“Arturo Valenzuela is soft on Hugo Chavez, soft on the Castro brothers, soft on Manuel Zelaya, and overall has an extraordinarily weak record on defending liberty in Latin America,” said Wilson.

“Valenzuela has even defended Hugo Chavez’s clamping down on press freedom in Venezuela,” Wilson noted. “The United States should not be appointing apologists for tyranny to the nation’s top diplomatic posts. Valenzuela has been wrong on issue after issue with regards to protecting basic civil liberties.”

According to a background published by Americans for Limited Government, Valenzuela has argued for “dialogue and an opening towards Cuba,” defended Venezuela’s cracking down on press freedom while serving at Freedom House, and sits on the advisory board of Americas Watch with George Soros, a group that supports reinstating Manuel Zelaya to power in Honduras.

“Arturo Valenzuela has fundamentally been on the wrong side of history with regards to Latin American policy, and has no place leading policy in this area,” said Wilson.

“He is no friend of freedom,” Wilson added.

According to a November 2008 article by Martin Edwin Andersen, a former employee of Freedom House, who resigned in protest over Valenzuela, the Obama nominee “claimed that violence wasn’t a major issue in Mexico, that there was nothing approaching a state of terror in major cities of the north in the U.S.’s southern neighbor…”

Andersen writes that he had given Mexico “low marks in its country write-up due to the violence and fear created by drug mafias and their police protectors in the northern states bordering the U.S. More than 900 people had been killed in the first nine months of that year and journalists, in particular, had fled several cities in fear. Against all evidence, Valenzuela demanded on giving Mexico a pass on the issue.”

After Valenzuela prevailed on the Mexico issue, Andersen resigned from Freedom House.

Andersen’s commentary also blasted Valenzuela for “being an apologist for Argentina’s corrupt president Carlos Menem” and because “after the Argentine’s corruption was well known, Valenzuela nonetheless sonorously declared that the ‘The Western world owes a debt of gratitude to Carlos Menem’.”

Wilson called upon Senators to “ask tough questions about Chavez, Zelaya, the Castros, and Menem, about Valenzuela’s tenure at Freedom House with regard to the Andersen account, and find out why he consistently supports tyrannical regimes.”

“The question Senators ought to be asking Valenzuela tomorrow is: ‘Does friends of liberty in Latin America have a friend in Arturo Venezuela?’” Wilson concluded.

Attachments:
Arturo Valenzuela Background, Americans for Limited Government, July 2009.

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

# # #

June 26th, 2009, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today strongly condemned the House of Representatives for approving legislation “that intentionally will drive up the costs of gasoline, oil, and coal at a time when the American people are just struggling to make ends meet.”

“Today, Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives has handed over the nation’s energy policy to a radical faction that has but one agenda: to wreck the nation’s economic standing in the world by making energy unaffordable, eliminating real jobs, and sealing away American natural resources from an economy that will be unable to grow without them,” said Wilson.

“They have opened up a Pandora’s box,” Wilson added.

The legislation, HR 2454, would force carbon-emitting industries coal, oil, gasoline, and natural gas to purchase carbon permits. The bill aims to reduce industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050.

“The fact is: the United States depends upon carbon-emitting sources of energy for electricity, transportation, home heat, and much, much more. Capping carbon emissions necessarily means restricting the available supply of these resources, thereby deliberately increasing the prices of energy,” Wilson added.

Wilson noted that supporters of the legislation “want to increase the prices of oil, gasoline, coal, and natural gas across the board, and thereby ‘incentivize’ alternatives like solar, wind, and hybrid vehicles,” Wilson explained. “It won’t work, because the alternatives are inefficient, have a lower yields, and are more expensive.”

Wilson believes that there is already upwards pressure on energy prices. “Energy prices are already primed to begin soaring again purely because of inflation caused by Congress, the Treasury, and the Federal Reserve’s respective spending, lending, borrowing, and printing binges.”

Wilson pointed to more than $12.8 trillion of bailouts committed by the federal government, the trillion-dollar “stimulus”, the proposed $3.6 trillion budget, and the CBO-projected $1.8 trillion deficit as being “highly inflationary, and when that happens, investors flee to the safety of commodities.”

“So, with the recession moving from bad to worse, unemployment poised to reach double-digits nationally, and that inflation primed to strike, Congress in the Waxman-Markey bill has set the stage to make energy ever more expensive for decades to come,” said Wilson.

The final vote in favor of the legislation of was 219 to 212.

“How will businesses function? Where will people work when they cannot even afford to turn on the lights? Who will be able to afford the fix-ups necessary for their homes to be up to new federal zoning codes?” Wilson asked, referring to portions of the bill that will require homes to be up to California’s energy standards.

“The American people’s only hope now is Harry Reid’s rubber-stamp Senate,” Wilson noted. “But hope is not a strategy. In truth, it is up to the American people, millions of whom made history today with phone calls and emails to stop this legislation dead on its tracks,” Wilson said.

Wilson called upon the American people to make their views against the legislation known to every member of the Senate. Wilson noted that similar legislation had failed in the Senate last year. “This bill was rejected last year, and should again be rejected this year, because it will destroy the economy. Period.”

Wilson also pointed to a study from APS Physics, “Climate Sensitivity Revisited,” as discrediting the justification for capping carbon emissions. “The Monckton study raises serious doubts as to the accuracy of the UN International Panel on Climate Change’s computer models. The whole hypothesis is not even be based on actual observable data that can be confirmed.”

Wilson says that the Congressional majority is lying to the American people about the reasons for the legislation. “Today, the House bowed to the altar of radical environmental extremism. ‘Man-made’ climate change is a myth and cult, and its lies are based upon faulty computer models that act as the movement’s oracles.”

“Now, the hour grows late, and it is up to the Senate to close this Pandora’s box before it reaches the President’s desk,” Wilson concluded.

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

“While the American people are dealing with a brutal recession, soaring unemployment, and about to be hit with massive inflation, Congress in the Waxman-Markey bill is proposing to make energy more expensive to service a radical environmentalist agenda,” said Wilson.

“It is up to the Congress to stop this legislation dead on its tracks, before it causes an economic train wreck that will take decades to overcome,” Wilson added.

The legislation, HR 2454, would force carbon-emitting industries coal, oil, gasoline, and natural gas to purchase carbon permits that would reduce in supply over the next decade. The bill aims to reduce industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050.

“The whole point of capping carbon emissions is to increase the prices of oil, gasoline, coal, and natural gas across the board, and thereby ‘incentivize’ alternatives like solar, wind, and hybrid vehicles,” Wilson explained.

“If this legislation passes, 10 bucks a gallon for gas is going to seem cheap in five years,” Wilson added.

Wilson noted that similar legislation had failed in the Senate last year. “This bill was rejected last year, and should again be rejected this year, because it’s an economy-killer. It will cost jobs, it will cost progress, and it will cost prosperity. That is the price,” Wilson said.

Wilson says that what makes the bill even worse is that the science behind cap-and-trade is contrived and misleading. “The whole premise of global ‘warming’ is based upon flawed computer models that predict climate change, and are not based on actual observable data that can be confirmed.”

Wilson pointed to a study from APS Physics, “Climate Sensitivity Revisited”. “The Monckton study proves beyond any doubt that the UN International Panel on Climate Change’s computer models that ‘predict’ climate change greatly overstate the impact of carbon emissions. In other words, ‘man-made’ climate change is not real, and yet Congress is ready to reorganize the entire energy sector around the idea.”

“It is up to Congress to vote against this whacko environmentalist agenda before the economy is wrecked, the oil, natural gas, and coal industries bankrupted, and the American people being buried at the gas pump and on their home-heating bills,” Wilson concluded.

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

“Mr. Obama is stonewalling,” ALG president Bill Wilson said. “In direct violation of his own declaration ‘In the face of doubt, openness prevails,’ he has clearly instructed his minions to close ranks and refuse to tell the full, unvarnished truth about why he summarily fired Gerald Walpin despite the IG’s long record of stalwart service.”

Walpin was fired in late June after what all agree was a contentious board meeting in which he had questioned the oversight procedures of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). The AmeriCorps IG had taken issue with the usage of a grant for community related activities in which he believed was being used improperly by former N.B.A. star and current Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.

When first questioned about the Walpin firing, the White House failed to provide a reason. Only later, after “Walpin-gate” became a major story in the media did Obama spokespersons offer a belated explanation, charging that Walpin was “confused” and “disoriented” at the May 20 board meeting. Both Walpin and at least one witness to the meeting have denied the charges.

“The White House response is nothing more than a mockery wrapped in a sham,” Wilson said. The real intent of the firing is two-fold – first to stop the investigation of AmeriCorps malfeasance by an Obama crony, and, second, to send a message to AmeriCorps IG’s nationwide that they are not to touch the ‘Obama Youth Corps.’

“Knowing the stated intent of Mr. Obama to use AmeriCorp as his own ‘civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded,’ as the United States Army, his message to IG’s nationwide is particularly disturbing,” Wilson said.

The FOIA filed by ALG promises to leave no stone unturned in its pursuit of what actually occurred at the CNCS board meeting many now feel was set up to orchestrate Walpin’s firing. According to the FOIA, ALG is demanding copies of “any records that may exist,” including:

“ … any written, recorded, or graphic matter of any nature whatsoever, regardless of how recorded, and whether original or copy, including, but not limited to, the following: memoranda, reports, expense reports, books, manuals, instructions, financial reports, working papers, records, notes, letters, notices, confirmations, telegrams, receipts, appraisals, pamphlets, magazines, newspapers, prospectuses, interoffice and intra-office communications, electronic mail (e-mail), contracts, cables, notations of any type of conversation, telephone calls, meetings or other communications, bulletins, printed matter, computer printouts, teletypes, invoices, transcripts, diaries, analyses, returns, summaries, minutes, bills, accounts, estimates, projections, comparisons, messages, correspondence, press releases, circulars, financial statements, reviews, opinions, offers, studies and investigations, questionnaires and surveys, and work sheets (and all drafts, preliminary versions, alterations, modifications, revisions, changes, and amendments of any of the foregoing, as well as any attachments or appendices thereto), and graphic or oral records or representations of any kind (including without limitation, photographs, charts, graphs, voicemails, microfiche, microfilm, videotape, recordings and motion pictures), and electronic and mechanical records or representations of any kind (including, without limitation, tapes, cassettes, disks, computer server files, computer hard drive files, CDs, DVDs, memory sticks, and recordings) and other written, printed, typed, or other graphic or recorded matter of any kind of nature.”

“We believe Barack Obama fired Gerald Walpin in order to provide cover for his misuse of AmeriCorps – aka, the Obama Youth Corps. And we believe he is now stonewalling the investigation of Walpin-gate in order to cover his tracks,” Wilson said. “He would do well to remember the oft-repeated refrain after the Watergate scandal that felled an earlier president: It’s not the crime, it’s the cover up, that brings you down.”

#  #  #

Fred Smith, President, Competitive Enterprise Institute
James C. Miller III, former Reagan Budget Director
Matt Kibbe, President, FreedomWorks
Tim Phillips, President, Americans for Prosperity
Wendy Wright, President, Concerned Women for America
Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform
David McIntosh, former U.S. Representative, Indiana
Richard Viguerie, Chairman ConservativeHQ.com
William Wilson, President, Americans for Limited Government
Alfred S. Regnery, Publisher, American Spectator
Brent Bozell, Chairman, Media Research Center

WHAT DO PAYGO AND POGO HAVE IN COMMON? IN BOTH CASES “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US!”

For the Congressional Democrats to be credible about pay-as-you-go (PAYGO), they have to start living up to their rhetoric otherwise PAYGO is just a code word for major tax increases. President Obama said of PAYGO, “Congress can only spend a dollar if it saves a dollar elsewhere.” But his math got a little fuzzy along the way, as he has only asked federal agencies to reduce their budgets by about .002 percent of the total budget for 2009.

This year’s deficit of almost $2 trillion — four times the previous record deficit — includes provisions for unpaid-for projects of mammoth proportions, including the $787 billion stimulus and the $634 billion “down payment” on a government run health care scheme. Apparently, when the president said that every dollar spent must be saved elsewhere, he assumed that the Democrats’ first trillion dollars or so don’t count.

And there is more to come as the President and his Democratic allies in Congress push for government run health care spending, global bailout money for IMF, higher energy bills and 13 appropriations bills that grow the size and scope of the federal government.

PAYGO IN WASHINGTON MEANS “FOOL THE TAXPAYERS”

The President will rack up a deficit of $1.84 trillion this year—four times higher than the all time record deficit of $458 billion last year. In May alone, the deficit was $190 billion, a record high for the month. The President claims that by 2013 he will cut the deficit to $512 billion, which would still be higher than last year’s record. The President’s deficit then shoots back to $800 billion by 2019, digging deeper into the same hole as before. Bigger bailouts, deeper debt, and more deficit spending add up to higher taxes, crippling debt for our children, and more bad news for our nation’s economic future.

Instead of PAYGO congress should institute dynamic budget scoring that recognizes the true costs of spending while incorporating the stimulative effects of tax cuts.

“The Democrat definition of PAYGO is you pay, they go on spending.”– Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana.

For more information: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/06/10/morning-bell-the-obama-paygo-farce/.

#  #  #

“Barney Frank must allow this to come up for a vote. Of the 71 members of the House Financial Services Committee, 36 are cosponsors of the Fed Audit bill, including 7 Democrats, and 35 are not,” Wilson said. “That’s a majority.”

All 35 members of the Financial Services Committee that are not cosponsors for the Fed Audit bill are Democrats, including Committee Chairman Barney Frank..

Wilson says the legislation is necessary “to account for more than $7.76 trillion committed by the Fed in just the past two years. The American people have a right to know why the nation’s central bank is moving trillions of dollars to foreign governments and banks, killing markets, and crashing the economy.”

“If the will of the majority of the Financial Services Committee, and now a majority of the members of the House is to be heard, HR 1207 must be sent to the floor,” Wilson said.

To date, 162 House Republicans and 59 House Democrats are cosponsoring the legislation. 222 members in total support the bill, including the bill’s sponsor, Congressman Paul. This means the bill has now garnered enough support swift passage, with 218 votes needed in the House of Representatives with its 435 members.

According to Bloomberg News, the Federal Reserve has committed over $7.76 trillion in the past 20 months, $1,67 trillion of which has already been disbursed. However, it is unclear who received these loans, or who will receive the remainder of the committed funds.

Wilson added, “Nobody can account for where nearly $2 trillion of loans made by the Fed is going—all because the Fed has consistently stonewalled the press, Congress, and anyone else. And because law exempts most of the institution from being audited by the GAO.”

Wilson cited that the Government Accounting Office, according to 31 USCA §714, cannot audit and exempts from public oversight the following activities of the Federal Reserve:

(1) transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or nonprivate international financing organization;
(2) deliberations, decisions, or actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, open market operations;
(3) transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee; or
(4) a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board of Governors and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to items.

On February 26th “Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009” was introduced. H.R. 1207 would require the Comptroller General to issue an audit of both the Board of Governors and Reserve Bank operations, which are run by member banks of the Fed. The audit would have to be issued to Congressional leadership by the close of 2010.

According to Bloomberg, “The Federal Reserve so far is refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return.” The Fed has argued it is actually allowed to withhold “internal” memos as well as commercial and trade secrets information. Bloomberg, on the other hand, has actively filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, demanding the information.

Thus far, the Fed’s Board of Governors has refused to comply with Bloomberg’s FOIA requests. In addition, the Fed’s regional Reserve Banks are arguing that they are private institutions beyond the reach of the Freedom of Information Act.

In answering questions from Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) recently, Fed Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman testified she could not account for “$1 trillion-plus that the Fed extended and put on its balance sheet since last September…”

An email to Bloomberg by Coleman’s office also revealed that “By law, we are the Office of Inspector General for the Board of Governors only… Consistent with our authority, we cannot conduct a direct audit of Reserve Bank operations.”

“Now that a majority of the House and a majority of the House Financial Services Committee supports this legislation, it must come to the floor for a vote. For Pelosi and Frank to block it now would be to thwart the express will of the American people.” Wilson concluded.