Category Archives: DOJ, DC and inside the Beltway

Obama Orders Public Schools to Teach Immigration Acceptance

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How about calling your Congressperson and the State Education Board and express some outrage?

Introduction

As a nation of immigrants, the United States has benefited tremendously from the talents, values, and contributions of newcomers to our shores. In the face of immense barriers, many undocumented youth have exhibited exemplary perseverance, work ethic, and leadership. Yet hurdles and challenges remain. Many educators, counselors, and school leaders have expressed interest in learning how to better support all children so that they can achieve educational and economic success – regardless of actual or perceived immigration status. Informed by research and promising practices, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) has compiled this Resource Guide to assist and enhance State and local efforts to support undocumented youth at the secondary and postsecondary school levels. However, high-quality early learning and elementary education is critical to college and career success for all children. Therefore, the Department will in coming months release a separate resource guide on early learning and elementary education that includes promising practices for serving undocumented children and children of undocumented parents. The Department hopes that educators, schools, and campuses will, as they see fit, draw upon the tips and examples in this Guide to better support undocumented youth and, ultimately, move us closer to the promise of college and career readiness for all.  Read the full document here.

Schools Ordered to Help Illegal Aliens, Hold “Undocumented Immigrant Awareness Day”

The Obama administration is ordering the nation’s public schools to support illegal immigrant students, promote the president’s amnesty and “embrace and value” the diversity and cultural backgrounds of the foreigners receiving a free, American taxpayer-funded education.

In a 63-page “Guide for Success” issued this month, the U.S. Department of Education directs teachers in the nation’s publicly funded schools to “understand the cultural and educational backgrounds” of their students and to “model multicultural sensitivity.” Teachers should also “engage in self-reflection to address personal biases and increase multicultural competence,” according to the new mandate that also orders the incorporation of diversity and immigration into instruction. “Plan and host trainings on multicultural issues that educate teachers and staff about the unique needs and challenges of undocumented students,” the document says.

Educators are also instructed to “withhold judgment and biases about immigration status.” This means that school personnel “should not make assumptions about students’ immigration status – including assuming that ethnicity or speaking languages other than English imply non-citizen status.” If a student discloses that he or she is an illegal immigrant school personnel must “convey openness and assurance of confidentiality.” Schools must also establish “safe spaces” where undocumented youth can share freely, engage with their peers and build a support system. “Individually addressing fears of deportation in a sensitive manner may be needed,” according to the new public education guide.

The goal, according to an agency statement, is to help educators and school staff support the academic success of undocumented youth and to debunk misconceptions by clarifying the legal rights of undocumented students. The guide also includes information about financial aid options available to illegal immigrant students and support for youth that want to apply for an Obama amnesty program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). “We know undocumented youth face unique challenges and we also know that educators and other caring adults in schools and colleges can play a major role in helping all students, including undocumented students, to achieve at the highest levels,” said John King, deputy secretary of education.

Nearly 700,000 illegal aliens have been granted benefits under DACA, but 1.5 million are eligible and the administration wants to maximize the numbers. In the coming years an additional 400,000 illegal alien children will become eligible, the administration reveals in its new education mandate. “To ensure that undocumented youth receive an equitable education that prepares them for college and career, it is imperative that educators and other personnel understand the unique needs of these students and receive high-quality training and support on how to best serve them,” the new guide states.

It goes on to list symptoms—including depression and anxiety—that undocumented youth suffer as a result of the migration process, which can include family separation, detention and deportation. The stress of living in the U.S. illegally may be “exacerbated when, throughout critical moments of adolescent development, barriers prevent undocumented youth from sharing core experiences with their documented peers, such as driving and starting their first job,” the document reads. The Obama administration also aims to eliminate barriers encountered by illegal aliens who want to attend college by directing schools to highlight opportunities to help undocumented youth access postsecondary education. This includes encouraging scholarship sponsors to change their policies to be inclusive of undocumented students.

While the new illegal alien guide for academic success mainly targets elementary and high schools, there is a message for colleges and universities: “Build a supportive and welcoming institutional environment for undocumented students.” This includes hiring “culturally competent faculty,” publicly demonstrating support for undocumented students and hosting an “undocumented immigrant awareness day.” Colleges and universities should also alleviate fears that students may have about their immigration status.

 

Defunding Planned Parenthood and Committee Formed

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Some, rather many are anti-Boehner as Speaker and are delighted he resigned. Yet on the way out the door, he has taken a positive measure against Planned Parenthood. Moving to create a commission to investigate the organization is a good thing and passing a measure in the House to defund it is even better. Others argue this is just theater as it may advance such that Barack Obama would veto the legislation. That is true, it could happen but the House took a very assertive step in this regard.

Boehner is forming a House Select committee to investigate ‘big abortion providers’ — namely Planned Parenthood
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced Friday the appointment of eight Republicans (four women and four men) to the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Select Investigative Panel focused on “big abortion providers” — namely Planned Parenthood.

He appointed Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) as panel chair.

Other members are Rep. Joe Pitts (PA), Rep. Diane Black (TN), Rep. Larry Bucshon (IN), Rep. Sean Duffy (WI), Rep. Andy Harris (MD), Rep. Vicky Hartzler (MO) and Rep. Mia Love (UT).

From the Speaker’s Friday news release:

Recent videos exposing the abortion-for-baby parts business have shocked the nation, and demanded action. At my request, three House committees have been investigating the abortion business, but we still don’t have the full truth. Chairman Blackburn and our members will have the resources and the subpoena power to get to the bottom of these horrific practices, and build on our work to protect the sanctity of all human life.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has five spots to fill, according to the Hill, but has yet to announce her appointments.

Planned Parenthood issued a statement through spokesman Eric Ferrero on Friday criticizing the panel:

Planned Parenthood has been cooperating fully with all of these investigations, even though they were all sparked by false and discredited claims and even though their political motive has become increasingly clear. Regardless of whether these investigations are focused on uncovering facts or pursuing a political agenda, we will continue to share the facts with all of these committees, which include that fetal tissue donation for medical research is an important but tiny part of Planned Parenthood’s work in just two states, that we’ve had guidance in place for more than a decade that goes well beyond the legal requirements, and that even doctored and discredited videos show no wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood.

Defunding

BREAKING: U.S. House passes bill to defund Planned Parenthood

The U.S. House voted today on legislation to halt the taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, which has been caught harvesting the body parts of aborted babies, among other scandals.

The House approved H.R. 3762, a reconciliation bill which cannot be filibustered in the U.S. Senate, on a near party-line 240-189 vote. The bill can pass the Senate chamber with 51 votes, rather than than the 60-vote threshold.

H.R. 3762 places a freeze on certain federal payments to the abortion giant for one year. Only seven House Republicans voted in opposition to the measure, while one Democrat, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn), voted in favor.

Reps. Ken Buck (Col.) Bob Dold (Ill.), Richard Hanna (NY), Walter Jones (NC), Mark Meadows (NC) and Matt Salmon (AZ) were the seven Republicans who broke party ranks.

Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding has come under scrutiny over the past few months, in the wake of undercover videos revealing corporate Planned Parenthood executives discussing horrific fetal tissue procurement practices.

In August, the U.S. Senate held a historic vote to defund the abortion giant, with most senators in favor of the measure. The effort was halted, however, due to a filibuster by Senate Democrats.

The latest vote comes in the aftermath of 10 videos by The Center for Medical Progress, which detail Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry’s role in the trafficking of fetal body parts.

The videos also show top-level Planned Parenthood executives admitting how they sell the body parts of aborted babies, alter the abortion procedure to obtain intact organs, and perform what appears to be illegal partial-birth abortions.

Ben Carson has yet Another Bizarre Problematic Solution

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While Dr. Ben Carson appears to take the lead in the polls in Iowa over Donald Trump, it remains important to listen carefully to words spoken by Carson when it comes to solutions to issues. This one is quite problematic.

Rather than Lois Lerner, previously at the IRS who was operating as a punishment wing for free speech at the IRS, seems Ben Carson thinks the Department of Education does it, regardless of how radical that speech may be. Things are getting very twisted.

Ben Carson: let’s have the Department of Education go after “extreme political bias”

by Taylor Millard at HotAir

Dr. Ben Carson has a rather awful (and I mean awful) idea for the Department of Education: have it become the thought police for colleges and universities! Carson made the suggestion during an interview yesterday on Glenn Beck’s show. Here’s the interview right before Beck answers the question, plus I’ve transcribed Carson’s answer below.

“It would be to monitor our institutions of higher education for extreme political bias and deny federal funding if it exists.”

Carson’s a smart guy, he’s a retired neurosurgeon and has had a movie made about him starring Cuba Gooding Jr.(which is pretty cool). But this idea is just repugnant. If a Democrat proposed it, the Right would be up in arms over this. It’s not the federal government’s job to monitor political speech! This might as well be Section Two of the Sedition Act all over again, which is posted below.

SEC. 2. And be it farther enacted, That if any person shall write, print, utter or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered or published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering or publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame the said government, or either house of the said Congress, or the said President, or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition within the United States, or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States, done in pursuance of any such law, or of the powers in him vested by the constitution of the United States, or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law or act, or to aid, encourage or abet any hostile designs of any foreign nation against United States, their people or government, then such person, being thereof convicted before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.

Yes, there are leftists in education who do their best to indoctrinate students into thinking the government should be involved in everyone’s business, whether it be how much people get paid or redistribution of wealth. Yes, free speech is being silenced on campus by “trigger warnings” and “free speech zones” and a litany of other ridiculous ideas. But wanting to have the Department of Education become speech monitors to make sure it’s not “extreme political bias” is not the way to fight back. The way to fight back is to slowly get conservative and libertarian teachers into teaching positions (whether it’s history, philosophy, government, law, what have you), have them challenge students, and make them think. The Right needs to slowly take over (or at least balance out) the Left in education. This means thinking long-term, not looking towards the government to do a quick fix.

But here’s the bizarre thing; just seconds before Carson’s Department of Education answer he discusses how he doesn’t want national standards for education because, “the closer education is to home, the better the education is.” This completely flies in the face of what he wants the Education Department to do when it comes to colleges and universities. It’s like he’s saying he’s perfectly fine with local education, as long as it’s not run by people who have “extreme political bias” and he doesn’t even define what that means. This goes against the “secure the Blessing of Liberty to ourselves” written in the Constitution and it’s completely unenforceable unless Carson wants to put microphones or cameras in every classroom to monitor what’s being said. That’s the only way the Department of Education (or universities) would be able to monitor what’s going on. There’s no guarantee that would work either, because universities could consider bribing the “extreme political bias” police to make sure no professor gets kicked out. If it’s left up to the university administration itself, then all they have to do is say, “No extremists here,” unless there’s going to be an extreme political bias hotline to investigate anonymous complaints of that sort of thing. That would cause even more of a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Probably the biggest problem with Carson’s idea, outside of the entire unconstitutional part, is it’s the type of directive which can come back to hurt conservatives and libertarians. Carson is promising under his administration the Department of Education would probably only go after leftists, who have “extreme political bias.” But what happens if a Democrat comes into power after Carson? Would that Democrat use the “extreme political bias” directive to force out people who might be conservative or libertarian? If someone says they think “trigger warnings” are a bad idea, would the university they work for be forced to fire them or turn them over to the thought police for “reeducation”? Carson’s idea is just completely short-sighted, and it’s unfortunate because the guy isn’t an idiot. He’s a very smart man and a good guy who’s got a great story. But this is one of those ideas he should toss in the incinerator and hope no one else steals it. The Left operates the war on free speech. There’s no reason for the Right to get involved in it unless it’s to defend those who are speaking.

 

Lois Lerner Goes Free ~ Impeach Loretta Lynch

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Per the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Press Release:

Chairman Chaffetz Responds to DOJ’s Investigation of the IRS

Published: Oct 23, 2015
  

WASHINGTON—Today, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) issued the following statement after the Department of Justice announced there will be no charges against former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official Lois Lerner, and the investigation will be closing:

“This announcement is a reminder that the Obama administration continues to refuse to hold anyone accountable at the IRS. Over two years ago, TIGTA conducted an audit confirming the IRS was targeting conservative organizations because of their political beliefs. While DOJ may have closed its investigation, as a coequal branch of government, Congress will continue to seek accountability for the American people. A clear message must be sent that using government agencies to stifle citizens’ freedom of speech will not be tolerated. If the administration won’t send that message, Congress will.”

Background:

Earlier this year, Chairman Chaffetz, along with 51 members of Congress sent a letter to President Obama calling for the removal of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. Additionally, the Oversight Committee released a video outlining a timeline of key events in the targeting scandal.

*** in 2014 from Judicial Watch, in part:

IRS Had “Secret Research Project” For Conservative Donor Lists

Judicial Watch continues to blow the lid off of the Obama administration’s increasingly feeble attempts to cover up its deliberate targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the months leading up to the 2012 presidential election. And the latest batch of emails JW has obtained in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit portrays an agency potentially willing to go to any lengths to bring down the president’s political opponents – including misusing the private, confidential information of those who dared contribute to the groups the IRS had targeted.

But, we really shouldn’t be surprised, should we? This is an administration whose chief executive has repeatedly acted as if he is above the law. All he needs to govern, he claims, is “a pen and a phone.” His IRS agency, it turns out, has put both to extensive use in harassing and hamstringing conservative organizations – and, perhaps, even individuals it thought might have had a negative impact the president’s efforts to retain office in 2012.

On September 4, we released a new batch of IRS email documents revealing that under former IRS official Lois Lerner, the agency seems to acknowledge having needlessly solicited donor lists from non-profit political groups. According to a May 21, 2012, memo from the IRS Deputy Associate Chief Counsel: “such information was not needed across-the-board and not used in making the agency’s determination on exempt status.” Outrageously, it wasn’t until one year later, on May 10, 2013, that Lerner finally conceded that the requests for donor names were “not appropriate, not usual.” (These remarks by Lerner were staged and were the first IRS admission of its improper targeting of Obama’s perceived enemies.)

Not surprisingly, the new documents JW obtained also reveal that 75% of the groups from which the lists were solicited were apparently conservative, with only 5% being liberal. So, Lerner and her IRS collaborators knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the donor lists they had wrongly solicited would be filled with the names of those who had opposed the Obama policies.

These new smoking gun documents came in response to a court order from our October 2013 FOIA lawsuit (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:13-cv-01559)) filed against the IRS after the agency unlawfully refused to respond to four FOIA requests dating back to May 2013. The emails are contained in the sixth batch of documents the IRS has been forced to produce in response to the Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit. Much more here.

WikiLeaks Publishes Second Round of CIA Directors Emails

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Most interesting is CIA Director John Brennan’s early email address rolodex list. Mr. Brennan apparently was a big user of Craig’s list, had deep contacts with academia and even sent flowers.

CIA Director John Brennan emails

Today, 21 October 2015 and over the coming days WikiLeaks is releasing documents from one of CIA chief John Brennan’s non-government email accounts. Brennan used the account occasionally for several intelligence related projects.

John Brennan became the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in March 2013, replacing General David Petraeus who was forced to step down after becoming embroiled in a classified information mishandling scandal. Brennan was made Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism on the commencement of the Obama presidency in 2009–a position he held until taking up his role as CIA chief.

According to the CIA Brennan previously worked for the agency for a 25 year stretch, from 1980 to 2005.

Brennan went private in 2005-2008, founding an intelligence and analysis firm The Analysis Corp (TAC). In 2008 Brennan became a donor to Obama. The same year TAC, led by Brennan, became a security advisor to the Obama campaign and later that year to the Obama-Biden Transition Project. It is during this period many of the Obama administration’s key strategic policies to China, Iran and “Af-Pak” were formulated. When Obama and Biden entered into power, Brennan was lifted up on high, resulting in his subsequent high-level national security appointments.

If you have similar official documents that have not been published yet, submit them to WikiLeaks.

Published on 22nd October 2015

Afghanistan-Pakistan Executive Summary

Recommendations for a USG strategy in the Afghanistan-Pakistan (AF-PK) region. (7. November 2008, Author: SAA)

Download PDF or view HTML version.

Preface Memo to ExSum

A draft report from Louis Tucker, Minority Staff Director to Vice Chairman Christopher Bond, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, outlining the recommendations of the previous document. (7 November 2008, Author: Louis Tucker)

Download PDF or view HTML version.

Contacts

A list of contacts as stored in the AOL email account of John Brennan. It mostly contains email addresses (people in active email exchange with the account holder) as well as some Instant-Messenger IDs (AIM).

Download original TXT.

Published on 21st October 2015

John Brennan Draft SF86

“National Security Position” form for John Brennan. This form, filled out by Brennan himself before he assumed his current position, reveals a quite comprehensive social graph of the current Director of the CIA with a lot of additional non-govermental and professional/military career details. (17 November 2008, Author: John Brennan)

Download PDF or view HTML version.

The Analysis Corporation

FAX from the General Counsel of the CIA to the Goverment Accountability Office about a legal quarrel between the CIA and “The Analysis Corporation”. TAC seems to have lost a tender for a US watchlist-related software project to a competitor. Issues seem to revolve around “growth of historical data” and “real-time responsiveness” of the system. (15 February 2008, Sender: CIA, Office of General Counsel, Larry Passar)

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Draft: Intel Position Paper

Challenges for the US Intelligence Community in a post cold-war and post-9/11 world; a calling for inter-agency cooperation, a ten-year term for the Director of the CIA and the Director of National Intelligence. It also demands the autonomy of the Intelligence Community, that it “… must never be subject to political manipulation and interference.” An unfinished paragraph is titled “Damaging Leaks of Classified Information”. (15 July 2007, Author: John Brennan)

Download PDF or view HTML version.

The Conundrum of Iran

Recommendations to the next President (assuming office in Jan. 2009) on how to play the figures on the U.S.-Iranian Chessboard (18 November 2007, Author: John Brennan)

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Torture

Letter from Vice Chairman Bond, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, to his fellow board members with a proposal on how to make future interrogation methods “compliant” and “legal”. Instead of listing all allowed methods, every kind of interrogation should be considered compliant, as long as it is not explicitly forbidden by the “Army Field Manual” (AFM). (May 2008)

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Torture Ways

A bill from July 2008 called “Limitations on Interrogation Techniques Act of 2008” explicitly list the forbidden interrogation techniques mentioned in the previous document and can be considered a direct implementation of the recommendations of Christopher Bond. (31 July 2008)

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