Archive for the ‘Barack Obama’ Category

by Brian Preston

As of Monday, there are *four major scandals dogging the Obama administration. More than one of them have the potential to bring major officials down and dominate the news for the foreseeable future. The stories are all moving so fast that it’s difficult to keep track of them all. Here they are, in no particular order.

1. Health and Human Services soliciting funds from the health care industry for the implementation of ObamaCare. This one is “raising eyebrows,” says MarketWatch.

The Times said Sebelius obtained $10 million from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and $500,000 from H&R Block for the effort. HHS officials said that Sebelius’s efforts would continue, after first denying they were soliciting funds for the effort. But a spokesman for Sebelius said a section of the Public Health Service Act allows her to encourage others to support those working to help carry out public health activities.

Sebelius reportedly has sought donations for Enroll America, a private non-profit group that is working to get the uninsured covered under the 2010 health-care law.

“Nice company ya go there…” This activity is illegal, and marks the second known time that Sebelius has broken the law while atop HHS. The first was when she used official time to campaign for Obama’s re-election, then reimbursed the agency after the fact to paper things over. Does Sebelius get a third strike?

2. Benghazi. Four Americans died in a terrorist attack conducted by Libya’s al Qaeda branch, Ansar al-Sharia, on September 11, 2012. President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Ambassador Susan Rice all blamed the attack on a spontaneous demonstration against an obscure YouTube movie, and downplayed al Qaeda’s role. Just a few days prior to the attack , the Democratic National Convention pushed a theme that al Qaeda had been put on the run with the killing of Osama bin Laden. Talking points drafted after the attack were edited 12 times, consistently to remove references to terrorism and al Qaeda specifically. The YouTube movie never appears in the talking points, but it became the message of Clinton, Rice, and Obama through his UN speech on September 26, 2012.

Security had been deteriorating in Benghazi for months leading up to the attack. A warning published in Egypt on 9-10 proved that the attacks were not about a movie at all. Information from the field during the attack proved that it was a coordinated terrorist attack. Someone ordered U.S. special forces in Tripoli who were readying to respond to the attack to stand down. The administration continues to claim that it did not have time to marshal U.S. forces to help, but they had no idea how long the attack would last. Libya deputy chief Greg Hicks, who assumed command upon the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens, testified that he believed that the attack had turned into a hostage rescue situation when Stevens went missing. The U.S. Foreign Emergency Support Team (FEST) is designed to go from “zero to wheels up” very quickly and should have been deployed, according to Mark Thompson, acting deputy assistant secretary of state for operations — counterterrorism bureau. The Accountability Review Board appointed by Clinton to investigate Benghazi never interviewed Clinton or Thompson, and did not have stenographers present when witnesses were interviewed. Hicks and Thompson claim that State officials engaged in intimidation to silence them. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) has spent most of the Benghazi scandal running interference for the Obama administration, but after last week’s dramatic whistleblowers’ hearing is calling for more public testimony from more witnesses. More whistleblowers are reportedly considering coming forward.

3. The Department of Justice secretly obtained the phone records of 20 lines at or connected to the Associated Press. Media are fuming today over the “massive and unprecedented” grab of AP phone records.

The AP reported that the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors dated April and May 2012, including incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery.

The sweep was evidently in response to a leak about a terrorist attack, a second jihadist underwear bombing attempt. Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to explain his agency’s actions today. Some are already calling for his resignation or firing. Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey appeared on Fox News Channel today and questioned the wide sweep of reporters’ communications, including their personal cell phones. The AP says that it was not told anything about the sweep in advance, and that it still has not been explained to them.

4. The IRS targeted conservative Tea Party groups, and Jewish groups favorable toward Israel. For about two years and through the 2012 election, the Internal Revenue Service deliberately targeted conservative, Tea Party, and anti-Obama groups, and groups with “patriot” and “constitution” in their name. The IRS demanded deep personal information of everyone involved with these groups, and was evidently building a database on them. IRS official Lois Lerner apologized for the targeting last week, and claimed that the targeting only happened in the Cincinnati office. Since then, Americans have learned that officials in Washington knew about it a year ago, and were involved. The IRS also leaked information from the groups to liberal ProPublica, according to ProPublica. President Obama claims only to have learned about it on Friday, and in the media. But Congress has asked questions off and on about it for a couple of years now. The New York Times praised the IRS for targeting conservatives in May 2012. The targeting has had a chilling effect since 2009, when Obama joked about unleashing the IRS on enemies. This scandal gets a hearing on Friday. The fact that the IRS is empowered to deal with Americans’ health care choices thanks to ObamaCare adds an additional chilling layer to this story.

Update: IRS may have targeted pro-life groups too. And there may be a new scandal brewing at the Environmental Protection Agency.

*Fast and Furious and the Pigford scandal are still lurking out there, but neither is in the headlines at the moment. Obama may have killed off Fast and Furious when he invoked executive privilege to seal off the White House’s communications with DOJ on the subject.

More: And Then There Were Five Obama Scandals…?

Bryan Preston has been a leading conservative blogger and opinionator since founding his first blog in 2001. Bryan is a military veteran, worked for NASA, was a founding blogger and producer at Hot Air, was producer of the Laura Ingraham Show and, most recently before joining PJM, was Communications Director of the Republican Party of Texas.

$70,000 Pakistani ad buy blamed obscure anti-Muhammad film

JERUSALEM – As the House Oversight Committee hears from witnesses presenting a chronological timeline that starkly contrasts with initial statements by the Obama administration on the Benghazi attacks, it is instructive to recall how the administration spent $70,000 in taxpayer funds on an ad denouncing an anti-Muhammad film.

The ad aired on Pakistani television amid White House claims that the Benghazi attacks were caused by popular protests against an obscure Muhammad film released on YouTube.

It would later emerge that no such protests took place and that the Obama administration almost immediately had evidence the Benghazi attacks were carried out by jihadists.

The ads reportedly aired on seven Pakistani networks. They also came in response to protests in Pakistan that were reportedly a reaction to the film. However, it was the claim of popular protests in Benghazi at the time that garnered the biggest public reaction from the White House.

The Sept. 19, 2012, ads feature Obama and Clinton making statements against the film in the wake of the Benghazi attacks, which transpired one week prior.

“Since our founding, the United States has been a nation of respect, that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others,” Obama says in the ad, which is stamped “paid content.”

Clinton then denies any official U.S. involvement in producing the “Innocence of Muslims” video.

“We absolutely reject its contents,” she says.

The Obama administration blamed the YouTube video for what it claimed were popular protests that engulfed the Benghazi mission.

On Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012, three days before the ads were released, United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice appeared on five morning television programs to discuss the White House response to the Benghazi attacks. In nearly identical statements, she asserted that the attacks were a spontaneous protest in response to a “hateful video.”

Rice’s spot on “Face the Nation” was preceded by the new president of Libya, Mohammed al-Magariaf, who said his government had “no doubt that this was pre-planned, predetermined.”

Still, other Obama administration officials made similar claims about the film being behind the Benghazi attacks.

Scores of news reports, video and intelligence evidence that was immediately available to the government had demonstrated there were no popular protests outside the Benghazi facility and that the attacks were carried out by jihadists.

The claims about the anti-Muhammad film being behind the Benghazi attacks are also now called into question by a top State Department official who said he knew immediately the attacks were terror strikes, not a protest turned violent, according to interview transcripts released Sunday.

“I thought it was a terrorist attack from the get-go,” said Greg Hicks, a 22-year foreign service diplomat who was the No. 2 U.S. official in Libya at the time of the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks. “I think everybody in the mission thought it was a terrorist attack from the beginning.”

According to Hicks, “everybody in the mission” believed it was an act of terror “from the get-go.”

Reacting to Rice’s television interviews blaming the anti-Muhammad film, Hicks stated, “I’ve never been as embarrassed in my life, in my career, as on that day.”

In testimony yesterday, Hicks said he was “stunned,” his “jaw dropped” and he was “embarrassed” when Rice blamed the terror attack on an Internet video.

“The YouTube video was a non-event in Libya,” he stated.

With additional research by Joshua Klein.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/obama-used-taxpayer-funds-in-benghazi-cover-up/#ZkKPwzZetYchcI4e.99

Maybe it’s just me but I’m tired of the same old same old in our politics.  The big-box monopoly parties have morphed into two sides of the same coin, two heads on the same bird of prey.  Today our choice boils down to the Conservative Republican tax and spend, infringe personal liberty, and outsource or sovereignty policies or the Liberal Democrat tax and spend, infringe personal liberty, and outsource or sovereignty policies.  But of course, since we don’t want to throw away our vote we must vote for one of the big boys.   Conservative?  Liberal?  Tweedle Dee Or Tweedle Dum?

As a voter I’ve had my Damascus Road experience, the scales have fallen from my eyes, and I have reached the point where I would rather throw away my vote voting for someone who might actually try to find a different way to operate our government besides taxing like the Sun King and spending like a drunken sailor.  (By the way, do you know the difference between how a drunken sailor spends and how the Republicrats spend?  The drunken sailor is spending his own money.)

And what might this different way be?   How about this for radical: let’s return to constitutional government?   WOW!  what a concept.

How did we arrive at the current situation?  James Madison in his speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 16, 1788 said, “There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation.”  We didn’t get here all in one jump.  First the camel said, “Can I just stick my nose in your tent to stay warm?” and finally the generous man found himself out in the cold as the camel settled down for a nice warm nap, one inch at a time.

The compassion of our people built a safety net for those who needed help, and the greed of the lazy have turned it into a hammock.  America, the Land of the Free has turned into America, from each according to their abilities to each according to their need. The willingness to share our heritage has led America to welcome more immigrants each year than the rest of the world combined, and the abuse of our generosity has turned into a migration invasion that threatens to overwhelm us and destroy the future of our children.  Taxes imposed to meet the ever-swelling demands of government have turned into a blatant wealth re-distribution program that makes most pyramid schemes look fair.  Sometimes I think our government looks at a productive citizen as merely a source of residual income.  Or as the ads promise, our leaders lay on the beach of self-importance and our checks just keep pouring in.  We are no longer respected as Citizens.  Instead, we are coveted as consumers, or human capital.

Albert Einstein said, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

If we want a different world we have to start at the only place we have the absolute sovereign ability to make a change, we must start with ourselves.

I quit the Republican Party once it was obvious that the Republican majority in Congress I had spent my entire adult life working for was just a change in leadership and not a change in direction.  I quit calling myself a conservative after the second Bush debacle made it obvious that the conservative movement had been hijacked by the neocons and I realized that you can’t defend a captured position.  You can’t conserve what has already been lost.   I realized that we as a people, we as a federation of States need to find a different way.

One thing I know, no one person can do this alone.  No one group can do it.  To make any headway in the face of the electoral monopoly held by the party of power the many third party groups are going to have to coalesce into en effective opposition.  We can’t let divisions divide us any more, egos will have to be suppressed, and we will have to bond together with everyone dedicated to limited government, personal liberty, and economic freedom.

None of us can roll this big rock up this steep hill by ourselves.  However, together we can.

Winston Churchill said, “If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival.  There may be a worse case.  You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

Looking at the increasing speed with which the Progressive regime is building its command and control structure, the future is invading the present at an ever accelerating pace.  Their living document has made the Constitution a dead letter.  Their mixed economy has as many people on the dole as on the job.  The Fed’s printing press is burying us, our children, and their grandchildren taking out a mortgage on lives that haven’t been lived and spending money from taxes on work that hasn’t been done.

We must unite if these United States are to once again become the land of the free and the home of the brave instead of the land of the free lunch and the home of the knave.

Quoting  Ben Franklin, “We must hang together, gentlemen…else, we shall most assuredly hang separately.”

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2013 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens

Barack Obama receives ample flak from critics who say that he is too buttoned-up and reserved to thrive in an office that historically has required its fair share of cajoling, socializing, and even arm-twisting. But a thorough examination of the photo archives of White House photographer Pete Souza reveals quite the opposite: Obama can, in fact, be remarkably laid-back. His body language in the Oval Office, the Situation Room, and other top Cabinet-level meetings indicates a man who is ready to let it all hang loose. He’s often in shirtsleeves, with his feet up, and frequently will be the only member of a meeting with a knee on the table. Below, a photographic investigation of the “lean-back” president.
Obama talks with chief of staff Denis McDonough and Miguel Rodriguez, director of legislative affairs, in the Oval Office on February 5, 2013. His jacket hangs on a chair, and his legs rest on the Resolute Desk, which was gifted to President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria in 1880.

Did you notice who Obama Threatened?

It’s incredible that 42% of Americans think that this unqualified, incompetent, dishonorable, ego-driven fraud is doing a good job. Take a moment. Admit it to yourself. You know who his supporters are. They are the people that YOU support — financially.

Did you notice who Obama threatened when he wasn’t getting his way on raising the debt ceiling? He threatened to not pay:

- Social Security Retirees

- Military Retirees

- Social Security

- Disability

and

-Federal Retirees.

- Now let this sink in really good…

- He did not threaten to stop payments to illegal aliens.

- He did not threatened to take frivolous benefits such as Internet access away from violent inmates.

- He did not offer to fire some of the thousands of unnecessary federal employees that he hired.

- He did not offer to cut down on his or his wife’s frivolous gallivanting around. $20 Million already spent on family vacations. (One Million on a FL golf outing). All our money…why not?

- He did not threaten to not pay the senators and representatives or any of their staff.

- He did not threaten to take benefits away from welfare recipients or to stop the free cell phones they get.

- He did not threaten the food stamp programs.

- He did not threaten to reduce payments in foreign aid.

- He did not threaten to cut back on anything that involves his base voters.

- The list could go on and on. He is in full political mode!

Why are we allowing this person to destroy this wonderful country with his selfishness and his lies? Have WE lost our blooming minds!!!!!!!!

His type of change is killing our country. He needs to be stopped.

Do not forget about his tactics when it’s election time 2014.

Get out and Vote in the mid-term election – 2014. Support the people in the House and Senate that are willing to cut taxes and spending.

LET’S MAKE 2014 – THE Beginning of a turn around. Forget change we want our $$$$$$$$$ back and we want to take our country back!

We the people are coming.

Only 86% will send this on. Should be 100%. What will you do ?

Yesterday
I had an appointment to see the urologist for a Prostate
exam. Of course I was a bit on edge because all my
friends have either gone under the knife or had those pellets
implanted…….

The waiting room was filled with patients.

As I approached the receptionist’s desk, I noticed that
the
receptionist
was a large unfriendly woman who looked like a
Sumo
wrestler.

I gave her my name.

In a very loud voice, the receptionist
said, “YES,
I HAVE YOUR NAME HERE;

YOU WANT TO SEE THE DOCTOR ABOUT IMPOTENCE,
RIGHT?”

All the patients in the waiting room snapped their heads around to
look at me, a now very embarrassed man. But as usual, I
recovered quickly, and in an equally loud voice
replied,

‘NO, I’VE COME TO INQUIRE ABOUT A SEX CHANGE
OPERATION,

BUT
I DON’T WANT THE SAME DOCTOR THAT DID YOURS.”

The room erupted in applause!

DO NOT MESS WITH OLD RETIRED GUYS