DHS Defies Court Ruling: Rushing Amnesty Contracts at “Full-Throttle Pace” UPDATED

UPDATE: Good News: Hours after Judicial Watch posted this story, the government cancelled the Request For Proposal (RFP). It looks like they were trying to pull a fast one, but got caught.

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It’s almost as if Monday’s Federal Court injunction to stop Obama’s Executive Amnesty didn’t happen.

According to a Judicial Watch source,  DHS is rushing to award contracts to 200 – 600 companies to process illegal immigrants as soon as possible.

Though a federal court has blocked President Obama’s amnesty order the administration continues working behind the scenes to quickly award multi-million-dollar contracts to firms that can expeditiously process millions of illegal immigrants, a government source has alerted Judicial Watch.

The complex deal is being rushed through at a “full-throttle pace” extremely rare for such a huge venture  that’s sure to radically change the current system, according to JW’s source, who has worked for decades as a contract expert at the highest levels of government. The Request For Proposal (RFP) was recently posted in the government’s official database for federal procurement opportunities and comes from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agency charged with processing visa and naturalization petitions, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

The RFP estimates that the population of potential requesters for the president’s deferred action will be “approximately four million people” and that USCIS anticipates the initial filing of “approximately five to six million forms” related to the amnesty order which also covers the illegal immigrant parents of U.S. citizens and lawful residents. The work is to begin in mid-March, the document reveals, and the contractor will operate out of a new center in Arlington, Virginia because there is no current facility with available space or staff to accommodate the “additional volume of work.” The center will be dedicated to processing deferred action for illegal immigrant parents of citizens, employment authorization and correspondence management.

Read the rest here.

Something seems to have changed since Tuesday when DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said that although he “strongly” disagreed with the decision, “we recognize we must comply with it.”

Judge Hanen’s order specifically bans agencies like DHS and USCIS from executing Obama’s executive action.

Looks like we may have a Constitutional Crisis on our hands.

SEE ALSO:

Hot Air: Rasmussen: Plurality of Democrats think Obama should be able to ignore court rulings if it’s “important”:

A small reminder that Obama couldn’t get away with his authoritarian plays on immigration and health care if his party wasn’t backing him up. Turns out, in fact, that they’re willing to go even further than he is. Obama tends to limit himself to summarily rewriting federal statutes, like immigration laws and ObamaCare’s employer mandate. Democrats wonder: Why not rewrite some federal court rulings too?

Something to bear in mind as we wait for SCOTUS’s decision on ObamaCare subsidies in the Halbig case and the Fifth Circuit’s decision on that injunction blocking O’s executive amnesty. He’s already entered the YOPO phase of his presidency. Why not make his base happy by ignoring any adverse rulings and instigating a full-blown constitutional crisis?

UPDATE: 

Obama Seeking An Emergency Court Order To Go Ahead With Executive Action On Amnesty…

When it comes to Obama’s fundamental transformation, #WeCan’tWait

When it comes to fighting an growing evil that is quickly turning into an existential threat, #What’sTheRush

The Council Has Spoken! The Watcher’s Council Results

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

“The difference between golf and government is that in golf you can’t improve your lie.” – George Duekmejian, former Republican governor of California

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. -President Thomas Jefferson

““If we can really understand the problem, than the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.” – Krishnamurti

“It’s easy being a humorist when you’ve got the whole government working for you.” – Will Rogers

This week’s winning essay, The Right Planet’s – More Hipster Harf: ‘We Can’t Stop ISIS by Killing Them; We Need to Give Them Jobs’ uses State department Spokesperson Marie Harf’s ridiculous statement about buying off Islamic State and others with ‘jobs’ as a starting point for an explanation on why the Left has such a problem facing up to radical Islam. Here’s a slice:

For many years now I have said the State Department needs to be cleaned out from top to bottom. And I’m not alone in that opinion, either. The U.S. Department of State has a long history of working against the best interests of the United States, consistently shilling for all things socialist. Those who have looked into tax-exempt foundations like the Carnegie Endowment, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Consortium, Guggenheim Fellowship, etc., and the subsequent investigation by the Reece Committee, might know what I’m talking about.

The first U.S. Secretary of Defense, James Forrestal, once said, “Consistency has never been a mark of stupidity. If the diplomats who have mishandled our relations with Russia were merely stupid, they would have occasionally made a mistake in our favor.”

State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf recently told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews ISIS could be stopped if we could just create jobs for them.

At first blush, for those ignorant of Marxist ideology, this sort of thinking seems preposterous. Well, I am strongly inclined to agree. But I digress.

For dyed-in-the-wool Marxists and their fellow travelers (sympathizers), it makes perfect sense. This is why I believe it so important more Americans gain a better understanding of Marxism—since it is lauded and approved of by so many American universities and the liberal media, not to mention those in positions of power within our own government.

Karl Marx believed our view of history needed to be changed (cf. “hope and change”). Cleon Skousen wrote in his book The Naked Communist about the central importance economics plays in the Marxian religion. Marx believed history should be changed to “a fixed, undeviating, pre-determined course of progress which could be charted in the past and predicted for the future on the basis of a single, simple criterion—economics.”

According to Marx and his votaries, if we could only “level the playing field” by making everyone and everything the same (see “equality and fairness”), it would usher in a veritable utopia, i.e., the long hoped for “workers’ paradise.” Interestingly, about 90 percent of what Karl Marx wrote concerned economics (see Das Kapital).

Well, let’s just get something straight: ISIS doesn’t give a damn about economics—quite the contrary. Their motivations and actions are not influenced by Marxism, per se, but rather the teachings of Muhammad, and a literal interpretation of the Koran and the Hadith.

Although it should be noted that Marxism and Islam have quite a bit in a common.

More at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Graeme Wood in the Atlantic with an interesting piece, What ISIS Really Wants submitted by Bookworm Room . He attempts to present something very rare in today’s climate, an examination of the conflict from the point of view of Islamic State.An excellent read.

Here are this week’s full results. Only Bookworm Room and Ask Marion were unable to vote this week, but neither was subject to the usual 2/3 vote penalty for not voting:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes!–The Right Planet – More Hipster Harf: ‘We Can’t Stop ISIS by Killing Them; We Need to Give Them Jobs’
• Second place with 2 votes –Simply Jews – Then we’ll kill us some Jews too…
• Third place with 1 2/3 votes –The Noisy Room – ISIS Parades 17 Kurdish Fighters in Cages to be Burned Alive Like Jordanian Pilot
• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes –The Independent Sentinel – Stunning: Barack Obama Refused to Share Intel With Egypt and Jordan
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Bookworm Room – Getting Obama On Board With Israelis: They’re not imperialists; they’re just undocumented immigrants!
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –The Razor – Fifty Shades Of Pathetic
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –VA Right! – Will Hanover Schools Teach ‘Both Sides’ of the Pilot ISIS Burned Alive?
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Nice Deb – Supporters of Violent Extremism To Participate In WH Summit on Countering Violent Extremism (Video)
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – Chris Hayes Gets One Right On Similarity Of Muslim Murders To Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown Killings
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Ask Marion – Palimania And Why She Can Win

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 2/3 votes! –Graeme Wood/The Atlantic–What ISIS Really Wants submitted by Bookworm Room
• Second place with 1 1/3 votes –Judicial Watch – Border Patrol Ordered to Release Drunk Drivers, “Allow Them to Go On Their Way” submitted by The Right Planet
• Third place *t* with 1 vote –Caroline Glick –Obama: Mainstreaming Jew-Hatred in America submitted by The Noisy Room
• Third place *t* with 1 vote –Andrew McCarthy/NRO – Folks Do the Randomest Things submitted by The Watcher
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Tom Gross – What Bat Mitzvah? Nothing Random Here submitted by Simply Jews
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad/The National Interest – Navigating a Turbulent Middle East submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes – Charles Cameron/Zenpundit – Joas Wagemakers on al-Maqdisi & the Jordanian pilot negotiations submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –The Other McCain – Tea Party & GOP Elite Walk Into A Bar. . . submitted by The Watcher
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –Breitbart – CNN Lists Attacks by Islamists, Says ‘Religion’ Had Bad Week submitted by VA Right!
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –Megan McArdle/Bloomberg –A Few More Arguments Against Obamacare submitted by The Razor
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –David Greenfield/FrontPage Mag –Heroes of Freedom Died in Copenhagen submitted by The Independent Sentinel
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – U Cal Student Gov’t votes to divest from most of world, including U.S.submitted by Rhymes with Right

See you next week!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. and every  Tuesday morning, when we reveal the weeks’ nominees for Weasel of the Week!

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher’s Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y’know?

Rudy Doubles Down: Refuses To Apologize For Anti-Obama Comment, Repeats It

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was feisty on “The Kelly File” Thursday night,  doubling down on his comment that Barack Obama does not love America.

Via Fox News:

Megyn Kelly asked Giuliani: Do you want to apologize for your comment?

“Not at all, I want to repeat it,” he said, charging Obama with apologizing for America and criticizing the country.

Kelly pressed Giuliani, noting that Obama could view foreign policy through a Democratic lens. “But to condemn his patriotism, to question his love of America?” she asked.

“I don’t hear from him what I heard from Harry Truman, what I heard from Bill Clinton, what I heard from Jimmy Carter, which is these wonderful words about what a great country we are, what an exceptional country we are,” Giuliani said.

He stressed, “I’m right about this. I have no doubt about it. I do not withdraw my words.”

Giuliani went on to make the case in even stronger terms than he did before, evoking Obama’s Commie grandparents, Frank Marshall Davis, and Obama’s 17 year stint in Rev. Jeremiah (G*d Damn America) Wright’s church. (It really seems like Giuliani’s been researching Obama’s background – especially the disturbing early years.)

“Now, if you were in that church, wouldn’t you quit that church?” Giuliani asked Megyn – who was either in major devil’s advocate mode, or being pretentiously PC. “Would you have quit that church?” he persisted.

“Well, it’s not about me,” Megyn dodged.

“But I know you would quit that church,” Rudy declared. “And the reason you would is because of the way you were brought up – about how exceptional this country is… how wonderful this country is…”

In an attempt to prove Rudy’s hypocrisy, Megyn showed an old video of him on Hannity railing against the infamous MoveOn “General Betray-Us” ad which Giuliani found appalling and uncivil at the time.

“I ask you the same thing,” Megyn said, “what kind of civility was that?” – referring to Rudy’s comments about Obama.

“I think that was perfectly civil,” Giuliani insisted. “I think it’s a reasonable opinion…”

(It’s not only a ‘reasonable” opinion – it’s a necessary opinion. For six years now, this president has been hellbent on knocking the country down a peg. It’s time he was knocked down a peg.)

“I do not withdraw my words,” Giuliani concluded.

Linked by AoSHQ, thanks!

CNN’s Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact, Forgery Premieres March 1

 

With the onset of Lent, a new CNN series on Christ called, Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact, Forgery, premieres on March 1 at 9 p.m. ET.  With the objective of discovering new insights about the historical Jesus, the series utilizes the latest state-of-the-art scientific techniques and archaeological research.

Each episode of the six-part series investigates the value and authenticity of a historical object which is connected to Jesus: the Shroud of Turin, relics venerated as part of the True Cross, the gospel of Judas, relics believed to be of John the Baptist, the burial box of Jesus’ brother James and the gospel of Mary Magdalene.

Part documentary – part emotional drama, the series not only examines some mysterious artifacts from the world of the Bible, but also the Gospel characters and stories related to the artifacts. In the episode about the Shroud of Turin, their dramatized reenactment of the Passion of Christ packs a powerful punch. As the narrator says, “the Shroud of Turin appears to be a silent witness to all the final sufferings of Jesus.”

“It is extraordinary to find an archaeological piece that is proof of his existence, his death, and his resurrection,” said Erwin MacManus, one of CNN’s panel of experts.

The panel includes academics from the world’s best universities including Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Oxford, providing historical and theological insight and also features Father James Martin SJ (the editor of ‘America’ the United States’ national Catholic magazine), the Rev. Paul Raushenbush (executive religion editor of the Huffington Post), and Erwin MacManus, senior pastor of MOSAIC Los Angeles.

These are not necessarily the theologians I would have chosen, but after watching  The Shroud of Turin, I can vouch for their scholarly and respectful treatment of the fascinating material.

The series also features award-winning journalist and filmmaker David Gibson, who specializes in covering the Catholic Church.

Gibson co-wrote the series’ companion book from St. Martin’s Press, also titled Finding Jesus, that was released on Feb. 24.

Here is the Trailer:

Again, this premieres Sunday, March 1 at 9 p.m. ET. I’ll definitely be tuning in with my family.

 SEE ALSO:

Father James Martin, CNN: Five things you didn’t know about Jesus