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Politics : How Quickly Can Obama Totally Destroy the US? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Shoot1st who wrote (5929)	10/6/2013 11:44:15 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

New York police: Bikers stomped on SUV driver ................................................................................................ By Susan Candiotti. Tom Watkins and Greg Botelho, CNN cnn.com New charges in biker, SUV clash STORY HIGHLIGHTS Lawyer says Reginald Chance was a victim and didn't take part in the beating One biker stomped on the SUV driver's head and body, police said Source: An off-duty police officer was among motorcyclists who saw the incident Police: The SUV driver plowed into three bikers while fleeing, critically injuring one New York (CNN) -- About a half-dozen bikers accused of beating an SUV driver last weekend used their helmets to attack him and kicked his head and body as he lay on the ground, New York police said. Police said one of the bikers -- Robert Sims -- also stomped on the driver's head and body, according to a detective's criminal complaint. Sims was one of two bikers who turned himself in to authorities on Friday. He has been charged with attempted assault, gang assault and criminal possession of a weapon. According to police, Sims can be seen in a video going after the SUV. The driver of the SUV suffered two black eyes and cuts on his face and side, requiring stitches, the criminal complaint said. One of the bikers, Edwin Mieses, was critically injured in the melee. His wife said he is paralyzed. The other biker who turned himself in, Reginald Chance, is also suspected in the beating of driver Alexian Lien. Police identified the 37-year-old Chance as the man seen in the video pounding his shiny helmet against the SUV. Chance appeared for arraignment Sunday and was charged with first-degree assault and gang assault, both felonies; unlawful imprisonment; criminal possession of a weapon and criminal mischief, according to court papers. His bail was set at $75,000 cash or $100,000 if secured by property, and his next court appearance was set for October 11. Chance's lawyer, Gregory Watts, said his client didn't take part in the beating. He said Chance and Mieses are also victims in the case, and he urged prosecutors to call a grand jury to investigate Lien. "We concede the criminal mischief," Watts said. "It's obvious that he overreacted. But the law does permit someone who is a victim of an accident to at least attempt to get the identification of the motorist. My client obviously overreacted in that manner, but he is not this thug assaulting someone who's harmless, contrary to the public opinion that's being put out there." Source: Off-duty police officer among bikers who saw SUV driver beaten The clash Biker: SUV driver 'was a maniac' Lien was in his Range Rover on his way back from an outing to celebrate his wedding anniversary with his wife and their 2-year-old daughter. Dozens of bikers swarmed past him on Manhattan's West Side Highway. A cycle quickly slowed down in front of Lien, who bumped its rear tire, slightly injuring rider Christopher Cruz. Lien pulled to a stop, and angry bikers surrounded his vehicle, hitting it and spiking its tires, police said. Lien stepped on the gas, plowing into three more bikers, including Mieses, who was critically injured. One of the bikers, wearing a helmet camera caught the dust-up on video, which later in an edited version appeared on the Internet. It showed the Range Rover stopping at a later point with the biker gang still in pursuit. A man, who police say was Sims, got off his motorcycle and opened Lien's door, police spokesman Sgt. Carlos Nieves said Friday. Lien drove off with his door slightly open, but further down the road, traffic backed up, cutting off his path, and allowing the motorcyclists to corner him. A biker, who police identify as Chance, smashed the driver's side window with his helmet. That's where the video ended. Afterward, some of the bikers dragged Lien from the vehicle and beat him, police said. His wife and daughter were unharmed. Cop among the bikers An off-duty New York police officer was riding with the bikers Sunday and saw much of the confrontation that ended with five injured. But he didn't step in, an official said. He also didn't tell his superiors about what happened until Wednesday, the source said. The officer, who works undercover, is a member of the motorcycle club. He may not have been legally obligated to immediately intervene, according to the same source. It's not clear why he waited so long to report what he saw. He has hired a lawyer and is being investigated by the New York Police Department's internal affairs unit. Suspect identified in SUV battle Interrogations, arrest Police seized the helmet-cam video and questioned the motorcyclist who shot it. They arrested Cruz, 28, the biker who abruptly slowed in front of the Range Rover. He is charged with misdemeanors including reckless driving. Cruz was later released after posting $1,500 cash bail and a $15,000 insurance bond. His license was suspended, and he was ordered to surrender his passport. Cruz's lawyer insisted he is not guilty. "His motorcycle was struck, and he stood right there," his attorney H. Benjamin Perez said. "He never assaulted this man. He never tried to assault him in any way. And he does not know any of the other motorcyclists who were involved in this beating." A second biker, who was in custody, was released Wednesday, when authorities determined that he may have been trying to help. The NYPD released photos Sunday of two other men they want to find and question as part of the investigation and asked for the public's help in identifying them. Mieses' family, meanwhile, says he is the real victim. "All of his ribs are fractured. His lungs are so badly bruised that he's still on a ventilator," Yolanda Santiago, his mother, told CNN affiliate WCBS. Mieses' wife, Dayana, told CNN affiliate WBZ that he got off his bike to help the SUV driver. She blamed Lien. "He got scared; he peeled off, and he paralyzed my husband on the way," she said. 'We could not have done anything differently' Lien was treated at a hospital for slashes to his face. "My husband was forced under the circumstances to take the actions that he did in order to protect the lives of our entire family," his wife said. "We know in our hearts that we could not have done anything differently, and we believe that anyone faced with this sort of grave danger would have taken the same course of action in order to protect their family." It was Lien's wife who made the last of three 911 calls the family placed during the incident. Bikers have called for Lien to be charged. "That wasn't fear, that was aggression -- he ran over three bikes," a man who identified himself as Jose told reporters Thursday night. "Are we saying, if you feel nervous you can kill somebody? You can paralyze somebody? I think we need to charge him immediately." Angry netizens have turned on the bikers, casting them in a bad light. One biker called for cool heads to prevail. "We are not here to blame anyone, we are not here to point any fingers," Albert Elkerson said. "The true question is how could we have avoided what happened last Sunday, and what can we do to prevent that."

To: Shoot1st who wrote (5929)	10/7/2013 12:01:36 AM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

Reginald (Reggie) Chance, 37, flips off reporters in court Sunday before being charged with taking part in the vicious mob attack in New York on SUV driver Alexian Lien in front of the victim’s wife and toddler. Norman Y. Lono for New York Daily News

To: Shoot1st who wrote (5929)	10/7/2013 12:03:19 AM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

Robert Sims is the first biker arrested and charged in the brutal beating of Alexian Lien (inset).

To: Shoot1st who wrote (5929)	10/7/2013 12:18:11 AM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

Biker beatdown was 6-on-1 attack .................................................................................................................. By Georgett Roberts, Larry Celona and Laura Italiano October 5, 2013 nypost.com Robert Sims is the first biker arrested and charged in the brutal beating of Alexian Lien (inset). Photo: G.N. Miller Good Samaritan in biker beating 'felt intense danger' Biker flips double bird in court as he listens to assault charges Several cops may have watched biker beatdown One biker shattered the Range Rover’s window, then five or six more dragged the driver out, pummeling his head and body with fists, boots and helmets. A week after a rampaging motorcycle gang’s stunning caught-on-video attack on an Internet exec and his family, Manhattan prosecutors have released the first blow-by-blow account based on newly-surfaced cell phone camera footage and photos. As many as six bikers preyed on victim dad Alexian Lien, kicking him in the head even as he tried to crawl to safety, prosecutors said as the first of the accused fist-swingers, Robert Sims, 35, of Brooklyn, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court Saturday night on charges of gang assault and felony assault. Sims was identified on video and photographs by his distinctive black leather jacket, grey backpack, his helmet, which featured the number, “78,” and his grey and white sneakers — which prosecutors say Sims used to kick the cowering dad’s head and body. “The defendant is clearly seen stomping on [Lien’s] head,” assistant district attorney Joshua Steinglass told Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Diana Boyar, who set a whopping $100,000 cash bail. Sims — whose rap sheet includes a 2002 bust for car theft, and gun possession, drug possession and samauri sword possession in 1998, according to sources — has admitted he’s been caught on camera, the prosecutor said. His lawyer, Luther Williams, insisted his client is innocent and said the bikers only went after Lien to prevent him from leaving the scene after striking one of the other bikers with his Rover. Sims is also charged with weapons possession. Prosecutors did not name the weapon, but Williams speculated that officials mean his client’s helmet. “What weapon? Unless they are suggesting the helmets are weapons,” Williams said. Meanwhile, a source close to the case told The Post that the off-duty NYPD undercover detective who stood by Lien was attacked — and who only came forward Wednesday — is insisting that the violence broke with blinding speed, and that he believed blowing his cover could endanger his own life. “It all happened so fast,” said the source, who talked directly to the undercover and spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity. “It wasn’t apparent what was happening till the very end — then it was a feeding frenzy.” Added Detectives Endowment Association president Michael Palladino, “Leading a double life is not easy for undercovers.” Palladino pointed to the case of Detective Gescard Isnora, the undercover cop who blew his own cover and fired the first shot in the 50-bullet fusillade that killed Sean Bell outside a Queens strip club in 2006. “Detective Isnora was on-duty and got fired for stepping out of his undercover role,” Palladino said. “This undercover was off-duty and has every reason to expect the same if something goes wrong.” The motorcycle-loving undercover — whose work is being described as dangerous and “deep undercover” — had joined last Sunday’s 300-rider rally, and admits watching and doing nothing as Lien was attacked in front of his wife and 2-year-old daughter near 178th Street. The undercover has had his badge and gun yanked and remains under departmental investigation after only coming forward as a witness on Wednesday night. A second cop was along for the ride, multiple sources have said, and is also under departmental investigation after coming forward only days after the incident. Meanwhile, the man allegedly caught on video unleashing the motorcycle rampage — Reginald Chance, 38, of Brooklyn — was also charged with first degree gang assault and assault, along with criminal mischief for allegedly swinging his chrome helmet repeatedly into Lien’s window. Chance spent Saturday in lineups at the 33rd Precinct in Washington Heights, where the police investigation is based. Modal TriggerReginald Chance

To: Shoot1st who wrote (5929)	10/7/2013 12:47:38 AM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

Good Samaritan Felt ‘Intense Danger’ When He Intervened In Biker Melee Another Suspect Arraigned Sunday On Charges In Melee October 6, 2013 newyork.cbslocal.com NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A man said he “felt intense danger” as he intervened in the beating of an sport-utility vehicle driver by a gang of bikers in Upper Manhattan. As WCBS 880's Jim Smith reported, Sergio Consuegra said he was walking to church Sept. 29 when he saw the Range Rover stop in Washington Heights and a bunch of motorcyclists approach. “That moment, I started thinking to myself I’ve got to do something,” Consuegra said. “I know I’m going to be in danger, but I’m going to have to take a chance.” He said he then stepped in and told the bikers: “That’s it, guys. Let it go.” He said he shouted the same thing to a biker who was trying to pull the driver’s wife out of the SUV. Then, Consuegra said, he huddled over the beaten driver to protect him, staring down the drivers face to face. Conseugra said he could see it in their eyes — he said there was no question that the bikers wanted to kill the driver. Consuegra and two other people who helped the driver, Alexian Lien, and his family during the infamous assault caught on video were hailed by elected officials as heroes during a news conference Sunday in Washington Heights, where the attack happened a week before.

To: Shoot1st who wrote (5929)	10/7/2013 10:52:06 AM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

FEEL THE PAIN: Feds throw man, 80, and wife, 77, out of home...

To: Shoot1st who wrote (5929)	10/7/2013 9:27:28 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

School Bans Footballs, Baseballs, Lacrosse Balls, Games Of Tag, Doing Cartwheels During Recess...

To: Shoot1st who wrote (5929)	10/7/2013 9:28:07 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

White House Dodges Question on How Many Have Enrolled in Obamacare... Defects Cripple Website...

To: Shoot1st who wrote (5929)	10/7/2013 11:33:36 PM
From: joseffy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16547

Gen. George Washington, CINC of the Continental Army, had to face the largest and most awesome and well-armed military in the world over American independence. He was horribly outnumbered, out-gunned, out-flanked, out-shipped, and even out-uniformed. But, he was NOT out-chaplained! Washington, knowing the importance of God and religion to soldiers, had the largest number of chaplains of any military force on Earth. Boston, alone, had 33 chaplains. For Obama to keep Camp David open, when it is quite subject to a shutdown, but threaten arrest of Chaplains who attend to our troops, is as wrong as it is scary.

To: Shoot1st who wrote (5929)	10/8/2013 2:37:16 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

PARK RANGERS TURN 'GESTAPO' .... 'Gestapo' tactics meet senior citizens at Yellowstone John Macone Newburyport Daily News October 8, 2013 NEWBURYPORT — Pat Vaillancourt went on a trip last week that was intended to showcase some of America’s greatest treasures. Instead, the Salisbury resident said she and others on her tour bus witnessed an ugly spectacle that made her embarrassed, angry and heartbroken for her country. Vaillancourt was one of thousands of people who found themselves in a national park as the federal government shutdown went into effect on Oct. 1. For many hours her tour group, which included senior citizen visitors from Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States, were locked in a Yellowstone National Park hotel under armed guard. The tourists were treated harshly by armed park employees, she said, so much so that some of the foreign tourists with limited English skills thought they were under arrest. When finally allowed to leave, the bus was not allowed to halt at all along the 2.5-hour trip out of the park, not even to stop at private bathrooms that were open along the route. “We’ve become a country of fear, guns and control,” said Vaillancourt, who grew up in Lawrence. “It was like they brought out the armed forces. Nobody was saying, ‘we’re sorry,’ it was all like — ” as she clenched her fist and banged it against her forearm. Vaillancourt took part in a nine-day tour of western parks and sites along with about four dozen senior citizen tourists. One of the highlights of the tour was to be Yellowstone, where they arrived just as the shutdown went into effect. Rangers systematically sent visitors out of the park, though some groups that had hotel reservations — such as Vaillancourt’s — were allowed to stay for two days. Those two days started out on a sour note, she said. The bus stopped along a road when a large herd of bison passed nearby, and seniors filed out to take photos. Almost immediately, an armed ranger came by and ordered them to get back in, saying they couldn’t “recreate.” The tour guide, who had paid a $300 fee the day before to bring the group into the park, argued that the seniors weren’t “recreating,” just taking photos. “She responded and said, ‘Sir, you are recreating,’ and her tone became very aggressive,” Vaillancourt said. The seniors quickly filed back onboard and the bus went to the Old Faithful Inn, the park’s premier lodge located adjacent to the park’s most famous site, Old Faithful geyser. That was as close as they could get to the famous site — barricades were erected around Old Faithful, and the seniors were locked inside the hotel, where armed rangers stayed at the door. “They looked like Hulk Hogans, armed. They told us you can’t go outside,” she said. “Some of the Asians who were on the tour said, ‘Oh my God, are we under arrest?’ They felt like they were criminals.” By Oct. 3 the park, which sees an average of 4,500 visitors a day, was nearly empty. The remaining hotel visitors were required to leave. As the bus made its 2.5-hour journey out of Yellowstone, the tour guide made arrangements to stop at a full-service bathroom at an in-park dude ranch he had done business with in the past. Though the bus had its own small bathroom, Vaillancourt said seniors were looking for a more comfortable place to stop. But no stop was made — Vaillancourt said the dude ranch had been warned that its license to operate would be revoked if it allowed the bus to stop. So the bus continued on to Livingston, Mont., a gateway city to the park. The bus trip made headlines in Livingston, where the local newspaper Livingston Enterprise interviewed the tour guide, Gordon Hodgson, who accused the park service of “Gestapo tactics.” “The national parks belong to the people,” he told the Enterprise. “This isn’t right.” Calls to Yellowstone’s communications office were not returned, as most of the personnel have been furloughed. Many of the foreign visitors were shocked and dismayed by what had happened and how they were treated, Vaillancourt said. “A lot of people who were foreign said they wouldn’t come back (to America),” she said. The National Parks’ aggressive actions have spawned significant criticism in western states. Governors in park-rich states such as Arizona have been thwarted in their efforts to fund partial reopenings of parks. The Washington Times quoted an unnamed Park Service official who said park law enforcement personnel were instructed to “make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.” The experience brought up many feelings in Vaillancourt. What struck her most was a widely circulated story about a group of World War II veterans who were on a trip to Washington, D.C., to see the World War II memorial when the shutdown began. The memorial was barricaded and guards were posted, but the vets pushed their way in. That reminded her of her father, a World War II veteran who spent three years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. “My father took a lot of crap from the Japanese,” she recalled, her eyes welling with tears. “Every day they made him bow to the Japanese flag. But he stood up to them. “He always said to stand up for what you believe in, and don’t let them push you around,” she said, adding she was sad to see “fear, guns and control” turned on citizens in her own country. - See more at: newburyportnews.com

To: Shoot1st who wrote (5929)	10/8/2013 5:49:59 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

Man who shot video of SUV driver and motorcycle gang now receiving DEATH THREATS for cooperating with police Read more: dailymail.co.uk

To: Shoot1st who wrote (5929)	10/9/2013 1:13:31 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

I support this Obama position on the debt limit:

To: Shoot1st who wrote (5929)	10/9/2013 3:49:40 PM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Recommended By R2O Respond to of 16547

MAG: 'Conduct of National Park Service might be biggest scandal of the Obama administration'... Volunteer memorial mower turned away... Get Lost... Oct 21, 2013, Vol. 19, No. 07 • By JONATHAN V. LAST weeklystandard.com “We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around.” —Ronald Reagan The conduct of the National Park Service over the last week might be the biggest scandal of the Obama administration. This is an expansive claim, of course. Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the IRS, the NSA, the HHS mandate?—?this is an administration that has not lacked for appalling abuses of power. And we still have three years to go. Even so, consider the actions of the National Park Service since the government shutdown began. People first noticed what the NPS was up to when the World War II Memorial on the National Mall was “closed.” Just to be clear, the memorial is an open plaza. There is nothing to operate. Sometimes there might be a ranger standing around. But he’s not collecting tickets or opening gates. Putting up barricades and posting guards to “close” the World War II Memorial takes more resources and manpower than “keeping it open.” The closure of the World War II Memorial was just the start of the Park Service’s partisan assault on the citizenry. There’s a cute little historic site just outside of the capital in McLean, Virginia, called the Claude Moore Colonial Farm. They do historical reenactments, and once upon a time the National Park Service helped run the place. But in 1980, the NPS cut the farm out of its budget. A group of private citizens set up an endowment to take care of the farm’s expenses. Ever since, the site has operated independently through a combination of private donations and volunteer workers. The Park Service told Claude Moore Colonial Farm to shut down. The farm’s administrators appealed this directive?—?they explained that the Park Service doesn’t actually do anything for the historic site. The folks at the NPS were unmoved. And so, last week, the National Park Service found the scratch to send officers to the park to forcibly remove both volunteer workers and visitors. Think about that for a minute. The Park Service, which is supposed to serve the public by administering parks, is now in the business of forcing parks they don’t administer to close. As Homer Simpson famously asked, did we lose a war? We’re not done yet. The parking lot at Mount Vernon was closed by the NPS, too, even though the Park Service does not own Mount Vernon; it just controls access to the parking lots from the George Washington Parkway. At the Vietnam Memorial?—?which is just a wall you walk past?—?the NPS called in police to block access. But the pièce de résistance occurred in South Dakota. *The Park Service wasn’t content just to close Mount Rushmore. No, they went the extra mile and put out orange cones to block the little scenic overlook areas on the roads near* Mount Rushmore. You know, just to make sure no taxpayers could catch a glimpse of it. It’s one thing for politicians to play shutdown theater. It’s another thing entirely for a civil bureaucracy entrusted with the privilege of caring for our national heritage to wage war against the citizenry on behalf of a political party. This is how deep the politicization of Barack Obama’s administration goes. The Park Service falls under the Department of the Interior, and its director is a political appointee. Historically, the directorship has been nonpartisan and the service has functioned as a civil, not a political, unit*. Before the current director, Jonathan Jarvis, was nominated by President Obama, he’d spent 30 years as a civil servant. But he has taken to his political duties with all the fervor of a third-tier hack from the DNC, marrying the disinterested contempt of a meter maid with the zeal of an ambitious party apparatchik. It’s worth recalling that the Park Service has always been deeply ambivalent about the public which they’re charged with serving. In a 2005 Weekly Standard piece about the NPS’s plan to reconfigure the National Mall, Andrew Ferguson reported: The Park Service’s ultimate desire was made public, indiscreetly, by John Parsons, associate regional park director for the mall. In 2000 Parsons told the Washington Post* he hoped that eventually all unauthorized traffic, whether by foot or private car, would be moved off the mall. Visitors could park in distant satellite lots and be bused to nodal points, where they would be watered and fed, allowed to tour a monument, and then reboard a bus and head for another monument. “Just like at Disneyland,” Parsons told the Post. “Nobody drives through Disneyland. They’re not allowed. And we’ve got the better theme park.” Yes, yes. They must protect America’s treasures from the ugly Americans. No surprise then that *one park ranger explained to the Washington Times* last week, “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can.” “To make life as difficult for people as we can”?—?that would be an apt motto for the Obama worldview.** And now even the misanthropes at the National Park Service have been yoked to his project. This is the clearest example yet of how Obama understands the relationship between his government and the citizenry.

To: Shoot1st who wrote (5929)	10/9/2013 6:34:04 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

Holder's ATF Blocks Fast And Furious Whistleblower Book ........................................................................................................... 10/08/2013 The Justice Department blocks a tell-all book by an ATF special agent on how Brian Terry, Jaime Zapata and hundreds of Mexican nationals were killed with weapons supplied by this administration. ATF Special Agent John Dodson is a national hero who in 2011 blew the whistle on Operation Fast and Furious, the Obama administration's gun-running operation to Mexico. Testifying before Congress, he disclosed that his supervisors had authorized the flow of semiautomatic weapons into Mexico instead of interdicting them, weapons that found their way into the hands of Mexican drug cartels with deadly results. Dodson has put his intimate Fast and Furious knowledge into a book titled "The Unarmed Truth." It provides the first inside account of how the Obama administration permitted and helped sell some 2,000 guns to Mexican drug cartels, guns used in the murder of two federal agents and hundreds of Mexican citizens. Just as Attorney General Eric "I didn't read the memo" Holder has stonewalled on providing information and documents to Congress and the American people, hiding under President Obama's invocation of executive privilege, the Department of Justice has denied Dodson permission to publish the book. Dodson submitted his manuscript for ATF review, as is required, and was told in a letter from ATF ethics official Greg Serres, a representative of the most transparent administration in history: "This would have a negative impact on morale in the Phoenix Field Division and would have a detremental (sic) effect on our relationships with DEA and FBI." The family of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry stands behind Dodson and supports his attempts to publish his manuscript, according to Ralph Terry, president of the Brian Terry Foundation and Brian's uncle. The operation was exposed when Brian was killed in December 2010 by an illegal immigrant working for the Sinaloa Cartel near Nogales, Ariz., just 10 miles from Mexico. Two Fast and Furious weapons were found at the murder scene. Two such weapons also were used to murder Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico on Feb. 15, 2011, came from suspects who were under ATF watch but not arrested at the time. "Do we really need to remind ATF leadership that the men that killed Brian Terry were carrying weapons supplied to them by ATF during Operation Fast and Furious," Terry wrote, not buying the ATF's morale excuse. "Allowing the publication of John Dodson's manuscript would go a long way in showing that ATF has nothing to hide," he added. The operation was later described by the administration as an attempt to bring down the drug cartels by following weapons bought by straw purchasers. But it soon became clear to agents involved that this was a cover story,with the real purpose unknown and murky to this day. "Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated," Dodson, then attached to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (ATF) Phoenix office, testified before Rep. Darrell Issa's House Government Reform and Oversight Committee on June 15, 2011.. "Rather than conduct enforcement actions, we took notes, we recorded observations, we tracked movements of these individuals for a short time after their purchases, but nothing more," Dodson testified. "Knowing all the while, just days after these purchases, the guns that we saw these individuals buy would begin turning up at crime scenes in the United States and Mexico, we still did nothing." The book, no pun intended, is not closed on Operation Fast and Furious. The one Dodson has written deserves to be published, and the Terry and Zapata families deserve to know truth. So do the American people. news.investors.com

To: Shoot1st who wrote (5929)	10/9/2013 10:26:42 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

Eleanor Holmes Norton confronts Obama on D.C. budget bill ................................................ By Ed O'Keefe October 9, 2013 washingtonpost.com Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) had what some colleagues called "a heated exchange" and what she described as "a conversation" with President Obama during a White House meeting Wednesday afternoon regarding the District's budget constraints as a result of the partial government shutdown. Norton attended the meeting in the White House East Room with nearly 200 House Democrats and was one of a handful given the opportunity to ask the president a question. When she was called upon, Norton pressed Obama to support a House-passed bill that would permit the District to use its locally raised tax funds to maintain operations until Dec. 15. Democrats, including Obama, have held fast in opposition to such piecemeal funding bills, saying Republicans must come to a deal to fund the entire government, not just favored segments. Making her point, Norton spoke over the president and refused to yield the microphone, according to a lawmaker who attended the event. The lawmaker described Norton as "strident," "self-absorbed" and "parochial" in her exchange with Obama. But Obama held firm to his belief that Republicans should work to reopen the entire federal government and not pass stand-alone spending measures, said the lawmaker, who asked not to be identified in order to speak frankly and maintain relationships with colleagues. Norton confirmed in an interview that she pressed Obama to support the bill and that she doesn't care whether some colleagues felt uncomfortable about the exchange. "I wasn’t picking a fight with the president, I think the people of the District would expect me to have a conversation with him rather than just asking a question," Norton said. While most lawmakers might not interrupt Obama as he answered their question, Norton said she was compelled to interject when Obama suggested in his response to her that the budget crunch facing the District is similar to how other congressional districts are adjusting during the shutdown. "That demanded that I give a response," she said. "Obviously we’re the only District in the United States. We’re uniquely in this position." Norton insisted she meant no disrespect towards the president. "He’s a big boy and I’m a big girl," she said. When the meeting ended, Norton said "I went up to him and we had a wonderful conversation, it was very collegial,. And I told him that I’m just trying to make sure that the District isn’t brought to its knees." Addressing a crowd at a gala event for the D.C. Vote nonprofit Wednesday night, Norton said: "I had to take issue with the president today," She said she had to remind Obama that the District is seeking to spend local funds during the shutdown, not federal funds. Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.), accepting an award at the event, described the scene at the White House: "I thought you were going to hit him or something," he cracked after Norton introduced him. The exchange with Obama came just hours after Norton and Washington Mayor Vincent C. Gray confronted Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and pressed him to support the House bill. “I’m on your side, don’t screw it up, okay? Don’t screw it up,” Reid told Gray.