EPA Clueless On 90,000 Tons Of Toxic Waste Imported To US Annually

An estimated 90,000 tons of hazardous waste enters the U.S. each year from foreign countries, but the Environmental Protection Agency often can’t say what or where the dangerous stuff is.

Wherever it goes, hazardous waste presents a huge public health risk to Americans, according to a new EPA Office of Inspector General Report.

“Based on our assessment of data in EPA information systems, the EPA has an incomplete picture of hazardous waste entering the country,” the IG report said. “This can give rise to undetected and unenforced violations of federal hazardous waste laws, which could result in unknown human and environmental exposure to toxic substances.”

The U.S. accepts other nations’ toxic waste — anything from used batteries to discarded cleaning fluids — because the U.S. is more equipped to handle such materials than other countries, and because the U.S. can sometimes turn them into valuable resources.

In other words, one country’s trash can become another’s treasure, but that doesn’t mean the federal government is doing a great job handling toxic waste, the IG said.

EPA employees are supposed to track every shipment that enters the U.S. under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), but federal investigators found that EPA fails to generate half of the consent forms required to accompany each shipment.

Some toxic waste shipments analyzed never reached their intended destination, but the EPA couldn’t confirm whether those shipments were lost, let alone locate them, the IG said. The EPA officials also weren’t sure about the exact volume of hazardous waste entering the U.S. In some cases, they incorrectly identified where the waste shipment originated.

Most of the imported hazardous waste, about 69,000 tons a year, comes from Canada, followed by Mexico at 9,000 tons, Belgium at 3,000 tons, and Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines at 2,000 tons, according to EPA.

Blame may not rest completely with the EPA though, the IG said, because, while the agency is supposed to track imported hazardous waste, officials lack needed enforcement authority to block questionable shipments from reaching U.S. soil.

Via: Daily Caller

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Chutzpah! White House Attacks GOP For Not Condemning “Race Baiting”…

Speechless.

Via: Weasel Zippers

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EXCLUSIVE: REP. KEVIN CRAMER PUSHES LIFTING CRUDE EXPORT BAN, COULD CREATE 440,000 U.S. JOBS

The debate over whether to lift the ban on crude oil exports is picking up on Capitol Hill, and 

Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND)

35%

 is pushing for removal. He explains exclusively to Breitbart News that repealing the ban would have a favorable impact on America’s agriculture and create 440,000 jobs.

On Thursday the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee will debate lifting the export ban on crude oil. The Agriculture Committee held a hearing Wednesday on the issue.

Cramer said critics argue, “Somehow lifting the oil export ban would cause the price of gasoline and fuel at the pump to also rise.” However, Cramer told Breitbart News that many independent studies show that lifting the crude oil export ban would more likely bring the price of fuel down:

Anytime you have a lot of a product – and we have a lot of oil…now that we’ve hit the wall, if we don’t have another place to sell the product, obviously production is going to stop or come down and when that happens, of course, price is going to spike again – that’s just the natural order of things, but if we can be competing in the global market place going up against Saudi Arabia – going up against Iran, that just keeps more and more production happening, creates more jobs.

Cramer pointed to recent studies that estimate there would be roughly 440,000 jobs created if the crude oil export ban were lifted.

IHS Energy estimated, “Total U.S. jobs increase due to free trade will be, on average, 394,000,” while “peak job creation in 2018 is nearly 1 million.”

The Brookings Institute adds, “Lifting the ban on crude oil exports from the United States will boost U.S. economic growth, wages, employment, trade, and overall welfare.”

Via: Breitbart

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House Dems display incorrect Confederate flag

And someone had the stupidity to vote for these idiots time after time after time.

House Democrats referenced the wrong Confederate flag Thursday during a debate over the controversial symbol.

A photo from floor debates shows a Confederate flag with 17 stars, according to a post on CSPAN’s Instagram account.

The actual Confederate battle flag had 13 stars, one for each of the states that seceded from the Union before joining the Confederacy as of late 1861.

CSPAN’s photo shows a number of House Democrats speaking by a cutout of the incorrect version on Thursday morning.

Reps. James Clyburn (S.C.), Al Green (Texas), Keith Ellison (Minn.), David Cicilline (R.I.), Eric Swalwell (Calif.), Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas) and Terri Sewell (Ala.) all missed the apparent mistake.

House GOP leaders abruptly canceled a vote Thursday on a spending bill for the Interior Department amid intraparty infighting over displays of the Confederate flag.

The proposed legislation was shelved after the House moved to vote on an amendment to a measure that would continue allowing the display of the controversial symbol in certain federal cemeteries.

 Via: The Hill

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Florida’s congressional districts rejected as gerrymandered

Senate Reapportionment Chairman Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton discusses an amendment on the floor of the Senate Monday, August 11, 2014, at the Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. Behind him are maps of the 2012 Florida congressional districts, left, and the redrawn ... more >

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state’s congressional maps don’t meet the requirements of a voter-approved constitutional amendment that prohibits political lines from being drawn to favor incumbents or a political party. The court ordered the Legislature to try drawing the maps again.

The ruling means there could be an upheaval as incumbents seek re-election and candidates from both parties seek to fill open seats. Florida has 27 congressional districts and the court ordered eight be redrawn, along with any districts they border.

The court chastised the Republican-led Legislature for working behind the scenes to draw the maps.

“The Legislature itself proclaimed that it would conduct the most open and transparent redistricting process in the history of the state, and then made important decisions, affecting numerous districts in the enacted map, outside the purview of public scrutiny,” the ruling said.

A coalition that included the League of Women Voters challenged the lines, saying Republicans who drew them up ignored the new constitutional requirements approved by voters in 2010. A lower court agreed that GOP leaders and operatives made a mockery of the amendment, but only ordered two central Florida districts be redrawn.

The Supreme Court said that wasn’t good enough.

Republicans have maintained that the maps adhere to constitutional requirements despite evidence that political operatives helped draw them.

It’s yet to be seen how the ruling will affect the majority of Florida’s members of Congress who are seeking re-election, as well as their challengers.

Via: Washington TImes

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Another Reason for the Rise of Trump

Politico has another reason why Donald Trump is doing so well. The GOP is structuring a plan on Obamacare to do an end run around Senate Conservatives while making it look like they’ve done something on Obamacare.

Follow along with me.

According to Jennifer Haberkorn and Rachael Bade, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) 45% says, ““I think we need to find some way to arrive at something like a Ryan-Murray II and if that’s one of the mechanisms that gets us there, I’m all for it.”

Remember, the Ryan-Murray plan was a tax increase that conservatives opposed. Cole and others, at the time, relentlessly attacked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 100%, Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) 95%,Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) 100%, Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) 91% and others to their opposition. We know that is where the GOP is headed because Cole also said, “I would prefer that [spending deal] to a dead-on-arrival repeal of Obamacare.” Got that? He wants something President Obama will sign.

That means it won’t do anything to undermine Obamacare because the President won’t let them undermine Obamacare. But, it gets better.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) 69% gives us this gem:

“My view is there will be some effort here to be sure that members who voted for the budget with the reconciliation capability in the budget feel like its used in the way that they expected that to be used,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of the Republican leadership.

So they’re going to legislate by feeling?! WTF?! They’re going to not repeal Obamacare, not cut Obamacare, not reform Obamacare, and not undermine Obamacare, but they are going to try to convince members of congress that they are doing something so they feel good about it.

A middle school class of kids in high water pants would be more competent at legislating than this crowd.

We all know Trump is probably going to fade over time. But as long as the Washington Republicans are playing games with their own side, Trump’s power continues as a giant “F” and “U” directed toward Washington.

There are very few other people on the campaign who can pivot on this issue and take ground from Trump. They happen to be named Cruz, Paul, and Rubio. The Senate and House leadership is setting them up nicely if they’re game to try.

Via: Red State

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PELOSI USES MURDER BY ILLEGAL TO TOUT GUN CONTROL

Democrats held a press conference yesterday pushing for more gun control after the Charleston shooting and Pelosi made sure to mention the murder of Kate Steinle, calling it another example of ‘gun violence’, suggesting it’s why we need more gun control:

The gun used in Kate’s murder was stolen from a federal agent which means the gun was obtained criminally and there’s not a single law in this nation that would have prevented that.

As a side note, the murderer in Charleston also obtained his gun legally as well. LEGALLY.

More to the point though, it was an illegal who committed the murder and if he hadn’t been here Kate would still be alive!

We don’t need more gun control, we need more ‘illegal’ control!

But Pelosi has an agenda to push so to hell with the facts.

Via: The Right Scoop

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Traitor Cities

The “sanctuary city” movement that gave illegal aliens permission to rob, rape, and murder Americans is the product of decades of concerted collusion by radical groups like the ACLU to get cities to pledge to violate laws that protect U.S. national security.

Cheered on by the Left, sanctuary cities frustrate immigration enforcement efforts and shield illegal aliens from federal officials as a matter of policy.

The Obama administration is fine with that. President Obama has made America a sanctuary country, rolling out the red carpet for illegal aliens, especially those from Mexico, to come to the U.S. and depress labor markets while they suck the nation’s welfare state dry.

What these traitor cities do is itself unlawful, Hans von Spakovsky notes, but they get away with it because President Obama is determined to dismantle America’s immigration system in order to flood the country with desperately poor, illiterate peasants from the Third World.

Obama wants to do this in order to wash away the rule of law tainted as it is by Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, along with whatever stubborn residue of American Revolutionary enlightenment that remains deeply embedded within the tissues of our culture and free institutions.

Americans are being attacked and killed by illegal aliens in perhaps more than 200 so-called sanctuary cities across the country because subversive left-wing advocates like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been working to undermine the nation’s borders and immigration laws. Throughout this long leftist campaign those who demand that federal immigration laws be enforced have been smeared as racist and lacking in compassion. It’s not fair that illegal aliens aren’t given the same rights as U.S. citizens, they whine, mindlessly repeating vapid slogans like “no one is illegal.”

Via: Canada Free Press

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With new documents, stench of IRS scandal reaches into its third year

In 2013, Lois Lerner, former head of the IRS non-profit section, pleaded the Fifth Amendment before the House Oversight Committee. She had been called to testify about her division's unjustifiable harassment of conservative applicants for nonprofit status.

Just over a year later, it was reported that a number of Lerner's work emails had gone missing due to a supposed problem with her hard drive. Then last month, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration testified that IRS employees — despite being under explicit orders not to destroy records — had "magnetically erased" as many as 24,000 of Lerner's missing emails from hundreds of data tapes where they were being stored.

Whether the emails' disappearance was innocent or not, the public is only now beginning to get more information about just what it concealed, thanks to an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the IRS by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch. Documents unearthed this week show that in Fall 2010, Lerner was working to get the Justice Department to prosecute nonprofits that engaged in political activity. This despite the fact that 501(c)4 groups, which cannot take tax-deductible donations, are permitted to engage in some political advocacy by law and by Civil Rights-era court precedents.

One newly uncovered memo describes an October 2010 meeting between Lerner, an FBI official and senior officials at the Justice Department criminal division that investigates public corruption cases. According to this memo, Lerner attempted to get them to go after groups that Lerner described as "political committees 'posing' as if they are not subject to FEC law."

The newly unearthed emails also confirm that around the same time, the IRS shared as many as 1.25 million pages of confidential tax documents with the Justice Department — an apparent violation of strict federal tax privacy laws. Those million-plus pages, according to an email contained among the new documents, were 113,000 tax filings for 501(c)4 organizations from 2007 until October 2010.

The original IRS scandal hinted at an intensive but narrow effort within one division to punish or at least make life difficult for the Obama administration's political opponents — the sort of thing that could perhaps be chalked up to a few bad actors. But the new documents suggest there were at least attempts to bring other agencies in on the wrongdoing.

Incidentally, the new documents also show how later, in July 2013, Obama Justice Department officials requested access to documents before they were handed over to Congress as part of the investigation into this IRS wrongdoing.

Via: Washington Examiner

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[VIDEO] The new Willie Horton?

Is Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez the new Willie Horton?

There are some people who would obviously like him to be. The story, which is about an undocumented immigrant who allegedly murdered a young woman in San Francisco named Kathryn Steinle after having been released from jail, has gone national. And it’s working its way into the presidential campaign. The way the candidates deal with it (or not) will tell us a lot about the state of immigration politics today.

It’s important to understand that there’s no consensus even on the right about how much attention to give to Lopez-Sanchez’s case. Most of the Republican candidates are treading carefully so far. While they oppose the “sanctuary city” policies that meant that Lopez-Sanchez wasn’t turned over to immigration authorities when he had been arrested for lesser crimes, they haven’t yet tried to use this case as a bludgeon to attack Democrats. (The unsurprising exception to this is Donald Trump; meanwhile, for the record, many Democrats have said that a sanctuary city policy should still have allowed someone like Lopez-Sanchez to be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.)

Yet at the same time, conservative talk radio and Fox News are practically vibrating with delight over this story. When I checked in to the network’s web site this morning, it was the subject not only of the main screaming headline, but five other written stories and four videos, with more coming all the time.

What does this one case tell us about crime in America and our immigration policies? The real answer is not much, because one case is always just one case. According to the latest FBI crime statistics, around 38 Americans are murdered each and every day; every one is a tragedy. We know that as a group, immigrants are actually much less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. And though it illustrates an extreme negative consequence that can come from a sanctuary city policy, police in cities with sanctuary policies often argue that they help fight crime by allowing residents of immigrant communities to work with law enforcement without the fear that they’ll be turned over to immigration authorities.

Via: Washington Post

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Democrats Scurry From Sanctuary Ship

Democrats now will say anything to distance themselves from sanctuary city policies, even though they have supported these policies for years. In an exclusive CNN interview Tuesday, Hillary Rodham Clinton was asked about San Francisco's refusal to hand over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement seven-time convicted felon and five-time deportee Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez. He stands accused in the fatal shooting of Kathryn Steinle as she took an evening stroll on Pier 14 last week. (After telling a local TV station he shot Steinle by accident, Lopez-Sanchez has pleaded not guilty to murder.) Clinton answered, "The city made a mistake not to deport someone that the federal government strongly felt should be deported. So I have absolutely no support for a city that ignores the strong evidence that should be acted on."

In a 2007 Democratic presidential debate, the late Tim Russert asked Clinton if she would allow sanctuary cities to disobey federal law. "Well, I don't think there is any choice," she answered. Immigrants may not talk to police if "they think you're also going to be enforcing the immigration laws." She did not add a caveat that she wanted local law enforcement to work with immigration officials if the federal government had strong feelings that an individual should be deported.

In 2008, Clinton voted against an amendment to yank some federal funds from sanctuary cities. California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer voted likewise -- but it didn't stop them from criticizing San Francisco for releasing a repeat offender.

"The 2008 budget amendment was a choice between sending a political message or funding California law enforcement, and I chose to fund the police," Feinstein explained in an email. "I continue to believe we can deport criminals who are undocumented and still support law enforcement."

Perhaps Feinstein and Clinton are living back in 1985, when Feinstein was mayor and signed San Francisco's sanctuary city law. It was supposed to help immigrants seeking asylum from war-torn El Salvador and Guatemala. Four years later, the law was expanded to cover all immigrants. Then, in 2013, the Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance, signed by Mayor Ed Lee, that prohibits city law enforcement from releasing undocumented immigrants to ICE based on a detainer request alone. (There's an exception for recent violent felons, but Lopez-Sanchez did not qualify.)

Sanctuary City supporters cannot say they were not warned. Recently, ICE Director Sarah Saldana told a House committee that reduced cooperation from state and local governments "may increase the risk that dangerous criminals are returned to the streets, putting the public and our officers at greater risk."

Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., asked Saldana if it would help if Congress made it mandatory for local governments to cooperate with ICE -- the sort of bill already rejected by Clinton, Feinstein and Boxer. "Thank you. Amen. Yes," Saldana answered.

Via: Real Clear Politics

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John Boehner joins growing calls for OPM director's resignation

Speaker John Boehner and the House’s other two top Republicans want Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta to resign following the latest massive data breach at her agency – which today officially reached 21.5 million individuals compromised.

“It has taken this administration entirely too long to come to grips with the magnitude of this security breach – a breach that experts agree was entirely foreseeable,” Boehner said in a statement after Thursday’s announcement of the magnitude of the breach of security clearance forms.

“President [Barack] Obama must take a strong stand against incompetence in his administration and instill new leadership at OPM so we can move forward in a fashion that begins to restore the confidence of the American people,” he added.

“Over the past few weeks, news of the OPM data breach has gone from bad, to worse, to absolutely inexplicable,” added House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. “Only with new leadership can we get a full accounting of what happened and, most importantly, how to prevent this from ever happening again.”

GOP Whip Steve Scalise also put out a statement calling for Archuleta’s resignation.

And in the Senate, so did senior Arizona Republican John McCain.

“I am troubled by the Administration’s lack of response and question how it continues to sit idly by as our adversaries exploit the United States on a continuous basis with little, or meaningless, reprisal,” McCain said. “It is time for new leadership at OPM.”

Via: Politico

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[VIDEO] Fox’s Jesse Watters Confronted San Fran Board of Supervisors over Kate Steinle’s Death

Bill O’Reilly‘s roving reporter Jesse Watters dropped his usual shtick to get serious and confront San Francisco’s board of supervisors over Kate Steinle‘s death.

Since Monday, O’Reilly has made it clear he’s very outraged about Steinle being shot dead by an illegal immigrant who had already been deported. He said the Obama administration is “complicit”and her death is “collateral damage” of San Francisco’s “insane left-wing politics.”

Tonight he kept the focus on San Francisco, showing video of Watters there yesterday confronting the city board of supervisors over their “dangerous sanctuary city policies.”

He held up a picture of Steinle, said the city let her killer out, and called them out for their silence and for not looking at the photo.

Later on in the segment, Watters attempted to confront other city officials in their offices about her death, but did not exactly get direct responses.

Via: Mediaite

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S.F. Shooting Reveals Gaps in Immigration Enforcement

A slaying in San Francisco has sparked a national furor over its status as a so-called “sanctuary city” for unlawfully present immigrants. In an area popular with tourists, a five-time deportee named Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez shot Kathryn Steinle as she walked the waterfront with her father.

In addition to his five deportations, Lopez-Sanchez had racked up seven felony convictions since 1991, according to the Washington Post. “San Francisco authorities released him from custody in April after drug charges against him were dropped, despite an urgent request from the Department of Homeland Security that he be deported a sixth time to his native Mexico,” the Post reported.

Laying blame squarely at the feet of the city, federal officials have helped return California to the center of the immigration debate roiling the U.S. amidst the early stages of a presidential election season.

Municipal crisis

Caught flat-footed, city officials have scrambled to respond to the ballooning criticism. Donald Trump, who has made immigration enforcement a divisive wedge issue defining his maverick run for the presidency, recently seized upon the shooting as evidence justifying his proposed crackdown. City officials emphasized that their actions were in accordance with municipal law, as the Los Angeles Times noted:

“San Francisco’s ordinance made Sanchez ineligible for a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold because he did not have ‘a violent felony conviction within the last seven years, or a probable cause for holding issued by a magistrate or judge on a current violent felony,’ said Freya Horne, an attorney for the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department. ‘Nothing in his background showed anything like that.’”

Lopez-Sanchez fell under the purview of a 2013 law adopted by San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors. “Since then,” added the Times, “dozens of cities and counties across the country have stopped complying with immigration “detainer” requests after a federal judge ruled that an Oregon county violated one woman’s 4th Amendment rights by holding her for immigration authorities without probable cause.”

Lopez-Sanchez has now been charged by city prosecutors in connection with Steinle’s killing, according to Fox News.

Via: California Political Review

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[VIDEO] NEW MTV SHOW PUBLICLY SHAMES WHITE PEOPLE FOR “WHAT THEY’VE DONE IN AMERICA”

White People documentary hosted by illegal immigrant features young Americans crying over their "white privilege"

No, this is not a joke. The documentary is hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, an illegal immigrant and amnesty activist who has worked for the Washington Post and the Huffington Post.

The trailer for the show, which has been widely criticized by YouTube respondents, features white people expressing angst about how they are desperate not to appear “racist” or “offend people.”

According to Kimberly Ricci, the documentary forces the participants “to internalize what they’ve done in America” – in other words, this a huge exercise in white guilt tripping for public consumption.

An MTV write up of the show also explains how Vargas talks to young Native Americans who feel that European settlers did not ‘save the country’.

“They are the ones who invaded. They are the ones who took,” says Vargas.

In the interests of balance, when will Vargas be fronting a show called Black People that collectively blames all black people for black crime statistics, including the fact that black people in America commit over half of homicides despite making up only 13 per cent of the population?

How about the fact that despite being outnumbered by whites five to one, blacks commit eight times more crimes against whites than vice-versa?

How about the fact that interracial rapes are almost exclusively black on white?

How about the Barbary slave trade, under which over 1 million white Christian Europeans were enslaved in North Africa until the middle of the 18th century?

Are black people going to be shown crying on camera having been shamed into taking responsibility for all of this? No, because that would be racist. But according to MTV and Vargas, subjecting someone to trial by media purely because of their skin color is perfectly acceptable – so long as they are white.

This documentary represents the culmination of years of race-baiting and racial division which is being driven by the mass media and the Obama White House, tensions which have rapidly accelerated since the Ferguson and Baltimore riots.

Responses to the video trailer on YouTube were savage, with the clip receiving twice as many ‘thumbs down’ in comparison to ‘thumbs up’.

“I’m black, even I know this show is straight up racist. Only because it’s stereotyping white people, all white INDIVIDUALS are not like that,” wrote one respondent.

Via: Infowars

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