A House panel voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt for failing to cooperate with a congressional inquiry into Operation “Fast and Furious,” hours after President Obama asserted executive privilege over related documents.
By Ed O’Keefe, Peter Wallsten and Sari Horwitz, Updated: Wednesday, June 20, 4:55 PM
On a party-line decision, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted 23 to 17 to hold Holder in contempt for failing to share documents related to the operation run out of the Phoenix division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives between 2009 and 2011, with the backing of the U.S. attorney in Phoenix. The move makes Holder the first member of Obama’s Cabinet held in contempt by a congressional committee
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AND THE THIRD ANGEL FOLLOWED THEM, SAYING WITH A LOUD VOICE, IF ANY MAN WORSHIP THE BEAST AND HIS IMAGE, AND RECEIVE HIS MARK IN HIS FOREHEAD, OR IN HIS HAND. *** REVELATION 14:9
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Let's make Sunday a day of rest, for God’s sake
Moody's downgrades 15 major banks
Church, Congregations Increase Focus on "Spiritual Formation"
Why the Green Economy Coalition does not believe Rio +20 is an abject failure
Crisis theatens Spaniards' day of retail rest
After seizure, crashes, Commerce Secretary John Bryson resigns
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
The Second Beast of Revelation 13 Points Unmistakably to the United States
Uploaded by NationalApostasy on Aug 4, 2010
HQ - Re-done in better quality and higher definition.
The second beast of Revelation 13 is none other than the United States of America.
Posted with permission from Proof Directory Channel:
Fast and Furious scandal: House panel votes to hold Eric Holder in contempt
Video: The House Government and Oversight Reform Committee voted 23 to 17 to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for failing to share documents related to Operation “Fast and Furious.”
After the vote, Holder called the vote a “divisive action” that “does nothing to make any of our law enforcement agents safer.”
“It’s an election-year tactic intended to distract attention -- and, as a result -- has deflected critical resources from fulfilling what remains my top priority at the Department of Justice: Protecting the American people,” Holder said.
Obama’s decision to withhold the documents — his first use of executive privilege in response to a congressional investigation — and the House panel’s vote quickly intensified a long-simmering feud between the White House and Republican lawmakers and set up a clash over the extent of presidential power that may take months to resolve.
Ahead of the vote, Holder said in a letter to Obama that sharing the Fast and Furious documents “would raise substantial separation of powers concerns and potentially create an imbalance in the relationship” between Congress and the White House.
Releasing the documents “would inhibit candor of such Executive Branch deliberations in the future and significantly impair the Executive Branch’s ability to respond independently and effectively to congressional oversight,” Holder wrote.
Adding to the administration's defiance, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer accused Republicans Wednesday of orchestrating a “taxpayer-funded election-year fishing expedition.”
“Given the economic challenges facing the country,” Pfeiffer said in a statement, “we believe that House Republicans should work with the rest of Congress and the president to create more jobs, not more political theater.”
Executive privilege has been invoked throughout U.S. history by presidential administrations to preserve the confidentiality of information in the face of legislative inquiries. The privilege is qualified, not absolute, and can be overturned in courts. But disputes over access to information rarely reach the courts and are most often resolved through political negotiations, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Before the vote, oversight chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Obama’s move “falls short of any reason to delay today’s proceedings.”
“If the Justice Department had delivered the documents they freely admitted they could have delivered, we wouldn't be here today,” Issa said.
Aides said Issa learned of the president’s decision just minutes before the hearing began in an e-mail from Justice Department officials.
Congressional committees have held Executive Branch officials in criminal contempt of congress roughly a dozen times in the last 40 years. Usually, administration officials have cited executive privilege in refusing to share information, but eventually turn over requested documents before congressional committees reach the final stages of contempt proceedings, according to the CRS.
The attorney general attempted to stave off Wednesday's vote by meeting late Tuesday with leaders of the House oversight and Senate Judiciary committees to strike a deal that would have Justice hand over requested documents in exchange for the House panel dropping its plans to vote on contempt charges. But Issa declined the offer.
Committee Democrats criticized Issa's decision to move forward and blasted him for allowing the dispute to become a personal attack on Holder instead of a serious inquiry into Justice Department policy.
“We’ve been holding the attorney general to an impossible standard,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the panel's ranking Democrat.
“You accused him of a ‘cover-up' for protecting documents he was prohibited by law from producing. You claimed that he ‘obstructed’ the committee’s work by complying with federal statutes passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president," Cummings said. “And earlier this month, you went on national television and called the attorney general — our nation’s chief law enforcement officer — a liar.”
Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) later called Wednesday’s hearing “a kangaroo court” with a predetermined outcome. Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) said he had never seen such personal attacks directed at an administration official during his three decades in Congress: “I think this is a major mistake and I really want you to know that this should be discontinued.”
But Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) and other GOP lawmakers said the ongoing inquiry is a legitmiate, serious concern: “The people in my district ask over and over again, who’s responsible for this flawed operation? … We owe this answser to the American people. That is what this committee is charged to do.”
The White House, in asserting a privilege that many Democrats had attacked the George W. Bush administration for using, risked opening itself up to further criticism for secrecy.
Apparently seeking to preempt such attacks, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said via e-mail Wednesday that Obama has shown greater reluctance to use executive privilege than his predecessors. Dating back to Reagan, Schultz said, presidents have asserted the privilege 24 times.
“President Obama has gone longer without asserting the privilege in a Congressional dispute than any President in the last three decades,” Schultz wrote. He said Bush asserted executive privilege six times and President Clinton 14 times – “both of whom protected the same category of documents we’re protecting today.”
The failed talks with Issa were cited Wednesday morning in a letter to the congressman by Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, in which Cole cited the administration’s “extraordinary effort” to comply with the House committee’s requests for information and documents and said the congressman had “rejected” offers by the attorney general to accommodate his requests.
In his statement, Pfeiffer said the concerns with the ATF’s gunwalking program began during the Bush administration and that Holder had moved to end the policy. “In fact, the Justice Department has spent the past 14 months accommodating Congressional investigators, producing 7,600 pages of documents, and testifying at 11 Congressional hearings. Yet, Republicans insist on moving forward with an effort that Republicans and objective legal experts have noted is purely political.”
Though Issa's inquiry has the support of House Republican leaders, the face-off with Holder has grabbed attention from the carefully-orchestrated summer plans of GOP leaders to hold votes in the months before the November elections on bills designed to bolster job creation and reduce federal regulatory burdens.
On Wednesday, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said the president's decision to use executive privilege “implies that White House officials were either involved in the ‘Fast and Furious’ operation or the cover-up that followed. The administration has always insisted that wasn’t the case. Were they lying, or are they now bending the law to hide the truth?”
Issa scheduled the committee vote after concluding with Boehner and other GOP leaders in recent weeks that the Justice Department was withholding information sought as part of the committee’s investigation into the scandal. Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Issa co-signed a letter last month to Obama asking that Holder comply with the congressional requests for information.
In Operation Fast and Furious, federal agents targeting the Mexico-based Sinaloa drug cartel did not interdict more than 2,000 guns they suspected of being bought illegally, in the hope of later tracking them to the cartel. The ATF lost track of most of the firearms, some of which have been found at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States.
Two of the guns connected to the botched operation were found at the Arizona site where U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010.
In recent weeks, Issa narrowed his request to the internal Justice deliberations since early February 2011, when Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) first began asking Justice about Fast and Furious. On Feb. 4, 2011, the Justice Department sent the committee a letter denying use of the “gunwalking” tactics used in Fast and Furious. Officials were later forced to retract the letter after whistleblowers came forward and said they had used those very tactics.
Issa also has asked Justice for all documents related to the treatment of the whistleblowers.
Obama’s assertion of privilege is likely to become fodder for his political opponents, who have latched onto the Fast and Furious scandal as a way to accuse the president of trying to avoid congressional scrutiny.
Within minutes of the White House announcement, conservative Web sites lit up with quotes from then-candidate Obama in 2007, who joined fellow Democrats in criticizing Bush administration officials for refusing to testify before congressional committees investigating the firing of U.S. attorneys.
“You know, there’s been a tendency on the part of this [Bush] administration to -- to try to hide behind executive privilege every time there’s something a little shaky that’s taking place,” Obama told CNN’s Larry King Live then. “And I think, you know, the administration would be best served by coming clean on this.”
Staff researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report.
Obama invokes executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Black clouds hang over Obama-Putin G20 talks
OBAMA AND PUTIN ADDRESS TENSIONS OVER SYRIA
President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin say any tensions between the US and Russia can be eased.
US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed on the need to end violence in Syria but they showed no concrete signs of narrowing their differences on tougher sanctions against Damascus.
After a week of Cold War-style recriminations between US and Russian diplomats, the talks at a Group of 20 summit in Mexico tested whether the two leaders could forge a working relationship and find common ground on Syria and other festering disputes.
Putin frowned and Obama wore a sober expression during their remarks to reporters after the meeting.
Grumpy old men ... Russian President Vladimir Putin meets his US counterpart, Barack Obama, at the G20 in Mexico. Photo: AFP
"We agreed that we need to see a cessation of the violence, that a political process has to be created to prevent civil war," Obama told reporters, who entered the room after the talks went on for some two hours - longer than originally planned.
"From my point of view, we have found many common points on this issue (of Syria)," Putin said, adding the two sides would continue discussions.
With Syrian President Bashar al-Assad continuing his bloody, 15-month crackdown on the opposition, Obama and Western allies want veto-wielding Moscow to stop shielding him from further UN Security Council sanctions aimed at forcing him from power.
Putin, a former KGB spymaster, is suspicious of US motives especially after the NATO-assisted ouster of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi last year, and he has offered little sign of softening his stance on Syria.
Though Washington has shown no appetite for a new Libya-style intervention, Russia is reluctant to abandon its Syrian ally, a longtime arms customer, and risk losing its last firm foothold in the Middle East, including access to a warm-water navy base.
Suspension of the UN monitoring mission in Syria over the weekend put added pressure on Obama and Putin, meeting for the first time since the Russian president's re-election, to act decisively to keep the conflict from spiraling into civil war.
The two men, at least in their public remarks, brushed past broad differences over issues such as arming Syria, UN sanctions and Assad's future.
As journalists entered the cramped hotel ballroom, the two leaders were leaning toward each other in discussion, neither smiling. Obama initiated a handshake for the cameras while the two remained seated.
Obama sometimes gestured toward Putin as he spoke but Putin sat more stiffly through the joint appearance. At the end of their statements, as reporters were being ushered out, both sat glumly watching but made no move to re-engage with each other.
The hardened tone appears to mark the endpoint of Obama's "reset" of ties with Moscow, pursued with Putin predecessor Dmitry Medvedev and touted by the White House as a signature foreign policy accomplishment.
Reuters
Source: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/black-clouds-hang-over-obamaputin-g20-talks-20120619-20kqw.html#ixzz1yGGS1PAK
POPE DECREED SUNDAY REST ON JUNE 3RD 2012
Published on Jun 3, 2012 by Joe Muz
Please note: This is not the sunday law that is prophesied to come as the final struggle between the beast and commandment keepers. That is yet to come. This video is to awake the scoffers that the leader of Sunday movement is not God who rested on the Seventh day but Rome.
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Sundays must be a day of rest dedicated to God, family, pope says
Sundays must be a day of rest dedicated to God, family, pope says
A pilgrim from Angola waves his national flag during Pope Benedict XVI's general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican June 6. (CNS/Paul Haring) |
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The demands of work can't bully people out of needed time off, Pope Benedict XVI said.
Sunday must be a day of rest for everyone, so people can be free to be with their families and with God, the pope said.
Read more
HOW WILL NATIONAL SUNDAY LAWS WORK?
SATURDAY, APRIL 05, 2008
HOW WILL NATIONAL SUNDAY LAWS WORK?

In response to the "National Law by Stealth" article:
Here's a solemn comment from one of the many brethren around the world, who do not have the benefits of having received the many blessings which have been afforded us by our blessed Creator; Where He allowed us to receive not only the 'true' light of the 'Everlasting Gospel', but also, the freedom of conscience to worship God as we understood Him. Apparently, he/she lives in a country where Christians are a minority, and perhaps they worship the Lord in secret, and are probably at this very moment persecuted for their belief in the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob (Israel), and for having the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed be His name. Blessed be these faithful Saints. Lord protect them, and bless them always.
4/4/2008
(Anonymous)
I live in a country where 9 per cent of the population are Christians. How will the Christian minority in my country be able to convince the other religious groups to keep the Sunday Law? Also, it is estimated that 33 per cent of the world's population are Christians. How will the Christian minority be able to convince the other 67 per cent to keep the Sunday Law? Can it be achieved through conquests (via warfare) or dishing out substantial economic benefits? A very detailed explanation of the steps that the Christian minority will take to enforce Sunday law on the rest of the world will be appreciated.
Thank you!
Beloved Brethren,
First, let's pray so that the Lord will allow his Holy Spirit to reveal to us the truth that will prepare us for His coming.
Heavenly Father who art in Heaven, Blessed be your name. We come to you this day to give you all the honor and glory, for your mercy and love. We ask you to reveal to us this day the things that will show us the enemy's devices, not that we may be made wise by him, but, by Thee. Your word is truth, and we hunger, and thirst for every word that proceeds out of thy mouth. Blessed be the Saints that at this moment don't have the freedom that we enjoy in this great nation that you have created as a city of refuge for your children, to reveal to them the fulness of your character. Bless and protect your children around the world, Father. You have faithful servants around the world and they too depend on You. We humbly ask that you impart to us this day the wisdom that will prepare 'all' your children for Jesus' soon return to Earth; And the knowledge that will prepare us for the tribulations that the enemy of souls has in store for us. We recognize that you are faithful and will deliver every soul that relies and believes in you. We thank you Father. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Dear friend, dear Brother:
First let me point out that the forces of evil have as a primary goal to take away the attention from our Creator, and place them on trivial things. The Lord has always wanted a faithful people to worship Him and obey his commandments; But, since Lucifer's rebellion, He (The FATHER) has tried to warn His elect to be wary of the crafty and devious workings of Lucifer. In these latter times, Lucifer has confused the whole world so profoundly that it's virtually impossible to discern what is truth, and to distinguish it from error. The same beliefs that were once commonly practiced in Babylon (the cradle of civilization), after the great flood, have now been spread around the whole planet.
The Roman Catholic Church's Holy See, and the Vatican have spread this Babylonian religion more fully than any other political system (they're not only a church, but also a government) on Earth. Sunday worship is their distinctive "mark".
Some overlook the fact that the whole world has been conquered by this Roman Empire, under the guise of the Holy Roman Apostolic Church. The Calendaer that most nations use save for a couple, is a Julian Calendar. This the product of a Julius Caesar1 the Roman Emperor. This is what is referred to in Daniel 7:25 as follows:
And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
The Sunday institution is another creation of the Catholic Church. The whole word is also influenced by its Holy day, Sunday. Look around the world, and you'll see a common fact that Sunday is the end of the week. So they have spread their concept of Sunday as the "7th" day of the week; When in fact since creation the Sabbath has always been the 7th day of rest, instituted by God as His Holy Day. It's the day that would be remembered as a memorial to the Creator's magnificent work = Creation of the Universe. The Sabbath is the Lord's sign:
Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. ................Exodus 31:13.
Constantine, the Roman Emperor decided that he would "nomally" accept the Christian faith. To attract the pagans of his day he legislated that Sunday would be the Holy Day throughout the entire Roman Empire.
In an Edict in March 321 A.D., Constatine declared the venerable Day of the Sun ("Venerable die Solis").2
How do these historical facts affect the world we live in toda, you might wonder? They do because the same Roman Empire that ruled the world when Jesus Christ was crucified, is still ruling the world indirectly, today. The Roman Empire took on a different character when it transformed from a political government into a religio-political entity, called the Holy Roman Apostolic Catholic Church. Behind the scenes it works as a world government, unbeknownst to most except the few that interact with it at the upper echelons of world affairs. At this very moment the forces within this behemoth of an organization are secretly devising plans to change the Constitution of the United States of America. They, in conjunction with the Evangelicals (no longer Protestant- they do not protest if they are in accord with the Roman Catholic Church) are planning to legislate Sunday restriction to address (so they think) global warming, world hunger, drug abuse, teen-age pregnancy, AIDS, etc. But, the Lord has never willed that any government enforce any laws. Not even His holy laws. These were to be accepted by His people 'willingly', to show their obedience to Him. The Lord never forces the conscience! These tactics and means are used by tyrants, dictators, and Popes...His will is that all should come to Him in good faith. Blessed be His name!
When these Laws are passed in the United States of America. They will then be enforced world wide. Because who can resist the world's only SuperPower and The Holy Roman Catholic Church, a.k.a The Vatican??? Here are the "two" beasts of Revelation 13; The Beast that is Rome; And the Beast that is Apostate Christianity.
Revelation 13
1And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
2And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
3And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
4And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
5And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
6And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
7And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
9If any man have an ear, let him hear.
10He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
11And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
16And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Here's the conclusion of this whole matter, brother; That the Beasts will impose their beliefs around the world by treaties and by force. "Who can resist the Dragon?" The Beast from the West will abdicate all his power to the Beast of the East, The Vatican, and together they will first enforce Sunday restrictive laws to appease the "evil" spirits. For they will claim that the reason why there are so many natural calamities, and disasters are because the Sunday is not kept. Yet, the faithful around the world will resist all persecution. Many will be chased, deported, imprisoned, and some executed for defying these Sunday Laws. But, The Lord is faithful, as sure as His Word is. He will not tolerate much longer than it is required, to boldly sustain, and defend His chosen. And will promptly intervene and put an end to all this false worship, for only He is worthy of being worshiped... He will make sure that "all" know what the mark of the Beast, The name of the Beast, and what his Number is, so that "all" are clearly warned of the consequences for worshiping "IT", are. So, the Lord is conveying this very moment to you dear brother, dear sister. This is not me speaking. He wants you not to listen to the error, and the false 'profits', preaching prosperity, peace and security, and conformity with the world. He wants you to be separate. A royal priesthood, not to conform to the Dragon and his agents. He is faithful and will make "all" see and hear; The whole truth visible to those that want to see His Son's triumphant return. Blessed be the Father, blessed be His Son the Messiah.
"This is a warning against the coming national Sunday law which will affect your paycheck and put innocent people in jail."3
As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the papacy in forcing the conscience and compelling men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example.--6T 18 (1900). {LDE 135.1}
Thank you. God Bless the brethren around God's creation.
Happy Sabbath! Maranatha!
Arsenio.
Footnotes:
1en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar
2www.aloha.net/~mikesch/sunday.htm
" www.seventh-day.org/historians.htm
" www.pathlights.com/theselastdays/tracts/tract_22a.htm
3 www.reg6.com/reg6/index.html