October, 2016, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: Letting Animals Suffer and Die, Letting Human Beings Die, A Screwed Up Citizenship Process and More CNN Bias

It is the beginning of another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

The current monthly record for the number of posts that were needed to cover one month's worth of insanity is ten. We equaled that record last month when we needed ten days to cover one month’s worth of political class insanity. There is a very good chance that the ten day record could fall this month since as we get closer and closer to the election, the volume of ineptness grows almost exponentially. 

But today and for all of the posts this month, let’s start off with a welcome piece of honest political dialog. It comes from a State Department spokesperson. Mark Toner, who is about to start the daily State Department press briefing. In a joking matter, he makes the following quote: "Welcome to the State Department. I think we have some interns in the back. Welcome. Good to see you in this exercise in transparency and democracy." 

He then burst out laughing at his own quote, indicating he also knew what a joke the Obama administration has been, especially Mr. Toner’s State Department, when it comes to cover ups, lack of transparency, denial of Freedom of Information Act requests, the prosecution of whistleblowers, etc. But at least it was a little refreshing to finally hear some actual honesty out of Washington as we see from the actual clip of the news conference:

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2016/08/when-even-the-state-department-spokesperson-cant-keep-a-straight-face-about-things-anymore-video/

With that context of honesty, let’s see what other insanity has been going down:

1) When the political class gets involved in any problem they often make the problem worse with their actions and “solutions.” Kristin Dattilo and Mandy Levin, writing for the National Review, nicely highlighted a prime example of stupidity in law making. Details of their research found that:

• In 1984, the Federal government enacted a law, “The National Organ Transplant Act,” (NOTA) which made it illegal for someone to donate, for monetary compensation, non-renewable human parts, e.g. kidneys, for use by patients in need.
• Renewable human parts, blood, sperm, eggs, etc. were excluded from the law since, they are... renewable.
• Unfortunately, NOTA included bone marrow in the list of non-renewable body parts even though bone marrow is totally renewable.
• Now, every year, between 2,000 and 3,000 Americans die because they cannot find a bone marrow match to fight back against such diseases as leukemia and other blood diseases.
• Unfortunately, only 30% of patients in need of a bone marrow transplant can find compatibility within their own families, meaning that 70% of those in need have to find a bone marrow transplant from a non-family member that voluntarily and without compensation donates bone marrow.
• Research by economists cited in the article showed that offering compensation for donation of blood and other renewable body parts significantly increased donations levels.
• But NOTA makes it illegal to do the same compensation schemes with renewable bone marrow, a ban that, as we cited above, kills thousands of Americans every year.

A stupid bureaucratic situation that one would think would be easy enough to rectify. However, it has been 32 years since the law was passed and no one in Washington has been able to make this simple change in the law. Thus, even when they try to do something good in Washington, they always manage to screw it up. This time by not being smart enough to realize that bone marrow is renewable, it is not a kidney. As a result, Americans die.

2) Speaking of not being able to do even simple things, consider this recent example of Congressional incompetence. Two Senators, one Republican and one Democrat, put together a simple piece of legislation that would make it a Federal felony to distribute recorded materials that showed animals being being tortured or killed. As a dog lover, this seems like a no brainer, a rare bipartisan burst of Congressional cooperation. Who in their right mind does not want to protect animals?

Well, apparently Harry Reid, Senator from Nevada, is not in his right mind. Under silly Senate rules, he has been able to single-handedly stop the animal protection legislation in its tracks because he has a hissy fit with another, totally unrelated piece of Senate work. 

This situation is so pathetic on at least two levels. First, when a single Senator can use a rule to stop legislation against the will of the majority of the Senate, it is a ridiculous rule. Second, since the Washington political class is so inept that it cannot even pass this simple piece of legislation, protecting animals in a very small way, it is no surprise that they have been incapable of passing legislation that actually resolves some of the major issues facing the country today.

3) Last week we did two posts on how perverted and biased the mainstream media has become in reporting the news in this country. One of the worst violators of truth and integrity in reporting the news was CNN, the Clinton News Network. Those two posts can be accessed at:

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CNN likely proved its bias right after the first debate between Trump and Clinton. According to a compilation by the Newsmax website, 21 polls done right after the debate said that Trump “won” the debate including:

• Time: Trump 58%, Clinton 42%
• CBS New York: Trump 24K votes, 17,600 votes
• San Diego Tribune: Trump 66%, Clinton 34%
• Slate: Trump 54%, Clinton 46%
• Variety: Trump 51%, Clinton 48%
• Fortune: Trump 51%, Clinton 49%
• CNBC: Trump 51%, Clinton 49%

Even though mainstream media outlets that usually hate Trump and go after him at every chance, actually admitted that Trump won, somehow CNN claimed the exact opposite: CNN said their polling showed that Clinton won the debate by a whopping 62% to only 27% by Trump. 

So were the CNN findings, so contrary to the vast majority of other polls, a statistical fluke or did they have the nerve to so blatantly fake these results? Based on the two links above, I vote for blatant fakes. If so, this is pure insanity where a major media outlet is so in bed with polticial operatives in this country. Pathetic.

4) We often try to determine what is the most inept Federal government organization from an incompetence, inefficiency, and corruptness perspective. The top candidates usually include the Social Security Administration, the IRS, the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Today it looks like it will be the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) day to shine in the area of incompetence.

According to an article by Alicia A. Caldwell, writing for the Associated Press on September 19, 2016, an audit of the DHS found that this Federal government agency had mistakenly granted citizenship to over 850 immigrants from countries who we have serious national security issues with or high rates of immigration fraud with and who had been under pending deportation orders. Understand, these people did not just have their visas extended, the Federal government made them actual citizens even though the same Federal government wanted to deport them back to their home countries.

The DHS inspector general concluded that these immigrants used different names of birth dates to apply for citizenship but that such fraudulent behavior was not caught because their fingerprints were missing from government databases. Inspector General John Roth said these people “were all from "special interest countries" — those that present a national security concern for the United States — or neighboring countries with high rates of immigration fraud.” The audit report also found that there could be upwards of another 315,000 other such cases that are going through the citizenship process but who have deportation orders hanging over them.

As is often the case when it comes to government ineptness, the DHS knew about these types of problems way back in 2008 but eight years later the problem still exists despite the hundreds of billions of dollars the DHS has had at its disposal over those eight years. As a result of this inability to fix what it knew is broken, we know that some of the deportation-ready immigrants have attained jobs in security sensitive areas such as airports and law enforcement since they are now regular U.S. citizens.

That will do it for today’s insanity: granting citizenship to the very people we want to deport, more shady journalism from CNN, a Senator fails to protect those that torture and murder animals, and Congress flunks a basic biology test, resulting in the death of thousands of Americans. More insanity to come the following days.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Part 2: Illegal Immigrants Killing American Citizens is NOT A "Little Thing"....Despite What A Congressman Thinks

A little while ago we discussed the terrible tragedy where a young American citizen, Kate Steinle, was gunned down by an illegal immigration who had seven felony convictions and who had been deported five times. If that was not enough heartache for Ms. Steinle’s family and friends, an Illinois Congressman,Luis Guterize, described her cold blooded killing as a “little thing” that got in the way of his political aims for illegal immigrants. As we observed at that time, this is just a cold hearted, despicable thing to say especially when Ms. Steinle’s parents, family members and boy friend were in mourning for this senseless death.

But this is how far the country has fallen away from respecting those with different opinions and the rule of law. The Congressman views her death as a little thing in the context of his political aims and ambitions. Cities and the politicians across the country who operate them have decided that the rights of illegal immigrants are more important than observing current Federal law and the lives of American citizens. 

Thus, I thought it worthwhile to take some discussion time to identify and honor those American citizens that have suffered and died as a result of politicians who think that the the status of illegal immigrants is more important than the lives of American citizens. I am not saying that all illegal immigrants are violent or criminals, the majority are likely not. 

But it is important to understand that because the Washington political class has not sealed the border, that Washington politicians have not enforced standing immigration law in so-called “sanctuary cities,” and that local politicians give haven and refuge to illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities, many of whom are criminal elements, Americans are dying. And the mainstream media for the most part of ignored or downplayed these deaths to facilitate the work of people like Congressman Gutierrez who thinks that a single, unnecessary American citizen death at the hands of illegal immigrant, who never should have been on an American street, is a “little thing.”

1) Michelle Moons writing for the Washington Examiner in July, 2015 discussed the story of Sabine Durden. Ms. Durden is a legal immigrant from Germany. Unfortunately, she also suffered the same fate of the Kate Steinle family since she had a son, Dominic, killed by an illegal immigrant in 2012.

When she found out that President Obama had invited an illegal immigrant to be a guest at the White House she decided to write a letter to the President in protest.

Ms. Durden told Breitbart News why she wrote the letter: “I decided to write to the President because it is highly upsetting that he continues to invite illegals to the White House, but never spoke to any of us who lost so dearly.” Some of her grief came out in the letter where she criticizes the Obama for inviting illegal aliens to his events: “WHEN do legal citizens that have been affected by this immigration issue, get a chance to share their side of the story with you?”

Details of her son’s killing include the following details:

• Dominic was 30 years old and Ms. Durden's only child.
• He was killed by an illegal immigrant from Guatemala who had been in the US illegally for many years.
• He had already committed a number of crimes including a felony armed robbery and two DUIs.
• He was finally deported a year and a half after the death of Dominic in 2014, probably due to the tireless efforts of Ms. Durden.

Ms. Durden stated to Breitbart that she is all for legal immigration. Would Congressman Gutierrez consider Dominic’s unnecessary death at the hands of an illegal immigrant a “little thing?”

2) Hans von Spakovsky and Rachel Landsman, writing for the Heritage Foundation found an interesting quote from the illegal immigrant that gunned down and murdered American citizen Kate Steinle a few months ago in San Francisco. Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, the murderer of Ms. Steinle, admitted to the murder and when asked why he was in San Francisco, he said that “he knew San Francisco was a sanctuary city where he would not be pursued by immigration officials.” 

Mr. von Spakovsky and Ms. Landsman define “sanctuary cities” as cities within the United States that refuse to comply with Federal immigration laws and authorities. Some estimates put the number of sanctuary cities at more than 150 cities where illegal immigrants, especially those that have violent and criminal records and tendencies, can live with little fear of being deported. 

But back to San Francisco. Kate Steinle was not the first innocent American citizen to be killed by an illegal immigrant in that city. In 2008, Edwin Ramos, a member of the ultra-violent MS-13 gang, cold bloodedly murdered three American citizens in San Francisco, Tony Bologna and his two teenage sons, Michael and Matthew. As with many other illegal immigrants, Ramos had previously been convicted of previous violent felonies but was still walking around the streets of a sanctuary city. One of those felonies was the attempted robbery of a pregnant woman.

According to the Heritage article, San Francisco and other sanctuary cities are behaving in direct violation of Federal law: “Under Section 642 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. §1373), it is a violation of federal law for any state or local government to “prohibit, or in any way restrict” law enforcement or other government officials from sending or receiving information from the federal government on the “citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.””

However, under the Obama administration, it decided in 2010 to not bring legal action against sanctuary cities, a move that quite possibly could have saved the lives of many American citizens. The Obama administration also terminated an existing Federal program, Secure Communities, that made it easier for immigration authorities to find and deport criminal illegal immigrants. As a result, our communities are less safe.

Although the Feds had asked for the eventual murderer of Ms. Steinle to be detained and turned over to them, the city of San Francisco ignored the request, released a seven time felon and five time deportee onto the streets of San Francisco. 

I wonder if Congressman Gutierrez would consider the murders of the Bologna men a “little thing?”

3) But it is just not murders that are a plague of our busted immigration system and enforcement capabilities. Consider Congressional Record testimony from Congressman Ted Poe, as reported by the Universal Free Press website:

Ripped from the bodies of unwilling women, undergarments cling to branches of a tree just a few feet from the lawless U.S.-Mexico border, dozens of pairs of underwear thrown there by rapists.These are called rape trees.

Each pair is a trophy from a woman that was smuggled into the United States, victims that are heard screaming in the desert. They are raped, even gang raped by illegal human smugglers, then forced into silence.

These trees are a warning. Illegal immigrants evade our borders but crime doesn't evade them. Some become criminals. Some become victims. They are raped, robbed and murdered by other illegals, human smugglers and brutal criminals who then claim other victims.

Their report goes onto to cite the NCFIRE immigration advocacy group Facebook page as claiming that since November, 2013, the state of North Carolina has seen over 3,300 sex crime criminal charges filed against illegal immigrants just within the North Carolina border. Given how far away North Carolina is from the Mexican border, can you imagine how many sex crimes are being committed by illegal immigrants in states that are physcially much closer to the Mexican border?

Does Congressman Guyiterrez think that an unnecessary rape of any woman by an illegal immigrant is a "little thing?"

The full article can be accessed at: 

http://universalfreepress.com/rape-trees-proof-of-massive-number-of-sexual-assaults-occurring-on-border/

Americans who want a secure border and rational and sane immigration rules and laws are not racists. We think that all unnecessary deaths and rapes, in this discussion unnecessary citizen deaths and rapes by criminal and violent illegal immigrants, are horrible and not a "little thing." We think these unnecessary murders and violence are an absolute disgrace relative to Federal government incompetence and local government’s sanctuary cities and tolerance of criminal illegal immigrants.

To attack and slander Americans who blame the current system for letting multiple felon illegal immigrants to walk our streets is the height of absurdity. Just another example of where logic and adult conversations are choked off by politicians that have their own agendas and personal careers placed ahead of what is right for the welfare and safety of the rest of us.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

August, 2015, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: Less Obama Administration Transparency, Illegal Immigration Crime Waves and More Pelosi Bluster

At the beginning of each month we take a week or so to review the latest insanity from the American political class. Insanity from them includes a wide range of very depressing actions which can include wasteful spending, idiotic quotes, an inefficient and ineffective government bureaucracy, failed economic policies, etc. Every month we continue to prove that we are being served by the worst set of politicians ever.

And as you will see, this month’s review and discussions do nothing to prove that this thesis is wrong in any way:

1) Obama promised, with great fanfare, that he would run the most transparent Presidency of all time. Like many, many of his promises, this turned out to be either a gross exaggeration or another outright lie:

• His administration has gone to great lengths to delay or kill Freedom of Information Act requests, often breaking both the spirit and letter of the law in those delays.
• His administration has spied on journalists and often tried to deter their investigative reporting.
• At least once his administration tried to charge a news organization for the information they requested in a Freedom Of Information Act, clearly against the law.
• His Justice Department has road blocked and delayed investigations into a number of scandals including the IRS harassment of citizens and the Fast and Furious gun running operation.

Thus, it comes as no surprise with the latest attempt to stifle transparency when the Obama administration, according to a Washington Times article, recently announced that inspector generals throughout the Federal government will have to get permission from their agency heads to gain access to grand jury, wiretap and fair credit information, information that is critical to many of the investigations that inspector generals do. 

This is like saying that an organized crime figure gets to say whether or not a grand jury should investigate his actions. The Times article writes that this “severely limits the watchdogs’ oversight capabilities, independence and power to uncover fraud.” A classic "fox watching the hen house" situation.

Not surprisingly, the Department of Justice’s Office Of Legal Counsel came up with this new rule and restriction. Much of the recent shenanigans and illegal activities in the Federal government has its roots in the Justice Department and one could easily draw the line between the need to investigate the goings on of the Department and the Department’s need to shut down such investigations. The inspector general law was written in 1978, 37 years ago, and to my knowledge this is the first time that anyone has tried to put such a road block in front of the few functions in government that try to do the right thing for citizens and taxpayers.

To his credit and courage, Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector general had harsh words for his own organization: “I strongly disagree with the OLC opinion. Congress meant what it said when it authorized Inspectors General to independently access ‘all’ documents necessary to conduct effective oversight. Without such access, our office’s ability to conduct its work will be significantly impaired, and it will be more difficult for us to detect and deter waste, fraud, and abuse, and to protect taxpayer dollars.”

As suspected, Mr. Horowitz has had trouble, within his own organization, getting access to material and data relative to major cases including Fast and Furious and other important investigations. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress had serious problems with this directive: “The Office of Legal  Counsel’s efforts to reduce transparency will leave the Department of Justice vulnerable to mismanagement and misconduct. This is not the type of government the American people deserve,” said Congressman Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Republican and House Judiciary Committee Chairman, in a statement to The Washington Times.

But given the lawlessness insanity of this administration, this act to hide government misdeeds and illegal actions should not be a surprise.

2) In light of the recent murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco, a so-called “sanctuary city,” by a seven time convicted felon who had been deported five times, it is no longer a surprise when you come across the following immigration numbers, as reported by the Center For Immigration Studies:

• In one eight-month period in 2014, more than 8,100 deportable illegal immigrants were released by sanctuary city governments across the country rather than being turned over to the Federal government for deportation.
• Three thousand of those 8,100 deportable illegal immigrants were felons. 
• Sixty two percent had a prior criminal record. 
• Nineteen hundred of the 8,100 were later rearrested a total of 4,300 times on 7,500 different offenses.

Certainly a gross failure of the American political class, from the local level to the Presidential level, to enforce existing laws and to protect American citizens’ lives and property from the criminal activity of illegal immigrants.

But it gets even worse. According to recent reporting by the Boston Globe:

- Among those illegal immigrants released, there were a number of convicted sex offenders.

- Not only were these offenders released onto the streets of America, the government had no ability and/or no plans to track where they were headed or where they were living.

- Unlike American citizens who are classified as sex offenders, the illegal immigrant sex offenders were not even required to register in the National Sex Offender Public Registry.

- The Globe reporting included examples of how this situation resulted in additional sex crimes perpetrated on American citizens by those released:

• Immigration officials tried to deport Luis-Leyva Vargas, 47, to Cuba after he served three years in a Florida prison for unlawful sex with a teen. In 2008, officials released him. Two years later, he kidnapped an 18-year-old in Rockingham  County, Va., at knife point and raped her. Now he is serving a 55-year prison sentence.
• Felix Rodriguez, a 67-year-old sex offender convicted of raping children as young as 4 in the 1990s, was freed in 2009, also because Cuba would not take him back. Months later, he fatally shot his girlfriend in Kansas City. He pleaded guilty and is serving 10 years in a Missouri prison.
• Andrew Rui Stanley, convicted in 2000 of multiple counts of sodomizing a child when Stanley was 14, was released in 2009 after Brazil failed to provide a passport needed to send him home. For the next two years, he viciously abused three children in St. Louis and now, at age 31, will be in prison for the rest of his life.

As we have said many, many times in this blog, the Federal government is now basically a dysfunctional entity along the lines of Jabba The Hutt from Star Wars: a large, formless blob of a creature that performs very few good deeds for society while consuming vast amounts of resources. Unfortunately, it’s dysfunction and inability to execute the immigration laws of the land is getting people raped, killed, and kids sexually abused for no reason except the ineptness of American politicians and the government functions they oversee.

3) Recent undercover video has shown Planned Parenthood employees and executives discussing and negotiating for baby parts from babies that have been aborted in clinics under their control. While I believe that their attitudes and desire to negotiate for the highest prices available for dead baby parts approaches the Mengele line as far as medical savagery is concerned, I am not going to discuss that subject directly. 

However, I was pretty repulsed by the reaction of Nancy Pelosi to it. Ms. Pelosi was not worried, concerned, or interested in getting to the bottom of this story which very well could include the breaking of Federal law which prohibits the selling of fetal body parts under most conditions and which prohibits the variation of abortion procedures to keep fetal baby parts intact. She is more concerned about the legality of the videotaping: “Let’s have an investigation of those people [the ones who took the videotape] who were trying to ensnare Planned Parenthood in a controversy which doesn’t exist,” Pelosi recently told reporters.

First of all, she has no clue if a controversy does or does not exist or if any laws were broken, there has been no investigation. But in her mind, the potential of breaking of Federal abortion law, the negotiating the price of spare baby parts, the illegal changing of abortion procedures to get at intact baby parts, the joking of a Planned Parenthood employee in the midst of negotiating baby part prices that she needed a new Lamborghini, etc. is less important than the videotaping action. Pathetic and insane set of priorities of this Washington politician.

May I suggest that Ms. Pelosi start worrying about some more important issues, issues that we have discussed this week. These include the reality that over 20% of American kids now live in poverty, a trend that has occurred while Ms. Pelosi has been a powerful member of Congress, that she worry about how American kids are getting lousy educations in our public schools, how veterans are dying before they get the needed medical care they were promised, how the economy is still pretty anemic, etc. rather than worrying about a couple of people who did some secret videotaping.

That wraps up today’s insanity. More anti-transparency actions from the Obama administration, crime waves in American streets as a result of our failed immigration and deportation processes, a reality that endangers American lives and property, and failed priorities again from Nancy Pelosi, one who speaks before having all of the facts at hand. More political class insanity at least for the next few days.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w