President Obama has picked a strong advocate of immigration reform to head his Domestic Policy Council.

The White House announced Tuesday that Cecilia Muñoz, a former senior vice president of the National Council of La Raza, would replace Melody Barnes at the top of the council. White House press secretary Jay Carney announced the appointment during his press briefing.

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The untold story of the Obama Administration’s widely reported, $335 million discrimination settlement with Countrywide Financial Corporation is that, under a secret Justice Department program, a chunk of the money won’t go to the “victims” but rather leftist groups not connected to the lawsuit.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) will determine which “qualified organizations” get leftover settlement cash and Democrat-tied groups like the scandal-plagued Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and the open-borders National Council of La Raza (NCLR) stand to get large sums based on the hastily arranged deal which got court approval in just a few days.

Judicial Watch has investigated this controversial arrangement and in 2010 sued the DOJ to obtain information about the policy directing big portions of cash settlements from its civil rights lawsuits to organizations not officially connected to the cases. In response to JW’s lawsuit, the DOJ was forced to acknowledge that it has no official guidelines regarding “qualified organizations” that get leftover settlement funds and that it doesn’t monitor how the money is used.

In the Countrywide case, details of the unscrupulous arrangement are buried deep (page 10 of the 17-page settlement) in the court document where Bank of America’s Countrywide Financial Corporation agrees to pay to resolve allegations that it discriminated against qualified black and Hispanic borrowers. The lender denies all of the charges, but wanted to end the case and caved into the government’s terms.

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Sobriety checkpoints have become big business for California law enforcement agencies over the last decade. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration paid for 2,553 checkpoints last year, resulting in hundreds of arrests for driving under the influence. Authorities say the checkpoints explain why deaths caused by drunken drivers have dropped to an all-time low in the golden state.

Since 1995 the checkpoints have also resulted in the seizures and impoundment of thousands of vehicles driven by sober motorists who just happened to have no drivers license. The 30 day impounds cost unlicensed drivers well over $1,000 on average. Large numbers of the non-DUI impounds have involved cars driven by illegal immigrants.

Enter California Democrat Assemblyman Gil Cedillo. The lawmaker, who is a member in good standing of the National Council on La Raza, has tried unsuccessfully nine different times since 1998 to get bills passed in the California State Legislature that would allow illegal aliens to obtain driver’s licenses. “One Bill Gil”, as he is referred to by some because of his repeated efforts legalize illegal drivers, has now managed to get through the back door what he could not get through the front door.

Starting January 1st a new law, authored by Cedillo, will prohibit cops from impounding the cars of drivers who have no license as long as another licensed driver can drive it away. Presumably the unlicensed driver will shortly thereafter resume driving their car, illegally.

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A few weeks ago I told you that the Obama administration has nearly tripled the amount of taxpayer funds given to the radical Mexican separatist group the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). Not coincidentally, this increased generosity commenced after Obama tapped one of NCLR’s former top officials (Cecilia Munoz) to serve as his Director of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Well, following on that story, President Obama delivered a high-profile speech to NCLR last week, letting the radicals know he plans on giving more to them than just cash. Now, to be fair, this organization has for a long time had friends in high places in both political parties and enough pull to secure speeches from such political heavyweights as Governor Rick Perry (R-TX).

The Chicago Sun-Times has the full transcript of Obama’s speech. However, I thought I would share with you a few of the key excerpts and headlines:

1. Obama noted the influence of the NCLR within his administration.It is good to be back with NCLR. It is good to see all of you. Right off the bat, I should thank you because I have poached quite a few of your alumni to work in my administration.
2. Obama promised to complete his mission to pass the Dream Act, another of his “stealth amnesty” initiatives that would provide permanent residency to illegal alien high school graduates as long as they go to college or join the military:I promised you I would work tirelessly to fix our broken immigration system and make the DREAM Act a reality. And two months ago…I went down to the border of El Paso to reiterate…my vision for an immigration system that holds true to our values and our heritage, and meets our economic and security needs. And I argued this wasn’t just the moral thing to do, it was an economic imperative.
3. Obama stated that he is very tempted to “bypass Congress and change the laws on [his] own”:Now, I swore an oath to uphold the laws on the books, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know very well the real pain and heartbreak that deportations cause. I share your concerns and I understand them. And I promise you, we are responding to your concerns and working every day to make sure we are enforcing flawed laws in the most humane and best possible way. Now, I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own. And believe me, right now dealing with Congress…[The audience began to chant: “Yes, you can! Yes, you can! Yes, you can! Yes, you can! Yes, you can!”]

   Believe me, believe me, the idea of doing things on my own is very tempting.

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You probably have seen plenty of evidence of the Obama administration’s hostility to existing immigration law, from supporting illegal alien sanctuary cities, to suspending the deportations of illegal alien criminals, to the infamous Obama administration memo outlining “administrative” ways to bypass Congress and enact illegal alien amnesty.

But if you needed more convincing, just follow the money trail. As first reported last week by our own Corruption Chronicles blogger Irene Garcia:

A Judicial Watch investigation reveals that federal funding for a Mexican La Raza group that for years has raked in millions of taxpayer dollars has skyrocketed since one of its former top officials (Cecelia Muñoz) got a job in the Obama White House. [Muñoz currently serves as Obama’s Director of Intergovernmental Affairs.]

How high has the funding skyrocketed? Government cash infusions to the radical Chicano organization, known as the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), almost tripled the year Muñoz joined the White House, from $4.1 million to $11 million!

According to Irene’s report, the funding came from a variety of sources within the Obama administration:

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One of the biggest slanders leveled against the Tea Party Movement is that they are “anti-immigrant.” That’s nonsense, and everyone knows it. We Conservatives are not “anti-immigration” — we are anti-ILLEGAL immigration, and for a large number of very good reasons; not the least of which is that it makes fools out of the thousands and millions of honest, hard-working and patient LEGAL immigrants who are playing by the rules and doing the right thing by their new home.

There’s a pretty handy response to the whole “we didn’t cross the border; the border crossed us” nonsense you hear from racist groups like La Raza (The Race!) Once you get the issue away from being for or against immigration, versus being for or against illegal immigration, well… we can win all across the board on that ground.

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A powerful irony of unintended consequences of Arizona’s new immigration law is emerging, which is that the law will only harm innocent Arizonans. Perception can be more powerful than reality, and even if the millions of Americans who oppose the new law are wrong, they can bring harm as a result of a law intended to help Arizona.

On May 6, La Raza, the country’s largest civil rights group and 19 other labor and civil rights groups, including the Major League Baseball Players Association, announced a nationwide boycott of all economic activities related to Arizona. The state’s hotel and lodging association, for example, reports that 19 meetings have been cancelled, at an economic loss of $6 million. This is only the beginning. Protesters of the law may or may not be right, but the intensity of their anger will bring punitive action to the state.

We are learning after the fact the deleterious effects of S. B. 1070, reminding us a little of the health care law that Congress recently passed with few knowing what was in the bill or what it would do.

In attempting to clear up the matter of whether this new law violates the constitutional rights of the 4th and 14th Amendments, Kris Kobach, a law professor who helped draft the law, reports that police officers cannot willy nilly simply demand identification without probable cause from someone who “looks Hispanic.” He argues that there must be “lawful contact” and that “the most likely context where this law would come into play is a traffic stop.”

Now look at what Koback just confessed–”a traffic stop.” How many of Arizona’s 500,000 illegal immigrants are going to be caught primarily at traffic stops? A relatively minuscule number. Besides, Arizona doesn’t even need a new law for this because traffic violators must produce a driver’s license that proves legal residency.

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At the end of 2007, hedge fund billionaire John Paulson invested $15 million in the leftist non-profit, Center for Responsible Lending, their largest single donation ever. Around the same time, Paulson and his employees contributed over $100,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, headed, at the time, by Sen. Chuck Schumer. Roughly six months later, CRL and Sen. Schumer both launched a highly public attack on the California-based mortgage lender, Indymac. The lender failed, wiping out the investment of thousands of people. Roughly six months after that, John Paulson, in partnership with George Soros, bought up the remnants of Indymac for pennies on the dollar.

It is a drama that no longer surprises us, unfortunately. Wealthy investors use their access to elected officials and their checkbook to advocacy groups for private profit. But this story has a twist; a top executive of CRL when this deal went down, Eric Stein, is now working at the Treasury Department,  heading up the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Mr. Stein will be the chief federal official designing regulations to protect consumers. Right.

This is that story.

Financial crises create opportunities. Prudent and discerning entrepreneurs who save their capital for a rainy day are able to acquire assets at firesale prices and put these assets to higher and better uses. Market forces cleanse wasteful malinvestments, innovative business models make existing ones obsolete and the economy roars forward all the stronger for it.

But while market entrepreneurs generally prosper during times of great dislocation, ultimately to the benefit of all participants in the economy, today political entrepreneurs have hijacked the economic system. The politically connected elites have used this downturn to carry out a massive wealth transfer from the people to the public and private sectors, fleecing the middle class for their own enrichment.  In their hypocrisy, the long ago small businesses that grew large because of free markets have helped chain these markets through lobbying for regulations and subsidies to shield themselves from competition and their own errors.

This has occurred most egregiously in the financial sector, where there has been a veritable free-for-all in legalized political plunder.  Those who understand the illusory nature of our monetary and symbiotically related political and financial systems have clamored to profit as much as possible before the house of cards falls, with the sanction of our supposed representatives.

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March 31^st is Cesar Chávez Day. In California and six other states, government offices are closed. At my college, Claremont McKenna and the Claremont Colleges, we celebrate Cesar Chavez for one full month. (It is widely known that even white liberals tire after that much self-flagellation – although how much they can take is still a matter of dispute.)

If that month long celebration seems excessive, it is because it is. If history is any indication, however, it may not be that long until all Americans must submit to Chavez Day because Barack Obama, as a presidential candidate, thought that it ought to be a federal holiday.

It’s tough to tell how much Obama was pandering to a certain wing of the Hispanic vote and how much he sincerely believes in the struggle of La Raza, but I submit to you, dear reader, that Cesar Chavez Day ought not to have been a holiday in the first place.

There are several myths about Chávez that deserve explanation, clarification, and explication, but the most pressing of these myths is that Chavez helped Latino fruit pickers get a living wage. He did no such thing.

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With the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set to make a decision on proposed net neutrality rules later this year, the fight between supporters of the controversial policy and its opponents continues to heat up.

Yesterday, a group of minority and women’s organizations reportedly called on the FCC to give serious consideration to the impact that net neutrality could have on what has been termed the “digital divide”—the widening of which, opponents argue, constitutes a potential unintended consequence of the policy, and one which has become a primary focal point of net neutrality critics’ concern.  In a letter and a proposal to the FCC, the groups—which include minority organizations that have previously spoken out regarding the net neutrality issue such as the Asian American Justice Center—have asked for a field hearing and workshop addressing the topic.

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