the president does not agree with the purpose of that law.  Under the Constitution’s separation of powers principle, only the Legislative Branch has the power to legislate.

On one matter after another during his presidency, President Obama has circumvented the Congress through executive action, creating his own laws and excusing himself from executing statutes he is sworn to enforce – at times even boasting about his willingness to do it, as if daring the America people to stop him.  On matters ranging from health care and energy to foreign policy and education, President Obama has repeatedly run an end-around on the American people and their elected legislators, straining the boundaries of the solemn oath he took on Inauguration Day. (more…)

WISCONSIN – The United States government is actually suing a private American business for discriminating against Hispanic and Asian employees because they don’t speak English on the job.
It involves a Green Bay Wisconsin metal and plastic manufacturer that fired a group of Hmong and Hispanic workers over their English skills, “even though those skills were not needed to perform their jobs,” according to the feds. More importantly, forcing employees to speak English in the U.S. violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, says the Obama administration.
Here’s the twisted explanation from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency that enforces the nation’s workplace discrimination laws; the Civil Rights Act protects employees from discrimination based on national origin, which includes the linguistic characteristics of a national origin group.
Therefore, according to this reasoning, foreigners have the right to speak their native language even during work hours at an American company that requires English. (more…)

As with all complex stories the valuable discoveries come with time.

We now have a pretty good understanding of who, what, where, and why surrounding the 9/11/12 attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi Libya. We are also better positioned to understand why, or perhaps more importantly why not, certain actions were taken before, during, and in the immediate aftermath of the attack itself.

We know from the Bret Baier interview with Hillary Clinton that she was physically located at her 7th floor office in Washington DC on the night of the attack. Unfortunately we also know during the November 2012 Thanksgiving holiday a mysterious fire took place in that building. Well, actually directly above her exact office – cause undetermined.
A “fire” which preceded an unfortunate slip and fall for the Secretary, resulting in a concussion, which led to the discovery of a blood clot, that ultimately delayed her congressional testimony before a Senate Hearing into the events of the night in question.
We know the Libyan uprising began on February 10th of 2011, and we also know that sometime around the end of February 2011 President Obama signed a presidential directive authorizing the State Dept and CIA to begin a covert operation to arm the Libyan “rebels”.
We know the “rebels” were positioned in two strategic places. Benghazi, and the port city of Darnah, both located in Eastern Libya.
We know this covert operation came to be known as “Operation Zero Footprint“, and fell under the military command authority of NATO not (important to repeat), NOT, the U.S. Military. (more…)

Today Mitch McConnell, K Street lobbyists, and the NRSC are all backslaps and smiles…congratulating one another on their ability to get out the black vote in Mississippi.  Why?  Because they couldn’t have maintained their hold on the Republican Party without them.
The K-Street Lobbyist crowd sent out robocalls implying the Tea Party and Chris McDaniel were racist, because they opposed Obama’s agenda. The calls told voters to “say no to the Tea Party and their disrespectful treatment of the first African-American President.” There were even flyers claiming that a McDaniel victory would stop black Americans from voting.
What do they call their solution?  “Expanding the Electorate”.

(more…)

(Boom-Chica-Waa-Waa) Byblos Niagara Resort and Spa is a 263-room hotel in Grand Island, New York. The resort is fully booked for most of the summer. Government officials, however, apparently thought it was the perfect place to house undocumented children.

You just can’t make this up:
The federal agents arrived unannounced at about 10 a.m. to inspect the 263-room property for possible use as housing for some of the 52,000 unaccompanied minors who have been apprehended at the southern border this year.
“They were thinking the hotel was abandoned and closed,” said Scott Swagler, the general manager of the facility, a former Holiday Inn undergoing a $10 million renovation.
One of the visitors was a Customs and Border Patrol agent and another had a badge that said “DHS” (Department of Homeland Security), Swagler said. (more…)

Our TSA….saving us from wheelchair grannies and their evil defibrillators.  No wonder American Airlines went bankrupt earlier this week. 
(msnbc.com)…An 84-year-old New York grandmother said Saturday she was injured and humiliated when she was strip searched at an airport after she asked to be patted down instead of going through a body scanner.  Lenore Zimmerman said she was whisked away to a private room and made to take off her pants and other clothes after she asked to forgo the screening because she worried it would interfere with her defibrillator. She missed her flight and had to take one two-and-a-half hours later, she said.
“I walk with a walker — I really look like a terrorist,” she told The New York Daily News. “I’m tiny. I weigh 110 pounds, 107 without clothes, and I was strip-searched.  I was outraged,” said Zimmerman, a retired receptionist.   (more…)

Since most New Yorkers think the world revolves around their city, consequently few of them have an accurate idea of what the Unites States of America really looks like.   Anyone who doesn’t live in Los Angeles or New York City doesn’t really matter, has no meaningful opinions, or doesn’t exist other than in some weird Amish/Deliverance kind of lifestyle.
News Flash:  Minnesota is not Southern Canada.  E-I-E-I-O is not a zip code. And, there is no East Jesus.
Below is the Map of America….as seen by the average New Yorker.  (more…)