Ace Of Spades Moron Bloggers Nice Deb Photoshops Thank President BushHouse Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, sounding more than a little agitated, just finished speaking on the House floor on behalf of Cut, Cap and Balance, imploring the Dems to get serious, and stop playing politics.
“House Republicans were voted into office to change the culture here in Washington, and we will not support the other side’s request or the President’s request to increase the debt without meaningful reforms to the system,” he said:
Another great video from Granny Jan. She thought the 2008 classic needed an update:
Paul Ryan tells NRO’s Robert Costa what he thinks of the man who is still worshiped by so many:
Indeed, in almost every sense, Ryan says, Obama has been “fundamentally un-presidential” throughout the summer, “dragging his feet, failing to address the looming debt crisis — which he knows is coming — because he remains committed to his ideology.”
“This is, unfortunately, the way he operates,” Ryan says. “This is his pattern of behavior, this is his personality. For the next 18 months, it will probably be like this. It’ll be in-your-face class warfare, with bitter appeals to envy, fear, and anxiety, plus the demonization of the other side’s motives.”
Ryan, usually a happy warrior on fiscal matters, sounds resigned when asked whether he can help Republicans craft a long-term deal with the president to reduce the debt. Obama, he says, has made such a scenario near impossible. He cites Obama’s remarks to CBS News last week, when he said he could not guarantee Social Security payments, as well as the president’s “very personal” criticism of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor at the White House, as examples of the president’s inability to “discuss these issues in good faith.”
“Whenever I hear him speak now, I just shake my head and think, there he goes again,” Ryan says. “When it comes to actually governing, leading and fixing fiscal problems, he is not in the game.” He predicts that, with their votes this week, House Republicans will show that they are.
Anyone who doesn’t believe this is happening, hasn’t been paying attention. In incident after incident afterincident, all across the country, mobs of angry, black youths are rioting, and targeting whites, to beat and harass, and anyone who says anything about it, is branded a racist. What happened to Obama’s post-racial America?
The NY Daily News reported on the latest incident which happened on a NY subway, late Sunday morning:
Police confirmed they are investigating the assault and robbery of Jason Fordell, 29, but have not labeled it a hate crime.
They are seeking the four assailants, who fled the scene. A fifth passenger who police say spontaneously joined in the attack has been arrested.
“Everyone on the train was egging them on,” said Fordell, 29, of the early-morning attack on the 4 train.
He said he was returning home at 5 a.m. from an East Village nightclub where he sells his hand-designed leather accessories when his Gothic getup drew unwelcome attention.
After Fordell transferred to a crowded 4 train at 42nd St., four young, black men began harassing him, cops said.
“People started saying stupid little comments – cracker this, white boy this, f—-t this,” Fordell said. “I told them the only reason they were saying this is there was four of them and one of me.”
“I’m a small, little white kid with long hair,” he added. “They got guys three times my size threatening me.”
As the train continued into the Bronx, the confrontation became physical, he said.
“I was in a headlock, punched and kicked on the floor,” Fordell said.
Then a passenger decided to join in – declaring, “Oh, I get a few shots, too,” before kicking and punching Fordell in the head, according to cops.
When Fordell finally left the train at his Fordham Road stop, his original attackers snatched his bag and ran. Inside was $2,900 worth of merchandise, cops said.
Fordell suffered bleeding from his skull, an eye “swollen five different colors”, blood in his urine, and a footprints on his back and back of his neck.
He told WPIX a reporter that 15 minutes into the ride, the harassment had made him angry so he lashed back at one of the taunters, a Latino, calling him a “spic”. That’s when things got violent:
He may want to take a taxi next time.
Hat tip: Moonbattery
I don’t get ‘planking’, and I don’t get this….but I have to admit it’s slightly humorous, or as my 13 year old says, “freaking hilarious”:
Hat tip: My 13 year old.
Townhall’s Katie Pavlich reports:
Today, Grassley and Issa asked Attorney General Eric Holder why documentation requested by the Oversight Committee has not been provided, specifically a “smoking gun” report ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson mentioned during closed testimony over two weeks ago.
“It was very frustrating to all of us, and it appears thoroughly to us that the Department is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the Department,” ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson said of his frustration with the Justice Department’s response to the investigation in a transcribed interview.
“The Department should not be withholding what Mr. Melson described as the ‘smoking gun’ report of investigation or Mr. Melson’s emails regarding the wiretap applications,” wrote Issa and Grassley. “Mr. Melson said he reviewed the affidavits in support of the wiretap applications for the first time after the controversy became public and immediately contacted the Deputy Attorney General’s office to raise concerns about information in them that was inconsistent with the Department’s public denials. The Department should also address the serious questions raised by Mr. Melson’s testimony regarding potential informants for other agencies.”
William La Jeunesse reports for Fox News’ Special Report that although Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Darrell Issa are not yet ready to call Fast and Furious a “cover-up”, but it appears DOJ is withholding vital information about the lethal operation to protect political appointees.
Fox News reports that ATF Director Melson told congressional investigators that the smoking gun report was an internal review by the ATF that concluded the walked guns could have been and should have been interdicted, but were not. “The Deputy Atty General’s office wasn’t very happy with us because they thought this was an admission that mistakes were made. Well, there were mistakes made.”
Congressional investigators say they have less than 1% of the documents that they want from the DOJ, and the investigation is issuing a shot across the bow that it is one step closer to contempt hearings, and ultimately a Special Prosecutor”..
Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) can’t think of a single rational explanation for what happened in the gunwalker scandal other than a “political ploy” to support an anti-firearm agenda. It’s either that or “utter and complete stupidity.”
More Gunwalker News:
Sipsey Street Irregulars: The Dog That Hasn’t Barked — Yet. The Texas Connection to the Gunwalker Scandal.
Bob Owens PJ Media: Gunwalker: ATF Targets Were Actually FBI Informants
Well, this should be interesting. I’m not sure it’s a great idea - Obama’s recent Twitter townhall was painful. Now it’s the Republican Presidential candidates’ turn to be flamed on Twitter:
Digital Acumen is pleased to announce the first-ever Republican Presidential debate, sponsored by TheTeaParty.net.
Hosted and moderated by conservative commentator S.E. Cupp and radio personality Rusty Humphries, the debate takes place on Wednesday, July 20 from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM EST online at 140townhall.com and on Twitter.
Participating Presidential Candidates:
The trend-generating, rapidly-expanding microblogging service known as Twitter has attracted an abundance of political activists, pundits, organizations, thought leaders, taste makers, and, most importantly, ordinary concerned voters. As a Twitter consulting firm, Digital Acumen specializes in helping candidates and organizations realize their maximum Twitter potential and make the most of the plethora of information Twitter has to offer. In pursuit of this goal, we blend our technology, strategy, and shrewdness into unique solutions for each client.
No Mitt Romney, I see. Staying above the fray, I guess.
Hat tip: @grivno on Twitter.
House Republicans are putting Cut Cap and Balance up for a vote, tomorrow, but the plan may already be dead in the water, Michelle Malkin reports:
The president is threatening to veto House GOP conservatives’ proposal to cut spending now, cap future spending, and balance the budget.
So, to be clear, to use that over-worn Obama phrase, the White House is against Cut, Cap and Balance.
Spread the word.
Call their bluff.
WashTimes’ Emily Miller: “Obama just issued a veto threat for a bill that would give him a $2.4 trillion debt ceiling increase. So, who’s risking default now?”
The White House is also threatening to veto H.R. 2434, the 2012 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act which proposes $65 million in cuts to the Executive office:
“Everybody’s going to have to give. Everybody’s going to have to have some skin in the game.” – President Obama, January 2009
In addition to threatening to veto the Cut, Cap and Balance bill (H.R. 2560), the White House is threatening to veto H.R. 2434, the 2012 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act. Among other things, the White House is arguing against a proposed $65 million budget cut to the Executive Office.
Why would that cut be bad? Because the Executive Office needs all the deficit spending it can get in order to, in part, pay people to find ways to reduce the deficit.
Keep reading at link…
While polls show that Americans overwhelmingly do. not. want. the debt ceiling raised without substantial cuts, Obama has yet to propose a plan in writing that specifies entitlement cuts he’d be willing to make. Charles Krauthammer made this point (again), while mercilessly bashing the beltway media on PBS’s Inside Washington show, Sunday:
Meanwhile, Obama is meeting secretly with Republicans, Good Cop Boehner, and Bad Cop Cantor. Keith Koffler wonders what the secrecy is all about:
In all my time covering Washington, I’ve never heard of a secret meeting between the president and the Speaker. The openness White House has now held three of them, with more perhaps coming.
BTW, the last two were solely with Boehner. It’s clear that the House GOP caucus has insisted that Cantor come along to babysit the Speaker in case he starts to get weepy and raises taxes.
Carney today also gave a pretty explicit endorsement to the Raise the Debt Ceiling and Get Out of Town Plan by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
All the wrong sorts of people are endorsing the McConnell Plan, which is pretty good indication that it’s a loser.
Republican candidate for Prez, Thaddeus McCotter (MI) weighs in on the budget talks at Fox News: In the Debt Ceiling Mess Americans Have More Courage Than Obama and Democrats Think They Do
Amidst this debt ceiling debate, this president and his Democratic minions’ arguments have descended from “straw men” to “bogeymen” in their attempts to scare Americans.
Our seniors were told their hard-earned Social Security checks would be stopped. Our brave veterans were told the services our grateful nation provides them (never mind that there is much more we could do) could be stopped.
Our entire citizenry was told America could face an economic Armageddon.
But we Americans are more courageous than the president and Democrats credit us. Thus, we must tell President Obama and his minions to stop; join with Republicans to seize this moment to cut, cap and balance the federal budget; and start restructuring Washington Big Government into Main Street self-government.
That this President and his fear mongers would willfully inflict doubt and fear in his citizenry is deplorable, but par for the course. They will do all they can to distract from the fact that they have not once provided a single concrete plan or for serious debt reduction; and that their failed, fiscally irresponsible, economy killing policies have teed up this debt mess and holed out our economy.
Via Is This Blog On, Paul Ryan presents: Brief History of President Obama’s Fiscal Record
Despite newfound concern with the debt overhang stifling economic growth, President Obama’s record falls far short of his rhetoric. Let’s review the decisions made by President Obama and Congressional Democrats over the past couple of years, and the disappointing results of their policy choices:
Keep reading the nightmarish trip through recent memory lane at the link.
MORE:
Rep Allen West states the obvious, The Right Scoop has the audio: Obama is an intransigent liberal progressive socialist who is also Marxist
Fox Nation: Rubio Scolds Schieffer: I’ve Seen Lectures… But Where Is the President’s Plan?
Sad Hill: Obama Blows $ Millions In Taxpayer Funds To ‘Stimulate’ Indonesia, His Boyhood Home
The Right Scoop: Paul Ryan: Obama vetoing Cut, Cap, and Balance is vetoing limited government
When I was at RightOnline, last month, I heard that Mr. O’Keefe was in the process of conducting another sting operation. This video is the first installment of Project Veritas’ latest investigation, this time targeting Medicaid fraud.
What you are about to see are government employees in Ohio assisting two outrageously crooked, and unqualified Russians with applications for Medicaid.
In the video, the men explain to Ohio Medicaid workers that they are Russian immigrants who sell illegal drugs, drive a modified McLaren F1 sports car with a gold-coated engine, and use their underage sisters to perform sexual favors in exchange for drugs.
In response, Ohio employees tasked with disbursing federal Medicaid dollars are shown coaching the men through the process of applying for benefits. “If it’s not something registered here, maybe I just wouldn’t mention it,” a Franklin County Medicaid officer named Traci Daniels tells the men, when asked whether they should mention owning a vehicle that retails for nearly $1 million, as they apply for government aid designed to help poor people. “Not that I can say that. You didn’t hear that from me. But, that would right there, that would throw him off. He would be immediately not qualified.”
A complaint filed July 7, 2010 indicates ACORN employee Juan Carlos Vera (seen here in the ACORN San Diego investigation) is suing James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles in federal court for at least $75,000. Vera alleges Giles and O’Keefe violated the Invasion of Privacy Act when they videotaped him giving advice regarding underage prostitution to the fake pimp and prostitute in 2009.
The thing is, this isn’t an isolated thing. I’m sure that 90% of employees in the various bureaucracies do this, because it’s the path of least resistance, not even for ideological reasons. It’s just easiest to help people scam the system than to turn them away.
And that’s not really a problem of any particular employee, but of the system which encourages this, and which tells them to just get the government checks out there by hook or by crook because who cares, it’s free money anyway.
Over and over again this is what happens in bureaucracies. There are the paper “rules” that exist in the employee handbook and are entirely hypothetical and notional, and then there are the actual rules for conduct which everyone knows, the rules for keeping your job and not getting hassled and not making the decisions or exercising the judgment you are (supposedly) hired to make or exercise.
The following message is brought to you by Resourceful Earth, a project that “serves as the central hub for bloggers and news media to learn more about topics surrounding the natural resources industry.”
Resourceful Earth is a new project headed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).
Resourceful Earth’s mission is to promote access to natural resources and oppose moneyed special interests trying to lock up the raw materials of prosperity. We believe that human ingenuity and free markets will continue to make natural resources more plentiful, affordable, and sustainable.
***
The War Against Mining:
The environmentalists are using their copper based electric cars, cell phones and computers to shut down copper mining in the United States. As we’ve mentioned before 97% of the copper we use is coming from China while the United States sits on what is arguably the largest ore deposit in the world – 80.6 billion pounds of copper and 107.4 million ounces of gold as well as other rare metals.
No wonder there’s been such a significant uptick in thief of copper wiring in the United States.
We are ALL paying for the hypocrisy of the Big Green movement. The environmentalists NEED the copper for the alternative energy tools that would facilitate the switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and still they stand in the way of mining it. However, China doesn’t have any such compunctions and oddly that seems alright with environmentalists. That makes me wonder if it really is about the environment as much as it is about changing the pockets that the cash flows into.
Join us in our fight in the War Against Mining!
I think most people have seen this first video from 3-24-2009, by now. Many people have mistakenly viewed it as a smoking gun because Deputy Attorney General David Ogden declared that Project Gun Runner was launched under the orders of Obama with the knowledge of Holder.
But Project Gun Runner was an above board gun-running investigation that began years ago under Bush. What makes this video compelling is Ogden’s announcement that the Obama Administration was launching a new and aggressive ‘comprehensive plan’, purportedly aimed at curtailing gun trafficking between the United States and Mexico, while at the same time they were blaming American gun sales for violence in Mexico’s drug wars (fabricating the 90% statistic). What we’ve seen as a result of their efforts is thousands of high powered weapons delivered safely into the hands of Mexican drug cartels which have killed at least 150 Mexican soldiers, federal agents, and civilians, as well as 2 American border patrol agents. Basically, the United States has been supplying Mexican drug cartels (and God Knows who else) with thousands of weapons to kill innocent people with.
Some of the more corrupt Democrats in Congress are trying to stay on task, even as the plot unravels before them:
Representatives Maloney, Cummings, and Carolyn McCarthy seem to be far less interested in holding those responsible for Gunwalker to account than they are in persecuting gun owners and hobbling the investigations into the scandal being played out in the House and Senate.
We saw this disreputable behavior from Cummings when he held a minority forumseveral weeks ago that was focused on blame-shifting instead of accountability, and in the 26-page political report that minimized the magnitude of the crimes perpetrated under the guise of law enforcement while building the case for gun control
Anti-gun Democrats are pushing laws that would only affect the law-abiding, while attempting to direct attention away from what appears to be a widespread criminal conspiracy by executive branch agencies to arm narco-terrorists and then use the violence caused by those weapons to influence U.S. gun laws.
Sipsey Street Irregulars wrote on March 23 of this year:
This is stunning–President Obama one-on-one with a Mexican journalist, and no handlers? President Obama considers a Mexican journalist more important to talk with about Gunwalker than the American people, the American
press/media, and the Congress?If I’d not see this, I would not have believed it. This is proof of some combination of ineptitude (getting caught); not having a Plan B to handle something going awry (unskilled implementers); hubris (thinking that a bunch of pointy-headed intellectual knuckleheads could pull off a strategy so blatantly stupid); and what I’d call a Black Swan (from Nassim Taleb’s book of that name, “the highly expected not happening”, footnote on page xviii, meaning that President Obama and his retinue expected ATF Special Agents to carry the water, and they didn’t.) Instead, they disavowed the activity. Quite profound, in my view.
Obama’s interview with Univision’s Jorge Ramos was not put on YouTube until April 8, a delay that perhaps explains its only 367 views:
Note, that Obama, almost as if frozen in time between March 2009 and March 2011, once again calls for a “comprehensive approach” to interdicting guns. It’s amazing how Obama’s “comprehensive approaches” to things always seem to end up in disaster, whether it’s the stimulus, ObamaCare, bailouts – what have you - I for one do not want to see anymore comprehensive plans from this man.
On March 30, TL Davis at The American Thinker called the above interview: Barack Obama’s ‘I am not a Crook’ Moment.
Earlier this week Barack Obama sat down with Univision’s star anchor Jorge Ramos and was asked the direct question: “The Mexican Government complains that they were not informed about the ‘Fast and Furious’ operation (Gunwalker). Did you authorize this operation and was President Calderon properly informed about it?”
President Obama responded quickly and firmly stating that neither he nor Attorney General Eric Holder authorized the operation. This was Barack Obama’s equivalent to “I’m not a crook” statement. The question is not whether the President authorized it; it is when he knew about it. Did the President of the United States know about Project Gunwalker when he slapped the back of President Calderon and told him that they were working to stop the flow of guns, when in fact the operation was engaged in just the opposite?
In the Univision interview Obama revealed more than he would have liked. At one moment he tried to claim that the American government has “too many moving parts” for him to keep up with things like Project Gunwalker. It was a thinly veiled attempt to divert the conversation, but it left Obama looking as if the injuries and deaths of at least 150 Mexican nationals didn’t rate his attention. However, that fact is getting a lot of attention in Mexico where the PGR, or the Mexican Attorney General’s office is seeking information on U.S. agents who might have committed crimes by facilitating the movement of arms into Mexico.
Alberto Morales of El Universal, a Mexican national newspaper closely following the developing scandal, has subsequently written an article based on the CBS report by Sharyl Attkisson that featured Darren Gil, former ATF attaché to Mexico. In the interview Gil revealed that he had on numerous occasions requested permission to inform the Mexican government about “Fast and Furious.” This would seem to be in direct conflict with the impression left by President Obama only hours before that high-level officials had no knowledge of the operation.In the interview, Darren Gil revealed that when he asked his supervisor about Fast and Furious he was told that “not only is the director (of the ATF) aware of it, but the Department of Justice is aware of it.” Sharyl Attkisson asks: “They didn’t want you to inform your Mexican counterparts?” Gil: “That’s correct.”
A Pajamas Media source within the DOJ concurs that the DOJ OIG Schnedar is not trusted internally to run impartial investigations, and that DOJ employees now avoid going to OIG with concerns.
Aside from Schnedar’s credibility gap, the source further noted the Obama administration’s history of intimidating inspectors general, citing the firing and smearing of Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) Gerald Walpin, who was investigating the AmeriCorps scandal, which had in its sights Obama’s friend Kevin Johnson.
Put simply, the DOJ-OIG’s impartiality and competence have been challenged, which has in no way been helped by the Obama administration’s thuggish intimidation of previous OIGs that have gotten too close to Obama’s allies.
The DOJ-OIG’s report won’t be worth the “black paper” the agency submitted in attempts to stonewall the Oversight Committee’s investigation in June.
The severity of the charges demands that a compromised DOJ-OIG be removed from the case, and that an independent prosecutor be appointed to determine who in the Obama administration authorized a gun-running operation that is responsible for graveyards filled with police dead.
Calls for a Special Prosecutor for the gunwalker scandal are growing.…What are Issa and Grassley waiting for?
See Also:
As Mark Steyn describes it: “United States taxpayers were picking up the tab for Mexican drug lords’ weaponry in order that the ATF could identify high-up gun-traffickers. But, as it turns out, these high-up gun-traffickers were already known to other agencies — FBI, DEA, and other big-spending acronyms in the great fetid ooze of federal alphabet soup in which this republic is drowning. And, indeed, some of those high-ups are said to have been paid informants for those various federal agencies. So, in case you’re wondering why Obama’s second annual Recovery Summer is a wee bit sluggish at your end, relax: Stimulus dollars went to fund one federal agency to buy guns for the paid informants of another federal agency to funnel to foreign criminals in order that the first federal agency might identify the paid informants of the second federal agency.”
The Los Angeles Times reports today that at least six gun smugglers working for the Mexican drug cartels were also paid FBI informants:
Presbyterian College music department performs a hymn of thanksgiving, “Come Ye Thankful People Come” at the annual Christmas concert in 2008.
Congressman Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley continue to unravel this plot. Along with the emails proving that the ATF was using “walked” guns to justify stricter gun laws, they sent a letter to embattled Attorney General Eric Holder asking the following:
- Is there any other evidence suggesting that ATF of DOJ officials discussed how Operation Fast and Furious could be used to justify additional regulatory authorities for the ATF? IF so, are there any such indications prior to July 14, 2010?
- Rather than collecting additional information on law-abiding gun owners, what steps have you taken to ensure that the ATF is better able to act on the information it already possesses to interdict the flow of firearms to criminals?
If most of the claims regarding this scandal are substantiated — and developing evidence certainly indicates a high likelihood of that happening — we face a watershed moment in American history. Every component of federal law enforcement within the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security — and most likely with the knowledge of the Department of State — undertook a massive operation designed to facilitate the flow of thousands of weapons into the hands of some of the most vicious criminal organizations on Earth. These operations likely took place with the full knowledge of cabinet level officials, and possibly the White House. The weapons “walked” were used to gun down innocent men, women, and children, not to mention the brave police officers and soldiers in each nation trying to wage peace. It demands a criminal investigation and the possible RICO prosecutionof dozens of federal law enforcement officers, supervisors, senior management, political appointees, and possibly elected officials. Our federal law enforcement apparatus became a criminal conspiracy. This was an assault on the democratic rule of law and the very essence of our republic.
***
A political consultant I met at the Palin premiere in Independence, MO, last night told me that in his opinion, with the media’s help, the gunwalking scandal is going to be a whitewash with maybe a few low level ATF and DOJ staffers taking the fall for the operation. As Bob Owens reports in Pravda Syndrome: MSM Can’t Stop Lying About ‘Gunwalker’, that would seem to be a valid opinion, but–
Unfortunately for the administration, however, even the most loyal of media sycophants can’t cover a scandal as large as Gunwalker appears to be. The public is too well-educated, the evidence of probable criminality too blatant and widespread. The administration’s apparent plan to use gun violence to spur support for gun control efforts has become Watergate with a body count, and no amount of media deception or spin, or party misdirection, can save them from the consequences of their actions.
It’s getting bad, and going to get worse, folks.
Big Government: Grassley And Issa Should Include Obama and Clinton In Operation Fast And Furious Probe:
In the spring of 2009, both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blamed American gun-running for violence in Mexico’s drug wars.
”WH actively preparing for possible EH resignation. Tied in w/GG. JC set up to keep firewall in place. SIGNIFICANT details to break soon. Obama openly accuses senior cabinet official of acting against him on this. Another outburst. “Screaming at adviser” Critical help from media paying dividends. This WH in very serious trouble. More to come next week. You can share this if you like – want some to know. -INSIDER
JC?
That would be James Cole, who happens to be one of Gunwalker’s “Dirty Dozen”.
MORE about Cole, who was appointed in Dec, 2010, here:
President Barack Obama bypassed the Senate Wednesday to make six recess appointments, including a deputy attorney general whose links to the insurance giant American International Group had stalled his confirmation.
Obama first nominated James Cole to the No. 2 Justice Department post in May. But Republican lawmakers blocked his confirmation in part because of questions about his role as an independent consultant for AIG before its near collapse and government bailout in 2008. Senate Republicans complained that confidentiality agreements prevented them from receiving answers about his work for the company.
Others, including Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the judiciary committee, raised questions about statements Cole made suggesting he supported trying terror suspects in U.S. courts rather than military tribunals.
Cole is a close friend of Attorney General Eric Holder and a partner at a private Washington law firm. His appointment is one of six Obama announced from his vacation in Hawaii, including ambassadors to Turkey and Syria.
RELATED:
From the US Consulate General in Mexico:
Emergency Message for U.S. Citizens
Threats of violence against U.S. government interests in Chihuahua
HotAirPundit: 32nd anniv. of Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech – Obama remix:
RNC: Change!….Direction:
National Republican Convention Blog, here.
See also: Potluck: Quote of the Day – Unknown Edition:
“The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting an inexperienced man like him with the Presidency.”
Read full quote at Potluck.
Paul Ryan describing on The Greta Van Susteren Show Obama’s lack of leadership and bad faith in negotiating the budget: “I don’t think he wants to cut spending…and he wants to to raise taxes.”
See also: Jennifer Rubin in WaPo: Paul Ryan explains the Republicans’ position:
Too often conservatives assume that the wisdom of their policies (e.g., don’t raise taxes in a recession) will carry the day. However, the need to explain the rationale for one’s views is essential in maintaining public support and keeping the base engaged. And so far, Republican leaders on the Hill have been so busy trying to craft a deal that they haven’t had time to explain why raising taxes isn’t a “balanced” approach and why the amount of the debt limit increase should be at least matched by spending cuts. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) fills that void. At the House Budget Committee Web site he explains…
Reason TV: 3 Reasons Why The Debt-Ceiling Debate is Full of Malarkey:
All anybody in Washington can talk about these days is the debt limit or debt ceiling — the total amount of money the federal government is authorized to borrow at any given time. After a decade in which spending increased by more than 60 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars and the debt limit was raised no fewer than 10 times, the government is about to max out its $14.3 trillion credit line, leading to fears that Washington is going to default on its bonds, stop cutting Social Security checks, and destroy the economy more than it already has.
But the current debate over the debt ceiling is full of malarkey for at least three reasons.
Via Big Journalism: Rubio: Obama Competing For “Title Of Worst President In American History”:
An Accuracy in Media Exclusive:
The notion that progressives better utilize new media to advance their agenda could not look more outdated today. Proof of effective conservative messaging and networking is clear. One needs to look no further than the fact that President Obama hired a Twitter guy to combat messages critical of his policies, on your dime no less. But in order to continue this trend, elected leaders and agenda setters must further engage new media platforms and citizen journalists. Thankfully, it seems that some conservatives in Washington are taking the lead.
Freshman Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), who originally kept a low profile despite his rock star status, has been branded as a guerilla warrior seeking to shake up Washington recently. As a result of this shift in political strategy, expect Senator Rubio to engage new media outlets more aggressively to criticize the Obama Administration and Capitol Hill.
Rubio should be on every Republican candidate’s short list for VP.
Republican Study Commission: Cut, Cap, & BALANCE – A Complete Picture:
Majority Leader Eric Cantor Discusses Cut, Cap, and Balance:
Townhall: FLASHBACK: Obama Says Raising Taxes Not About Revenue But About Fairness:
Freedom’s Lighthouse: Video Urges Prayer for Christian Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani – Facing Execution in Iran for His Faith:
Media Research Center: In the House: Allen West:
Steven Crowder: Keith Olbermann:The Lost Months:
“Tea Party Leader”, Andrew Breitbart was recently interviewed by Univision’s Jorge Ramos: Exclusive interview with Tea Party Leader:
Mark Levin Interviews Steve Bannon about The Undefeated:
I watched the film (2nd time) at the Independence, MO location 7:00 showing, last night, where the theater was filled to a 90-95% capacity. I met two gentlemen who traveled from Des Moines to watch the movie.
The word among Palinistas is she is definitely running – 100% sure – Done deal -No doubt in their minds.
New ND co-blogger, Always Fired Up’s review of the movie can be found, here, here, or here.
Gateway Pundit reports: “The Undefeated” Roars to Big Opening Day… Theaters Sell Out From Atlanta to Orange County
Hat tip to Charles B. for many of these videos.
Obama told Eric Cantor during that Wednesday evening meeting, right before he stormed out of the room, that he would take his case “to the American people”. We’re still trying to figure out what his case is.
Republicans have been pulling their hair out in the budget negotiations with Obama, because he refuses to offer specifics on entitlements he would be willing to reform.
Charles Krauthammer hit him on this in his recent column, Call His Bluff:
All of a sudden he’s a born-again budget balancer prepared to bravely take on his party by making deep cuts in entitlements. Really? Name one. He’s been saying forever that he’s prepared to discuss, engage, converse about entitlement cuts. But never once has he publicly proposed a single structural change to any entitlement.
Hasn’t the White House leaked that he’s prepared to raise the Medicare age or change the cost-of-living calculation?
Anonymous talk is cheap. Leaks are designed to manipulate. Offers are floated and disappear.
Say it, Mr. President. Give us one single structural change in entitlements. In public.
Jake Tapper gave Obama the opportunity to do just that in his press conference, today:
Tapper: In the interest of transparency, leadership and offering – also showing the American people that you have been negotiating in good faith, can you tell us one structural reform that you are willing to make to one of these entitlement programs that would have a major impact on the deficit? Would you be willing to raise the retirement age? Would you be willing to means test Social Security or Medicare?
Obama: We’ve said that we are willing to look at all those approaches. I’ve laid out some criteria in terms of what would be acceptable. So for example, I’ve said very clearly that we should make sure that current beneficiaries, as much as possible, are not affected, but we should look at what can we do in the out years so that, over time, some of these programs are more sustainable. I’ve said that means testing on Medicare, meaning people like myself, if — you know, I’m going to be turning 50 in a week, so –
Me: We KNOWWWW….
OBAMA: I’m starting to think a little bit more about Medicare eligibility. (Laughter.) The — the — (chuckles) — yeah, I’m going to get my AARP card soon and the discounts. But the — you know, you can envision a situation where, for somebody in my position, me having to pay a little bit more on premiums or co-pays or things like that would be appropriate. And again, that could make a difference.
Okay, enough about yourself. Is this on the table, or not? “Being willing to look at” something isn’t the same thing as doing it. Are you making a deal with Republicans on Medicare reform or not?
Obama: So we’ve been very clear about where we’re willing to go. What we’re not willing to do is to restructure the program in the ways that we’ve seen coming out of the House over the last several months, where we would voucherize the program and you potentially have senior citizens paying $6,000 more.
I’ll take that as a “no”.
TAPPER: And the retirement age?
OBAMA: You know, I’m not going to get into specifics. As I said, Jake, everything that you mentioned are things that we have discussed.
I’ll take that as a “no”.
Meanwhile, Republicans are taking The Hammer’s advice and are calling Obama’s bluff, as Ed Morrissey reports at Hot Air:
While Barack Obama went to the press for the third time in 17 days, John Boehner and Eric Cantor called his bluff in the House. The Republican leadership announced that the House would vote on a plan to raise the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion and matching cuts:
House Republicans said Friday that they planned to vote next week on a proposal to raise the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion, with matching cuts and guidelines to control future government spending.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) said at a news conference Friday that the House next week would vote on a “cut, cap and balance” approach. The House plans to separately vote on a measure that would amend the U.S. Constitution to require the federal government to balance its budget.
House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said Friday that the White House has been “unwilling to put a real plan on the table,” but said next week’s vote would not “preclude” the chance of reaching a deal with Democrats.
***
Obama’s third press conference produced exactly what his first two press conferences already delivered: no plan, no specifics. In fact, Obama explicitly stated, “I’m not going to get into specifics.” House Republicans have offered — and passed — a very specific plan to reduce spending and the need for future borrowing. Obama’s own debt commission delivered a very specific plan, which Obama has entirely ignored for five months. James Pethokoukis was prompted to tweet, “Leading from behind,” and at this late date, it’s hard to grasp what the White House wanted from a rehash of the prior two press conferences.
SEE ALSO:
The Weekly Standard: Obama Misleads on Support for ‘Balanced’ Deficit Agreement
All American Blogger: Obama: 80% of Americans Support Tax Increases; Actual Poll: 73% Blame Wasteful Spending For Deficit
Does Obama really expect us to believe that 80% of Americans support tax hikes? Is he insane????
Jennifer Rubin: Another — yawn — Obama press conference
I can tell you most members of the Beltway media, Hill staffers and lawmakers have stopped listening to President Obama’s press conferences. They know by now what he will say. We have to work together. We need a balanced approach. Everyone has to share the pain. The Republicans need to compromise. I’ve made real compromises.
If you missed today’s installation, you didn’t miss much, other than the ludicrous suggestion that the Republicans’ base wants tax hikes. He’s threatening to go to the public. Oh, my.
Speaker Boehner voiced his frustration with the president in this press release issued after the presser:
“President Obama has been talking tough about cutting spending, but his deeds aren’t matching his words. Consider all of the government boondoggles he has refused to put on the table for cuts: ObamaCare; the so-called ‘green jobs’ initiative; high-speed rail; and a vast array of other pet projects that are unnecessarily costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. While Republicans have focused on the big problems we face, this White House has focused on protecting the status quo. The same holds true for entitlement spending, where the White House has been talking in terms of nickels and dimes at a time when trillions of dollars in serious reforms are needed to preserve the programs andput them on a sustainable path.
Legal Insurrection: Sounds like Obama will not call his own bluff
UPDATE:
The Republican Press conference following Obama’s presser:
Boehner: “we asked the president to lead, we asked him to to put forward a plan -not a speech – a real plan – and he hasn’t – but we will.”
John Guardiano: The American Spectator:
If you cut through all of the political spin and media fog, here’s what’s happening in the so-called debt negotiations: Congressional Republicans are negotiating; Obama’s campaigning. They’re legislating (or at least trying to legislate); he’s grandstanding. They want to cut the debt; he wants to win reelection. The result: impasse.
That Obama is not negotiating in good faith is obvious. He hasn’t offered up a budget; he hasn’t proposed a debt reduction plan; and he hasn’t specified any real cuts save for a massive gutting of the defense budget.
Earlier today, White House Dossier’s Keith Koffler noted that it would be extremely bad optics for Obama to throw a lavish birthday bash for himself so soon after a government default….
…the president is planning an extravagant fundraising bash Aug. 3 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, including a birthday concert teeming with celebrities and – for couples contributing $35,800 – a private dinner with the president. All this just one day after the government is scheduled to run out of cash!
Undoubtedly, the sight of so much money getting thrown around and dissolute stars crooning to Obama will make a stirring contrast with a federal government bankruptcy featuring unpaid government workers, seniors and soldiers wondering how they’ll afford the groceries, shuttered national parks, and angry investors trying to cash out their Treasury Bills.
If the government defaults, you can be sure the birthday bacchanal will do much more to harm Obama’s reelection prospects than help them.***
The excitement kicks off at 4 pm with a concert that may feature singer Jennifer Hudson and other A-List stars, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
To show that hope and change is for everyone, a pauper section will be included for those contributing a measly $50. But the general admission ticket is $200, and the more you give, the more you get.
For $1,000, you can sit in the rich people’s area with easy access to alcohol. And for $10,000 you not only get a great seat, but a photo with The Birthday Boy.
At some point later in the day, it must have dawned on the White House that this wouldn’t look too good for the Birthday Boy.
(ABC News) — August 2 is the date the US risks defaulting on its good faith and credit. August 4 is President Obama’s landmark 50th birthday.
And August 3 is on hold for Presidential travel.
It is the night that the Obama 2012 campaign has planned a splashy fundraising celebration in the President’s hometown Chicago. The historic Aragon ballroom on the north side of the city is booked for a concert and party. The Chicago Sun Times, which was the first to report on the event, says Jennifer Hudson may be lined up to perform.
But senior White House officials tell ABC News the party would go forward only if the deficit negotiations and deadline to raise the debt limit ceiling have been resolved.
***
The White House seems confident a deal will be made because if one isn’t, we all know that would be a catastrophe of epic proportions – or at least as bad as the Republicans’ short term deal.
… is there any policy reason why Obama won’t agree to a short-term deal or is this really as horribly cynical as it looks — that he simply refuses to do anything that might complicate his reelection campaign, even if that means a default by the United States? Jake Tapper pressed Carney about that in today’s briefing — which is worse, default or a short-term deal? — and Carney actually said, no joke, “Both are bad; I can’t choose which is worse for you.”
***
…there’s no reason to think Debt Ceiling II would necessarily be bloodier than Debt Ceiling I. The only sure thing is that it would take away time from Obama to fundraise and campaign, which, I guess, is worth gambling the full faith and credit of the U.S. government on.
Verum Serum, Ace, and Charles Krauthammer have been making the same case.
See if you can detect a note of disgust in Charles Krauthammer’s tone as he asks, what in the heck took Obama so long:
President Barack Obama is demanding a big long-term budget deal. He won’t sign anything less, he warns, asking, “If not now, when?”
How about last December, when he ignored his own debt commission’s recommendations? How about February, when he presented a budget that increases debt by $10 trillion over the next decade? How about April, when he sought a debt-ceiling increase with zero debt reduction attached?
All of a sudden he’s a born-again budget balancer prepared to bravely take on his party by making deep cuts in entitlements. Really? Name one. He’s been saying forever that he’s prepared to discuss, engage, converse about entitlement cuts. But never once has he publicly proposed a single structural change to any entitlement.
Hasn’t the White House leaked that he’s prepared to raise the Medicare age or change the cost-of-living calculation?
Anonymous talk is cheap. Leaks are designed to manipulate. Offers are floated and disappear.
Say it, Mr. President. Give us one single structural change in entitlements. In public.
As part of the pose as the forward-looking grown-up rising above all the others who play politics, Obama insists upon a long-term deal. And what is Obama’s definition of long-term? Surprise: An agreement that gets him past Nov. 6, 2012.
Nothing could be more political. It’s like his Afghan surge wind-down date. September 2012 has no relation to any military reality on the ground. It is designed solely to position Obama favorably going into the last weeks of his re-election campaign.
***
A long-term deal or nothing? The Republican House should immediately pass a short-term debt-ceiling hike of $500 billion containing $500 billion in budget cuts. That would give us about five months to work on something larger.
The fat-cat tax breaks (those corporate jets) that Obama’s talking points endlessly recycle? Republicans should call for urgent negotiations on tax reform along the lines of Simpson-Bowles that, in one option, strips out annually $1.1 trillion of deductions, credits and loopholes while lowering tax rates across the board to a top rate of 23 percent.
The president says he wants tax reform, doesn’t he? Well, Mr. President, here are five months to do so.
Dare him to veto — or the Democratic Senate to block — a short-term debt-limit increase.
This is certainly better than the McConnell plan, which would simply throw debt reduction back to the president. But if the House cannot do Plan A, McConnell is the fallback Plan B.
The narcissist-in-chief has so much confidence in his own communication skills, he told (threatened?) Cantor that he would take his case to the American people before he stomped out of that meeting, last night.
And today, a creepily sycophantic Nancy Pelosi claimed with a straight face, that “nobody can out-debate” Barack Obama. Which is a pretty amazing thing to say because he couldn’t even out-debate a 73 year old RINO has-been in 2008.
Apparently, Pelosi is unaware that a much sharper mind recently challenged Obama to a debate on the budget.
Will it happen? The MBM ignored Ryan’s challenge, last week.
As Ace says: Gotta keep Precious safe from discomfit.
Meanwhile….
Dems: If Debt Ceiling Deal Isn’t Reached By Friday, “We’ll Have No Choice But Some Other Option”…
Well, that other option had better not include some kind of 14th Amendment end-run around congress because the CRS says that won’t fly:
The non-partisan Congressional Research Service has issued a new report saying that if Congress refuses to raise the government’s borrowing limit, the White House cannot do so unilaterally under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
“It does not appear that the executive has the constitutional authority to borrow funds, even if they are for the express purpose of preventing a default on the debt,” said CRS, which is the non-partisan advisory research arm of Congress.
Some commenters have argued that the 14th Amendment means the government cannot suspend payments and that President Obama can act to keep funding government even without congressional authorization.
Clause four of the amendment, which was passed after the end of the Civil War, reads: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payments of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
CRS’s experts said that language doesn’t convey any new powers on the president to circumvent Congress when it comes to borrowing or spending.
Obama plans to “take his case to the American people”, tomorrow morning.
Cahn’t wait.
UPDATE:
Ed Morrissey made Obama’s temper tantrum Wednesday, the Obamateurism of the Day:
Yesterday, Barack Obama issued one of the emptiest political threat in modern American history when he stomped out of the debt-ceiling negotiations yesterdayin a fit of pique:
“Eric, don’t call my bluff. I’m going to the American people with this.”
Really? Then Obama will be in for a very rude awakening when he finally meets the American people:
Seriously, the American people have had it with this corrupt, lying, pompous windbag.
UPDATE II:
Erick Erickson tweets that this epic post of his is being passed around in a closed door meeting with House Republicans:
Linked by Michelle Malkin in Buzzworthy, Hillary Is 44, and Doug Ross, Larwyn’s Links, thanks!
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