Flashback Video: Obama Sets The Tone

I made this video in April of 2010, inspired by the spate of left on right violence that had been occurring amidst the toxic, hyper-political atmosphere the president had created, pitting groups against each other as part of his strategy to ‘fundamentally transform America’. We had never had a president say such derisive things about fellow Americans and it was/is shocking and appalling. Even though no one in the MSM called him out on it, many of us on the right have been in a constant state of alarm and dismay. This is not how a United States president is supposed to sound.

Obama Sets the Tone foreshadowed what Kimberly Strassel wrote this very week in the Wall Street Journal:

As early as January 2010, Mr. Obama would, in his state of the union address, cast aspersions on the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, claiming that it “reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests” (read conservative groups).

The president derided “tea baggers.” Vice President Joe Biden compared them to “terrorists.” In more than a dozen speeches Mr. Obama raised the specter that these groups represented nefarious interests that were perverting elections. “Nobody knows who’s paying for these ads,” he warned. “We don’t know where this money is coming from,” he intoned.

In case the IRS missed his point, he raised the threat of illegality: “All around this country there are groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, who are running millions of dollars of ads against Democratic candidates . . . And they don’t have to say who exactly the Americans for Prosperity are. You don’t know if it’s a foreign-controlled corporation.”

Short of directly asking federal agencies to investigate these groups, this is as close as it gets. Especially as top congressional Democrats were putting in their own versions of phone calls, sending letters to the IRS that accused it of having “failed to address” the “problem” of groups that were “improperly engaged” in campaigns. Because guess who controls that “independent” agency’s budget?

The IRS is easy to demonize, but it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It got its heading from a president, and his party, who did in fact send it orders—openly, for the world to see. In his Tuesday press grilling, no question agitated White House Press Secretary Jay Carney more than the one that got to the heart of the matter: Given the president’s “animosity” toward Citizens United, might he have “appreciated or wanted the IRS to be looking and scrutinizing those . . .” Mr. Carney cut off the reporter with “That’s a preposterous assertion.”

Whether or not it can be proven that Obama was explicitly involved with the IRS’s  discrimination of conservative groups, it is undeniable that he implicitly sent the message.

Previously: 

Obama Sets The Tone

Obama Sets The Tone, Part Deux

Obama Sets The Tone, Part Trois: POTUS Refers To Tea Partiers As “Tea-Baggers”

Obama Picks a Target and Freezes it: Permanent Campaign Re-Election Machine to Target NRA

Team Obama to Ohio Brownshirts: “Help Us Find Dirt on Portman”

Why Is The Community Organizer Pitting Americans Against Each Other?

How Obama Fights Pt. 2

Obama Lectures Washington On Civility At National Prayer Breakfast

How Obama Is Pitting Americans Against Each Other

More Thug Politics: Obama Administration Investigates Humana’s Free Speech

Obama’s War On Business

Obama Threatening T.V. Stations (Again)!

More Heavy Handed Assaults On Free Speech From Obama Brigades

How Obama Fights

Obama Threatening TV Stations For Airing Ayers Ad (UPDATE: AIP Responds)

Video: A Thursday Night Scandalpalooza

I would usually save these for my Saturday Movie Matinee, some of these videos are too good to wait until Saturday.

Especially good is Judge Jeanine Pirro’s opening monologue from her show, last weekend:  Obama Admin Lied To America!!

Mark Levin: Investigate Senate Democrat Carl Levin:

Mark Levin: Obama Scandals Are Examples of a Tyrannical Government:

Mediaite: Megyn Kelly Explodes At Liberal Guest Over Benghazi – ‘Come On! Can We Have Some Honesty?’

Out Come The Baseball Bats – TheBlaze:

 Intim-O-Gate – TheBlaze:

The President Knows Nothing – TheBlaze:

Obama Drama - TheBlazeTV – The Glenn Beck Radio Program – 2013.05.15:

Donald Rumsfeld – TheBlazeTV - The Glenn Beck Radio Program – 2013.05.15:

Dana Loesch v. Leslie Marshall Debate IRS Scandal on Sean Hannity – 5-16-13

Listen to the shamelessly hacktastic Jay Carney try to spin the Benghazi talking points release into a “victory” for the administration, calling the concern over the WH lies a  ”faux controversy” drummed up by Republicans: Piers Morgan Grills Jay Carney About IRS, Benghazi: Has This Been ‘Your Toughest Week’ Ever?

ABC’s Jonathan Karl reports on the Obama Administration’s Release Benghazi Emails:

Hat tip Brian B for many of these videos.

Video: Glenn Beck Covers IRS and Bengazi Scandals With #BlogCon13 Attendees in the Audience

Glenn Beck dove into the IRS and Benghazi scandals, today, with conservative bloggers and activists who have been attending BlogCon 2013 in the audience. The conservative conference, hosted by Freedomworks and the Blaze, started on Saturday afternoon and ended on Monday afternoon. This year’s event  focused on giving bloggers the tools needed to turn the media on its head, move outside our echo chamber, and be on the offense for a change.

Beck started his TV show, Monday, calling out the Regime for all their lies on Benghazi.

He went on to hammer the Regime for the scandal that broke Friday: The Obama IRS has been targeting conservatives, and lying about it.

At approximately 2:20, a pan of the audience in the above video shows your blogress in the second row in a black shirt, seated next to Doug Ross, (who unfortunately suffered some discomfort, this weekend at the hands of some of the female bloggers in attendance. Those of you who are morbidly curious  can check out his blog later this week for  the gory details.)

Another segment featured some local conservative activists whose groups have been targeted by the IRS, but that one is not up, yet.. Among their shocking allegations  was the revelation that one of the groups was targeted for an audit as early as the Fall of 2009.

SEE ALSO:

The Blaze: Tea Party Attorney: IRS Questions Are ‘Far Left Wish List’…Scandal Is ‘Ongoing’

Big Government: Conservative Group Says IRS Leaked Docs to Rival

The Blaze: How High Up Does This Go? New Report Implicates Washington Officials in IRS Scandal

Big Government: Multiple Agencies Involved with IRS in Intimidation

Domestic Terrorist, Bill Ayers: Weather Underground Nail Bombs No Comparison To The Boston Bombers’ Nail Bombs

On Saturday, noted “small c” communist, and close family friend of the president, Bill Ayers was the keynote speaker at the annual commemoration of the National Guard shootings at Kent State in 1970 that left four students dead. In response to a reporters’ question,  he told the audience of about 350,  that there was  ”no relationship at all between what Weather Underground members did and the bombings that two brothers allegedly committed on April 15 in Massachusetts. No one died in the Weather Underground bombings.”

Via The Akron Beacon Journal: 

“How different is the shooting in Connecticut from shooting at a hunting range?” Ayers said. “Just because they use the same thing, there’s no relationship at all.”

Huhhhh? Did he just compare the bombings of the Weather Underground to target practice?

Ayers, a retired professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago, co-founded the anti-Vietnam War Weather Underground group that bombed the U. S. Capitol, the Pentagon and other buildings in the late 1960s and into the early 1970s. The radical Weather Underground took its name from lyrics in a Bob Dylan song.

The United States is the most violent country that has ever been created, Ayers said.

He took a swipe at U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., saying, he committed daily war crimes in Vietnam “and I get asked about violence when what I did was some destruction of property to issue a scream and cry against an illegal war in which 6,000 people a week are being killed. Six thousand a week being killed and I destroyed some property. Show me the equivalence. You should ask John McCain that question … I’m against violence.”

“To conflate a group of fundamentalist people [in Boston] who are nihilistic in some way with a group of people who spent their lives trying to oppose the murder of 6,000 people a week … and still the killing went on. And still the killing went on. What would you have done?” Ayers said. “There’s no equivalence [with Boston]. Property damage. That’s what we did.”

Here’s where the Akron Beacon Journal Online story really shocked me…….

The reporter actually reported on some inconvenient questions that were asked of Bill Ayers afterward about the Weatherman bombings…causing  our “small c communist”  to feel a little discomfort, I’m afraid.

In his talk to the crowd, Ayers mentioned that in 1970, he lost three friends in the Weather Underground, including his lover, Diana Oughton. He did not explain in his talk how they died – they were killed when nail bombs they were making in a Greenwich Village townhouse blew up.

Telling the crowd the circumstances of those deaths would have been “inappropriate,” Ayers said afterward. “Everybody here knows,” he said.

Authorities said the bombs were intended to be used at a dance at the Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey.

“No one knows for sure but I think they were. (He knew. He was the leader !)

And had they carried it out it would have been a catastrophe,” Ayers said. “But they didn’t and it didn’t happen. But what did happen is, on that same day John McCain murdered civilians. Do we have any responsibility for that? Should there be any reconciliation for that? Should he tell the truth about it?”

Why does he keep bringing up John McCain? John McCain didn’t target fellow Americans with nail bombs.

Shortly before noon on Friday, March 6, 1970, people in the townhouse were assembling nail bombs packed with dynamite and roofing nails. Former members of Weatherman later advanced differing claims as to the planned uses of the bombs. According to Mark Rudd, the plan was to set them off that evening at a dance for noncommissioned officers and their dates at the Fort Dix, New Jersey Army base, to “bring the [Vietnam] war home”.^[2] Other reports say that some were destined for the Fort Dix dance and some were to destroy the main library at Columbia University.^[3][4]

According to Cathy Wilkerson, who was a leader of the New York collective of the Weatherman, they were disappointed with the minimal effects of their earlier use of Molotov cocktails at the home of Judge Murtagh and other locations. At the suggestion of Terry Robbins, another of the leaders, they decided to use dynamite for newly planned actions.

They purchased a considerable quantity of dynamite and a number of electric fuses. The group investigated and designated three targets, including a dance at Fort Dix, an army base in nearby New Jersey.

But, but, but, Bill wasn’t there….

Ayers himself attested that the bomb would have done serious damage, “tearing through windows and walls and, yes, people too.” Notably, Ayers’ fingerprints were found at the bomb-making site, along with an assortment of anti-personnel weapons, stabbing implements, C-4 plastic explosive, and dozens of Marxist-Leninist publications.

After the death of his girlfriend, Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn spent the rest of the decade as fugitives running from the FBI.

And there is good reason to believe that the Weather Underground’s terrorist spree did more than property damage (and self-inflicted carnage):

The San Francisco police officer’s union has accused the Weather Underground as the bombers that killed a San Francisco police sergeant in an attack a month prior to accidental Greenwich Village explosion.Eleven years later two cops were killed–by gunshot wounds, not bombs–in a Brink’s truck robbery north of New York City. That crime was carried out by members of the Black Liberation Army and the Weather Underground.

The retired domestic terrorist was circumspect at the Kent State commemoration, on Saturday, though.

The Weather Underground never accomplished what it set out to do: to end the Vietnam War, to end the system that created war and to create a more-just society, he said.

Um….Thank God? Bill Ayers’ idea of a “more just society” isn’t what most people would think of as a “more just society”…

Zombie’s excellent 2008 expose on Bill Ayers’ book, Prairie Fire is a must-read for anyone who might be fooled by Ayers’ self-flattering history revisionism.

William Ayers is a communist. But don’t take my word for it. He said so himself:

And not some nicey-nice peace-and-love kind of communist. Through his group the Weather Underground, Ayers was planning to “seize power” in a violent communist takeover of the United States:

The text that William Ayers authored in Prairie Fire, and the additional documentary links provided below, prove that:

• Ayers was not simply protesting “against” the Vietnam War. Firstly, he wasn’t against war in principle, he was agitating for the victory of the communist forces in Vietnam. In other words: He wasn’t against the war, he was against our side in the war. This is spelled out in great detail in Prairie Fire. Secondly, and more significantly, the Vietnam War was only one of many issues cited by the Weather Undergound as the justifications for their violent acts. As you will see below, in various quotes from Prairie Fire and in their own list of their violent actions (and in additional impartial documentary links),Ayers and the Weather Underground enumerated dozens of different grievances as the rationales for their bombings — their overarching goal being to inspire a violent mass uprising against the United States government in order to establish a communist “dictatorship of the proletariat,” in Ayers’ own words.

• Ayers and his co-authors freely brag about their bombings and other violent and illegal acts, and even provide a detailed list, most likely typed up by Ayers himself, of the crimes they had committed up to that point. Ayers’ list, scanned directly from Prairie Fire, is shown below. He may have escaped conviction due to a legal technicality (the prosecutors failed to get a warrant during some of their surveillance of the Weather Underground), but this in no way means that Ayers was factually innocent of the crimes. As has been widely reported, after the case against him was dropped, Ayers decribed himself as “guilty as hell, free as a bird.”

• Just because Ayers tries to appear respectable now doesn’t mean that he wasn’t a violent revolutionary in the past. In fact, as the text of Prairie Fire shows, Ayers was one of the most extreme extremists in American political history. And as the links given as the end of this essay will prove, Ayers is just as politically radical now as he was back then. He has never renounced the political views he professed in the 1960s and 1970s. The only difference is that now he no longer commits violence to achieve his goals. After his stint as the leader of the Weather Underground, he shifted to a different tactic: to spread his ideology under the aegis of academia. But the goal remains the same: to turn America into a communist nation. Ayers’ contemporary writings contain many of the same ideas (and even the same phrases) found in Prairie Fire, just toned down to make them more palatable in polite society.

Bill Ayers’ vision of violent Communist revolution is one that was once shared by our president, coincidentally!

The Obama I knew was nothing like the lifelong pragmatic centrist that he was pretending to be in the 2008 presidential campaign.  When I talked politics with the young Obama, he expressed a profound commitment to bringing about a socialist economic system in the U.S. — completely divorced from the profit motive — which would occur, in his lifetime, through a potentially violent, Communist-style revolution. 

Via Discover the Networks:

The title Prairie Fire was an allusion to Mao Zedong‘s 1930 observation that “a single spark can start a prairie fire.” Ayers and his co-authors dedicated the book to a bevy of violent, America-hating revolutionaries — including Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin who had killed Robert F. Kennedy.

Ayers told the Kent State drones he still holds out hope for the creation of a peace culture and a peace movement in the nation.

Just remember that the “peace” communists like Bill Ayers yearn for comes at a huge cost to those who don’t share his communist totalitarian ideology.

 

Center For Security Policy Video: Reject Perez

The Center for Security Policy  has released a 20-minute video featuring comments by six prominent public policy experts urging the Senate to reject the nomination Thomas Perez,  Obama’s pick to become the next Secretary of Labor. This “virtual press conference” (VPC) offers a litany of extremely troubling behavior spanning the nominee’s career prior to and during his tenure in his current position as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., President of the Center for Security Policy, hosts the VPC and addresses Perez’s leading role in the Obama administration-wide effort to embrace, legitimate and empower the Muslim Brotherhood and its operatives.

Chris Farrell, Director of Investigations at Judicial Watch, describes Perez’s radical political philosophy and conduct before and during his time in the Justice Department.

Anita MonCrief, who once was a member of the hard-left group, ACORN, and is now a voting integrity activist with True the Vote, discusses Perez’s troubling proclivities with respect to immigration and labor law stemming in part from his past-presidency of Casa de Maryland, an organization that helps illegal aliens violate federal statutes.

Hans von Spakovsky, former counsel to one of Perez’s predecessors as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, who decries the “toxic culture” and mismanagement inside that organization as a result of the incumbent’s leadership – and the prevarication he engaged in during the course of a highly critical examination of the Perez tenure by the Justice Department’s Inspector General.

Rosemary Jenks, Director of Government Relations at Numbers USA, who questions whether the Senate can responsibly entrust the U.S. Labor Department to an individual who has worked to enable illegal aliens to take jobs from American workers.

J. Christian Adams, a former career attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Voting Section details various actions – some taken personally by Perez and others by his organization on his watch – that have subverted the principle of equal justice under the law.

On the occasion of the release of the Reject Perez video, Mr. Gaffney observed:

Tom Perez is perhaps the most controversial of President Obama’s nominees to Cabinet positions in his second administration – and that is saying something in light of the competition for that dubious distinction.  His past record and present mismanagement, if not actual malfeasance, at the Justice Department should disqualify him from serious consideration for not only the job of Secretary of Labor, but for any position of responsibility in the U.S. government.

His confirmation hearing is set for tomorrow.

Over 700 Special Ops Vets Demand Answers On Benghazi – Push For Congressional Cmte (Video)

More than seven hundred retired Military Special Operations professionals from “Special Operations Speaks” sent a letter to the House of Representatives urging members to support H.Res 36, which would create a House Select Committee to investigate the September 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. Four Americans were killed in that attack, and two could have been saved if the Regime had acted quickly enough..

Kerry Picket of  Big Peace reported:

Signers of the letter believe the House Select Committee should look into a number of issues, including the lack of military response to the events in Benghazi, if any non-military assistance was provided during the attack; the number U.S. personnel who were injured in Benghazi; the current locations of survivors; the names of the individuals in the White House Situation Room (WHSR) during the entire 8-hour period of the attacks and was a senior US military officer present.

“As veterans from all aspects of Special Operations, we have no doubt that there’s a lot more to what happened in Benghazi than President Obama and his Administration are letting on. From the very beginning, he has attempted to mislead and outright lied to the American people about why the attack on September 11th, 2012 happened, how it happened, and what our government did or did not do to save the lives of our patriots abroad,” former Navy SEAL Captain Larry Bailey wrote in a statement to Breitbart News.

The representatives from the retired military community want “a full accounting of the events of September 11, 2012,” adding that the,  ”American public be fully informed regarding this egregious terrorist attack on US diplomatic personnel and facilities. We owe that truth to the American people and the families of the fallen.”

Retired Air Force Col. Dick Brauer, now a member of S.O.S. discussed his group’s push for information on Fox and Friends, this morning.

Here’s the full listing of the questions they are demanding answers to:

1. Why was there no military response to the events in Benghazi?

a. Were military assets in the region available? If not, why not?

b. If so, were they alerted?

c. Were assets deployed to any location in preparation for a rescue or recovery attempt?

d. Was military assistance requested by the Department of State? If so, what type?

e. Were any US Army/Naval/USMC assets available to support the US diplomats in Benghazi during the attack?

f. What, if any, recommendations for military action were made by DOD and the US Africa Command?

2. What, if any, non-military assistance was provided during the attack?

3. How many US personnel were injured in Benghazi?

4. Why have the survivors of the attack not been questioned?

5. Where are the survivors?

6. Who was in the White House Situation Room (WHSR) during the entire 8-hour period of the attacks, and was a senior US military officer present?

7. Where were Leon Panetta and General Martin Dempsey during the crisis, and what inputs and recommendations did they make?

8. Where were Tom Donilon, the National Security Advisor, Denis McDonough, his deputy, Valerie Jarrett and John Brennan during the attacks, and what (if any) recommendations or decisions did any of them make?

9. Why were F-16 fighter aircraft based in Aviano, Italy (less than two hours away) never considered a viable option for disruption (if not dispersal) of the attackers until “boots on the ground” (troop support–General Dempsey’s words) arrived?

10. Were any strike aircraft (such as an AC-130 gunship) in the area or possibly overhead that would cause former SEAL Tyrone Woods to laser-designate his attacker’s position and call for gunship fire support, thereby revealing his own location that led to his death?

11. Who gave the order to “STAND DOWN” that was heard repeatedly during the attacks?

12. What threat warnings existed before the attack, and what were the DOD and DOS responses to those warnings? What data (which will reveal exact timelines and command decisions) is contained within the various SITREPS, records, logs, videos and recordings maintained by the myriad of DOD, Intelligence Community and State Department Command Centers that were monitoring the events in Benghazi as they unfolded?

13. Why did the Commander-in Chief and Secretary of State never once check in during the night to find out the status of the crisis situation in Benghazi?

14. What was the nature of Ambassador Stevens’ business in Benghazi at the time of the attack?

15. What guidance has been provided to survivors and family members since the time of the attack, and who issued that guidance?

16. Why are so many agencies now requiring their personnel that were involved in or have access to information regarding the events that took place in Benghazi sign Non-Disclosure Agreements?

For some reason, House Speaker, John Boehner has not been predisposed to appoint a select committee to investigate the Benghazi debacle, but being a political animal, hopefully he will bow to public pressure if enough of his constituents push him in that direction.

Sadly,  it looks  like the Republican leadership decided to drop the issue after the election, lending credence to the charge that they were only pursuing it for political reasons. It’s almost like top Republicans knew something about a classified weapons running operation being run out of Benghazi, and now want to wash their hands of the whole stinking thing. “What difference does it make?!” as HillaryClinton famously asked.

But Special Op guys don’t like to see their own left behind, and they are not letting this thing go.

Former Navy SEAL Captain Larry Bailey said in a conference call, today, that SOS  thought they would get maybe a couple hundred signatures on their petition and were surprised by the overwhelming response – over 700 Special Op signatures,

now. He said that they expect there to be a committee established, and if it isn’t, he matter-of-factly offered that there would be political consequences.

Frank Gaffney made note of something Clinton  said repeatedly (so it was apparently an approved talking point) during her hearing. ”We are confronting a global jihadist threat,”  she told the Senators. But the failure that was manifest on Sept 11,  was that the Regime didn’t recognize the global jihadist threat. Clinton failed to countenance the global jihadist threat until she was heading out the door.

Another thing Gaffney thought was kind of stunning was the absence  of any of the folks who survived the attack from the public domain. He called it a “witness suppression program.”

Their working theory as to what was going on: Ambassador Stevens was in one of the most dangerous places in the world on one of the most dangerous days of the year for a specific reason: an emergency meeting after the disclosure in the media of a shipment of arms from Libya through Turkey heading to Syria to arm the Islamist rebels in Syria.  Exposure of that pipeline serious might have had serious repercussions for Obama in the presidential election. Both parties might have known about the covert operations.

SEE ALSO: 

End the Benghazigate Cover-up

Video: Faith and Freedom’s Ralph Reed Calls on Obama To Condemn Easter Pastor’s “Cheap”, “Ahistorical”, “Political” Rant

Ralph Reed, the Founder and Chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition was invited onto The Greta Van Susteren Show, last night  to comment on Obama’s Pastor’s obnoxious and inappropriate Easter sermon. Rev. Luis Leon used part of his sermon to go after Christian conservatives, saying:

“It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back … for blacks to be back in the back of the bus, for women to be back in the kitchen, for gays to be in the closet, and for immigrants to be back on their side of the border.”

While Greta Van Sustern thought it was obvious that there was no collusion between the pastor and the president on the message,  Reed thought it seemed more than a little coincidental that the message so seamlessly meshed with the organized left’s PR message as issues like gay marriage, welfare reform are being discussed in the public sphere.

“It doesn’t seem coincidental to me that this happened the same week of the arguing of the marriage cases before the Supreme Court because it’s part of this drumbeat that we’re hearing…throughout our culture and especially among the opinion elites: If you support traditional marriage – you’re a bigot. If you believe in reforming welfare, you’re a racist. If you believe in the importance of the family as the most important department of health, education and and welfare ever conceived, then you want to put women back in the kitchen,” he said.

And it shows the left’s desperation, he continued, because they “can’t win based on facts in the argument so they engage in smearing, and cat-calling and drawing ugly caricatures.”

Noting that just last week, Don Young of Alaska was  immediately condemned by Speaker Boehner and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus for using a term that was derogatory toward Hispanics, he said, “today, the White House refused to distance the president from these remarks, so I call on the president tonight, not just through a spokesman, but through a statement issued over his name, to make it clear that not only does he not agree with them, but he finds them deeply offensive.”

Asked if he really thought the president should address the issue, Reed answered, “he’s being asked about it, and he’s going to continue to be asked about it… I think it’s entirely appropriate and I think it would be well within his responsibilities to say listen, I had nothing to do with this, I was just there worshiping with my family, and I don’t think most Americans agree with it.”

As for the Pastor, Reed thought he should apologize for using an Easter Sunday sermon as a platform to make cheap political attacks on other Americans.

I asked Reed on Twitter if he thought Obama would really issue a statement condemning the Pastor. He responded, “not holding my breath.”

@nicedeb @gretawire not holding my breath.

— Ralph Reed (@ralphreed) April 2, 2013

Previously:

Video: WH Refuses To Denounce Obama Pastor’s Rev. Wright Style Easter Rant

Video: WH Refuses To Denounce Obama Pastor’s Rev. Wright Style Easter Rant

Americans who pay attention to the news were unpleasantly reminded, this Easter, of the scandal that threatened to knock Obama out of contention in 2008. Taking a page from the odious Black liberation theology of Obama’s Pastor in Chicago, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright of TUCC, Reverend Luis Leon turned the pulpit on Easter into a place for cheap political posturing, and incendiary racialist rhetoric, seemingly tailored to please the president.

In his Easter sermon today, Rev. Luis Leon said, “It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back … for blacks to be back in the back of the bus … for women to be back in the kitchen … for immigrants to be back on their side of the border.” Rev. Leon spewed this revisionist history in front of President Obama and his family.

The Washington Post reported the story with the headline: Obama attends Easter service; minister criticizes ‘captains of the religious right’

Other websites soon followed. Here’s the Memeorandum thread.

In the Spring of 2008, Obama did finally denounce Rev. Wright’s shocking rhetoric, and left TUCC  because the controversy had refused to die down and was threatening his candidacy..

But Obama isn’t running for anything, anymore.  So what does he care if his pastor insults half of America on Easter Sunday? He doesn’t.  No doubt it pleases him greatly.

White House spokesman, Jay Carney was asked if the White House would denounce Leon’s “false and filthy rant.”

Of course, Carney demurred.

What does it matter that Leon isn’t a politician, Senator, member of Congress or President? What does it matter that St. John’s Episcopal Church has been visited by many many presidents over the years? Why would Carney even bring up those irrelevant points? The President of the United States went to that service and sat through that grossly inappropriate sermon with his family on Easter Sunday.  Wouldn’t it be appropriate for him to assure conservative Christians across the nation that he doesn’t share those vile views?

That’s a rhetorical question, and we should all know by now, why Obama has not and will not throw Leon “under the bus.”

Everything we know about Obama points to the inescapable conclusion that he agrees with his radical pastors 100%.

Linked by Doug Ross, thanks!

Obama Creating Panel to Form Election Guide for States

While specifics are scarce,  it’s a safe bet that the panel won’t be focused on stopping voter fraud, or making sure that members of the military aren’t disenfranchised. No. It’s focus will be about making voting easier. What can we do about long lines? Should we extend early voting even longer?

The Washington Times reported Thursday that Obama issued a new executive order aimed at cracking down on those types of election problems.

Read between the lines of the group’s mission statement, and it seems the group will be overseeing state election laws, to at least some degree.

Politico reports Mr. Obama’s order creates a new presidential commission on election body, co-chaired by two lawyers, Bob Bauer and Ben Ginsburg. Mr. Bauer served on the campaign of Mr. Obama in 2012; Mr. Ginsberg, on Mitt Romney’s campaign, Politico says.

The Daily Caller reported that nine-seat Presidential Commission will be tasked with recommending changes to states’ election laws by the end of September.

“The Commission shall identify best practices and otherwise make recommendations to promote the efficient administration of elections in order to ensure that all eligible voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots without undue delay, and to improve the experience of voters facing other obstacles,” said Obama’s executive order, issued March 28.

State elections are conducted by states, usually under state laws. However, the federal Congress has the constitutional authority to “any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators.”

Let’s take a look at Robert Bauer, Obama’s lawyer, who will be co-chairing the panel with Ben Ginsburg.

* Served as general counsel for Obama for America.

* Unsuccessfully lobbied the Justice Department last fall to pursue a criminal probe of the American Issues Project (AIP), an independent group that sought to run an ad highlighting the Barack Obama and terrorist Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground connection.

* Sought prosecution with the Department of Justice against Harold Simmons for funding the ad.

* Used thug and scare tactics on television stations throughout the U.S. to compel them to pull the advertisement of Obama and Ayers.

Bauer is Mao fan, Anita Dunn’s husband. What could possibly go wrong?

According to WaPo, Benjamin Ginsberg is the GOP’s go-to guy for electoral recounts.

He is best known for his work on the 2000 Florida recount that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bush v. Gore decision, but he has represented the leadership and campaign political action committees of slews of senators, House members and governors.Ginsberg was the national counsel for Mitt Romney’s 2008 campaign, advised his Free and Strong America PAC and continues to offer counsel for Romney’s 2012 efforts .

I wouldn’t mind a commission set up to  fix our broken election system, but one fears this panel wasn’t set up to do that. Any commission created by this ACORN friendly president has to be looked at with a healthy degree of suspicion.

Hat tip: Brian B.

A Few Months After Repubs Agree To Raise Taxes, White House Blasts Repubs For Refusing To Raise Taxes

How much respect does this White House have for  low info Americans? None.  They expect them to have already forgotten that the Republicans agreed to a massive tax hike on January 1.

Via Weasel Zippers;

White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest whacked Republican lawmakers for their refusal to consider passing more tax hikes, saying that remains the “chief impediment” to progress on a budget and deficit reduction deal.

“For some time now, the chief impediment to reaching a grand bargain has been the refusal of Republicans to ask the wealthiest and well-connected to pay even a dime more to help us deal with our deficit challenges. I’m sad to report that, even months later, that, that continues to be the case, that we are seeing a group of Republicans in the Congress who are refusing to compromise on this,” he said.

I’m even sadder to report that Republicans DID compromise months ago with the Fiscal Cliff tax hike:

The bill raises income tax rates for those taxpayers with incomes more than $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. These higher income taxpayers will also pay higher rates on investment income, with rates on dividends and capital gains rising from 15 percent to 20 percent. Add the 3.8 percent ObamaCare surcharge on investment income — another tax that takes effect in January, and the top rate on investment income would rise to 23.8 percent for those high-income households.

The bill also raises taxes on couples earning more than $250,000 a year and single people earning more than $200,000 by limiting personal exemptions and itemized deductions.

Estates taxes will also be increased, with the top rate raised to 40 percent, with the first $5 million in value exempted for individual estates and $10 million for family estates.

The bill also delays the automatic $1.2 trillion draconian sequester spending cuts for sixty days. The sequester cuts, evenly split between defense and certain domestic discretionary spending, were scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2013. The $24 billion cost of the sequester delay is allegedly made up with a mix of spending cuts and new revenues from rules changes on converting traditional individual retirement accounts into Roth IRAs.

Worse, the bill actually increases the deficit by including:

• A permanent fix for the alternative minimum tax.
• A five-year extension of tax credits for college tuition and the working poor, which were enacted as part of Obama’s failed 2009 stimulus.
• A one-year extension for unemployment benefits, affecting two million people.
• The long-term unemployed could count on receiving emergency benefits for another year, at a cost of about $30 billion.

More on the tax increases via The Heritage Foundation:

Ordinary Americans, as President Obama often refers to the majority of Americans, were by no means spared the tax increases allowed in the fiscal cliff deal. Americans’ disposable income is getting cut any way you look at it. The higher Social Security payroll tax is just one direct example. Higher taxes on investors and small businesses will trickle down to other Americans primarily in the form of lower wages and salaries and fewer opportunities for career advancement.

Americans dreaming of starting their own businesses will particularly be affected. Among the 13 tax increases for 2013, investors providing much of the capital for start-up firms to get off the ground took multiple hits. The rate on dividends and capital gains increased from 15 percent to 20 percent for taxable incomes over $450,000 ($400,000 for single filers).

Additionally, Obamacare imposed—for the first time ever—a surcharge on investment disguised as payroll tax. It raised a 3.8 percent surtax on investment income for taxpayers with taxable income exceeding $250,000 ($200,000 for singles). This brings the top rate on capital gains and dividends to 23.8 percent. And this represents a second layer of tax on capital gains. Most capital gains in the U.S. are first taxed at the highest-in-the-world corporate income tax rate of 35 percent.

Someone tell Josh, the REAL impediment to reaching a “grand bargain” is Obama’s intransigence on spending.

By the way, you tea partiers out there: remember back in 2009 when liberals kept telling us that Obama was a big tax cutter? All us “tea-baggers” were crazy to be saying “taxed enough already” because Obama was the biggest tax cutter the country had ever seen, and  he wouldn’t raise taxes “one single dime.” Remember how we laughed and laughed because we knew that he was going  to raise taxes big time to pay for the already bloated government leviathan he was so hellbent on expanding?

Yeah. Me too.

Jim (Punch Back Twice as Hard) Messina in OFA Fund-Raising Email: “If We Do This Right, The Other Side Won’t Know What Hit ‘Em”

Jim Messina, the Chair of Obama’s permanent campaign arm, Organizing for Action, wants potential donors to know that “interest groups” on “the other side” have “money to burn” unlike his totally independent “grassroots” group which is run by former advisors to the President, and promises special access to the White House for big donors.

These shadowy special interest groups are trying to throw a wrench into the Regime’s good works, Messina says, and we can be “damned sure this is not going to stop.”

Supporters are urged to donate just $5.00 or more to help them punch back twice as hard. “The other side won’t know what hit em,” Messina promises at the end of his letter.

Friend –

I want to make one thing absolutely clear:

We’re up against a whole lot more than just opposition in Congress.

We’re up against interest groups with money to burn — organizations willing to drop every last penny they have to stop President Obama’s agenda in its tracks. We’re already seeing it on gun violence, and immigration reform — they’re going to spend millions to throw a wrench in the works of progress.

You can be damned sure that this is not going to stop.

Organizing for Action is going to shift the balance of power in Washington back to real people. People like you have shown over and over again that no amount of spending can stop millions of Americans calling for change.

It’s going to take each of us rolling up our sleeves, getting to work, and chipping in what we can when we can.

We have our first fundraising deadline this weekend. Donate $5 or more right now to become a founding member of this organization:

https://donate.barackobama.com/First-Deadline

This is going to be fun. If we do this right, the other side won’t know what hit ‘em.

Messina

Jim Messina
Chair
Organizing for Action

Hat tip: Tony Katz

“Non-Partisan” OFA “FACT” – Trolling GOP Using @BarackObama Twitter account

On multiple occasions,  Jay Carney has referred to Obama’s campaign arm, Organizing for Action as an “outside “, “non partisan”, “independent”, or “separate” group.

He said at a recent press briefing that OFA  “is this is a separate organization, as we’ve noted, the existence of which is perfectly appropriate and the White House will engage with it consistent in the way with it has engaged with a whole host of outside constituencies.”

It’s so “separate”, the President sent out email to his supporters on January 18, 2013, entreating them to join theorganization.

It’s so “independent”, it’s recruitment video was promoted by the First Lady from her White House office.

It’s so “non partisan” it’s tweeting under the name of @BarackObama.

Twitchy reported:

RT if you agree: The Senate GOP should stop trying to tear down environmental progress & pass a clean budget that protects the middle class.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 21, 2013

Hmm? Funny, that. As Twitchy reported, many are wondering why the @BarackObama Twitter feed is still verified now that it is being run by independent (wink, wink Nudge, nudge) Organizing for Action. We also want to know why a totally “non-partisan” and “independent” organization is using that feed to troll and blame the GOP. The Twitter feed is trolling once again today.

Meanwhile in a stunning reversal of the promised transparency, Organizing For Action has decided not to disclose its donors, (watchdogs mostly silent.)

Remember when Organizing for Action – the so-called non-partisan 501(c)4 group aimed at disseminating and lobbying for Obama’s agenda – would release the names of its donors, especially the ones who give big to the organization.  Well, they’ve decided to nix that, not that the liberal media care to note the reversal.The Washington Free Beacon reported today that:

President Barack Obama’s recently formed dark-money group Organizing for Action confirmed to the Center for Public Integrity Thursday that it would not release donor information such as employer and occupation despite collecting the data in its online donor application.

The Center for Public Integrity reports:

“Our voluntary disclosure will be posted on our website with the exact dollar donation, name and city and state of the donor,” Organizing for Action spokeswoman Katie Hogan told the Center for Public Integrity.

As a practical matter, a lack of employer and occupation information makes it more difficult for the public to determine the corporate, union or special interest ties donors may have.

It also complicates confirming their identities, particularly when they have common names. A similar issue arose when Obama’s inauguration committee released the names of its donors, but no other identifying information. …

Organizing for Action — the successor organization to Obama’s re-election campaign — is not compelled by law to release any of its donor information because it was established as a 501(c)(4) ”social welfare” nonprofit group and falls under the auspices of the Internal Revenue Service. It may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, but electing politicians cannot be its primary purpose.

OFA has been accused by many of selling access to the president, which isn’t uncommon, but Obama campaigned against such business-as-usual politics when he ran in 2008.  However, given this administration’s penchant to keep various parts of its governing apparatus hidden from the public – and the fact that the co-founder of the liberal ethics watchdog CREW is now the White House’ ethics czar – the watchdog community in D.C. has remained silent since OFA’s inception.

Like I said — stunning.

I’m sure the MSM will soon be all over this.

Video: Jason Mattera Queries Jim Messina on Obama’s Fox News And Rush Limbaugh Attacks – Asks About Creepy Messages on His Hands

Via Big Journalism, comes a #winning video from Talk Radio Network chief investigative reporter Jason Mattera catching up to Obama’s 2012 campaign manager and director of Organizing for Action Jim Messina.

Mattera’s specialty is getting public figures to embarrass themselves on camera, and this video is no exception, as he managed to illicit a denial from Messina that Obama engages in attacks on Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. Hilarious, considering the wealth of evidence to the contrary. The video touches on only a few examples from the past few years.

The Regime’s ham-handed attempts to delegitimize Fox News in 2009 were so egregious, members of the MSM actually took Fox’s side, calling the Obama White House efforts “Nixonian.”

As Big Journalism noted:

The fun video highlights a more important point, however. Obama’s bullying focus on members of the media who do not parrot his administration’s talking points has created a climate of intimidation in media. Modus operandi at the White House has become cutting off all adverse media at the knees, ensuring that they do not gain access to the White House, and whipping up public pressure to silence those outlets.

After a San Francisco Chronicle reporter posted a video of protesters at an Obama fundraiser, the White House threatened to bar the paper from future events. The Boston Herald claimed the Obama campaign would not give it full access to a local fundraiser for the President because the paper featured an op-ed from Mitt Romney on its front page.

Radio host Rush Limbaugh asserted Obama was “part of” a “secondary boycott” against Fox News, a concept credited to Breitbart News editor-at-large Ben Shapiro in response to the President’s remarks that “If a Republican member of Congress is not punished on Fox News or by Rush Limbaugh for working with a Democrat on a bill of common interest, then you’ll see more of them doing it.”

CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson said in a radio interview that White House staffers screamed and swore at her while discussing her coverage of the Department of Justice’s “Fast and Furious” scandal. Attkisson claimed the Obama Administration said that more friendly media outlets were “reasonable,” implying she was abnormal.

Attkisson’s account matches veteran reporter Bob Woodward’s interaction with a White House official who reportedly yelled at him for a half hour before sending him an apology email which also said he would “regret” printing a story critical of Obama’s messaging during debate over sequestration cuts. That threat came to fruition as numerous left-wing journalists mocked and belittled Woodward.

As I’ve said so many times before: Obama is not a nice guy. He’s a malicious deceiver. In an article that could have been penned by me, Ron Ross of the American Spectator, noted that the country is in a state of denial about this:

Barack Obama is arrogant, intolerant, mean, dishonest, vengeful, and ruthless. He does not wish us well. He is considered by many of his supporters to be a savior. In fact, he’s a destroyer. Is that an unfair indictment? Consider the evidence.

The economy is operating far below its potential. Is he doing anything to discover why? Millions of people are unable to find jobs. Does he seem concerned? He has an abysmal ignorance of how a market economy actually works. He doesn’t show the slightest curiosity about the causes of our economic distress.

He doesn’t know what he’s doing and he doesn’t care that he doesn’t know. He’s so incredibility arrogant, he doesn’t think he even needs to know. The very fact that he thought he was qualified to fill the most important office in the world demonstrates his profound arrogance.

Obama sees no difference between his opinions and the truth. He assumes whatever he says is true simply by the act of saying it. He claims to have proposed $3.9 trillion in budget cuts but no one can explain what he’s referring to. He doesn’t seem to recognize that there is such a thing as the truth.

The reason he has to use a teleprompter is to keep himself from expressing what he really thinks. Honesty or sincerity would lead to his undoing.

Keep reading Ross is just getting started…

Under responsible stewardship, this country’s economy could be roaring back to economic health – not limping toward its now almost inevitable demise.

Oversight and Reform Video: “No Leadership, No Responsibility, No Tours”

Via the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, comes a new video: “No Leadership, No Responsibility, No Tours” highlighting the White House’s crass political gamesmanship.

Oversight and Reform wanted to highlight the White House’s decision to close its doors to school groups and visitors while responsible spending reforms, like those from non-partisan Inspectors General outlined in Oversight’s March 5 Committee report, have not been implemented.

“It’s telling that the President would rather cancel White House tours during the most popular tourist season than roll up his sleeves and get to work fixing our nation’s spending crisis.” Chairman Darrell Issa said.  “Just two weeks ago, my committee released a report chronicling $67 billion in unimplemented reforms recommended by the President’s own non-partisan Inspectors General.”

 

As outlined in the video, the Administration has offered differing accounts of who decided to cancel tours.  On March 13, 2013, President Obama said, “This was not a decision that went up to the White House.”  Then later that day, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney contradicted the President admitting, “We had to cancel the tours.”

Video: Rep Darrell Issa on Oversight Investigation of Labor Nominee Perez Over Role in St. Paul Quid-Pro-Quo

Today, Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa appeared on Fox News’ America Live with Megyn Kelly to discuss the Obama’s controversial nomination of Tom Perez to the Labor Department.

The Oversight Committee has been investigating Mr. Perez’s role in the dismissal of a Supreme Court case as highlighted in the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial today, “The Talented Mr. Perez, How Obama’s Labor nominee muscled a city to drop a Supreme Court case”.

President Obama nominated Thomas Perez on Monday to run the Labor Department, praising him as “a consensus-builder” who passed the nation’s “first statewide living-wage law” in Maryland. That isn’t his only talent. Consider how Mr. Perez worked behind the scenes to undermine two civil cases against the City of St. Paul in order to stop a Supreme Court case that might have repudiated his discrimination enforcement theories.

These columns first reported on the curious St. Paul episode in February 2012 (“Squeezed in St. Paul”), after the Minnesota city withdrew a case that it had spent almost a decade litigating and that the U.S. Supreme Court had already agreed to hear. We’ve since learned more about how it happened, and we’ve seen emails that illustrate the strong-arm role played by Mr. Perez in his current job as head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. It’s a story of how political muscle undermined the rule of law.

At the beginning of the segment, Issa  briefly also discussed the Benghazi witnesses, being hidden by the Obama administration, saying, “the fact is, every time we interview people who were there, we find that the stories that were told to us publicly, and the stories these individuals tell us privately are always different.”