Coverup: Obama Seals Records of Murdered Border Patrol Agent

The Obama Administration has abruptly sealed court records containing alarming details of how Mexican drug smugglers murdered a U.S. Border patrol agent with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico.

This means information will now be kept from the public as well as the media. Could this be a cover-up on the part of the “most transparent” administration in history? After all, the rifle used to kill the federal agent (Brian Terry) last December in Arizona’s Peck Canyon was part of the now infamous Operation Fast and Furious. Conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the disastrous scheme allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico so they could eventually be traced to drug cartels.

Instead, federal law enforcement officers lost track of more than 1,000 guns which have been used in numerous crimes. In Terry’s case, five illegal immigrants armed with at least two semi-automatic assault rifles were hunting for U.S. Border Patrol agents near a desert watering hole just north of the Arizona-Mexico border when a firefight erupted and Terry got hit.

We know this only because Washington D.C.’s conservative newspaper , the Washington Times, got ahold of the court documents before the government suddenly made them off limits. The now-sealed federal grand jury indictment tells the frightening story of how Terry was gunned down by Mexican drug smugglers patrolling the rugged desert with the intent to “intentionally and forcibly assault” Border Patrol agents. 

You can see why the administration wants to keep this information from the public and the media, considering the smugglers were essentially armed by the U.S. government. Truth is, no one will know the reason for the confiscation of public court records in this case because the judge’s decision to seal it was also sealed, according to the news story. That means the public or media won’t have access to any new or old evidence, filings, rulings or arguments.

A number of high-ranking Border Patrol officials are questioning how the case is being handled. For instance, they wonder why the defendant (Manuel Osorio-Arellanes) hasn’t been tried even though it’s been almost a year since Terry’s murder. They also have concerns about the lack of transparency in the investigation, not to mention the recent sealing of the court case.

Osorio-Arellanes is charged with second-degree murder. The four other drug smugglers fled the scene and their names were blacked out in the indictment. In 2006 Osorio-Arellanes had been convicted in Phoenix of felony aggravated assault and in 2010 he was twice detained for being in the U.S. illegally.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this month to address the flawed gun-tracking program, Attorney General Eric Holder said it’s not fair to assume that mistakes in Operation Fast and Furious led to Terry’s death. Holder also expressed regret to the federal agent’s family, saying that he can only imagine their pain.

From:  http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2011/nov/u-s-seals-court-records-border-patrol-s-murder

Thanks, Obama! 50% of Americans Worried They Can’t Afford Christmas This Year…

One in five Americans lost a sizeable amount of their disposable income during the recession, leaving them financially vulnerable and without many options.

The number of Americans considered ‘economically insecure’ reached a new high during the period from 2008 to 2010 which spanned what is now called the Great Recession.

This news comes just as businesses hope to increase profits amid holiday sales and Christmas shopping, but half of the U.S. population is now worried that they won’t be able to buy the presents on their list because of their financial situation.

Deemed economically insecure by the Economic Security Index, 20 per cent of the county have considerably less spending money now as compared to previous years.

By comparison, only 14.3 per cent of the country’s population was in the same position in 1986. 

The report, compiled by Yale professor Jacob Hacker’s Index team, evaluates census data and looks at a family’s income, savings, and medical bills when determining who is considered economically insecure.

Unemployment rates are clearly linked to the figures, and are similarly grim. The national unemployment rate is currently 9.1 per cent.

While the deals in stores and online on Black Friday and Cyber Monday are meant to encourage shoppers, many people’s bank statements are having the opposite effect.

As a result of the difficult financial times and the diminishing disposable cash in many American households, half of the country is concerned that they will not be able to buy the gifts they want for family and friends this holiday season.

A CBS poll reports that 33 per cent of those polled will not have enough money for holiday shopping.

The poll also asked respondents to describe how concerned they were about meeting their spending needs this season- asking them to self-identify as very concerned, somewhat concerned, not very concerned, or not at all concerned.

The categories were split relatively evenly- all ranging between 21 and 29 per cent.

From:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2067375/Recession-hits-families-hard-half-Americans-fear-wont-able-holiday-shopping.html

 

 

Thanks, Obama! Home Prices Continue to Sink, Home Ownership Heading to New Lows…

Home prices across the nation are now right back where they were at the beginning of 2003. All that was gained is largely now lost, and the effect on home ownership could continue for decades.

 “Consumer attitudes have gotten a lot more negative about long-term commitment,” said Standard and Poors’ David Blitzer, after reporting home prices through September had fallen a deeper-than-expected 3.9 percent compared to the third quarter of 2010.

 “They dropped to new lows. This takes them below the point we saw in 2009, where briefly we all thought this thing was about to turn around.”

 And that’s the problem.

Every time we think things are turning around in the housing market, we get hit with some new problem, like last year’s so-called “robo-signing” foreclosure paperwork scandal, which managed to stall the cleansing of distress in the market for over a year. Now that foreclosures are ramping up again, prices are coming down again.

All this could push home ownership down to levels not seen at least since before the Census began tracking this data in 1963. Home ownership soared to 70 percent in 2005, but it could fall to 62 percent by 2015, according to the number crunchers at John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

They suggest that the effect of foreclosures drops home ownership 5.6 percent, and cyclical trends, like poor consumer confidence, tightening mortgage credit and the weak economy drop it 3 percent. Positive demographic trends would only offset that by 0.7 percent.

From:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/45477559

Obama’s Job Approval Rating Drops Below Jimmy Carter’s (Is It Any Wonder Why?)

President Obama’s slow ride down Gallup’s daily presidential job approval index has finally passed below Jimmy Carter, earning Obama the worst job approval rating of any president at this stage of his term in modern political history.

Since March, Obama’s job approval rating has hovered above Carter’s, considered among the 20th century’s worst presidents, but today Obama’s punctured Carter’s dismal job approval line. On their comparison chart, Gallup put Obama’s job approval rating at 43 percent compared to Carter’s 51 percent.

Back in 1979, Carter was far below Obama until the Iran hostage crisis, eerily being duplicated in Tehran today with Iranian protesters storming the British embassy. The early days of the crisis helped Carter’s ratings, though his failure to win the release of captured Americans, coupled with a bad economy, led to his defeat by Ronald Reagan in 1980.

What’s more, Gallup finds that Obama’s overall job approval rating so far has averaged 49 percent. Only three former presidents have had a worse average rating at this stage: Carter, Ford, and Harry S. Truman. Only Truman won re-election in an anti-Congress campaign that Obama’s team is using as a model.

From:  http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/11/29/obamas-job-approval-drops-below-carters

Obama Bows to Environmentalists; Says “No!” to New Energy Production, Putting Off Creation of 204,500 New Jobs

President Obama’s United States Department of Agriculture has delayed shale gas drilling in Ohio for up to six months by cancelling a mineral lease auction for Wayne National Forest (WNF). The move was taken in deference to environmentalists, on the pretext of studying the effects of hydraulic fracturing.

 

“Conditions have changed since the 2006 Forest Plan was developed,” announced WNF Supervisor Anne Carey on Tuesday. “The technology used in the Utica & Marcellus Shale formations need to be studied to see if potential effects to the surface are significantly different than those identified in the Forest Plan.”

 

The study will take up to six months to complete. The WNF study reportedly “will focus solely on how it could affect forest land,” despite the significance of hydraulic fracturing to united proponents of the delay, “and not how it could affect groundwater.”

 

Speaking of the WNF gas drilling, one environmentalist group spokesman suggested that moving forward with drilling “could turn the Ohio Valley into Ozone Alley,” even though Wayne National Forest already has nearly 1300 oil and gas wells in operation which this study does not affect.

 

The Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (OOGEEP) recently estimated that drilling in the Utica shale, which is affected by the suspension of the mineral lease auctions, would produce up 204,500 jobs by 2015.

 

“The President’s plan is to simply say ‘no’ to new energy production,” House Natural Resources Committee chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash, said to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar during a hearing pertaining to hydraulic fracturing. “It’s a plan that is sending American jobs overseas, forfeiting new revenue, and denying access to American energy that would lessen our dependence on hostile Middle Eastern oil.”

 

From:  http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/obama-usda-delays-shale-drilling-200k-jobs

Thanks, Obama! Total US Debt Passes $15 Trillion; Economic Slavery Now a Reality

Under Obama, the total US debt has increased by a whopping 41.5%, or $4.4 trillion, from $10,626,877,048,913 on his inauguration on January 20, 2009 to $15,033,607,255,920 at present.

This means your unborn children and grandchildren are indebted for as far as the eye can see into the future, and beyond. 

This is economic slavery, folks, pure and simple.  Future generations of Americans who are not even born yet will have to pay off this debt.  

And it’s still rising.   

There is no legal right, moral right or Constitutional right to indebt people who have yet to be born.  Even under contractual law, you cannot indebt someone who is under the age of consent. 

Yet that’s exactly what’s being done. 

And it will only stop when YOU put a stop to it. 

 

Obama: I Am the Dream

Obama’s New Christmas Tree Tax (When Will It Ever End, Folks?)

President Obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees—the Christmas Tree Tax—to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.

In the Federal Register of November 8, 2011, Acting Administrator of Agricultural Marketing David R. Shipman announced that the Secretary of Agriculture will appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board. 

The purpose of the Board is to run a “program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace; maintain and expand existing markets for Christmas trees; and to carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry” (7 CFR 1214.46(n)).  And the program of “information” is to include efforts to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States” (7 CFR 1214.10).

To pay for the new Federal Christmas tree image improvement and marketing program, the Department of Agriculture imposed a 15-cent fee on all sales of fresh Christmas trees by sellers of more than 500 trees per year (7 CFR 1214.52). 

And, of course, the Christmas tree sellers are free to pass along the 15-cent Federal fee to consumers who buy their Christmas trees.

Acting Administrator Shipman had the temerity to say the 15-cent mandatory Christmas tree fee “is not a tax nor does it yield revenue for the Federal government” (76 CFR 69102). 

The Federal government mandates that the Christmas tree sellers pay the 15-cents per tree, whether they want to or not.  The Federal government directs that the revenue generated by the 15-cent fee goes to the Board appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out the Christmas tree program established by the Secretary of Agriculture.  Mr. President, that’s a new 15-cent tax to pay for a Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.

Nobody is saying President Obama doesn’t have authority to impose his new Christmas Tree Tax — his Administration cites the Commodity Promotion, Research and Information Act of 1996.  Just because the Obama Administration has the legal power to impose its Christmas Tree Tax doesn’t mean it should do so.

The economy is barely growing and nine percent of the American people have no jobs.  Is a new tax on Christmas trees the best President Obama can do?

And, by the way, the American Christmas tree has a great image that doesn’t need any help from the government.

From:  http://blog.heritage.org/2011/11/08/obama-couldnt-wait-his-new-christmas-tree-tax/

Obama Mocks House of Representatives for Reaffirming ‘In God We Trust’

Obama says God wants us to help ourselves by implementing his so-called jobs program rather than “wasting time” passing resolutions reaffirming the national motto of “In God We Trust.”

Obama’s official White House spokesman, Jay Carney, explains Obama’s position by saying, “Well, I believe the phrase from the Bible is, ‘The Lord helps those who help themselves.’

Of course, that old saying appears nowhere in the Bible.

But the Bible DOES say if we turn away from God, He’ll turn away from us. And if we turn to Him, He’ll turn to us. (Hos. 4:6; Zech. 1:3).

Is it any wonder even most Democrats voted down Obama’s so-called jobs bill, seeing the futility of attempting to solve the “jobs crisis” with the same useless government spending strategy that’s already failed three times?

And is it any wonder even most Democrats voted to pass the resolution reaffiirming “In God We Trust” as our national motto, seeing the stupidity of mocking God during a time of national crisis?

Obama says the Republicans are “out of touch” with the public. But it seems to me Obama’s the one who’s out of touch, in many cases, even with his own Democrat base.

Obama Mocks House of Representatives for Reaffirming ‘In God We Trust’

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-mocks-house-representatives-reaffirming-god-we-trust

(CNSNews.com) – In a speech plugging his American Jobs Act on Wednesday, President Obama criticized Congress for taking up a resolution on the national motto — “In God We Trust” — while the country faces a jobs crisis.

“Everybody here — we are Americans,” Obama told a crowd gathered at the Key Bridge along the Washington, D.C., waterfront. “We’re not people who sit back and watch things happening. And if Congress tells you they don’t have time — they’ve got time to do it (pass his jobs bill).

“We’ve been — in the House of Representatives, what have you guys been debating? John, you’ve been debating a commemorative coin for baseball?  You had legislation reaffirming that ‘In God We Trust’ is our motto?  That’s not putting people back to work.

“I trust in God,” Obama said, “but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work.”

Asked later by a reporter if it was “a bit much” for Obama to bring God into the jobs debate, White House Spokesman Jay Carney responded, “Well, I believe the phrase from the Bible is, ‘The Lord helps those who help themselves.’  And I think the point the President is making is that we should — we have it within our capacity to do the things to help the American people.” (Actually the phrase is not from the Bible.)

As CNSNews.com reported, the House on Tuesday voted 396-9 in support of a non-binding resolution reaffirming “In God We Trust” as the national motto. Of the nine who voted against it, 8 were Democrats.

As for Obama’s jab that House Republicans are doing nothing about jobs, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is reminding the American people that the House has passed at least 15 job-promoting bills that are now languishing in the Democrat-led Senate.

Even a bipartisan withholding-tax repeal bill that is part of the president’s own jobs plan is being help up, Boehner noted.

“While the president is out doing campaign events all over the country, what he could do is to actually come to Washington and be focused on trying to help pass bills that would create a better environment for job creation and help put the American people back to work,” Boehner said on Wednesday.

The Obama Experiment Has Failed!