Video - Dems Stage Anti-Issa Show on House Floor

Democrats slam Chairman Issa for upcoming 'partisan' trip to Libya.

Democrats slam Chairman Issa for upcoming 'partisan' trip to Libya.(Thehill).

Democrats on the House oversight panel slammed chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) for planning to visit Libya without informing Democrats.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking member on the panel, called on Issa to postpone next week's trip, saying it violates Issa's own rules that congressional delegations must be bipartisan. Issa has been leading the investigation into the Benghazi terror attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans last year.

“I am writing to request that you immediately postpone your upcoming delegation to Libya and several other countries until you come into compliance with your own Committee directives, stop your partisan efforts to deliberately exclude Democrats from this trip, and provide adequate notice to allow Democratic Members to join this delegation at a later date,” Cummings wrote.

Cummings said he obtained a copy of Issa's itinerary on Friday.
“The only congressional travelers on this itinerary are you and your Republican staffer,” Cummings wrote. “No Democratic Members are listed on the itinerary, and you have not contacted me or my staff about this trip. According to this itinerary, you are planning to leave this Sunday, which means Democratic participation at this late date is impossible.”Issa's office did not respond to a request for comment.

Video: Chairman Darrell Issa Reveals Startling Information on Benghazi Terrorist Attack

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) appeared on Face the Nation to preview the May 8th Benghazi hearings. Gregory Hicks will be one of those witnesses and the quotes attributed to him that were read by host Bob Schieffer were indeed shocking.HT: BarrackNow.

House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa releases draft of contempt of Congress citation for Eric Holder over Fast and Furious.

House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa releases draft of contempt of Congress citation for Eric Holder over Fast and Furious.(DC).House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa has taken the first formal step in holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over Operation Fast and Furious. On Thursday, Issa distributed a both briefing paper laying out the case for holding the Attorney General in contempt and a lengthy draft of the contempt citation to Democrats and Republicans on his House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In a statement accompanying the briefing paper and contempt citation draft’s release, Issa said they describe how the Department of Justice and Holder have refused to cooperate with the congressional investigation into Fast and Furious. “This briefing paper and draft contempt report explains the case, to both Members of the Committee and the American people, for holding Attorney General Holder in contempt of Congress,” Issa said in the statement. “In describing the results of the Justice Department’s refusal to cooperate – including the hardships the family of a fallen Border Patrol agent have faced in seeking the truth, and retaliation against agents who blew the whistle on gunwalking – this briefing paper provides the facts, on which decisions will be made.” Holder spokesman Tracy Schmaler didn’t immediately respond to The Daily Caller’s request for comment, but CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson reports that a DOJ official claims it has complied with congressional investigations into Fast and Furious. “We’ve done twice-a-month [document] productions since last year, and the Attorney General has testified about this matter no less than seven times,” an anonymous DOJ official told CBS news.Here is a copy of the memorandum and the draft of the contempt citation. Read the full story here.

Guns used in Mexico lawyer's murder traced to Fast and Furious, Mexican officials submitted to the U.S. 50,000 weapons for e-trace in 2009 - 2011 period.

Guns used in Mexico lawyer's murder traced to Fast and Furious, Mexican officials submitted to the U.S. 50,000 weapons for e-trace in 2009 - 2011 period.(ElPasoTimes).Firearms connected to Operation Fast and Furious were used in the 2010 slaying of the brother of the former Chihuahua state attorney general, according to a U.S. congressional report.
The report said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced two of the weapons suspected in the murder of lawyer Mario González Rodríguez, but did not report this fact to the Mexican government until eight months after the tracing.
The joint congressional staff report "The Department of Justice's Operation Fast and Furious: Fueling Cartel Violence" was prepared for U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., two lawmakers who are spearheading an ongoing investigation into the ATF's controversial operation.
"On October 21, 2010, drug cartel members kidnapped Mario González Rodríguez from his office," according to the 2011 congressional report. "At the time of the kidnapping, his sister Patricia González Rodríguez was the attorney general of the state of Chihuahua."
Mexican officials said Patricia González Rodríguez was already on her way out because the new governor had been installed and a new state prosecutor was going to be appointed.
"A few days after the kidnapping," the congressional report said, " a video surfaced on the Internet in which Mario González Rodríguez sat handcuffed, surrounded by five heavily armed men wearing masks, dressed in camouflage and bullet-proof vest."
"Apparently, under duress," the report said, "(González Rodríguez) alleged that his sister had ordered killings at the behest of the Juárez cartel ... the video quickly went viral."
Chihuahua state Attorney General Patricia González Rodríguez denied the allegations of drug corruption and traveled to Mexico City to seek the federal government's help in investigating her brother's murder. She is no longer in Chihuahua, and reportedly left Mexico for safety  reasons.
A video of Mario González Rodríguez's "interrogation" by armed men was carried on YouTube. The body of the well-known Chihuahua City lawyer was found Nov. 5, 2010, in a shallow grave.
Then, Mexican federal authorities, following a shootout with drug cartel suspects, seized 16 weapons and arrested eight men in connection with Mario González Rodríguez's murder.
Mexican officials submitted information about the weapons to the ATF's e-trace system, and the ATF traced two AK-47s to Operation Fast and Furious.
The congressional report said that an ATF email indicated that ATF officials in Phoenix who knew the two assault rifles came from the controversial operation withheld the information from Mexican officials until June 2011.ATF shut down the operation about a month after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was found murdered in the Arizona desert in December 2010. Two AK-47s, originally purchased as semiautomatics and connected to Fast and Furious, were found near Terry's body.
The latest ATF report does not break down the 68,000 weapons traced to U.S. sources by states.
ATF spokesman Tom Crowley said the agency previously reported that most of the guns recovered in Mexico came from Texas, the border state that has the most gun stores.
Statistics in the recent ATF report mirror the trends in Mexico's drug cartel violence.
For example, in 2008 Mexican officials submitted 31,111 serial numbers to the ATF for tracing, the same year that the Mexican cartels intensified their battles in Mexico.
The number of weapons submitted for e-trace was 17,352 in 2007; 21,555 in 2009; 8,338 in 2010; and 20,335 in 2011.Read the full story here,

Obama Admin Invested Billions in Companies Supported by Energy Dept Insiders

Obama Admin Invested Billions in Companies Supported by Energy Dept Insiders.(AllGov). By Noel Brinkerhoff. Following on the Solyndra controversy, the Department of Energy under President Barack Obama is now accused of funneling billions of dollars in funding to companies that have connections within the department.

An investigation by The Washington Post found that the Energy Department has approved nearly $4 billion in federal grants and financing to 21 companies supported by firms with connections to five Obama administration staffers and advisers.

Of this amount, $2.46 billion flowed to nine businesses that have ties to VantagePoint Venture Partners, a venture capital firm where Sanjay Wagle, an Energy Department adviser, worked before coming to Washington.

The other four officials identified by the Post include Assistant Secretary David Sandalow, who previously worked for Good Energies, a company that received $737 million from the Energy Department; and Steve Westly, a longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur and now a member of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s advisory board. The Westly Group took in $600 million in federal financing.

The Obama administration says that the Energy Department employees and advisers took no part in grant-making decisions, which would mean that these business windfalls were just happy coincidences.Hmmmm.......Darrel Issa Says Obama Administration Is Most Corrupt In US History.Read the full story here.

Where is Truth from DOJ? Sealed Wire Tap Applications in Operation Fast & Furious

Fox News' Bret Baier covers the latest on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee investigation of the Department of Justice. The Oversight Committee has asked DOJ to unseal wire tap applications relevant to Operation Fast and Furious.