http://www.liveleak.com/browse?channel_token=52c_1319123589 Items in channel 'cswartz' Wed, 19 Jun 2013 09:01:18 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?channel_token=52c_1319123589 Fri, 08 Feb 2013 17:16:20 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cfe_1360361515 cswartz Speech by Dr. Benjamin Carson at Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. Watch him make a killer speech railing against Obama's agenda as Obama sits just feet away! http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cfe_1360361515 cswartz Dr. Benjamin Carson Rails against Obama agenda five feet away from him! Obama, Benjamin Carson, prayer breakfast, awesome Tue, 11 Dec 2012 21:45:54 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=704_1355280041 cswartz Here is an article published in the NYT by Nicholas Kristof. He is an admitted liberal, but here, he admits that there are certain government poverty programs that simply don't work. It was nice to have a liberal admit that he is uncertain about the government doing something.... By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: December 7, 2012 THIS is what poverty sometimes looks like in America: parents here in Appalachian hill country pulling their children out of literacy classes. Moms and dads fear that if kids learn to read, they are less likely to qualify for a monthly check for having an intellectual disability. Many people in hillside mobile homes here are poor and desperate, and a $698 monthly check per child from the Supplemental Security Income program goes a long way - and those checks continue until the child turns 18. "The kids get taken out of the program because the parents are going to lose the check," said Billie Oaks, who runs a literacy program here in Breathitt County, a poor part of Kentucky. "It's heartbreaking." This is painful for a liberal to admit, but conservatives have a point when they suggest that America's safety net can sometimes entangle people in a soul-crushing dependency. Our poverty programs do rescue many people, but other times they backfire. Some young people here don't join the military (a traditional escape route for poor, rural Americans) because it's easier to rely on food stamps and disability payments. Antipoverty programs also discourage marriage: In a means-tested program like S.S.I., a woman raising a child may receive a bigger check if she refrains from marrying that hard-working guy she likes. Yet marriage is one of the best forces to blunt poverty. In married couple households only one child in 10 grows up in poverty, while almost half do in single-mother households . Most wrenching of all are the parents who think it's best if a child stays illiterate, because then the family may be able to claim a disability check each month. "One of the ways you get on this program is having problems in school," notes Richard V. Burkhauser, a Cornell University economist who co-wrote a book last year about these disability programs. "If you do better in school, you threaten the income of the parents. It's a terrible incentive." About four decades ago, most of the children S.S.I. covered had severe physical handicaps or mental retardation that made it difficult for parents to hold jobs - about 1 percent of all poor children . But now 55 percent of the disabilities it covers are fuzzier intellectual disabilities short of mental retardation, where the diagnosis is less clear-cut. More than 1.2 million children across America - a full 8 percent of all low-income children - are now enrolled in S.S.I. as disabled, at an annual cost of more than $9 billion. That is a burden on taxpayers, of course, but it can be even worse for children whose families have a huge stake in their failing in school. Those kids may never recover: a 2009 study found that nearly two-thirds of these children make the transition at age 18 into S.S.I. for the adult disabled. They may never hold a job in their entire lives and are condemned to a life of poverty on the dole - and that's the outcome of a program intended to fight poverty. THERE'S no doubt that some families with seriously disabled children receive a lifeline from S.S.I. But the bottom line is that we shouldn't try to fight poverty with a program that sometimes perpetuates it. A local school district official, Melanie Stevens, puts it this way: "The greatest challenge we face as educators is how to break that dependency on government. In second grade, they have a dream. In seventh grade, they have a plan." There's a danger in drawing too firm conclusions about an issue - fighting poverty - that is as complex as human beings themselves. I'm no expert on domestic poverty. But for me, a tentative lesson from the field is that while we need safety nets, the focus should be instead on creating opportunity - and, still more difficult, on creating an environment that leads people to seize opportunities. To see what that might mean, I tagged along with Save the Children, the aid group we tend to think of as active in Sudan or Somalia. It's also in the opportunity business right here in the United States, in places like the mobile home of Britny Hurley - and it provides a model of what does work. Ms. Hurley, 19, is amiable and speaks quickly with a strong hill accent, so that at times I had trouble understanding her. Ms. Hurley says that she was raped by a family member when she was 12, and that another family member then introduced her to narcotics. She became an addict, she says, mostly to prescription painkillers that are widely trafficked here. Equipped with a crackling intelligence, Ms. Hurley once aspired to be a doctor. But her addictions and a rebellious nature got her kicked out of high school, and at 16 she became engaged to a boyfriend and soon had his baby. Yet there are ways of breaking this cycle. That's what Save the Children is doing here, working with children while they're still malleable, and it's an approach that should be a centerpiece of America's antipoverty program. Almost anytime the question is poverty, the answer is children. Save the Children trains community members to make home visits to at-risk moms like Ms. Hurley, and help nurture the skills they need in the world's toughest job: parenting. These visits begin in pregnancy and continue until the child is 3 years old. I followed Courtney Trent, 22, one of these early childhood coordinators, as she visited a series of houses. She encourages the mothers (and the fathers, if they're around) to read to the children, tell stories, talk to them, hug them. If the parents can't read, then Ms. Trent encourages them to flip the pages on picture books and talk about what they see. Ms. Trent brings a few books on each visit, and takes back the ones she had left the previous time. Many of the homes she visits don't own a single children's book. She sat on the floor in Ms. Hurley's living room, pulled a book out of her bag, and encouraged her to read to her 20-month-old son, Landon. Ms. Hurley said that she was never read to as a child, but she was determined to change the pattern. "I just want him to go to school," she said of Landon. "I want him to go to college and get out of this place." Ms. Hurley said she was clean of drugs, working full time at a Wendy's, and hoping to go back to school to become a nurse. I'd bet on her - and on Landon. "When kids come to us through this program and come here, we can see a big difference," Ron Combs, the principal at Lyndon B. Johnson Elementary School here, told me. "They're really ready to go. Otherwise, we have kids so far behind that they struggle to catch up. "By second or third grade, you have a pretty good feeling about who's going to drop out," he added. A group of teachers were in the room, and they all nodded. Wayne Sizemore, director of special education in Breathitt County, puts it this way: "The earlier we can get them, the better. It's like building a foundation for a house." I don't want to suggest that America's antipoverty programs are a total failure. On the contrary, they are making a significant difference. Nearly all homes here in the Appalachian hill country now have electricity and running water, and people aren't starving. Our political system has created a particularly robust safety net for the elderly, focused on Social Security and Medicare - because the elderly vote. This safety net has brought down the poverty rate among the elderly from about 35 percent in 1959 to under 9 percent today. BECAUSE kids don't have a political voice, they have been neglected - and have replaced the elderly as the most impoverished age group in our country. Today, 22 percent of children live below the poverty line. Of American families living in poverty today, 8 out of 10 have air-conditioning , and a majority have a washing machine and dryer. Nearly all have microwave ovens. What they don't have is hope. You see it here in the town of Jackson, in the teenage girls hanging out by the bridge over the north fork of the Kentucky River, seeking to trade their bodies for prescription painkillers or methamphetamines. A growing body of careful research suggests that the most effective strategy is to work early on children and education, and to try to encourage and sustain marriage. Bravo to Mayor Juli'an Castro of San Antonio for backing a landmark initiative to add one-eighth of 1 percent to the local sales tax to finance a prekindergarten program. Early interventions are not a silver bullet, and even programs that succeed as experiments often fall short when scaled up. But we end up paying for poverty one way or another, and early childhood education is far cheaper than adult incarceration. I hope that the budget negotiations in Washington may offer us a chance to take money from S.S.I. and invest in early childhood initiatives instead. One reason antipoverty initiatives don't get traction in America is that the issue is simply invisible. "People don't want to talk about poverty in America," Mark Shriver, who runs the domestic programs of Save the Children, noted as we drove through Kentucky. "We talk more about poverty in Africa than we do about poverty in America." Indeed, in the 2012 election campaign , poverty was barely mentioned. A study by Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, a liberal watchdog organization, found substantive discussion of poverty in just 0.2 percent of campaign news reports. Look, there are no magic wands, and helping people is hard. One woman I met, Anastasia McCormick, told me that her $500 car had just broken down and she had to walk two miles each way to her job at a pizza restaurant. That's going to get harder because she's pregnant with twins, due in April. At some point, Ms. McCormick won't be able to hold that job anymore, and then she'll have trouble paying the bills. She has rented a washer and dryer, but she's behind in payments, and they may soon be hauled back. "I got a 'discontinue' notice on the electric," she added, "but you get a month to pay up." Life is like that for her, a roller coaster partly of her own making. I don't want to write anybody off, but I admit that efforts to help Ms. McCormick may end with a mixed record. But those twin boys she's carrying? There's time to transform their lives, and they - and millions like them - should be a national priority. They're too small to fail. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=704_1355280041 cswartz Profiting From a Child's Illiteracy Nicolas, Kristof, column, poverty, abuse of government programs, Sat, 17 Nov 2012 15:58:42 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=159_1353184688 cswartz Just thought you'd like some of these absurd tweets on Twitter and how political correctness turns minds into mush: "White ppl, don't tell POC stories for them. Tell ur OWN stories of benefiting from privilege" @timjacobwise #facingrace "Dottye: the more privilege you carry, the less concerned you are about the oppression you're creating." #FacingRace " @racialicious : Dottye: the more privilege you carry, the less concerned you are about the oppression you're creating. #FacingRace " "White woman: I think white folks need to be engaged bec. they can use their privilege to speak out against racism." #FacingRace "We need more white ppl to talk to other white ppl--progressive whites and conservative whites--about "white privilege" #FacingRace @OccupyWallSt : "Privilege does not operate without silence." - Junot Diaz #facingrace Minorities? "We have reached the age of majority--and we are going to set the agenda for ourselves." - @ARC_RinkuSen , addressing #FacingRace "Diaz: We live in a country where people are more likely to believe in UFOs then institutional racism." #FacingRace "anyways, awesome panel abt language as an agent of oppression. now I'm going homeeee. #facingrace " " @ntranloan : man in our panel totes mansplained moderator abt her own job. U needa check yrslf b4 u wreck yourself." #facingrace " http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=159_1353184688 cswartz #Facing Race on Twitter Race, racism, real racism exists but we don't do ourselves any favors by making it sound like a bigger problem than it is, political correctness, Sat, 20 Oct 2012 16:17:22 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8c6_1350764013 cswartz The full speech. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8c6_1350764013 cswartz Romney Speech at Al Smith Dinner Romney, speech, Al Smith dinner, Obama, actually pretty funny, I wonder who wrote his material Sat, 29 Sep 2012 12:30:41 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e8f_1348935521 cswartz http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/06/1001-reasons-to-vote-against-barack-obama-complete-edition/ Here is a list of 1,000 reasons to actually vote against the sitting president. At the bottom of the page, there are even more articles. I would have uploaded the whole thing to Liveleak, but it was impossible, so I just gave you the link. I hope you find it interesting. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e8f_1348935521 cswartz 1001 Reasons to Vote Against Barack Obama Barack, Obama, 2012, elections Thu, 20 Sep 2012 19:26:51 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ec5_1348183299 cswartz A cleric in Iran's northern Semnan province claims he was beaten up by a woman after telling her to cover up. Hojatoleslam Ali Beheshti, a top religious figure in Shahrmirzad, told a passerby that she was "bad hijab" - a woman who is not fully in compliance with the country's Islamic dress code . She at first told Beheshti to look the other way, but he repeated his demand. Beheshti told the Iranian Mehr news agency that the woman then pushed him to the ground and began kicking him. "From that point on, I don't know what happened . I was just feeling the kicks of the woman who was beating me up and insulting me." He said he was hospitalized for three days after the incident, and the region's prosecutor said he is "reviewing the case." Such incidents are not rare, Radio Free Liberty reports . Several other women have clashed with the country's religious police, and Mehr names three other clerics who were " beaten up " by women they berated for their dress. However, it's rare for women to stand up to morality police in small towns, reports CNN . Earlier this year, the Iranian government cracked down on the dress code, which has been in place since 1979. In July, 53 coffee shops and 87 restaurants have been closed in Tehran for serving customers with improper hijab or for other gender-related offenses, such as permitting women to smoke hookah pipes. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ec5_1348183299 cswartz Iranian woman beats up cleric for criticizing her wardrobe Cleric, woman, beaten up, dress code, that woman is awesome Mon, 23 Jul 2012 21:42:37 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=60c_1343093905 cswartz I agree...what do you think? http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=60c_1343093905 cswartz It's a Miracle! Barack Obama Thu, 19 Jul 2012 15:18:49 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7b8_1342725378 cswartz (CNN) -- A deadly attack Wednesday delivered the harshest blow yet to President Bashar al-Assad's regime, taking the bloodshed into his inner circle. Three top officials were killed and a number of others were wounded in an explosion at a national security building in Damascus, state TV reported. The attack came after several days of violence in the capital. At least 189 people were killed across the country on Wednesday, including 37 in Damascus and 69 in its suburbs, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said. The officials killed were Defense Minister Dawood Rajiha; Deputy Defense Minister Assef Shawkat -- al-Assad's brother-in-law; and Hasan Turkmani, al-Assad's security adviser and assistant vice president, state TV reported. Interior Minister Ibrahim al-Shaar was among those injured in the blast, state TV said, adding that he "is in good health and that his condition is stable." The attack, which occurred during a meeting of ministers and security officials, was coordinated by rebel brigades in Damascus, said the deputy head of the opposition Free Syrian Army, Col. Malek al-Kurdi. The government described it as a suicide bombing. But al-Kurdi said a remote control was used to detonate an explosive device that had been planted inside the meeting room. Al-Assad quickly named Gen. Fahd Jassem al-Freij as defense minister, state-run news agency SANA said. State-run SANA said the government has killed or captured a "large number" of terrorist infiltrators in Damascus and inflicted "heavy losses" on terrorists in Homs and Idlib. Video from a Damascus suburb showed Syrians rejoicing after news spread of the bombing. Soon after, the pro-government Shabiha militia took to the streets, attacking with knives, shooting and saying, "This is retribution for what you have done," according to an opposition activist in Damascus, who is going by the name Lena to protect her identity. There were bodies in the streets around the Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp, and people were too afraid to collect them, Lena said. "The people are really scared," she said, adding that mosques were blaring the messages "Stay in your homes" and "God is great." A Damascus resident said shootings occurred in Baghdad Street, a major road that includes branch offices of state security agencies. In the neighborhood of Medan, where violence has raged in recent days, Free Syrian Army fighters "launched their biggest attack yet all over Damascus, in 17 points," said Abo Abdo, a rebel fighter. They were working to "disperse the regime's forces all over the capital," he said. Syria, on the official Syrian Arab News Agency, said its armed forces "chased down terrorists who infiltrated" Medan, and "killed and arrested a large number of them. The military units also chased down terrorists who terrorized some families in the neighborhoods of al-Qaboun and Tishreen and forced them to leave their homes." With the Syrian government restricting foreign journalists from gaining access to the country, CNN cannot independently confirm reports of violence or details about the attack. The bombing took place in a building in Rawda Square, near al-Assad's home and the U.S. Embassy, which suspended its operations in February. Security officials and government spies have had a heavy presence in the area. The bombing's repercussions spread from the capital of Syria to the capital of Egypt, where clashes erupted Wednesday between the Egyptian police and hundreds of protesters outside the Syrian Embassy. Some of them were chanting, "Down, Down, Bashar al-Assad!" "We only wanted to remove the flag and replace it by the independence flag, but the Egyptian riot police started beating us so we pelted them with rocks," said Ahmed H. Aggour, an organizer of the protest in Cairo. "Next thing you know they fired an incredible amount of tear gas, several canisters landed on the British Embassy nearby." He added, "We want people in Syria to see how we are supporting their cause here in Egypt." Most of the protesters were Egyptian, Tarek Shalaby, an Egyptian activist and web designer at the scene. Alla Mahmoud, a spokesman from the Interior Ministry, told CNN that 15 protesters were arrested. Some suffered minor injuries, from excessive inhalation of tear gas to bruises. Meanwhile, U.S. President Obama called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to discuss the Syrian situation, the White House said. "They noted the differences our governments have had on Syria, but agreed to have their teams continue to work toward a solution," it said. A planned Security Council vote on a draft resolution on Syria was delayed at the request of Kofi Annan, joint envoy to Syria for the United Nations and the Arab League, until 10 a.m. Thursday, diplomats said. Annan, who met Tuesday with Putin in Moscow, earlier this year put forward a peace plan that has failed to stop the violence. Western countries are pushing for a resolution that threatens sanctions against al-Assad's regime if government forces don't stop attacks. That draft also calls for renewing the 300-member U.N. observer mission for 45 days. The observers' work has been suspended because of violence. Throughout Syria's 16-month crisis, Russia has opposed any international effort that would blame, punish or change the leadership of the Syrian government. Russia -- along with China -- has vetoed two previous draft resolutions in the U.N. Security Council, leading to accusations that Russia is protecting the Syrian regime. Russia, meanwhile, has put forth its own draft, which "strongly urges all parties in Syria to cease immediately all armed violence in all its forms." The Russian draft also calls for renewing the U.N. observer mission for three months. At the United Nations, German Ambassador Peter Wittig said Wednesday's events in Damascus "underline as clearly as never before that the Security Council now has to act. It has to send out a strong signal to the Syrian regime to stop the use of heavy weapons. We want to give the Annan plan, which we all support in the council, some teeth -- and that's why we should adopt a resolution with the sanctions threat." In Amman, Jordan, King Abdullah said the situation in Syria is nearing an all-out civil war. "In other words, it's getting very, very messy," he said. "When you get full-out civil war, there is no coming back from the abyss." Next for Syria: Showdown or stalemate? The attack represents "a massive psychological blow to the regime" and will accelerate al-Assad's "demise," predicted Anthony Skinner, an analyst with Maplecroft, a think tank that provides risk assessments on global business. It could suggest that "the regime itself is crumbling," said Rime Allaf, an analyst with Chatham House, a think tank focusing on international affairs. Events in Syria show "a real escalation in fighting," said U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. It "tells us that this is a situation that is rapidly spinning out of control, and for that reason it's extremely important that the international community, working with other countries that have concerns in that area, have to bring maximum pressure on Assad to do what's right, and to step down and to allow for that peaceful transition," Panetta said. The U.S. government announced Wednesday a new round of sanctions against members of the Syrian government. Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zubi, speaking on state TV, vowed that those behind the attack will be held accountable. He insisted that those trying to divide the army are failing. "This army has not been divided," he said. But increasing numbers of officials in the Syrian military have defected in recent days. Two brigadier generals fled overnight to Turkey, bringing the number of Syrian generals in Turkey to 20, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said. Rajiha, one of those killed Wednesday, was a member of the country's minority Christian community. who was named by the U.S. Treasury in sanctions this year. U.S. citizens were prohibited from engaging in transactions with him and other officials amid what the U.S. government called Syria's "continued use of violence against its people." In 2006, the Treasury named Shawkat -- then Syria's director of military intelligence -- in an executive order, freezing his assets and prohibiting U.S. citizens from engaging in transactions with him. At the time, the U.S. government called Shawkat "a key architect of Syria's domination of Lebanon, as well as a fundamental contributor to Syria's long-standing policy to foment terrorism against Israel." Days ago, Nawaf al-Fares, the former Syrian ambassador to Iraq who has become the country's highest-level diplomatic defector, told CNN that Shawkat had run an al Qaeda in Iraq training camp. A U.S. official said al-Fares' claim was "broadly consistent with our understanding" of the Syrian regime's cooperation with al Qaeda "elements." But the Syrian regime has repeatedly denied involvement in terrorist activities -- and has blamed the violence of the past 16 months on "armed terrorist groups." Since the crisis began in March 2011, the United Nations estimates, more than 10,000 people have been killed in the violence; the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria estimates that more than 16,000 have died. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7b8_1342725378 cswartz Top Syrian Officials Killed in Inner Circle Bombing Bashar Al-Assad, Syrian uprising, syria, inner circle, bombing Wed, 18 Jul 2012 16:15:47 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=639_1342642273 cswartz I'm really not sure how anyone can be an avid Obama supporter... That being said...leave your opinion in the comments section. No comments will be deleted. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=639_1342642273 cswartz That Looks Bad! Obama, accomplishments, LOL just kidding Thu, 12 Jul 2012 18:35:47 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e9c_1342132463 cswartz Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter suggested that Mitt Romney may be a criminal on a conference call with reporters this morning about a Boston Globe report that shows that Romney stayed at Bain Capital three years past when he said he'd left. Cutter said that there were two ways to interpret the story. The first: Mitt Romney was "misrepresenting his position" at Bain to the Securities and Exchange Commission, "which is a felony." Or, he was "misrepresenting his position at Bain to the American people. If that's the case, if he was lying to the American people, that's a real character and trust issue," Cutter said. Cutter called on the Romney campaign to clear up by the issue by releasing the candidate's tax returns. "If the SEC filings aren't accurate, then prove it," she said. Bob Bauer, head lawyer for the Obama campaign and a former White House counsel, also implied that Romney could be in legal trouble. He said that SEC documents are "very carefully scrutinized by lawyers because of the very severe consequences that follow from making statements to the SEC that aren't correct." "Of particular consequence woud be a misrepresentation that involved a controlling person," Bauer said, and "Romney is the controlling person." The Obama team's charges against Romney extended all the way to his handling of the Salt Lake City Olympics, which Cutter described as "less than wholesome." "These aren't just campaign tactics, this is important information," Cutter said. Earlier today, Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement that the Boston Globe story was "not accurate." She did not specifically respond to a request for comment regarding the "felony" statement by Cutter. UPDATE: An Obama campaign spokesman sends over this statement from Bob Bauer: "Romney and Bain claim that he was not involved with Bain, but Bain and its portfolio companies in their required filings under the Securities Exchange Act continuously certified to the Securities and Exchange Commission say precisely the opposite--asserting without qualification that he was a controlling person, fully in charge of Bain, under the Federal securities law. Under normal circumstances, the question of the truth of this representation would result in an investigation by the SEC into possible criminal, as well as civil, violations of the law." http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e9c_1342132463 cswartz Obama Campaign: Romney A Liar, Potential Criminal Obama campaign, Obama, Romney, lies, felon Thu, 12 Jul 2012 15:09:25 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=918_1342119997 cswartz Vice President Joe Biden pushed NAACP convention attendees to contrast President Barack Obama's Department of Justice with a potential Mitt Romney DOJ. "Imagine what the Romney Justice Department will look like," Biden told the NAACP audience on Thursday. "Imagine when his senior advisor on constitutional issues is Robert Bork. Imagine those incredibly important positions of justice. Imagine, and I mean this, this to me is one of the most critical issues in this election, imagine what the Supreme Court will look like after four years of a Romney presidency." The Biden comment likely sits well with NAACP members as, on Tuesday, the NAACP unanimously passed an "emergency resolution" calling the bipartisan votes to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal and civil contempt of Congress a "travesty of justice." The resolution is meant for the NAACP to "express their outrage at the treatment of the first African-American and one of the best attorney generals in history." As the resolution passed, Holder got rock-star treatment, walking around shaking the hands of many of those in attendance. During his speech at the NAACP on Wednesday, Romney avoided justice issues to focus instead on the economy and education. Romney hasn't said much on what his DOJ would look like if he wins the November election, but he has criticized Obama's DOJ, especially Holder. "There's not very much that Eric Holder does that I agree with," Romney said at a campaign event late in 2011 in New Hampshire. "I have to wonder how it is that the president continues to support him, and the answer must be the president agrees with him." "Eric Holder would be long gone by the time I came around ," he added. Romney has called for Holder's resignation over Operation Fast and Furious, too. He joins 130 House members, eight U.S. senators and two sitting governors in demanding Holder's resignation over the scandal. (SEE ALSO: TheDC's complete Fast and Furious coverage) "Either Mr. Holder himself should resign or the president should ask for his resignation or remove him," Romney said in early December 2011. "It's not acceptable for him to continue in that position given the fact that he has misled Congress and entirely botched the investigation of the Fast and Furious program." Romney also supports voter ID laws - something Holder and Obama's administration vehemently oppose. The former Massachusetts governor has also made Obama's decision to assert executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents a bit of a campaign issue lately. On Sean Hannity's radio program and on Neil Cavuto's Fox News Channel show this week, Romney responded to Obama's "transparency" attacks on him by pointing out how the president is concealing Fast and Furious documents. Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul didn't immediately respond to The Daily Caller's request for comment in response to Biden's remarks. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/12/biden-to-naacp-imagine-what-a-romney-justice-department-would-look-like/#ixzz20R97lXO6 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=918_1342119997 cswartz Biden to NAACP: 'Imagine what a Romney Justice Department would look like' Joe Biden, Eric Holder, election, justice department, supreme court Wed, 11 Jul 2012 15:00:40 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0f6_1342033041 cswartz Oscar Haza , a well known Miami Spanish-language broadcast journalist and anchor, scored an interview this week in Washington with President Barack Obama in which Obama said Venezuelan President Hugo Ch'avez has not posed a "serious" national security threat to the United States. The full interview aired Tuesday night on A Mano Limpia , Haza's nightly show on WJAN-Channel 41, better known as Am'erica TeVe. The show had shown portions of the interview Monday night, with Haza live in D.C., and teased to the president talking about Cuba and Venezuela. The Dominican-born Haza, who also hosts a daily morning radio show that recently moved to Univisi'on's WAQI-AM (710), better known as Radio Mamb'i, said he was one of eight journalists from eight swing states invited to the White House -- the only one from Florida -- to speak to the president and other administration officials as Obama pushed his plan to keep some Bush-era tax cuts but eliminate them for incomes greather than $250,000 a year. Most noteworthy from Haza's interview with the president -- no surprise here -- were questions on Cuba and Venezuela, key issues for South Florida's Hispanic audience (and voters). "If I don't ask you about Cuba, I can't get back to Miami," Haza quipped, in English, before asking the president about a "perception" that he intends to further embrace relations with Cuba in a potential second term. Obama said he had been "clear" and "consistent" in his position. "I believe that there should be a way for us to resolve this 50-year conflict with Cuba, but it involves recognizing liberty and, you know, releasing poltiical prisoners and showing movement inside of Cuba," he said. "We've shown flexibility in remittances and lifting parts of the travel ban for family members, and I think that was the right hting to do. And my hope is that the Cuban government begins to recognize that their system is no longer working." Haza then mentioned detained American Alan Gross and stepped-up repression on the island. "We're not going to see big moves or major improvement in the U.S.-Cuba relationship if the Cuban leadership continues to do the same thing over and over again," Obama said. Then, Haza asked about the alliance between Venezuelan President Hugo Ch'avez and Iran. "We're always concerned about Iran engaging in destabilizing activity around the globe. But overall my sense is that what Mr. Ch'avez has done over the last several years has not had a serious national security impact on us," Obama said. "We have to vigilant. My main concern when it comes to Venezuela is having the Venezuelan people have a voice in their affairs, and that you end up ultimately having fair and free elections, which we don't always see." You can watch Haza's Tuesday night show below. The Obama interview is in English, with Spanish subtitles. Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/07/obama-to-miami-anchor-hugo-ch%C3%A1vez-has-not-posed-serious-national-security-threat.html#storylink=cpy http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0f6_1342033041 cswartz Obama to Miami anchor: Hugo Ch'avez has not posed 'serious' national security threat Obama, Hugo Chavez, national secuirty, idiots