Far Left, Far Right Finally Agree- AG Eric Holder Must Go

Friday, May 24, 2013 11:19
(Before It's News)


By Susan Duclos

With the breaking news that Attorney General Eric Holder personally signed off on the warrant that allowed the Justice Department

to search Fox News reporter James Rosen’s personal email, the far left and the far right and pretty much everyone in between, finally found an issue they can all agree on….. Attorney General Eric Holder must go.

Sarah Palin certainly qualifies as the far right and she asks on Twitter “Where is the apology and resignation of your attorney general, Mr. President? http://fb.me/MZDSVlXQ

Huffington Post, who qualifies as the far left, headlines with “Time To Go: Holder Ok’d Press Probe”

Even before this latest revelation, far lefties like Daily Kos and Esquire were calling for Holder’s resignation and/or his firing.

Then you have the whole lying to Congress thing going on and it is pretty clear Holder has got to go, but as of May 16, 2013, Barack Obama was still saying “I have complete confidence in Eric Holder as attorney general. He does his job with integrity and I expect he will continue to do so.”

Duuuuuude, there is thing called a dictionary, which states clearly that “integrity” includes “soundness of moral character and honesty”...Look. It. Up.

Then again on Thursday, May 23, 2013, Barack Obama says:

Are you kidding me? That is like asking a pedophile to babysit your children. (It is analogy, not saying Holder is a pedophile)

I suppose like the Benghazi attack, the AP phone records seizure, the IRS targeting conservatives scandals, Fast and Furious, and Solyndra, etc….Obama will again claim he knew nothing about it, until he read the NBC report about Holder personally signing off on the warrant against Rosen?

Note to Obama- Plausible deniability only works when it is, you know, plausible!

Source: http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2013/05/far-left-far-right-finally-agree-ag.html


http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-con...o-2650004.html

The Fed's Hands Are Tied... Right as the Financial System Begins to Crack

Submitted by Phoenix Capital Research on 05/24/2013 12:30 -0400

• Ben Bernanke
• Bond
• Great Depression
• Gross Domestic Product
• Japan
• NASDAQ
• Nikkei
• recovery

The Fed would do well to look at Japan.

Japan’s Nikkei, after rallying over 70% since November, just collapsed 11% in less than two days. Looking at the chart, it’s pretty clear where this thing is heading: the same as the NASDAQ in 2000.



This is the problem with economic policy that focuses on pushing stocks higher: eventually the collapsing economy comes home to roost and stocks implode. We saw this in 2000 and 2008. We’re currently seeing it in Japan. And it’s only a matter of time before it his the US.

Indeed, Bernanke’s whole life work has been based on the belief that the Fed didn’t do enough during the Great Depression. So he’s opted to expand the Fed’s balance sheet to over $3 trillion and to monetize most of the US’s debt issuance via QE to battle the Financial Crisis.

Altogether, the Fed has monetized QE equal to 15% or so of the US’s GDP. Doing this has already put stocks back in a bubble and damaged the economy to no end. Marginal debt is back at record highs, housing has not bottomed, and Bernanke is still talking about a “recovery” FIVE years after the Crash. At this point based on the business cycle alone we should be in a roaring growth spurt.

QE doesn’t work. It never has. Look at Japan.

Japan has monetized an amount equal to well over 25% of its GDP via QE. And at that point its bond market began to crash. It’s not coincidence that the Fed is beginning to talk about tapering QE now that this is happening. Even a career academic can look at what’s going on in Japan and know that more QE won’t help the US.

So the Fed is essentially handcuffed at this point. Increasing QE in any way risks a Japan-bond market style rout.

Can you imagine what would happen if the financial system faces another Crisis? The Fed has already thrown everything including the kitchen sink at the system. If the system collapses now the Fed will be powerless to stop it.

For some insights on how to prepare for a market collapse, visit us at:
http://gainspainscapital.com/protect-your-portfolio


Best Regards,
Graham Summers


http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed...m-begins-crack

Europe Opens $80 Trillion Shadow Banking Pandora's Box: Will Seek To Collapse Repo "Collateral Chains"


Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/24/2013 10:51 -0400

In what may be the most important story of the day, or maybe year, for a world in which there already is an $11 trillion shortfall in high-quality collateral (and declining every day courtesy of Ben's monetization of Treasury paper) so needed to support the deposit-free liability structures of the shadow banking system (as most recently explained here), Bloomberg has just reported that Europe may begin a crackdown on that most important credit money conduit: the $80 trillion+ global shadow banking system, by effectively collapsing collateral chains, and by making wanton asset rehypothecation a thing of the past, permitted only with express prior permission, which obviously will never come: who in their right mind would allow a bank to repledge an asset which may be lost as part of the counterparty carnage should said bank pull a Lehman. The result of this, should it be taken to completion, would be pervasive liquidations as countless collateral chain margin calls spread, counterparty risk soars all over again, and as the scramble to obtain the true underlying assets finally begins.

From Bloomberg:

Here's the kicker: collateral chains collapse on their own when confidence and faith in the financial system is evapoarting. This is usually manifested in soaring variation margin, and demand for delivery of collateral (which having been pledged at 10 or more different places just doesn't actually exist).

In other words, the last thing Europe needs is to force the aftereffect of a plunge in systemic confidence to be imposed upon the market participants! And yet, it is doing just that.



And for a comparable virtualization of repo pathways in the US, here is a chart showing the key relationships as of 2009. For the modern iteration, just update $30 trillion with $80 trillion (including custodial "assets" State Street, BoNY and JPM). This is $80 trillion in custodial credit money created via repo. Just in the US.




In other words, just as we have been warning for the past four years, Europe may pull the switch on its own electric chair.

Among others, read:

• "The Scramble For US Safety, As Europe Imploded, Offset The $357 Billion Plunge In Q3 Shadow Banking"
• "Shadow Rehypothecation, Infinite Leverage, And Why Breaking The Tyranny Of Ignorance Is The Only Solution"
• "Why The UK Trail Of The MF Global Collapse May Have "Apocalyptic" Consequences For The Eurozone, Canadian Banks, Jefferies And Everyone Else".

Finally, read Kyle Bass' own thoughts on the matter: Presenting Kyle Bass' Analysis On Shortening Collateral Chains; Or The Gradual Evisceration Of Shadow Banking


Hayman Capital Letter Dec 14




http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-0...e-collateral-c

Published: Friday, May 24, 2013 3:53 PM EDT
Tribune Staff Reports
Huron Daily Tribune

UPPER THUMB — Federal officials are remaining mum about a visit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents made to two different dairy operations this week in Huron County.

“On Wednesday, special agents with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations executed federal search warrants at Parisville Dairy LLC and Dunganstown Dairy LLC as part of an on-going criminal investigation,” stated Khaalid Walls, ICE public affairs officer. “Because this investigation is ongoing, we would not be able to elaborate.”

Huron County Sheriff Kelly J. Hanson said his office assisted federal agents at the scene, but he didn’t want to comment on the situation because his agency didn’t coordinate the activities.

He did note, however, that the local sheriff’s office has been to the Parisville Dairy operation in the past in regard to illegal immigrants.

Parisville Dairy is located at 3657 Parisville Road, Ruth. Dunganstown Dairy is located at 5301 Dodge Road, Cass City.

http://www.michigansthumb.com/articl...0479172579.txt

Hamilton man sentenced to time served, may face deportation after kidnapping 17-year-old niece

By Brendan McGrath/The Times of Trenton
on May 24, 2013 at 8:29 PM


HAMILTON — A township man was sentenced to time served today, amounting to 894 days in jail, and may face deportation in the kidnapping of his 17-year-old niece in 2011, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said.

Sergio Sarceno Cano allegedly bound his niece’s wrists, legs and mouth with duct tape and stole $400 from her, before transporting her around at gun point, according to Casey DeBlasio, spokeswoman for the Prosecutor’s Office. His niece, who had been living with him at the time of the incident, did not appear in court for the sentencing.

The girl left a note asking for help in the bathroom of a Nottingham Way Burger King, prosecutors said in a 2011 hearing. She was rescued after an employee saw it and called police. This also led to Cano’s arrest.

In a plea deal, Cano pleaded guilty on March 28 to third-degree weapons possession and terroristic threats, and will now deal with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The federal agency placed a detainer on him because of his status as an undocumented immigrant. He may face deportation to Guatemala.

“The plea was a compromise, it was in the best interest of all parties,” said Robin Lord, Cano’s attorney.

Court documents report two different dates of birth for Sarceno Cano, one placing his age at 33 and the other at 34.

http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2...d_to_time.html

Posted 5/24/2013
One of Laura's recent tweets:

Laura Ingraham ‏@IngrahamAngle6h
WE MUST PRIMARY ANY "CONSERVATIVE" WHO SUPPORTS THIS: "W/ amdmts, Sen immig bill soars past 1,000 pgs" http://m.washingtonexaminer.com/with-amendments-senate-immigration-bill-soars-past-1000-pages/article/2530469 …


https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle

Washington Examiner
By Conn Carroll
May 24, 2013

With amendments, Senate immigration bill soars past 1,000 pages


After two weeks of amendments, S. 744, the bipartisan immigration reform bill voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday night, is now more than 1,000 pages long, according to a committee aide. When the bill was first submitted to the Senate, it was just 844 pages.

And the vast majority of those new pages have made the bill far more liberal than when it was first introduced. Of the 81 Democratic amendments offered during Senate Judiciary Committee mark-up, 80 were accepted, and just one was rejected.



The pro-amnesty Republicans on the committee — Jeff Flake of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Orrin Hatch of Utah — had even better luck. They submitted 15 amendments, and all 15 were adopted.

Meanwhile, the pro-border security Republicans on the committee had 49 of their amendments rejected.

http://m.washingtonexaminer.com/with...rticle/2530469

Daily Caller
May 24, 2013
By Charles C. Johnson

Rubio has long history of blocking immigration enforcement

Sen. Marco Rubio blocked numerous immigration-enforcement bills when he served as speaker in the Florida House of Representatives from 2007 to 2009.

“Rubio blocked any efforts to deal with the problems of illegal immigration on the local or state level,” one former politician from South Florida, who has known Rubio since his city councilman days in West Miami, told The Daily Caller.

“He said it was because we had bigger things to deal with on the state level. Maybe that’s true. But he didn’t even let bills to the floor when they sailed through committees,” the politician, who declined to speak on the record, added.

Rubio’s record is relevant now because he’s presented himself as a moderate backer for the Democratic-led “Gang of Eight” immigration bill. Proponents of the bill argue that its extensive loosening of immigration laws (including a “pathway to citizenship” that Rubio in 2010 described as “basically code for amnesty”) will be balanced by tougher enforcement.

But the record shows that Rubio used his power in Florida to block popular immigration-enforcement bills prior to his election-trail conversion into an immigration-hawk.

In the 2010 race, he criticized one of his opponents, Gov. Charlie Crist, for backing the amnesty proposal developed by Sen. John McCain and Ted Kennedy in 2006 and 2007.

“He would have voted for the McCain plan,” Rubio said. “I think that plan is wrong, and the reason I think it’s wrong is that if you grant amnesty … you will destroy any chance we will ever have of having a legal immigration system that works here in America,’ he said.

In 2007 and 2008, Rubio repeatedly kept tough reform bills from getting passed, despite a wave of public support for reforms.


Numerous enforcement proposals – ranging from bills requiring employers to check the status of workers to others mandating increased cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration agencies – were blocked by Rubio even though they cleared bipartisan committees.
The bills in Florida’s Legislature would have penalized farmers and government contractors caught hiring undocumented workers; placed stricter regulations on public benefits; and required local police to notify federal authorities after arresting illegal immigrants.


Rubio also stopped bills from coming to the floor that would have deported illegal immigrants in state prisons and that would have denied food stamps to illegal immigrants.

He even stopped a bipartisan proposal that would have allowed the deportation of about 5,000 illegal immigrants in Florida prisons, provided they had served half their sentence and agreed to be deported. Similar legislation saved $141 million and $13 million in prison costs in New York and Arizona.

To stop the bill, Rubio scheduled a “workshop” on immigration policy, even though the bill was supported by House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R- Boca Raton.


The most comprehensive bill proposed in Florida was modeled after a package adopted in Oklahoma in 2007. The bill, filed by Republican State Rep. Don Brown of DeFuniak Springs, would have stopped businesses from hiring illegal immigrants and required law enforcement to determine legal status of those arrested for drunk driving or boating.

Brown also wanted to pass a law banning so-called sanctuary cities in the Sunshine State.
“I don’t know who is blocking it, but they’re doing the public a disservice,” Brown told the Sun-Sentinel on April 2008.

A bill by Republican State Rep. Gayle Harrell to prohibit municipal, county, or state money from establishing day-labor centers “never saw the light of day” because of Marco Rubio, Harrell told the Tampa Tribune’s Highlands Today paper.

In 2007, state legislatures passed 240 bills related to immigration – a threefold increase over 2006, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Two states – Arizona and Oklahoma – required employers to verify the legal status of their workers while other states passed laws requiring verification of work force for companies that receive government contractors or subsidies. Other states tightened identification laws and made sure only legal residents could get public benefits.

Rubio did not support any of these measures and became a target of groups like Border Control Now, which aired an Internet ad accusing him of blocking the illegal immigration bills, according to the Sun Sentinel.


Media outlets noted Rubio’s lack of interest in immigration reform.

“Top leaders in state government are not showing much support, either. Gov. Charlie Crist and House Speaker Marco Rubio, who have been at odds on many issues, have shown no signs of pushing tougher immigration laws,” The Ledger reported in Feb. 2008.

One cause for Rubio’s opposition was his alliance with the state’s just-departed Governor, Jeb Bush, who left office in 2007.


Bush didn’t want the issue talked about again after a “politically disastrous” decision [in 2004] to try to give drivers licenses to illegal immigrants,” the former politician told TheDC.
“Marco is Jeb’s boy on immigration,” he added.

Even Democrats noted how reluctant Rubio was to take up the popular reform bills.

“For some people this is a real winner, but for a lot of Republicans in this state, immigration is not a real winner,” said Rep. Keith Fitzgerald, D-Sarasota. “I just don’t know if this is an issue the Speaker and some of his closest allies want to see debated on the floor of the House.”
The issue got heated in Tallahassee.


Rubio criticized Brown for sending an “offensive” and “bad taste” cartoon to fellow state legislators with the tag line, “Don’t forget to pay your taxes on April 15. 12 million illegal aliens are counting on you.” Harrell took offense at protestors and fellow legislators calling her anti-Hispanic. “I speak Spanish,” Harrell told a local newspaper in 2008. “I have a masters degree in Latin American history. I’m not anti-Hispanic. I’m anti-illegals.”

But Rubio had some Republican allies who supported his blocking of the reform bills.

State Rep. David Rivera criticized reformers, and said the illegal immigrants “doing the jobs that not many other people are willing to do. They are being nannies…they are the ones picking vegetables…the ones cleaning toilets and bedrooms in hotels.”

Rivera went on to tell Florida’s Ledger newspaper, “The agriculture and construction and hospitality industries in Florida would collapse without undocumented immigrants.” He went on to say, “The prospects for success for these types of proposals are dim,” even though polls showed strong support for reform.

Rivera is often described as Rubio’s mentor and the two Cuban-American pols owned a foreclosed home together in North Florida. Rivera was defeated in 2012 for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives and, according to the Miami Herald, is currently under investigation by the FBI.

Rubio’s office did not respond to repeated phone calls seeking comment.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/24/ru...n-enforcement/

Published May 24, 2013
FoxNews.com



A top Republican lawmaker blasted President Obama after he held an Oval Office meeting this week with illegal immigrants, despite having ignored recent requests for a sit-down from the union representing immigration officers.

“The fact that the president and the vice president are hosting illegal immigrants in the White House while constricting citizen tours and refusing to meet with immigration officers says it all,” Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said in a statement to FoxNews.com Friday. “The White House will not even grant ICE officers a low-level White House meeting but invites illegal immigrants into the Oval Office.”

Obama and Vice President Biden met Tuesday with eight advocates of immigration legislation, which is making its way through Congress. Three of the participants were listed in the White House readout as having “deferred action” -- a term that means they were granted a reprieve, likely via the administration directive last year that allowed some illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to avoid deportation and seek work authorization.

Some Republicans are open to ultimately granting permanent legal status to these and other undocumented immigrants. But Sessions, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., both complained that the president is at the same time snubbing the law enforcement officials tasked with enforcing U.S. border policies.

Sessions and Goodlatte sent a letter to Obama Thursday asking why the White House had not responded to repeated requests to meet with representatives from the National ICE Council, the union that represents more than 7,000 customs enforcement officers.

According to the letter, the ICE union has been trying to snag a meeting at the White House for three months to discuss the immigration overhaul, to no avail.

“To be effective any immigration reform bill must heed the warnings from our federal immigration agents,” the lawmakers wrote. “Unfortunately, far from being included in the process, ICE officers have been shut out and have even had their day-to-day operations handcuffed by DHS officials to the point of being unable to carry out their sworn duties.”

The White House refutes the claims, though, and says it has made itself available to multiple immigration enforcement officers over the past few months -- if not the ICE union specifically.

On May 14, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Director of National Drug Control Policy R. Gil Kerlikowske were among administration officials who sat down with law enforcement officers from across the country. During the meeting, Napolitano and Kerlikowske pushed for broad immigration reform and touted the White House’s investments in personnel and technology targeted to keep the borders safe.

The meeting came three months after another Washington gathering with Napolitano and White House Domestic Policy Council Director Cecilia Munoz. In that meeting, Munoz outlined the principles at the heart of Obama’s immigration proposal which included cracking down on employers who hire undocumented workers and creating a pathway to citizenship.

But Chris Crane, president of the ICE union, has made clear dating back to February that he wants his group to be as involved with immigration legislation as other business and advocacy groups have been.

Obama may have other reasons for avoiding a meeting -- members of the union have filed suit against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, claiming they're being prevented from doing their jobs.

The union has started to actively lobby against the current Senate bill, citing concerns that current gaps in enforcement will only be perpetuated. They were joined this week by the National Citizenship and Immigration Services Council, which represents 12,000 federal immigration officers at the USCIS.

On Tuesday, a Senate committee passed the so-called Gang of Eight immigration bill. The legislation would still have to be approved by the full Senate.

On the House side, Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor warned Thursday that they would not rubber-stamp the legislation.

“The House remains committed to fixing our broken immigration system, but we will not simply take up and accept the bill that is emerging in the Senate if it passes,” Boehner and Cantor said in a joint statement.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013...-border-talks/

Arellano Felix Drug Cartel Leader Pleads Guilty


By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press
SAN DIEGO May 24, 2013 (AP)

The last of the brothers accused of creating an infamous Mexican drug cartel pleaded guilty Friday to helping send hundreds of millions of dollars in proceeds from the United States, marking one of the final milestones in an investigation that began two decades ago.
Eduardo Arellano Felix, 56, reached an agreement with prosecutors that will send him to federal prison for 15 years for conspiracy to launder money and invest funds gained from violating drug laws. He will be deported to Mexico when he completes his sentence.
Prosecutors agreed to dismiss charges including racketeering and conspiracy to traffic drugs, said Joseph Green, an assistant U.S. attorney.
Arellano Felix, who identified himself in court as a doctor, acknowledged he helped oversee finances of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel from 1986 to 2002, the year his brother Benjamin was arrested by Mexican authorities and brother Ramon was killed in Mexico.
Benjamin Arellano Felix was sentenced to 25 years in U.S. prison last year after being extradited from Mexico.
Another brother, Francisco Javier, was sentenced in 2007 to life in prison after the U.S. Coast Guard captured him in a fishing boat in international waters off Mexico's Baja California coast.
The plea agreement briefly appeared in doubt when Eduardo Arellano Felix hesitated to acknowledge his role in the cartel as described by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns. Arellano Felix admitted having employees but said their job was to build homes.
Burns asked if he participated in major decisions of the cartel, which, according to U.S. authorities, brought hundreds of tons of cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. starting in the 1980s.
"Well, no, I would just talk to my brother (Benjamin)," Eduardo Arellano Felix said.
The judge accepted the plea after Arellano Felix acknowledged a major role in the family's finances, including payments for weapons, property and bribes. The judge scheduled sentencing for Aug. 19.
Eduardo Arellano Felix was extradited from Mexico in August to face charges in San Diego. He was arrested in October 2008 in a shootout with Mexican authorities at his Tijuana home that was witnessed by his 11-year-old daughter.
William Sherman, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's acting special agent in charge in San Diego, called the plea "the final nail in the coffin" for the cartel. U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy called it "the end of an era."
The DEA has identified Fernando Sanchez Arellano, a nephew of the brothers, as one of the region's main drug traffickers.
　
　
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/arellano-felix-drug-cartel-figure-pleads-guilty-19251335