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Thursday, October 3, 2013
Rep. Duffy of Wisconsin assaulted outside Capitol
Associated Press
U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy is unharmed after a confrontation outside of the Capitol.
Duffy's office said Thursday in an email that the Republican was walking toward the Capitol to vote on legislation when someone he didn't know began screaming at him and grabbed his arm.
The office said Duffy, a professional lumberjack who appeared on MTV's "The Real World" in the 1990s, was not harmed. It says he reported the incident to police as required by U.S. House security procedures but asked for no further action and has no comment on what happened.
The office did not immediately respond an inquiry whether the incident was related to the government shutdown.
A U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman said only that the agency was investigating a simple assault on a member of Congress.
Duffy's office said Thursday in an email that the Republican was walking toward the Capitol to vote on legislation when someone he didn't know began screaming at him and grabbed his arm.
The office said Duffy, a professional lumberjack who appeared on MTV's "The Real World" in the 1990s, was not harmed. It says he reported the incident to police as required by U.S. House security procedures but asked for no further action and has no comment on what happened.
The office did not immediately respond an inquiry whether the incident was related to the government shutdown.
A U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman said only that the agency was investigating a simple assault on a member of Congress.
Treasury warns default could be worse than Great Recession
Treasury warns default could be worse than Great Recession
1 hour ago
The U.S. Treasury Department is warning that the economy
could plunge into a downturn worse than the Great Recession if
Congress fails to raise the federal borrowing limit and the country
defaults on its debt obligations.A default could cause the nation's credit markets to freeze, the value of the dollar to plummet and U.S. interest rates to skyrocket, according to the Treasury report released Thursday.
(Read more:Buffett speaks out against DC's 'extreme idiocy')
Treasury officials hope by laying out potential consequences they will be able to bring pressure on Congress to act. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has said he will have used up the extraordinary measures to avoid breaching the debt ceiling by Oct. 17. After that, the government will have around $30 billion of cash on hand.
The report looked at the disruptions caused to financial markets during a similar stand-off between the administration and Congress over raising the debt limit. It then made projections about what could occur if there were an actual default.
In August 2011, Congress eventually raised the nation's borrowing limit before a default occurred but only after a protracted debate. The politics that nearly led to a default prompted Standard & Poor's to cut the nation's credit rating by a notch.
(Read more: Hank Paulson: Tea party 'hijacked the debate')
"As we saw two years ago, prolonged uncertainty over whether our nation will pay its bills in full and on time hurts our economy," Lew said in a statement. "Postponing a debt ceiling increase to the very last minute is exactly what our economy does not need—a self-inflicted wound harming families and businesses."
Our nation has worked hard to recover from the 2008 financial crisis, and Congress must act now to lift the debt ceiling before that recovery is put in jeopardy," Lew said.
The report notes that even the possibility of a default could roil financial markets and damage the economy, thereby harming American businesses and households. Sharp declines in household wealth, increases in the cost of financing for businesses and households, and a fall in private-sector confidence, all tend to undermine economic expansion. It also states that if the current government shutdown is protracted, it could make the U.S. economy even more susceptible to the adverse effects from a debt ceiling impasse than it was prior to the shutdown.
In the event of a default, the U.S. economy could be plunged into a recession worse than any seen since the Great Depression, it said.
"The U.S. dollar and Treasury securities are at the center of the international finance system. In the catastrophic event that a debt limit impasse were to lead to a default on Treasury securities, financial markets could be shaken to their core as was seen in late 2008, which resulted in a recession worse than any seen since the Great Depression."
Back Room Deals in Congress May Give Obama Immigration Reform Without Border Security Measures
Back Room Deals in Congress May Give Obama Immigration Reform Without Border Security Measures
GREAT NOW THEY WILL LET MORE TERRORIST IN GREAT HOPE THEY KILL YOU ALL
Back room deals are underway in the
House of Representatives to advance a number of immigration bills to the
Senate before the end of October. But a growing number of lawmakers and
border security experts say passing any bill now may derail efforts to
get border security measures enacted.
House
Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., listens on
Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2013, during the
committee’s hearing to discuss the Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement
Act. Credit: AP
Why? Because it will open the door for
closed-door “conference” negotiations that are expected to focus on
amnesty for nearly 11 million illegal immigrants and gut or weaken
border security measures.
How? It all comes down to timing.
Five separate immigration-related bills
are progressing through the Republican-controlled House, with only one
addressing border security, and some lawmakers fear that they may be
bundled into a package that will face off against the
Democrat-controlled Senate’s versions. Critics such as Rep. Steve King
(R-Iowa) expect such a face-off to lead to a compromise that could
strip out the border provisions to make it more likely to be signed into
law by President Barack Obama.
“The public and Republican members need
to understand that going to conference with the Senate will bring about
a similar ‘Gang of Eight’ bill that rejects real border security
measures,” said King. “Doing business with the president is not going to
give us anything that we like. He’s completely untrustworthy on this
and there’s no merit to the House taking up anything because nothing
good can get to the president’s desk that he’ll put his signature on.”
King, vice-chair of the House
Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, told TheBlaze he will
do all he can to inform the American public and members of his party
that taking any immigration bill to the Senate at this point could lead
to a failure for a comprehensive immigration reform package.
In
meetings with his colleagues in the Judiciary Committee and those who
work with Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas),
King said he is asking a simple question: How can they get any of their
piecemeal legislation bills “to the President’s desk on their own —
without compromising — and doing what he wants?”
Over the past several months
immigration overhaul has found its way back into official and
not-so-official meetings on the Hill. House Republicans, like House
Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, of Virginia, Majority Leader
Rep. Eric Cantor of Virgina, Rep. Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin and McCaul
are all pushing for some resolution on their bills on immigration
reform.
Goodlatte, who has been working
closely with Cantor on immigration issues, has been vocal about taking
action at the end of October on five step-by-step House bills that have
already passed their committees.
MISSION,
TX – APRIL 11: A U.S. Border Patrol canine team stands nearby after
they helped detain a group of undocumented immigrants near the
U.S.-Mexico border on April 11, 2013 near Mission, Texas. Agents say
they have seen an additional surge in immigrant traffic since
immigration reform negotiations began this year in Washington D.C.
Credit: Getty Images
A senior GOP aide, who spoke to
TheBlaze on condition of anonymity, said “if Goodlatte’s bills are
allowed to come up for a vote in the House it will certainly open the
door” for a bicameral conference committee. He said “border security
measures will be gutted and it could eventually pass if House leadership
is able to put pressure on the rest of its members to vote” after it
returns to the House.
“All roads lead to Goodlatte,” he
said. “If Chairman Goodlatte thinks the Senate bill is so bad, why won’t
he rule out going to conference with it? As long as he’s willing to go
to conference with the Senate plan he’s willing to put a comprehensive
bill on the President’s desk.”
Goodlatte told TheBlaze, however, that there will be no room for negotiations when it comes to the Senate immigration package.
“From the outset, I have made it clear
that the Senate immigration bill is a non-starter in the House,” said
Goodlatte. ”The Gang of Eight bill is fundamentally flawed and
unworkable since it repeats the mistakes made in past immigration
overhauls. Among my many concerns, the Senate bill gives a legal status
before enforcement is up and operating effectively, provides a special
pathway to citizenship for those who have broken our immigration laws,
and allows the President to waive many, if not most, of the bill’s
interior enforcement requirements.”
But just last month, Democratic Rep.
Luis Gutierrez, of Illinois, told reporters that he was “happy that
(Goodlatte) says that he’s moving forward, that he’s looking for a bill
that can go to conference,” according to an MSNBC report.
“That is a step in the right direction,” Gutierrez said.
Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas),
who also met with Goodlatte in September, said he was encouraged by his
apparent enthusiasm for advancing immigration reform, according to that
news report.
Cuellar said Goodlatte had asked for his help in selling a compromise to Democrats.
The
a-la-cart bills that will be brought to the floor are the SAFE Act
bill, which increases authority of state and local law enforcement in
punishing illegal migrants; E-Verify, which will mandate that employers
check on the legal status of employees or face harsh fines; Goodlatte’s
Agricultural bill, which would allow up to 500,000 or more foreign
agricultural workers to temporarily come to the United States and the
High Skilled Workers Act, allowing 155,000 visas for high skilled
workers and an additional 40,000 for immigrants that graduated from a
U.S. university.
The only border security measure is
McCaul’s Border Security Results Act, which will add technology and
manpower at the border in an effort to increase apprehensions and
tighten border security.
McCaul, whose border security bill has already passed his committee, told TheBlaze he has no intention of addressing immigration reform at this time.
“The Border Security Results Act only
addresses border security; it does not address immigration reform,”
McCaul said. “The reason is simple: We cannot repeat 1986, where
legalization happened but the border security enforcement measures were
never fulfilled.”
Mark
Krikorian, executive director for the Center For Immigration Studies, a
nonprofit think-tank dedicated to immigration research and law, said
most people should be very wary of what will happen once these
immigration bills reach the Senate floor because once they’re in
conference there’s a stronger chance a bi-partisan compromise will be
reached through leadership without the input of House members.
Krikorian noted that it’s not just the
five bills that should be of concern but new legislation still being
drafted, like the low skilled guest workers bill sponsored by Rep. Raul
Labrador, of Idaho and Rep. Ted Poe, of Texas, which would increase the
number of low skilled workers in the U.S. from the 200,000 requested in
the Senate bill to 400,000.
“The worst thing that could happen is
the Democrats and Republicans get together in conference and pass an
Obama style monstrocity, like the mammoth Obama Care package,” said
Krikorian. “Obviously the tactic is to pass any kind of bill that has
immigration in it and then go to conference and replace it with Senate
bill and then the rest will be under pressure to pass it regardless —
they can do anything they want when they get to conference.”
The Republican leadership, however,
has ”drunk the Kool-aid regarding the Hispanic vote believing they will
get more votes by getting this issue off the table and Republican
leadership, under enormous pressure from Corporate Lobbyists - also
want to increase foreign labor through the visa program.”
Other must read stories:
Government shutdown 'totally depletes' US ability to enforce Iran sanctions BULL SHI YOU DID THIS SO IRAN CAN START WAR WITH ISRAEL I AM NOT DUMB LIKE THE PEOPLE WHO THINK YOUR GOD
Government shutdown 'totally depletes' US ability to enforce Iran sanctions
Photo: Flickr.com
The government shutdown has “totally depleted” the administration's ability to enforce sanctions against Iran, a top State Department official told lawmakers on Thursday, but said the fundamental sanctions must remain until all concerns have been dealt with.
Wendy
Sherman, State's under secretary for political affairs, told a Senate
panel that the shutdown has all but closed the Treasury Department's
sanctions office. She said Congress's failure to fund the government has
also hampered the State Department and has “devastated” the
intelligence community, which identifies sanctions evaders.
“Our
ability to … enforce sanctions, to stop sanctions evaders, is being
hampered significantly by the shutdown,” Sherman told a Senate Foreign
Relations panel hearing on Iran's nuclear program. “Quite frankly, where
Iran is concerned, the sooner the shutdown is over, the better we will
be able to do the job you are asking us to do and that we want to do.”
Sherman said the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control has been “completely, virtually utterly depleted.”
“We
do not have our full intelligence committee,” Sherman said, “[and] the
State Department is putting restrictions on travel by State Department
employees and we use our sanctions team to travel the world to go after
sanctions evaders and folks who aren't following through so it will
impair our ability to do that.”
“We
will do our best to enforce sanctions, to stop sanctions evaders, but I
sincerely hope that the shutdown ends soon so that we are truly able to
do so in these negotiations proceed.”
Voice of Russia, The Hill
SHERIFF JOE: Judge Orders That He Be "MONITORED!"
SHERIFF JOE: Judge Orders That He Be "MONITORED!"
An Arizona newspaper is reporting that a federal judge has issued an addendum ruling to a previous ruling he made some four months ago. In the first ruling, U.S. District Judge Murray Snow determined that Sheriff Joe Arpaio had violated the constitutional rights of Latinos in his county of jurisdiction.
Yesterday, Snow announced an addendum to his ruling. Judge Snow has now ordered that cameras are to be placed in every deputy's car, a community advisory board is appointed, and of all things - a court-appointed monitor to make certain that the sheriff is taking steps to prevent "future discrimination."
 |
| Judge Murray Snow |
Sheriff Joe says he will comply with the court order while it is under appeal.
Of course, you will remember, Sheriff Joe is the ONLY law enforcement official in the entire nation to do an extensive investigation into Barack Obama's background. His Cold Case Posse investigation has determined with 100% assurance that the long form .pdf birth certificate posted on the White House website for Barack Obama is an utter fabrication - a federal crime and a felony.
READ the Arizona news site's version of the story here: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20131002sheriff-arpaio-racial-profile-lawsuit-ruling.html
Two mystery men in black parachute into Wall Street, NYC
Two mystery men in black parachute into Wall Street, NYC
Photo: RIA Novosti
Security cameras on Wall Street caught a pair of parachutists landing in front of the Goldman Sachs building before dawn this morning and then walking away with their chutes.
The
two chutists, dressed in black, drifted into the narrow confines at the
intersection of West and Vescey streets, New York Police Commissioner
Ray Kelly said.
"At
3:07 this morning, two individuals apparently parachuted to the front
of the Goldman Sachs building. We're not 100 percent sure of the
location, if they came out of an aircraft, but they were seen walking
away with the parachutes away from the location," he said.
Goldman
Sachs building security notified the NYPD after seeing the landing on
the building's surveillance footage. The NYPD said it now has
surveillance video.
"Apparently,
some camera catches the landing. There are no banners, no notes were
left. Obviously it's something that is under investigation," Kelly said.
The
NYPD says they don't have a possible motive, but say the incident is
being investigated as a stunt and not something more sinister.
Voice of Russia, ABC News
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