Look Who’s Getting That Bank Settlement Cash

From The Wall Street Journal via H/T at Instapundit:

NO. WAY. Tens of millions of dollars disguised as ‘consumer relief’ are going to liberal political groups.

The administration’s multiyear campaign against the banking industry has quietly steered money to organizations and politicians who are working to ensure liberal policy and political victories at every level of government. The conduit for this funding is the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group, a coalition of federal and state regulators and prosecutors created in 2012 to “identify, investigate, and prosecute instances of wrongdoing” in the residential mortgage-backed securities market. In conjunction with the Justice Department, the RMBS Working Group has reached multibillion-dollar settlements with essentially every major bank in America.

The most recent came in April when the Justice Department announced a $5.1 billion settlement with Goldman Sachs. In February Morgan Stanley agreed to a $3.2 billion settlement. Previous targets were Citigroup ($7 billion), J.P. Morgan Chase ($13 billion), and Bank of America, which in 2014 reached the largest civil settlement in American history at $16.65 billion. Smaller deals with other banks have also been announced.

Combined, the banks must divert well over $11 billion into “consumer relief,” which is supposed to benefit homeowners harmed during the Great Recession. Yet it is unknown how much, if any, of the banks’ settlement money will find its way to individual homeowners. Instead, a substantial portion is allocated to private, nonprofit organizations drawn from a federally approved list. Some groups on the list—Catholic Charities, for instance—are relatively nonpolitical. Others—La Raza, the National Urban League, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and more—are anything but.

It’s almost as though the Obama Administration had turned the Federal government into a giant shakedown operation.

Fundamentally transforming the country.

Look Who’s Getting That Bank Settlement Cash

From The Wall Street Journal via H/T at Instapundit:

NO. WAY. Tens of millions of dollars disguised as ‘consumer relief’ are going to liberal political groups.

The administration’s multiyear campaign against the banking industry has quietly steered money to organizations and politicians who are working to ensure liberal policy and political victories at every level of government. The conduit for this funding is the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group, a coalition of federal and state regulators and prosecutors created in 2012 to “identify, investigate, and prosecute instances of wrongdoing” in the residential mortgage-backed securities market. In conjunction with the Justice Department, the RMBS Working Group has reached multibillion-dollar settlements with essentially every major bank in America.

The most recent came in April when the Justice Department announced a $5.1 billion settlement with Goldman Sachs. In February Morgan Stanley agreed to a $3.2 billion settlement. Previous targets were Citigroup ($7 billion), J.P. Morgan Chase ($13 billion), and Bank of America, which in 2014 reached the largest civil settlement in American history at $16.65 billion. Smaller deals with other banks have also been announced.

Combined, the banks must divert well over $11 billion into “consumer relief,” which is supposed to benefit homeowners harmed during the Great Recession. Yet it is unknown how much, if any, of the banks’ settlement money will find its way to individual homeowners. Instead, a substantial portion is allocated to private, nonprofit organizations drawn from a federally approved list. Some groups on the list—Catholic Charities, for instance—are relatively nonpolitical. Others—La Raza, the National Urban League, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and more—are anything but.

It’s almost as though the Obama Administration had turned the Federal government into a giant shakedown operation.

Fundamentally transforming the country.

Maura Healey shoots Dems in foot with gun grab

From The Boston Herald via H/T at Instapundit:

BLUE STATE UPDATE: Massachusetts AG Maura Healey shoots Dems 
in foot with gun grab.

In July, Healey announced a ban on so-called “copycat” assault weapon models. The so-called “Massachusetts legal” guns were modified to comply with the state assault weapons ban — with no collapsible stocks, high-capacity magazines or other banned features — but they still look like the AR-15 and AK-47, and Healey said that is impermissible. Other semi-automatic rifles that perform the same, but don’t have a military appearance, are still legally sold in Massachusetts gun shops.

Legislators on both sides of the aisle blasted Healey’s move as a confusing overreach meant to pump up Healey’s political profile.

Related: Rolling rally protests AG Maura Healey’s ‘abuse of authority’ on 2nd Amendment. Punch back twice as hard, as a famous man says.

It's all about disarmament.

Many Donors to Clinton Foundation Met Hillary at State

From Breitbart:

More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money — either personally or through companies or groups — to the Clinton Foundation. It’s an extraordinary proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president.

At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department donated to her family charity or pledged commitments to its international programs, according to a review of State Department calendars released so far to The Associated Press. Combined, the 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million. At least 40 donated more than $100,000 each, and 20 gave more than $1 million.

Interesting coincidence, huh!

Tweet of the Day

From The Daily Caller:

Fox Sports personality and Outkick The Coverage founder Clay Travis hammered Hillary Clinton voters criticizing Ryan Lochte with just one tweet.

Same people ripping Lochte for "lying" about being robbed are also voting for Hillary Clinton for president without a trace of irony.

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 22, 2016

Absolutely brutal tweet towards Clinton supporters from Travis, who openly identifies as a “radical moderate” and has supported lots of Democrat politicians.

Spot on

Violence in Milwaukee -- Chants of 'Black Power!' as Gas Station Burns

From PJ Media via H/T at Instapundit:

Yet another police shooting sparked riots on Saturday evening, this time in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Protesters caused mayhem in the city, burning businesses and reportedly even throwing a brick at a police officer's head. Perhaps less known, however, is that horrible violence also came before the shooting — a nine-hour stretch of homicides Friday night and Saturday morning killed five people.

Protesters chanted "black power!" at least 30 times as a gas station burned. Police told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that at least 200 people had gathered to protest the shooting. Three people inside the gas station escaped and got to safety despite the fire, Assistant Police Chief James Harpole said.

Milwaukee Hasn’t Had a Republican Mayor Since 1908.

Notice these riots happen in cities where democrats have been the Mayor of generations.

The Week in Pictures - Suction Cup Edition

From the guys at Powerline blog:

96 Percent Of Hillary’s Charitable Donations In 2015 Went To Clinton Foundation.

From The Daily Caller:

Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill deducted $1,042,000 in charitable contributions last year — $1 million of which went to their own family non-profit, the Clinton Family Foundation.

And the Drive-BY Media makes this a big deal, NoT!

Not 1, not 2 but 3 F.B.I. offices wanted to open criminal investigation into the Clinton Foundation

From The Washington Times via Ace of Spades HQ:

The Trump campaign seized on reports Thursday that the Obama administration rejected requests from three FBI field offices that wanted to open public corruption cases involving the Clinton Foundation and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

After banks alerted the field offices to suspicious activity involving the Clinton family charity, the FBI wanted to investigate conflicts of interest stemming from foreign donations during Mrs. Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, CNN reported.

“Today’s news that President Obama’s Department of Justice overruled three separate DOJ field offices and the FBI in declining to open a public corruption charge against the Clinton Foundation shows a troubling pattern of Obama and Clinton politicizing any government institution for their own personal political interests,” Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller said in a statement.

“This latest refusal to allow even a cursory investigation into the Clinton Foundation’s pay-for-play dealings smacks of political favoritism. This is exactly why the American public has lost trust in the U.S. government and is ready to elect an outsider like Donald Trump,” Mr. Miller said.

Is there any doubt the Clinton Foundation is a money laundering operation that is just a Slush Fund for them to "hide" their subsidized life style?

Egyptian Refuses to Bow or Shake Israeli's Hand After Judo Match

From Ace of Spades HQ:

I notice Obama loves lecturing Americans on what our values are, but he never seems to lecture the rest of the world -- who he's invited to come here to replace our racist, bigoted native Americans -- on what our values are.

By the way: The Israeli won.

Perhaps the backwards nations of the world could begin to understand that certain civic virtues actually translate into martial prowess, so they could field real armies and stop just blowing up airports.

Justice Department officials pushed for Clinton Foundation probe

From The Washington Examiner via H/T at Instapundit:

Drip drip drip. There were calls within DOJ for a corruption probe into the Clinton Foundation. But they were overruled…

Top Justice Department officials pushed for a public corruption probe of the Clinton Foundation earlier this year, but were overruled by their colleagues after a bank alerted the FBI to the “suspicious activity” of a foreign donor to the charity.

Three Justice Department field offices agreed that the agency should pursue the investigation at the behest of the FBI, CNN reported Thursday.

During a previously unreported meeting earlier this year, high-ranking Justice Department officials clashed over the possibility of pursuing a public corruption investigation. According to CNN, the agency had already looked into the Clinton Foundation in 2015 following the publication of a book, Clinton Cash, that detailed allegations of influence peddling.

Culture of Corruption!

Researchers crack open unusually advanced malware that hid for 5 years

From Ars Technica:

Security experts have discovered a malware platform that's so advanced in its design and execution that it could probably have been developed only with the active support of a nation-state.

The malware—known alternatively as "ProjectSauron" by researchers from Kaspersky Lab and "Remsec" by their counterparts from Symantec—has been active since at least 2011 and has been discovered on 30 or so targets. Its ability to operate undetected for five years is a testament to its creators, who clearly studied other state-sponsored hacking groups in an attempt to replicate their advances and avoid their mistakes. State-sponsored groups have been responsible for malware like the Stuxnet- or National Security Agency-linked Flame, Duqu, and Regin. Much of ProjectSauron resides solely in computer memory and was written in the form of Binary Large Objects, making it hard to detect using antivirus.

USA? Russia? or the Chinese?

Benghazi victims’ families file suit against Clinton.

From The San Diego Tribune via H/T at Instapundit:

Justice.

The parents of two men killed in Benghazi, Libya nearly four years ago are suing former Secretary of State and current presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, saying the attack resulted from her “reckless” handling of classified information.

The federal lawsuit, filed Monday, comes from Patricia Smith of San Diego, whose son Sean Smith was a U.S. State Department technology officer, and Charles Woods of Portland, Ore., whose son Tyrone Woods was CIA security contractor.

If the FBI and the DOJ won’t do their job, maybe the courts will.

I ahve been wondering why it's taken this long for them to file a lawsuit.

In Wake of StairGate, Anxious Nation Wonders -- Is Hillary Clinton Literally Unstable?

From Ace of Spades HQ:

It's not just mean-spiritedly attacking an older, frailer woman (though it is that too).

In the campaign of 1992, Bill Clinton and Al Gore made a great show of pushing their campaign bus out of the mud (all of this almost certainly planned in advance), to contrast their (relative) youth and vitality to the frail, aged Bob Dole.

I'm not sure if Donald Trump can capitalize. For one thing, he's slightly older than Clinton. For another, making such an attack requires letting other people make it: Clinton and Gore didn't shout out, "Hey, Bob Dole's old and gimpy." They instead staged a fake bus incident and let their media allies say it.

Trump does have one big media ally willing to take the message out there, though. Drudge:

2016: HILLARY CONQUERS THE STAIRS 2012: FALLS AT HOME, BLOOD CLOT 2011: FALLS BOARDING PLANE 2009: FALLS GOING TO WHITE HOUSE, BROKEN ELBOW

And Trump seems to be getting at the issue, noting that Hillary herself says she "short-circuited" her (dishonest) claim that Comey said she was truthful.

I have suspected for awhile that she is not in the best of health. Assuming it is being covered up, her media allies, otherwise known as Democratic operatives with Bylines, will willfully do their duty and protect her.

The Week in Pictures -- Trumplosion Edition?

From the guys at Powerline Blog:

If it wasn’t a ransom payment, why did Obama keep it secret?

From Jonah Goldberg at The New York Post via H/T at Lucianne:

One of my all-time favorite lines is from Henry Thoreau: “Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.”

It came to mind this week when the White House and State Department insisted that the charge the US paid a ransom to get back American hostages was purely circumstantial. Sometimes, a $400 million payoff in laundered money, delivered in the dead of night in an unmarked cargo plane, isn’t what it looks like.
.....................

The $400 million wasn’t a ransom; it was simply the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement of that dispute. “We would not, we have not, we will not pay ransom to secure the release of US citizens,” top White House flack Josh Earnest insisted. That the money was delivered to coincide with the release of our hostages is little more than a funny coincidence.

And shame on you for thinking otherwise, Earnest seemed to be saying Wednesday. The $400 million dropoff was actually a great success for smart diplomacy, because it saved taxpayers “potentially billions” more if the arbitration over the matter hadn’t gone our way.

Still, one wonders why, if it was such a laudable and innocent money-saving maneuver, they kept it all secret from the American people.

Because there is a trout in the milk.

True The Vote Wins In DC Circuit.

From Instapundit:

The WaPo tried to blame simple incompetence back in June. But the DC Circuit says that “there is no factual history of such discriminatory acquisition of taxpayer information prior to the events giving rise to these cases.” It also says that it i “plain to the Inspector General, the district court, and this court that the IRS cannot defend its discriminatory conduct on the merits.”

They (sic) targeted the Tea Party movement because it threatened to bring runaway government under control. And a lot of GOP leaders were okay with that, because the Tea Party movement threatened to bring runaway government under control.

CNN’s Tapper Calls Out Clinton For Email Lies -- You’re Not Entitled ‘To Your Own Facts’

From The Daily Caller:

CNN’s Jake Tapper called out Hillary Clinton for lying about emailing classified information, insisting, “You’re entitled to your own opinions, not to your own facts.”

In a video made by CNN and FactCheck.org, Tapper destroyed Clinton’s recent claim on “Fox News Sunday” that FBI Director James Comey’s testified that her statements about her private email server were true.

Tapper said, “No. That is not true. According to her campaign aides, what Hillary Clinton was referring to was Director Comey testifying, ‘We have no basis to conclude she lied to the FBI.’ But Clinton’s comments to the FBI are different from what Chris Wallace was asking about, which were Clinton’s comments to the American people.”

Then Tapper replayed Comey’s congressional hearing testimony with Rep. Trey Gowdy, where the FBI director repeatedly debunked many of Clinton’s claims.

It must be a blue moon, since someone in the Drive-By Media is actually doing their job.

He concluded with,

“A reminder to all you politicians out there, you’re perfectly entitled to your own opinions, not to your own facts,” Tapper said.

Donors Now Retracting Donations to Colleges, Upset by Schools' Empowering of SJW Thugs

From Hot Air:

The social justice warriors making noise on campus are also making an impact on alumni. The NY Times reports some older, successful alumni are pulling back on donations because they are so turned off with what they see happening on their former campuses:

A backlash from alumni is an unexpected aftershock of the campus disruptions of the last academic year. Although fund-raisers are still gauging the extent of the effect on philanthropy, some colleges — particularly small, elite liberal arts institutions — have reported a decline in donations, accompanied by a laundry list of complaints.

Alumni from a range of generations say they are baffled by today’s college culture. Among their laments: Students are too wrapped up in racial and identity politics. They are allowed to take too many frivolous courses. They have repudiated the heroes and traditions of the past by judging them by today’s standards rather than in the context of their times. Fraternities are being unfairly maligned, and men are being demonized by sexual assault investigations. And university administrations have been too meek in addressing protesters whose messages have seemed to fly in the face of free speech.

It's about time.

Ghazala Khan Gets Media Respect. Patricia Smith Doesn't.

From The American Thinker Blog:

In her patronizing monotone, Hillary essentially said the Benghazi families were not only liars but stupid as well, badly in need of a copy of English for Dummies. Now, Ghazala Khan, Khizr’s wife and whose son gave his life for his country in Iraq, is a Gold Star mom deserving of our respect. Her silence at the convention should be interpreted as nothing more than grief, and Donald Trump would have been wise not to rise to the media bait. But Patricia Smith, Charles Woods and other relatives of the Benghazi dead belong to Gold Star families as well. Where is their respect and media condemnation of Hillary Clinton’s callousness and serial lying about them and the terrorist attack that killed their sons?
.......................

Jim Geraghty, writing in National Review, notes the glaring disparity in the treatments of Ghazala Khan and Patricia Smith:

Hey, remember when the first night of the Republican convention featured Patricia Smith, mother of Sean Smith, one of the Americans slain in Benghazi? Remember how her speech was called a “cynical exploitation of grief”? Or the “unabashed exploitation of private people’s grief” or “the weaponization of grief”? Remember how she “ruined the evening”? How it was, “a spectacle so offensive, it was hard to even comprehend”? How some liberal commentators said, “Mrs. Smith was really most interested in drinking blood rather than healing”? How her speech represented an “early dip into the gutter”? Remember how a GQ writer publicly expressed a desire to beat her to death?

Patricia Smith was said to be a “grieving unhinged mother” that was exploited for political gain. Ghazala Khan was treated as the second coming of Cindy Sheehan, the Code Pink poster mom who the media slavishly covered as she encamped outside the Bush family ranch in Crawford, Texas.

The treatment of people is soley based on what side of the aisle you support.

Carol Costello To Tyrone Woods' Father: Let's Stop Talking About Your Dead Son Who Died Four Years Ago. Let's Focus on What's Important -- Khzir Khan's Son Who Died 12 Years Ago

From Real Clear Politics via H/T at Ace of Spades HQ:

Amazing.

Charles Woods, father of U.S. Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, who was killed during the Benghazi attack, appeared on CNN Tuesday. CNN Newsroom host Carol Costello repeatedly badgered him about Donald Trump's feud with Khizr Khan, and whether Trump should apologize. Transcript below, via CNN.

"I know who should apologize, and that would be Hillary Clinton, for lying to the American families who lost their loved ones as well as to the American public," Woods said.

She's like Luke in the Death Star trench -- Stay on target, stay on target.

They are carying Hillary's Water.

Texas AG -- Charged by a Rigged Grand Jury for ‘a Crime that Does Not Exist’

From Breitbart Texas:

Lawyers for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have filed an appeal arguing that the AG was indicted by a rigged grand jury for a crime that does not exist.

Paxton’s defense team has filed an appeal, called a petition for discretionary review, in the highest criminal court in Texas.

In a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas, Dallas-based lawyer William B. Mateja said, “This petition was filed with the Court of Criminal Appeals to not only correct the lower court’s mistake but to end this improper prosecution … Ken Paxton has been charged with a crime that simply doesn’t exist, using a grand jury that was improperly impaneled.”

Since the Dims can't win in the ballot box, they are resorting to lawfare to dispose of their political opponents.

Tyson Beckford on Matt Damon -- ‘You Can’t Denounce the Gun’ If You Make Millions Using Guns

From Breitbart's Big Hollywood:

Ralph Lauren model Tyson Beckford recently spoke to Matt Damon’s anti-gun rhetoric by observing that it looks hypocritical to “denounce the gun” while you make millions holding a gun in your hand.

Beckford made the comments to a TMZ reporter who caught up with him as he exited the Katana restaurant in West Hollywood.

The TMZ reporter asked Beckford what he thought about the “$25 million” Damon made for his latest film, Jason Bourne. Beckford responded, “Hey, if you can get it, get it.” Then he paused and added, “But I thought he was anti-gun?”
.......................

The TMZ reporter pointed out that “there was a stink about [Damon] holding a gun on the Jason Bourne advertisement.” Beckford responded, “Yes, because he claims he’s not 2A friendly. You can’t sit there and denounce the gun when the gun is making you money… Me personally, I don’t play that. I’m 2A all day, but I guess it’s Hollywood.”

Nice to hear about someone, anyone finally calling out Matt Damon for the hypocrite that he is.

Tyson Beckford on Matt Damon -- ‘You Can’t Denounce the Gun’ If You Make Millions Using Guns

From Breitbart's Big Hollywood:

Ralph Lauren model Tyson Beckford recently spoke to Matt Damon’s anti-gun rhetoric by observing that it looks hypocritical to “denounce the gun” while you make millions holding a gun in your hand.

Beckford made the comments to a TMZ reporter who caught up with him as he exited the Katana restaurant in West Hollywood.

The TMZ reporter asked Beckford what he thought about the “$25 million” Damon made for his latest film, Jason Bourne. Beckford responded, “Hey, if you can get it, get it.” Then he paused and added, “But I thought he was anti-gun?”
.......................

The TMZ reporter pointed out that “there was a stink about [Damon] holding a gun on the Jason Bourne advertisement.” Beckford responded, “Yes, because he claims he’s not 2A friendly. You can’t sit there and denounce the gun when the gun is making you money… Me personally, I don’t play that. I’m 2A all day, but I guess it’s Hollywood.”

Nice to hear about someone, anyone finally calling out Matt Damon for the hypocrite that he is.

Khizr Khan’s writings discovered subordinating US Constitution to sharia law

From Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker Blog:

He was presented to the nation as a Constitution-loving (he carries a pocket copy, dontcha know!) immigrant who just happens to be from Pakistan, but it turns out that Khizr Khan is a recognized scholar on sharia law. And in his published writings, he seems to approve of subordinating the Constitution to Allah’s own sharia. Paul Sperry reports at Breitbart:

Khizr M. Khan has published papers supporting the supremacy of Islamic law over “man-made” Western law — including the very Constitution he championed in his Democratic National Convention speech attacking GOP presidential nod Donald Trump.

In 1983, for example, Khan wrote a glowing review of a book compiled from a seminar held in Kuwait called “Human Rights In Islam” in which he singles out for praise the keynote address of fellow Pakistani Allah K. Brohi, a pro-jihad Islamic jurist who was one of the closest advisers to late Pakistani dictator Gen. Zia ul-Haq, the father of the Taliban movement.

Khan speaks admiringly of Brohi’s interpretation of human rights, even though it included the right to kill and mutilate those who violate Islamic laws and even the right of men to “beat” wives who act “unseemly.”

Khan touted the supremacy of sharia:

Khan provides his own advocacy for Sharia law in a separate academic paper titled “Juristic Classification of Islamic Law,” which he also wrote in 1983, while studying in Saudi Arabia.

“The invariable and basic rules of Islamic law are only those prescribed in the Shari’ah,” Khan writes. “All other juridical works… must always be subordinated to the Shari’ah.”

He explains that Sharia is derived from the Quran and Sunnah, and that the Quran “is the absolute authority from which springs the very conception of legality and every legal obligation.”

What if sharia happens to conflict with the U.S. Constitution? I’d like to see if Khan has addressed that point in further detail.

Well, questioning Khan by the Drive-By Media (i.e. Democrat Operatives with Bylines) isn't gonna happen anytime soon.

FBI documents confirm everything suspected about IRS slow walking Tea Party applications

From Rick Moran at The American Thinker Blog:

The truth has finally tied its shoes and caught up with the lies told by IRS officials with regard to the treatment of applications for tax exempt status by Tea Party groups.

FBI documents released by Judicial Watch include interviews with IRS employees in the Cincinnati tax exempt office run by Lois Lerner that prove employees were under instructions to bury the applications of Tea Party groups.
..........................

The IRS, their defenders in the Democratic party, and the president himself have all claimed that there was no "targeting" of Tea Party and other conservative groups by the IRS. This is a flat out lie and officials at the IRS who have made this claim in congressional testimony should be charged with perjury.

That it took this long to expose the scheme is not surprising. The Obama administration has always played the long game with regard to most of their scandals, hoping to run out the clock on the Obama presidency before anyone was held accountable. But those IRS officials in Washington responsible for the hold on Tea Party applications are bureaucrats who can and should be prosecuted. Whether they will be depends on who the next president is.

Frong march the partisans out of the IRS. Trump for President.

Why Can’t Hillary Stop Lying?

From Ron Fournier in The Atlantic via H/T at Instapundit:

She doesn't lie because it's in her interest, she lies because it's in her nature.

On Sunday, the former secretary of state told FOX News’ Chris Wallace that FBI Director James Comey cleared her of misleading the public about her rogue email server at the state department: “Director Comey said my answers were truthful, and what I’ve said is consistent with what I have told the American people, that there were decisions discussed and made to classify retroactively certain of the emails.”

That’s wrong and she knows it, which makes it a lie.

When someone goes for decades without consequences, they lose the ability to distinguish between lies and reality. It’s just, whatever works.

And if the Drive-By Media, otherwise known as Democratic Operatives with Bylines actually did their job, instead of carying her water, Hillary MAY, and I stress MAY have stopped by now.

The ATF Is Illegally Hoarding American Gun Owners’ Personal Information

From The Daily Caller:

A government report discovered the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) illegally stockpiles gun owners’ personal information.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the go-to federal oversight agency, conducted an audit of ATF and found it does not remove certain identifiable information, despite the law explicitly mandating it do so. GAO conducted reviews for four data systems, and concluded at least two of ATF’s systems violated official protocols.

Is anyone surprised?

L.A. Slaps $10K Fine on Cop Falsely Accused of Racism by ‘Django’ Actress

From Breitbart's Big Hollywood:

Retired Los Angeles police Sgt. Jim Parker — who made national news after arresting Django Unchained actress Daniele Watts for lewd behavior in 2014 and who was accused of racism by the actress during the incident — faces a $10,000 fine for leaking audio from the arrest to gossip outlet TMZ.
........................

Parker was charged with violating confidentiality by releasing the audio to the tabloid news outfit without authorization, according to the Los Angeles Times. The officer was order to participate in a disciplinary hearing over what authorities called insubordination, which stemmed from Parker’s decision to share information with the press without permission. Parker, however, resigned from the LAPD in June 2016 after serving on the force for 26 years.

During a hearing on Monday, Parker admitted to leaking the audio of Watts’ arrest to TMZ. The retired officer said he passed the audio onto the press in an effort to clear his name, stating that his superiors failed to support him during the controversy.

As is typical with leadership (or the lack thereof) in a Democrat controlled city, police officers are thrown under the political correctness buss.

Khizr Khan has no shame

From The American Thinker Blog:

There is no comparison between Khizr Khan and Mrs. Pat Smith. Mrs. Smith has consistently spoken out that Hillary lied to her by blaming the Benghazi attack on a video when Hillary knew it was a terrorist attack. Further, Hillary told her they would "get" the video maker. Thus, Mrs. Smith has a justifiable complaint that Hillary lied about the cause and failed to provide the requested security prior to the attack, and the failure to do anything to help the Americans at Benghazi. There is a clear connection between Sean Smith's death and Hillary's conduct.

Mr. Khan's son was killed in 2004. There is absolutely no connection between his death and Donald Trump. Trump did not lie to Khan about how his son was killed or who was responsible. It appears that Khan was recruited to the Democratic convention simply to attack Trump's immigration policy of proposing to suspend immigration from Muslim countries during the current war on terror.

It is Mr. Khan who should be ashamed for using his son's death to make a political statement about immigration. It does not even make sense. Khan said that if Trump's policy of suspending immigration was in effect prior to 2004, then his family could not have immigrated, and his son would not have been able to serve the USA. But his son would be alive. What is more important: that his son would be alive, or that he can use his son's death to make a political statement?

The man was a usefull idiot!

Operation Choke Point hits knife manufacturers

From The Truth about Knives via H/T at Instapundit:

Operation Choke-point is the scandal-ridden Department of Justice’s initiative aimed at punishing making business difficult for those industries they don’t like. Payday lenders (ok, these can be dicey but are still better than loan-sharks), coin dealers (precious metals throw a wrench in their fiat currency scam), and firearms manufacturers and dealers (because…guns are icky and stuff) have all been targeted by the Obama’s highly-politicized DOJ. Since the Administration’s frontal assaults on the Second Amendment have not yielded the results they want, they have resorted to Executive Branch action to try to move the ball. In this they are pressuring financial institutions to deny banking services to the targeted industries.

While Congress is trying to put an end this abuse, Operation Choke Point is expanding into new realms. This past Friday Hogue Inc. announced that Wells Fargo has refused to do business with them, because they ostensibly manufacture “weapons”.

We needs people from the DOJ to be led out in handcuffs!

Maryland Prosecutor confront blowback

From Fox News via H/T at Instapundit:

Baltimore’s Marilyn Mosby “failed in her bid to put six cops in prison in connection with the racially-charged death of Freddie Gray.” Hmmm. Who added the racial charging, Marilyn? And don’t call me names for asking that, madam. The question’s totally fair, especially with your 0 for six bomb out. And don’t you spew the word “privilege.” You were the prosecutor — you had the power and the privilege. Did one of your political buddies provide the racial charging, Marilyn? Listen to me, Marilyn. Here’s a chance for you to grow up and get sane.

A law professor with a history of taking prosecutors to task has set his sights on the Baltimore state’s attorney, who failed in her bid to put six cops in prison in connection with the racially-charged death of Freddie Gray.

George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf has filed complaints against Marilyn Mosby with the Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland. He alleges Mosby and two deputies committed ethics violations, used “fraudulent or misleading tactics," withheld evidence from the defense and brought charges without probable cause against the Baltimore police officers involved in the April 12, 2015 arrest of Gray, who died of injuries suffered inside a police van.

This needs to be done almost everywhere. Prosecutors are out of control.

MSNBC -- Pat Smith’s Speech Was ‘Offensive’ But Khizr Khan’s Was ‘Memorable’

From The Daily Caller:

Both the Republican and Democratic conventions gave speaking slots to grieving parents of a son killed in combat, but — according to MSNBC’s Steve Benen — Khizr Khan’s DNC speech was “memorable,” while Pat Smith’s RNC speech was “offensive.”

Wait, what?

Mother Of Benghazi Victim -- Hillary Clinton ‘Kills People’

From The Daily Caller:

Patricia Smith, mother of one of the Americans who was killed in the Benghazi terrorist attack said on Monday that Hillary Clinton “kills people.”

Appearing on “CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin” in the wake of Clinton’s Fox News Sunday interview where the Democratic nominee criticized Smith’s recollection of events surrounding her son Sean’s death, Smith said, “I’m very much against the way I was treated. I was treated like dirt. I don’t think the Khan family was treated that way but I was treated like dirt, I was called a liar.”

If the Drive-By Media was consistent, Pat Smith would be treated the same a Cindy Sheehan, someone who has the absolute moral authority to comment about war.

A very big IF!

Clinton busted for lying about lying

From Breitbart Video:

During a report on Monday’s broadcast of “The Lead,” CNN Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny stated that Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s claim that the FBI backed up her answers about her emails wasn’t true, and that the agency’s Director James Comey testified “that many claims Clinton had made to the public were false.”

After playing a clip of Clinton maintaining during her “Fox News Sunday” interview that Comey said her answers about her email were “truthful.” Zeleny said, “That’s not exactly true. FBI Director James Comey has said there’s no evidence Clinton lied to the FBI, but he didn’t say she’d been truthful to the American people. He called her handling of classified information ‘extremely careless.’ The Washington Post fact checker gave her answer a failing grade of four Pinocchios. And during congressional hearings, Republican Chairman [Representative] Trey Gowdy (R-SC) got Comey to testify that many claims Clinton had made to the public were false.” Zeleny then played a clip of Comey testifying that Clinton’s claim that she turned over all her work-related emails to the State Department was not true, and “thousands” were not returned.

Qait, someone at CNN is admitting Hillary is a liar, who lied about lying.

MSNBC host melts down over Hillary’s emails

From Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker Blog:

Even by the standards of MSNBC, Sunday morning’s shout-down of a guest for daring to mention the blackmail potential in the 33,000 deleted emails was unusually embarrassing. As Nicholas Fondacaro of Newsbusters reported:

AM Joy Sunday as host Joy Reid shouted down Amy Kremer, former Chair of Tea Party Express, for daring to mention there are roughly 30,000 missing e-mails from Hillary Clinton’s personal server. “You just invented it an entire thing,” Reid shouted, “There’s no 33,000 e-mails that are going to harm our national security.” From there Reid refused to let Kremer speak anymore. And when Kremer asked to finish her point, “Not if you’re going to invent things,” Reid reprimanded her.

Reid is an embarrassing ignoramus. She was unable to distinguish between the DNC hack of about 20,000 emails and the 33,000 emails that Hiullary deleted from her home-brew server.

Well Reid does work for MS-NBC.

Cindy Sheehan Redux?

From Byron York at The Washington Examiner via H/T at Instapundit:

With a few obvious differences, the uproar bears some resemblance to a white-hot controversy more than a decade ago involving Cindy Sheehan, a California woman whose son Casey was killed in 2004 while serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq.

Sheehan became a media sensation when she attacked President George W. Bush over the war. Opponents of the war immediately took up her cause in their protests, and Sheehan became, for a while, ubiquitous in media reports of opposition to Bush and the war.

Some Republican Bush supporters (including Coulter) stirred outrage with foolish attacks on Sheehan, although in those pre-Twitter days there were fewer opportunities for a single comment to go viral. . . .

One last thing. Cindy Sheehan’s son, Casey, and Humayan Khan died just 65 days apart in Iraq in 2004. The next year, when Sheehan became an idol of the antiwar cause in an increasingly bitter debate over Iraq, Democrats expressed great admiration for her.

Now, with Democrats having nominated a candidate who voted to authorize the Iraq war (only later to oppose it), against a Republican who regularly calls the war a disaster and says he opposed it from the beginning, another Gold Star parent, Khizr Khan, has become a cause — but in an entirely different context.

I wonder what they’ll flip on next?

easy, anything and everything that will get them elected.

One Big Happy Riot

From The City Journal via H/T at Instapundit:

“The task before them is formidable: to sell Americans on the notion that eight years of Democratic rule have left the country better off, while at the same time convincing swing voters in Ohio and Florida that a host of ills—from patriarchy and institutional racism to corporate greed and police brutality—plague us still, and require ever greater levels of government intervention to solve.”

It's a dilemma recognized by the Drive-By Media, so they are trying the best to sell a sow's ear as a silk purse.

The Munich Shooter Is Driving the Mainstream Media Nuts

From The American Thinker Blog:

Ali David Sonboly, the young man who shot up Munich last week, killing 9 mostly young people and wounding dozens of others, is driving the mainstream media nuts. It’s so bad, they can’t even decide what they want to call him. Is it Ali David Sonboly, or David Ali Sonboy, or just David Sonboy, as the primly and properly PC BBC tried to have it?

But now it’s really getting confusing. As this article from the Mirror, among many others, now reports, Sonboly “reportedly saw it as an ‘honour’ that he had the same birthday as the Nazi leader [Hitler] - April 20,” “was proud to be a German-Iranian ‘Aryan,’” and “felt ‘superior’ to those of either [Turk or Arab] origin.” These discoveries greatly aggravate the already severe disorientation that the MSM has suffered over his motives. It seems that some among them think Sonboly was a neo-Nazi Irano-Aryan acolyte of Breivik – anything, please, but a Muslim.

So, was this young man just a “lazy” and “chubby” misfit who moved from depression to derangement and then obsession with mass murder for fascist reasons, or was he acting out of some influence of radical Islam? Or aren’t both possible?

Face it, the Drive-By Media is in denial.

The Week in Pictures -- Unready for Hillary Edition

From the guys at Powerline Blog: