Homeland Security Chief: Illegals Have ‘Earned the Right to be Citizens’

LSUDVM

breitbart

From CNS News:

Speaking at the United States Conference of Mayors on Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the approximately 11 million people who are in the country illegally have “earned the right to be citizens.”

“An earned path to citizenship for those currently present in this country is a matter of, in my view, homeland security to encourage people to come out from the shadows,” said Johnson, in what he remarked was one of his first public speeches since being confirmed as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief in December.

“It is also, frankly, in my judgment, a matter of who we are as Americans,” he said, “to offer the opportunity to those who want to be citizens, who’ve earned the right to be citizens, who are present in this country – many of whom came here as children – to have the opportunity that we all have to try to become American citizens.”

Read the rest of the story at here >>

The Obama Family Members You Might Not Know

TheBlaze

White House Makes Big Admission About Obama’s Uncle

Fred Lucas

Onyango “Omar” Obama

White House press secretary Jay Carney on Thursday said President Barack Obama did briefly stay with his illegal immigrant uncle while attending Harvard Law School in the 1980s.

This is a contradiction of what the White House told reporters in 2011, asserting Obama did not know his uncle.

“Back when this arose, folks looked at the record, including the president’s book, and there was no evidence that they had met and that was what was conveyed,” Carney told reporters. “Nobody spoke to the president.”

The president’s uncle Onyango “Omar” Obama, 69, said at a deportation hearing this week that Obama stayed with him when the president was a student at Harvard. The uncle, whom Carney stressed was the president’s father’s half-brother, was arrested for drunk driving in 2011 and faced deportation after living in the United States for five decades. The judge decided to let the Kenyan national remain in the United States.

Carney stressed that the uncle is the half-brother of the president’s father.

“When Omar Obama said the other day, and there were reports that he said the other day, that President Obama, back when he was a law school student had stayed with him in Cambridge, I thought it was the right thing to do to go ask him,” Carney said. “Nobody had asked him in the past and he said that he in fact had met Omar Obama when he moved to Cambridge for law school, that he stayed with him for a brief period of time, until his — the president’s — apartment was ready. After that, they saw each other once every few months while the president was in Cambridge and after law school they gradually fell out of touch. The president has not seen Omar Obama in 20 years and has not spoke with him in roughly 10 years.”

Keep reading on TheBlaze >>

Family tree: Barack Obama is one of eight children his father, Barack Obama Snr, had. His 'uncle' Omar, is the son of Sarah Obama, his grandfather's third wife

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2031360/Barack-Obamas-Uncle-Omar-U-S-jail-country-illegally-drink-drive-arrest.html#ixzz2mdUCqR4B

Judge Allows Obama's Illegal Immigrant Uncle to Remain in U.S.

breitbart

By Tony Lee 4 Dec 2013,

An immigration judge allowed President Barack Obama's illegal immigrant uncle, who had been ordered to be deported and arrested for drunk driving, to remain in the United States on Tuesday.

U.S. Immigration Judge Leonard Shapiro ruled that Onyango “Omar” Obama, a "69-year-old Kenyan who has been living in the US for some 50 years," could remain in the United States based on "a federal immigration law that allows people who have lived in the US since prior to 1972 to apply for residency."

According to the Boston Globe, Onyango Obama actually took the stand and "contradicted the White House’s assertion that the president had never met his uncle. Obama testified that his nephew lived with him in Cambridge for three weeks while the future president was a student at Harvard Law School in the late 1980s."

“Thank you, Your Honor,” Onyango Obama reportedly said after the ruling.

Onyango Obama reportedly came to the United States in 1963 with the help of Obama's late father on a student visa. Like nearly 40% of illegal immigrants in the country today, he overstayed his visa that expired in 1970. 

Obama "was ordered deported in 1986 and 1989 and then lost his appeal in 1992." But he never left the country. In addition, Onyango Obama "was arrested for drunken driving in 2011" in Massachusetts. After that arrest, he reportedly said, “I think I will call the White House.” 

The government watchdog organization Judicial Watch obtained various documents under the Freedom of Information Act that revealed not only the prior deportation rulings but also showed that the Obama administration may have stonewalled an investigation into Onyango Obama's immigration status and the status of his case. 

According to the Globe, Shapiro is the "same immigration judge who approved an asylum request for Onyango’s sister, Zeituni, in 2010."

Obama Balks at Boehner's Debt Ceiling Offer

breitbart

By Matthew Boyle

After House Republicans gave a little breathing room on the debt ceiling, offering a “clean” six-week increase with nothing in return, President Barack Obama rejected their plan.

Obama’s and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s decision to completely reject any offer of a compromise from House Republicans confirms what most conservatives already know: Obama will not negotiate on anything (he has said as much numerous times over the past couple of weeks) unless he faces consequences for failing to do so.

The whole point of this fight, as most congressional Republicans including House Speaker John Boehner have said, has been to expose how President Obama has never compromised on anything, always gets his way or the highway, and will not negotiate with Congress—though he will try to make deals with American rivals or enemies like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran’s new leaders. In the process, conservatives hoped that Republicans would use their negotiating power to shred Obamacare, or at least burn parts of it.

While Obama says he would not negotiate under the circumstances of a government shutdown, or under the threat of a potential default, he has shown time and again that he will never negotiate outside of those circumstances. So, what are congressional Republicans to do? As Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin laid out in an op-ed for Breitbart News on Thursday morning, the only way to know whether President Obama will ever negotiate with Congress on anything is if the GOP in Congress stands it ground.

Obama was slipping in the government shutdown battle. His approval rating had been plummeting, down to 37 percent. Obamacare was becoming ever more unpopular, as its early implementation continued failing. Conservatives were winning the shutdown fight much more so than anyone in the establishment expected; polling data showed voters were blaming President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats as much as they are Republicans for it.

What has happened, instead? Congressional Republicans, led by Boehner and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), have blinked. They attempted to decouple the debt ceiling battle from the CR battle against Obamacare, instead of using all the leverage they have available to keep their figurative boot on the president’s throat.

They offered a six-week “clean,” no-strings-attached debt ceiling increase. On paper, and in the policy wonk world of conservatism, that negotiating tactic might have seemed like a solid strategy. Sure, Republicans would have been able to reorganize the order in which they fight their fiscal fights over the last few months of 2013, keep Wall Street from having a meltdown aimed at them and likely splitting the party as the ongoing government shutdown continues and, most importantly, they would have been able to keep the focus on Obamacare. In the process, the government would remain shut down and the song and dance of the Obama administration’s shutdown theater would continue.

But here is the problem with that logic: we do not live in a perfect world. We live in a world where, as we have already established, President Obama does not negotiate. Obama is no Bill Clinton; he is not interested in a mere deal. President Obama and Harry Reid want to fry the Republican Party and literally took the government into a shutdown—threatening a default to do so. They now refuse to take up a House-passed bill that would provide paychecks to the 3 million government employees (many of whom live paycheck to paycheck in the Obama economy) who will not be getting paid on Monday, the first scheduled payday for government employees during shutdown.

Obama is a man whose administration put barricades up to keep World War II veterans out of their open-air memorial, preventing the brave men who put their lives on the line for America from entering a memorial to their military service perhaps for the first or last time in their lives, while allowing illegal immigrants to protest across the street on the supposedly-closed National Mall. To win against someone like this, you must fight fire with fire. 

Obama actually has to believe House Republicans when they visit him to “talk.” Right now, Obama has no reason to believe Republicans will stand strong. Why should he? They have caved every other time they “negotiated” with him over the past three years since the Tea Party movement gave Boehner the speakership.

In response to Boehner’s Paul-Ryan-driven blink, what happened? That same man rejected the plan he had been saying he wanted for weeks, then added preconditions to raising the debt ceiling. Obama has stated for weeks he thinks a debt ceiling increase should not have any conditions; well, after Boehner blinked, Obama added a condition: open the government with the debt ceiling increase.

Martin sums it best in her piece on Breitbart News: “Leave it to establishment Republicans to sacrifice policy on the altar of tactics. As the partial government shutdown rolls into its second week and the so-called debt ceiling deadline draws nearer, we're beginning to see cracks in a previously unified GOP front against the Affordable Care Act.”

Now Obama knows: Republicans are willing to cave.

Time Magazine and the Enshrining of Mayor Rahm Emanuel: Can a Media Hero Do Any Wrong?

breitbart

By Rebel Pundit 

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, at the helm of arguably the most corrupt city in the nation, has an image challenge. He has created enemies left, right, and center in the name of budget cuts while racking up spending on pet projects for the 1% like a maze of protected bike lanes through the city. His notorious temper and connections to the embattled Obama “Chicago Way” Administration risk forever tainting his turn in charge.

Enter Time magazine, whose June 10 cover story on Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel presents a controversial figure who, though under attack, is made of heroic mettle, and therefore impervious to petty questions about school closings and massive government expenditures. No, with Time’s help, Rahm will be protected by the media in the same way so many others before him have: through a sort of enshrinement afforded to a “character” like him.

Time’s piece, “Rahm’s Kind of Town,” opens by posturing Emanuel in a battle of biblical and epic proportions against fellow Democrats, comparing it to the likes of “Cain and Abel, the Yorks and Lancasters, and Michael and Fredo Corleone.” The latter is perhaps a nod to his nickname, the “Godfather.”

The Time piece is replete with references to his “Godfather” image, referring to him as “the guy who has picked the fights his predecessors avoided.” Time’s cover is equally bold, presenting him as a tough guy in black and white, dominating the gritty city scene behind him.

Mayor Daley was always said to “get the roads plowed,” and with this, he was issued a monumental pass for his mobster-like rule over the city. A tactic that worked, and that Rahm appears to be pursuing aggressively.

Time provides a factual account of the trials and tribulations of Emanuel’s first two rocky years, from the seven-day teacher strike in 2012, record-high homicides and violence, to the furor of black communities against him, so many of whose children’s schools are shuttered by the Mayor’s School Board. However, Time misses a beat when it comes to dealing with devastation and ongoing plight in Chicago’s poorer-urban-black communities, and the foreclosure housing crisis within.

Rahm must be more than aware that positioning himself as making epic decisions will work to his advantage, telling Time: “the decisions we make in the next two to three years will determine the face of Chicago for the next 20 to 30 years.”

Decisions like his massive infrastructure plan “Chicago Forward,” funded by a public-private trust, which is estimated to reach at least $7 billion as the city faces an annual $650 million deficit under his management.

Time moves from detailing the tough decisions Rahm faces to setting him up as even worthy of consideration for the highest office in the land. Time questions the Mayor on whether or not he will run for president, to which he responds, “No. I'm not. Never. It is not happening. I don't know how else to say it. No.” 

"I'm done with that," he said of Washington's gridlock and posturing. "I worked eight years in the White House for two great Presidents. They talk about things they want to do--I'm doing it. This is the happiest I've ever been in public life. I've always wanted to be mayor.”

Never mind the fact that in no way would any Democrat operative in their right mind impose yet another Chicago wastrel on the nation at this time; this is about setting Rahm up as a heavy hitter, a man who turned down the presidency of the United States, no less.

Throughout the piece, Time continues to beat the presidential drum, referring to Rahm’s presidential qualities that “evoke Clinton, in the way he rattles off statistics… and like Clinton, he knows how to schmooze to get what he wants.” Time continues [emphasis mine]:

At the same time, he has taken on some very large issues, the kind Presidents give speeches about: education reform, job creation, unsafe streets. Revealing the stripes of a pragmatic, pro-business New Democrat, the mayor lengthened the school day for Chicago's elementary and high school students, reorganized the city's enormous system of community colleges to emphasize job-skills training and established an infrastructure trust to allow private investment in public-works projects. All of these are popular ideas among some Democratic policy mavens, but no other mayor has taken them so far, so fast.

Rahm says he “is a wonk trapped in a hack’s body.” This, Time posits, “blends into a 21st century version of the classic urban boss,” alluding to time spent working for former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who was known for continuing the legacy of his father Richard J. Daley’s “political machine,” which others called an organized crime syndicate.  

If Rahm is seeking the same media protection Daley received, his description of a very Daley-like tactic will help things along. He explained to Time how he got Chicago universities to partner with local high schools:

"Each of those college presidents has construction projects they want to complete," he explains. "I just told them if they would help me, I'd have someone walk their plans through the permit process." They all assented, though he didn't have to say what might happen to those permits should they refuse.

Time finishes off its piece with a quote from the Chicago mobster movie, The Untouchables: “you wait until the fight is over. One guy is left standing. And that's how you know who won."

Perhaps you wait to see who writes the story of who won, and that’s how you know just how far Chicago’s tentacles have reached. Witness: Time.

SECURITY SHAKE-UP: Rice to Replace Donilon as National Security Adviser

foxnews

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador who drew criticism for her initial account of the Benghazi terror attack, has been named as national security adviser, a senior White House official confirmed to Fox News. 

Rice will replace Tom Donilon, who is resigning from the post. Rice, the current U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, does not need Senate confirmation for the job. 

The ambassador had earlier been considered in the running for the secretary of State post, which does require confirmation, but withdrew from consideration amid the continuing fallout over her role following the Benghazi attack. 

Rice went on five Sunday shows after the attack and claimed it was triggered by protests over an anti-Islam film, an explanation many lawmakers said at the time was inaccurate. The administration later acknowledged there were no protests on the ground in Benghazi, though they have not officially ruled out that protests elsewhere may have played a role. 

Republicans bristled at the news that Rice was being named to the new position. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., accused her of "misleading" the public on Benghazi. 

"How are they going to have the authority for people to believe what they're saying, when he's promoting someone who directly and deliberately misled the public over Benghazi?" Paul said on Fox News. 

Rice's defenders dispute that charge. 

The administration, under pressure from the media and Republicans, last month released the so-called "talking points" which showed officials drafting and re-drafting their storyline in advance of Rice's appearance. The intelligence community did cite demonstrations -- however, references to militant and Islamic extremist groups, and to prior security warnings and incidents, were ultimately stripped out after objections from various administration officials. 

It's unclear what level of involvement Rice had in this process. Officials, speaking in her defense, have said she was merely citing the assessment she was given on Sept. 16. 

A senior official told Fox News that Donilon decided to leave the post after his wife took a job that involves a lot of foreign travel. He has been in the administration since the start, first as deputy national security adviser. 

Former Obama aide Samantha Power is expected to be named to succeed Rice as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Power was an aide to the Obama campaign in 2008 but resigned after a report was published in which she called then-candidate Hillary Clinton a "monster."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/05/susan-rice-to-replace-donilon-as-national-security-adviser/#ixzz2VMjvqTS4

Former IRS commissioner's wife tweeted from Occupy Wall Street rally

Fox News

This photo was posted on Susan Anderson's Twitter account in December 2011.

WASHINGTON –  The wife of the former IRS commissioner who ran the tax agency when it was singling out conservative groups was apparently involved -- at least briefly -- in the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Susan L. Anderson sent a tweet in December 2011 asking people in the Washington area to attend an Occupy Wall Street rally.
Anderson’s active role in promoting OWS is the latest curious detail to emerge as scrutiny focuses on her husband, ex-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman.
In a Dec. 6 tweet, Anderson, a senior program adviser for the D.C.-based group Public Campaign, tweeted “DC, good morning! Come down to the Mall and tell your 99% story!” as well as a picture of a white tent with a poster on the outside saying, “Story of the 99%. Training Today 830.”
Occupy Wall Street is a movement that began on Sept. 17, 2011 in Manhattan’s Financial District and has grown to more than 100 cities in the U.S. The Occupy rallies sought to bring attention to the disparity among classes in the country, though were also criticized for lacking focus and being unruly. Multiple cities, including D.C., held their own rallies
Anderson’s group, Public Campaign, bills itself as nonpartisan, and states it is working with “a broad range of organizations” to reform campaign-finance rules. However, the group receives much of its funding from such liberal groups as the Ford Foundation, Barbra Streisand’s The Streisand Foundation and Health Care for America NOW, a coalition of labor unions supporting ObamaCare that includes the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union, according to the Public Campaign website.
When the scandal over the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups broke, Public Campaign also appeared to defend the tax agency.
Nick Nyhart, chief executive for Public Campaign, suggested to ABC News that the misdeeds of a “few bad apples” within the agency will “make it harder for those questions to be asked without claims of bias.”
Last month, Shulman faced a tough round of questioning by Congress on the scandal that’s weighed heavily on the federal tax collecting agency. Shulman, who was appointed to his post by President George W. Bush, denied knowing that the agency targeted Tea Party groups between 2010 and 2012. Others have been skeptical about Shulman’s testimony and his knowledge of events.
Recently released reports show that Shulman made more than 100 visits to the White House.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/04/ex-irs-commissioner-wife-supported-occupy-wall-street-movement/#ixzz2VHgTYzc1

EPA accused of singling out conservative groups, amid IRS scandal

Fox News

It's not just the IRS. 

A second federal agency is facing a probe and accusations of political bias over its alleged targeting of conservative groups. 

The allegations concern the Environmental Protection Agency, which is being accused of trying to charge conservative groups fees while largely exempting liberal groups. The fees applied to Freedom of Information Act requests -- allegedly, the EPA waived them for liberal groups far more often than it did for conservative ones. 

The allegations are under investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is also holding hearings on the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups. 

"I don't think it is fair at all. It is not fair to the American taxpayer -- the American taxpayer should expect and demand that the EPA treats everyone equally in regard to these requests," said Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Tim Murphy, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. "This cannot be tolerated. As we see more federal agencies with this kind of bias, it is and should be a concern for all of us." 

Research by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank, claims that the political bias is routine when it comes to deciding which groups are charged fees. Christopher Horner, senior fellow at CEI, said liberal groups have their fees for documents waived about 90 percent of the time, in contrast with conservative groups that it claims are denied fee waivers about 90 percent of the time. 

"The idea is to throw hurdles in our way," charged Horner, who says he decided to look into the fee structure after the EPA repeatedly turned down his group for waivers. 

"In 20 cases of ours, since the beginning of last year, we were expressly denied, or denied by them simply refusing to respond, in 18 out of 20 cases," said Horner, explaining that the batting percentage for fees waived in favor of liberal groups is overwhelming. 

"Earth Justice was batting 17 out of 19, the Sierra Club was the worst, at 70 percent granted, 11 out of 15. You add up some other groups and we found that 75 out of 82 groups granted, because these are the groups that the EPA has decided are the favored groups." 

The EPA has denied any favoritism. 

Acting EPA Administrator Bob Perciasepe told the House Energy and Commerce Committee on May 16 that "our policy is to treat everybody the same," and the agency is considering pursuing an investigation. 

In a statement to Fox News, the EPA said: "The Office of Inspector General received from the Environmental Protection Agency the official request to look into this matter just over a week ago, so the request is currently under review by the OIG at this early stage." 

But Horner, who has studied federal government agency practices as the author of "The Liberal War on Transparency: Confessions of a Freedom of Information 'Criminal,'" says that charging fees or denying information requests is a underhanded method that government agencies use to try and stymie the free flow of information or political dissent. 

"This is no different than denying a group that you don't agree with ... whether you are the IRS or the EPA, their tax-exempt status," said Horner. 

"You're talking about essentially making or breaking them, or at a minimum, snuffing out their ability to pursue their objectives."
Murphy said treating groups differently is simply not right. 

"We are hoping that the acting administrator of the EPA can already send a message out to his people that this will not be tolerated," Murphy said. "It is wrong. Similar with the people with the IRS who testified that, 'well some of things may not be illegal,' they can still be wrong. People expect their government to not be acting in these ways, but to be fair and just and truthful in these informational quests and in their investigations." 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/04/epa-accused-singling-out-conservative-groups-amid-irs-scandal/#ixzz2VHfAItSw

'No use for them': Racial comments resurface from Obama housing pick

Fox News

Racially charged comments made by President Obama's pick to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency are adding fuel to the fire of an already controversial nomination.
The president picked North Carolina Rep. Mel Watt on Wednesday to lead the agency, praising his understanding of the housing crisis which crippled the economy several years ago. If approved by the Senate, Watt would replace Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the FHFA. But getting the Senate to agree that Watt's the man for the job may be tough.
While lawmakers are raising early concerns about Watt's willingness to get tough on questionable lending practices, he also comes with a history of controversial remarks.
During an Oct. 14, 2005 hearing held by the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Watt reportedly said that a "substantial majority of white voters" would not vote for a black candidate under any circumstances.
Multiple attempts by FoxNews.com to obtain a transcript of the hearing from the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act were not successful. But a report at the time by CNSNews.com quoted Watt saying the Voting Rights Act should be expanded and have districts changed to factor in race-based voting and help minority candidates.
He acknowledged "some" white people would support a black candidate, but said voters who refuse should be "factored out."
"I've got no use for them in the democratic process," he reportedly said.
Watt also claimed that black voters -- unlike white voters -- don't have "an absolute commitment" to voting for a candidate based on race.
Three years later, Barack Obama would become the first black president, capturing 43 percent of the vote among white voters. That does not constitute a majority, but by comparison, 4 percent of black voters supported Sen. John McCain.
Calls to the Congressional Black Caucus, which Watt used to lead, and Watt's office were not returned.
In 2004, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader also accused Watt of "using an obscene racial epitaph" against him during a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. According to an account at the time in The Hill, Nader said Watt called him, "just another arrogant white man, telling us what we can do. It's all about your ego, another (expletive) arrogant white man."
The comments allegedly came during a tense meeting Nader had with the Caucus on his run for the White House. At the meeting, group leaders allegedly told Nader his bid would defeat the common goal of beating then-President George W. Bush. Nader claims Watt made racist comments toward him and demanded an apology in a two-and-a-half page letter he wrote to the Caucus and released to the media. He did not get one.
The comments from Watt's past are only part of the problem, some lawmakers say.
Conservatives question Watt's record on housing finance and say he's too close to the Obama administration and the banking industry to make the critical calls needed to lead the agency.
If approved, as director of the FHFA Watt would be in charge of overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee about half of all U.S. mortgages. Because there is $5 trillion at stake, Watt's decisions would carry more weight over the housing sector and in turn the broader U.S. economy than those who previously held the position.
In the five years since the housing giants were bailed out with $187 billion in taxpayer money, they have managed to show signs of recovery. Freddie was hit with $94 billion in losses from 2007 to 2011 but earned back $11 billion last year. Even though Fannie and Freddie are on the mend, industry experts caution against putting a politician in place to oversee their fiscal health.
In the past, Watt has pushed for better access to mortgages for minority and low-income borrowers, but some say his inclusive record is exactly what should exclude him from consideration.
"I could not be more disappointed in this nomination. This gives new meaning to the adage that the fox is guarding the hen house," Republican Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker said in a statement Wednesday. "The debate around his nomination will illuminate for all Americans why Fannie and Freddie failed so miserably."
Corker's comments echo the calls that other conservative lawmakers have made about the administration's rush to fill the top spot at the FHFA. Mark Calabria, a director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute and a former staffer on the Senate Banking Committee during the creation of the FHFA, said there was a bipartisan push to make sure a politician would not lead the government agency and that the post was created with a banking regulator in mind.
"We went out of our way to make sure this wasn't the outcome," Calabria told FoxNews.com Thursday.
Calabria believes the ideal candidate should have strong banking credentials and be able to stand up to political pressure which could result in bad lending practices and distort free-market dynamics.
Obama strongly endorsed Watt for the job Wednesday, saying he's helped protect consumers from the "reckless risk-taking" that triggered the financial crisis while also giving more Americans in low-income areas "access to affordable housing."
"Mel understands as well as anybody what caused the housing crisis. He knows what it's going to take to help responsible homeowners fully recover," Obama said. 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/02/obama-pick-for-housing-post-comes-with-racial-political-controversy/#ixzz2SFUQfngz

Obama’s czar pick snagged in Castro love fest

wnd

Aaron Klein

Congressman Mel Watt with Congresswoman Barbara Lee during a news conference in Cuba, April 2009. Image Credit: REUTERS

President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency went on a trip to Cuba in 2009 aimed at opening relations with the communist nation, WND has learned.

According to the Cuban media, Rep. Melvin Watt, D-N.C., along with his wife, was part of a delegation of five other lawmakers from the Congressional Black Caucus who held a four-and-a-half hour meeting in April 2009 with Cuban President Raul Castro, Fidel Castro’s brother.

Raul Castro previously led the Cuban army and was a rebel commander in the 1950s. The meeting served as Castro’s first face-to-face discussions with American elected officials since assuming office in 2008.

The delegation was headed by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. After the meeting, Lee told media, “All of us are convinced that President Castro would like normal relations and would see normalization, ending the embargo, as beneficial to both countries.”

Reuters reported that Lee’s delegation “avoided specifics” with Castro “but were struck by his humor, impressed by his involvement in Third World causes and firm in their belief that he wants to end U.S.-Cuba enmity.”

Politico reported Lee and others heaped praise on Castro, calling him warm and receptive during their discussion.

Politico also reported that the lawmakers disputed Castro’s later statement that members of the congressional delegation said American society is still racist.

The meeting reportedly took place in secret without the customary presence of a U.S. State Department official.

The New York Times reported that Cuban state television showed Castro, wearing a business suit instead of his trademark olive-green fatigues, sitting down with Lee and other members of the American delegation. The television report provided no details of what was discussed.

In an article now scrubbed from the Internet but previously captured by WND, the Cuban Communist Party daily Granma stated that the lawmakers attending with Lee and Watt were Reps. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., Marcia L. Fudge, D-Ohio, Laura Richardson, D-Calif., and Bobby Rush, D-Ill.

“Also participating were Patrice Willougby, executive assistant to the [Congressional] Black Caucus, and Eulada Watt, wife of Congressman Melvin Luther Watt,” according to Granma.

It’s not the only potential controversy related to Watt’s appointment to an agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as the country’s 12 Federal Home Loan Banks.

The Washington Free Beacon reported Tuesday Watt was investigated by of the Office of Congressional Ethics regarding a fundraising incident in 2009 involving major banks, although ultimately no charges were brought against him.

In the case, a fundraiser was held in Watt’s honor just days before the House voted to rewrite legislation regarding federal financial regulation. Financial institutions such as Bank of America, KPMG, Ameriprise Financial and Goldman Sachs were in attendance.

The Free Beacon notes Watt withdrew an amendment from the legislation that focused on whether auto loans ought to be included in the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency two days after the event. Without the amendment, franchised auto dealers would have fallen out of the regulatory agency’s reach.

With research by Brenda J. Elliott

Commerce nominee tangled in massive bank collapse that cost depositors millions

Bloomberg 

Fox News

By Judson Berger
President Obama's nominee for Commerce secretary was embroiled in a massive bank failure more than a decade ago, in a collapse that cost depositors and federal insurers millions of dollars.
The 2001 collapse of Superior Bank FSB now appears likely to re-emerge, more than a decade later, as Commerce nominee Penny Pritzker prepares for a confirmation hearing and Republicans already draw attention to the bank implosion.
Pritzker's family, which founded Hyatt and is one of the wealthiest in the country, co-owned Superior Bank at the time of its collapse. The lawyer who represented depositors in the case told FoxNews.com on Thursday that the Pritzker family enjoyed a "special deal" while the "little guys" ended up "footing the bill."
"The message of our Cabinet members should be people who do the right thing," attorney Clint Krislov said Thursday. "And it should not be a message of, if you're very wealthy you get a special deal and you get to sit on the Cabinet, too."
Uninsured depositors at the Illinois bank are still owed roughly $10 million, according to federal records -- after a court challenge was rejected in 2007, those savings may never be recovered. The collapse also cost the FDIC, which insures banks, nearly $300 million.
The failure, according to federal regulators, was triggered by a pattern of risky lending.
The Office of Thrift Supervision took the rare step of shuttering the Hinsdale, Ill., bank on July 27, 2001. The office said at the time the bank "suffered as a result of its former high-risk business strategy," including "significant volumes of subprime" mortgage and auto loans.
What happened after the collapse, though, is what triggered the lawsuit involving Krislov.
The Pritzker family, as part of a settlement to shield itself from liability, agreed to pay $460 million to the federal government. But the family was subsequently able to claim part of a separate $125 million settlement from the bank's accounting firm.
Krislov said the family was first in line for the money, followed by the depositors.
"That is what is fundamentally troubling," he said. "They got a priority ahead of depositors while depositors were still short."
An FDIC representative, though, suggested to the Chicago Tribune in 2004 that the sheer size of the $460 million settlement justified the trade-off.
"If it means $30 million is turned over to the Pritzkers, I think it's hard to dispute that it's not advantageous for creditors of that failed institution," the spokesman said.
Pritzker's involvement with the bank's questionable lending practices is unclear. She served as chairwoman of the bank from 1991 to 1994, after her uncle Jay went in with another wealthy family to buy Superior in the late '80s.
Pritzker spokeswoman Susan Anderson stressed that Pritzker was not an officer or director at the time the bank failed.
"She left its board in 1994, seven years before the bank failed. During her tenure, the bank received clean audits and regulators gave it high marks," she said in an email to FoxNews.com, calling her record as a manager "extraordinary."
She also noted that despite the losses sustained by depositors, they did get 81 percent of their savings back, in addition to the $100,000 insured amount. "This is ... typical when a bank fails," she said.
The FDIC insures depositors for up to $100,000. In the case of Superior, those with accounts above that amount were still repaid part -- but not all -- of their uninsured savings.
Krislov said he wrote to Penny Pritzker after his clients lost their suit asking her to pay the remaining $10 million to the uninsured depositors.
"I just figured it was the right thing to do," he said, adding that he never heard back.
The Pritzker family also reportedly struck a deal in 2011 that allowed them to enjoy a discount off the $460 million settlement.
The history of the bank was glossed over in Thursday's announcement at the White House, though the Republican National Committee blasted out old news clippings from the saga.
Obama, during the nomination ceremony, cited Pritzker's "extraordinary experience."
"Penny is one of our countries' most distinguished business leaders. She's got more than 25 years of management experience in industries, including real estate, finance, and hospitality. She's built companies from the ground up," Obama said.
Pritzker is on the board with Hyatt Hotels Corp., which was co-founded by her dad. She's also chairwoman of Pritzker Realty Group. She previously served on Obama's jobs council, and helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the president's 2008 and 2012 campaigns -- she held positions with both campaigns.
Pritzker is also one of the wealthiest people in the country. Forbes pegs her net worth at $1.85 billion, and lists her as the 277th wealthiest person in the U.S.
Krislov acknowledged the family has done some "very terrific things" in philanthropy, but said: "She would not be my first pick" for Commerce.
The White House did not return a request for comment. 

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