Krauthammer: ‘America Is Headed the Way of Cyprus’ (Video)

California taxpayers are fuming over a new $120 million retroactive tax grab on small business owners.

Fox News reported:

In December, the state’s tax authority determined that a tax break claimed over the past few years by 2,500 entrepreneurs and stockholders of California-based small businesses is no longer valid and sent out notices of payment.

“How would you feel if you made a decision, which was made four years ago, (and) you absolutely knew was legally correct and four years later a governing body came in and said, ‘no, it’s not correct, now you owe us a bunch more money. And we’re going to charge you interest on money you didn’t even know you owed’,” Brian Overstreet told Fox News from his office north of San Francisco.

On Special Report, tonight, Charles Krauthammer said, “I think we do have to revise our doomsday pronouncements. We had been saying up til now, America’s heading the way of Greece. I would say it’s headed the way of Cyprus.

Because when you start to confiscate peoples’ money retroactively, you’ve got a real problem on your hands.”

Gowdy on Cavuto: Release of Detainees Jeopardizes Public Safety: “They Wanted to Play Games With Sequester” (Video)

Earlier today, the House Judiciary Committee, held a full committee hearing on ICE’s decision to release thousands of Criminal & Illegal Aliens.

According to Subcommittee Chairman Trey Gowdy, (R-SC): “ICE contends it only detains the ‘worst of the worst;’ therefore it necessarily follows ICE just released thousands of the ‘worst of the worst’ onto our streets.  It strains credibility to understand why then the first cost-saving measure ICE pursued was to release detainees from custody.”

I posted video of Gowdy’s tough questioning of ICE officials, earlier today.

He told Neil Cavuto on his show, this afternoon:

“I just do not want law enforcement or the criminal justice system playing the same political games we always play with other agencies and institutions of government. I would just hope that public safety would be immune from these kinds of political shenanigans, but apparently, it’s not.”

 

Video: Rep Darrell Issa on Oversight Investigation of Labor Nominee Perez Over Role in St. Paul Quid-Pro-Quo

Today, Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa appeared on Fox News’ America Live with Megyn Kelly to discuss the Obama’s controversial nomination of Tom Perez to the Labor Department.

The Oversight Committee has been investigating Mr. Perez’s role in the dismissal of a Supreme Court case as highlighted in the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial today, “The Talented Mr. Perez, How Obama’s Labor nominee muscled a city to drop a Supreme Court case”.

President Obama nominated Thomas Perez on Monday to run the Labor Department, praising him as “a consensus-builder” who passed the nation’s “first statewide living-wage law” in Maryland. That isn’t his only talent. Consider how Mr. Perez worked behind the scenes to undermine two civil cases against the City of St. Paul in order to stop a Supreme Court case that might have repudiated his discrimination enforcement theories.

These columns first reported on the curious St. Paul episode in February 2012 (“Squeezed in St. Paul”), after the Minnesota city withdrew a case that it had spent almost a decade litigating and that the U.S. Supreme Court had already agreed to hear. We’ve since learned more about how it happened, and we’ve seen emails that illustrate the strong-arm role played by Mr. Perez in his current job as head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. It’s a story of how political muscle undermined the rule of law.

At the beginning of the segment, Issa  briefly also discussed the Benghazi witnesses, being hidden by the Obama administration, saying, “the fact is, every time we interview people who were there, we find that the stories that were told to us publicly, and the stories these individuals tell us privately are always different.”

 

Pat Caddell, #CPAC2013: “Getting Hollywood Right” (Video)

Democrat strategist, Pat Caddell participated in a panel called “Getting Hollywood Right” on Friday afternoon, March 15 at CPAC 2013. Calling on big donors to stop wasting their money on consultants, he argued that Hollywood was “wide open” for conservatives who are willing to invest their time and treasure on the production of good movies.

At the 7:07 mark, he held up the video, Dreams from My Real Father, a documentary that argues Obama’s “real father” was Communist activist and author Frank Marshal Davis, saying it drove more voters to support Obama.

On the other hand, he says, The Hope and the Change,  which showed Democrat voters sharing their disappointment in Obama,  convinced undecided voters not to vote for Obama in 2012.

Mark Joseph, producer of Reagan, The Movie, moderated the panel and introduced Pat Caddell.

Video: Congressman Trey Gowdy Presses DHS on Release of Aggravated Felons to Cut Costs

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is holding a full committee hearing today that is being  livestreamed on CSPAN3. 

According to Subcommittee Chairman Trey Gowdy, (R-SC): “ICE contends it only detains the ‘worst of the worst;’ therefore it necessarily follows ICE just released thousands of the ‘worst of the worst’ onto our streets.  It strains credibility to understand why then the first cost-saving measure ICE pursued was to release detainees from custody.”

Gowdy questioned DHS Under Secretary, Management, Rafael Borras on the  10 level 1, aggravated felons released by ICE. Where might they have cut a measly $1,200 a day instead of releasing dangerous criminals into the public?  Conferences? Travel? Promotional material?

“But you agree with me that the decision to release level 1, aggravated felons was not the only option that you had, there were other places that you could have cut costs?” Gowdy asked at one point.

“There was nothing else you could do as a cost saving measure.” Is that your testimony?” He pressed.

Borras answered in the negative: “no, it’s not my testimony.”

Gowdy also pressed ICE Director Morton on the release of criminal detainees.

“It does look like the decision to release the detainees was a political determination and not a monetary determination,” Gowdy said. “It appears to me that the release of the detainees was part of a sequester campaign that included the fictional firing of teachers, the closing of the White House for student tours, the displacement of meat inspectors and now we are going to release aggravated felons—some aggravated felons onto the street.”

Yet they did it.

Linked by Doug Ross, thanks!

Sequestration Hearings Streaming Live

A joint subcommittee hearing, “Sequestration Oversight: Understanding the Administration’s Decisions on Spending Cuts and Furloughs” started at  1:30 p.m. Eastern.
The hearing is streaming live at Oversight.house.gov  and is supposed to “examine how agencies plan to implement the sequester in the coming months and over the long-term.”

In plain language – Congress is hauling up the heads of agencies to ask them why they’re making such high profile, “painful cuts” rather than cuts in waste and overhead.

Also, the House Judiciary is holding a hearing on the scandalous Release of Immigrants from Detention Centers. Background,  here,  here, here,  here, and here.

John Morton, the director of ICE, has been testifying.

At 2:30 Eastern they took a recess for a vote on the House floor, and will reconvene the hearing, shortly.