IG: Turns Out Homeland Security Is a Favor Factory, Too
The Washington Post reveals that the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General figured out . . . what most cynics figured out a long time ago: Not long before he became governor of Virginia, Democrat Terry McAuliffe received special treatment on behalf of his electric-car company from a top official at the Department of Homeland Security, according to a new report from the department's inspector general. McAuliffe was among several politically powerful individuals from both parties, including Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), seeking special visas for foreign investors through a program administered by the department. But intervention on behalf of McAuliffe's GreenTech Automotive company by Alejandro Mayorkas, now the department's No. 2 official, "was unprecedented," according to the report. The long-anticipated report found no evidence of law-breaking. But members of the department's staff perceived Mayorkas's actions as "politically motivated," and the report concluded that he had "created an appearance of favoritism and special access." This was a big deal, covered extensively on Campaign Spot . . . two years ago: The Homeland Security Inspector General is investigating to see whether officials gave special treatment to GreenTech because of McAuliffe's political connections. McAuliffe was central to GreenTech's effort to get DHS to reverse decisions on visas: When Department of Homeland Security officials balked at certain visa requests, McAuliffe and [GreenTech business partner Anthony] Rodham tried to go over their heads to keep the endeavor — called Project Mastiff — going. In a December 2010 letter, McAuliffe complained to then-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that her underlings 'halted Project Mastiff in its tracks.' According to Senator Chuck Grassley, a senior career employee at DHS wrote in response to a question from the press office about whether Greentech had received special treatment: We absolutely gave special treatment to Green Tech at the directive of D1. D1 was working directly with the R[egional] C[enter]'s atty. . . . Additionally, I would call a wholesale rewrite of the AAO's decision by the front office special treatment. "D1" is an apparent reference to Alejandro Mayorkas, director of DHS's Citizenship and Immigration Services. Back in July 2013, I wrote, "wonder if the investigation will be resolved before November of this year." Hey, it only took 20 months, a year and a half into McAuliffe's term as governor. The Post notes: Mayorkas's handling of the EB-5 program was questioned publicly in 2013, when he was under consideration for the No. 2 spot at the Department of Homeland Security. Half a dozen whistleblowers had complained to the inspector general and to Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) in 2012 and 2013 about favoritism in the granting of the visas. After contentious hearings, Mayorkas was confirmed in December 2013. So, special treatment for the politically-connected matter on the security-sensitive issue of immigration . . . with no real consequence. Typical of the Obama era. Russia's Making Nuclear Threats, and Obama's Too Busy for NATO Remember yesterday's Jolt, featuring a chilling, unnervingly plausible scenario of Russia occupying Sweden's Gotland Island and annexing the Baltic states? The news Tuesday: Swedish military identified and followed four Russian fighter plane near Gotland and Bornholm, off the country's east coast on Tuesday morning. The planes were spotted in international airspace but heading towards Sweden at around 5.30am. None of the aircraft - two TU-22M planes and two SU-27 fighter jets - were using transponders, the telecommunications devices that emit and gather signals from planes. "It is the first time in years that we have seen precisely this type of aircraft over the Baltic Sea," Anders Grenstad, Deputy Director of Operations for the Swedish Armed Forces told the TT news agency. He said the planes were understood to have first flown over the Baltic coast, then turned south toward Bornholm and Gotland before heading back to the Finnish Gulf. And the Russian saber-rattling is getting louder: Recent statements by Russian ambassador Mikhail Vanin that Danish warships could become the target of Russian nukes, should the country participate in NATO's missile defence, have drawn a sharp reaction from NATO. "Denmark is a staunch NATO ally and NATO will defend all allies against any threat," NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu told BT. "We have made it clear that NATO's missile defence is not directed against Russia or other countries, but is intended as defence against missile threats." Good thing that President Obama is -- eh, you can see the punchline coming a mile away. Obama's blowing off NATO's leadership at a really, really bad moment: President Barack Obama has yet to meet with the new head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and won't see Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg this week, even though he is in Washington for three days. Stoltenberg's office requested a meeting with Obama well in advance of the visit, but never heard anything from the White House, two sources close to the NATO chief told me. The leaders of almost all the other 28 NATO member countries have made time for Stoltenberg since he took over the world's largest military alliance in October. "It is hard for me to believe that the president of the United States has not found the time to meet with the current secretary general of NATO given the magnitude of what this implies, and the responsibilities of his office," said [Kurt Volker, who served as the U.S. permanent representative to NATO under both President George W. Bush and Obama]. The world is upside down. We're snubbing NATO, excusing Iran's Supreme Leader's declaring "Death to America," and threatening to not support Israel at the United Nations. We've seen Libya, Yemen, and large chunks of Syria and Iraq collapse into anarchy or fall under control of the Islamic State or bloodthirsty Islamist groups. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan . . . While the Afghan government was roiled by months of controversy over last year's presidential election, the Taliban was growing stronger. According to the United Nations, more than 10,000 civilians died in last year's fighting, a record, while U.S. officials described Afghan military losses as unsustainable. The bad guys are calling the shots. Progressives Realize They've Created Frankenstein's Monster, Part Two An anonymous professor confesses all on Tumblr: Personally, liberal students scare the [heck] out of me. I know how to get conservative students to question their beliefs and confront awful truths, and I know that, should one of these conservative students make a Facebook page calling me a communist or else seek to formally protest my liberal lies, the university would have my back. I would not get fired for pissing off a Republican, so long as I did so respectfully, and so long as it happened in the course of legitimate classroom instruction. The same cannot be said of liberal students. All it takes is one slip—not even an outright challenging of their beliefs, but even momentarily exposing them to any uncomfortable thought or imagery—and that's it, your classroom is triggering, you are insensitive, kids are bringing mattresses to your office hours and there's a twitter petition out demanding you chop off your hand in repentance . . . There are literally dozens of articles and books I thought nothing of teaching, 5-6 years ago, that I wouldn't even reference in passing today. I just re-read a passage of Late Victorian Holocausts, an account of the British genocide against India, and, wow, today I'd be scared if someone saw a copy of it in my office. There's graphic pictures right on the cover, harsh rhetoric ("genocide"), historical accounts filled with racially insensitive epithets, and a profound, disquieting indictment of capitalism. No way in hell would I assign that today. Not even to grad students. Here's how bad it's gotten, for reals: last summer, I agonized over whether or not to include texts about climate change in my first-year comp course. They would have fit perfectly into the unit, which was about the selective production of ignorance and the manipulation of public discourse. But I decided against including them. They forced readers to come to uncomfortable conclusions. They indicted our consumption-based lifestyles. They called out liars for lying. Lots of uncomfortable stuff. All it would take was one bougie, liberal student to get offended by them, call them triggering, and then boom, that's it, that's the end of me. Once again, progressives belatedly realize they've created Frankenstein's monster. Yes, there's a Die Hard moment for everything: 
Ace: This article is worth reading (all of them are, this is gripping, frightening, lunatic stuff) but she glances over an obvious explanation: Just like as was the case in Salem, lodging an accusation which cannot be disproven and which must be taken as true by your Holy Dogmas is an extremely "empowering" thing for weaklings without any power. Yes, kids like bossing adults around. It's an old fantasy that every child has. And our current children -- children until 26 -- are the most coddled and fantasy-addled in all of human history. This is a case of the lunatics running the asylum, as teachers and faculties are now scared [you-know-what-less] of the administrative punishments and harridan disciplines that the students will impose on them. Eh, they all deserve each other. ADDENDA: Tabitha Hale: "All I have to say is 'Ted Cruz' and everyone explodes. It's sort of a fun game." | 
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