In light of the memo that surfaced detailing the Obama Administration's preliminary planning with ICE to provide "a non-legislative version of amnesty" by using various tools to simply avoid deporting illegal aliens, several Republican lawmakers have made a formal request for an explanation directly to the White House.
The letter to the president was signed by Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa who originally ferreted out the memeo, Thad Cochran of Missouri, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, David Vitter of Louisiana, Orrin Hatch of Utah and Jim Bunning of Kentucky.
Among other juicy bits, the memo had detailed proposals for rewriting legal opinions to allow executive orders by President Obama covering unaccompanied minors, victims of human trafficking or extreme hardship and others who've overstayed their visas to remain in the U.S.
For instance, the four aides who wrote the document told U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro N. Mayorkas that legal counsel at the CIS are able to reinterpret legal opinions covering the definition of "temporary protected status" -- in the face of war or environmental disaster -- so that they can change their status to stay in the United States permanently.
The White House has not made a formal response to the letter yet, except to have White House spokeshole Robert Gibbs deny that the administration supports amnesty.
Ri-ight.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Amnesty By Government Diktat
Another manifestation of the Age of Obama...they'll decide which laws to enforce.
A memo surfaced today addressed to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas and written by his staffers that details steps the Obama administration is apparently to simply avoid deporting illegal aliens - what the memo called "a non-legislative version of amnesty."
It was obtained by Senator Chuck Grassley(R-IA).
It lists tools it says the administration has to "reduce the threat of removal" and details several in depth meetings that have been held on the matter, apparently on a fairly high level.
"In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, USCIS can extend benefits and/or protections to many individuals and groups by issuing new guidance and regulations, exercising discretion with regard to parole-in-place, deferred action and the issuance of Notices to Appear."
Now, riddle me this...a large part of the guv'mint's case against the State of Arizona and SB1070 deals with preemption, the idea that Congress makes the laws and the individual states can't bypass Congress.
Isn't Obama using his flunkies at ICE to do exactly that?
Like I said, Government by diktat.
Democrat Dominated Sub-Committee Recommends Lightest Possible Punishment For Rangel
Gee, what a surprise!
After that little admission,why wouldn't Rangel take a shot at having Congress try him? What does he have to lose?
The only way this changes is if the trial drags on until the Republicans take control of the House. But all Rangel has to do is admit all charges if he sees that happening and the trial stops, so he can walk with his slap on the wrist if he chooses.
Rest assured, Rangel being a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the fact that they're standing in lockstep behind him had something to do with this legislative travesty of justice.
Most ethical Congress evah....
Ri-ight.
The House ethics investigatory subcommittee recommended that Rep. Charlie Rangel be reprimanded, which is the least severe punishment, according to a new report.
The disclosure was made today by Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas), who is the panel's chairman.
A reprimand falls below expulsion and censure on the list of available punishments. {...}
Rangel today denied that a reprimand punishment was recommended.
"It's untrue, it's just not so," Rangel told reporters, without elaborating.
Rangel also said that he has not been asked to apologize for his actions by the ethics committee.
After that little admission,why wouldn't Rangel take a shot at having Congress try him? What does he have to lose?
The only way this changes is if the trial drags on until the Republicans take control of the House. But all Rangel has to do is admit all charges if he sees that happening and the trial stops, so he can walk with his slap on the wrist if he chooses.
Rest assured, Rangel being a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the fact that they're standing in lockstep behind him had something to do with this legislative travesty of justice.
Most ethical Congress evah....
Ri-ight.
Watcher's Council Results, 7/30/10
The Council has spoken! Here are the results of our weekly Watcher's Council contest.
This week's council winner was The Razor with True Bigots , a great piece that takes a shot at America's Victim Class.
Our non-council winning post was Socialist “JournoListas” by The Noisy Room. It details the connections between the JournolList hacks and institutions like Democratic Socialists of America, the U.S.’s largest Marxist-based organization and the D.S.A.’s Washington DC-based, far left “think tank,” the Institute for Policy Studies , details their links with George Soros' Open Society and describes how the members percolated into the dinosaur media and other outlets.
Here are the full results:
Council Winners
- First place with 2 1/3 votes! – The Razor - True Bigots
- Second place with 2 votes – Wolf Howling - An Overdrawn Race Card
- Third place with 1 2/3 votes – Rhymes With Right - Shirley Sherrod: Dissent Equals Racism And A Desire To Return To Slavery
- Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes - Virginia Right! – Frankly my dear, charges of racism have lost their impact
- Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – Snapped Shot - The Happy Little Mosque… of Rage
- Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – Joshuapundit – The Age of Obama – Government By Diktat
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Right Truth - Conservative Republican Agenda
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Bookworm Room - How Journolist and Oliver Stone each serve to highlight the other’s insanity
Non – Council Winners
- First place with 1 2/3 votes! - Noisy Room - Socialist “Journolistas” submitted by Bookworm Room
- Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Gaper’s Block – Sex Trafficking in Chicago submitted by The Provocateur
- Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - Riehl World View - Sherrod: “We Must Stop The White Man And His Uncle Toms …” submitted by Rhymes with Right
- Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Jeffrey Laporte at Standing Firm via Fleming and Hayes - Message from the White House on Racism submitted by The Razor
- Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – RightChange/PJTV – Same As It Ever Was submitted by JoshuaPundit
- Third place *t* with 2/3 vote - Brits At Their Best - Recalling The Men Who Fought Naporleon submitted by Wolf Howling
- Third place *t* with 2/3 vote – Israelly Cool - The Day In Israel: Tuesday July 27th, 2010 submitted by Right Truth
- Third place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Moderate Voice – Oliver Stone: Hitler is Misunderstood Due to “Jewish-Dominated Media” (UPDATED) submitted by The Glittering Eye’
- Fourth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Common Sense Political Thought - Duplicity in editing, innuendo in reporting, and a deceived readership submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
- Fourth place *t* with 1/3 vote -The Other McCain - Brilliant: U.S. Gives Pakistan $1 Billion; Pakistan Helps Our Enemies Kill Us submitted by Virginia Right
- Fourth place *t* with 1/3 vote -The Hashmonean – Undiplomatic Solution: Strike Options Targeting Iran Go Top Shelf submitted by The Watcher
As always, congratulations not only to the winners but to the participants.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Shirley Sherrod Claims She's Going To Sue Breitbart!
Oh, I certainly hope she does sue him, after opening her big mouth once again.
First of all, since the White House fired her even before FOX News put out the original video, her suit would be laughed out of court. She cannot prove 'defamation' since she's a public figure. Nor can she prove harm, since Andrew Breibart was not the one who made the decision to fire her, and she's since been offered a promotion - of which she says 'I'm still thinkin' it over.'
If this goes to discovery,can you imagine what Breitbart is going to make of this?
The past statements on record of Ms. Sherrod and her husband? The full can of worms known as Pigford vs Vilsack and the huge amount of money she and her husband got 'for pain and suffering'?
And how about the subpoenas Breitbart will be able to issue to the White House, to find out who actually made the decision to fire Sherrod..to Tom Vilsack, to whomever called and told Sharrod to 'pull to the side of the road'?
Make my day indeed.
Rangel To Go To Trial?
It's long been an open secret in Congress that veteran Democrat Charlie Rangel is one of the most corrupt legislators in Congress.
After a two year investigation Rangel has been hit with 13 separate charges by the House Ethics Committee.
He had already been ousted from his influential post as House Ways and Means chairman in March after the House ethics committee ruled against him in a separate case, saying he should have known that corporate money paid for two Caribbean junkets.
The new charges include:
- Rangel improperly solicited money from corporate officials and lobbyists for the Charles B. Rangel Public Policy Center in New York. He reportedly used his Congressional staff to hit on potential donors to the Rangel Center, then mailed letters from his Capitol Hill office, on official letterhead, to those donors.
- He pressured lobbyists for several of the corporations he sent donation requests to get those corporations to kick in. he also pressured lobbyists personally for donations.
- He solicited donations from a number of corporate-affiiated charities. These included foundations and charities connected to Verizon, Ford, AT&T, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, and Wachovia, among others, in the amount of approximately $30 million.
This all happened while he was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, charged with setting tax rates and policy for these corporations. Nice, hmmm?
- He also lobbied fellow congressmen to approve millions of federal tax dollars for the Rangel Center. He eventually got $2.1 million in taxpayer money.
In case you're wondering what this was all about,what Rangel was doing was setting up a tax free source of funding and employment for himself and his heirs after he left Congress. Think of it as Charlie Rangel's 'Presidential library', funded by the corporations he put the bite on and the American tax payer.
- There's his failure failure to report rental income from vacation property in the Dominican Republic and more than $600,000 in other income on his congressional financial disclosure statements. This charge covers multiple years.
- Then there's his illegal occupancy of four rent controlled apartment in New York City, one of which was used as a campaign office.
So, what happens next?
If you or I did anything remotely like this, we'd be looking at jail time. But the rules are different for Congress.
Charlie Rangel is an influential democrat and a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Even to get things this far and have charges levied has been a major effort, and if Rangel wasn't so blatantly greedy, this probably would have been swept under the rug.
Instead he has options. He could cut a deal to resign from Congress in exchange for some or all of the charges being dropped, although the tax and rent control charges might lead to criminal prosecution if his Congressional immunity went bye bye.
A fair amount of Democrats, especially those facing tough re-election battles want Rangel to resign, to get this out of the headlines.Their numbers include Rep. Betty Sutton of Ohio and Rep. Walt Minnick of Idaho, both of whom are on the Ethics committee.
The Republicans on the committee say that Rangel had ample opportunity to talk settlement during the investigation, and they now want him tried by the Committee, which is split evenly be tween 8 members of each party.At least one Republican would have to approve any dealRangel offers.
Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the ranking Republican on the panel said that Rangel had been "given the opportunity to negotiate a settlement during the investigation phase. We are now in the trial phase," he said.
If there is a trial, the GOP can turn it into a major campaign issue.That's the last thing the Democrats want.
The trial process itself is interesting.
The legislators who investigated Rangel and the committee's staff lawyers will testify and try to show that Rangel is guilty and should be punished by the House.
They'll do this in front of a second team of legislator called an adjudicatory subcommittee and will be countered by Rangel's defense team. The subcommittee then will determines whether the charges against Rangel are valid, and if they agree that they are, the committee will recommend to the House on what Rangel's punishment should be. These can include a reprimanded, censure or expulsion from the House.The last one is extremely unlikely.
Rangel can also appeal his 'sentence' even if the charges are proved.
We'll see what develops.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Federal Judge Issues Injunction On Key Parts Of Arizona Illegal Alien Law
As I expected, Clinton appointee Judge Sue Bolton issued a preliminary injunction today that will prevent several sections of Arizona's SB1070 from becoming law until the courts have a chance to hear the full case on several federal lawsuits.
The plaintiffs include the U.S. Department of Justice, the American Civil Liberties Union and two Hispanic police officers, one from Phoenix and one from Tucson.
Bolton denied legal arguments by attorneys for Governor Brewer, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and several other defendants to have the lawsuits dismissed because the plaintiffs could not prove that they would be harmed by the law if it went into effect.
Bolton's injunctions affect several important parts of the law.
• The portion of the law that requires an officer make an attempt to determine the immigration status of a person stopped, detained or arrested if he or she has reasonable cause to suspect they're illegal aliens.
• The portion that creates a crime for failure to apply for or carry alien-registration papers or other documents proving legal residency.
• The portion that makes it a crime for illegal immigrants to solicit, apply for or perform work. This doesn't affect the section on day laborers.
• The portion that allows for an arrest of a person on probable cause when a law enforcement officer believes they may have committed a crime that makes them eligible for deportation from the United States. Illegal alien drug traffickers, the Zetas and MS-13 must have been high fiving themselves over that one.
Bolton's ruling says that law enforcement must still enforce federal immigration laws, which is odd since parts of SB 1070 she issued an injunction against mirror federal statutes.
The part of the law that makes a misdemeanor for harboring and transporting illegal immigrants still stands as well.
What mostly has changed, as Sheriff Joe Arpaiho pointed out is that Arizona will not be able to prosecute illegal aliens using state law. Now, Arpaio said, people apprehended as illegal aliens will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE)with a request that ICE take custody.
We could very well see a 'catch and release' scenario where Arizona law enforcement turns illegal aliens over to ICE and ICE either refuses to take custody or takes custody and simply releases them outright.
The legal battle will likely take a great deal of time, as the State of Arizona appeals this decision. it will likely go all the way to the Supreme Court before it's resolved.
Obviously, the Obama Administration hopes it can push amnestia through and legalize its new bloc of compliant voters before things get that far.
We'll see...
Weekend Monkey's Column - Handicapping The Senate Races
(In response to numerous requests, JoshuaPundit happily announces the return of Weekend Monkey's weekly column on things political)
Hidey Ho, Primates! Welcome to the one and only Real Banana, your source for the real poop on politics.
Let's do it and get to it..
Most political eggs-spurts have already conceded that my Democrats are going to lose our House majority..even Obama's pet cockroach Robert Gibbs.
But could the ReThugs pull off a majority in the Senate? That's the question.
I weighed in as far back as March that I could see the Rethugs with a net pickup of 35-40 seats plus in the House and at least 7 Senate seats...maybe more. And that was before the aroma of Obama health care and the Gulf Oil Spill hit.
Since the economy and Obama's poll ratings are both likely to keep on stinkin' , I could see the ReThugs taking even more House seats, and seven Senate seats wouldn't surprise me. But could they do even better?
As a political animal with a damned good track record for being right about this stuff, you wouldn't catch me putting down any shekels on how the primates are going to vote this far from November. But I'll go out on a limb a little and give you primates the benefit of my wisdom on how things look to this monkey right now.
Dem incumbents Dorgan and Bayh retired, and Indiana and North Dakota are hard core Red states where the seats'll be snapped up by ReThugs. Ditto for Delaware, where Biden's old seat will probably go to Mike Castle. Blanche Lincoln is pretty much baboon poop in Arkansas. So that's four Dem seats down the crapper right there.
The way it looks so far , ReThug Pat Toomey looks like beating Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania and either Ken Buck or Jane Norton will likely knock off Democrats Michael Bennet or Andy Romanoff in Colorado...which is probably just as well after Romanoff shot his mouth off about the Obama Administration offering him a gig to stay out of the primary. So that makes six.
That leaves six seats now held by Democratic party incumbents that are competitive...which of course is where I'm going to make my money on Election Day. Let's look at each one in turn, primates:
The fight over Obama's old seat in Illinois is a real circus. Tony Rezko's old banker Alex Giannoulias is in a statistical dead heat with ReThug Congressman Mark Kirk. So the primates have a choice between a crooked financier with major ties to the whole Rezco - Blagojevich-Obama- Daley gang whose bank got taken over by the feds and a Congressman who seems to have a habit of - umm- padding his resume, shall we say.
Both of them likely stink to the voters, but Illinois being a Blue state and Chicago and Cook County being what it is, I'd give the edge to Giannoulias by a few thousand corpses, felons and.or illegal aliens...with one important hedge.
The poop throwing over Blagojevich putting the open seat up for sale and the contacts with Obama still aren't really resolved, Giannoulias was involved, and if the GOP takes the House and gets subpoena powers , I'm not sure Obama wants somebody in the Senate who has something to lose in a position to drop the rotten banana on him. So they may let Giannoulias fall. Bottom line? Too close to call yet, but I'm leaning towards Giannoulias so far, by a nose.
Babs Boxer in Kali-fornia, Patty Murray's seat in Washington and Russ Feingold's seat in Wisconsin are all places where the ReThugs could make a pickup. These are all Blue states with long term incumbents who have become unpopular because of the Obama economy.
In Kali, Carly Fiorina has borkoo shekels of her own to spend and that's always an advantage you can't discount. But California is the most Democratic of the three mentioned above and as whacked out as Babs Boxer is, she will probably be back in the Senate for another term. Call it five to three, as of now.
Wisconsin and Washington are different matters.
In Wisconsin, Russ Feingold is in a major Horse race with likely ReThug challenger Ron Johnson, and it could go either way. Johnson, like Fiorina in California has the advantage of having a lot of his own shekels to spend, but he's also going to have a primary race, which Feingold doesn't have to mess with. Wisconsin holds it primary September 14th, and a smart primate will wait to see how the numbers shake out after the primaries.
In Washington, Patty Murray is actually polling behind Dino Rossi, and the primary hasn't even been held yet. Rossi got in late, but if he's the nominee I wouldn't be surprised to see him take the seat. Again, it's early, but right now five to three on Rossi to win seems realistic.
Next we come to the real wild cards, an open GOP seat in Florida and Harry Reid's seat in Nevada.
By all rights, Nevada shoulda been an ee-zee ReThug pick up. Almost everybody in Nevada hates Harry Reid.
Fortunately for him, He ended up running against Sharron Angle, who made the amateur's mistake after a stiff primary fight with Sue Lowden of not having her campaign and her moolah together to take on Reid right after she won the primary. Reid used that time to spend the millions he got from the unions and from the DNC to paint Angle as a Tea Party whack job.
At this point, he's slightly ahead and Angle is just getting her message together for the primates..but she's also had to spend a lot of time on defense, which is always biting the rotten banana. Believe me, after what happened to this Monkey in Iowa, I know.
So at this point, it's really going to be a question of who throws the poop the best and who the voters hate least. Since Reid's the incumbent, has more experience and has a head start in the poop flinging, my gut tells me he'll be back in DC come January, but this is definitely too close to call right now.
Florida is a reee-eal zoo. Again, this started out as an easy ReThug hold, with everybody expecting Governor Charlie Crist to have a real walkover for the seat. And then along came Marco Rubio, who ended up eclipsing Crist in the ReThug primary polls. So after looking at the numbers Crist went rogue and decided to run as an Independent.
That actually put Crist ahead in the polls, with Rubio second and Democrat Kendrick Meek a distant third.
Lately, there are some polls that show Rubio just slightly ahead of Crist, with Meeks still third but gaining slightly, which tells me the race is tightening. It will tighten up even more after the August 24th primary. Again, the smart primate is gonna wait till then to calculate the odds, but I see Rubio winning this one by a small margin.
OK primates...get your fingers ready.
If current trends continue - and remember, I'm out on a real limb here - and things shake out like I think, the GOP takes six seats from the Dems and holds Florida. They also have a chance to take Wisconsin or Washington, but probably not both. So we're looking at a 7 seat gain for the ReThugs, 8 maximum if they actually take both Wisconsin and Washington. So based on that the new Senate will be 47 or 48 seats for the Republicans, 53 or 52 seats for my Democrats.
To win the Senate, the Rethugs would have hold Florida and win 10 out of the 12 elections I mentioned here, the six pickups they will already probably get plus four from the list of California, Wisconsin, Washington, Illinois, and Nevada.
Not impossible, but likely? Hoo hah!
But never fear primates... rest assured that this Monkey will be watching to see what goes on in the fetid political jungle - and will be telling you all the dirty details as they float to the surface.
Smell ya later, Primates!
Weekend Monkey was a Democratic candidate for president in 2008 and is JoshuaPundit's> political Guru. He can be reached at wendmonkey@yahoo.com
NYT Slams Israeli Airline Security Program
Today's Pravda-on-the Hudson has a story about some airline pilots, notably from the EU being unhappy about an Israeli air security program that requires the pilots to carry an Israeli-supplied card with a personal PIN code that must be submitted electronically before entering Israeli airspace.
According to the story, there have been two incidents since the program was instituted last year (the most recent involving an Ethiopian airliner and the other involving a Delta Airlines jet back in April 2009) where pilots failed to correctly input the code, IAF jets were scrambled and the planes kept from landing until it was determined that they were not a security risk.
The director general for the European Commission’s Air Transport Directorate, Daniel Calleja, complained that the program creates logistical problems for the airlines by dividing pilots into those with the Israeli-issued PINs who can fly into Israel and those without them who can't. Calleja told the Israelis this could restrict “the ability of airlines to efficiently allocate their personnel.” Calleja actually made a veiled threat in a letter sent earlier this month that this could “have immediate implications on the current air services agreement between the EU and Israel.”
Horrors..such inconvenience!
For balance, the NYT gives a little space in the back part of the story and quotes Ziad Haddad, an international airline compliance specialist and Richard Bloom, a professor and airline security expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott,Arizona as saying that the risk of the Israelis shooting down an airliner was negligible and that it was possible that the Israelis had a damned good reason for implementing the policy.
To me, the reason is immediately obvious.
You think Israel might just be trying to prevent what happened to us on 9/11 from happening to them?
We had information via Iraqi agent and al-Qaeda member Ramzi Youseff, who planned the first World Trade Center bombings that domestic airliners were being considered for use in terrorism. If we had taken that seriously and implemented a policy like the Israelis have now, 9/11 would never have happened and 3,000 Americans would be alive today.
Needless to say, the New York Times didn't see fit to mention that. And the airlines and EU bureaucrats who are complaining obviously never thought about it from that standpoint either.
Watcher's Council Nominations, 7/28/10
The Watcher's Council is a group of some of the most incisive blogs in the`sphere. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one of their own and one from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best posts, with the results appearing on Friday.
So, let's see what we have this week....
Council Submissions
- Wolf Howling - An Overdrawn Race Card
- The Provocateur - Saul Alinsky and Dr. Anna Chacko
- Rhymes With Right - Shirley Sherrod: Dissent Equals Racism And A Desire To Return To Slavery
- Right Truth - Conservative Republican Agenda
- The Razor - True Bigots
- Snapped Shot - The Happy Little Mosque… of Rage
- The Colossus of Rhodey - Oh, but of course! Captain America can’t be a “flag waver”
- Bookworm Room - How Journolist and Oliver Stone each serve to highlight the other’s insanity
- The Glittering Eye – What Went Wrong?
- Virginia Right! – Frankly my dear, charges of racism have lost their impact
- Joshuapundit – The Age of Obama – Government By Diktat
Non – Council Submissions
- Brits At Their Best - Recalling The Men Who Fought Napoleon submitted by Wolf Howling
- Gaper’s Block – Sex Trafficking in Chicago submitted by The Provocateur
- Riehl World View – Sherrod: “We Must Stop The White Man And His Uncle Toms …” submitted by Rhymes with Right
- Israelly Cool - The Day In Israel: Tuesday July 27th, 2010 submitted by Right Truth
- Jeffrey Laporte at Standing Firm via Fleming and Hayes - Message from the White House on Racism submitted by The Razor
- The Jawa Report - Zach Chesser Indicted for Material Support of Terrorism submitted by Snapped Shot
- Common Sense Political Thought - Duplicity in editing, innuendo in reporting, and a deceived readership submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
- Noisy Room – Socialist “Journolistas” submitted by Bookworm Room
- The Moderate Voice – Oliver Stone: Hitler is Misunderstood Due to “Jewish-Dominated Media” (UPDATED) submitted by The Glittering Eye’
- The Other McCain – Brilliant: U.S. Gives Pakistan $1 Billion; Pakistan Helps Our Enemies Kill Us submitted by Virginia Right
- RightChange/PJTV – Same As It Ever Was submitted by JoshuaPundit
- The Hashmonean – Undiplomatic Solution: Strike Options Targeting Iran Go Top Shelf submitted by The Watcher
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The Age of Obama - Government By Diktat
In view of the Senate passing Obama's 'financial reform' disaster, there was an interesting story in the July 15th Pravda-on-the-Hudson that spoke volumes about the real and detrimental changes the Obama Administration and its Democrat allies in Congress have been able to impose on America.
It's an innocuous enough story...just a short piece way, way back in the paper on page a-16, in a story that purports to be about health care. Note the opening paragraph:
The White House on Wednesday issued new rules requiring health insurance companies to provide free coverage for dozens of screenings, laboratory tests and other types of preventive care.
This means no more co-pays or deductibles for things like lab work, tests, screenings, routine vaccinations, prenatal care, and regular wellness visits for children and infants. It even extends to counseling for smoking obesity and AIDS tests.
But the most important thing is where these 'new rules' originated. There are a whole slew of newly created government bureaucracies in both ObamaCare and the new financial reform bill that have no legislative oversight and are answerable to no one except the White House. And they can arbitrarily decide to stick their hands in the pockets of private businesses as they deem fit with new rules and regulations, exactly as they're doing here.
But wait - isn't making this kind of preventive care free supposed to reduce costs by making it more affordable and accessible?
Aside from the fact that argument ignores the Constitutional principles involved (governmental taking of private property for starters), it's also factually bogus. Never forget that, as the Obama Administration itself finally admitted, ObamaCare is designed to be a tax bill and a transfer of wealth to people the regime feels are more deserving.
What happens when you own a hot dog stand and announce you're giving away free hot dogs every day, all you can eat? Everybody shows up, including people who normally don't bother with hot dogs or choose to spend their money elsewhere. Hey, why not? It's free, isn't it?
You get a lot more 'business' - but it doesn't put a single cent in your pocket. As a matter of fact, it substantially ups your cost of doing business because of the increased use of utilities, materials, wear and tear on your facilities and increased payroll because your employees have to work longer and harder to satisfy the new demand. Some of them actually quit because of the increased workload and stress and just do something else.
This increased ‘business’ will also undoubtedly affect your quality, as you look for ever increasing ways to buy cheaper materials and hire cheaper labor to try and survive and offset what it's costing you to stay in business.
Even worse, your real customers, the people who used to like to come to your stand because you provided quality hot dogs at a very reasonable price with good friendly service start avoiding your business like the plague. Because it now takes literally hours to get a hot dog from a rude and harassed staff, parking is a nightmare because of the crowds and the hot dogs themselves now smell and taste like cheap canned cat food.
Substitute your local HMO, Medical Insurance plan or health care provider for the hot dog stand and health care for the hot dogs and you've just gotten a preview of what's going to happen to your health care. Only with two important differences.
In the example above, if our fictional hot dog stand owner lowers quality and service past a certain point, people vote with their feet and go somewhere else. But under ObamaCare, all the hot dog stands are going to be forced into circumstances that result in the same lousy service and poor quality, so there's nowhere else to go.
And it's not like you can simply avoid patronizing any of the hot dog stands. Under ObamaCare, you'll be fined and penalized stiffly if you try.
Even worse, since the HMO and medical insurers are going to be forced to take a huge hit because the government is mandating this raid on their wallets and we all know there's no free lunch, they'll will try and ride this out by creating revenue and making cuts in other areas, like curtailing opening new facilities, buying new medical equipment, sponsoring research or hiring more employees to deal with the increased demand.
And the insurance companies will be charging more for premiums, especially because a lot of the new 'customers' taking advantage of the freebies won't be paying premiums or anything else for the care they're getting. Obama's HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius estimates that premiums will rise an average of 1.5%. Given the Obama Administration's famous accuracy in predicting what their wild-eyed schemes will cost, tripling that figure is probably a safe bet.
And that's on top of the new taxes on employer provided health care the bill mandates. Which, of course, you are legally required to have.
Eventually, most if not all private insurers will go out of business, which was always Obama's idea in the first place. So we'll all be getting our execrable hot dogs at one antiquated, understaffed government hot dog stand where it takes months to get served no matter how hungry you are, because there isn't anywhere else. And you’ll be fined heavily if you don’t eat there.
All you have to do if you think I'm exaggerating is take a peek across the pond at Britain, the national health care model for Obama and his prospective apparatchnik-in-charge, Dr. Donald Berwick. Costs have spiraled out of control to the point that even routine procedures are now rationed, doctors are in short supply, and wait times to see a physician are astronomical.
Ain't Obama-style socialism grand, tovarich and tovarin?
This government by diktat extends to the Dodd-Frank 'financial reform' bill, aptly named after two Congressmen who arguably did more to bring on the current financial crisis than anyone else in government. It too is essentially a tax and wealth transfer bill, and provides for numerous bureaucracies and special interest groups with little or no oversight who can impose new rules and costs on businesses any time they feel the urge, and mandate who gets hired and who goes on the corporate boards that run these companies.
For instance, the bill creates more than 20 "offices of minority and women inclusion" at the Treasury, Federal Reserve and other government agencies with the sole job of monitoring businesses to make sure they avoid hiring or giving contracts to white males.
And the new and all-powerful new consumer protection agency that will have American business under its thumb that the bill establishes could justifiably be dubbed the ACORN and Democratic Party Full Employment Act. What this provision will do to employment in the financial sector is something else again.
There is one rather large silver lining in this particular cloud. You have the opportunity in a couple of months to vote for people who will repeal these and the other legislative monstrosities Obama and the Democrats have foisted on us.
-selah-
This article appeared in a slightly different form in American Thinker ( they moderated my tone a bit and you know they'd never run that graphic!).
Obama To Support UN Anti-Israel Witch Hunt?
Interesting if true.
According to Bill Kristol's sources, senior Obama administration officials have been telling foreign governments that the US will get behind a UN effort to set up an 'independent investigative commission' to railroad Israel over the Gaza flotilla incident.
I use the word 'railroad' deliberately, because the UN has pretty much evolved into a forum to delegitimize and attack Israel, almost to the point of obsession. Only the opposition of the US and a few other countries on occasion has fended off the more egregious attempts.
Rest assured that any UN 'investigation' will focus solely on Israel rather than Turkey, the IHH or Hamas.
According to Kristol, Obama's UN Ambassador Susan Rice has been pushing heavily for this in between her forays into Manhattan social life, but the decision was ultimately President Obama's.
If this goes down, it could have an interesting blowback against the US, especially in view of the WikiLeaks story. It sets a precedent for UN investigations of American troops and intelligence personnel for 'human rights violations' in places like Afghanistan.
This is a decent chance that we will see this shelved, perhaps even a White House denial of this. That does not mean that Kristol is wrong and this story is false.
With the mid terms coming up, Obama and the Democrats are still trying to troll for Jewish votes and Jewish money by acting as if the chill between the Obama Administration and Israel is a thing of the past. Obama sponsoring a UN lynching against Israel doesn't exactly help the act along.
Kristol and the Weekly Standard publicizing this could very well have a role in getting Obama to back off.
It's gone down that way before.
(hat tip, EDR)
According to Bill Kristol's sources, senior Obama administration officials have been telling foreign governments that the US will get behind a UN effort to set up an 'independent investigative commission' to railroad Israel over the Gaza flotilla incident.
I use the word 'railroad' deliberately, because the UN has pretty much evolved into a forum to delegitimize and attack Israel, almost to the point of obsession. Only the opposition of the US and a few other countries on occasion has fended off the more egregious attempts.
Rest assured that any UN 'investigation' will focus solely on Israel rather than Turkey, the IHH or Hamas.
According to Kristol, Obama's UN Ambassador Susan Rice has been pushing heavily for this in between her forays into Manhattan social life, but the decision was ultimately President Obama's.
If this goes down, it could have an interesting blowback against the US, especially in view of the WikiLeaks story. It sets a precedent for UN investigations of American troops and intelligence personnel for 'human rights violations' in places like Afghanistan.
This is a decent chance that we will see this shelved, perhaps even a White House denial of this. That does not mean that Kristol is wrong and this story is false.
With the mid terms coming up, Obama and the Democrats are still trying to troll for Jewish votes and Jewish money by acting as if the chill between the Obama Administration and Israel is a thing of the past. Obama sponsoring a UN lynching against Israel doesn't exactly help the act along.
Kristol and the Weekly Standard publicizing this could very well have a role in getting Obama to back off.
It's gone down that way before.
(hat tip, EDR)
Monday, July 26, 2010
JournoList Goes Even Further Into The Sewer Discussing Palin's 'Down's Child'
The Daily Caller has just published yet another set of e-mails from Journolist, the Left's journalist listserv group. And these smell particularly bad. The topic? Whether to coordinate a negative message, jump on Andrew Sullivan stinking bandwagon and raise the Trig-troother issue - that Sarah Palin was not Trig Palin's real mother.
15 pages worth.
To be fair, some of the e-mails actually expressed some common decency, like one by Ezra Klein, who wrote: "By all accounts she’s a wonderful mother, and devoted to her fifth son [sic]. Leave this be."
But what struck me about a number of the comments was the sentiment that the chief reason for not touching this was not because it was indecent but because it could be a Republican 'trick' that could backfire politically:
Lindsay Beyerstein
Aug 30, 2008, 11:20am
In the post-Rathergate era, journalists should be on their guard for Republican dirty tricks.
If this story gains traction, regardless of its truth or falsity, the Republicans will take steps to neutralize the meme.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the McCain campaign were to leak doctored evidence for the sole purpose of discrediting it and destroying the journalist who published it. That’s probably what the Killian memos were.
We should also be on guard for “evidence” falling into the lap of an unknown and easily discredited figure. That’s probably what Rove did to neutralize the allegations of cocaine use by George W. Bush, lo these many years ago.
If apparently well-substantiated allegations emerge, we should be alert for the story behind the story, so to speak.
-Lindsay
Mark Kleiman :
Politically, this smells like a red herring and a trap, and I think that the revelation that someone was sniffing around about it would outrage large numbers of voters. Palin’s public life presents a target-rich environment for
investigation.So this story desperately needs a good leaving-alone.
There was a lot of go around about the evidence, and some suggestions for talking points and attack lines to be used if someone wanted to run with this ...and the fear was palpable, best expressed by Kathleen Geier of Talking Points Memo:
It looks like the daughter *could* be pregnant — especially in the first picture.
And it seems odd that Palin would wait until her 7th month to announce her pregnancy.
None of this is evidence of anything, of course — but I do relish the idea that if this were true and discovered, Palin would take the crown from Eagleton as the most disastrous veep choice ever.
I am really hoping Palin will self-immolate and bring down the ticket with her. Because if she proves to be a popular choice who doesn’t screw up too badly, she could be really, really dangerous in the years to come.
The whole sordid saga would be sad and pathetic if these people weren't so inherently dangerous to the whole idea of a free press that supposed to help guard our liberties.
I'll let Governor Palin have the last word:
How ironic that on a day when we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, The Daily Caller released 15 pages of JournoListers’ email exchanges about a dark and demented conspiracy regarding my son, Trig.
It’s tough to fittingly describe these numerous members of the mainstream media who actively engaged in the debate about this conspiracy back when I was first introduced as John McCain’s running mate, and it’s impossible to legitimize any “prominent” media publication that continues to traffic in this bizarre narrative today. It wasn’t just a few fringe characters in that JournoList discussion. It included writers for major newspapers, magazines, and online news publications. Those participating in this immature exchange in attempts to plant seeds of doubt and falsely accuse even included a famous historian.
This JournoList exchange exposes the warped nature of today’s media, thus explaining why many of us are forced, in fairness to the public, to utilize other mediums to communicate until the mainstream media wakes up and begins respecting the public’s intelligence and desire for truth in reporting. There is a sickness and darkness in today’s liberal media. With revelations like the JournoList exchanges, may the light keep shining to expose the problem.
It’s always darkest before the dawn. My hope, therefore, is that today, marking the anniversary of our nation’s attempt to show respect for our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters with special needs, will also mark the beginning of a new, more respectful discourse among members of our media who at least aspire to be fair and objective.
- Sarah Palin
EU Imposes Tough Sanctions On Iran
In a surprise move, the 27 member European Union voted to impose tough sanction on Iran aimed at its energy, shipping, insurance and financial sectors.
Ace Germany-based journalist Benjamin Weinthal has the full story in the Weekly Standard...here's a snippet:
This move comes on the heels of the U.S. Congress’s recently passed hard-hitting sanctions, aiming at Iran’s vulnerable energy sector and its IRGC. The IRGC are the hard-line Ahmadinejad loyalists who crushed the country’s pro-democracy movement a year ago.
Given the massive EU-Iranian trade relationship, the EU is uniquely positioned to leverage its economic muscles over Iran's rulers and bring the regime's financial interests to a grinding halt. EU exports to Iran totaled 14.1 billion euros in 2008, and import trade amounted to 11.3 billion euros, 90 percent of which was energy. If the EU decides to pump resources into enforcing the sanctions, the efficacy of ratcheting up the pressure might cause further labor unrest and deep social discontent. In the first half of July, probably as a result of the sanctions already imposed, powerful merchants in the Tehran bazaar went on strike. The last time roving bazaar strikes hit Iran was 1978, prompting the collapse of the Shah in 1979.
Coupled with U.S. sanctions that also target Iran’s energy and financial businesses, the EU sanctions might well be the last, best chance to stop Iran’s illegal nuclear program without the use of military force.
A lot of how effective this ends up being depends, of course, on how much the US and EU adhere to the sanctions and how much they extend them to other nations and companies in say, Russia and China that continue to supply the mullahs with the tools of the trade.
It's interesting to note that Russia and Iran have had a bit of a falling out lately over Iran's President Ahmadinejad's harsh language directed towards Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.
That, and the fact that the Russians have still not delivered the S-300 anti-missiles systems to Iran. But if you remember, there's a good reason for the non-delivery that involves Israel..
Video: The Real Price Tag For 'Palestinian Aid'
The 'Palestinians' have received more aid per capita than any other group, and we're constantly hearing how impoverished they are, It has to be the most successful con game in history.
As I have written previously, a large chunk of that aid has been simply stolen and squirreled away in a fashion that would make the Mafia green with envy.
Arafat's own accountant, Fuad Shubaki sung like a bird and revealed the details behind how Arafat and his fellow thugs in Fatah skimmed aid money and stole millions.
The 'Palestinian' leadership even had its greasy fingers on valuable medicines donated to the Palestinians by groups like OxFam, the International Red Cross, the EU and the UN (and of course, the American taxpayer).
For years, senior Fatah officials controlling made a bundle by systematically stealing the medicines and replacing them with worthless placebo pills, and then taking the real medicines to warehouses in Ramallah and Shechem(Nablus) for sale at premium prices on the black market.
The above video looks at some of these scam and asks the question: what did all this aid cost the truly needy in the world? Where could this money have gone instead? Why have the Palestinians continued to receive so much largess, even after they've been caught stealing so many times?
I can answer the last question.
The Palestinians picked the right enemy.
Via Carl
WikiLeaks Leaked Nothing
The big story today is the revelation that website WikiLeaks released a storm of 92,000 classified documents concerning the war in Afghanistan via the usual channels, like Pravda-On-The Hudson.
Let's be clear about something - WikiLeaks is simply a conduit. This material was leaked from someone with an agenda inside the Department of Defense, the State department or the Obama Administration itself.
The material itself is nothing earth shattering for anyone who has been following what's going on in Afghanistan.Corruption in the Afghan government, Iran and elements of the Pakistani government actively assisting the Taliban and other Islamist groups at war with us, a few friendly fire incidents and civilian collateral damage - none of this is exactly a mystery.
What is fascinating is the Obama Administration's reaction.These are people who have always considered Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame a 'hero' rather than a traitor who endangered the lives of thousands by leaking classified documents during the Vietnam War.
Yet now, with the shoe on the other foot,Administration spokesholes like NSA Jim Jones are calling the WikiLeaks 'irresponsible' and 'a danger to national security'!
Is the Administration going to search out and arrest the leaker?
After all, when Valerie Plame was publicized as working for the CIA - which was certainly no secret - people like the good folks over New York Times went absolutely insane over the matter.
Any bets on whether that will happen now?
The back story, in my opinion is that this is merely a way of prepping the American people for a withdrawal from Afghanistan, as soon as General Petraeus manages to calmth ewaters enough so we can leave without it looking like a headlong retreat.
After which, of course, Barack Obama will take the credit for 'ending two wars' . Even though as a Senator he did everything possible to sabotage the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Obama White House Backed The Release Of The Lockerbie Bomber
A pity this little tidbit came out during the weekend news doldrums.
As you know, the Libyan Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was freed from a Scottish prison on 'compassionate grounds' in August 2009 because a doctor's report paid for by the Libyan government said he had three months at most to live.
He was flown home to a hero's welcome, greeted at the airport personally by Libyan dictator Moamar Ghaddaffi and ensconced in a luxury villa overlooking the Mediterranean.
Coincidentally, British Petroleum signed a deal to pay out almost $1 billion to Ghadaffi in exchange for access to Libya's oil just before al-Magrahi's release. Tony Blair is supposed to have been instrumental in inking the deal.
Almost a year later, al-Megrahi is doing just fine, and this murderer essentially has escaped justice.
At the time this corrupt deal went down, the Obama Administration claimed to have been taken by surprise and voiced opposition to the deal.
As recently as last week when the news came out that al-Megrahi was doing fine healthwise and could live for decades, President Barack Hussein Obama claimed that all Americans were "surprised, disappointed and angry."
As it turns out, this was sheer bolshoi and kabuki outrage.
According to The Australian, the Obama Administration was not only fully informed of what was going on but actually had Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London lobby for the 'compassionate release' a week before Megrahi was freed.
In a letter, sent on August 12 last year to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and justice officials, LeBaron wrote that "if Scottish authorities come to the conclusion that al-Megrahi must be released from Scottish custody, the US position is that conditional release on compassionate grounds would be a far preferable alternative to prisoner transfer, which we strongly oppose."
The Scots ( especially since there was that juicy oil deal pending) chose to interpret the lukewarm US response to keeping al-Megrahi in custody and the remarks on how the US favored 'compassionate release' as tacit approval.By the way, this violated an agreement between Britain and the US ( the Brits were concerned we;'d hang this murderer) that anyone convicted of the bombing would serve out their sentence in a Scottish prison.
The Obama Administration has apparently tried to keep the letter secret, and refused permission to the Scottish authorities to publish it on the grounds it would prevent future "frank and open communications". But apparently it leaked out.
Senate foreign relations committee launched a probe on the al-Megrahi release after it was revealed that far from being at death's door, he was doing just fine.
The committee had asked a number of Scottish politicians - including Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and former justice secretary Jack Straw - to appear before the Senate committee to answer questions at the hearing next week about al-Megrahi's release.
They refused. But perhaps President Obama could be persuaded to appear.There are 270 innocent dead, most of them Americans and the ones they left behind who deserve some candor.
Just to make a refreshing change.
As you know, the Libyan Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was freed from a Scottish prison on 'compassionate grounds' in August 2009 because a doctor's report paid for by the Libyan government said he had three months at most to live.
He was flown home to a hero's welcome, greeted at the airport personally by Libyan dictator Moamar Ghaddaffi and ensconced in a luxury villa overlooking the Mediterranean.
Coincidentally, British Petroleum signed a deal to pay out almost $1 billion to Ghadaffi in exchange for access to Libya's oil just before al-Magrahi's release. Tony Blair is supposed to have been instrumental in inking the deal.
Almost a year later, al-Megrahi is doing just fine, and this murderer essentially has escaped justice.
At the time this corrupt deal went down, the Obama Administration claimed to have been taken by surprise and voiced opposition to the deal.
As recently as last week when the news came out that al-Megrahi was doing fine healthwise and could live for decades, President Barack Hussein Obama claimed that all Americans were "surprised, disappointed and angry."
As it turns out, this was sheer bolshoi and kabuki outrage.
According to The Australian, the Obama Administration was not only fully informed of what was going on but actually had Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London lobby for the 'compassionate release' a week before Megrahi was freed.
In a letter, sent on August 12 last year to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and justice officials, LeBaron wrote that "if Scottish authorities come to the conclusion that al-Megrahi must be released from Scottish custody, the US position is that conditional release on compassionate grounds would be a far preferable alternative to prisoner transfer, which we strongly oppose."
The Scots ( especially since there was that juicy oil deal pending) chose to interpret the lukewarm US response to keeping al-Megrahi in custody and the remarks on how the US favored 'compassionate release' as tacit approval.By the way, this violated an agreement between Britain and the US ( the Brits were concerned we;'d hang this murderer) that anyone convicted of the bombing would serve out their sentence in a Scottish prison.
The Obama Administration has apparently tried to keep the letter secret, and refused permission to the Scottish authorities to publish it on the grounds it would prevent future "frank and open communications". But apparently it leaked out.
Senate foreign relations committee launched a probe on the al-Megrahi release after it was revealed that far from being at death's door, he was doing just fine.
The committee had asked a number of Scottish politicians - including Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and former justice secretary Jack Straw - to appear before the Senate committee to answer questions at the hearing next week about al-Megrahi's release.
They refused. But perhaps President Obama could be persuaded to appear.There are 270 innocent dead, most of them Americans and the ones they left behind who deserve some candor.
Just to make a refreshing change.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Watcher's Council Results, 7/23/10
The Council has spoken! Here are the results of our weekly Watcher's Council contest.
This week's council winner was Bookworm Room for When is a burqa not a burqa? When it’s a weapon, a fine and insightful exposition on creeping Islamism and sharia.
Our non-council winning post was Jews and Israel: Death by Relativism by Robert Stacy McCain at The Other McCain. When I first read this, I knew I had to nominate this excellent piece on suicidal Jewish moral relativism .
Here are the full results:
Council Winners
- First place with 2 2/3 votes! – Bookworm Room – When is a burqa not a burqa? When it’s a weapon.
- Second place with 2 1/3 votes - The Razor – Someday Everyone Will be a Nazi for 15 Minutes
- Third place with 1 2/3 votes – Joshuapundit – Obama And The Apocalypse Blues (Remix Version)
- Fourth place with 1 vote – Snapped Shot – The Washington Post Finds Waste
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – VA Right – Why the TEA Party Should Ignore the NAACP
- Fifht place *t* with 2/3 vote – Wolf Howling – Redemption?
Non-Council Winners
- First place with 2 1/3 votes! – The Other McCain – Jews and Israel: Death by Relativism submitted by JoshuaPundit
- Second place with 1 1/3 votes - Walter Russell Mead’s Blog -Nuking Westphalia: Obama’s Deep Convictions Point to War With Iran submitted by The Glittering Eye
- Third place *t* with 1 vote – American Heritage.com – Philadelphia Story: Professor Ellis on Constitutional Compromise submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
- Third place *t* with 1 vote -Dennis Prager @ NRO - NAACP Confirms, Election Of A Black President Made No Difference submitted by Wolf Howling
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Big Government — Michael Zak – The Ku Klux Klan, Terrorist Wing of the Democratic Party submitted by Rhymes with Right
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Samson Blinded - We cannot coexist submitted by Right Truth
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Katie, The Pirate King - Can You Believe Anything That This Administration Says? submitted by The Razor
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Pat Condell - No mosque at Ground Zero submitted by Bookworm Room
- Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Bearing Drift - NASA Reaching Out to Muslims? AWESOME. submitted by VA Right
- Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Dick Morris – DEMS DESERT OBAMA submitted by The Provocateur
As always, congratulations not only to the winners but to the participants.
Lame Duck Soup - The Biggest Laugh Today...
..Comes from Charles Krauthammer in the WAPO,talking about the possibilities of the Democrat Congress using the lame duck period between the November election and the seating of the new Congress in January to push through some more of their crazed agenda like card check and cap n' tax when there will be a lot of Democrats who've already lost their seats and have nothing to lose.
We've talked about this before.
So here's Dr. Krauthammer's knee slapper:
'Dishonorable'? The current crop of Obama enablers? My side hurts.
We've talked about this before.
So here's Dr. Krauthammer's knee slapper:
Every current member should be publicly asked: In the event you lose in November -- a remote and deeply deplorable eventuality, but still not inconceivable -- do you pledge to adhere to the will of the electorate and, in any lame-duck session of Congress, refuse to approve anything but the most routine legislation required to keep the government functioning?
The Democrats could, of course, make the pledge today and break it tomorrow. Call me naive, but I can't believe anyone would be that dishonorable.
'Dishonorable'? The current crop of Obama enablers? My side hurts.
Witch Trial - How JournoList Co-ordinated With The Obama Campaign To Destroy Sarah Palin
Among the other sordid revelations of the JournoList scandal is a in depth view of the way its members collaborated with the Obama Campaign's concerted effort to destroy Sarah Palin personally and to bankrupt the Palin family.
As Jonathan Strong in the Daily Caller reveals, the members of Journolist were involved in figuring out how to discredit her and formulate talking points against her within hours after her nomination as Vice President was announced:
The conversation began with a debate over how best to attack Sarah Palin. “Honestly, this pick reeks of desperation,” wrote Michael Cohen of the New America Foundation in the minutes after the news became public. “How can anyone logically argue that Sarah Pallin [sic], a one-term governor of Alaska, is qualified to be President of the United States? Train wreck, thy name is Sarah Pallin.”
Not a wise argument, responded Jonathan Stein, a reporter for Mother Jones. If McCain were asked about Palin’s inexperience, he could simply point to then candidate Barack Obama’s similarly thin resume. “Q: Sen. McCain, given Gov. Palin’s paltry experience, how is she qualified to be commander in chief?,” Stein asked hypothetically. “A: Well, she has much experience as the Democratic nominee.”(...}
Daniel Levy of the Century Foundation noted that Obama’s “non-official campaign” would need to work hard to discredit Palin. “This seems to me like an occasion when the non-official campaign has a big role to play in defining Palin, shaping the terms of the conversation and saying things that the official [Obama] campaign shouldn’t say – very hard-hitting stuff, including some of the things that people have been noting here – scare people about having this woefully inexperienced, no foreign policy/national security/right-wing christian wing-nut a heartbeat away …… bang away at McCain’s age making this unusually significant ….
Ryan Donmoyer, a reporter for Bloomberg News who was covering the campaign, sent a quick thought that Palin’s choice not to have an abortion when she unexpectedly became pregnant at age 44 would likely boost her image because it was a heartwarming story.
“Her decision to keep the Down’s baby is going to be a hugely emotional story that appeals to a vast swath of America, I think,” Donmoyer wrote.
Politico reporter Ben Adler, now an editor at Newsweek, replied, “but doesn’t leaving sad baby without its mother while she campaigns weaken that family values argument? Or will everyone be too afraid to make that point?”
What we had here was a group of reputed journalists colluding with openly leftist opinionators to distort and shape the news by burying things like the Jeremiah Wright story while coordinating talking points to destroy Sarah Palin.
Actually, the non-official campaign wasn't so non-official. Among the many members who had connections with the Obama campaign, one of them was Jared Bernstein, who was an official adviser to the Obama Campaign.
What the official Obama campaign did to Sarah Palin was bad enough. They weren't particularly worried about John McCain, but Sarah Palin represented a real challenge, and enough of one to conceivably even pull McCain along with her into the White House.
That's why they went to any lengths to destroy her.
Huge platoons of reporters for the dinosaur media as well as squads of Democrat operatives made the trek up to Alaska looking to find something, anything that would stick. They found virtually nothing, so they simply Made Stuff Up, lying about how Mayor Palin banned books in the Wasilla Library and how Governor Palin supposdly charged victims of sexual assault for their rape kits.
Obama sent his then Senate Chief of Staff, Pete Rouse, to Alaska to set up a whole network of hate bloggers, and other malcontents, the sort of people you can find even in a state where a governor has an 80% approval rating. Rouse is now a White House adviser, and one of the people he brought on board was Democrat Alaskan State Senator Kim Elton who led the bogus Troopergate nonsense, the first in a series of phony ethics complaints (all of which were thrown out of court) organized by the campaign and designed not only to hurt Palin's candidacy but to bankrupt the Palin family.
After Obama won the election, one of his first acts was to reward Elton Chicago-style with a cushy job in the US Dept of the Interior.
It even extended to having Sam Nunn, who was on Obama’s short list for Vice Presiden and part of his transition team after the election spend days briefing Katie Couric on how to coordinate her upcoming interview with Palin to make sure just the right questions were asked to coordinate with the Obama campaign's talking points...and based on what John Zeigler has uncovered, it's not much of a stretch to intuit that there was input from the Obama campaign on the way the Palin interview was edited.
Nor did this end with the campaign.
As I pointed out some time ago even before the Journolist scandal became public, its members are part of the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy that gets daily talking points directly from the Obama Administration and is still used to drive the dinosaur media to push its agenda under the guise of 'journalism.'
These people, of course, aren't 'journalists' They're simply flacks with expensive J-school degrees who shill for the Ruling Class.