CIA Shifts Focus To Killing Targets Finally

Washington Post:

Behind a nondescript door at CIA headquarters, the agency has assembled a new counterterrorism unit whose job is to find al-Qaeda targets in Yemen. A corresponding commotion has been underway in the Arabian Peninsula, where construction workers have been laying out a secret new runway for CIA drones.

When the missiles start falling, it will mark another expansion of the paramilitary mission of the CIA.

In the decade since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the agency has undergone a fundamental transformation. Although the CIA continues to gather intelligence and furnish analysis on a vast array of subjects, its focus and resources are increasingly centered on the cold counterterrorism objective of finding targets to capture or kill.

The shift has been gradual enough that its magnitude can be difficult to grasp. Drone strikes that once seemed impossibly futuristic are so routine that they rarely attract public attention unless a high-ranking al-Qaeda figure is killed.

But framed against the upcoming 10th anniversary of the 2001 attacks — as well as the arrival next week of retired Gen. David H. Petraeus as the CIA’s director — the extent of the agency’s reorientation comes into sharper view:

?The drone program has killed more than 2,000 militants and civilians since 2001, a staggering figure for an agency that has a long history of supporting proxy forces in bloody conflicts but rarely pulled the trigger on its own.

?The CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, which had 300 employees on the day of the attacks, now exceeds al-Qaeda’s core membership around the globe. With about 2,000 on its staff, the CTC accounts for 10 percent of the agency’s workforce, has designated officers in almost every significant overseas post and controls the CIA’s expanding fleet of drones.

?Even the agency’s analytic branch, which traditionally existed to provide insights to policymakers, has been enlisted in the hunt. About 20 percent of CIA analysts are now “targeters” scanning data for individuals to recruit, arrest or place in the cross­hairs of a drone. The skill is in such demand that the CIA made targeting a designated career track five years ago, meaning analysts can collect raises and promotions without having to leave the targeting field.

Critics, including some in the U.S. intelligence community, contend that the CIA’s embrace of “kinetic” operations, as they are known, has diverted the agency from its traditional espionage mission and undermined its ability to make sense of global developments such as the Arab Spring.

Human rights groups go further, saying the CIA now functions as a military force beyond the accountability that the United States has historically demanded of its armed services. The CIA doesn’t officially acknowledge the drone program, let alone provide public explanation about who shoots and who dies, and by what rules.

“We’re seeing the CIA turn into more of a paramilitary organization without the oversight and accountability that we traditionally expect of the military,” said Hina Shamsi, the director of the National Security Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

CIA officials defend all aspects of the agency’s counterterrorism efforts and argue that the agency’s attention to other subjects has not been diminished. Fran Moore, head of the CIA’s analytic branch, said intelligence work on a vast range of issues, including weapons proliferation and energy resources, has been expanded and improved.

“The vast majority of analysts would not identify themselves as supporting military objectives,” Moore said in an interview at CIA headquarters. Counterterrorism “is clearly a significant, growing and vibrant part of our mission. But it’s not the defining mission.”

Agency within an agency

Nevertheless, those directly involved in building the agency’s lethal capacity say the changes to the CIA since Sept. 11 are so profound that they sometimes marvel at the result. One former senior U.S. intelligence official described the agency’s paramilitary transformation as “nothing short of a wonderment.”

“You’ve taken an agency that was chugging along and turned it into one hell of a killing machine,” said the former official, who, like many people interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters. Blanching at his choice of words, he quickly offered a revision: “Instead, say ‘one hell of an operational tool.’ ”

The engine of that machine is the CTC, an entity that has accumulated influence, authority and resources to such a degree that it resembles an agency within an agency.

The center swelled to 1,200 employees in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and nearly doubled in size since then.

The CTC occupies a sprawling footprint at the CIA campus in Langley, including the first floor of what is known as the “new headquarters” building. The chief of the center is an undercover officer known for his brusque manner, cigarette habit and tireless commitment to the job.

A CIA veteran said he asked the CTC chief about the pace of strikes against al-Qaeda last year and got a typically profane reply: “We are killing these sons of bitches faster than they can grow them now.”

The headquarters for that hunt is on a separate floor in a CTC unit known as the Pakistan-Afghanistan Department, referred to internally as PAD. Within the past year, the agency has created an equivalent department for Yemen and Somalia in the hope that it can replicate the impact of PAD.

Inside the PAD entrance is a photographic tribute to the seven CIA employees who were killed by a suicide bomber in December 2009 at a remote base in the Afghan city of Khost. Two were former targeters who had worked in the CTC.

Beyond that marker is a warren of cubicles and offices. On the walls are maps marked with the locations of CIA bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as whiteboards with lists of pending operations and code names of spies. Every paid informant is given a unique “crypt” that starts with a two-letter digraph designating spies who are paid sources of the CTC.

PAD serves as the anchor of an operational triangle that stretches from South Asia to the American Southwest. The CIA has about 30 Predator and Reaper drones, all flown by Air Force pilots from a U.S. military base in a state that The Post has agreed, at the request of agency officials, not to name. The intelligence that guides their “orbits” flows in from a constellation of CIA bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

CIA officials insist that drone strikes are among the least common outcomes in its counter­terrorism campaign.

“Of all the intelligence work on counterterrorism, only a sliver goes into Predator operations,” a senior U.S. official said. The agency’s 118 strikes last year were outnumbered “many times” by instances in which the agency provided tips to foreign partners or took nonlethal steps.

“There were investigations, arrests, debriefings .?.?. these are all operational acts,” the official said.

The Obama administration dismantled the CIA’s system of secret prisons, but it continues to use foreign partners to apprehend suspects in some countries, including Somalia.

The CIA also was heavily involved in the raid by U.S. Special Operations troops on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May. Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs, but the operation was carried out under CIA authority, planned in a room at agency headquarters and based on intelligence gathered over a period of years by the CTC.

Growing collaboration

The assault was the most high-profile example of an expanding collaboration between the CIA and the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, which oversees the nation’s elite military teams.

Their comingling at remote bases is so complete that U.S. officials ranging from congressional staffers to high-ranking CIA officers said they often find it difficult to distinguish agency from military personnel.

“You couldn’t tell the difference between CIA officers, Special Forces guys and contractors,” said a senior U.S. official after a recent tour through Afghanistan. “They’re all three blended together. All under the command of the CIA.”

Their activities occupy an expanding netherworld between intelligence and military operations. Sometimes their missions are considered military “preparation of the battlefield,” and others fall under covert findings obtained by the CIA. As a result, congressional intelligence and armed services committees rarely get a comprehensive view.

Hybrid units called “omega” or “cross matrix” teams have operated in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen, according to senior U.S. military officials.

Those employed in Afghanistan were “mostly designed against specific high-value targets with the intent of looking across the border” into Pakistan, said a former senior U.S. military official involved in Special Operations missions. They wore civilian clothes and traveled in Toyota Hilux trucks rather than military vehicles.

“They were designed to develop sources and leads” but also to “be prepared if necessary to be the front end of a more robust lethal force.”

On at least five occasions, officials said, Special Operations units working closely with the CIA ventured into Pakistan in exercises designed to test their ability to close in on a target without being detected by Pakistani authorities. The operations, which took place between 2002 and 2006, amounted to early rehearsals of the bin Laden raid.

The CIA’s post-Sept. 11 arsenal has also included elite Afghan militias trained and led by the agency’s Special Activities Division, its paramilitary branch. In a measure of the murkiness surrounding such programs, the purpose of the Counterterror Pursuit Teams is a source of disagreement among senior officials in government.

Read More:

Rush Limbaugh: Obama Has “Shot His Wad” And Should Resign

Emails Prove White House Was More Aware Of “Fast And Furious” Than Previously Claimed

Los Angeles Times:

Reporting from Washington— Newly obtained emails show that the White House was better informed about a failed gun-tracking operation on the border with Mexico than was previously known.

Three White House national security officials were given some details about the operation, dubbed Fast and Furious. The operation allowed firearms to be illegally purchased, with the goal of tracking them to Mexican drug cartels. But the effort went out of control after agents lost track of many of the weapons.

The supervisor of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation in Phoenix specifically mentioned Fast and Furious in at least one email to a White House national security official, and two other White House colleagues were briefed on reports from the supervisor, according to White House emails and a senior administration official.

But the senior administration official said the emails, obtained Thursday by The Times, did not prove that anyone in the White House was aware of the covert “investigative tactics” of the operation.

“The emails validate what has been said previously, which is no one at the White House knew about the investigative tactics being used in the operation, let alone any decision to let guns walk,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak about it publicly. “To the extent that some [national security staff members] were briefed on the top lines of ongoing federal efforts, so were members of Congress.”

He identified the three White House officials who were briefed as Kevin M. O’Reilly, director of North American Affairs for the White House national security staff; Dan Restrepo, the president’s senior Latin American advisor; and Greg Gatjanis, a White House national security official.

“The emails were not forwarded beyond them, and we are not aware of any [additional] briefings related to that email chain,” the official said.

The emails were sent between July 2010 and February of this year before it was disclosed that agents had lost track of hundreds of guns. Many are thought to have fallen into criminal hands, and some have turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States, including at the fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) are trying to determine what the Justice Department and the White House knew about the program.

According to the emails, William D. Newell, then the ATF field supervisor for Arizona and New Mexico, was in close contact with O’Reilly and sought the White House’s help to persuade the Mexican government to let ATF agents recover U.S. guns across the border.

After earlier emails from Newell to O’Reilly surfaced, Newell testified to congressional investigators in July that the two were friends and acknowledged that he probably should not have sent them to him. But the new emails indicate that Newell and O’Reilly were in deeper discussions about gun operations on the border.

In July 2010, about nine months after Fast and Furious started, O’Reilly was seeking information about ways to fight gun trafficking in Arizona when he emailed Newell.

“Just an informal ‘how’s it going?’ ” he wrote. He titled the email “GRIT Surge Phoenix,” an acronym for Gun Runner Impact Teams.

Newell replied that things were “going very well actually.”

Though not mentioning Fast and Furious by name, he talked about large numbers of ATF agents being temporarily transferred to Arizona to work on cases, apparently alluding to the Fast and Furious program. He also praised their work on “firearms trafficking investigations with direct links to Mexican” cartels, which was the main goal of Fast and Furious.

“This is great,” O’Reilly replied. “Very informative.”

O’Reilly asked whether he could share the information with Restrepo and Gatjanis. He added that the information “would not leave NSS, I assure you.”

Newell answered, “Sure, just don’t want ATF HQ to find out, especially since this is what they should be doing (briefing you)!”

A third email went from Newell to O’Reilly on Feb. 11, two months after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in Arizona and Fast and Furious weapons were found at the scene.

Newell discussed the just-obtained indictments of 20 people, including Jaime Avila, for illegal gun purchasing. It was two of Avila’s guns bought under Fast and Furious that ended up at the Terry shooting. This time, Newell specifically mentioned Fast and Furious.

“The Fast and Furious indictment is listed under U.S. v Avila and that’s the one in which there’s an introduction of the techniques used by firearms traffickers,” he told O’Reilly. He suggested “we” should use the indictment to draw attention to the arrests through the media in Mexico.

In another development, the Justice Department said it knew of only one other instance where a Fast and Furious weapon was “recovered in connection with a crime of violence in the U.S.” Earlier it had said there were 11 instances.

World’s Ugliest Woman: Not Sure If Republicans “Children Breathe Air,” GOP Wants To “Destroy Gov”

ABC News: Sarah Palin’s Iowa Speech Tomorrow To Be A “Full Throated Defense Of The Tea Party”

ABC News:

Two days before Sarah Palin’s much anticipated, on, off, and on again Iowa speech, details are emerging about what the former Alaska governor will say.

A source close to Palin told ABC News that she’ll offer a “full throated defense of the tea party.”

“Regardless of what she decides to do, this rally is for the tea party to kick off this campaign,” the source said, “this” being the 2012 presidential campaign.

ABC News has also learned that Palin’s speech will reference themes from an Aug. 8 Facebook post called “Conquering the Storm.” It discusses the Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the nation’s credit rating and her solutions to the country’s financial woes.

A source close to Palin told ABC News last week that her speech at Saturday’s “Restoring America” event will be a substantive, big-picture vision of America. Palin herself alluded to what she’ll discuss on Aug. 25, when she tweeted a link to a YouTube video entitled “Obama Lies 7 Times In Under 2 Minutes!” and wrote, “I’ll be talking about this and more on September 3rd.”

Palin is slated to be the last speaker at the Tea Party of America’s Saturday rally, which will also feature the likes of Iowa Tea Party chairman Ryan Rhodes, radio host Tony Katz and Los Angeles-based comedian Eric Golub.

Perry Asks All Republicans To Donate $76: A Dollar For Each Time Obama Has Golfed

ABC News:

Rick Perry’s latest fundraising appeal looks to raise some money off President Obama’s golf game. In an email to supporters Thursday, Rob Johnson, Perry’s campaign manager, asked potential donors to open their pocketbooks to the amount of $76 — exactly the number of rounds of golf Obama has played since entering the White House.

“In honor of his prodigious golf habit, I ask you to donate $76 today — a dollar for each round of golf Obama has played since becoming president,” Johnson wrote.

A golfing theme exists throughout the donation request email, tying Obama’s handling of the economy to a round of golf.

“31 months, 12 days and 76 rounds of golf later, we still await the president’s plan to create jobs. Or, more precisely, his next plan following the failed stimulus that spent our children’s inheritance, exploded the debt and led to greater unemployment. Now the president wants a mulligan,” Johnson wrote in the email.

“Help us yell a pre-emptive ‘fore’ before the president takes a three-iron to the economy and makes matters worse.”

Perry, who has claimed the frontrunner title after catapulting to the top of polls this week, has been on a fundraising blitz since the start of his campaign nearly three weeks ago.

Historic President Shatters Another Record: National Debt Tops $10 Trillion For First Time Ever

CNS News:

At the close of business on Aug. 31 — for the first time in the history of the country — the publicly held debt of the federal government topped $10 trillion, according to data released by the U.S. Treasury Department at 4:00 p.m. yesterday.

Also, according to the most recent reports available from the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, approximately $6.1 trillion of that debt — or about 61 percent of it — is owned by foreign interests (led by the Chinese and the Japanese) and by the Federal Reserve.

At the close of business on Aug. 30, as reported by the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Public Debt, the federal government’s debt held by the public equaled $9,990,126,772,846.86. By the close of business on Aug. 31, it was $10,024,253,354,407.07.

Shock Pew Research Center Report: Blacks The Most Dangerous Muslims In America

Carlos Bledsoe

WND:

The most dangerous Muslims in America may be black converts to Islam, according to a shocking new poll by the Pew Research Center.

African-American Muslims tend to hold the most violent views among U.S. Muslims surveyed by Pew in a poll released this week.

Fully 28 percent of U.S.-born black Muslim respondents said “suicide bombings and other violence against civilians” can be justified sometimes or at least in rare cases. That compares with 9 percent of foreign-born Muslims who hold the same view.

Pew also found that 11 percent of black Muslims living in the U.S. have a favorable opinion of al-Qaida – more than double the share of U.S. Muslims overall who hold that view. Another 21 percent of black Muslims hold only mildly unfavorable views of the terrorist organization responsible for attacking America 10 years ago; while 56 percent of that segment of the Muslim population hold very unfavorable views.

The survey results are troubling, because U.S. officials say al-Qaida in recent years has stepped up its efforts to recruit African-Americans to target the homeland for terrorist attacks. English-speaking blacks do not fit the prevailing Middle Eastern terrorist profile, officials say, and al-Qaida recruiters believe they have a better chance of slipping through security checkpoints.

A growing number of black converts have been radicalized in prison or by jihadist websites, officials say.

Chuck Todd: GOP Establishment May Not Love Him, But Rick Perry’s ‘Built To Last’

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Chicago Union Goon Receives Publicly Subsidized Six Figure Pension After Falsely Reporting $40K Salary

Chicago Tribune:

Every month, Thomas Villanova gets a $9,000 reminder of how lucrative it can be to serve as a union leader in Chicago.

The sum is part of a city pension that comes on top of the $198,000 annual salary he is paid to represent the interests of thousands of city workers.

Villanova last worked for the city in 1989 as an electrical mechanic with the Department of Streets and Sanitation, making about $40,000 a year. Yet in 2008 he was allowed to retire at age 56 with a $108,000 city pension. That’s because, under a little-known state law, his pension was based not on his city paycheck but on his much higher union salary.

This kind of deal is available only to union officials who meet certain requirements, but a Tribune/WGN-TV investigation has uncovered documents that show Villanova violated state law when he applied for the pension and cast doubt on whether he truly qualifies for all that money.

To boost his taxpayer-supported city pension, Villanova signed documents certifying that he had waived his union pension and had two union officials write letters supporting his claim. In fact, records show dues collected from the rank-and-file were still set aside for Villanova’s union pension.

When city pension fund officials discovered last year that Villanova never gave up his union pension, they gave him a pass and didn’t move to take away his city retirement benefits.

What’s more, labor leaders can get an inflated city pension only if they are on a leave of absence from a city job to work full time for a union. But officials from the municipal pension fund approved Villanova’s application despite city employment records that show he took a leave to go back to school and then let that leave of absence expire in 1992.

Now just 58, Villanova stands to collect approximately $3 million from the city’s municipal pension fund during his lifetime, according to a Tribune/WGN-TV analysis based on the fund’s actuarial assumptions. And because the state’s pension laws are so broken, he didn’t have to contribute enough to the city pension fund to cover the costs, which means taxpayers will make up the shortfall.

“It’s egregious. I haven’t seen this anywhere else in the country,” said Keith Brainard, research director of the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, when he heard about Villanova’s deal. “The spirit of a pension plan is insurance against poverty. It’s not to become wealthy.”

In order to receive an inflated city pension, state law says labor leaders can’t be part of any pension plan from their union. Yet Villanova is one of four officials from Local 134 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers who received city pensions based on their union salaries even though they never gave up their union pensions.

Terrance Stefanski, executive director of the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago, conceded that the union leaders violated state law by participating in both the city and union pension funds at the same time. But he said the law is confusing and the city pension fund isn’t in a position to determine whether the labor leaders knowingly submitted false information, which would be a felony.

“We are not an investigative agency,” he said.

Stefanski said the city still considered Villanova to be on a leave of absence, and therefore he qualified to receive the pension perk.

Villanova declined to be interviewed. Through attorney Patrick Deady, Villanova said he followed the city pension fund’s directions and that he qualified for his city pension because he taught union apprenticeship classes while in school.

Now president of the Chicago and Cook County Building and Construction Trades Council, Villanova helped negotiate every current collective bargaining agreement between Chicago and the 33 trade unions that do business with the city.

With the Emanuel administration struggling to fill a $635 million budget hole, Villanova sits at the bargaining table and speaks on behalf of 8,000 city tradesmen who face layoffs, furlough days and reduced benefits, in no small part because of the city’s rising pension costs.

Today, the municipal pension fund is racing toward insolvency, with barely half of the assets needed to cover its liabilities. That means city workers face threats not only to their current job security but also to their future retirement security.

The average city retiree receives a pension of about $28,000 a year, roughly a quarter of what Villanova is drawing from the same fund.

Meanwhile, about $200,000 in rank-and-file dues that were paid into a union pension fund for Villanova have yet to be returned to the union. Documents show that Villanova agreed in writing last year to “disclaim” the pension money — but left the door open to taking it back if the rules change.

Double-dipping

Villanova’s six-figure city pension is far better than that offered by his former union, Local 134.

The local’s pension plan would have provided Villanova with 45 percent of his average salary during his highest-paid five years of work. He couldn’t retire until he turned 65, however, without forfeiting a significant chunk of his union pension.

Under rules governing the city pension plan, on the other hand, Villanova could retire from his old city job at 56 with 70 percent of his average union salary during the prior four years; that average turned out to be $158,000. What’s more, he could keep his high-paying union position.

To get that deal, Villanova had to make $344,000 in contributions to the plan as if he had been a city employee all along. He also had to submit an application certifying that he met all the criteria for the city pension, including that he wasn’t part of a union pension plan.

In November 2008, Villanova signed an application that included this line: “I also understand that I am allowed to make these contributions as long as I do not receive credit in any pension plan established by such local labor organization.”

In addition to his signed application, Villanova submitted a letter from a trustee of Local 134′s pension plan that said Villanova had waived his union pension.

“We are in receipt of a letter from Mr. Villanova requesting that his Local 134 pension credits cease immediately. The Local 134 Executive Board will act upon his request accordingly,” Peter Cerf, the pension fund’s executive board secretary, wrote in September 2007.

Frank O’Lone, secretary-treasurer of the trades council, also wrote a letter on Villanova’s behalf, in October 2008. “Thomas Villanova will not receive any pension credits in the Building Trades Council Pension Plan for the period starting 3/5/2004 to present,” the letter read.

Yet documents submitted by the union pension fund to the U.S. Department of Labor show that money set aside for Villanova remained in the fund.

When Villanova became president of the trades council in 2004, Local 134 amended its pension plan to allow certain employees of the council to be participants. The Tribune and WGN-TV were able to identify contributions the trades council made on Villanova’s behalf because he was one of only two council employees who were part of Local 134′s plan and the only one who had worked long enough to be vested.

Records submitted by the union pension plan show that, in all, about $200,000 in member dues from the trades council went toward a union pension for Villanova. He also received a decade’s worth of contributions from Local 134 members before becoming president of the trades council. But it’s impossible to know the total from publicly available documents.

Officials from Local 134 and the trades council declined to comment on Villanova’s pensions.

The municipal pension fund discovered in September 2010 that Villanova was not complying with state law by participating in both funds. City pension officials could have pursued criminal charges against him if they thought he had knowingly made false statements on his pension application, which is a felony.

Municipal pension fund officials had Villanova sign an affidavit admitting that he was participating in both plans at the same time and promising to “disclaim” union contributions that overlap with his city pension. But the money is staying in the fund in case municipal pension fund requirements “are reversed pursuant to action of the (fund’s) trustees or litigation by similarly situated participants.”

That means Villanova wasn’t required to return union members’ money that went to his union pension, and eventually he still could get access to it.

‘It does look bad’

Villanova’s hefty municipal pension depended, in large part, on how he described his leave of absence from the city in his pension application.

“I was an employee with the City of Chicago or Board of Education,” his signed application states, “and was granted a leave of absence to work as an employee of the labor organization named below.” The organization he wrote in was Local 134.

Yet city records show that Villanova didn’t take a leave of absence to work for Local 134. He took a leave to attend Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills. While there, he earned roughly $41,000 a year working for the college, state records show.

Under city work rules, employees can receive various types of leaves, including disability, maternity, military, personal and union. City workers must apply for a leave of absence and in many cases must renew those requests after a certain time period has elapsed.

Villanova applied for his leave of absence on Oct. 25, 1989, according to city employment records. In the section of the form marked “Reason for Request,” he wrote: “Return to school for advanced courses.”

He renewed his leave every three months, filing seven requests in all. On each, he wrote that he was taking a leave to go back to school. All of the forms he signed say that if he failed to report back to his city post within five days after his leave of absence expired, he would resign his position with the city.

Villanova’s last leave of absence request expired on July 24, 1991. State records show that he continued working full time for the state community college until November 1992. The municipal pension fund’s own records show that he didn’t start at Local 134 until January 1993, a year and a half after he had effectively resigned his city job.

Yet when Villanova applied for a city pension in November 2008, the municipal pension fund approved an amount based on his union salary — even though he did not take a leave of absence to work for a union and had allowed the leave he did take to expire 17 years earlier.

The fund’s board of trustees, composed of union leaders and city officials, signed off on Villanova’s $108,000-a-year pension in February 2009, backdating the start of his benefits to November 2008.

“It does look bad,” said city Treasurer Stephanie Neely, a trustee of the city pension fund. “But we on the pension board didn’t do anything wrong. We did everything we could do, and that’s all I can somewhat control.”

As part of the justification for awarding him the higher city pension, the municipal pension fund provided the Tribune and WGN-TV with a 2008 letter written by then-Deputy Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Vanessa Quail on Villanova’s behalf.

“Mr. Villanova’s current status with the Department of Streets and Sanitation is that we regard him on a personal leave of absence,” she wrote. “While we have not located any leave of absence papers of Mr. Villanova’s subsequent to April of 1991, that is not inconsistent with his retaining his status.”

The reason he was able to maintain his leave of absence: No one at the city department entered a code in its computer system showing that Villanova had given up his post. According to Stefanski, the technicality means Villanova qualifies for a city pension based on his union salary.

Thanks to his work at Moraine Valley, Villanova’s city pension is one of two public pensions he is currently receiving.

Villanova gets another $12,000 a year from the State University Retirement System of Illinois, based on his work for the community college. Although he held that job for only three years, state law allows him to receive reciprocal pension benefits from SURS when he retired from the city.

That pension is also based on his union salary, not the $41,000 he made working for the community college.

In all, Villanova takes home about $120,000 a year from taxpayer-supported pension systems, an amount that will grow by 3 percent every year as long as he lives.

New Audit Shows Illegal Aliens Got Billions From IRS Last Year

Washington Post:

The Internal Revenue Service allowed undocumented workers to collect $4.2 billion in refundable tax credits last year, a new audit says, almost quadruple the sum five years ago.

Although undocumented workers are not eligible for federal benefits, the report released Thursday by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration concludes that federal law is ambiguous on whether these workers qualify for a tax break based on earned income called the additional child tax credit.

Taxpayers can claim this credit to reduce what they owe in taxes, often getting refunds from the government. The vagueness of federal law may have contributed to the $4.2 billion in credits, the report said.

The IRS said it lacks the authority to disallow the claims.

Wage earners who do not have Social Security numbers and are not authorized to work in the United States can use what the IRS calls individual taxpayer identification numbers. Often these result in fraudulent claims on tax returns, auditors found.

Their data showed that 72 percent of returns filed with taxpayer identification numbers claimed the child tax credit.

The audit recommended that the IRS seek clarification on the law and check the immigration status of filers with taxpayer indentificaion numbers.

Dick Cheney Talks Thick Skin And Sarah Palin: Wants More Explanation As To Why She Resigned

When asked by Laura Ingraham for examples of qualities “that are required, not constitutionally, but necessary” for the job of vice president, Cheney answered:

Thick skin. You need the capacity to turn on the tube every night and watch the late night comedians make you the punch line, tell a lot of jokes, it goes with the turf and I’m not above telling a few of those stories myself. But the fact of the matter is you really do need to have the capacity to do what you think is right, to offer the advice you think the president of the country needs, you have to remember you are not in charge of anything, you don’t run anything as Vice President. And you do need to have thick skin, you’ll be subject to a lot of criticism, some of it funny, some of it not so funny.

Ingraham immediately followed up by asking Cheney about his thoughts on Palin. Does he think she was well-suited for the position?:

Well, I’ve never gotten around the question of her having left the governorship of Alaska midterm. I’ve never heard that adequately explained so that I could understand why, how she decided in her first term to step down and still be–I’d like to know more about that

Rasmussen: Obama’s Monthly Approval Index Hits All-Time Low

Rasmussen:

When tracking President Obama’s job approval on a daily basis, people sometimes get so caught up in the day-to-day fluctuations that they miss the bigger picture. To look at the longer-term trends, Rasmussen Reports compiles the numbers on a full-month basis, and the results can be seen in the graphics below.

In August, the number who Strongly Approve of Obama’s job performance was at 21%. That’s down three points from 24% in July and the lowest level measured during Obama’s entire presidency. The previous low was 23% reached in both April and June of this year.

Since July 2009, the number who Strongly Approved of the president’s performance has now ranged from a low of 21% to a high of 31%. By comparison, 43% Strongly Approved of Obama’s performance in January 2009.

The number of voters who Strongly Disapprove of the president’s performance increased a point from July to 42% in August. The number of voters who Strongly Disapproved has ranged from 37% to 44% since July 2009.

Ronald Reagan’s Friend Lesley Stahl Favorably Compares Michele Bachmann To Him

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In A Victory For Cantor And America, Re-Election-Panicked Obama Forces Cass Sunstein To Cancel Planned EPA Emissions Regulation, Dealing Huge Blow To Church Of Global Warming

Cass Sunstein

The Hill:

The White House announced Friday that it is shelving a major planned Environmental Protection Agency regulation that would have tightened smog standards, dealing a huge blow to environmentalists that had pushed the Obama administration to resist industry pressure to abandon the regulation.

In a statement, President Obama said that the rule is being shelved because he is wary of imposing regulatory burdens during the economic recovery.

The decision follows immense pressure from industry groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute, that had lobbied hard against the EPA decision to tighten Bush-era ozone standards.

In a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the top regulatory official for the administration said Obama “does not support finalizing the [smog] rule at this time.”

“The president has instructed me to return this rule to you for reconsideration,” Cass Sunstein, the director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, said in the letter.

The White House faced pressure from Republicans to abandon the smog standards. The rule was among 10 regulations that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) had singled out for elimination in a recent memo laying out the GOP’s fall jobs campaign.

“This effective ban or restriction on construction and industrial growth for much of America is possibly the most harmful of all the currently anticipated Obama Administration regulations,” Cantor said in the memo.

The office of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called the withdrawal of the rule “a good first step” toward reducing regulatory burdens on businesses, but said there is more to be done.

“This is certainly a good first step, and we’re glad that the White House responded to the Speaker’s letter and recognized the job-killing impact of this particular regulation. But it is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to stopping Washington Democrats’ agenda of tax hikes, more government ‘stimulus’ spending, and increased regulations — which are all making it harder to create more American jobs,” spokesman Michael Steel said.

“#GOP jobs push working,” a triumphant Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for Cantor, said Friday in a tweet after the withdrawal of the smog rule was announced.

At the Speaker’s request, Obama on Tuesday sent Boehner a list of seven regulations that will cost $1 billion or more to implement; the ozone rule was by far the costliest, at $19 billion to $90 billion.

“I was startled to learn that the EPA estimates that at least one of its proposed rules will cost our economy as much as $90 billion per year,” Boehner said of the smog rule in a letter to Obama on Aug. 26.

But EPA officials and environmentalists who pushed to tighten the smog standards had cited huge public health benefits.

Advocates call tougher standards rules vital to cutting pollution that aggravates respiratory problems like asthma and lung disease, damages vegetation and has other impacts.

League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski slammed the decision as a capitulation.

“The Obama administration is caving to big polluters at the expense of protecting the air we breathe. This is a huge win for corporate polluters and huge loss for public health.”

Frank O’Donnell, head of the environmental group Clean Air Watch, called the decision “political cowardice” in an email Friday.

While EPA estimated that the strictest standard in the range under consideration — 60 parts per billion — would cost as much as $90 billion annually by 2020, the same analysis said this would bring $100 billion in annual benefits per year by 2020.

Obama praised the EPA’s work in Friday’s announcement, nothing that the agency has “taken some of the strongest actions since the enactment of the Clean Air Act four decades ago to protect our environment and the health of our families from air pollution.”

But the president said he is committed to reducing regulatory uncertainty for businesses, and cited an upcoming review of the ozone rule in 2013 as reason to delay it.

“Ultimately, I did not support asking state and local governments to begin implementing a new standard that will soon be reconsidered,” Obama said.

The president stressed that his commitment to protecting public health is “unwavering” and vowed that the White House will continue to resist GOP-led efforts to curtail the EPA’s authority.

“I will continue to stand with the hardworking men and women at the EPA as they strive every day to hold polluters accountable and protect our families from harmful pollution,” Obama said.

Industry groups that had lobbied the White House to scuttle the rule applauded the decision.

“The President’s decision is good news for the economy and Americans looking for work. EPA’s proposal would have prevented the very job creation that President Obama has identified as his top priority,” said American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard in a statement.

Cheney Credits Tea Party With Giving GOP “Some Spine”

CNBC:

The Tea Party had a significant impact on putting “some spine” into the backs of Congressional Republicans during the debt ceiling debate, former Vice President Dick Cheney told Larry Kudlow Wednesday.

The threat to not raise the debt ceiling was controversial, he said, but it was effectively used to force the Obama administration to sign onto some significant reduction measures.

Republicans advocate bringing the deficit under control by reducing spending and what they see as excessive government programs, while Democrats advocate some spending cuts along with revenue increase in the form of higher taxes.

“I don’t think we would have gotten as far as we have without them sort of holding the feet to the fire of members of Congress,” Cheney said.

Frank Rich: Joint Session Speech Flap Makes President Obama Look “Weak” And “Amateurish”

New Evidence Suggests Feds Attempted to Cover Up ‘Fast & Furious’ Immediately After Terry Shooting

Fox News:

Just hours after the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, federal officials tried to cover up evidence that the gun that killed Terry was one the government intentionally helped sell to the Mexican cartels in a weapons trafficking program known as Operation Fast and Furious.

The revelation comes just days after a huge shake-up of government officials who oversaw the failed anti-gun trafficking program and Congress renewed its demand for more answers.

Also late Thursday, Sen. Charles Grassley’s office revealed that 21 more Fast and Furious guns have been found at violent crime scenes in Mexico. That is up from 11 the agency admitted just last month.

“The Justice Department has been less than forthcoming since day one, so the revisions here are hardly surprising, and the numbers will likely rise until the more than 1,000 guns that were allowed to fall into the hands of bad guys are recovered — most likely years down the road,” Grassley said in a statement released Thursday.

“What we’re still waiting for are the answers to the other questions the Attorney General failed to answer per our agreement. The cooperation of the Attorney General and his staff is needed if we’re ever going to get to the bottom of this disastrous policy and help the ATF and the department move forward.”

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Grassley, R-Iowa, said they are expanding their investigation into the scandal on Thursday. In a strongly worded letter to Anne Scheel, the new U.S. attorney for Arizona, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requested interviews, emails, memos and even hand-written notes from members of the U.S. attorney’s office that played key roles in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) program.

Issa and Grassley said they want to speak with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emory Hurley and Michael Morrissey, along with Patrick Cunningham, chief of the office’s Criminal Division.

Not only do congressional investigators want to “make sense” of details of the operation that allowed more than 2,000 guns to “walk” and later turn up at crime scenes on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, but they want to known why Hurley — who knew almost immediately the guns found at Terry’s crime scene belonged to Fast and Furious — tried to “prevent the connection from being disclosed.”

In an internal email the day after the murder, Hurley, and then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, decided not to disclose the connection, saying ” … this way we do not divulge our current case (Fast and Furious) or the Border Patrol shooting case.”

“The level of involvement of the United States Attorney’s Office … in the genesis and implementation of this case is striking,” wrote Issa and Grassley.

The two claim witnesses have told them that recently reassigned Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley may have also prevented ATF agents from doing their jobs.

“Many ATF agents working on Operation Fast and Furious were under the impression that even some of the most basic law enforcement techniques typically used to interdict weapons required the explicit approval of your office, specifically that from Hurley,” the letter states.

Happy Marxist Labor Day From Your Marxist President: Economy Gains No Jobs in August, Unemployment Rate At 9.1%

CNBC:

The US economy created no jobs and the unemployment rate held steadily higher at 9.1 percent in August, fueling concerns that the US is heading for another recession.

It was the first time since World War II that the economy had precisely net zero jobs created for a month.

Economists had been expecting the report to show a net of 75,000 jobs created, an unusually low number considering the US is technically more than two years removed from the end of the last recession.

Stocks sold off sharply following the report, while bond prices rose and the US dollar fell nearly 2 percent against the Swiss franc.

Markets had been closely watching the August report in hopes that the employment picture would begin to show signs of recovery.

Stocks have slumped more than 10 percent since the beginning of May as concerns grew that the debt and deficit problem was beginning to overwhelm hopes of a recovery following the depths of the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009.

Private payrolls actually rose 17,000, but that was offset by continued shrinkage in government. The number of people unemployed remained unchanged at 14 million.

It was a dismal way to kick off the Labor Day weekend when Americans are supposed to be celebrating work, not bemoaning the lack of it.

“We’re in this very flattish-type phase,” said Liz Ann Sonders, chief market strategist at Charles Schwab in San Francisco. “The only relatively good news, and I would emphasize ‘relatively,’ is we’re not in firing mode, not in a job-loss mode. We’re in an extraordinarily slow job-gain mode.”

Update From Notorious Ulsterman On His Claim Last Week Of A White House-Engineered Race War

Excerpts from Ulsterman’s interview with “White House Insider” – more to come. Warning: Adult Content

NewsFlavor:

Ulsterman: It’s been a while hasn’t it? Face to face that is.

Insider: Yes it has. Been busy. Tired. Loving it though. I really do love this. All of this. Gonna miss it. And we have made so much progress. Incredible progress.

Ulsterman: How so? Eric Holder remains at the DOJ. Barack Obama remains president.

Insider: Really? That’s how you put it to me? Holder is at the DOJ – for now. For now, right? Open your eyes. Holder is getting absolutely slammed at every turn. We got people in Congress calling for full investigations now. Calling for Holder to step down. Calling for f***ing justice! You didn’t see that last year. You didn’t see that before we started all of this. Something like that doesn’t happen in days or weeks, or even a month or two. It takes f***ing time. Who else pointed to the DOJ and said THERE IS THE SCANDAL. Who else? Nobody but me. I gave you that. On a f***ing platter I gave you that. So don’t come here now on my invite and point at me and say there hasn’t been any progress. ERIC HOLDER IS GOING DOWN. Ok? It’s happening. Right before our f***ing eyes. And like I’ve always told you, Holder is the Obama firewall. Holder is the stop-gap to everything. Every f***ing thing. You head up the DOJ you can pretty much stamp out 99% of anything coming at a president. Do you understand that? I know—

Ulsterman: (Interrupts) …I understand what you’ve told me. You were right on about the DOJ. I’ll give you that, deservedly so. And you’re also right, at least from what I can recall, that nobody was honing in on a DOJ scandal before you were. And that’s where we are at now – a significant DOJ scandal. But after months of the scandal first breaking, Eric Holder remains the Attorney General. And the Gunrunner story seems stalled. And I worry it’s gonna go away. Just like the New Black Panther case did.

Insider: First off…the Black Panther thing…(long pause) We, I…I f***ed that up. Not just me, but I am to blame for that in part. We showed our hand way too early…we got caught flat footed on it. That case had the potential to be much bigger. We f***ed it up. The launch was all wrong. Looking back – whataya gonna do? Spilled f***ing milk. But let me make this clear to you right now – Gunrunner is way bigger than the NBP scenario. Way bigger. It is an operation that has gone into full government cover up at the highest levels. THE HIGHEST LEVELS. You got that? I told you months ago that “we got them”. They f***ed up. They took the bait and ran with it. And they know it now. But you gotta understand here…you gotta realize, that once we reach a certain stage, we become almost totally dependent on certain people in certain positions of power to now take the ball and run with it. That is almost always the case. And if they drop the ball, if they back off, if they make a deal – it’s over. Done.

Ulsterman: Issa?

Insider: Yeah, he’s certainly a very critical part of this. Initially he was among the most critical. To his credithe seems to have pushed this thing out there as best he can. But I remain cautious of his ultimate intent. Will he allow a secondary figure to take the fall? That could still happen. I haven’t heard that confirmed yet, which is a very good sign, but it could still happen. It’s beyond just Issa now though. Congress – all of Congress, is engaged on this Gunrunner thing, though under the radar where most the deals go down. There is some positioning, posturing, all the same f***ing bullsh*t these clowns do on this stuff, a deal here, a promise there, nod and wink, handshakes, threats, break-ups, it’s pretty incestuous on that hill you know? People have no f***ing clue. We’ve all been rode hard and put away wet at one time or another up there—

Ulsterman: Fair enough. How about you tell me how Obama is defeated in 2012? Let’s assume Holder is still Attorney General – how does Obama lose?

Insider: First, Holder won’t be Attorney General by November 2012. But I’ll leave off on that and talk politics with you. The simple, in it to win it, get your hands dirty with the sh*t up to your balls politics. My world.

Ulsterman: Absolutely – let’s hear it.

Insider: Hold on then – here we go…The Obama team has already initiated a comprehensive plan of attack for 2012. Just a bit of that has leaked out already. They are developing campaign scenarios based upon the most possible Republican nominees. Now at this point, and here’s one of those specifics you can bank on that I just told you about, so try and pay attention…at this point, Mitt Romney has received the brunt of the Obama team’s focus. And they still believe he will be the likely nominee, which at this point I would agree with. The funding organization the Romney people put together is f***ing fantastic. The involvement of Perry – Governor Perry, has them scrambling now though. I don’t believe they actually thought he was going to go for it this time around. I was told the Perry people had leaked to them – the Obama operatives, that Governor Perry was actually not considering a run until 2016. If true, good for them. Classic head fake that has left the Obama machine now doing catch-up to prepare for a possible run against Perry. You want to make those Chicago Obama boys stain their drawers? Tell them the South is about to rise again! (laughs)

None of this is beyond the norm though. Where it gets different for the Obama campaign is what I’ll just call the Obama Plan. They are going way beyond simply working up your typical campaign scenarios against potential opponents. The president – I was told of this about a week ago, maybe two weeks ago…(pause)… the president actually considered quitting. He really did. But now he’s going on the attack. He wants to give a big F-You to White America – that’s actually one of his primary motivations. You think the race card has been played up before? Just wait. 2012 is gonna be the most brutal political cycle we have ever witnessed. Ever.

Ulsterman: Hold up there. Obama – the president…he actually considered quitting? Where did you hear that?

Insider: Yes he considered it. How seriously I don’t know, but he was chirping about it to some people for a bit. Before uhh…before summer. He was considering…told the president described the idea as “cool”. That’s how he put—

Ulsterman: (Interrupts) —Where did you hear that? There has been nothing said about Obama quitting anywhere that I know of. Nothing.

Insider: That’s about right. Why would there be? But that’s what he was saying. Basically wondering out loud…something along those lines, about just quitting after one term. Then that talk went away – just like that, and now the president seems very-very motivated to kick some ass. Obviously somebody had a sit down with him and…modified the president’s way of thinking on that subject.

Ulsterman: Jarret?

Insider: Maybe. I’m sure she was involved on some level. She’s always there. Somewhere. Somehow. She can’t afford to have Obama just up and quit. None of them can. The tactics used to obtain the position of president are now being protected by the position of president. Sold his soul for a job he can’t stand. Get it? Obama put himself in a f*ckin’ corner of his own making. His own and the makings of those who placed him there, and there ain’t no way they allow him to just quit it. Way too much invested in this cluster-f*ck. Billions. Trillions. Who the f*ck knows?

Ulsterman: Ok, so you say Barack Obama considered not running for re-election. But now he is running hard to do just that – and the campaign is going to be…what’s the word you used?

Insider: Brutal.

Ulsterman: How so? How brutal?

Insider: How brutal? Very, that’s…that’s what—

Ulsterman: (Interrupts) —No, I mean, how is it going to brutal? Any more brutal than a typical presidential campaign?

Insider: Ah…well, I’ll first say there is nothin’ typical about any presidential campaign. They are all Frankensteins. The very worst of human behavior is par for the course. Ugly-ugly-ugly. Your boy Reagan – his people were about the toughest, meanest sons-a-bitches I ever seen run a presidential campaign. All smiles and jokes and positive messaging on the outside, and kick ‘em in the f***ing teeth behind the scenes. As tough as those guys were, Barack Obama is gonna be much-much worse.

Ulsterman: How? What’s the plan? What’s going to be different from all the other campaigns?

Insider: You’ve already seen it. A taste of it. Race. The race card. Racism. Race-race-race. It’s all they fucking got to run on these days.

Ulsterman: Race? Hasn’t Obama played that one out already? It’s become a joke.

Insider: Played it out? No, not…you might think so but no…his people are going to raise the issue of race to a level this country hasn’t seen since the Civil Rights movement. White guilt got Barack Obama the nomination. White guilt got Barack Obama into the White House. At least it was a big part of it…they are not sure they can run on the economy by summer of 2012. Motivation is way down – the people on the ground. Many of them will be sitting this one out. The campaign conducted over five internals in the last few months. Each time the one issue that came back favorably for the president was the color of his skin. People are not comfortable…white people are not comfortable going against a person of color. At least not a whole lot of them. Those studies – those kinds of studies…they were first incorporated by the Hillary campaign back in 2007 and 2008. It scared the hell out of her – she was so afraid of being called a racist. So she attacked Obama on his lack of experience, she just touched on some of the Chicago garbage…but in the end, the race issue kept her from really engaging in all out political war. The Clinton machine was handcuffed. When Obama used race to get America to forgive the fact he spent some 20 years sitting in the church of a proven anti-American fascist f***ing racist – what could they do? It was game over. I told you a bit of that already…at the start of all this. Right?

Ulsterman: Yes – how you were stunned Obama survived the Jeremiah Wright scandal.

Insider: Nobody should have survived that. No candidate…I don’t care how good…nobody survives something so – they had the videos for f**k’s sake!

Ulsterman: But he did survive it – and rather easily. He gave that speech, and the media praised him for it and the issue was dead.

Insider: EXACTLY. Don’t you understand it then? How race – that very thing that pulled his ass out of the fire back in 2008 – that’s the plan for 2012. But even more of it. They got an entire plan to utilize it. Targeting certain states. A media campaign. Use it as a weapon against prospective opponents – the Romney people better be ready because he’s gonna get his ass kicked with the race issue and he won’t even see it coming. They better have their boy prepared for that…

Ulsterman: States? Media campaign? For the race issue?

Insider: Yes. It’s in place and underway – being developed. Further developed. It’s gonna – gonna tie it in with the unions somehow. I don’t know exactly how – just that’s included in it. It will be an all out campaign on race. The goal is to completely mobilize the Black vote while shaming an even greater number of white voters into not opposing a second Obama term. They are gonna get out the guilt vote man. The guilt vote!

Ulsterman: Obama…Democrats in general, already get the Black vote – most of it.

Insider: They want all of it. Every last one. Then bring in the Hispanic vote, tie them up in this race issue as well. Republicans want to toss you out. Obama wants to bring you in. They hate the color of Obama’s skin just like they hate the color of yours. Hey White America, you aren’t part of that group who hates non-whites are you? If not, you better get out and vote for Barack Obama.

Ulsterman: That sounds overly simplistic and insulting to voters. You really think something like that would actually work?

Insider: Hell yes-yes… it can work. It’s not gonna come so easy as it did in 2008, but that’s why they plan to ramp it up – the race issue. Look, you got generations of voters in this country who have been hammered with guilt for being white. Schools, television, movies…decades of this racism sh*t coming at them from all sides. White guilt is very real. I’ve used it-done it myself… countless times in an election campaign. And for Barack Obama…his re-election team – they are banking on it bringing victory in 2012. Even if it means the threat of race riots. They are willing to go that far – go down that road if need be. If the Obama team can’t guilt enough of White America into voting for them in 2012 – they are just fine with trying to scare the sh*t out of them to do it. And you need to know that there are a lot of Democrats who are hearing about this and are not on board. We’ve always used the race issue to our advantage – but what the Obama team has planned is something…it’s something else altogether. Off the charts stuff. Remember when I said that Obama ain’t no Democrat? That’s as true now as it’s ever been. And he’s on some kind of collision course now with everybody scrambling to get out of the way, and then some of us trying to do what we can to stop it before it’s too late. He’s already destroyed the party…much of it. Gonna take a long time to recover. Daley can’t stop this from within. He’s moderated the damage, but he’s wearing down. Now it’s the country we are worried about. My kids and grandkids will do all right without a Democratic Party around. They need to have an America though. The whole world does.

Ulsterman: You really believe Barack Obama would go that far to win in 2012? He would be willing to engage in that kind of tactic? Just how far would he go?

Insider: (Pauses)… As far as it takes. We’re preparing for it. I sure as hell hope America is too. Like I told you…this election coming up…Brutal.

(Author’s Note: In the days and weeks following the publication of this interview, several high profile members of the Democratic Party have initiated a racially-charged dialogue at the national level, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Jessie Jackson, well known media figures, and even President Barack Obama himself, who recently hung a painting with the word “Nigger” on it just outside the Oval Office, and even more recently, called for listeners to “mobilize” while giving an interview on a Black radio program. This dialogue has included a call to war against the Tea Party, and accusations of racism against those who oppose Barack Obama’s re-election in 2012. Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and Michael Savage have all since indicated knowledge of a race-based Barack Obama re-election plan as now being underway.)