Tarpon's Swamp

EU ENERGY SUMMIT: CLIMATE PROTECTION IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT ANYMORE

tarpon — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:34:56 +0000

The hoax is not selling anymore … Europe’s heads of State and government want to promote shale gas and to reduce energy prices. They would rather promote competition than stop global warming.

Par For The Course

tarpon — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:56:20 +0000

IRS internal investigation ended 6 months before ’12 election, was hidden from Congress…

They had to put it on the shelf, they had done enough damage to the Tea Party as it were…

DOJ Inspector General To Investigate ATF Sting Operation In Milwaukee

tarpon — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:38:55 +0000

ATF Sting — They got stung …

An ATF sting operation called Operation Fearless will now be investigated by the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General. This operation in Milwaukee featured a storefront sting effort that went horribly bad. They had merchandise stolen, left behind confidential documents, damaged the building that they were renting, and had an ATF-owned automatic weapon stolen which is still missing.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel investigated it and has a whole series on it.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz wrote to two members of Congress that the Milwaukee sting appeared to raise “significant management issues relating to the oversight and management” of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The issues, the letter said, were especially troubling coming after the agency had promised reforms.

A bipartisan group of congressional members demanded answers after a Journal Sentinel investigation of the sting that revealed an agent’s guns, including a machine gun, were stolen, the ATF storefront was ripped off of $40,000 in merchandise and agents allowed an armed felon who threatened to shoot someone to leave the store. At least four of the wrong people were arrested and three of them charged, including a man who was in prison. The ATF machine gun is still missing.

The ATF promised better oversight in the wake of Fast and Furious, where agents in Arizona encouraged the sale of more than 2,000 firearms to gun traffickers but lost track of the weapons. Many ended up at crime scenes in Mexico and at the scene where a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed. The inspector general’s report on Fast and Furious was sharply critical of the ATF and the U.S. attorney’s office, finding “a significant lack of oversight” by both agencies.

Horowitz’s letter on the Milwaukee operation, called “Operation Fearless,” said the ATF’s internal report on the incident addressed the management issues that concerned him. But Horowitz said his office would still examine the Milwaukee sting, along with other recent ATF operations.

He said he would determine if the Justice Department and the ATF have responded appropriately to the inspector general’s recommendations after Operation Fast and Furious. He gave no timetable for when the review would be done.

You have to wonder if ATF really has become the gang that can’t shoot straight.

Obama has lost the New York Times editorial board

tarpon — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:04:01 +0000

As we watch with horror as the systemic problem of Big Government and all it’s arrogance unfolds before our very eyes with the IRS scandal, the New York Times spots another problem.

The criminalizing of normal journalism. had to happen, it’s what Big Government does, make all people into criminals one way or the other. That way they control the people.

Make no mistake: by criminalizing James Rosen of Fox News for asking government employees to give him information, the Obama administration is suppressing the ability of the press to do its job.

It is so egregious that even the New York Times, normally sycophants for Obama, is alarmed. The editorial board yesterday writes:

With the decision to label a Fox News television reporter a possible “co-conspirator” in a criminal investigation of a news leak, the Obama administration has moved beyond protecting government secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news.

And the Times, a member/owner of Associated Press, detects a pattern:

The Rosen case follows other signs that the administration has gone overboard in its zeal to find and muzzle insiders. The Associated Press revealed last week that the government had secretly seized two months’ worth of records for telephones used by the agency’s staff, partly to determine the source of a leak about a report involving a foiled terrorist plot in Yemen. At least two other major leak investigations are continuing. Six current and former administration officials have been indicted under the old Espionage Act for leaking classified information to the press and public. In 2010, a federal judge in Maryland sentenced a leaker to 20 months in jail while admitting that he was “in the dark as to the kind of documents” involved in the leak or what impact they had on national security…

Sen. Ted Cruz: ‘I don’t trust Republicans’

tarpon — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:00:21 +0000

Nor do I … they are in it for themselves. Money corrupts everything in WDC.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Wednesday that he doesn’t trust members of his own party to negotiate a budget conference report.
Cruz’s remark came after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he thought it was “bizarre” that a member of his own party was objecting to forming a conference committee with the House to work out a budget.

McCain said the objections suggested Senate Republicans didn’t trust House Republicans to hold the party line in negotiations.
“Isn’t it a little bizarre, this whole exercise?” McCain said after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) objected to going to conference. “What we’re saying is that we don’t trust our colleagues on the other side of the Capitol.”

Cruz responded that he doesn’t trust Republicans.

“The senior senator of Arizona urged senators to trust House Republicans … and frankly, I don’t trust Republicans,” Cruz said. “It’s the leaders of both parties that got us in this mess. … A lot of Republicans were complicit in this spending spree.”

Fox News Poll: Obama Ratings Dip, Voters say government ‘out of control’

tarpon — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:59:48 +0000

Low information voters, you want to know what Big Government out of control means, this is what it means.

You better wake up America, especially you youngsters. Your future is passing right before your eyes. Will you be a debt slave to Big Government, or will you be a free person to make your own choices.

After a week of revelations about government spying on reporters and the Internal Revenue Service targeting conservatives, most voters feel “like the federal government has gotten out of control and is threatening the basic civil liberties of Americans.”

At the same time, a new Fox News poll finds disapproval of President Obama’s job performance is above 50 percent for the first time in a year, his honesty rating is at a new low and half of voters already think he’s a lame-duck.

More than two-thirds of voters — 68 percent — feel the government is out of control and threatening their civil liberties. About one quarter disagree (26 percent). Nearly half of Democrats (47 percent), as well as large numbers of independents (76 percent) and Republicans (87 percent) feel Uncle Sam is taking liberties with their liberties.

Those who identify with the Tea Party movement, one of the groups targeted by the IRS, are among those most likely to say things are out of control and civil liberties are being threatened: 92 percent of Tea Partiers feel that way.

Six in 10 Americans say the Justice Department “went too far” when it seized the phone records of reporters working at the Associated Press (AP) without prior notice.

That’s almost twice as many as the 31 percent who think the actions were “justified” because the government was looking for leaks about a terrorist plot. Most Republicans (77 percent) and a majority of independents (62 percent) feel the Justice Department went too far. Nearly half of Democrats agree (45 percent), while almost as many say the government was justified (44 percent).

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com …

GM Recalling Some 27K Cadillac SUVs Due To Concerns Wheels Can Fall Off

tarpon — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:59:08 +0000

General Motors Co. is recalling more than 27,000 Cadillac SUVs worldwide because the wheels can fall off.

The company says the recall affects the 2013 Cadillac SRX with 18-inch wheels. Canadian safety regulators say the wheel nuts may not have been tightened enough at the factory.

GM says the problem hasn’t caused any crashes or injuries, and no wheels have fallen from vehicles.

Dealers will rotate tires and tighten the nuts at no cost to the owners.

The recall affects almost 19,000 SUVs in the U.S. and another 913 in Canada. The rest were exported to other countries.

US Government Admits To Killing FOUR American Citizens With Drones

tarpon — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:55:46 +0000

United States Attorney General Eric Holder has informed Congress that four American citizens have been killed in Yemen and Pakistan by US drones since 2009.

RT reports …

It has been widely reported but rarely acknowledged in Washington that three US citizens — Samir Khan, Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenage son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki — were executed in Yemen by missile-equipped drones in 2011. With Holder’s latest admission, however, a fourth American — Jude Kenan Mohammed — has also been officially named as another casualty in America’s continuing drone war.

“Since 2009, the United States, in the conduct of US counterterrorism operations against al-Qaeda and its associated forces outside of areas of active hostilities, has specifically targeted and killed one US citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki,” the letter reads in part. “The United States is further aware of three other US citizens who have been killed in such US counterterrorism operations over that same time period,” Holder said before naming the other victims.

“These individuals were not specifically targeted by the United States,” the attorney general wrote.

The news of the admission broke Wednesday afternoon when New York Times reporter Charlie Savage published the letter sent from Holder to congressional leaders in a clear attempt to counter critics who have challenged the White House for falling short of US President Barack Obama’s campaign plans of utmost transparency. Upon a growing number of executive branch scandals worsened by the Department of Justice’s recently disclosed investigation of Associated Press journalists, Holder wrote that coming clean is an effort to include the American public in a discussion all too often conducted in the shadows cast by the US intelligence community.

RELATED : Citizens abroad…

‘Soldier beheaded’ in ‘Islamist Terror Attack’ Outside Barracks In Woolwich (more details)

tarpon — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:54:15 +0000

Soldier beheaded …

Local MP Nick Raynsford said he had been told the man attacked in the street was a soldier serving at the Royal Artillery Barracks near the attack.

Mr Raynsford said the soldier had been returning to the barracks after a day out when he was attacked.

London Ambulance Service said one man, believed to be the victim of the machete attack, had died in the incident and two others were injured, one seriously.

Several witnesses described seeing a “beheading” while another described seeing a man wearing a Help for Heroes T-shirt being attacked with a machete-style knife and dumped.

The War on Terror, continues on …

Lois “Lame” Lerner To Be Back For Reruns

tarpon — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:53:42 +0000

Wait We aren’t done with you yet … Lois “Lame” To return, She waived her right to testify, because she started her testimony first then took the fifth.

You do not take the fifth to avoid testimony, only if you feel a specific question may incriminate you. So back you go, our the US Marshals will drag you back.

Lerner said she “would very much like to answer the committees questions today,” but that her counsel had advised her not to testify, in light of the Department of Justice criminal investigation into the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups for extra scrutiny.

Because she was taking the Fifth, Lerner said, “I know that some people will assume I’ve done something wrong. I have not.”

Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the committee, subsequently dismissed Lerner from the hearing.

Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy objected, saying that the committee should operate like a courtroom, “and she just testified, she just waived her Fifth Amendment right to privilege.”

“You don’t get to tell your side of the story and not be subjected to cross examination. That’s not the way it works. She waived her right to Fifth Amendment privilege by issuing an opening statement, she ought to stand here and answer our questions,” Gowdy said, a statement which prompted applause from the audience.