Seton Motley, Less Government: Obama to Replace Biden on the 2012 Ticket with…the Chevy Volt:
President Barack Obama is, as we know, oh so thoroughly invested in General Motors (GM). Both monetarily ($50 billion) and metaphorically.
Obama is campaigning for reelection on the utterly failed “success” of the auto bailout. On which he once promised we’d make money – then had to begrudgingly up the (admitted to) loss from $14.3 billion to $23.6 billion.
(And We the Taxpayers still own 500 million shares of GM stock – which is tanking. So that loss number still has growth potential.)
And nothing better epitomizes Obama’s all-encompassing uber-failure than the expensive, uber-subsidized, overproduced, unprofitable, unpopular, combustible Volt.
So why shouldn’t Obama on his reelect ticket replace Vice President Joe Biden – who delivers him very little – with the Volt – which delivers him so much?
In oh so many ways, the bankrupt GM and its miserable Volt epitomize the bankrupt and miserable Obama Administration.
Big Government: Is the IRS Attempting to Intimidate Local Tea Parties?
In January and February of this year, the Internal Revenue Service began sending out letters to various local Tea Parties across the country. Mailed from the same Cincinnati, Ohio IRS office, these letters have reached Tea Parties in Virginia, Hawaii, Ohio, and Texas (we are hearing of more daily). There are several common threads to these letters: all are requesting more information from these independent Tea Parties in regard to their nonprofit 501(c)(4) applications (for this type of nonprofit, donations are not deductible). While some of the requests are reasonable, much of them are strikingly onerous and, dare I say, Orwellian in nature.
Keep reading. Don’t worry – I’m sure they’re just as interested in the financial status of OWS.
The New American: AG Holder Could Be Jailed for Ongoing Fast & Furious Cover-up:
Tensions are rising quickly in the investigation of the deadly federal gun-running operation “Fast and Furious” as Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice continues to unlawfully withhold subpoenaed documents. The persistent stonewalling prompted Congress to renew its warning that contempt proceedings against top Obama administration officialsare imminent if the cover-up does not end.
The Justice Department missed another deadline earlier this month to hand over key information to congressional investigators, asking — yet again — for more time to consider the requests and produce the documents. The media barely noticed. But after a year of stonewalling and cover-ups, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has had just about enough.
In a letter dated February 14, Rep. Issa warned Holder (above) that failure to comply with a congressional subpoena is a violation of federal law. About two thirds of the document categories sought by investigators have been unlawfully withheld without any proper justification, he said, noting that much of what has been handed over was so heavily redacted as to be rendered useless.
As such, the letter ordered the nation’s top law enforcement officer to appoint a DOJ representative who will “serve as the conduit for dealing with the contempt proceedings, should the Department continue to ignore the Committee’s subpoena.” If convicted, Holder could face jail time and hefty fines.
“The Justice Department’s request for additional time has, unfortunately, not been followed by efforts to bridge the significant differences between its legal obligation to Congress and the reality of its stonewalling,” Chairman Issa said in a statement blasting the DOJ. The Committee declined Holder’s request for more time.
Rep. Issa emphasized that, in light of the ongoing DOJ cover-up, Congress had no choice but to take action. “If the Justice Department cannot commit to providing, at a minimum, a detailed description of documents it is withholding, and the legal basis for doing so, then the Committee has no other option than to move forward with the contempt process against Attorney General Holder,” he said in the statement.
Big Journalism: MMfA’s David Brock Paid Former Partner $850k in “Blackmail” Settlement:
Grey threatened to go public about Brock and Media Matters’ finances after he accused Brock in a civil suit filed in Washington of taking $170,000 in possessions, including an $8,000 Louis Vuitton suit bag, paintings, a rug, a chandelier, a painted bust of a Roman soldier and a pair of carved wooden chairs upholstered with purple fabric. Those possessions were displayed in the Washington townhouse where the couple entertained liberal movers and shakers in happier times.
Brock took Grey’s threats seriously and called police in 2010. In the police report, filed by Metropolitan Police as a stalking incident, Brock accused Grey, also 49, of attempting to blackmail him with a series of emails threatening to “release specific derogatory information about [Brock] and his organization to the press and donors that would be embarrassing to him and cause harm to the organization …”
The American Spectator: Santorum’s Tax Plan:
In the Wall Street Journal today, former Senator and current Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum lays out his economic and tax framework.
He begins with an aggressive attack on Mitt Romney:
Attempting to distract from his record of tax and fee increases as governor of Massachusetts, poor job creation, and aggressive pursuit of earmarks, he now says he wants to follow my lead and lower individual as well as corporate marginal tax rates.
It’s a good start. But it doesn’t go nearly far enough. He says his proposed tax cuts would be revenue neutral and, borrowing the language of Occupy Wall Street, promises the top 1% will pay for the cuts. No pro-growth tax policy there, just more Obama-style class warfare.
By contrast, in my first 100 days as president, I’ll submit to Congress and work to pass a comprehensive pro-growth and pro-family Economic Freedom Agenda.
Santorum then highlights 10 areas of tax and economic policy:
- Increase energy production
- Reduce regulation, especially at EPA
- New tax rate structure, with only two rates (10%, 28%), along with tripling child deduction and eliminating marriage penalty
- Cut corporate tax rate in half, to 17.5%, and eliminate tax on repatriated income
- Cut spending $5 trillion over five years
- Repeal Obamacare (mentioned along with the requisite attack on Romneycare.)
- Balance budget in 4 years and support Balanced Budget Amendment
- Support free trade agreements
- Reform, reduce, and block grant entitlement programs
- Housing: Phase out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and allow tax deduction for capital loss on homes
It’s a strong plan, commendable for its relative simplicity, with little to disagree with.
Continue reading at the link.
Big Government: Reagan Economists: Newt’s Economic Plan Is The Most Pro-Growth:
While Mitt Romney has only just come out with a new 20% income tax economic plan, after months of campaigning, Stephen Moore, senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal, says Newt Gingrich’s plan is indeed the most pro-growth.
Breitbart TV: Newt: I’ve ‘Fallen Short Of The Glory Of God’:
Speaking at the First Redeemer Church in Cumming, Georgia, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said he has, “Fallen short of the glory of God.” Gingrich leads in the polls in Georgia ahead of the March 6 primary.
Something is rotten in the state of New Mexico —
Firearms Coalition: Terri Reese Released on Bail!
Prosecutors claim that denying bail to the Reeses follows a precedent set in a “similar” recent case in Columbus, New Mexico. In that case, the mayor and other prominent citizens – all Mexican-Americans with close ties to Mexico – were actively working directly with Mexican drug gangs in a trafficking scheme. Those defendants were held without bail as flight risks. The Reeses are accused of, at worst, selling to questionable buyers and have no personal or family connections with Mexico.
Terri Reese recently had a new bail hearing in which prosecutors showed a video of an informant purchasing ammunition. At the close of the sale Terri tore a mailing label off of a box with a comment about not wanting it to be traced back to them. The prosecutor insisted that this was proof that Terri knew the ammo was destined for Mexico. Terri’s lawyer explained that store labels on trash left at informal shooting areas had led to friction with local property owners. He also pointed out that Terri had called ATF about a woman she suspected might be making straw purchases. She was told they would look into it and that she should carry on as normal. The woman turned out to be a government informant. Sales to that informant constitute the core charges against Terri Reese. As of press time, we are still awaiting a bail decision from the judge.
Meanwhile Eric Holder again testified before the House Government Reform Committee investigating the Fast & Furious fiasco in which government agents instructed gun dealers to sell thousands of firearms to suspected gun traffickers. We now know that there was never any plan or attempt made to track or follow the guns and that Washington was actively seeking numbers from those sales to bolster support for a rule requiring dealers to report sales of multiple semi-auto long guns. Several federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Agency and the FBI have admitted knowing about the tactics and being advised by DOJ to leave it alone. The inter-agency cooperation clearly indicates very high-level involvement in keeping the Gunwalking scheme going, yet no one in a position of authority at the DOJ admits to authorizing the operation which has contributed to hundreds of murders – including that of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
The American Thinker: Why is Obama in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood?:
Obama has decidedly moved from an alliance with Israel to an alliance with the Islamists.
MK Aryeh Eldad, in a speech given in the fall in the U.S., when Israel was intending to act against Iran militarily, said word came down from the White House that “if you act alone, you will remain alone.” Because Israel is so dependent on the U.S. for resupply of weapons and munitions in a prolonged war, this threat changed the calculus immediately. It is true that when Mahmoud Abbas was threatening to go to the U.N. for recognition, the Obama administration lobbied around the world for negative votes. But at the same time, Obama threatened Netanyahu that Obama would withhold his veto if Israel took punitive action against the PA by annexing some of the territories or by withholding funds. Finally, he used the same threat to get Israel to instruct AIPAC to lobby Congress not to punish the PA by withholding U.S. funds.
Over the last six months, Israel has been warned by a succession of senior military and administration officials not to attack Iran, at this time, all in the name of giving sanctions a chance. But who believes that sanctions will stop Iran? And who believes that that the U.S. will in the end attack Iran to stop them?
So while Obama is supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, he is keeping Israel under his thumb.
Isi Leibler takes exception to all this and reminds everyone:
[T]his organization [The Muslim Brotherhood] represents one of the most fanatical and dangerous of the radical Islamist groups in the region, with a dark record of violence and terrorism imbedded in its DNA. It is rabidly anti-Western, anti-Christian, antisemitic, committed to imposing sharia law and a global Caliphate – and willing to employ any means to further its objectives.
Many would argue that Obama is also “anti-Western, anti-Christian[, and] antisemitic.” Judging by his policies, they would be right.
Flashback: Founder Of The Muslim Canadian Congress Says Muslim Brotherhood Has Infiltrated White House (With Updates):
Fatah campaigned for Barack Obama, and now is now saying, via Noisy Room:
“I want you to focus and I hope you can talk to your families and your friends and your neighbors that when someone says that there is a penetration of Jihadi Islamists within Canadian society, do not dismiss it as some right-wing xenophobic racist rant.
Today in the White House there are three members of the Muslim Brotherhood that influence Obama’s policy.
- One is Rashad Hussain of Indian origin who is the American Ambassador to the 52 nation organization of Islamic countries.
- Dialia Mogahed who writes his speech who comes from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
- Just day before yesterday, another woman, an academic, was appointed in that circle.
This is happening while we sit silent and I say that as a Liberal Democrat, as someone who worked and campaigned for Barack Obama.
We have evidence in Canada of this penetration that’s going on.”
What we’re seeing is a Radical Islam/WH alliance that is proving to be very much to Israel’s detriment.
RS McCain, The American Thinker: The Fight and the Fighter:
As with Romney’s previous attacks on Newt Gingrich, Santorum finds himself presented with a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t dilemma: The attacks cannot simply be ignored and yet, when the target responds, he is accused of being “defensive,” of seeming “angry” or even “whining.” Nevertheless, the very fact that Romney has found himself having to spend millions of dollars in an effort to avoid an embarrassing defeat in his native Michigan is testimony to the power of Santorum’s challenge. He has made a direct and quite personal appeal to blue-collar voters in the state he calls “America’s industrial heartland.” During his Sunday night speech, while discussing his energy policy, Santorum elicited cheers when he said, “I’m not a Texas oilman… [but] yes, I have an energy background: My grandfather was a coal miner.”
The Political Wire asks, Did Santorum Regain Momentum in Michigan?
Nice Deb 