In The Age Of Obama, The Rich Are Frowned Upon

But it wasn’t always so.

As Obama heads to Osawatomie, Kansas to deliver his big class-warfare speech to a gymnasium full of high school kids, here’s a reminder of one rich man’s  “consideration of the white collar man”:

Sam Stone aka B. Virdot was an immigrant who came to America, the land of the free -  to escape religious persecution in Europe.

See also:

Modern-day B. Virdots to help Stark folks in need:

The giving spirit of B. Virdot lives again.

Three Stark County men have pledged to give $100 gifts — a total of $15,000 — to 150 families and individuals who have been hit especially hard by the economic times. They are patterning their generosity after a Canton businessman — known for decades only as B. Virdot — who in 1933 made gifts of $5 to 150 area families whose finances were strapped by the Great Depression.

And, as was the case with the man who inspired them, the trio of benefactors wishes to remain anonymous. The givers will be known to the recipients of their gifts by the revived name of B. Virdot.

“The Stone family is delighted that in another time of need there is another B. Virdot to reach out and help,” said Ted Gup, the former Canton resident who, in the recently published book “A Secret Gift,” revealed how he discovered about two years ago that B. Virdot was his grandfather, Sam Stone.

 

Fast and Furious News Round-Up: Cash-Walking Now?

I use “Fast and Furious” because Darrell Issa, Chairman of the Committee of Government Oversight and Reform prefers that media refer to it that way, rather  then the more general “gunwalker”.

But this criminal enterprise involves several agencies; Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Treasury, and State, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Border Patrol, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CID), and spans several states; Fast and Furious in Arizona,  two suspected operations in Texas (out of Houston and Dallas), Operation Castaway in Tampa,  allegations of “Gangwalker” in Indiana, and now “cashwalking” (yes”cashwalking”) to drug cartels in Mexico.

Because giving violent drug runners guns and military equipment apparently wasn’t good enough. We need to help them FUND their operations, too.

That’s right, hundreds of millions of dollars.

In a Dec. 5th letter to Holder, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) juxtaposed this scenario with the one used to justify Fast and Furious:

Apparently, this same goal of dismantling Mexican drug cartels motivated the Drug Enforcement Administration in aiding and abetting [the] same cartels in laundering millions of dollars in cash. In fact, the New York Times reports that agents needed to seek Department approval to launder amounts great than $10 million in any single operation. Officials quoted in the story said this $10 million cap was more of a guideline than a rule, noting it has apparently been waived on many occasions to “attract the interest of high value targets.”

This was part of Issa’s announcement that he’s broadening his investigation into Fast and Furious so as to include an investigation into cash-walker.

Added Issa:

These allegations, if true, raise further unsettling questions about a Department of Justice component engaging in a high-risk strategy with scant evidence of success. Specifically, they raise questions about “the [DEA’s] effectiveness in bringing down drug kingpins, underscore diplomatic concerns about Mexican sovereignty, and blur the line between surveillance and facilitating crime.”

Wow—if it’s really an infringement on sovereignty and a blurring of the lines between surveillance and facilitation, then it’s a lot like Fast and Furious for sure.  And that’s because it’s quite reminiscent of the way the ATF sold weapons which they wouldn’t allow their agents to follow and which crossed the U.S./Mexico border while the Mexican government was kept in the dark.

The bottom line: Holder’s D.O.J. is D.I.R.T.Y.

I don’t think the lines are blurred at all. It’s pretty damn clear to me that they were facilitating crime and mayhem. The question is, WHY? Besides the obvious ploy to blame the ensuing violence on American gun shops and take away gun rights. Yes, of course.

But there’s more to this than that.

Operation Castaway provided weapons to destabilize Central American countries and to help keep the cartel drug supply lines from Central and South America open. The unnamed gunwalking operations in Texas provided a steady flow of U.S. firearms to southern and central Mexico. Operation Fast and Furious provided the Sinaloa cartel more than 2,020 weapons in northern Mexico along the U.S. border. And to make sure the cartel wars didn’t get too one-sided, the State Department made sure the bloodthirsty Zetas were armed with American military equipment by selling them military hardware through a transparent front company.

Some of the Obama administration’s nefarious goals considered by Bob Owens at PJ Media:

1. Short-term: Increased illegal immigration from Mexico as people attempt to flee the increasing violence (allowing them to push the DREAM Act through, and “stacking the deck” in the next election via ACORN and SEIU);

2. Medium-term: Propaganda for tighter gun laws (possibly enacted by Executive Order, bypassing the Congress);

3. Long-term: Legalization of “recreational drugs,” helped by a “drug friendly” Mexican government, influenced by if not overtly controlled by the drug cartels.

And the ultimate goal?: Cloward-Piven:

Gunwalker purposefully increases social unrest (increased gun violence/destabilizing Mexico), with the possible result of overloading the U.S. public welfare system (more illegal aliens fleeing the violence in Mexico and Central America). Gunwalker’s perpetrators could then use that influx to create an insurmountable constituency of poor seeking handouts from the Democratic Party. The hope of the strategy is to force a system-wide collapse of the current system, and then to rebuild the government in a variant of the strongest socialist model they think the public will accept.

It sounds too devious. It appears to fit.

Take Operation Fast and Furious in Arizona, the two suspected operations in Texas, Operation Castaway in Tampa, and the newer allegations of “Gangwalker” in the Midwest — they make sense only in the larger context of a Cloward-Piven framework.

These operations could not possibly succeed at interdicting straw purchasers, smugglers, and cartel bosses. No one actually involved in law enforcement could possibly believe that such idiotic operations could work. But these operations are logical when viewed through the context of their implementation as tactical applications designed to support a Cloward-Piven strategy.

(It makes a whole lot more sense than, “they were trying to catch Mexican drug kingpins.”)

More gunwalking news courtesy of Sipsey Street Irregulars:

“Kingpin.” Now THIS is important, Mr. Issa. “Gunwalker: Justice Dept. Violated U.S. Laws Beyond Those Being Investigated.”

James K. Stinebower: “I know, because I was the principal drafter of some of the legislation.”

As we continue to watch the general uproar over the Operation Fast and Furious program, and specifically what Attorney General Holder knew and when he knew it, it needs to be noted that perjury is not the only apparent violation of law to have occurred.

I refer to the apparent violation of at least one (probably two) major U.S. laws by the Holder Justice Department. A few years ago, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701, the follow-on to the Trading with the Enemy Act) was expanded in order to criminalize any transactions between U.S. entities — to include departments and agencies of the U.S. government — and all foreign drug cartels.

***

A violation of any of the IEEPA sanctioning programs or the Kingpin Act carries stiff penalties, both criminal and civil, and potentially totaling decades in prison and tens of millions of dollars in fines. It is not necessary that an individual or governmental entity be shown to have “knowingly” violated any of these programs: it is illegal for any U.S. entity or individual to aid, abet, or materially assist — or in the case of Operation Fast and Furious, to facilitate others to aid, abet, or materially assist — designated drug traffickers. There are no exceptions within IEEPA programs for unlicensed U.S. law enforcement or intelligence agency operations.

Issa broadens DOJ investigation to include drug money laundering report

And this is interesting—

SSI Exclusive: “Sick to his stomach”??? Must have found his Phenergan. Melson email to Burke shoots his “What, me Gunwalker?” defense in the head.

Over the Fourth of July weekend earlier this year, Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson came in for a voluntary interview with staff members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He brought his own lawyer.

The reaction in the right-wing blogoshere was — Ooooh…he’s cooperating — turning against Holder because he was kept in the dark about these awful terrible gunwalking policies.  I was skeptical. Still am – but I’m not sure this is smoking gun proof that he knew more than he was letting on.

On July 5, Senator Charles Grassley sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder regarding Melson’s testimony, which included:

Acting Director Melson’s cooperation was extremely helpful to our investigation. He was candid in admitting mistakes that his agency made and described various ways he says that he tried to remedy the problems. According to Mr. Melson, it was not until after the public controversy that he personally reviewed hundreds of documents relating to the case, including wiretap applications and Reports of Investigation (ROIs). By his account, he was sick to his stomach when he obtained those documents and learned the full story. Mr. Melson said that he told the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) at the end of March that the Department needed to reexamine how it was responding to the requests for information from Congress.

***

According to Mr. Melson, he and ATF’s senior leadership team moved to reassign every manager involved in Fast and Furious, from the Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations down to the Group Supervisor, after learning the facts in those documents. Mr. Melson also said he was not allowed to communicate to Congress the reasons for the reassignments. He claimed that ATF’s senior leadership would have preferred to be more cooperative with our inquiry much earlier in the process.

However, he said that Justice Department officials directed them not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress. The result is that Congress only got the parts of the story that the Department wanted us to hear. If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively muzzled while the DOJ sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand.

***

“Effectively muzzled.” Hmmm.

Recall that US Attorney Dennis Burke was a hardliner in his input to the DOJ on the response letter to Senator Grassley that has now been “withdrawn.”

Among his comments:

Over the course of the letter being prepared, Burke vehemently argued the department should more vigorously deny the allegations.

“What is so offensive about this whole project is that Grassley’s staff, acting as willing stooges for the Gun Lobby, have attempted to distract from the incredible success in dismantling [southwest border] gun trafficking operations … but, instead, lobbing this reckless despicable accusation that ATF is complicit in the murder of a fellow federal law enforcement officer,” he wrote in a Feb. 4 email.

“Well said Dennis. Thank you!” Hoover replied.

However, guns found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder were eventually connected to the Fast and Furious operation.

Now we find out, thanks to an email provided to Sipsey Street, that Billy Hoover wasn’t the only ATF manager who thanked Dennis Burke for his hardline approach to the Grassley letter.

From: Melson, Kenneth E.
To: Burke, Dennis (USAAZ)
Sent: 2/3/2011 7:51:58 PM
Subject: Grassley

Dennis: I just got back from the Interpol meeting and wanted to thank you for your help on the Grassley response and for your work on Fast and Furious. Ken

Of course, he could still have been a dupe in the dark at that point. He claimed in his testimony that “it was not until after the public controversy that he personally reviewed hundreds of documents relating to the case…”  He could have expanded his knowledge exponentially in the ensuing weeks, and by “the end of March” have been so up to speed, he was recommending that the Department do a better job responding to the requests for information from Congress. It’s a stretch that the acting  head of the ATF would be this friggin’ clueless, but I guess it’s possible.

And the very latest:

1. Committee is said to be ready for a document dump today, possibly emails from Dennis Burke to Holder and Napolitano, among others, that will blow those two Gunwalker conspirators out of their jobs.

2. Kevin O’Reilly, erstwhile State Department employee of Hillary’s, fresh from the desert clime of Iraq, is said to have retained his own attorney and either has, or soon will, make his statement before the committee investigators.

The Daily Caller: Sen. Kyl: ‘Country would be better off without Eric Holder’

Good morning Mr. Holder! Sleep well?

“There are a lot of reasons the country would be better off without Eric Holder as attorney general,” Kyl told TheDC. “Fast and Furious is just one of them.”

As the second-highest-ranking Republican senator, Kyl is by far the most prominent member of Congress to say Holder’s continuation as Attorney General isn’t good for the country. Kyl’s comment comes just a few days after Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney demanded Holder’s resignation during an interview with Fox News in New Hampshire on Saturday.

Kyl is also the third senator to make such scathing comments about Holder’s continuation as Attorney General, as Republican Sens. Johnny Isakson of Georgia and James Inhofe of Oklahoma have both demanded Holder’s resignation. Isakson and Kyl had both voted in favor of Holder’s confirmation as attorney general in 2009.

There are also 52 congressmen, four presidential candidates and two sitting governors demanding Holder step down immediately.

Breitbart TV: Congressman: Holder’s Handling Of Fast And Furious ‘Somewhere Between Deception And Flat-Out Lying’

Video: Anderson Cooper Skewers MSNBC Blob, Schultz,

Every single second of this epic smack-down of  MSNBC dope, Ed Schultz is golden.

Via Newsbusters:

As NewsBusters previously reported, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz last week actually suggested that CNN’s Anderson Cooper might have had something to do with him being named to GQ’s “The 25 Least Influential People Alive” list.

On Friday’s Anderson Cooper 360, the host nicely put the pathetic Schultz in his proper place – The RidicuList (video follows with transcript and absolutely no additional commentary necessary):

Near perfection.

I especially loved Anderson’s catty, repeated use of ” a guy named Ed Schultz”…and, “Now, let me be honest. I don’t really know who Ed Schultz is. I think I met him once in passing years ago, but I have never actually seen his show. I’m told he yells a lot, and I know he works at MSNBC. And I know he’s moved around a lot in various time slots. That is it.”

LOL.

It’s enough to make me forgive him for his obscene teabagging joke in May of 2009, for which he did almost immediately apologize, unlike the classless MSNBC trolls who use the slurs to this day.

Bonus video:

While I was searching for the above video on Youtube, I found this….bizarre clip….of Cooper getting into a laughing jag watching Justin Bieber get shot?  What is so funny about this?

My goodness, what brought that on?

Hat tip: Dana Loesch, Big Journalism

Monday-Catch-up:Too Much Going On!

Why am I having such a hard time focusing, today? Maybe I’m overwhelmed by the influx of tips in my inbox – maybe it’s the scrabble game I have going on Facebook – maybe it’s the recorder that’s sitting next to my computer, (the instrument – not recording device) beckoning me to play it – maybe it’s the fact that I’m putting off some online shopping that I need to do before it’s too late. Or it’s the laundry that I’m also putting off…

I give up. I’m doing a linkfest, and then I’m playing “When John Baptized By Jordan’s River” on the recorder.

***

The oped piece to read today is by Charles Krauthammer:  Mitt vs. Newt:

…Romney has profited from the temporary rise and spontaneous combustion of Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain. No exertion required on Romney’s part.

Enter Gingrich, the current vessel for anti-Romney forces — and likely the final one. Gingrich’s obvious weakness is a history of flip-flops, zigzags and mind changes even more extensive than Romney’s — on climate change, the health-care mandate, cap-and-trade, Libya, the Ryan Medicare plan, etc.

The list is long. But what distinguishes Gingrich from Romney — and mitigates these heresies in the eyes of conservatives — is that he authored a historic conservative triumph: the 1994 Republican takeover of the House after 40 years of Democratic control.

Which means that Gingrich’s apostasies are seen as deviations from his conservative core — while Romney’s flip-flops are seen as deviations from . . . nothing. Romney has no signature achievement, legislation or manifesto that identifies him as a core conservative.

Read it all – - you may not like his conclusion, but I challenge you to tell me where he’s wrong. I’m resigning myself to the inevitability.

***

Every time I see a  Rince Priebus interview, I think, “Eh – could have been better”.

I had the same reaction with his Sunday appearance on MSNBC’s Meet The Press, but I have to admit he’s hitting all the right notes when he says, “Obama “Has Been A Disaster For This Country”:

I just wish he didn’t make it look so obvious that he’s operating out of the Republican playbook, page by page….

A MUST READ at Maggie’s Notebook: The Other Pennsylvania Child Molestation Story: Democrat Donor Pedophile Ed Savitz Story Told by Victim Greg Bucceroni

Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is tied up in this filth, too.

***

Here’s how Nancy Pelosi thanks Newt Gingrich for sitting on that stupid couch with her: Pelosi: I’ve Got Dirt on Gingrich.

When “the time is right” she’s gonna unleash, she tells TPM.  How quaint. As we all know, there’s never been a more ethical Speaker than Nancy Pelousy.

The Right Scoop: Newt fires back at Pelosi: Bring it on! :

First of all I’d like to thank Speaker Pelosi for what I regard as an early Christmas gift. If she’s suggesting she’s gonna use material she developed while she was on the ethics committee, that is a fundamental violation of the rules of the House and I would hope members would immediately file charges against her the second she does it.

***

Noisy Room, never ones to over react to events, are saying…Apocalypse Nowish. Looking at recent events in this country and around the world it’s hard not to agree.

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I wanted to throw this out there because there has been so much handwringing about the McCain-Levin amendment in the otherwise unremarkable  defense-authorization bill currently under congressional consideration.

Andrew McCarthy tries to set the record straight at NRO:

Claiming the “constitutionalist” mantle, Senator Paul is currently crusading against the concept of indefinite detention for enemy combatants under the laws of war. It is a deprivation, he claims, of the Constitution’s guarantee of due process. And once the government succeeds in rolling back such guarantees, he insists, they are never restored.

As a matter of constitutional law and of history, this is nonsense on stilts. The framers would have been appalled by Paul’s premise that the Constitution endows alien enemy combatants with the due-process rights of American citizens, particularly combatants who are detained outside the United States, where the writ of neither federal nor state judges runs. The only thing the framers might have found more appalling is the notion that the Constitution licenses lawfare — i.e., that it permits the American people’s courts (which, other than the Supreme Court, are creatures of statute not required by the Constitution) to be used by foreign enemies to put on trial the armed forces of the American people over the manner in which they conduct wartime combat operations that have been authorized by the American people’s representatives (indeed, overwhelmingly authorized, because after almost 3,000 of us were slaughtered on 9/11, the public broadly demanded that the enemy be subdued).

Paul is attacking the McCain-Levin amendment as if it broke new ground. But the amendment only reaffirms what the Constitution has always provided: Congress has the power to authorize combat operations against foreign enemies, and when it does so, the law of war governs those operations — except to the extent Congress modifies that venerable corpus. Under the law of war, enemy combatants may be detained indefinitely, which is to say, until either (a) hostilities have concluded, or (b) Congress withdraws the authorization of military force, effectively returning us to peacetime conditions.

***

Chris Friend at The Daily Times: Made in America not as simple as it sounds

In the latest segment, Sawyer states that the average American family will spend $700 this Christmas season, and that if each just spent $64 on American-made goods, over 200,000 jobs would be created.

If that’s the recipe for success, then why stop at just $64? Well, ABC thought of that. Reporting that total Christmas spending would total more than $465 billion, it stated, “..if that money was spent entirely on U.S.-made products, it would create 4.6 million jobs.” Great idea, if you’re playing make-believe. But in the real world, things don’t work that way.

***

Herman Cain at North Star Writer Group: Brokenhearted, but not broken:

You’re not defeated as long as you never stop fighting. And while my presidential campaign is suspended, it’s important to remember that my pursuit of the presidency was only a means to an end. As long as the end is achieved, victory will be at hand.

My incredible army of supporters, whom I can never thank enough for all they have done so far, have not labored in vain. The real prize is still ours for the taking.

I did not want to become president just for the sake of being president. I’m perfectly happy with what I’ve accomplished in my life and I don’t need the ego boost. Rather, I sought the presidency because our nation has some big problems to deal with, and it’s clear that our political class has neither the will nor the ability to solve them.

For that very reason, I was not surprised that I was viciously attacked once I rose in the polls. I was surprised by the nature of the attacks. Me, a womanizer? I would never have thought they’d come up with that one. But I knew the establishment would not like the idea of my success, because I will not get along by going along like so many do. I will not kick the can down the road to the next generation of leaders, because our problems are serious and they need to be solved now.

That threatens people who know there may be a political price to pay for enacting solutions that will work, and would rather wait things out and let someone else take the heat. That would not have been possible during a Cain presidency.

Keep reading…

I feel bad for him. We may never know how much truth there was to any of the stories. But I know I always got a good vibe from him, if that means anything at all.

See also: RS McCain: They Don’t Pay Extra for Tears:

All the pundits who low-rated Cain’s presidential prospects never seemed to see what Foley and I and so many other Cainiacs saw. For all his gaffes and blunders, for all the ineptitude of his campaign staff, Cain had something special that appealed to ordinary Americans sick of the cynical rhetoric of establishment politicians. Once the Cain Train gained momentum, pundits like Karl Rove seemed to find it personally offensive that an inexperienced outsider running an amateur campaign could win the enthusiastic support of millions. Two polls in October showed 30 percent of Republican voters ready to vote for Cain. By Oct. 20, despite all his mistakes and all the criticism from naysayers, the amateur outsider moved ahead of establishment favorite Mitt Romney in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls. And it was just about then that reporters began contacting the campaign’s recently hired communications director, J.D. Gordon, to ask about accusations of sexual harassment made more than a dozen years earlier during Cain’s tenure at the National Restaurant Association. Were the accusations true? We still don’t know and may never know. But to borrow Shakespeare’s famous phrase from Marc Antony’s funeral oration for Caesar, “If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously hath Herman Cain answer’d it.”

***

Weekly Standard: Climategate (Part II):

How many of you are aware that the latest batch of ClimateGate emails are even more damaging to “the cause” than the first? Global warming hysteria is finally getting its just rewards – getting relegated to the ash-heap of history where it always belonged.

Before anyone had time to get very far into this vast archive, the climate campaigners were ready with their critical review: Nothing worth seeing here. Out of context! Cherry picking! “This is just trivia, it’s a diversion,” climate researcher Joel Smith told Politico. On the other side, Anthony Watts, proprietor of the invaluable WattsUpWithThat.com skeptic website, had the kind of memorable line fit for a movie poster. With a hat tip to the famous Seinfeld episode, Watts wrote: “They’re real, and they’re spectacular!” An extended review of this massive new cache will take months and could easily require a book-length treatment. But reading even a few dozen of the newly leaked emails makes clear that Watts and other longtime critics of the climate cabal are going to be vindicated.

Don’t worry, the gullible simps who latched onto the AGW scare-mongering from 1995-2011 will be talked into some other horror that needs big government solutions in no time at all.

***

Ever notice how Ace’s headlines almost tell the whole story:

Economic Reportage Under Bush: Don’t Fall For Illusory Reductions in Unemployment Rate; That’s Just People Leaving the Workforce In Frustrated Agony
Economic Reportage Under Obama: Ka-Effing-Ching!, Baby!

(See David Gregory’s interview of Rince Priebus, above, for example.)

Jesse Jackson: I Am Disgusted That Christmas Is Currently A Celebration of Consumerism, With People Forgetting The Real Reason For The Season, Which Is, Of Course, Hardcore Leftist Class Warfare Political Agitation

I mean that pretty much covers it, doesn’t it? There’s almost no need to go on. But please, do – more LOLs at the links.

Jeremy Lott of The American Spectator obviously on the wrong email list: You’re Starting to Creep Me Out, First Family.

Senator Grassley Offers Sneak Preview Of December 8th House Judiciary Committee Hearing On Senate Floor

Via Sipsey Street Irregulars, Ben Barrack comments:

Consider this to be a 10 minute appetizer for the December 8th House Judiciary Committee hearing at which Attorney General Eric Holder will be grilled by the likes of Darrell Issa and other congressmen. Here, Grassley raises very serious and legitimate questions that are certain to be asked of Holder. In sworn testimony in front of various committees, both Holder and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano allege that they were not made aware of Fast and Furious until February of 2011, despite the fact that Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was murdered on December 15, 2010.

Senator Grassley  wants to know why Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano didn’t know for months about the connection between Fast and Furious and the death of Agent Brian Terry.

 

Republican Senators Need to Correct an Error and Jump on The Eric Holder Resignation Bandwagon

When Eric Holder was confirmed in January of 2009 with the support of 19 Republican Senators, I was sick to my stomach. Like the election of Barack Obama, it was a sad day for freedom, and the rule of law in America.

Senator Hatch, Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee while Holder was the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia under Clinton, knew Holder from his dealings with him in the nineties.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), who chaired the panel for a decade beginning in 1995, told The Hill that he will support Holder.

“I intend to,” said Hatch.

His decision could undermine GOP efforts to stall or block the confirmation. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said Friday that Holder would be the only Cabinet nominee to face a tough confirmation fight.

Hatch said that Republicans should try to strike a cooperative tone with President-elect Obama during the first days of his administration.

“I start with the premise that the president deserves the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think politics should be played with the attorney general,” he said.

“I like Barack Obama and want to help him if I can.”

Hindsight is everything, of course – but there are two border agents and about 200 Mexican citizens who would be alive, today, if Hatch had not given the President the “benefit of the doubt” on this one.

Senators Hatch and Grassley, both yay votes, should have known better. They KNEW Holder was a liar and an obstructionist. They KNEW he couldn’t be trusted.

A long piece in The American Thinker by Ronald Kolb, The Ethics of Eric Holder, lays it all out.

When Attorney General Eric Holder recently testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his role in the Fast and Furious operation, where 2,000 rifles were deliberately “walked” from the United States into Mexico, his answers at times seemed incredible and stretched the limits of believability.

A few months earlier, on May the third, Holder had testified before the House that he had only recently learned of the deadly and disastrous operation.

But a series of memos was uncovered by CBS News last October showing that during 2010, Holder had received at least five different notices concerning Fast and Furious from Michael Walther, the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center.  He also received another memo from Assistant Attorney General (and long-time associate) Lanny Breuer.

But at the recent hearing, Holder stated three times that he had learned of Fast and Furious only earlier this year, after the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona.  Five times Holder testified that he never saw any of the damning memos.

Senator John Cornyn from Texas queried Holder.  ”Those are memos with your name on it, addressed to you, referring to the Fast and Furious operation.  Are you just saying you didn’t read them?”

“I didn’t receive them,” answered Holder.  ”They are reviewed by my staff and a determination made as to what ought to be brought to my attention.”

Cornyn then asked Holder if he had apologized to Brian Terry’s family.  The exchange that followed showed a coldness and lack of sensitivity that was truly stunning.Holder: I have not apologized to them, but I certainly regret what happened.

 Cornyn: Have you even talked to them?

 Holder: I have not.

***

The two events that Eric Holder is most defined by before becoming attorney general were his key roles while in the Clinton administration in obtaining freedom for members of the Puerto Rican nationalist terrorist group known as the FALN (also known as the Armed Forces of National Liberation).  Holder would later follow that by facilitating a pardon for fugitive billionaire Marc Rich.

In looking back at both of those controversies, the similarities to Fast and Furious now seem eerie.  Holder had proclaimed sympathy for the FALN victims, but only after the terrorists had been released.  He also proclaimed ignorance of both Mr. Rich and the case against him, even though the facts clearly suggest otherwise.

The FALN had conducted a deadly bombing campaign in numerous cities around America during the 1970s and ’80s, setting off nearly 140 bombs that killed six and injured more than 80.  Their most notorious act was the bombing of Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan in 1975, which killed four and injured 60 others, some of them seriously.

What slowed the FALN’s reign of terror was the arrest and incarceration of nearly all of the group’s members during the early eighties.  When Eric Holder arrived as deputy attorney general in Janet Reno’s Justice Department in 1997, he quickly took up the cause of freeing the FALN, and it became a near-obsession.

The question of why he was obsessed with freeing the FALN terrorists remains a mystery, one not explored in the lengthy American Thinker article. It should be noted that FALN was a Marxist-Leninist group whose overriding mission was to secure Puerto Rico’s political independence from the United States.

In order to make the offer (of clemency) more palatable to the public, Eric Holder had concocted a plan to have the terrorists express remorse for their actions.  But none of them would accept, and the situation went from bad to worse.  As the days passed and criticism continued, pressure from the Clinton administration intensified for the terrorists to accept the offer.

Finally, on September 7 — a full four weeks after the offer had first been made — all but one member each from the FALN and the Macheteros decided to accept.  Three days later, eleven FALN members were freed from numerous federal prisons around the country.  Within days, both the House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to condemn the action.

On January 15, 2009, Senator Grassley (who ended up voting for his confirmation!?) played a tape for Holder showing two of the the “remorseful” freed terrorists constructing bombs:

Senator Grassley began his questioning after the lunch recess.  The hearing room was darkened, and the now-infamous FBI surveillance tape showing now-freed FALN members Edwin Cortez and Alejandrina Torres constructing bombs was shown.

When the lights went back up, Holder told Grassley that “I’ve not seen that video before.”

Moments later, he changed his story, telling Grassley that “I think I’ve seen it in some news accounts in the recent past, like, in the last week or so, something like that.”

Holder then told Grassley that he wasn’t aware of any threats by the FALN towards Judge Thomas McMillen at their sentencing in Chicago in 1981.  For example, FALN member Carmen Valentine told McMillen that “you are lucky we cannot take you right now.”

Holder then told Grassley that “I’m not sure I ever described them as non-violent…it’s a difference between — let’s hypothetically say — murder and attempted murder.”

Did anyone bother to ask why he was obsessed with freeing the terrorists to begin with? As  Kolb recounts in the American Thinker piece, his involvement in the pardons was extensive, but his habit of citing executive privilege whenever his role was brought up, made it difficult for investigators discover the truth.

Back on October 20, 1999, Holder appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions but whenever questions focused on his own role, he  “would either refer to executive privilege — which he did 40 times — or shift the blame for the clemency offer to Mr. Clinton — which he did 15 times.”

 The most egregious and bizarre claims of executive privilege came in exchanges with Senator — and Judiciary Chairman — Orrin Hatch.  The 1996 report from Margaret Love that had recommended against clemency was accidentally released to the committee, and Hatch asked Holder to comment on it.

Holder: The letter should not have been produced. It seems to me that the information contained in the letter is clearly within the bounds of executive privilege.

Hatch: Seriously?

Holder: Excuse me?

Hatch: Seriously, you can’t really believe that.

Holder: Oh, absolutely.

Hatch: Well, we have a copy of the letter. And you are aware that she recommended against clemency.

Holder: I really would not comment on what recommendations were made by the pardon attorney. As I said, I think that falls well within the bounds of executive privilege.

Later, Hatch asked Holder about the 1999 report that he and Roger Adams prepared that effectively replaced the 1996 Love report that recommended against clemency.

Hatch: Did the second report contain a recommendation of whether the president should or should not grant clemency?

Holder: Mr. Chairman, with respect to those questions, it seems to me the answers to those questions are prohibited by the assertion of privilege of the…

Hatch: How? Tell me. I mean, where in the law do you find that?

It should be noted that Holder had fired Love after she’d made that recommendation against clemency. Read the entire American  Thinker piece which also includes the gory details of the Marc Rich pardon – an example of pure corruption – if ever there was one. I’ve barely brushed the surface, here.

Not dealt with was Holder’s role in the heinous and illegal 2000 seizure of Cuban refuge,  Elian Gonzalez,  away from loving relatives in Florida – and tragically returned  to his  Communist father in Cuba.

Newsbusters, on November 20, 2008 as Holder was being considered for Atty Gen,  reported:

As the April 23, 2000 edition of the Media Research Center’s CyberAlert noted at the time, Andrew Napolitano of Fox News charged that the early-Saturday seizure of the then 6 year-old Gonzalez from those who were taking care of him flagrantly disobeyed a ruling of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In response to a question from Fox News anchor Jeff Asman, Napolitano said the following (bolds are mine throughout this post):

The order issued by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals four days ago …. said once the INS chooses the guardian, and the INS chose Lazaro Gonzalez (Elian’s paternal great uncle — Ed.) to be the guardian, and an application for asylum has been made by the guardian, the INS can not change the guardian and that’s exactly what they did here.”

Asman: “So is this executive overreach?”

Napolitano: “This is more than executive overreach. This is contempt of the circuit court of appeals order. This is a high class kidnapping is what it is, sanctioned by no law, sanctioned by no judge…”

In an interview later that morning, Napolitano left Holder speechless (also available in the fourth item at this link):

Napolitano: Tell me, Mr. Holder, why did you not get a court order authorizing you to go in and get the boy?

Holder: Because we didn’t need a court order. INS can do this on its own.

Napolitano: You know that a court order would have given you the cloak of respectability to have seized the boy.

Holder: We didn’t need an order.

Napolitano: Then why did you ask the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for such an order if you didn’t need one?

Holder: [Silence]

Napolitano: The fact is, for the first time in history you have taken a child from his residence at gunpoint to enforce your custody position, even though you did not have an order authorizing it.

Earlier in that interview, as noted in a different CyberAlert item on the same day, Holder showed that he wouldn’t admit the truth, even when in plain sight:

Napolitano: When is the last time a boy, a child,

When Attorney General Eric Holder recently testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his role in the Fast and Furious operation, where 2,000 rifles were deliberately “walked” from the United States into Mexico, his answers at times seemed incredible and stretched the limits of believability.

A few months earlier, on May the third, Holder had testified before the House that he had only recently learned of the deadly and disastrous operation.

Holder: “He was not taken at the point of a gun.”

Napolitano: “We have a photograph showing he was taken at the point of a gun.”

Holder: “They were armed agents who went in there who acted very sensitively…”

Here is the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo taken by Alan Diaz of the Associated Press depicting how Elian Gonzalez was “was not taken at the point of a gun” :

Elian, today:

April 5, 2010 – Ten years after his kidnapping and forced return to Cuba, Elian González is now a member of the army that keeps in place the military dictatorship from which his own mother tried to escape.

Elian’s mother gave her life to make sure that Elian was able to grow in a free country, where he was free to study, express his opinions without going to jail, work for whoever he wanted, start his own business if he chose to do that, in other words, live like a free man.

After 5 years of indoctrination, the brainwashed youth told the CBS 60 Minutes interviewer the obvious lie that ‘he never had a good moment in Miami.’

Mission accomplished, Eric Holder.

Tom Blumer at Newsbusters plaintively asked back in November 2008:

Someone should ask Barack Obama if he is at all bothered by Mr. Holder’s inability to even recognize when someone is being taken at gunpoint, and how, among all the possible Attorney General candidates out there, Mr. Holder was still deemed so deserving to be nominated as the nation’s highest law enforcement official.

What difference would it make?

As Ann Barnhardt succinctly notes; psychopaths ‘like Eric Holder, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and all the rest, feel nothing when they lie and thus do it almost constantly. Oaths are something that they laugh at as the domain of stupid religious rednecks. If we don’t acknowledge this plain, obvious truth and stop treating these people as if they are psychologically normal and honorable and presuming that they are honest and bound by any oath, then they will destroy all of us with their lies and deceit. So when we watch Corzine “testify” before the Senate committee, we MUST be wise enough and discerning enough to KNOW that he is lying every single time he says, “I don’t recall,” or “I had no knowledge of that.”‘

She may be a little too blunt for some people, but she’s absolutely correct.

It’s crucial for Republican Senators on the Judiciary Committee to understand this basic fact on December 8, when they pose another round of questions to the corrupt, pathological liar who should never have confirmed.

They must know by now that they’re not going to get any honest answers.  It’s time for more Senators and Congressmen to jump on the Eric Holder Resignation Bandwagon.

Hat tip Retired Geezer.

Video: Barack Obama ~ Workin’ Hard for the Folks

Granny Jan thinks Obama’s full of it. See if you agree:

SEE ALSO:

The Daily Mail: It must be nice being President… Obama to jet off to Hawaii for SEVENTEEN DAY Christmas vacation

Gateway Pundit: Obama: Congress Shouldn’t Go Home Until Payroll Tax Cut Is Extended… (I’ll Be In Hawaii)

One more (recommended by Granny Jan):

Joseph Curl in The Washington Times: CURL: Obama’s tin ear extends to sensibility:

Mr. Obama seems to have a tin sensibility. Maybe even a tin heart (unlike the “Wizard of Oz” Tin Man, who simply had no heart – but wait, by movie’s end, didn’t he already have a heart of gold?). Our president simply does whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and who cares about the visuals?

Mr. Obama has been on the golf course when U.S. soldiers were blown to bits by roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. President George W. Bush, perhaps America’s best golfing president, gave up the game so as not to be hitting mashie niblicks while America’s military men died overseas. Mr. Obama was infamously on the golf course even as the CIA was minutes away from taking out Osama bin Laden. (That’s why he got that back-row seat in the picture released by the White House – he just wasn’t a part of the mission.)

And now, with America reeling from an endless recession much of his making, Mr. Obama is heading off on a 17-day vacation in Hawaii. Seventeen days. Ask your friends, ask your friends to ask their friends: “Who’s taking a 17-day vacation this year?”

Your Sunday Hymn: People Look East

I sifted through quite a few choral versions Advent favorite, People Look East on YouTube before I came upon this excellent choir — and my search was done. This is the one:

Nicely done!

Conducted by Christopher Maxim at St Matthew’s, Bethnal Green, London, Dec. 2010.

Herman Cain Suspends Campaign (Video)

Via Atlanta AP:

Herman Cain announced today that he is  suspending his bid for the Republican presidential nomination to avoid news coverage that is hurtful to his family.

Cain’s announcement came five days after an Atlanta-area woman claimed she and Cain had an affair for more than a decade, a claim that followed several allegations of sexual harassment against the Georgia businessman. Cain, whose wife stood behind him on the stage, made the announcement before several hundred supporters gathered at what was to have been the opening of his national campaign headquarters.

Say he reassessed the impact the allegations (which he repeatedly denied) have had on his family and this was best for them. He wouldn’t be able to raise enough funds.

He says he won’t be “silenced and won’t be going away”.

Video via Newzar

RS McCain provides further analysis:

Cain will still be on the ballot in several states. He could, if he chose, resume the campaign at some future point, but in general, “suspend = quit.”

The good news? J.D. Gordon is now unemployed.

More good news? My “sources close to the campaign” can now speak on the record about who was responsible for screwing up.

Frankly, I think Cain himself, screwed up.

Saturday Movie Matinee: Rush Takes Manhattan

Rush Takes Manhattan: A Magical Night in New York:

#OWS tried to protest Rush? Who knew…

RUSH:  We had a great time in New York last night.  It was at Town Hall, which is just off Broadway.  Mine was the first sold-out Broadway show of the season.  I forget what the capacity of the place is.  It’s a beautiful place.  It is a stunningly beautiful place. During the day on Monday my security people called up and said, “Hey, the Occupy people have applied for a protest permit across the street.”  I said, “Okay,” and about ten minutes later, “The Occupy people have applied for an audio sound permit along with the protest permit,” meaning they wanted to have megaphones and a PA system to shout.  “Okay,” ’cause I’m not gonna hear any of it.  So they showed up, and I guess there were about ten of ‘em.  The original application for their permits said there would be a hundred of them, ten of them showed up.  (interruption)  Was it 15?  We had some people out there looking, 15 of them.

We had to delay the start of the show by a half hour because it was raining cats and dogs in New York, and the crowd arrived late, and I vowed not to start ’til everybody was seated.  It was supposed to be a 7:30 curtain, and I kicked off at about eight because the stragglers were coming in.  Heck, I had a little flight delay getting in because of the weather.  But it turned out fine because the 10 or 15 people that showed up, they got a shower.  It was the first time they probably had been clean in how many weeks?  You know, God works in magical, mysterious ways.  And one of them got in, one of them got in and walked right down the center aisle.  I was in the middle of the presentation.  It was a skinhead kind of guy, he walked in and security didn’t touch him.  He got within five feet of me.  So if you have any ideas of taking me out, folks, it can be done.  (laughing)
So this guy gets within five feet and he’s got a bunch of newspapers and he’s showing them. Finally security showed up and escorted him out, and they told me he was a little intoxicated when the whole thing was over.

Louder with Crowder: Miley CYRUS + Jimmy Fallon OMG!! (Bachmann’s Revenge):

Why did no one in Miley’s inner circle (her parents?) caution her against the idiotic, career-tainting, pro-occupy stance she took?

Via ReasonTV:  Remy: Missing You – The Incandescent Light Bulb Song:

Remy mourns the impending loss of his beloved incandescent light bulbs with a song set to familiar music.

Written and performed by Remy and produced by Meredith Bragg.

Scott Ott of PJTVgives you the latest news on the proposed payroll tax, Hillary Clinton’s bathing techniques and unemployment statistics on this PJ News Break.:

Pajamasmedia’s Bill Whittle, Afterburner: How To Steal Power:

Bill Whittle gives liberal America a lesson in the US Constitution. From the General Welfare clause to the Commerce Clause, Bill Whittle tells you how progressives misconstrue the Constitution to authorize unlimited government power. Have liberals like Obama destroyed the social compact? Find out.

Lee Doren, HowTheWorldWorks: 10 Months for 3 Escalators!?

Late Friday Fast and Furious Document Drop

Here we go, again – It’s an Obama administration tradition  – the late Friday doc drop.

CNN Reports:

About 1,400 pages that had been demanded by Capitol Hill investigators were sent to three key congressional committees in advance of what is expected to be a contentious hearing next Thursday when Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on the subject.

The documents lift the veil on conflicting views among Justice executives, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Arizona U.S. attorney’s office over whether and how to respond to allegations made in letters from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

Also today, the Justice Department  formally withdrew the February 4 letter  to Senator Grassley that denied that the ATF was walking guns:

Burke and ATF headquarters officials insisted the charge that agents “allowed the sale of weapons which were transported into Mexico is false.” He also insisted the “ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally.”

When those claims, included in a February 4 letter to Grassley, later proved to be wrong, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and later Holder were forced to apologize to a Senate committee and to Grassley in particular.

Burke resigned at the end of August, just days after testifying before a congressional committee.

Friday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the Justice Department “now formally withdraws the February 4 letter.” He said facts have come to light that indicate that the letter contains “inaccuracies.”

Yeah, no kidding.

Meanwhile AWR Hawkins at Big Government breaks some news:

To date Barack Obama, the dispenser of hope and change and the presiding officer over the least transparent presidency in history, has claimed he only learned about Fast and Furious earlier this year. However, with each new document dump Obama’s timeframe seems to be as inaccurate (or as purposely misleading) as Attorney General Eric Holder’s.

For example, just months after he took office it was evident he was focused on a Fast and Furious-like operation, ostensibly aimed at cutting down on gun trafficking on the southern border.  Thus, on March 24, 2009, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden made the following announcement:

The President has directed us to take action to fight [Mexican] cartels…and Attorney General Holder and I are taking several new and aggressive steps as part of the administration’s comprehensive plan.

And the following month, April 2009, he stood beside Mexican President Felipe Calderón and uttered words we now recognize as hypocritical and duplicitous at best:

I continue to believe that we can respect and honor the Second Amendment right in our Constitution — the rights of sportsmen and hunters and homeowners that want to keep their families safe — to lawfully bear arms, while dealing with assault weapons that, as we know here in Mexico, are used to fuel violence.

Fast forward one year, and White House logs show that then-Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler met personally with Obama four times between May 7 and May 19, 2010.

Just in case Grindler’s name doesn’t set off sirens in your mind, he had received an in depth briefing on Fast and Furious on March 12, 2010. (This briefing came via an ATF slideshow which I covered in a post for Big Government earlier this year.) During this same briefing, Grindler was provided with details concerning the number of times that a straw purchaser named Uriel Patino had purchased guns during Fast and Furious. (Patino’s total weapon acquisition numbered approx. 720 guns.)

By the way, Grindler is no longer a Deputy Attorney General. Rather, he is Holder’s Chief of Staff.

 ALSO:

Does this make sense?

The Note: Issa Backs Off GOP’s Call for Holder to Resign Over Gun Sales:

Despite the sometimes fierce accusations of misconduct that he has levied at Attorney General Eric Holder, Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said today he will not call on Holder to resign over the controversial Fast and Furious operation, at least for now.

“The fact is, it’s not about any one person. It’s not about Eric Holder,” Issa, a California Republican, told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington, D.C. “Eric Holder didn’t order, as far as we know or even suspect, he didn’t order this operation. He didn’t demand that they somehow do something this stupid.”

His aides said later that Issa’s no-resignation stance could change depending on what else his probe into the operation finds.

SEE ALSO:

Countdown To Holder’s Demise…

Pay attention.  In a week or so.  The hearing.  That – we are reaching the-the moment of truth on Holder.  What do we got now…almost 60 members – members of Congress calling for his resignation?  And that’s just publicly.  There are Democrats voicing the same uh…the same suggestion.  I’ll say it to you again – you keep asking me about it, every time we talk so one more time for you…Eric Holder will no longer be Attorney General of the United States.  That-that is – you’ll see that happen soon now.  Very soon.

Sipsey Street Irregulars: Traditional Friday Night DOJ Docu-Dump a whopping 1400 pages. Blaming Arizona. Don’t look at us, DOJ sez. “Willing stooges for the Gun Lobby.”

David Codrea: ATF memo describes operation designed to get guns to Mexico

Linked by Doug Ross in Larwyn’s Links, thanks!

Video: Obama, The Anti-Israel President

Via The Right Scoop, this powerful video from David Horowitz’s Freedom Center, makes the case pretty convincingly:

Much of what’s in this documentary you probably know if you’ve been paying attention, but it’s the big picture that becomes evident as they connect the dots that is absolutely frightening:

The top YouTube comment says: “Not just Anti-Israel, obama is an Anti-American president too!”

Good point.

God Help The USA and Israel:

Hat tip: Brian B.

Video: Professor Teaches “Everyone Wins A Trophy Generation” Econ 101

Would that there were more economics professors like Jack Chambliss of Valencia College. The good professor starts off his class each semester by making students write an essay about the American Dream. As part of the assignment students are asked to answer  the following question: What do you want the federal government to do to help you achieve that dream?

As he surveys the results, Neal Boortz calls them “The Gimme Generation”:

The results may, sadly, not be all that surprising.

About 10% of students said that they wanted the federal government to leave them alone and not tax them too much. These must be the minority of students who went to private schools or were home schooled. The vast majority, 80%, of the students said that the federal government should provide them with some form of free college tuition, free healthcare, a job, money for a house, money for retirement or money to spend. How did they plan to acquire that money? Easy – tax the rich.

The professor blamed the students’ ignorance on the educational system, but also on the class warfare rhetoric espoused by the President which some say has been ‘sowing class envy and social unrest’ and ‘cleaving a widening gulf… that is at once counterproductive and freighted with dangerous historical precedents. And it is an approach to governing that owes more to desperate demagoguery than your Administration should feel comfortable with.

But that is how hard leftists like Obama and his former “Green Czar”, Van Jones push their version of “The American Dream”.  Back in February, Jones wrote in The Huffington Post  his vision for America:

‘American Dream’ Movement Rooted in a Deeper Patriotism

That is an important moment and concept. But the notion of “negative liberty” (“don’t tread on me!”) is only one principle among many that make our country great. Other equally vital American values and ideals (like justice, opportunity, fairness and democracy) have gone largely undefended and unheralded, in this recent crisis. That ends — now. Our rising movement should stand for the full suite of American values and principles.

Number one on his agenda: “Increase revenue for America’s government sensibly by making Wall Street and the super-rich pay their fair share.”

Lefties like Van Jones, and Obama hate the Constitution because they view it as a charter of “negative liberties.” Although Jones glosses over the truth with platitudes he knows everyone agrees with, “justice, opportunity, fairness and democracy”, what the Communist left really wants is a guarantee of  “positive liberties”, or the “redistributive change” which  Obama once famously said the federal government or the state government must do on our behalves. To make their ideas more palatable, they paint them in patriotic language, as if being a totally dependent government funded leech is somehow an “American value”.

That’s the logical end result of Obama and Van Jones’ “positive liberties”:  “Somebody needs to pay for all of my children. Somebody needs to be held accountable…and they need to pay.”

How different is Angel Adams from the pathetic skull full of mush in Professor Chambliss’s sophomore Econ class who said: “As human beings we are really not responsible for our own acts, and so we need government to control those who don’t care about others.”

The “Everyone Wins a Trophy Generation” thinks “fairness” is all about  knocking people down who have more than they do.   Adam Corolla called the occupy movement,  the first wave of participation trophy “a$$holes” –  a bunch of self entitled monsters who think the world owes them a living. They leave the  little snow-globe lives in which they grew up,  find themselves not succeeding, and  instead of looking in the mirror and asking why they’re not doing better, they say, “hey man…what do you need all that sh*t for?”

At Big Government, John Nolte put it this way:

Occupy is all about greed, self-actualization, and narcissism. The fastest and easiest way to feel superior is to assume the role of a victim … because a victim is always superior to his or her oppressors.

Occupy is also an army the left and Alinksy-style community organizers like Barack Obama have been breeding for decades. The formula is simple: feed enough self-esteem to those who don’t deserve it and you create an entire generation of entitled crybabies desperate to direct the frustration of their unfulfilled lives at whomever.

Not only is this mindset of entitlement unhealthy for the country as a whole, it’s unhealthy for the individual, as psychoanalyst, Karen Ruskin PSY.D noted on The O’Reilly Factor not too long ago. She made the case that because the Occupy Wall Street protesters felt “a lack of  self empowerment”, they were mentally unstable and “on the road to depression.” Occupiers want the government to take care of them, or as O’Reilly said, “they want your stuff”. According to Ruskin,  that mindset is “awful for one’s mental health, wellness and well-being.”

There needs to be major change in the K-12 curriculum that has been breeding this toxic, destructive, self-entitled mentality. And by God, (this has been one of my pet peeves for at least 20 years) stop giving trophies to kids who haven’t earned them!

House Committee On Oversight and Reform Investigates HHS For Discriminating Against Catholic Church (Video)

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing, Thursday, Dec 1,  to examine the Department of Health and Human Services’ recent activities related to the 2011 National Human Trafficking Victim Assistance Program.

LifeNews reported:

A House committee held a hearing today on the decision by the Obama administration to deny to the nation’s Catholic bishops a grant for a program helping sex trafficking victims because it would not refer for abortions.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held the hearing on the administration’s decision not to renew funding for United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) program to assist human trafficking victims.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had previously received a five-year $19 million grant to help victims of sex trafficking during the administration of pro-life President George W. Bush. Sensitive to how women are exploited in the sex industry, the Catholic bishops prohibit any subcontractors from using the funds to pay for or promote abortions. Instead, the Catholic bishops provide comprehensive case management services to survivors including medical and mental health services.

While the Obama administration extended the contract briefly in March, the bishops were recently notified that it would not be renewed. Instead, Obama officials awarded the grant to three other groups (Tapestri of Atlanta, Heartland Human Care Services of Chicago and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants of Washington) — even though the bishops have helped more than 2,700 victims with the funding.

During the hearing, committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, said the decision violated the Obama administration’s “pledge to be the most transparent in history.”

Issa said at the beginning of the hearing, “As we attempt to understand the decision making process used to award these grants -  a process that from the outside observer’s perspective appears to be inexcusably politically altered…”

…”the most experienced and top rated national applicant (the Bishops)  was  not selected for the award. Other organizations including ones that submitted much lower rated proposals were somehow funded. The process was delayed for months while the agency struggled to find ways, in our opinion, to inject a new criteria to alter the funding process. That funding process was not as it was reported by HHS a stipulation or requirement – just the opposite.”

He noted, “a political appointee – unconfirmed  — effectively a tzar — interjected himself and made a decision that changed the outcome of this grant that otherwise would have been made by career civil service employees.”

Here is the entire 3-plus hour hearing:

Hat tip: Gateway Pundit

More Newtmentum: Rasmussen National GOP Poll: Gingrich 38% Romney 17%

Latest from Rasmussen: National GOP Poll: Gingrich 38% Romney 17:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has surged to the largest national lead held by any candidate so far in the race for the Republican Presidential Nomination.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters finds Gingrich on top with 38% of the vote. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is a distant second at 17%. No other candidate reaches double-digits.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Gingrich is also doing exceedingly well in other polls, via Ace: ARG Poll Has Florida At 19% Romney, 50% Gingrich

SEE ALSO:

Smart move:

Weasel Zippers: Gingrich Instructs Team Not to Attack Fellow GOP Candidates After Word Romney About To Go On The Offensive…

Smart move if you ask me, Bachmann killed her campaign (and made a fool of herself in the process) when she went nuts on Perry, Romney also went negative against him and it further alienated himself from the base. Newt’s invoking Reagan’s 11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”

Ace: Romney Campaign Unprepared For Gingrich; Still Fretting Perry (Though Honestly, They Really Shouldn’t Be)

Mitt Romney’s campaign has been caught flat-footed by Gingrich’s super surge, which is really not a reason to go all Nelson Muntz on them, because it really was a pretty unexpected event.

Verum Serum: Gingrich Camp Responds to VS Freddie Mac Story:

From the WSJ:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich touted the virtues of Freddie Mac’s business model in an interview he conducted with the company in April, 2007, remarks that appear at odds with the candidate’s recent statements that he had warned the company of impending financial disaster.

[...]

A spokesman for Mr. Gingrich, Joe DeSantis, said the interview showed Mr. Gingrich arguing for improved regulation of Freddie Mac and its larger cousin, Fannie Mae. He said the interview “directly contradicts the erroneous reports” that Mr. Gingrich was trying to stop reforms to Fannie and Freddie.

RCP: Romney Questions Gingrich’s “Conservative Credentials”

Breitbart TV: Newt: ‘I’m Going To Be The Nominee’