The Yom Kippur Sins Barack Obama Practices On A Regular Basis

Listen for Joey Scarbury singing "Never Too Late" while old folks are seen various times in this episode - Great song - should be heard more

The sins, wrongdoings and transgressions listed from Gates of Repentance and read at Yom Kippur services:

The sins of arrogance, bigotry and cynicism; of deceit and egotism, flattery and greed, injustice and jealousy.

Some of us kept grudges, were lustful. Malicious, or narrow-minded.

Others were obstinate or possessive, quarrelsome, rancorous, or selfish.

There was violence, weakness of will, xenophobia.

We yielded to temptation, and showed zeal for bad causes.

Ten Commandments

Source: http://www.godstenlaws.com/ten-commandments/

English Standard Version

And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

Source: http://www.ihatethemedia.com/barack-obama-ten-commandments

Phillips Philes SPECIAL POST: Camille Peruto - South Jersey's Rising Young Musician Paying Her Dues

Joyce Comments: This Phillips Philes special post is made possible by writer Nicole Pensiero, Australian graphics designer Steve Younis and Camille Peruto herself. On August 18, 2013, 19-year-old Camille Peruto opened for The Light Years, a young four-member British piano-led pop band, at the free Burlington County Library Amphitheater concert in Westampton, New Jersey. At this event, she sung a duet with the band and opened with handful of her original songs including "Sparrow" and "Battle", as well as sell and autograph her debut album. Camille posted this picture taken before the concert of herself with The Light Years on Tumblr. Photos of event taken by Nicole Sbaffoni are found on Facebook.


Stratford teen singer-songwriter's star is on the rise By Nicole Pensiero

Source: http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20130626/ENT/106260001

Media Ignores Lavish Obama Vacations, Slammed Bush for Mountain Biking By Tony Lee

Source: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/03/26/Obamas-Vacation-More-Lavishly-than-Bushes

26 Mar 2013

Eight months into President George W. Bush's second term, the Washington Post wrote that Bush's frequent trips to his Texas ranch symbolized "a lackadaisical approach to the world's most important day job" and gleefully noted that Bush was intent on setting the record for being on "vacation"--or away from Washington, D.C.--for the most number of days of any president. 

But when President Barack Obama vacations in Hawaii, sets up a fantasy golf vacation for himself with Butch Harmon and Tiger Woods, averages more than a vacation a month in 2013 while purporting to be a man of the people and demanding the rich pay their fair share, and playing sequester politics by shutting down White House tours, the mainstream media is silent. 

And while Bush spent more time outside of Washington than Obama, it is also worth nothing that nearly all of Bush's vacations were trips back to his Texas ranch or family vacation homes in Maine. 

The Post, in 2005, conceded that Bush's vacations--unlike Obama's--were not lavish and he did not "make time for fun."

"Bush rarely takes the type of vacation one would consider exotic -- or, to some, even appealing," the Post wrote. "His notion of relaxation is chopping cedar on his ranch or mountain biking through rough terrain, all in 100-degree-plus temperatures in dusty Texas where crickets are known to roast on the summer pavement. He seems to relish the idea of exposing aides and reporters to the hothouse environment."

Obama, on the other hand, has traveled to Hawaii every winter. The Obama daughters are vacationing at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas this week with a full Secret Service detail, as Breitbart News reported, even as the White House claimed they could not afford to pay Secret Service agents to continue the popular White House tours for other students who are on their spring vacations in Washington, D.C. 

The Obamas have gone to Martha's Vineyard multiple times while the country was in recession and Americans were struggling to find jobs. Michelle Obama has taken a whirlwind trip to Spain and a ski trip to Aspen. 

Obama took 13 vacations in his first term, which spanned all or part of 83 days. But they have been much more lavish than Bush's. His annual vacations to Hawaii alone have cost taxpayers at least $20 million during his first term. In 2011 alone, Michelle Obama may have cost taxpayers $10 million on vacations herself. Obama's fantasy golf outing this year cost local law enforcement in Florida a reported $78, 205. 

Bush was content to work from home during his vacations. And for doing so, the mainstream media tagged him as lazy and disinterested. The Obamas gallivant around, making plenty of "time for fun," and the mainstream media does not call them out for wasting taxpayer dollars or even for the terrible "optics."

Rooftop solar panels become new enemy of U.S. firefighters By Daniel Kelley

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/06/us-usa-solar-fire-idUSBRE9850V220130906

Sep 6, 2013

DELANCO, New Jersey (Reuters) - Putrid air hung over a luncheon meats warehouse long after a blaze consumed the building where frustrated firefighters met their enemy: rooftop solar panels.

Loved by the green movement, solar panels pose a growing threat to firefighters, who may suffer electrical shocks from panels that typically cannot be turned off, said John Drengenberg, consumer safety director for Underwriters Laboratories.

Even when systems are equipped with shutoffs, any light can keep panels and their wires energized, Drengenberg said.

Gaining access to roofs gives firefighters advantages such as venting gases, and the panels get in the way, said Ken Willette, who manages the public fire protection division at the National Fire Protection Association.

In Delanco, New Jersey, volunteer fire crews rushed to the burning meat warehouse on Sunday and discovered the roof was covered in solar panels, forcing firefighters to change tactics. It took 29 hours to put out the flames at the Dietz & Watson warehouse, which was left gutted and smoldering in ruins.

"Do I think we'd have had a different outcome if we could get on the roof? Sure," Delanco Deputy Fire Chief Robert Hubler said.

Solar energy has grown rapidly over the past decade, primarily in California, Arizona and New Jersey. Risks to fire responders have prompted building codes and firefighter training, but implementation is spotty and often left to individual jurisdictions.

"We are working very closely with firefighters across the United States on the development of codes and standards. After every incident, we learn from it and improve," said Ken Johnson, a spokesman for the Solar Energy Industries Association trade group. "Firefighters don't have a good idea of how solar works. It's incumbent in us to do a better job in educating them."

Experts warn firefighters might use less aggressive tactics in buildings with solar panels, especially in instances where the fire poses little risk to human life.

"It's an emerging challenge," Willette said. "We're seeing more of these panels installed in places that we have not seen them before."

Among the risks are shocks from panel wires that might be sliced when firefighters cut into a roof. Those wires also could come into contact with metal roofing material, causing injuries far from the roof cut, according to studies conducted by Underwriters Laboratories.

Those experiments, funded by the Department of Homeland Security, have shown that the light emitted by fire equipment can generate enough electricity in the panels that a firefighter who inadvertently touches an energized wire might not be able to let go, a phenomenon known as "lock on."

Unable to access roofs, firefighters sometimes switch goals - from actively trying to save a building to preventing flames from spreading to neighboring properties - a practice known as defensive firefighting, said Bert Davis, an engineer who performs forensic examinations at fires and studied solar markets at Carnegie Mellon University.

"I've talked to a lot of guys, and they're saying, 'We've never run into it, but if we do, we're going to fight it defensively,'" Davis said.

Emergency responders have begun receiving training to deal with solar panels in the last few years, Drengenberg said.

There is no national standard operating procedure for firefighters dealing with solar systems, but some state and regional agencies do have them, Willette said.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Cynthia Osterman)

Bill O'Reilly: President Obama and the race problem

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/2013/07/23/bill-oreilly-president-obama-and-race-problem#ixzz2Zsr7j2Pm

July 22, 2013

On Friday, the President delivered surprise remarks to the press about the Trayvon Martin case and race in general. His main point: a plea for understanding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: There are very few African-American men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store, that includes me. I don't want to exaggerate this but those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: And that's true. Many black Americans harbor at least some resentment for past injury. But what President Obama surely knows is that you cannot reach a fair criminal verdict or design effective public policy that solves present problems by dwelling on the sins of the past. "Talking Points" believes the President was correct in addressing the race issue and framing it with the Martin case. He's the leader of America and the country is talking about this.

By the way, when you hear a pundit or politician saying we should have a quote, "conversation" about race, that means you are in for a sea of bloviating which will likely lead nowhere.

The sad truth is that from the President on down, our leadership has no clue, no clue at all about how to solve problems within the black community. And many are frightened to even broach the issue. That's because race hustlers and the grievance industry have intimidated the so- called "conversation," turning any valid criticism of African-American culture into charges of racial bias.

So many in power simply walk away leaving millions of law abiding African-Americans to pretty much fend for themselves in violent neighborhoods. You want racism? That's racism.

Thus, it is time for some straight talk, and I hope the President is listening tonight because we need him to lead on this issue.

Trayvon Martin was killed because circumstances got out of control. He was scrutinized by a neighborhood watchman, George Zimmerman, because of the way he looked. Not necessarily his skin color, there is no evidence of that but because he was a stranger to Zimmerman and was dressed in clothing sometimes used by street criminals.

It was wrong for Zimmerman to confront Martin based on his appearance. But the culture that we have in this country does lead to criminal profiling because young black American men are so often involved in crime, the statistics overwhelming.

But here is the headline: young black men commit homicides at a rate 10 times greater than whites and Hispanics combined. When presented with damning evidence like that, and like the mini-holocaust in Chicago where hundreds of African-Americans are murdered each year the civil rights industry looks the other way or makes excuses. They blame guns, poor education, lack of jobs, rarely do they define the problem accurately. So here it is. The reason there is so much violence and chaos in the black precincts is the disintegration of the African-American family.

Right now about 73 percent of all black babies are born out of wedlock. That drives poverty. And the lack of involved fathers leads to young boys growing up resentful and unsupervised. When was the last time you saw a public service ad telling young black girls to avoid becoming pregnant? Has President Obama done such an ad? How about Jackson or Sharpton? Has the Congressional Black Caucus demanded an ad like that? How about the PC pundits who work for NBC News?

White people don't force black people to have babies out of wedlock. That's a personal decision; a decision that has devastated millions of children and led to disaster both socially and economically. So raised without much structure, young black men often reject education and gravitate towards the street culture, drugs, hustling, gangs. Nobody forces them to do that; again, it is a personal decision.

But the entertainment industry encourages the irresponsibility by marketing a gangster culture, hip hop, movies, trashy TV shows to impressionable children. In fact, President Obama has welcomed some of the worst offenders in that cesspool to the White House when he should be condemning what these weasels are doing. These so-called entertainers get rich while the kids who emulate their lyrics and attitude destroy themselves.

And then there is the drug situation. Go to Detroit and ask anyone living on the south side of the eight-mile road what destroyed their city? They will tell you narcotics. They know addiction leads to crime and debasement. But what do the race hustlers and limousine liberals yell about? The number of black men in prison for selling drugs. Oh, it's so unfair. It's a nonviolent crime and blacks are targeted. That is one of the biggest lies in the history of this country.

The thugs who sell hard drugs, no matter what color they are, deserve to be put away for long periods of time. They sell poison, they sell a product that enslaves and kills. They are scum.

When was the last time you heard the Congressional Black Caucus say that? How about Jackson and Sharpton? How about President Obama?

The solution to the epidemic of violent crime in poor black neighborhoods is to actively discourage pregnancies out of marriage, to impose strict discipline in the public schools, including mandatory student uniforms, and to create a zero tolerance policy for gun and drug crimes imposing harsh mandatory prison time on the offenders.

And finally, challenging the entertainment industry to stop peddling garbage. Hey listen up you greed heads, if a kid can't speak proper English, uses the "f" word in every sentence, it's disgraceful, it's disrespectful -- it's disrespectful in his or her manner. That child will never, never be able to compete in the marketplace of America... never. And it has nothing to do with slavery. It has everything to do with you Hollywood people and you derelict parents. You're the ones hurting these vulnerable children.

You want a conversation, you got it. You want a better situation for blacks, give them a chance to revive their neighborhoods and culture. Work with the good people to stop the bad people. Pumping money into the chaos does little. You can't legislate good parenting or responsible entertainment. But you can fight against the madness, with discipline, a firm message and little tolerance for excuse-making.

It is now time for the African-American leadership, including President Obama to stop the nonsense. Walk away from the world of victimization and grievance and lead the way out of this mess.

And that's "The Memo."

- You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com.

Willful, Criminal Negligence Before, During & After Benghazi, Libya Terrorist Attack

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Willful negligence, fraud in Benghazi

Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/28/willful-negligence-fraud-in-benghazi/

December 28, 2012

Military inaction, political corruption, professional malpractice and fraud at the highest levels of the Obama administration involving Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (and perhaps the president himself) were revealed at the recent Benghazi hearings (“In Benghazi hearings, GOP criticizes misplaced State priorities,” Web, Dec. 20).

A review board concluded that “systemic failures” at the State Department prevented an adequate response to security threats in Libya. Adm. Mike Mullen, while speaking for the board, stated that a military response to every one of the many crisis spots in the world was not feasible and cannot be expected on short notice. At about the same time, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta was quoted in press releases contending there is a lack of military rescue by a ready-to-go U.S. Marine reaction force in Rota, Spain, and a U.S. special operations forces team in Sicily. He seemed to be covering for Mr. Obama by saying that the basic principle is to refrain from deploying forces in harm’s way without understanding the situation on the ground. According to lawmakers at the hearings, the lack of U.S. response resulted in the sacrifice of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

The hearings and accountability review report also revealed political theater for the 2016 presidential elections. Sen. John F. Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, and the other Democrats put a spin on testimony to shield Mrs. Clinton from responsibility for mistakes made by the Obama administration. Further, the false narrative propagated by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice about the attack being a response to a video was again revealed as fraud during the hearings. No one on the day of the murderous attacks had even heard of the video, and its producer now sits in an American jail.

LT. COL. DOMINIK GEORGE NARGELE

U.S. Marines (retired)

Arlington

EXCLUSIVE: Jailed filmmaker vows to finish film wrongly blamed for Benghazi attack By Joshua Rhett Miller

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/16/exclusive-jailed-filmmaker-vows-to-finish-film-wrongly-blamed-for-benghazi/

Published June 16, 2013

EXCLUSIVE: The controversial filmmaker whose crude Internet trailer was wrongly blamed by the White House for sparking last year's deadly Benghazi attack vowed to finish his movie, which he said is aimed at fighting terrorism, not denigrating Islam.

Breaking his silence from inside a facility under the authority of the federal Bureau of Prisons in southern California, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula told FoxNews.com in a series of phone interviews that his film "Innocence of Muslims" has been widely misunderstood, and not just in being singled out as causing the Sept. 11, 2012, attack that left U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead.

"It is not [a] religion movie,” he said. “I have a lot of Muslim friends and not all the Muslims believe in the terrorism culture. Some of them believe in this culture. That’s why we need to fight [against] the culture, not the Muslims. My enemy is the terrorism culture; this is my enemy.

“My enemy is the terrorism culture; this is my enemy.”

- Nakoula Basseley Nakoula

“I am the blood voice for everybody who gets killed, or hurt, in this culture,” he continued. “I dedicate my life to fight with this culture … I’m never afraid.”

Nakoula, who was thrust into the international spotlight — and then federal prison — after the White House wrongly blamed the 14-minute, amateurish trailer for the attack, says he has more than two hours of footage to complete the film, for which he hopes to find a distributor upon his release on Sept. 26. 

"Of course I'm proud of it. If I could go back, I would do it again,” said Nakoula, 55, a Coptic Christian born in Egypt who came to the United States in 1984. “Everybody gets hurt in this culture. We need the world free of this culture. We have to fight it.”

The crudely produced clip that has gained millions of Internet views since being pinpointed as the cause of the attack begins with Egyptian forces merely watching as Muslims burn the homes of Egyptian Christians. It goes on to depict the Prophet Muhammad — an act considered blasphemous on its face — as a womanizer, homosexual and child molester. Muhammad is portrayed by an actor sporting a cartoonish beard and the film suffers from disjointed dialogue and decidedly low-tech editing and production.

The trailer was blamed by then-Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice in a Sunday morning news show blitz five days after the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that left Stevens, embassy staffer Sean Smith and two security contractors and former Navy SEALs, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, all dead. The talking points read by Rice were later discredited, with some critics charging the administration used Nakoula and his film as pawns in an effort to play down the threat of terrorism during the election run-up.

In November, Nakoula was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder to one year behind bars for lying to his probation officer about his film and using fake names in the production of the project, which made him a target for militant Muslims around the world. The deceptions violated the terms of his probation for a bank and credit-card fraud conviction in 2010. Nakoula declined to comment on the sentence.

Yet, Nakoula, who must serve four years of supervised release following his prison term, refused to criticize the Obama administration.

“Who am I to criticize the commander in chief?" Nakoula said. "Who am I?  He knows more than me.”

When asked if he believed his film was used as a scapegoat, or if he was unfairly prosecuted — charged with probation violations related to his film — Nakoula became tight-lipped.

“No comment,” said Nakoula, who declined to be interviewed on camera and spoke to FoxNews.com in a series of phone calls from a location he did not want disclosed.

In the next breath, Nakoula profusely thanked the U.S. government “from the top to the bottom” for protecting him since his arrest.

“I would like to thank the United States government from the top to the bottom for protecting me,” he said. “They treat me very, very good since this happened until now.”

When asked about Rice's promotion last week to National Security Adviser after she became the face of the White House effort to substitute him for Al Qaeda as the cause of the Benghazi attack, Nakoula was again unwilling to be critical of the Obama administration.

“Who am I to criticize the United States’ commander in chief? This is his decision,” he said. “It’s not my responsibility. It’s not my job.”

Nakoula expressed his sympathy for relatives of those who died in the Benghazi attack, including Stevens and Woods, whose father, Charles Woods, claims then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told him the “person who made that film” would be brought to justice following the incident.

"I would like to say sorry to everybody,” Nakoula said.

Once freed, Nakoula said he hopes to reconcile with his three estranged children, who he says shunned him in the wake of the Obama administration's accusations.

“I lost everything,” he said. “Everybody left me.”

Couple with local connections ties the knot at Camp Ramah By Lori Samlin Miller

Source: http://www.jewishvoicesnj.org/news/2013-08-21/Local_News/Couple_with_local_connections_ties_the_knot_at_Cam.html
Jewish Community Voice PDF

2013-08-21

Arielle Davis and Benjamin Landsburg tied the knot this summer at a place that held special meaning for them—Camp Ramah in the Poconos. The couple became the first to get married at the Conservative movement camp when they wed on June 2.

The couple both said that although they didn’t officially know each other as campers at Ramah when they were younger, they knew of each other. The newlyweds actually met on staff at Ramah in 2008 when both were counselors.

The couple has deep roots in South Jersey. Ben, the son of Robin Sue and Bill Landsburg, was born and raised in Cherry Hill. Arielle’s parents, Mali Mizrahi Davis and Philip Davis are also connected to Cherry Hill. Arielle’s father grew up here, and he and his three brothers all went to Ramah. Arielle’s mother was born and raised in Israel.

Arielle’s family moved quite a bit when she was young, but she always felt connected to Cherry Hill because of her grandparents, Debbie and Stephen Davis. According to Ben, “When I was born, my mother, who had just had her fourth son, called Arielle’s grandmother (Debbie Davis), who was also the mother of four boys, to ask her for advice. Our families knew each other before we did, as both were from Cherry Hill.” Interestingly, Ben’s parents (Robin Sue and Bill) also met at Camp Ramah.

Although the newlyweds worked as counselors at Camp Ramah again this summer, Arielle, who attended Temple University, started her own event planning business, “Wishful Thinking Events.” Ben attended Philadelphia University and is pursuing a career in the real estate industry.

According to Arielle, “We both said separately that we think it would be nice to have a wedding at camp. We both felt that since camp was such a huge part of our lives and we grew up there, began our journey there, and got engaged there, that it only made sense for us to get married there.”

Prior to their Sunday wedding, about 60 of their closest friends and family arrived to camp to spend Shabbat with them before the wedding. “It was the perfect camp Shabbat,” Ben said.

“Since I work in the events industry, I knew it would be a fun challenge for me to plan the first wedding at Ramah in the Poconos, especially since it was my own,” said Arielle.

“Many of the other Ramahs are ‘better equipped’ for holding special events, but we had a vision and the drive to make it happen, so we worked with what we had and I think it really turned out beautifully,” said Arielle. Because of the camp’s extensive transformation, “many of our guests, who were also Ramahniks, were shocked that they were in some of the same facilities where they played sports.” One guest remarked that Camp Ramah looked like it had been “gift wrapped.”

There was an 85 percent chance of thunderstorms and heavy winds predicted for the exact time the couple was due to walk down the aisle to the gorgeous chuppah that had been set up inside the outdoor synagogue that fronts the camp’s lake. Instead, nature provided only a light drizzle to accompany them as they walked down the aisle. “Our wedding was perfect,” Ben and Arielle agreed. It was everything they wanted.

Congress - IMPEACH & REMOVE Obama Now - The Charges Are Mounting

E-mails Suggest Collusion Between FEC, IRS to Target Conservative Groups By Eliana Johnson

Source: http://nationalreview.com/corner/354801/e-mails-suggest-collusion-between-fec-irs-target-conservative-groups-eliana-johnson

July 31, 2013

Embattled Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner and an attorney in the Federal Election Commission’s general counsel’s office appear to have twice colluded to influence the record before the FEC’s vote in the case of a conservative non-profit organization, according to e-mails unearthed by the House Ways and Means Committee and obtained exclusively by National Review Online. The correspondence suggests the discrimination of conservative groups extended beyond the IRS and into the FEC, where an attorney from the agency’s enforcement division in at least one case sought and received tax information about the status of a conservative group, the American Future Fund, before recommending that the commission prosecute it for violations of campaign-finance law. Lerner, the former head of the IRS’s exempt-organizations division, worked at the FEC from 1986 to 2001, and was known for aggressive investigation of conservative groups during her tenure there, too.

"Several months ago... I spoke with you about the American Future Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization that had submitted an exemption application the IRS [sic],” the FEC attorney wrote Lerner in February 2009. The FEC, which polices violations of campaign-finance laws, is not exempted under Rule 6103, which prohibits the IRS from sharing confidential taxpayer information, but the e-mail indicates Lerner may have provided that information nonetheless: “When we spoke last July, you had told us that the American Future Fund had not received an exemption letter from the IRS,” the FEC attorney wrote.

The timing of the correspondence between Lerner and the FEC suggests the FEC attorney sought information from the IRS in order to influence an upcoming vote by the six FEC commissioners. The FEC received a complaint in March 2008 from the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party alleging that the American Future Fund had violated campaign-finance law by engaging in political advocacy without registering as a political-action committee. The American Future Fund responded to that complaint in June 2008, telling the commission that it had applied for tax exemption in March of that year and was a “501(c)(4) social-welfare organization that was organized to provide Americans with a conservative and free-market viewpoint and mechanism to communicate and advocate on the issues that most interest and concern them.” According to the e-mail correspondence, a month after receiving the American Future Fund’s response, the FEC general counsel’s office — which is prohibited under law from conducting an investigation into an organization before the FEC’s six commissioners have voted to do so — contacted Lerner to investigate the agency’s tax-exempt status.

The FEC general counsel’s office, in its recommendation on the case, apparently didn’t tell the agency’s commissioners about how it had obtained the information about the group’s tax-exempt status. Recommending that the commissioners prosecute the American Future Fund, the general counsel’s office wrote, “According to its response, AFF submitted an application for tax-exempt status to the Internal Revenue Service... on March 18, 2008.” The footnote to that sentence reads, “The IRS has not yet issued a determination letter regarding AFF’s application for exempt status. Based on the information from the response and the IRS website, it is likely that the application is still under review.” In fact, an FEC lawyer knew that the organization had yet to obtain tax-exempt status because Lerner provided the confidential information.

 

The general counsel’s report was issued in September 2008, but it was over five months before the six FEC commissioners voted, in late-February 2009, on whether to prosecute the American Future Fund for violations of campaign-finance laws. (The typical lag time between the submission of a general counsel’s recommendation and a commission vote is about a month, according to a source familiar with the workings of the commission.) As the vote approached, on February 3, 2009, the FEC lawyer went back to Lerner for an update on the status of the American Future Fund’s application. “Could you please tell me whether the IRS has since issued an exemption letter to the American Future Fund? Also if the IRS has granted American Future Fund’s exemption, would it be possible for you to send me the publicly available information and documents related to American Future Fund?”

Despite the recommendations of the general counsel’s office, the six FEC commissioners split on whether to pursue the American Future Fund’s case and voted six-to-zero to close the case.

House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp and oversight-subcommittee chairman Charles Boustany are calling on the IRS, in the wake of these revelations, to provide all communications between the agency and the FEC between 2008 and 2012. “The American public is entitled to know whether the IRS is inappropriately sharing their confidential tax information with other agencies,” Camp and Boustany write in a letter they will send to acting IRS administrator Danny Werfel on Wednesday.

The FEC enforcement attorney also inquired about the tax-exempt status of another conservative organization, the American Issues Project. “I was also wondering if you could tell me whether the IRS had issued an exemption letter to a group called the American Issues Project? The group also appears to be the successor of two other organizations, Citizens for the Republic and Avenger, Inc.” Also sought were “any information and documents that would be publicly available in relation to the American Issues Project, Citizens for the Republic, or Avenger, Inc.”

Lerner was placed on paid administrative leave in late May after she revealed the IRS had inappropriately targeted conservative groups. The IRS has yet to respond to requests from lawmakers about her current employment status with the agency.

 

UPDATE: This piece has been amended since its initial posting.

Obama's Executive Order Authorizes Peacetime Martial Law By Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.

Source: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/9271-obamas-executive-order-authorizes-peacetime-martial-law

18 March 2012

President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order on March 16 giving the White House absolute control over all the country’s natural resources in case of a natural disaster or during a time of war.

In the order, the National Defense Resources Preparedness Order, the President granted to himself the authority to approve the dispensing of all domestic energy, production, transportation, food, and water supplies as he deems necessary to protect national security.

 

Despite the national defense hurdle that ostensibly must be jumped in order for the order to take effect, the text of the document itself does not limit implementation to a time of war. In fact, the specific sections of the order make it clear that the President may take complete command and control of the country’s natural resources in peacetime, as well.

 

In fact, the President may invoke the powers of this order to “meet national defense requirements” in “the full spectrum of emergencies.” The relevant sections read:

 

Section 101.  Purpose. This order delegates authorities and addresses national defense resource policies and programs under the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (the "Act").

 

Sec. 102.  Policy. The United States must have an industrial and technological base capable of meeting national defense requirements and capable of contributing to the technological superiority of its national defense equipment in peacetime and in times of national emergency. The domestic industrial and technological base is the foundation for national defense preparedness. The authorities provided in the Act shall be used to strengthen this base and to ensure it is capable of responding to the national defense needs of the United States.

 

Sec. 103.  General Functions. Executive departments and agencies (agencies) responsible for plans and programs relating to national defense (as defined in section 801(j) of this order), or for resources and services needed to support such plans and programs, shall:

 

(a)  identify requirements for the full spectrum of emergencies, including essential military and civilian demand;

 

(b)  assess on an ongoing basis the capability of the domestic industrial and technological base to satisfy requirements in peacetime and times of national emergency, specifically evaluating the availability of the most critical resource and production sources, including subcontractors and suppliers, materials, skilled labor, and professional and technical personnel;

 

The underlying legal authority for the execution of such a radical order is found in the Defense Production Act of 1950, the President claims. That law combined with the rights vested in him as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces supposedly empowers the President to endow himself with these expansive powers.

 

Just how expansive are the claimed powers and what resources are included in their scope? Livestock? Yes. All food “resources” and “resource facilities?” Yes. Veterinary clinics? Yes. All forms of energy? Yes. Will the President control the water supply? Yes.

 

Read on:

 

Sec. 201. Priorities and Allocations Authorities.

 

(a) The authority of the President conferred by section 101 of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2071, to require acceptance and priority performance of contracts or orders (other than contracts of employment) to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders, and to allocate materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense, is delegated to the following agency heads:

 

(1) the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to food resources, food resource facilities, livestock resources, veterinary resources, plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment and commercial fertilizer;

(2) the Secretary of Energy with respect to all forms of energy;

(3) the Secretary of Health and Human Services with respect to health resources;

(4) the Secretary of Transportation with respect to all forms of civil transportation;

(5) the Secretary of Defense with respect to water resources; and

(6) the Secretary of Commerce with respect to all other materials, services, and facilities, including construction materials.

 

(b) The Secretary of each agency delegated authority under subsection (a) of this section (resource departments) shall plan for and issue regulations to prioritize and allocate resources and establish standards and procedures by which the authority shall be used to promote the national defense, under both emergency and non-emergency conditions. Each Secretary shall authorize the heads of other agencies, as appropriate, to place priority ratings on contracts and orders for materials, services, and facilities needed in support of programs approved under section 202 of this order.

 

(c) Each resource department shall act, as necessary and appropriate, upon requests for special priorities assistance, as defined by section 801(l) of this order, in a time frame consistent with the urgency of the need at hand. In situations where there are competing program requirements for limited resources, the resource department shall consult with the Secretary who made the required determination under section 202 of this order. Such Secretary shall coordinate with and identify for the resource department which program requirements to prioritize on the basis of operational urgency. In situations involving more than one Secretary making such a required determination under section 202 of this order, the Secretaries shall coordinate with and identify for the resource department which program requirements should receive priority on the basis of operational urgency.

 

(d) If agreement cannot be reached between two such Secretaries, then the issue shall be referred to the President through the Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.

 

(e) The Secretary of each resource department, when necessary, shall make the finding required under section 101(b) of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2071(b). This finding shall be submitted for the President's approval through the Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. Upon such approval, the Secretary of the resource department that made the finding may use the authority of section 101(a) of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2071(a), to control the general distribution of any material (including applicable services) in the civilian market.

 

That’s right. The last line of the quoted material gives the President of the United Staes the power to “control the general distribution of any material (including services) in the civilian market.” This seems to be no less than the nationalization of all food, energy, water, and healthcare pipelines and providers in the country. And to help him keep tabs on all this responsibility, he assigns a cabinet member to each category of control.

 

Presidents have issued similar orders in the name of national defense. For example, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln famously (infamously) suspended habeas corpus and the right to an impartial trial as protected by the Sixth Amendment.

 

Then, during World War I, President Woodrow Wilson, frustrated with Congress’s reluctance to grant him a full panoply of power over natural resources, invoked the powers given him under an executive order to assume absolute and unilateral authority over the same range of resources as are included in President Obama’s latest fiat.

 

As any student of history can testify, when government begins to interfere with the free flow of goods and commodities (especially life-giving resources such as food and water), then it may manipulate the availability of these items, as well as the prices thereof. Typically, such fluctuations result in civil disturbances and a demand for greater security from those unwilling to abide by the new “laws.” And, in exchange for greater security, those clamoring for it are often willing to give up their fundamental freedoms.

 

The White House has issued no statement regarding the purpose for the signing of this Executive Order. There is no accompanying explanation of why this power should be placed before the President at this time — or at any time for that matter. Is it in place to prepare for expansion of the hostilities in the Middle East, or is it something to do with his vaunted algae initiative?

 

Perhaps the President is taking the first few steps necessary to cloak himself in the powers required to "legally" (albeit unconstitutionally) step outside the boundaries of his constitutional authority and ascend to a level of supervision witnessed in all the former republics of history just before their devolution into mobocracy and mayhem.