Thoughts From A Conservative Mom

Posts Tagged ‘Congress’

Holy cow! They illegally got phone records from CONGRESS??

That’s the claim made by Congressman Devin Nunes on the Hugh Hewitt Show:

HH: The idea that this might be a Geithner-Axelrod plan, and by that, the sort of intimation, Henry II style, will no one rid me of this turbulent priest, will no one rid me of these turbulent Tea Parties, that might have just been a hint, a shift of an eyebrow, a change in the tone of voice. That’s going to take a long time to get to. I don’t trust the Department of Justice on this. Do you, Congressman Nunes?

DN: No, I absolutely do not, especially after this wiretapping incident, essentially, of the House of Representative. I don’t think people are focusing on the right thing when they talk about going after the AP reporters. The big problem that I see is that they actually tapped right where I’m sitting right now, the Cloak Room.

HH: Wait a minute, this is news to me.

DN: The Cloak Room in the House of Representatives.

HH: I have no idea what you’re talking about.

DN: So when they went after the AP reporters, right? Went after all of their phone records, they went after the phone records, including right up here in the House Gallery, right up from where I’m sitting right now. So you have a real separation of powers issue that did this really rise to the level that you would have to get phone records that would, that would most likely include members of Congress, because as you know…

HH: Wow.

DN: …members of Congress talk to the press all the time.

HH: I did not know that, and that is a stunner.

DN: Now that is a separation of powers issue here, Hugh.

HH: Sure.

DN: And it’s a freedom of press issue. And now you’ve got the IRS going after people. So these things are starting to cascade one upon the other, and you have the White House pretending like they’re in the clouds like it’s not their issue somehow.

Read more at Hot Air

Nune backtracked the term “tapped” later, confirming that although phone records had been obtained, none of the lines were actually tapped:

The DOJ admitted to obtaining call records from a phone used by the AP in the House press gallery, which is … different from tapping a room used by congressmen to talk shop. How Nunes confused the two, I have no idea.  [...]

So he was sloppy in confusing obtaining phone records for wiretapping, and what he meant by the cloakroom is that, I guess, if a congressman in the room called up to an AP reporter in the press gallery, the DOJ would know about it from the gallery phone’s records.

Read more at Hot Air

The Washington Post confirmed that “The subpoenaed phones records included personal and office lines for several national security reporters and editors as well as “the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery.”

Either way, this is still a monumental abuse of power which serves to chill freedom of the press and intimidate potential sources and whistleblowers who might now think twice about speaking to the press.

Somebody better be going to jail over this.

Congressman: DOJ Seized House Press Gallery Phone Records

EXPOSED: Obama Justice Dept. Secretly Obtained Reporters’ Phone Records

Benghazi Hearing Obama Admin Lied & People Died

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Joel Pollack breaks down the five key points made by the Benghazi whistleblowers in the congressional hearing:

1. Two “stand-down” orders were given while the Benghazi attacks were in progress.

2. The “protest” about a YouTube video was a complete fabrication by the Obama administration.

3. Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s lawyer at the State Department, told witnesses not to speak to House investigators.

4. The diplomatic personnel on the ground acted with incredible, unheralded heroism.

5. Democrats came to rebut the eyewitnesses with talking points.

Read more at Breitbart

Other important points…

They knew from the first moment that it was a terrorist attack, not a protest.

Multiple requests for help were refused.

The Obama administration blocked a rescue effort after the attack began, knowing American lives were in danger:

Eyewitnesses to September’s deadly terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya told a congressional committee Wednesday that State Department officials had blocked efforts to aid Americans under fire and later tried to conceal al Qaeda’s involvement.

Mark Thompson, acting deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism at the State Department, told the politically charged hearing that on the night of the attack he was stopped from mobilizing a foreign emergency support team that was specially equipped and trained to deal with emergencies like the one in Benghazi.

Read more at the Washington Examiner

Hicks: “Lt. Colonel Gibson was Furious. He Wanted to Bring Our People Home.”

Former deputy chief turned whistleblower Gregory Hicks was demoted after he challenged the State Department over their bogus talking points.

The media is already going into overdrive in an attempt to smear and discredit the Benghazi whistleblowers.

Benghazi Whistleblowers: Obama Admin. Threatened Us

Grieving Benghazi Mom Seeks Answers, Obama Admin. Tells Her To ‘Shut Up,’ Says She’s ‘Causing Problems’

The Damning Dozen: Twelve Revelations from the Benghazi Hearings

Blow-by-Blow: How Obama & Hillary Left Americans to Die

The big Benghazi mystery: Where was Obama while 4 Americans perished?

Dereliction of Duty: Obama Did Nothing to Save American Lives in Benghazi–and Lied About It

Rep. Chaffetz: “There Was Never An Intention” To Rescue U.S. Personnel In Benghazi

Who Is Lt. Col. Gibson and Does He Hold the Key to Who Gave Stand Down Order in Benghazi?

Benghazi Whistleblower Chokes Up During Hearing: ‘It Matters to Me’

Greg Hicks: I briefed Hillary on Benghazi that night; Clinton continued to blame video

I Was Told Not to Talk to Congressional Investigators, Second Benghazi Whistleblower Testifies

Reminder: Hillary Clinton lied about Benghazi while standing in front of the victims’ caskets

Mother of Benghazi victim: Hillary and Susan Rice told me “nose to nose” that video was to blame

AP Labels Official House Benghazi Hearings as ‘GOP Hearing’

NBC’s Chuck Todd: Obama administration actions on Benghazi ‘very rational’

Susan Rice Honored With ‘Great American’ Award The Night Before Benghazi Hearing

False Benghazi narrative unravels, but scapegoated anti-Islam filmmaker still in prison

2012 Testimony: Lack of Budget Not a Factor in Benghazi Security Decisions

Hillary Clinton’s Shameful Intimidation Of Gregory Hicks

Matthew Vadum: Obama’s Benghazi Propagandist

After Benghazi hearings, lawmakers want more ‘whistle-blowers’ to step forward

Last month, M. Stanton Evans pointed out that America’s demographics currently favor the Republicans in future elections:

As shown by demographer Eric Kaufman of the University of London, religious couples across all cultures are for obvious reasons (including but not limited to abortion) having more children per family than are the secular-irreligious, whose birthrates are below replacement — which means a declining population.

“After 2020,” says Kaufman, the devoutly religious of all faiths “will begin to tip the culture wars to the conservative side.”

The liberal-counterculture Democrats will of course continue fighting this war in the schools and through the media, but have only one major demographic weapon to counter the fertility gap that is working relentlessly against them.

That weapon is illegal immigration. As the population trends move steadily conservative, the liberals must bring into the country and enfranchise new voters who will reliably cast Democratic ballots.

That, and that alone, is the real issue in the battle over immigration and why the Democrats are so bent on gaining amnesty for illegals. All the rest is window dressing.

Read more at IBD

No wonder they’re pushing so hard for amnesty.   The question is, why are Republicans so stupidly eager to help them?

Immigration reform could be election bonanza for Democrats

Republicans Promote Amnesty While Dems Refuse To Secure Border, Recruit Illegal Immigrants Onto Welfare

Homeland Security ‘Welcome’ Materials Recruit New Immigrants Onto Overburdened Welfare Programs

Case Worker: Illegal Aliens Got Food Stamps by the “Vanload”

Report: Illegals Get $4B a Year in Cash Refunds From IRS

A Problem-solving Approach to Immigration

Doesn’t surprise me one bit.

James Rosen reports at Fox News:

At least four career officials at the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency have retained lawyers or are in the process of doing so, as they prepare to provide sensitive information about the Benghazi attacks to Congress, Fox News has learned.

Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official and Republican counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, is now representing one of the State Department employees. She told Fox News her client and some of the others, who consider themselves whistle-blowers, have been threatened by unnamed Obama administration officials.

“I’m not talking generally, I’m talking specifically about Benghazi – that people have been threatened,” Toensing said in an interview Monday. “And not just the State Department. People have been threatened at the CIA.”

Read more at Fox News

Obama denies that anyone has been threatened to keep them silent:

President Obama on Tuesday said he is unaware that anyone has been blocked from testifying on the deadly Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

“There are people in your own State Department saying they have been blocked from coming forward,” said Fox News’ Ed Henry, “that they survived the terror attack and they want to tell their story.”

He is referring to recent reports that at least four officials at the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency have been warned by unnamed Obama administration officials about testifying on the Benghazi terror attacks.

“Will you help them come forward and say it once and for all?” Henry asked.

“Ed,” the president responded. “I’m not familiar with this notion that anybody has been blocked from testifying. What I’ll do is I’ll find out what, exactly, you’re referring to.”

Read more at The Blaze

Where have we heard this tune before?

“I am not a crook.” ~ Richard Nixon

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” ~ Bill Clinton

“I’m not familiar with this notion that anybody has been blocked from testifying.” ~ Barack Obama

Issa: President’s Remarks Only Help To Intimidate Benghazi Witnesses

Grieving Benghazi Mom Seeks Answers, Obama Admin. Tells Her To ‘Shut Up,’ Says She’s ‘Causing Problems’

GOP lawmakers: Obama administration blocking access to Benghazi survivors

Shocker: Obama Lied When He Said “Not Familiar” With Accusations His Admin Was Intimidating Benghazi Witnesses

HUGE: Benghazi whistleblower says admin is lying, multiple assets could have aided our guys by 2nd attack

Networks Ignore Libya Whistleblower Who Asserts: We Know Who Perpetrated Benghazi

Graham, McCain Call for Senate Select Committee on Benghazi after Intimidation Reports

State: Our Benghazi probe ‘should be enough’ for Congress

Try to contain your shock and amazement.

Stephen Dinan reports at The Washington Times:

House Republicans have concluded that the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies bear no blame for failing to halt the terrorist assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last year, releasing a report Tuesday that said President Obama and the State Department set up the military for failure.

The report also found that plenty of intelligence presaged the attack, but the White House and State Department — including the secretary at the time, Hillary Rodham Clinton — failed to heed the warnings.

In the most damning conclusion, House Republicans said Mr. Obama’s team lied about the attacks afterward, first by blaming mob violence spawned by an anti-Muslim video, and then wrongly saying it had misled the public because it was trying to protect an FBI investigation.

Read more at The Washington Times

Looks like lying under oath has become a Clinton family tradition.

The sad part is, she’ll never be held accountable for their deaths, and it probably won’t even be much of a speed bump for her campaign in 2016.

House Report: Hillary Clinton Lied, And Four In Benghazi Died

Sharyl Attkisson tweets House report; Reveals Hillary Clinton lied under oath about Benghazi; Update: WH altered talking points

House Report Blames Hillary For Cutting Security at Benghazi Consulate

NBC, ABC Ignore a Blistering House Report Placing Blame for Benghazi on Obama, Clinton

GOP lawmakers: Obama administration blocking access to Benghazi survivors

Grieving Benghazi Mom Seeks Answers, Obama Admin. Tells Her To ‘Shut Up,’ Says She’s ‘Causing Problems’

Bombshell: Obama Admin. Pulled Security Team From Libya in August, Denied Repeated Requests To Heighten Security Despite Multiplying Threats

Hillary When Questioned About White House Lies On Benghazi: ‘What Difference Does It Make?’

State Department Had No $$$ for Benghazi Security, Did Have $16 Mil for Kindles and $4.5 for Art

Sec. Clinton’s ‘Review Board’ Shocker: Says Nobody Should Be Held Responsible For Benghazi

Who Fed Susan Rice the Benghazi Bullhockey?

White House Changed CIA Talking Points

White House Blames CIA For Lies In Rice Talking Points, House Intel Chair Hits Back

Report: Panetta Lied, CIA Ops Were Denied Requests For Help Three Times During Benghazi Attack

Mother of Benghazi victim demands answers from Washington

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Back in November, the mother of one of the victims in Benghazi, Sean Patrick Smith, said she held Obama responsible for her son’s death:

“I believe that Obama murdered my son,” she said Thursday from the living room of her Clairemont home. “I firmly believe this.”

On the day she came to collect her son’s body, the administration promised to investigate the attack and get back to her with the truth of what happened.   They never contacted her.

Since then, it has been revealed that Obama watched the attack live from the situation room, but refused to send reinforcements to intervene.   We’ve learned Ambassador Stevens begged for help and that special forces were in position with painted targets, but were told to stand down.  It is suspected that Obama was gun-running to Syrian jihadists through Benghazi.

No wonder Mrs. Smith is demanding answers.  Instead, she says, she’s being told to “shut up”:

They don’t tell me much. They want me to shut up…. I was told, and I really would rather not say by who, [though] I can if you need it, but I was told that I’m causing a lot of problems and to shut up…. I told them ‘I will not! I will not shut up until I find out what really happened!’

Read more at Front Page Magazine

Benghazi Mom Pat Smith Writes Letter To Congress: ‘Please, Please Help Me Find Out’ The Truth

Father Of Former Navy SEAL Slain In Benghazi Wants To Know Why Administration Watched Attack Live And Did Nothing

Seven Hundred Retired Military Special Ops Tell Congress to Form Select Committee on Benghazi

Momentum Building for Benghazi Select Committee

GOP lawmakers: Obama administration blocking access to Benghazi survivors

Dereliction of Duty: Obama Blew Off Benghazi, Went To Bed, And Then Lied About It

Bombshell: Obama Watched Libya Attack Live From Situation Room, Refused To Send Help

Libya: Ambassador Begged For Help, Special Ops Had Painted Targets, Told To ‘Stand Down’

BOMBSHELL: Obama Admin. Was Likely Running Arms To Islamic Jihadists Through Benghazi

The foundation for the housing crisis was laid with the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977, where the government took it upon itself to encourage home ownership by pressuring banks to lend to lower-income buyers, often to meet arbitrary racial quotas. Obviously they haven’t learned a thing from where that got us.

Would it surprise anyone to learn that as a lawyer, Obama sued banks to force them to issue subprime loans?  He also worked for ACORN, which specialized in using the Community Reinvestment Act to shake down banks and pressure them to loan money to low-income minorities or face “discrimination” charges.

David Harsanyi reports at Human Events:

According to the Washington Post, the Obama administration is pushing big banks to make more home loans available to Americans with bad credit – the same kind of  government guidance that helped blow up the housing market:

In response, administration officials say they are working to get banks to lend to a wider range of borrowers by taking advantage of taxpayer-backed programs — including those offered by the Federal Housing Administration — that insure home loans against default.

Housing officials are urging the Justice Department to provide assurances to banks, which have become increasingly cautious, that they will not face legal or financial recriminations if they make loans to riskier borrowers who meet government standards but later default.

Think about this statement. The administration is asking banks – banks that Washington bails out; banks that Washington crafts regulations for — to embrace risky policies that put the institution and its investors (not to mention, all of us) in a  precarious position. So precarious, in fact, that banks have to ask government if they can be freed of any legal or financial consequences.

Read more at Human Events

What could possibly go wrong?

John Perazzo warns at Front Page Magazine:

These types of government policies initially emerged the mid-1970s, when “progressive” Democrats in Congress began a campaign to help low-income minorities become homeowners. This led to the passage, in 1977, of theCommunity Reinvestment Act (CRA), a mandate for banks to make special efforts to seek out and lend to borrowers of meager means. Founded on the premise that government intervention is necessary to counteract the fundamentally racist and inequitable nature of American society and the free market, the CRA was eventually transformed from an outreach effort into a strict quota system by the Clinton administration. Under the new arrangement, if a bank failed to meet its quota for loans to low-income minorities, it ran the risk of getting a low CRA rating from the FDIC. This, in turn, could derail the bank’s efforts to expand, relocate, merge, etc.  From a practical standpoint, then, banks had no recourse but to drastically lower their standards on down-payments and underwriting, and to approve many loans even to borrowers with weak credit credentials. As Hoover Institution Fellow Thomas Sowell explains, this led to “skyrocketing rates of mortgage delinquencies and defaults,” and the rest is history.

The CRA was by no means the only mechanism designed by government to impose lending quotas on financial institutions. For instance, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) developed rules encouraging lenders to dramatically hike their loan-approval rates for minority applicants and began bringing legal actions against mortgage bankers who failed to do so, regardless of the reason. This, too, caused lenders to lower their down-payment and income requirements.

Moreover, HUD pressured the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest sources of housing finance in the United States, to earmark a steeply rising number of their own loans for low-income borrowers. Many of these were subprime mortgages—loans characterized by higher interest rates and less favorable terms in order to compensate lenders for the high credit risk they were incurring.

Additional pressure toward this end was applied by community organizations like the pro-socialist ACORN. By accusing banks—however frivolously or unjustly—of having engaged in racially discriminatory lending practices that violated the mandates of the CRA, these groups commonly sued banks toprevent them from expanding or merging as they wished. Barack Obama, ACORN’s staunch ally, was strongly in favor of this practice. Indeed, in a 1994 class-action lawsuit against Citibank, Obama represented ACORN in demanding more favorable terms for subprime homebuyer mortgages. After four years of being dragged through the mud, a beleaguered Citibank—anxious to put an end to the incessant smears (charging racism) that Obama and his fellow litigators were hurling in its direction (to say nothing of its mounting legal bills)—agreed to settle the case.

Forbes magazine puts it bluntly: “Obama has been a staunch supporter of the CRA throughout his public life.” In other words, he has long advocated the very policies that already have reduced the real-estate market to rubble. And now he is actively pushing those very same practices again.

Read more at Front Page Magazine

Housing Crisis Redux: ‘Community Reinvestment Act’ that caused mortgage crisis is back, as if 2008 never happened

How Obama Enabled Unscrupulous Banks to Foreclose on Innocent Homeowners

How Government Caused The Mortgage Crisis

Democrats in their own words: Covering up the Fannie/Freddie scam that caused our Economic Crisis

The Free Market Was Framed: Government Intervention Caused The Financial Crisis

The Law of Unintended Consequences: How Government Created the Subprime Mess and Led Us to the Brink of Financial Disaster

Terrifying Chart Proves Obama’s Policies Lead Towards Catastrophic “Cloward-Piven” Orchestrated Financial Crisis

Obama Pushing Banks to Offer Sub-Prime Mortgages Again

Holder Launches Witch Hunt Against ‘Racist’ Banks That Won’t Lend To Minorities With Bad Credit

In Europe, “green” policies to eliminate nuclear and coal power for “green” alternatives worked so well that desperate Greeks and Germans resorted to stealing firewood from local forests to keep warm this winter.

Sadly, it doesn’t appear that Obama’s nominee has learned from their mistake.   He insists that skyrocketing energy prices are just what we need to force people away from fossil fuels towards a gloriously “green,” utopian future:

Joel Gehrke reports at the Washington Examiner:

President Obama’s Energy secretary nominee regards a carbon  tax as one of the simplest ways to move the energy industry towards clean technologies, though he notes that government would have to come up with a plan to mitigate the burden this tax places on poor people, who would pay the most.

“Ultimately, it has to be cheaper to capture and store it than to release it and pay a price,” MIT professor and Energy nominee Ernest Moniz told the Switch Energy Project in an interview last year. “If we start really squeezing down on carbon dioxide over the next few decades, well, that could double; it could eventually triple. I think inevitably if we squeeze down on carbon, we squeeze up on the cost, it brings along with it a push toward efficiency; it brings along with it a push towards clean technologies in a conventional pollution sense; it brings along with it a push towards security. Because after all, the security issues revolve around carbon bearing fuels.”

Moniz position is not far from that of Energy Secretary Steven Chu before he took a job in the Obama administration. “We have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” Chu said in 2008. Last year, gas hit $9 a gallon in Greece.

Read more at the Washington Examiner

As if poor and middle class families aren’t hurting enough trying to make ends meet as it is.

Just Freeze! EPA Says Burning Wood Is Bad, but so Is Natural Gas, Coal, Oil

Energy Secretary Admits Lower Gas Prices Aren’t A Priority, Goal Is To Force Americans To Use ‘Green’ Alternatives

Report: Obama Plans To Impose Carbon Tax On Emissions

Obama’s war on coal hits your electric bill

Here Come Obama’s ‘Necessarily Skyrocketing’ Electricity Rates

Report: Smart Meters Will Record Personal Energy Use Habits

EPA Punishes Companies For Not Buying ‘Green’ Fuel That Doesn’t Exist

EPA’s Official Position On Oil Companies: “Crucify Them”

Note To Republicans: Don’t Just Rein in the EPA, Abolish It

Terrorists attack an American compound (which is technically American soil) on the anniversary of 9/11.  Four Americans are killed.  There are over 30 survivors, but we don’t even know their names, much less their stories.  Not a single media interview.  Barely an acknowledgement that they even exist.   The State Department refuses to answer letters from lawmakers demanding to know the truth.

You’d think the media would be beating down their doors in the search for that “exclusive” first-hand account – even if they needed a shadow screen and voice changing technology to protect their identities.  But no.  The media doesn’t seem even the least bit interested in their stories.  Could it be because the tale they have to tell proves that Obama botched it big time, and lied to cover it up?

Guy Taylor writs at The Washington Times:

More than six months since the deadly attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya, Republican lawmakers say they are still looking for answers and are frustrated that the White House is blocking access to an unknown number of survivors.

The Washington Times learned Friday that the State Department has failed to respond to a letter written nearly three weeks ago by two House Republicans seeking answers about the survivors, as many as seven of whom are believed to still be at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center recovering from injuries sustained in Benghazi.

As news trickled out this month that newly confirmed Secretary of State John F. Kerry had made a secret visit to one of the injured survivors at the hospital in Bethesda, frustration mounted in the office of Rep. Frank R. Wolf of Virginia, who co-wrote the March 1 letter to Mr. Kerry with Rep. Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania.

“If somebody’s still being treated six months after the attack, I think the American people need to have the truth,” said Mr. Wolf, who voiced his frustration Friday that Mr. Kerry could have made such a trip to Walter Reed while ignoring a letter from Congress seeking answers about the survivors.

[...]  “We need to talk to anybody that was involved that wants to come forward and tell what happened,” said Mr. Wolf, who has for months called for Congress to create an independent, bipartisan and multijurisdictional committee to probe more deeply into what transpired in Benghazi.

“I’m not satisfied,” he said. “I don’t think the American people are satisfied.”

Read more at the Washington Times

Sen. Graham has his own theory about why the survivors remain relegated to the shadows:

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, in an extensive interview with Fox News, alleged that the injured survivors of the Benghazi terror attack have been “told to be quiet” and feel they can’t come forward to tell their stories — as he urged the House to subpoena the administration for details if necessary.

The South Carolina senator said he’s “had contact” with some of the survivors, calling their story “chilling.” He told Fox News that “the bottom line is they feel that they can’t come forth, they’ve been told to be quiet.”

The White House is denying any attempt to exert pressure on the surviving victims.

Read more at Fox News

I have a feeling that when Obama’s out of the White House and these people finally feel free to speak, their stories will prove that Obama should be brought up on criminal charges.

Dereliction of Duty: Obama Blew Off Benghazi, Went To Bed, And Then Lied About It

New York Times Confirms Obama Admin. Gun Running To Islamic Terrorists

Report: Obama didn’t convene counter-terrorism task force during Benghazi attack

Bombshell: Obama Watched Libya Attack Live From Situation Room, Refused To Send Help

Libya: Ambassador Begged For Help, Special Ops Had Painted Targets, Told To ‘Stand Down’

Report: Panetta Lied, CIA Ops Were Denied Requests For Help Three Times During Benghazi Attack

Father Of Former Navy SEAL Slain In Benghazi Wants To Know Why Administration Watched Attack Live And Did Nothing

BOMBSHELL: Obama Admin. Was Likely Running Arms To Islamic Jihadists Through Benghazi

Media Continues To Cover For Obama On Benghazi

If you have to say it…

Just two weeks ago, Obama tried to explain away his disastrous presidency by saying, ’The problem is … I’m not the emperor of the United States.”

Poor Obama.  If only he were emperor, he could get so much done.   Now he’s blaming his failures once again on the fact that we have this pesky constitutional republic that won’t allow him to act as a dictator:

“I am not a dictator,” President Obama said Friday while defending his efforts to stop the sequester. “I’m the president.”

Obama said there are limits to what he can do to get a deal on the sequester during a press conference in which he blamed Republicans for standing in the way of a deal.

Read more at The Hill

Obama also hilariously confused Star Wars with Star Trek while lamenting that he didn’t have mind control powers over his opponents:

President Obama yesterday outraged nerds everywhere when he committed sci-fi heresy by mixing up “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” in remarks about budget cuts.

Speaking at a White House press conference, Obama joked that he couldn’t use a “Jedi mind meld” to get Republicans to agree to his budget plan.

“I know that this has been some of the conventional wisdom that’s been floating around Washington, that somehow, even though most people agree that I’m being reasonable . . . the fact that [Republicans] don’t take it means that I should somehow do a Jedi mind meld with these folks and convince them to do what’s right,” the president said.

Obama — a professed Trekkie — was conflating the “Jedi mind tricks” of “Star Wars” with the “Vulcan mind meld” of “Star Trek” lore.

The blunder set off a frenzy of ridicule across the Twitterverse.

Read more at the New York Post

The Jawa Report snarks:

President Obama wished he could alternatively do a Jedi Death Grip on Conservatives, but that power was also not his to use. He concluded the press conference saying, “May the force be with you so you can live long and prosper.”

I leave the internets for just a couple hours and Obama declares he’s not a dictator (Update: Media hoping for a dictator)

Obama’s “Ministry of Truth” tries to turn his gaffe into a cool meme for the interwebs

Obama Finds Idea of Dictatorial Powers ‘Very Tempting’

Sequestrageddon: Democrats Hype Up Hysteria Over Budget Cuts

Lucasfilm Runs Defense for Obama’s ‘Jedi Mind Meld’ Flub

Judge Napolitano: ‘Almost An Impeachable Offense’ If Obama’s Making Spending Decisions ‘To Hurt Us’

View on YouTube

Abdicating his constitutional responsibility to uphold the law and defend our nation against an invasion of illegal immigrants and criminals is grounds for impeachment, if not a charge of treason.

Arnold Ahlert writes at Front Page Mag:

In one of the most politically despicable moves ever perpetrated by a sitting administration, federal immigration officials have released hundreds of illegal aliens from prison in anticipation of budget cuts produced by the sequester. “As fiscal uncertainty remains over the continuing resolution and possible sequestration, ICE has reviewed its detained population to ensure detention levels stay within ICE’s current budget,” said agency spokeswoman Gillian M. Christensen in a statement. Immigration officials further warned that even more releases are possible, if the anticipated cuts are realized.

In Arizona, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who revealed that more than 500 inmates were released in his county alone, put this ploy in the proper perspective. “President Obama would never release 500 criminal illegals to the streets of his hometown, yet he has no problem with releasing them in Arizona. The safety of the public is threatened and the rule of law discarded as a political tactic in this sequester battle,” he said.

[...]  In a coordinated scare tactic, DHS Secretary Janet A. Napolitano on Monday warned that, if the sequester occurs, as many as 5000 border agents will also be furloughed, increasing the chances that even more, and possibly more dangerous, illegal aliens will be roaming the countryside. “I don’t think we can maintain the same level of security,” Ms. Napolitano contended.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) cut right through the manufactured hysteria. In a letter sent to Ms. Napolitano, he outlined a host of alternative cuts Ms. Napolitano could make. Yet the most telling part of that letter was the revelation that DHS will have approximately $9 billion in unspent funds by the end of FY2013, “raising the question of why we would not start reclaiming these funds,” Coburn wrote.

[...]  Once again, the President of the United States has made it clear that he and his administration are prepared to implement their agenda by any means necessary. In this case, Obama, along with DHS and ICE officials, have now demonstrated that they are more than willing to potentially endanger American lives, rather than accept a “cut” that merely reduces the overall increase in government spending. The president undoubtedly sees such tactics as “negotiation.” Extortion is more like it.

Read more at Front Page Mag

Bryan Preston observes:

The president is also threatening to drop our border guard. In a rational age, these acts would be impeachable. Not too many years ago Californians recalled a governor for offering drivers licences to illegal aliens, and here we have a president flagrantly violating his oath to defend the nation.

Obama’s first sequester move: Releasing “waves” of illegal immigrants from detention centers

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Rips Obama For Releasing Illegal Immigrants Ahead Of Sequester Cuts, “The Height Of Absurdity”

Republicans Promote Amnesty While Dems Refuse To Secure Border, Recruit Illegal Immigrants Onto Welfare

Obama: No Border Security Before Path To Citizenship

Obama Quietly Grants Amnesty To Thousands Of Illegal Aliens

In a sane world, this would be considered treason.

Daniel Greenfield reports at Front Page Mag:

While Barack Hussein Obama is firing 20,000 Marines as part of his massive purge of the United States military to “save money”, he’s also fighting to send $700 million to the terrorists of the Palestinian Authority.

On Feb 8th, Obama issued yet another waiver for Palestinian Authority aid, claiming that sending money to the corrupt undemocratic terrorist kleptocracy that refuses to negotiate a peaceful solution was “important to the national security interests of the United States.”

Unlike those 20,000 Marines who aren’t important to the national security of the United States.

And now the big push for terrorist cash in on with John Kerry leading the way, clutched medals in hand.

Read more at Front Page Mag

Obama To Fire 20,000 Marines While Sending Billions To Terrorists

Obama will fire 20,000 Marines so he can give $6 billion U.S. taxpayer dollars to Muslims for ‘green’ energy’

Obama Sends $147 Million to Hamas-Run Gaza, Undermines Israel’s War Efforts

US-Funded Palestinian Authority Broadcasts Propaganda Teaching Children To Hate Jews And Christians

Will America Be Unprepared For The Next War?

Pentagon Warns Cuts Will Lead to Smallest Force Since World War II

America Is a Bulwark For Civilization In the World

When the 3am call came, both Obama and Clinton refused to answer it.

Joel Pollack writes at Breitbart:

Nothing. That is what President Barack Obama did on the night of September 11, 2012, as terrorists attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and killed four Americans, among them Ambassador Christopher Stevens. President Obama’s inaction was revealed in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday by outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey.

Under direct questioning by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Panetta admitted that he had no communication with President Obama after their “pre-scheduled” meeting at 5:00 p.m. EDT. The attack on the consulate had already been under way for 90 minutes at that time. Neither the president nor anyone else from the White House called afterwards to check what was happening; the Commander-in-Chief had left it “up to us,” said Panetta.

Panetta’s testimony directly contradicts President Obama’s own claim to have issued “three directives” as soon as he learned “what was going on” in Benghazi.

[...]   Panetta was also forced to admit, in the face of vigorous questioning by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), that no military action at all had been taken to intervene in Benghazi after the attack had begun, promising only that a similar lapse would not happen again.

[...]   In sum: President Obama did nothing to save Americans under attack from terrorists. His Secretary of Defense did nothing. His Secretary of State did nothing. The Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff did nothing. His Deputy National Security Adviser defended doing “nothing” to help bring the perpetrators to justice. And the entire administration participated in an effort to cover up the truth. Because there was an election to be won.

Read more at Breitbart

A CIA commander told the New York Post that Obama watched the attack live from the White House Situation Room, and did nothing.  But according to Breitbart:

While giving Senate testimony regarding Benghazi on Feb. 7, Sec. of Defense Leon Panetta said Obama was not present nor did he communicate with the Sec. of Defense during the Benghazi attack.

Whether or not Obama was present, the fact remains that he neglected as Commander-in-Chief to act when American lives were at stake.  He knowingly abandoned them in harm’s way.   In the morning, four Americans were dead, and Obama was on a plane to his next fundraiser.

Obama Blew Off Benghazi After Scheduled Meeting

Panetta: Obama Absent Night of Benghazi

Clinton and Panetta Never Talked During Benghazi Terror Attacks

Dempsey: State Department never asked us to respond to Benghazi

Panetta: Obama never called back to check on Benghazi

Hillary When Questioned About White House Lies On Benghazi: ‘What Difference Does It Make?’

Sen. Burr: CIA Has ‘Flatly Refused’ to Give Intel Committee Some Benghazi-Related Documents

Rand Paul Makes It Clear: ‘I Really Think’ The Admin May Have Had a ‘Gun-Running Operation’ in Libya

New York Times Confirms Obama Admin. Gun Running To Islamic Terrorists

Report: Obama didn’t convene counter-terrorism task force during Benghazi attack

Bombshell: Obama Watched Libya Attack Live From Situation Room, Refused To Send Help

White House Watched Attack Live As Americans Died, Refused To Send Help

Petraeus Implicates Obama In Refusal To Send Help To Benghazi

Libya: Ambassador Begged For Help, Special Ops Had Painted Targets, Told To ‘Stand Down’

Report: Panetta Lied, CIA Ops Were Denied Requests For Help Three Times During Benghazi Attack

Father Of Former Navy SEAL Slain In Benghazi Wants To Know Why Administration Watched Attack Live And Did Nothing

BOMBSHELL: Obama Admin. Was Likely Running Arms To Islamic Jihadists Through Benghazi

Sec. Clinton’s ‘Review Board’ Shocker: Says Nobody Should Be Held Responsible For Benghazi

Harry Reid Refuses To Allow Senate Panel To Investigate Benghazi

White House Blames CIA For Lies In Rice Talking Points, House Intel Chair Hits Back

Who Fed Susan the Benghazi Bullhockey?

State Dept grants senators 2-day access to Benghazi docs…while they’re out of town

Media Continues To Cover For Obama On Benghazi

If you haven’t already, it’s time to read up on the Cloward-Piven Strategy to collapse the system with unsustainable demands.  This is one of the ways it’s being implemented.

Michelle Malkin writes:

Hey, did someone set the clock back six years in Washington? Because today looks a hell of a lot like the dawn of the Bush-Kennedy-McCain 2007 illegal alien amnesty. Deja vu all over again.

Starring in the role of John McCain this time around? Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio. Standing in for George W. Bush? Barack H. Obama. The usual liberal Democrat and bend-over Republican suspects serving as the supporting cast? Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, illegal alien intern employer Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and freshman Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake.

Here’s the gist of the new Gang-rene of Eight’s plan:

According to a five-page document provided to POLITICO, the sweeping proposal — agreed to in principle by eight senators — would seek to overhaul the legal immigration system as well as create a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s roughly 11 million illegal immigrants. But establishing that pathway would depend on whether the U.S. first implements stricter border enforcement measures and new rules ensuring immigrants have left the country in compliance with their visas. Young people brought to the country as children illegally and seasonal agriculture industry workers would be given a faster path to citizenship.

[...]  Question: If GOP senators were serious about cracking down on the systemic, dangerous, ongoing, persistent problem of illegal alien visa overstayers and the failure to enact an effective visa tracking system since before and well after 9/11 (read THIS), why haven’t they pushed for fixing it SEPARATE AND APART from amnesty measures?

Answer: Because these cynical panderers are not serious about ending the backlog of more than 750,000 unvetted visa overstay records.

And another government “commission” to “ensure the new enforcement mechanisms take effect?” Spare us another phony, dog-and-pony Blue Ribbon Panel to Nowhere. Please.

Rubio is winning praise from some of my conservative friends for noting that we’ve been living under de facto amnesty.

Um, DUUUUUH.

The solution to the problem isn’t to throw in the towel and tie enforcement-in-name-only to a de jure amnesty.

It’s to turn back Obama’s systemic undermining of our existing immigration laws on their own merits.

Read more at Michelle Malkin

Michelle Malkin further observes that these illegal immigrants are already being recruited into government dependency, which will make them likely Democrat voters:

Among the many self-deluded promises that GOP illegal alien amnesty promoters are making, this one is especially snort-worthy:

Those who have obtained probationary legal status would not be allowed to access federal benefits.

Oh, yeah? How, pray tell, do these capitulationist Republicans propose to ensure that shamnesty beneficiares don’t get access to federal benefits later when they can’t do anything to prevent the Obama administration from sabotaging existing federal prohibitions on welfare for immigrants now?

Remember: Back in August, several GOP senators wrote DHS Secretary Napolitano and Secretary of State Clinton requesting answers to questions related to the departments’ apparent waiving of the legal requirement that immigrants not be a ‘public charge’ (i.e. likely to be welfare-reliant).

Reminder: Obama’s USDA is actively recruiting Mexicans for food-stamp enrollment in direct violation of federal immigration statutes.

Read more at Michelle Malkin

This deal is so beneficial to the Left that Democrats actually begged Obama to stay out of it and not mess it up, but he just can’t help himself.  He is demanding amnesty WITHOUT securing the border (can you say “border rush?”):

Obama offered his own principles on immigration in Las Vegas on Tuesday. He pushed for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants that is faster than the one the Senate group proposed.

Rather than emphasize border security first as the senators want, he would let undocumented immigrants go ahead and get on a path to citizenship, if they first undergo national security and criminal background checks, pay penalties, learn English and get behind those foreigners seeking to immigrate legally.

Even more arrogantly, he is proposing his own legislation, even though the president’s job is to ENFORCE the law (which he refuses to do), not WRITE the law:

“I’m hopeful that this can get done, and I don’t think that it should take many, many months. I think this is something we should be able to get done certainly this year and I’d like to see if we could get it done sooner, in the first half of the year if possible,” Obama told Telemundo.

If Congress delays, he said, “I’ve got a bill drafted, we’ve got language” ready to offer Capitol Hill.

Read more at Newsmax

Republicans are caving and offering him 90% of what he wants, and it’s STILL not enough.   Just wait until all those immigrants are added to the Obamacare rolls.   Talk about hitting the gas on the road to bankruptcy!

10 facts Conservatives Must Know On Immigration Reform

Obama: No Border Security Before Path To Citizenship 

Amnesty Now; Enforcement Never

Amnesty plus Obamacare = fiscal nightmare

Cost of giving illegal immigrants path to citizenship could outweigh fiscal benefits

Immigration: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Stunner. Obama White House Takes Credit for Immigration Deal

Rubio: We’re not having an immigration bidding war

Audio: Rush Limbaugh and Marco Rubio on immigration reform

The $2 million ‘immigration reform’ speech: Obama flying from DC to Las Vegas for address at a high school, then flying back to DC

Sen. Rand Paul Questions Secretary Clinton at SFRC Benghazi hearing

View on YouTube

Eric Golub writes at the Washington Times:

After endless stonewalling, the woman at the heart of Whitewater and the White House Travel Office firings today testified before Congress about Benghazi.

The woman whom the late New York Times columnist William Safire referred to as a “congenital liar” finally came forward without being forthcoming.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before Congress about the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and a pair of Navy SEALs. She uttered words so stunning in their heartlessness that even some liberals may have trouble white(water)washing them.

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson noted the falsehood of the “film-maker as instigator” narrative. After four months, nobody will answer “who pushed the video?” Regarding the motive for the murders, Clinton went into full righteous-indignation mode and bellowed “What difference at this point does it make?”

Only an ice queen with total indifference to the truth could ask why the truth matters. Only a woman who spent her entire life sacrificing others around her as chess pawns could ask why the motives for terrorism matter.

Read more at the Washington Times

What difference does it make, Hillary?  To the families of four dead Americans, and those who were duped by your lies, it makes a LOT of difference!

It’s embarrassing that a sitting Secretary of State lost her cool over a simple question she had to know in advance was coming, because let’s face it – she LIED.   Condoleeza Rice faced far harsher criticism over Iraq, and always firmly stuck to her guns, but always spoke respectfully and professionally.   Liberals resent that they have to be accountable to ANYBODY for their words and actions.  They think they are above it all.

And sadly, the mostly weak line of questioning from Republicans at this hearing is part of the reason why Democrats have grown accustomed to getting away with murder – literally – and expecting not to get called on it!    If Republicans were smart, they’d nail Hillary’s hide to the wall and destroy any chance of a 2016 presidential run.   Unfortunately, they’re too worried about looking “fair” so that propagandist media won’t crucify them.  It won’t work.  The media is determined to make Republicans look bad no matter what, so they should make sure it’s for something that they can be proud of, and actually do their jobs!

Boom! Rep. Duncan to Hillary: ‘I’ll tell you what difference it makes,’ consulate became ‘a death trap’

The White House Disinformation Campaign on Libya

Bombshell: Obama Watched Libya Attack Live From Situation Room, Refused To Send Help

Bombshell: Obama Admin. Pulled Security Team From Libya in August, Denied Repeated Requests To Heighten Security Despite Multiplying Threats

BOMBSHELL: Obama Admin. Was Likely Running Arms To Islamic Jihadists Through Benghazi

State Department Had No $$$ for Benghazi Security, Did Have $16 Mil for Kindles and $4.5 for Art

Sec. Clinton’s ‘Review Board’ Shocker: Says Nobody Should Be Held Responsible For Benghazi

Who Fed Susan the Benghazi Bullhockey?

For a Jailed Filmmaker, Clinton’s Benghazi Lies Make a Difference

RAND PAUL TO HILLARY CLINTON: I Would Have Fired You Over Benghazi

Clinton Has Talked to Only 1 American Benghazi Survivor in 4 Months; Talked to None in Wake of Attack

Fact Check: Clinton Gets Role Of Marine Security Guards Wrong

McCain Slams Clinton: ‘Your Answers Are Not Satisfactory To Me’

Charles Krauthammer Reacts to Hillary Clinton’s Testimony: ‘The Difference Is Between Truth and Falsehood’

WHITE HOUSE INSIDER: Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi Testimony – “Complete Bull***t”

“Today Show” Fawns Over Hillary Showing “True Emotion” Over Benghazi, Not So Concerned Over Her Lying To Parents Of Dead

Video: Dems Gush Uncontrollably Over Hillary Clinton… During Benghazi Hearing.