Jeff Sessions confirmed as Attorney General

From the AP.org:

THE LATEST: SENATE CONFIRMS SESSIONS AS ATTORNEY GENERAL

The Senate has confirmed Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to be attorney general in the Trump administration.

The 52-47 vote broke largely along party lines and capped weeks of divisive battles over Sessions, an early supporter of Donald Trump and one of the Senate’s most conservative Republicans.

No surprise there. It’s fairly well known that Senator Jeff Sessions will actually enforce the law and abide by the rule of law, as opposed to the two prior racist occupants who could only see cases through the lenses of race and sex.

Democrats laced into Sessions over his ties to Trump and his record on civil rights and immigration. Republicans lauded his four decades in public service and his commitment to fairness and the rule of law.

The nomination drew wide attention after an imbroglio in which Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren earned a rare rebuke for quoting Coretta Scott King, widow of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., criticizing Sessions in 1986.

In reference to that incident, please see my very prior post. Then watch this — completely skewering the notion that Sessions is some kind of racist — as the niece of Martin Luther King Jr, Dr Alveda King, remarks:

Senator Sessions had to endure this kind of questioning from one of the largest and most officious bozos in the senate, Al Franken.

As my college professors used to say, “compare and contrast” the above interrogation by Franken to the interview by Senator Ted Cruz, below.

The proper thing has been done, the Department of Justice will be clean again, and actual investigations into corruption and various violations of the law — by anyone — may be instigated. My confidence level in the DOJ has increased geometrically. I would suspect that the IRS, the State Department, other governmental entities, national organizations, cities, counties and states — as well as persons — are on official notice.

The rule of law has returned to the Justice Department.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

From PatDollard.com:

ACLU Immediately Threatens To Sue Jeff Sessions

Excerpted From The Hill: The American Civil Liberties Union vowed to sue Jeff Sessions if he violates the Constitution immediately after he was confirmed by the Senate as attorney general.

“If he violates the Constitution, we’ll sue,” the ACLU tweeted on Wednesday night.

I might be forced to conclude: the honeymoon is over before it started.

On the other hand: Sessions is now in session.

BZ

 

Crafting shit in the dead of night: WHY?

Ryan & ObamaThe only answer?

Because there are things in bills that their authors don’t want you to immediately knowThings you would object to.  They would either be embarrassed or guilty if they were caught.  And politicians know the American public is ignorant and possessed of no memory.

Unfortunately, it appears this isn’t just the beginning of a trend, it’s now the norm.

Just as the new 2,000+ -page omnibus budget bill was crafted in secrecy this week.

The Demorats started it.  Now the Republicans want to sign off on it.

From Breitbart.com:

Who Wrote the Omnibus? Four Lawmakers, Many Lobbyists

by Peter Schweizer

The ugly work that went into the massive pork-filled omnibus spending bill snaking its way through congress is now starting to be exposed.

And it’s not for the faint at heart. Members of congress had little input in the bill and didn’t even in many cases know what was in it.

Read that line over again: members of congress had little input in the bill and didn’t even in many cases know what was in it.

“No member of even the House and Senate knew what was going on,” he (Senator Jeff Sessions, R-AL) told Portland, Oregon talk show host Lars Larson. “Special interests did because we heard from lobbyists what some things were being considered.”

Sessions went on to note that basically four members of congress put the deal together without consulting their colleagues. “It’s not right for ultimately four members, in secret — for reasons we have no understanding of — to make critical decisions on things,” he said.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, shit crafted in secrecy and by a cabal of limited persons.

For a REASON.

There are things in the bill yet undiscovered.

The new normal.

Do you like that?

BZ

 

Oh goodie — “Senator: Non-English Speakers Qualify for Disability Benefits More Quickly”

Illegal Mexican SignI’m not necessarily a great fan of the TEA Party, as the TEA Party abandoned me in a similar fashion to the GOP.  Like a broken clock, however, they are occasionally correct and, with that, I submit they are correct here  —  to a degree — as displayed on their website.

Disability Enrollees Increased by 230 Percent

by Elizabeth Harrington

(Free Beacon) – The inability to speak English is now considered a determining factor to receive federal disability benefits.

Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) sent a letter obtained exclusively by the Free Beacon to Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration Carolyn Colvin on Thursday, raising concerns regarding revelations that individuals who cannot speak English are fast-tracked for disability approval.

“I write to express my concerns about the expanding number of individuals now qualified for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and to raise a specific issue, the basis for many of these individuals’ disability classification, where the inability to speak English is a determinative factor,” Sessions said.

Meaning: Mexicans predominantly acquire a priority over actual American citizens born in this country.  And the noted disability is their alleged inability to speak English.

This kind of stragedy is indeed defeatist, for the individual, for liberties and for the nation.

Check this out:

The Social Security Act allows for the consideration of education when deciding if an individual is disabled. “The education factor is not limited to actual education as it relates to schooling, but includes a linguistic limitation on the ability to communicate in the English language,” Sessions said.

According to the Act, “Since the ability to speak, read and understand English is generally learned or increased at school, we may consider this an educational factor.”

Meaning: if you’re too uninterested or stupid to speak English — or too plottingly and cunningly crafty — federal rules shall fall by the wayside for you like pearls before parasites.

It gets better yet — your hard-earned American tax dollars at work:

Social Security Administrative Law Judge Drew A. Swank also testified that, “there is no burden of proof placed on the individual to demonstrate an inability to communicate in English” at hearings.

In addition, the Hearings Appeal and Litigation Law Manual (HALLEX) requires that “an interpreter be provided at the request of a claimant, even if the claimant is capable of speaking English.”

“This makes it difficult for an Administrative Law Judge to adequately determine English proficiency,” Sessions said. “Once an interpreter is provided, the claimant, perhaps under instructions from his lawyer, never speaks a word of English at the hearing.”

Imagine that.

The American Taxpayer fleeced by the federal government, and then fleeced again.

A final factor to consider:

“The population of the United States grew by 9.7 percent between 2000 and 2010, but the number of SSDI applications grew by 230 percent,” Sessions noted.

230%!  Why might that be?

Anything to do with the inability to find a job due to the onerous regulations and abysmal economic policies foisted upon Americans by Mr Obama?  Bueller?

With nothing left, an application to SSDI — and easy approvals in mind?

Hmm.  I wonder.  .  .

BZ