Stephen Harper’s Right-Hand Man Resigns Over Expense Crisis

Thanks for sharing, Patrick!

The Prime Minister’s chief of staff has resigned in the midst of the most serious scandal to hit Stephen Harper in his seven years in office.

Nigel Wright announced his resignation Sunday morning, just days after CTV Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife reported that he wrote a personal cheque to help Senator Mike Duffy pay back more than $90,000 in improperly claimed senate living expenses.

Wright said he believed repaying the funds that Duffy had improperly claimed was “in the public interest,” and said he accepts sole responsibility in the matter.

Nigel Wright, chief of staff for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, appears as a witness at the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Nov. 2, 2010. (Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Senator Mike Duffy leaves a meeting of the Senate Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration committee on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Thursday, May 9, 2013. (Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

“My actions were intended solely to secure the repayment of funds, which I considered to be in the public interest, and I accept sole responsibility,” Wright said in a statement. “I did not advise the Prime Minister of the means by which Sen. Duffy’s expenses were repaid, either before or after the fact.

Harper said in a statement that he accepted Wright’s resignation with “great regret” and thanked his top aide for his contributions to the Tory government.

“I accept that Nigel believed he was acting in the public interest, but I understand the decision he has taken to resign. I want to thank Nigel for his tremendous contribution to our government over the past two and a half years.”

Ray Novak, who has served as Harper’s principal secretary since 2008, is taking over as the prime minister’s chief of staff.

On Thursday, Duffy announced he quit the Conservative caucus and would sit as an Independent, as the public controversy surrounding the repayment of Senate expenses had become a “distraction.”

Following news of Wright’s resignation, NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus said the Harper government is in “full-fledged panic mode.”

“Why, for months, was Sen. Duffy allowed to pretend he paid the money out of his own pocket?”Angus said on CTV Question Period Sunday.

Liberal MPs were also quick to indicate that the controversy is far over, and when parliament resumes on Tuesday after a break, questions are likely to dog the Conservatives.

Foreign affairs critic Bob Rae said he was not surprised by Wright’s resignation and stressed the need for an independent investigation into the matter.

“If the Conservatives are not prepared to let it go to a parliamentary committee, then they need to appoint a special investigator or someone who has the capacity to ask all the difficult questions,” he said Sunday afternoon.

Rae added that the scandal has more to do with the Prime Minister than the Senate itself.

“This is about Mr. Harper. This is about the Prime Minister’s Office, how the Prime Minister’s Office operates and the ethical and legal standards by which it operates,” he said. “That’s where the focus is, and that’s where it now belongs.”

Calls for investigations

Last week, the New Democrats asked Senate Ethics Officer Lyse Ricard to launch an investigation in the matter, claiming the $90,000 cheque from Wright violated ethics rules that prohibit senators from accepting gifts.

Under the Senate Conflict of Interest Code, all gifts over $500 must be reported within 30 days.

“What people need to know about the Senate is it’s such an old boy’s club that you actually need the permission of the Senate to begin an investigation,” Angus said.

Duffy’s expenses had been the subject of an internal audit, along with those of Senators Patrick Brazeau and Mac Harb.

Under the Senate’s housing rule allowance, senators can be compensated for living expenses if they live more than 100 kilometres from Ottawa, requiring them to maintain a secondary residence.

However, according to evidence outlined in an independent audit showed that Duffy, Brazeau and Harb each spent more time in the capital than at the homes declared to be their primary residences, rendering their claims ineligible.

Earlier this month, a Senate committee ordered Brazeau to repay about $48,000, and Harb $51,000.

Brazeau insists that he didn’t break rules by claiming the housing allowance, and he is determining if the order to repay the money can be overturned. Harb has retained a lawyer and will attempt to “quash” the audit’s findings.

On Tuesday morning, Harper will hold an emergency meeting with Conservative senators and MPs, many overwhelmed by complaints they’ve been hearing from their constituents about the issues raised in recent weeks.

See related stories and the video at CTV News…

How 47 Per Cent of Congress Became Millionaires

Thanks to Drake for posting this from Russia Today.

This is also why they are passing secret bills that only serve to further enslave us. Think it’s time to get rid of them?

Source

 

Jeff Merkley Pushes ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ Repeal

Thanks for this, Patrick.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is planning to push an amendment to the upcoming farm bill that would repeal the secret provision known as the Monsanto Protection Act, a rider attached anonymously to a spending bill that sailed through Congress in March. An outcry greeted the news of the legislation once the public learned that it had been passed by Congress with no debate and signed into law by President Barack Obama.

The provision allows Monsanto and other companies to continue selling genetically engineered seeds, even if a court has blocked them from doing so. Merkley will press for a floor vote on his repeal amendment when the farm bill is taken up next week, a Merkley aide told HuffPost.

Federal courts have recently ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had failed to consider the potential harm some genetically engineered crops may have, and acted too hastily in approving their sale. The industry fought back with the farm bill rider, preventing the enforcement of court rulings.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) spoke out against the rider on the Senate floor, but the chamber is typically empty, and his objection was not enough to block it from passage.

Jon Stewart helped elevate the issue with an extended segment on it, and the measure also found a number of conservative critics.

A Monsanto spokesperson wasn’t immediately available to comment.

See video…

 

Today on The Blaze: Holder is Dirty and Has to Go, and a Random Act of Journalism

A Random Outbreak Of Journalism Was Spotted At MSNBC

Wednesday morning, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough had a fiery exchange with former Obama senior adviser David Axelrod over the Justice Department’s seizure of Associated Press phone records. The angry anchor accused Axelrod of peddling a “bogus argument” and misstating Scarborough’s past remarks. Watch the rare occurance  HERE.

 

And Drake will love this…

at 4:00 EDT today, Andrew Wilkow on The Blaze TV will discuss… “Eric Holder [Mr. Fast & Furious] is dirty and has to go”.

If you’re not a Blaze TV subscriber, you can start a 14-day free trial …

Michael Chossudovsky: Time to Charge the Mainstream Media with War Crimes [video]

Kuala Lumpur

Here! Here!  I concur. We need the media to end the complicity with the Illuminati, take journalism seriously, and report the truth to The People. These fake newscasts (CNN) are treasonous acts.

This is a great video. Too bad nothing has transpired to that end since the discussion.

I like that he’s suggesting we could use the AHEM!  “alternative media” to take them to task.

Again, the embed code doesn’t work for me, so please use the link below.

Michel Chossudovsky speaks in Kuala Lumpur (2012). Reflections on the criminal mainstream mass media after the 9/11 events and “covering up” as obstruction of justice.

Read more: http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/137934/Chossudovsky_Criminal_and_Complicit_Mainstream_Media/#ixzz2THnfUsiV

US Congress: The Most Corrupt and Unrepresentative Legislature on Earth

This is the result when people get lazy and just expect and allow their state representatives to act in their best interests, without checking into what they’re doing, calling them or writing them to express their views and expectations, and generally letting them destroy the Constitution and strip them of their rights—and all for what? Money and power.

About:  Published on May 2, 2013

A look at Big Money behind US Congress and its multi-term corrupt Congressmen and Senators lining up their own and their wealthy donors’ pockets. Republicans and Democrats both represent the Big Money, the top 1% with Congressional Approval Rating hovering around 13 percent even lower than the White House. Also a look at the personal wealth of the members of US Congress, More than 50 percent of the members of US congress are millionaires.

 

GOP Lawmakers Hope to Combat Ammunition Stockpiling by Gov’t Agencies with AMMO Act

Republicans in the Senate and House are expected to introduce a joint bill Friday that would limit the amount of ammunition that federal agencies are allowed to buy and stockpile over the next six months, the Washington Free Beacon reports.

The bill, titled the Ammunition Management for More Accountability or “AMMO” Act, is being proposed after several lawmakers have voiced concerns about some federal agencies, like the Department of Homeland Security, seemingly stockpiling large quantities of ammo.

“DHS, for instance, has placed two-years worth of ammunition, or nearly 247 million rounds, in its inventory,” the Free Beacon notes.

In a statement provided to the Washington Free Beacon, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), said federal agencies must provide more “transparency and accountability” in regards to its “stockpiles of ammunition.”

“President Obama has been adamant about curbing law-abiding Americans’ access and opportunities to exercise their Second Amendment rights…One way the Obama administration is able to do this is by limiting what’s available in the market with federal agencies purchasing unnecessary stockpiles of ammunition,” the statement adds.

More from the Free Beacon:

[T]he legislation would prevent all government agencies except for the Defense Department from purchasing and storing what lawmakers say is an excess amount of ammunition.

The bill’s reach would include DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), two agencies that have found themselves at the center of the ammo controversy.

“As the public learned in a House committee hearing this week, the Department of Homeland Security has two years worth of ammo on hand and allots nearly 1,000 more rounds of ammunition for DHS officers than is used on average by our Army officers,” Inhofe said. “The AMMO Act of 2013 will enforce transparency and accountability of federal agencies’ ammunition supply while also protecting law-abiding citizens access to these resources.”

An agency covered by the legislation would not be permitted to purchase or store more ammunition than that agency retained on average between 2001 and 2009, according to an advance copy of the legislation provided to the Free Beacon.

Additionally, the AMMO Act would encourage the Government Accountability Office to audit federal agencies’ ammo purchases.

“The Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a report regarding the purchasing of ammunition by agencies, which shall include an assessment of the effect of the purchasing of ammunition by agencies on the supply of ammunition available to the public,” the bill reads, according to a copy reviewed by the Free Beacon.

There have been more concerns over reports of DHS’s plan to purchase another 750 million rounds of ammunition over the next five years, despite having a two-year stockpile saved up. Meanwhile, gun shops across the country are reporting ammunition shortages.

Source

Stella Tremblay, New Hampshire Legislator, Says U.S. Government Planned Boston Bombing

Now we’re getting somewhere! Someone actually contacted their state representative!

Kudos for sticking your neck out  in the name of truth and justice, Ms. Tremblay. She even fingers the media and implies they’re culpable to investigate and report the truth.

Thanks to Glenn Beck for his stance on this outrageous development, too.

It will be interesting to see who else steps forward next. Nevada’s David Lory VanDerBeek already said his peace. Let’s see who the honest politicians are, shall we?

A Republican state legislator in New Hampshire is claiming that the United States government is responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing.

State Rep. Stella Tremblay (R-Auburn) posted on conservative talk show host Glenn Beck’s Facebook page Friday that the attack and the subsequent search for suspects was playing out how Beck had suggested. She said the bombings were a plot by the federal government, and included a link to a video from another conservative talk show host Alex Jones, in which Jones also claims the federal government planned the bombing. Tremblay’s message to Beck was posted Friday morning, before suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arrested.

Just as you said would happen. Top Down, Bottom UP. The Boston Marathon was a Black Ops “terrorist” attack. One suspect killed, the other one will be too before they even have a chance to speak. Drones and now “terrorist” attacks by our own Government. Sad day, but a “wake up” to all of us. First there was a “suspect” then there wasn’t. Infowars broke the story and they knew they had been “found out”.

It’s unclear which of Beck’s comments Tremblay is referencing.

In the video, Jones spends eight minutes discussing his theory, which includes what he says are photos of off-duty Navy SEALS near the marathon finish line and backpacks he claims contained bombs.

Jones has a history of such claims, including saying that the federal government was responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. He also claimed that former Attorney General Janet Reno killed the Branch Davidian compound members in Waco, Texas, in 1993.

Tremblay did not return a message left requesting comment.

Last October, Tremblay sent an email to the other 399 state House members with a doctored video she claimed depicted President Barack Obama saying that he was not born in the United States. She said the video was sufficient proof to open an investigation into Obama’s citizenship. In February, Tremblay told a legislative committee that former President Woodrow Wilson agreed with Adolf Hitler, even though Wilson died before Hitler rose to power.

Tremblay’s history advisor, David Johnson, told The Huffington Post in March that former President Abraham Lincoln deleted a constitutional amendment and dissolved the United States, while also not freeing the slaves. He also claimed that the U.S. government is under the control of Queen Elizabeth II.

The New Hampshire Democratic Party is calling on state Republicans to condemn Tremblay.

“Even for the New Hampshire Republican Party, which has become synonymous with the tea party and radical extremism, Representative Tremblay’s claims are a new low,” state Democratic Party spokesman Harrell Kirstein said in a statement. “She is an embarrassment to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, to her constituents, and to the entire state of New Hampshire.”

Londonderry Patch reported Tuesday that New Hampshire GOP officials have come out against Tremblay’s Facebook post.

“It is hard to believe that just days after the cowardly acts of terror took place in our backyard that Representative Tremblay would thoroughly discredit herself with her bizarre, embarrassing and unfounded comments,” state GOP executive director Matthew Slater told Patch. “New Hampshire Republicans strongly reject her outlandish views and believe that anybody who holds such bizarre beliefs should not be taken seriously.”

UPDATE: Tremblay told news website Foster’s Daily Democrat on Tuesday that she believes there is evidence that shows that the U.S. government is behind the Boston bombings.

According to the site, she said that a constituent told her to watch a video which then led her to Jones’ video. She also questioned why the FBI searched the home of a Saudi Arabian student after the bombing and then dropped the investigation after she says Secretary of State John Kerry met with the Saudi ambassador.

“It was one of my constituents that sent me an email, and it went to a site where … I think it was a major retired marine was speaking, and then he said, ‘please go to Infowars,’ and they had pictures of, what is it, black ops? With black backpacks. They show them at the scene, so they knew something was going on …,” Tremblay told Foster’s Daily Democrat.

Tremblay also said that it should not be her role to investigate terrorism but rather suggested that the media needs to do more.

“Why are you leaving it to some dumb representative to ask questions, when the reporters should be doing their job?” Tremblay said. “Are you that blind that you’re not willing to ask questions of your government?”

Source – See for Slideshow

Piers Morgan Blows My Mind and Outs a Nazi Member of the US Government on Prime Time Television

It’s no secret to my readers how I have felt about Piers Morgan in the past (and CNN), but THIS time, he pleasantly surprised me. I’m also surprised the Washington Post shared this. I guess they’re trying to boost their readership.

Now this New York Senator Greg Ball—get the military over to his house and arrest him. It’s clear who signs his paycheque. Do you want this kind of person representing you in your government? Do you agree with his Nazi stand on torture?

This is what he tweeted concerning the torture and murder of Tamerlan Tsarnaev at the hands of the Boston Police Department;

So, scum bag #2 in custody. Who wouldn’t use torture on this punk to save more lives?
5:52 PM – 19 Apr 2013

If you support Greg Ball’s stance on torture, are you aware of the Geneva Convention? The dark cabal breaks all the rules. They make their own and expect us to live by them.

It’s difficult to digest what’s being said with these two talking over one another so a partial transcript is below.

CNN’s Piers Morgan signed him up, and last night a mindless back-and-forth unfolded:

BALL: Piers, how are you?

MORGAN: I’m sorry, Senator Ball. You tweeted this. You said, “So scum bag number two in custody; who wouldn’t use torture on this punk to save more lives?” Do you still believe that?

BALL: Absolutely. At the end of the day – you know, I think you interview a lot of politicians. A lot of politicians are full of crap. They’re scared of their own shadow and scared to say what they feel. I think that I share the feelings of a lot of red-blooded Americans who believe that if we can save even one innocent American life, including we’ve seen the killing of children, that they would use — and this is just for me — that they would use every tool at their disposal to do so.

MORGAN: But he’s an American citizen, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He committed a domestic crime in Boston, and he’ll be tried in a U.S. civilian criminal court system.

BALL: Right.

MORGAN: How are you going to torture him?

BALL: I mean, dude, you’re talking to a guy that supports the death penalty for cop killers, terrorists.

MORGAN: Yes, but how would you torture him?

BALL: Piers, I would support — I’m talking about me. If you want to talk to the president of the United States about his policies next time you golf or go play basketball with him, you can ask him. I’m telling you as Greg Ball, I’m telling you as Greg Ball personally –

MORGAN: I understand you’re Greg Ball.

BALL: If you would put me in the room with anybody from the most current scumbags to Osama bin Laden, I’m telling you what I would do. As far as the policy of the United States, you got to take it up with Obama.

MORGAN: I understand. But if you start to torture an American citizen for committing a domestic crime in America, you are crossing a Rubicon.

What’s the point here, Morgan? Has your CNN show turned into an instrument of accountability for the citizens of Putnam County. Perhaps so.

After more such inanities, Morgan went to a commercial break and asked that Ball stick around. When the program resumed, Ball was gone, and Morgan was throwing elbows:

I would have been back with Senator Greg Ball from New York. Unfortunately, he has left the building, rather surprising for a man who described himself as a great red-blooded American who was going to hand me my British ass. Anyway, he has shown cowardice in the face of the ongoing debate and has left. So there we have it.

Read the rest of the article…

FBI DHS Staged Boston Bombs says Nevada Governor 2014 [video]

Thanks to the OPPTrs for sharing this on Facebook.

I believe David WILL be the Governor of Nevada! I’ve heard other discourse from him and we ALL need a guy like this speaking for us and representing The People in Washington.