Free Republic

REP UPTON: Last question though my time is expired. Based on what you know and what’s happened, who is to apologize for the half a billion dollars that has been out the door?

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Tuesday pressed Attorney General Eric Holder for more information about Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's involvement with the healthcare reform law after new emails emerged showing her rooting for the law when she was solicitor general. (snip) The emails have rekindled calls for Kagan to recuse herself from ruling on the healthcare reform law next year because of a provision of the U.S. code that calls on justices to disqualify themselves when they have "expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case in controversy" while in government service.

President John F. Kennedy’s nephew, Robert Kennedy, Jr., netted a $1.4 billion bailout for his company, BrightSource, through a loan guarantee issued by a former employee-turned Department of Energy official. It’s just one more in a string of eye-opening revelations by investigative journalist and Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer in his explosive new book, Throw Them All Out. The details of how BrightSource managed to land its ten-figure taxpayer bailout have yet to emerge fully. However, one clue might be found in the person of Sanjay Wagle. Wagle was one of the principals in Kennedy’s firm who raised money for Barack...

The Arizona Daily Star's Tim Stellar is reporting the federal case file against illegal Mexican bandits accused of killing Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, has disappeared. The case against the alleged killers of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry has disappeared from federal court records, apparently sealed by a federal judge. In May, federal prosecutors won an indictment against Manuel Osorio-Arellanes and others, and they announced it with a press release. Only Osorio-Arellanes’ name was visible in the indictment, but there were blacked-out words where other defendants’ names go. Osorio-Arellanes was charged with second-degree murder and was not considered the likely...

Mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac received the biggest federal bailout of the financial crisis. And nearly $100 million of those tax dollars went to lucrative pay packages for top executives, filings show. The top five executives at Fannie Mae received $33.3 million in 2009 and 2010, while the top five at Freddie Mac received $28.1 million. And each company has set pay targets of as much as $17 million for its top managers for 2011. That's a total of $95.4 million, which will essentially be coming from taxpayers, who have been keeping the mortgage finance giants alive...

The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee says the Justice Department has refused to make available 11 of 12 department witnesses called by the panel for transcribed interviews in the ongoing investigation of the botched Fast and Furious weapons operation. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said that despite the department’s promises of good-faith cooperation in the probe, only one witness has been provided so far — former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in Arizona, who resigned in August two weeks after he ended his testimony about Fast and Furious before a House committee, during which he took responsibility for mistakes....

Holder on 'Fast and Furious': Never againBy PETE YOST - Associated Press | AP – 44 mins ago.. WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder says an investigation of arms traffickers called Operation Fast and Furious was flawed in concept as well as in execution, never should have happened and "it must never happen again." Facing tough questioning by Senate Republicans, the attorney general said in remarks prepared for a hearing Tuesday that he wants to know why and how firearms that should have been under surveillance could wind up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. "Unfortunately, we will...

Article For Immediate Release October 31, 2011 New Gun Walking Documents Show Criminal Division Knew More than Previous Acknowledged Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley made the following statement after the Justice Department provided more than 650 pages of documents related to the congressional inquiry into Operation Fast and Furious.  Grassley has been conducting oversight of the strategy since January. “There are 652 pages of documents that our investigators will scour over the next several days, beyond the few that the Justice Department pointed out.  At first glance, though, the documents indicate that contrary to previous denials by...

Natasha Nimer had a simple question: As a trustee in a local labor union representing City of Phoenix employees, did she have a duty to check the books of a taxpayer-funded insurance account it managed? So she asked the executive board of AFSCME Local 2960. The response was an emphatic “no.” She dropped the matter and thought it would end there. She was wrong. In the months that followed, union officials tried to strip Nimer of her duties as a trustee and steward. They tried twice to force her out of AFSCME, only to have the international headquarters order her...

Justice Dept. Proposes Lying, Hiding Existence Of Records Under New FOIA Rule By C.J. CiaramellaArchive | Email C.J. Ciaramella A classified folder rests President Barack Obama’s desk during a morning meeting in the Oval Office, June 8, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) This official White House photograph is being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way or used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement of the President, the...

If a private health insurer had engaged in the kind of criminal obstruction that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been tied to in her home state of Kansas, it would be a federal case. Instead, it's a non-story in the Washington press. Nothing to see here. Move along. On Monday, a district judge in the Sunflower State suspended court proceedings in a high-profile criminal case against the abortion racketeers of Planned Parenthood. World Magazine, a Christian news publication, reported on new bombshell court filings showing that Kansas health officials "shredded documents related to felony charges the abortion...

Rick Perry wants Mitt Romney to cough up his form 1040s (that’s the US individual tax return document). The Romney camp demurred, saying they would consider doing so next year. (Remarkably, Romney has NEVER released, even during his governorship of Massachusetts.) Why won’t Romney do it? Speculation, from liberal group ThinkProgress and others, is that Romney pays a way lower tax rate than many Americans because of his extensive financial investments, from which income is typically taxed below that of regular income. One left-leaning analyst speculates Romney paid an effective tax rate as low as 14 percent on his $6.6...

Mexican drug suspect: U.S. gave me immunityBy Sharyl Attkisson(CBS News) A Mexican drug suspect awaiting trial in Chicago is making a startling claim. He insists he can't be prosecuted because he worked as an informant and had a secret immunity deal with the U.S. government. ATF Fast and Furious investigationNapolitano testifies on ATF Fast and Furious: "We're waiting for the Inspector General"For more on this investigation, visit CBS News Investigates Prosecutors say Vicente Zambada-Niebla oversaw drug running on a massive scale into the U.S. But now, from behind bars at a maximum security prison in Chicago, he's making his...

There is currently $600 trillion in derivative positions on a global economy of $60 trillion. Not a problem eh? The “cause” is the BANKS lootin and pillaging.­They deliberate­ly helped Greece hide its debt. The “problem ” was the US allowed the banks to defraud the western world. Finance Superstars Talk About the Massive Fraud in Our Economic System Nobel Prize-winn­ing economist Joe Stiglitz stated how reducing transparen­cy and hiding informatio­n was an essential element to the crisis. Stiglitz concluded, “Innovatio­n was regulator and tax arbitrage Wall Street and the banks deliberate­ly added opacity and complexity to confuse clients and consumers....

A proposed revision to Freedom of Information Act rules would allow federal agencies to lie to citizens and reporters seeking certain records, telling them the records don’t exist. The Justice Department has proposed the change as part of a large revision of FOIA rules for federal agencies. Specifically, the rule would direct government agencies who are denying a request under an established FOIA exemption to “respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist,” rather than citing the relevant exemption. The proposed rule has alarmed government transparency advocates across the political spectrum, who’ve called it “Orwellian” and...

At a breakfast fund-raiser last year at the Liaison Capitol Hill hotel, former lobbyist Paul Equale pulled up a chair next to Sen. Richard Durbin. As they chatted, the Illinois Democrat told him about a recent breakthrough in his efforts to push through a bill to cap debit-card fees. At a breakfast fund-raiser last year at the Liaison Capitol Hill hotel, former lobbyist Paul Equale pulled up a chair next to Sen. Richard Durbin. As they chatted, the Illinois Democrat told him about a recent breakthrough in his efforts to push through a bill to cap debit-card fees. Some investment...

Newly released emails show a Democratic donor, as well as officials inside the White House, were expressing concern more than a year ago that now-bankrupt solar firm Solyndra's financial situation could deteriorate and prove "embarrassing" for the Obama administration. The emails were released Monday by a Republican-led House panel looking into Solyndra, which filed for bankruptcy last month after receiving nearly $530 million in federal government loans. As with other internal emails that have been disclosed as part of the investigation, the documents reflected uneasiness with Solyndra among those inside and near the administration. A Democratic fundraiser, in a May...

This map, revealed in the White House document dump I reported about earlier today,shows the path of guns sent by ATF into Mexico from Arizona. Former Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Office has said over and over again under oath, that at no point didn't ATF allow guns to be trafficked into Mexico.July 26, 2011:“At no time in our strategy was it to allow guns to be taken to Mexico,” Newell said, adding that at no time did his agency allow guns to walk. This map, proves otherwise and shows the deliberate trafficking of high powered...

The cover-up of Fast and Furious is unraveling at breakneck speed. As a result of the ongoing investigation by Rep. Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, the LA Times and Townhall.com are both reporting Mexico has been kept in the dark about the deadly fallout of the botched operation. While information about the mounting carnage trickles out, a black cloud has descended over the White House, the DOJ and American-Mexican relations. From Townhall.com: "I would be remiss if I didn't mention, as the Attorney General in Mexico is so concerned, she's made the point that at least 200...

I’ve heard enough now. It’s time for Congress to appoint a special prosecutor in the Solyndra case. Beside the foot dragging inside the White House and the OMB in document production, revelations made recently about political pressure from inside the administration on the Office of Management and Budget to approve the Solyndra deal, and the subsequent restructuring that put taxpayers at greater risk, say that there is no way the administration can be expected to investigate itself with any reasonable level of objectivity. And an investigation is warranted. In February, the administration renegotiated with Solyndra’s billionaire investor- remember the one...