Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) opened this morning’s hearings by providing a timeline for Fast and Furious: a timeline that briefly described the role of every law enforcement agency involved. He spoke about the debt we owe Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, and agent Terry’s family. And he announced that ATF whistleblower John Dodson was present in the room for the hearings today. (Dodson is the Phoenix agent who risked his career and his life to inform Congress about details of Fast and Furious as they were visible to him on the street.)

Then Issa dug in deeper:

On Oct 11, 2011, after months and months and months of this committee trying to get further documents, we issued subpoenas for documents and were told they’re hard to get. Yet, ten times as many documents have been provided to the Inspector General. Mr. Attorney General, when is the primary investigative committee of congress going to be allowed the same access that the IG has? That the twelve thousand members of the IG have? We ask very little of government by contrast, …but we believe we deserve those answers in at least as timely a fashion as your own IG gets.

We’re going to ask you many things today, hopefully you came prepared to know [the answers to questions] on Fast and Furious. Questions like: What can you do to bring this to a close? What can you do to help the American people know this is no longer going on and will not happen again in the future?

Issa then went on to talk in detail of how frustrating it’s been to try to get information to date. In doing this he referenced former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, the attorney who covered up the connection between Fast and Furious and Brian Terry’s death. And he suggested that Burke “clearly didn’t do his job in a way that anyone can be proud of.” Issa then pointed to more stonewalling on the part of the DOJ, and specifically drew attention to Patrick J. Cunningham, who, when subpoenaed, invoked the 5th to keep from telling what he knew about Fast and Furious.

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Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, who is the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, has launched an investigation into the compensation of executives at private sector colleges and universities.

Rep. Elijah Cummings

The New York Times reports:

“The American taxpayers fund these schools through billions of dollars in tuition assistance, but there is little evidence that lavish executive pay is linked to the well-being of the students they are supposed to educate,” Mr. Cummings said in a statement. He said he wanted to determine whether executive compensation was “appropriately tied to the performance of students they educate.”

Strangely, Cummings’ interest in ensuring that students receive good educations and taxpayer dollars are wisely spent does not extend to public community colleges, which are 100 percent taxpayer funded and have comparably low graduation and employment rates. Why do these institutions, which service the same market of students as for-profit colleges and are much more directly under government control, get a free pass?

While he’s at it, why doesn’t Cummings see fit to investigate the absurdly inflated salaries of athletic coaches at many public colleges? Answer: because that wouldn’t be as politically expedient. (more…)

Peter Schiff, the president of EuroPacific Capital and sometimes-pundit/author/political-candidate, testified before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Government Reform and Stimulus Oversight on September 13^th. The video of his testimony has become a minor YouTube hit and was featured prominently this week by Breitbart TV.

Schiff’s rat-a-tat-tat criticisms of government intervention and promotion of common sense economics, right out of the Austrian School, is music to the ears of conservative-libertarian types. He was a one-man laissez faire quote machine, with lines like:

“One of the riskiest things you can do in America is hire someone.”

“Demand doesn’t come from things that aren’t produced.”

“Regulations substantially increase the cost of employing people.”

“Infrastructure spending drains the economy of resources.”

“You can always see . . . the jobs government creates. What you can’t see are the jobs they destroy.”

“All the government can do is rearrange the resources, it doesn’t create any wealth.”

“An economy has to be based in savings, investing, and production.”

Schiff centered his testimony around explaining, through one statistic and common sense pronouncement after another, why fiscal and monetary policy — specifically government stimulus and low interest rates — are dragging down the overall economy, destroying jobs, devaluing the currency, causing businesses to flee the country, and resulting in all sorts of unintended consequences.

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Maryland has long been considered one of the bluest of blue states. But with anti-Democrat fever running red hot, that is rapidly changing. There are competitive races everywhere. Thirty-year incumbent House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is facing a stiff challenge from Republican Charles Lollar in Maryland’s 5^th District. In Maryland’s 3^rd, veteran Marine fighter pilot, Republican Jim Wilhelm, is challenging legacy Democratic Congressman John Sarbanes, son of longtime Senator Paul Sarbanes and former Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich is giving corrupt, pathologically dishonest Governor Martin O’Malley—the Boy Blunder—a run for his money.

But another race has flown completely under the radar up to now. Conservative businessman Frank Mirabile has mounted a powerful challenge to radical liberal 7^th District incumbent, Elijah Cummings. Maryland’s 7^th encompasses largely rural Howard County, part of suburban Baltimore County and western Baltimore City.

Cummings is black. His constituency is disproportionately black. But that is the only thing they share in common. Like most liberals, Cummings uses his fellow blacks to remain comfortably ensconced in his lucrative, cushy job. And he does nothing, I repeat, nothing to help them.

Enter Frank Mirabile. A hardworking family man who built a successful landscaping business, he is dedicated to returning government to its Constitutional roots and getting it off our backs and out of our pocketbooks. Mirabile has a deep grasp of both economics and the needs of the district, unlike Cummings who uses it like a vending machine.

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Rep. Elijah Cummings was on with Andrea Mitchell this week to discuss the bogus tea party racism story. Cummings said,

“The best way that the tea party can rid racism from their ranks is to help people get jobs.”

Huh?

What does he think the tea party is, an employment agency?…
What does he want the tea party to do?… Ram through another stimulus? Pass the hat?
Unreal.

And, besides… When the tea party does create jobs they just beat the hell out of them anyway! That’s worked really well.

Does Elijah have any idea what the h*ll he’s talking about?

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