My column today follows up on yesterday’s House Natural Resources Committee release of internal Interior Department Inspector General e-mails detailing the continued White House obstruction and cover-up of Team Obama’s drilling moratorium data manufacturing. I’ve attached relevant e-mails below the column. Note especially the warning from the DOI IG senior agent to his bosses that the “chickens may be coming home to roost” and that he expects the issue to rear its head in a big way “when the R’s take over the House.” Make it happen.
As I write below, the 2012 election is not just about the jobs, jobs, jobs. It’s about the lies, lies, lies — and culture of corruption that permeates every corner of this destructive administration.
White House lied, jobs died
by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2012
While the White House and its media water-carriers try to distract the American public with gay-marriage talk and half-century-old tales of Mitt Romney’s prep school pranks, the inconvenient truth remains: President Obama is responsible for perpetrating jaw-dropping, job-killing scientific fraud. And his minions are still trying to cover it up.
New internal e-mails disclosed by the House Natural Resources Committee this week show that a supposedly exculpatory report on the administration’s doctored drilling moratorium analysis — issued by the Department of Interior’s Inspector General’s office — was itself incomplete, misleading and unsubstantiated. Even more damning, the documents reveal that the White House actively blocked investigators and refuses to comply with subpoenas.
Now, as one senior IG agent warned his bosses, “the chickens may be coming home to roost.”
A quick refresher: After the BP oil spill in 2010, the White House imposed a radical six-month moratorium on America’s entire deepwater drilling industry. The overbroad ban — inserted into a technical safety document in the middle of the night by Obama’s green extremists — cost an estimated 19,000 jobs and $1.1 billion in lost wages.
The anti-drilling administration based its draconian order on recommendations from an expert oil spill panel.
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) today sent a letter to Department of the Interior’s Acting Inspector General Mary Kendall expressing deep concern with the thoroughness of the Office of Inspector General’s (IG) investigation into whether an Obama Administration report that recommended a six-month drilling moratorium was intentionally edited to incorrectly state the views of peer reviewers, and with the IG’s explanation for refusing to comply with a Congressional subpoena for further information.
Chairman Hastings today also released documents the Committee has received to date from the Interior Department and the Office of Inspector General. This includes emails from the IG’s lead investigators that details how they were not able to obtain all DOI documents that may have been relevant to their investigation or interview White House staff involved in the editing of the report. Chairman Hastings has already requested additional emails from the IG’s office so that the Committee can continue to look into this matter. Click here to view documents.
“The IG report is being used by the Obama Administration and others as a defense that this matter has already been investigated and resolved. These emails contradict that claim and raise new questions on whether the IG’s investigation was as thorough and complete as it should have been,” said Chairman Hastings. “To date, the Interior Department has never had to disclose documents to the IG or to Congress. Despite the President’s pledge of transparency, this Administration has not answered questions by anyone on how this decision was made that forced thousands of Americans out of work and cost millions of dollars in lost economic activity.”
And stay tuned because I will have much more on this in my column tomorrow. I am not going to be distracted by the Washington Post anti-GOP School Safety Patrol.
Indiana Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly told The Daily Caller on Tuesday that he supports the House oversight committee’s efforts to enforce the congressional subpoena of Attorney General Eric Holder over Operation Fast and Furious. “One of the duties of Congress is to provide oversight of the Executive Branch,” Donnelly told TheDC. “There has been a serious allegation of federal law enforcement misconduct and we need to get to the bottom of this issue without playing partisan politics.” . . .
When suspects in a crime are interrogated, they often develop memory loss. When the crime is running guns to drug cartels on both sides of the border, the crime involves the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol officer, Brian Terry, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, Jaime Zapata, and countless Mexican citizens.
Katie Pavlich has written an extraordinary expose, “Fast and Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal and its Shameless Cover-Up” (Regnery Publishing). She is a veteran agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) who has meticulously documented a story that should result in contempt of Congress action against Attorney General Eric Holder and possibly Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano as well.
It is an appalling story of arrogance, stupidity, and the intimidation of ATF agents who dared to question and expose the operation. It is a story of deception at the highest levels of our government. Both Holder and Napolitano exhibited memory lapses before a congressional committee. Both knew about a federal government authorized gun-running operation to Mexico called “Fast and Furious.”
Pavlich reports that “Fast and Furious was closely followed by Department of Justice officials. On multiple occasions, U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke met with Phoenix ATF Director Bill Newell to discuss the progress of the Fast and Furious operation. ‘There were DOJ attorneys and prosecutors who were involved in this since the beginning, giving advice,” testified ATF Special Agent Peter Forcelli.
As Pavlich details it, “Operation Fast and Furious wasn’t a ‘botched’ program. It was a calculated and lethal decision to purposely place thousands of guns in the hands of ruthless criminals.”
The operation was designed to attack the Second Amendment right of Americans to purchase and bear arms, a right considered so essential to the nation that it followed directly after the First Amendment rights of free speech, freedom of the press, the prohibition of the establishment of a nationally sanctioned religion, and the right of Americans to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
We are in the grip of an administration that would restrain and erase those rights, and which engaged in a reckless and ruthless operation to achieve that goal. It is an administration that is moving toward the confirmation of a United Nations treaty that would override and eliminate the right to own and bear arms.
The facts regarding Holder’s and Napolitano’s testimony are clear:
“Eric Holder was sent five memos, personally addressed to him, in the summer of 2010 that detailed Operation Fast and Furious.” Holder claimed he first knew about the program in February 2011.
“Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has feigned ignorance when questioned about Fast and Furious. She claims she only found out about the program after Brian Terry was murdered.”
“She visited the White House with Eric Holder to visit President Obama just a day before Holder testified on Capitol Hill about Fast and Furious, leaving the reason for her visit blank.”
Pavlich writes, “These are the facts: There are still 1,400 Fast and Furious guns missing and ATF agents are not actively trying to track them down. Ten thousand round of ammunition were sold to cartel-linked straw buyers under the watch of the ATF.
GOP House of Representatives members who are investigating the Operation Fast and Furious debacle received the nod from their party leadership to seek a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder, a federal law enforcement source told the Law Enforcement Examiner this morning.
The House resolution accuses Holder and his Justice Department of obstructing lawful investigation of accusations that the Obama Justice Department allowed thousands of guns to be smuggled — or ”walked” — across the U.S.-Mexican border into the waiting hands of Mexican organized crime gangs currently fighting a de facto war against President Felipe Calderon’s government.
If passed by a House vote, the contempt citation would order the controversial Attorney General to deliver to the House Oversight Committee and the Judiciary Committee thousands documents related to the probe of the gun-smuggling operation that resulted in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent — Brian Terry — and possibly an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, Jaime Zapata, near Mexico City.
Attorney General Holder insists he has cooperated fully with the investigation and he will continue to assist congressmen in their probe.
Congressional Republicans and their investigators have been probing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF’s) Fast and Furious “Gunwalker” scandal. Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) has been openly vocal about seeking a contempt citation against Holder.
The Oversight Committee’s contempt resolution will require a full House vote and, if it passes, the Congressmen would probably look to the federal courts to enforce the citation.
Law Enforcement Examiner sources claim that Republican House staffers have moved slowly in building their case and in creating the motion to hold the Attorney General in contempt of Congress.
“All government officials are bound by the limits of the Constitution and the rule of law, including the President and the Attorney General. Unfortunately, this Administration continues to put a partisan agenda ahead of the Constitution and the rule of law,” Congressman Issa said.
A recent committee report revealed a number of high profile examples the Justice Department’s ignoring the U.S. Constitution in order to impose the Administration’s partisan agenda on the American people. From blocking investigations of Operation Fast and Furious and Justice Elena Kagan’s involvement in Obamacare to refusing to enforce and defend certain laws, the Attorney General has allowed a partisan agenda to guide the Justice Department’s decisions.
The high profile examples currently under investigation are: Stalling Investigation of Operation Fast & Furious; Failing to Enforce Immigration Laws; Challenging Voter ID Laws; Blocking Congressional Inquiries; Refusing to Defend the Defense of Marriage Act; Ignoring the Constitution’s Limited Recess Appointment Power.
“Beginning with the Attorney General’s refusal to prosecute members of the radical group the New Black Panther Party for their flagrant voter intimidation during the 2008 presidential election right through to the recent DOJ ignoring of the Black Panthers placing a bounty on the head of Robert Zimmerman, the suspect in the tragic shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida, the Justice Department has walked a thin line between disinterest and racism,” said former police lieutenant George Harley, himself an African American police official.
“Of all agencies in the federal government, the Justice Department, because of the great power it holds over Americans’ Constitutional rights, should not impose their own partisan agenda. Unfortunately, under the Obama Administration, the Justice Department has become more partisan than ever,” the report states.
Here is the question. What is so damaging in the Fast & Furious documents that the Obama administration wants to fight so publicly over not giving out documents? So much for the most open administration in history. From CBS News:
House Republicans investigating the Fast and Furious scandal plan to pursue a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder, senior congressional aides told CBS News.
The resolution will accuse Holder and his Justice Department of obstructing the congressional probe into the allegations that the government let thousands of weapons fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.
The citation would attempt to force Holder to turn over tens of thousands of pages of documents related to the probe, which has entered its second year.
For months, congressional Republicans probing ATF’s Fast and Furious “Gunwalker” scandal – led by California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, have been investigating a contempt citation. They’ve worked quietly behind the scenes to build support among fellow Republicans, since it could ultimately face a full House vote.
CBS News has confirmed that House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, was provided a 48-page long draft by Issa, who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. . . .
The Obama administration has stonewalled Congress on the issue, refusing to reply to subpoenas from House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa. Out of 80,000 pages worth of documents Issa has lawfully subpoenaed, the DOJ has only provided about 6,000 or 7,000 pages to Congress. The DOJ has, however, given all of those documents to its internal investigator, the inspector general. . . .
Holder's reaction to a lawmaker's question about Fast & Furious during a House Oversight Committee hearing. Photo credit: US Congress photo gallery
Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX) released a biting report this week highlighting the Obama Justice Department’s alleged disregard of the Constitution and the rule of law.
Smith and the House Judiciary Committee are leading efforts to oversee Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department. Rather than enforce the law and uphold the Constitution, the Obama administration has placed partisanship above the rule of law.
Besides, Rep. Smith’s committee, the House Oversight Committee and its chairman Rep. Darryl Issa (R-CA) are investigating the Attorney General and the Justice Department’s role in the gunrunning scandal Operation Fast and Furious that claimed the life of at least one U.S. law enforcement officer and many citizens of Mexico.
“The Obama administration has ignored the constitutional balance of power between co-equal branches of government and blocked investigations of its actions. When the Administration doesn’t like a law, they refuse to enforce it. And if the Senate’s constitutional authority to approve political appointees gets in their way, the Administration ignores the Constitution,” said Chairman Smith.
“All government officials are bound by the limits of the Constitution and the rule of law, including the President and the Attorney General. Unfortunately, this Administration continues to put a partisan agenda ahead of the Constitution and the rule of law,” he said.
The committee report reveals a number of high profile examples the Justice Department’s ignoring the U.S. Constitution in order to impose the Administration’s partisan agenda on the American people. From blocking investigations of Operation Fast and Furious and Justice Elena Kagan’s involvement in Obamacare to refusing to enforce and defend certain laws, the Attorney General has allowed a partisan agenda to guide the Justice Department’s decisions.
The high profile examples currently under investigation are: Stalling Investigation of Operation Fast & Furious; Failing to Enforce Immigration Laws; Challenging Voter ID Laws; Blocking Congressional Inquiries; Refusing to Defend the Defense of Marriage Act; Ignoring the Constitution’s Limited Recess Appointment Power.
“Beginning with the Attorney General’s refusal to prosecute members of the radical group the New Black Panther Party for their flagrant voter intimidation during the 2008 presidential election right through to the recent DOJ ignoring of the Black Panthers placing a bounty on the head of Robert Zimmerman, the suspect in the tragic shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida, the Justice Department has walked a thin line between disinterest and racism,” said former police lieutenant George Harley, himself an African American police official.
“Of all agencies in the federal government, the Justice Department, because of the great power it holds over Americans’ Constitutional rights, should not impose their own partisan agenda. Unfortunately, under the Obama Administration, the Justice Department has become more partisan than ever,” the report states.
“Rather than fulfilling the Attorney General’s oath to ‘support and defend the Constitution of the United States’ and the President’s Constitutional responsibility to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed,’ the Justice Department in the Obama Administration, under the leadership of Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., has repeatedly put its partisan agenda ahead of its Constitutional duties. The pattern of pushing partisan ideology rather than neutrally enforcing the law began nearly as soon as the Administration took office and has continued unabated since,” according to the committee report.
At the House hearing concerning the GSA’s extravagant spending, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, asked current GSA officials as well as a former one some pointed questions. The first was “What does it take to actually be fired from the GSA?” Jeff Neely, the GSA’s Western Regional Commissioner and self-designated tub inspector, is currently on paid administrative leave, meaning he’s still collecting $179,000 a year for doing nothing except saving taxpayers even more than that amount by not showing up for work anymore.
During his own separate line of questioning, Neely invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions. Exiting the hearing, Neely may have inspired a possible game to be played at the next GSA team building meeting: Elevator races.
Video by way of Chicks on the Right. This is such a comprehensive grilling that I’m surprised it wasn’t sponsored by Weber:
*
Ouch. For some reason I’m reminded of Tom Smykowski’s job justification meeting with The Bobs in Office Space:
Darrell Issa originally tried to trick the official into testifying by telling him that he was being called to Washington to be presented with a GSA Jackass Award, but he didn’t fall for it.
The General Services Administration official tasked with organizing a now-infamous $822,000 Las Vegas conference plans to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights ahead of a scheduled Monday grilling on the Hill.
On Thursday, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) served a subpoena to require Jeff Neely to appear before the committee, according to Democratic committee documents obtained by POLITICO. Neely’s attorney on Friday informed the committee Neely will exercise his right against self-incrimination and requested not to attend the hearing.
“Requiring Mr. Neely to travel from California to appear before the Committee when you have been advised that he will not answer any substantive questions posed to him does not advance any legitimate Committee purpose,” the attorney wrote, according to the documents.
If Neely refuses to testify, Issa should simply subpoena that mind reader the GSA hired for Waste-Fest 2010 to tell the Oversight Committee what he’s thinking.
Questions remain: Who ultimately approved these expenditures? How widespread is the abuse? Will Neely be decked out in all Armani at the hearing? Is the Angry Office Clown going to be subpoenaed? We’ll find out next week.
@ 1:30 seconds – “Kevin O’Rielly’s attorneys have said they will talk. The only reason they are not talking is because the White House is ORDERING them not to because he is a former employee.”
@ 1:50 Seconds – Bill Hemmer states the witness Kevin O’Rielly is currently working in Iraq
Catch Kevin
If you like facts over fiction, reality over rhetoric, and truth over tradition, tune into my radio show, “Catch Kevin: Unscripted & Uncensored!”
Chuck Baldwin Live
Dr. Baldwin’s messages from Kalispell, MT, will be livestreamed on this page every Sunday afternoon at approximately 2:30 p.m. MST.
Clash Radio
Listen to Doug Giles Live Monday – Friday at 11am – 12pm[est]
Our Sponsors
Get in on the modern Gold Rush. Call now to buy gold bars from The U.S. Gold Bureau.
![bookmark](http://island-adv.com/wp-content/plugins/share-and-follow/images/blank.gif" height=){kind=small}
GOP House of Representatives members who are investigating the Operation Fast and Furious debacle received the nod from their party leadership to seek a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder, a federal law enforcement source told the 
At the House hearing concerning the GSA’s extravagant 
Darrell Issa originally tried to trick the official into testifying by telling him that he was being called to Washington to be presented with a 
Catch Kevin
Chuck Baldwin Live![Clash Radio Listen to Doug Giles Live Monday – Friday at 11am – 12pm[est]](http://island-adv.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/clash_logoreverse.png "Listen to Doug Giles Live Monday – Friday at 11am – 12pm[est]")
Clash Radio
