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Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Why Does Interpol Need Immunity from American Law?   [Andy McCarthy] You just can't make up how brazen this crowd is. One week ago, President Obama quietly signed an executive order that makes an international police force immune from the restraints of American law.Interpol is the shorthand for the International Criminal Police Organization. It was established in 1923 and operates in about 188 countries. By executive order 12425, issued in 1983, President Reagan recognized Interpol as an international organization and gave it some of the privileges and immunities customarily extended to foreign diplomats. Interpol, however, is also...

When it comes to discussing controversial issues, the Obama administration's idea of dialogue is a curiously one-way affair. According to an Oct. 26 administration court filing, a lawsuit by fired AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin should be dismissed without a trial because the White House already has participated in the "political dialogue" with Congress required by the statute governing IG dismissals. It's odd, then, that the administration continues stonewalling Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, long a champion of independent IGs. On June 10, the Obama administration fired Mr. Walpin, without explanation, just after he filed two reports alleging White...

President Obama's nomination of a major campaign fundraiser as ambassador to Spain has been delayed in the Senate over questions about whether the White House is withholding information from lawmakers about the abrupt firing of a government watchdog official. The nominee, Alan Solomont, served from April until recently as chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service, whose former inspector general, Gerald Walpin, was fired by the White House on June 10. Mr. Solomont, a Massachusetts health industry entrepreneur, helped raise at least $500,000 for Mr. Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and was among a group of top fundraisers, elected...

Well before Gerald Walpin was fired as the inspector general of AmeriCorps, government documents show that he and the agency’s management did not get along, to say the least. Documents obtained by CNSNews.com through a Freedom of Information Act request, including e-mails, letters and memos, demonstrate a confrontational relationship between the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the agency that runs AmeriCorps, and its inspector general, whose ouster in June prompted questions from Congress. A corporation board member wanted to “let the record reflect” what he says was Walpin’s confusion at a Mar. 20 board meeting, the member’s notes...

When last we left Gerald Walpin, the unfairly fired inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service, he had filed a lawsuit on July 17 protesting his dismissal. He submitted technical amendments to his complaint on July 24, and the government was supposed to respond within 60 days. Seventy-five days later, the government still is stonewalling. Justice delayed is justice denied. Government lawyers Tony West, Channing Phillips, Susan Rudy and Kathryn Wyer filed for an extension until Oct. 26, explaining that they were only "recently assigned this case." It's odd, though, that when it suits the White House's...

Republican Sen. Charles Grassley has blocked the ambassadorial nomination of Alan Solomont, currently chairman of the board of the government agency that oversees AmeriCorps, in retaliation for what Grassley says is the administration's stonewalling of Congress over documents relating to the firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin. Specifically, Grassley has sought, and been denied, information relating to the White House's role in the decision to fire Walpin. Solomont, a major Democratic donor, is chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which includes AmeriCorps. His term ends in October, and President Obama has nominated him to be U.S....

First it was I.G. Walpin who was investigating BO 's supporter on the misused of Americorp funds. Now it is I.G. Weiderhold for investigating Amtrak’s activities. The Inspector General Act, amended last year and CO-SPONSORED by Barack Obama to: require the President to notify Congress in writing within 30 days the reasons for removing an Inspector General from office. Did Obama knowingly break the law on this one or did TOTUS forget to tell him he couldn't do it.

I just have to wonder what kind of uproar and front page news stories would be coming out daily if the Walpin/Johnson IG Firing Story had happened during Bush's watch. You know the answer to that question. We would be blasted by the story daily, for weeks on end. But under the Obama administration the MSM doesn't utter a peep. Except for Byron York reporting in The Washington Examiner that is. Before I get to his story let's do a recap of the scandal, since it's been weeks and weeks since the story came out. There are four players in...

This nasty administration spent much time going after Gerald Walpin, who until a few weeks ago was the inspector general for AmeriCorps. Walpin's claim was that he was fired because he made the mistake of Investigation a friend of Obama (FOB), Kevin Johnson former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, California, for the misuse of AmeriCorps funds. Because he was investigating the president's friends, Walpin, whose position as an inspector general is supposed to be protected from political appointees and the White House, was fired. Pressed for a reasoning for the dismissal the Administration said the IG seemed...

After seven weeks of trying, investigators looking into President Barack Obama’s abrupt firing of AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin are still unable to answer the most basic question of the whole affair: Why did the president do it?

Gerald Walpin, the former Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service whom President Obama took the unusual step of firing last month, filed a lawsuit against the CNCS on Friday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia The suit seeks to force "to reinstate Mr. Walpin as the Inspector General and to declare unlawful and ineffective the efforts to date to terminate him from his office." In addition, the suit seeks that Walpin be awarded "costs and legal fees associated with this action" as well as any "further relief as may be appropriate in this...

"Staff doesn't speak for the committee," a source on Capitol Hill explained last week. "The committee speaks for the committee." That's the practical meaning of Senate Rule 29, which has been invoked regarding the Homeland Security and Government Oversight Committee investigation into last month's firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin. The committee's chairman, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, is entirely within his prerogative to protect the integrity of the investigation via Rule 29, which reads, in part:

By: Byron York Chief Political Correspondent 07/18/09 9:45 AM EDT Gerald Walpin, the AmeriCorps inspector general who was summarily fired in June amid controversy over his investigation of a politically-connected supporter of President Obama, has filed suit alleging that the firing was "unlawful," "politically driven," "procedurally defective" and "a transparent and clumsily-conducted effort to circumvent the protections" given to inspectors general under the Inspectors General Reform Act of 2008.

Petition: We, the undersigned, respectfully demand that the Judiciary Committees of the United States House and Senate investigate the firing by President Obama of Inspector General Gerald Walpin. Sign Petition at: gopetition.com/online/28746.html

Then the stonewalling got worse. On June 30, White House counsel Gregory B. Craig warned Mr. Grassley, "These questions implicate core executive branch confidentiality interests." On July 6, corporation general counsel Frank R. Trinity repeatedly refused to answer congressional investigators' questions about the White House's communications with his office regarding any review of Mr. Walpin's performance. "It's a White House prerogative," Mr. Trinity told staff members, according to multiple sources. Asked if he was somehow asserting "executive privilege" -- a privilege not his to claim -- Mr. Trinity repeated his "White House prerogative" line. Told that no such prerogative exists...

Inquiry continues into Walpin firing Senator Chuck Grassley says President Obama has yet to provide Congress with a satisfactory explanation for why he fired Gerald Walpin from his position as Inspector General at the Corporation for National and Community Service. Some critics of the Walpin firing believe the inspector general was fired simply because he investigated Obama ally and Democratic Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson for using AmeriCorps grant money illegally. However, in a letter to the Senate committee that oversees AmeriCorps, the White House claims Walpin was fired because he was "confused and disoriented," engaged in "inappropriate conduct," and had...

Federal officials said Tuesday there was not enough evidence to support allegations that the e-mails were intentionally deleted while Johnson's nonprofit organization was being probed by federal Inspector General Gerald Walpin. The decision appears to put to rest a controversy that has dogged Johnson since Walpin's investigation into St. HOPE's use of federal grant money first became public in April 2008. "We're pleased that the FBI has determined what we knew all along – that there was no intentional wrongdoing by the mayor or anyone at St. HOPE," said mayoral spokesman Steve Maviglio. "It's time for this book to be...

AmeriCorps Inspector General Shredded White House Documents at Request of Agency’s Spokeswoman Thursday, November 12, 2009 By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer (CNSNews.com) – The acting inspector general of AmeriCorps said he shredded White House documents at the request of an agency press spokeswoman that pertained to the controversial firing of the previous inspector general, who was ousted after investigating a political ally of President Obama. The e-mail message from agency spokeswoman Ranit Schmelzer seemed urgent, as she wrote: “WH documents were sent in error. Can you please destroy them? And can you confirm you receive this e-mail?” Acting IG Kenneth...

The case of Gerald Walpin, the controversially fired inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), continues to raise questions about what the Obama administration is hiding. Two new items and one previously overlooked item are of interest in the case. First, Mr. Walpin filed a legal brief on Nov. 6 that convincingly refutes the arguments in a White House motion to dismiss the lawsuit he had filed demanding that he be reinstated to his job. Second, White House officials met on Tuesday with staff of Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, and narrowed but did not...

He says ... Obama’s distractions lead to Constitution’s destructionBy Bill Roe He says ... The morning sunshine broke over Washington, D.C., this past weekend. Many Americans watched the sad news in Iran as it came on TV while they listened to the television news shows lamenting the failure of the stimulus packages. A news flash broke in showing the riots in Iran taking place because of a corrupt election where the ballot boxes were stuffed. Sadly, young Iranian protesters were being killed in the streets. Our president told his staff that his children wanted ice cream, so Mrs. Obama put...

We, the undersigned, respectfully demand that the Judiciary Committees of the United States House and Senate investigate the firing by President Obama of Inspector General Gerald Walpin. Sign Petition at: gopetition.com/online/28746.html

Poll: 35% Of Republicans Want To Impeach Obama Obama Naming Hispanics To Top Posts At Record Pace Obama is on track to name more Hispanics to top posts than any of his predecessors, drawing appointees from a wide range of the nation's Latino communities, including Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Colombians. Many believe that 0bama is doing this to secure or buy the anti-american vote that will ultimately transform America.

Why some environmentalists believe the president has the power to sidestep the Senate and commit the US to a global pact. In 1997, in the Japanese city of Kyoto, the Clinton administration agreed to a groundbreaking treaty to combat global warming. And that's when the trouble started. The Senate had unanimously refused to approve the Kyoto Protocol, and in the end the Clinton administration didn't even submit it for a vote in the upper chamber. This made the US both the world's biggest polluter and, ultimately, the only industrialized nation to reject the accord. Now, as world leaders attempt to...

Without a doubt, the most important and significant legal action in the United States this wee, is Dr. Orly Taitz’s Letter to Eric Holder, sent today, demanding that he institute Quo Warranto proceedings against Barack Hussein Obama in the District Court of Washington, D.C.. The importance of this letter is the fact that the quo warranto provisions of the District of Columbia Code provide that a 3rd party may institute a quo warranto action if the U.S. Attorney General fails to respond within 3 months to a request. Dr. Orly Taitz wrote Holder on March 1st. In her letter, published...

The lower President Barack Obama's approval numbers go the more certain he seems to be about his vision for the country. In the Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll for December 15, 41 percent of those surveyed across America give Obama's performance as president a highly negative review. On healthcare, the issue that is at this moment at the forefront of the debate, 56 percent of those surveyed by Rasmussen now say they oppose the bill working its way through the Senate. Yet he continues to press ahead with signature issues like healthcare as though the sentiments of the electorate mattered...

Quite an explosive leak! I wonder how this will affect things? It is certainly a thuggish and dangerous thing for Obama to play with National Security over this craptacular idea of socialized medicine. Quite a desperate move. According to a Senate aide, the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if Nelson doesn’t fall into line. Offutt Air Force Base employs some 10,000 military and federal employees in Southeastern Nebraska. As our source put it, this is a “naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and the White House to extort Nelson’s vote.”...

I know Bush had his own list of catastrophes; other Presidents did as well. Again, my point is not trying to adjudicate relative culpability, but rather just to remind us all how and why Obama dived over 20 points in the polls in just 11 months—and his speeches transformed from inspirational to caricatures. In short, taken together, after nearly a year, these fissures have nearly ruined the once pretty texture of the Obama administration, and almost rendered it incapable of effective governance. Here is a random selection. I provide no chronology or theme. Nor do I judge the relative importance...

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declare carbon a toxic pollutant Obama pulls end run As I wrote here yesterday, I believe the feeding frenzy currently taking place at the Copenhagen trough will result in the ultimate global governance of every man woman and child on the planet. A climate treaty may not actually be signed and agreed upon by the 192 countries whose representatives are currently living LARGE on caviar and limousines at the conference, but the rules such a treaty might impose will still take effect. The main reason to believe this will happen is that President Barack Obama has...

Washington (CNN) -- President Obama will announce Tuesday he'll deploy 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan "at the fastest pace possible" with a goal of starting to withdraw forces from the country in July 2011. "The 30,000 additional troops that I am announcing tonight will deploy in the first part of 2010 ... so that they can target the insurgency and secure key population centers," Obama will say, according to excerpts from his speech at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. Obama will say that the additional U.S. forces "will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility...

WASHINGTON – The White House says President Barack Obama is placing heavy emphasis on how the United States eventually will withdraw from Afghanistan even as he plans to announce a troop increase next week. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that the United States is in its ninth year of military involvement in Afghanistan and "we are not going to be there another eight or nine years." Gibbs says Obama's recent meetings with military advisers have often focused on how to train Afghanistan's police and army so they can secure and hold areas taken from the Taliban after...

Senate confirms Obama judge pick WASHINGTON - The Senate confirmed U.S. District Judge David Hamilton of Indiana yesterday for the Chicago-based U.S. Appeals Court for the Seventh Circuit, approving a nominee targeted by conservatives as a liberal activist.

Remember it for your grandchildren: Saturday, November 21, 2009—the day of the Transformation of America. That’s the day Global Marxism will begin its inexorable march to take down the Free World, starting with its leader the United States of America. There will be no shots fired, but the aim of the U.S. Senate’s poison arrow is right on target at the heart of humanity. While America’s Marxist President is abroad, Senate Majority House Leader Harry Reid is tying the red ribbon bow on his Christmas present, the Transformation, and Take Down of the United States of America. “Senate Majority...

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to give a federal court trial instead of a military commission hearing to five Guantanamo detainees the government has linked to the 9/11 attacks has led to criticism that the Obama Administration is transforming the war on terror from a military to law-enforcement affair. This has led some critics to wonder if captured terrorist suspects would have to be read their Miranda rights on being captured by U.S. military or law enforcement representatives. In one of the highlights of Wednesday's Justice Department oversight hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina...

At the Museum of Science and Technology Monday afternoon, President Obama took questions from a docile audience of more than 400 Chinese university students handpicked by officials of eight different Chinese universities. The town hall meeting was one of the few unscripted moments on the president's trip. It was supposed to be carried live on Chinese state television but at the last moment, the Chinese government changed its mind and only local stations in Shanghai, and the White House Web site, carried it live. **SNIP** **SNIP** FULL LIES MIXED WITH AUDACITY-Quote of the day! "The White House said it wanted...

Found it first on twitter! Here's the direct link!

Enough is enough. We're calling for the Impeachment of Barack Hussein Obama. And if you agree, you can join us right now. Right here and right now, you can add your voice to ours... and add your name to the Articles of Impeachment against Barack Hussein Obama. Why are we calling for the Impeachment of Barack Hussein Obama? Radio-personality Tammy Bruce may have said it best: "... ultimately, it comes down to... the fact that he seems to have, it seems to me, some malevolence toward this country, which is unabated." Oh... there are many reasons to call for the...

According to current documents the Copenhagen Treaty, if signed by President Obama in December, will ultimately make the U.S., along with other "developed nations", financially responsible for the CO2 emissions of "developing nations". Read the document here. "Recognizing that current and potential climate change impacts require a shift in the global investment patterns and that criteria for financing allocation shall clearly respond to the priorities identified by the international community, with climate change stabilization being one of these priorities." What does this mean? Essentially, the treaty would mandate that the U.S. and other developed nations share there wealth with developing...

Have you ever want to say, "You're Fired!" to one of your elected officials, without waiting for the next election. Now you can. Ken Lowder, is one of our readers and a frequent contributor to our Opinion/Editorial pages. Ken is one of those right-wingers who believes in weird stuff like the U.S. Constitution, freedom, the rights of the people. You know the type. You may have some living in your home. I know I do. Anyway, Ken has come up with a great idea to mail “Pink Slips” to members of Congress...

An official announcement by the Obama administration disclosing the reality of extraterrestrial life is imminent. For several months, senior administration officials have been quietly deliberating behind closed doors how much to disclose to the world about extraterrestrial life. Dissatisfaction among powerful institutions such as the U.S. Navy over the decades-long secrecy policy has given a boost to efforts to disclose the reality of extraterrestrial life and technology. The impending disclosure announcement follows upon the secret implementation of a year long openness policy on UFOs and extraterrestrial life. Over the period February 12-14, 2008, the United Nations held closed doors discussions...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Senate committee on Tuesday launches three long days of hearings on a Democratic climate bill in a bid to further convince an international summit in December that Washington is serious about tackling global warming. The Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee will kick off Tuesday's hearing at 9:30 a.m. EDT with a panel of heavy-hitters from President Barack Obama's Cabinet: the secretaries of energy, transportation and interior and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Joining them will be the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. According to an EPA statement, the officials will focus...

Environmental alarmism is being exploited to chip away at national sovereignty. The latest threat to American liberties may be found in the innocuous sounding Copenhagen Climate Treaty, which will be discussed at the United Nations climate-change conference in mid-December. ... Its executive arm is something called the Adaptation Fund Board, under which is the Copenhagen Climate Facility, also known as "the Facility." The Facility is necessary because in order to save the planet, "the way society is structured will need to change fundamentally." This change would be impossible under the "fragmented set of existing institutions," so the Facility will step...

Tom Donohue sits for an interview with POLITICO. CEO and President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donahue, talks with POLITICO about his relationship with the White House, the health care debate and the Chamber's membership. Photo: John Shinkle U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue says a campaign by the White House and its allies to undermine his $200-million-a-year association has largely failed — and actually has helped raise even more money for its pro-business efforts. In a 75-minute interview with POLITICO, Donohue dismissed recent defections by Apple and at least four other companies, which quit over the...

Democrats in Congress care more about protecting terrorists' rights than protecting the American public, a Republican lawmaker charged Wednesday. Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) made the incendiary claim during an interview on a conservative news radio program that the decision to close the terrorist detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba would "strengthen the hands of terrorists." "I've been on the Judiciary Committee as well as the Armed Services Committee, and it has bewildered me as to why this Democratic majority has worked to seemingly protect the rights of terrorists more than to protect the American people," Franks said in an interview...

On October 14, Lord Christopher Monckton, a noted climate change expert, gave a presentation at Bethel College in St. Paul, MN in which he issued a dire warning regarding the United Nations Climate Change Treaty which is scheduled to be signed in Copenhagen in December 2009. .. Video 4:11 min

Rahm Emanuel talks with Max Baucus. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, left, talks with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus Photo: AP At a meeting last April with corporate lobbyists, aides to President Barack Obama and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) helped set in motion a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, primarily financed by industry groups, that has played a key role in bolstering public support for health care reform. The role Baucus’s chief of staff, Jon Selib, and deputy White House chief of staff Jim Messina played in launching the groups was part of a successful effort by Democrats...

A political activist who was behind the famous Willie Horton advertisement that left Gov. Michael Dukakis' candidacy for president floundering and was among the first to sound the alarm on the need for Bill Clinton's impeachment says the United States is collapsing around its citizens right now, but there is a defense. "Make no mistake. We're now in the middle of a bloodless coup – the takeover of an entire nation by the hate-America crowd – a cold-blooded gang that despises America's prosperity, our standing in the world, our trust in God and our generosity and goodness," says political activist...

.....in an e-mail obtained by The Post.....embattled ACORN organizer Bertha Lewis begs for donations and blasts Congress for cutting ACORN's money......after workers were caught on tape advising how to cheat on taxes and get federal funds to house a brothel. Bertha added: "Fox News and the right-wing smear machine told them to do it. But that doesn't mean we're prepared to stand by silently while the right wing exploits this situation to score political points."

News just on FOX: An Acorn Field Director has "flipped", is now working with Nevada Attorney General on case against ACORN. Nevada Acorn offices raided, field manuals on how to commit Voter Registration Fraud seized.

A special prosecutor is already being eyed amid a burgeoning scandal in Troy over the alleged forgery of absentee ballots in this month’s Working Families Party primary. The scandal is focused on suspicions people tied to the Troy Democrats forged ballots. News of the fakes surfaced in Saturday’s edition of the Times Union. The details were eye opening because so many voters interviewed by the Times Union said they didn’t vote despite ballots cast in their name. Voters said their signatures had obviously been forged and comparisons between their registration cards and the ballot applications showed distinctly different signatures. Today,...

When he eagerly joined the mass street protests that followed Iran’s tainted June 12 presidential elections, Ibrahim Sharifi, 24, hoped only to add his voice to the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators demanding that the government nullify the results. He never imagined that he would eventually have a far greater impact, as the only person willing to speak publicly about the brutal treatment he was subjected to in prison, including rape and torture. Mr. Sharifi, who recounted his ordeal to the opposition leader and former presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, and then released a video account last month on opposition Web...