Tag: AP

Obama Runs the Ol’ Bait ‘n Switch “Oh, Look…Squirrel!”

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

obamaburningconstitutionHave you ever heard of Teapot Dome?

This was a Presidential Scandal involving Warren G. Harding in the early 1920s. It had to do with the secret leasing of federal oil reserves by the Secretary of the Interior, Albert Bacon Fall. After President Warren G. Harding transferred supervision of the naval oil reserve lands from the Navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921, Fall secretly granted to Harry F. Sinclair of the Mammoth Oil Company exclusive rights to the Teapot Dome (Wyoming) reserves. He then granted similar rights to Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum Company for the Elk Hills and Buena Vista Hills reserves in California (1921–22). In return for the leases, Fall received large cash gifts and no-interest “loans.”

When the scandal broke wide open, Congress ordered President Harding to cancel the leases. Then, the Supreme Court declared the leases fraudulent and ruled that Harding’s transfer of authority to Fall was illegal. Even though the president himself was not implicated in the transactions that had followed the transfer, the revelations of his associates’ misconduct took a severe toll on his health. Disillusioned and exhausted, he died before the full extent of the wrongdoing had been determined.

Fall was convicted of accepting a bribe in the Elk Hills negotiations and imprisoned. Doheny and Sinclair were acquitted of charges of bribery and criminal conspiracy, but Sinclair spent 6 1/2 months in prison for contempt of court and contempt of the U.S. Senate. Although the secretary of the navy, Edwin Denby, had signed all the leases, he was cleared of all charges.

Harding was a piker.

Our current President has not just one, but three scandals which he is under scrutiny about.

They must be serious, because Mooch is talking about going on an extended vacation.

So, what’s a Chicago Politician to do, to escape the heat of public attention? Why, run the ol’ Bait and Switch, of course.

Oh, look! Squirrel!

Speaking at the National Defense University in Washington Obama said, “America is at a crossroads. We must define our effort not as a boundless ‘global war on terror’ – but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America.”

In an attempt to define a new post-Sept. 11 era, Obama outlined new guidelines for the use of drones to kill terrorists overseas and pledged a renewed effort to close the military detention center in Guantanamo Bay.  In the speech, Obama argued that, “In the years to come, not every collection of thugs that labels themselves al Qaida will pose a credible threat to the United States.” He warned that “unless we discipline our thinking and our actions, we may be drawn into more wars we don’t need to fight.”

With efforts under way in Congress to redefine the 2001 authorization to use military force (AUMF) against al Qaida, Obama said he would work with Congress “in efforts to refine, and ultimately repeal, the AUMF’s mandate. And I will not sign laws designed to expand this mandate further.”

Toward the end of Obama’s address as he discussed the Guantanamo detainees, he was repeatedly interrupted by heckling from Medea Benjamin, founder of the antiwar group Code Pink, whose members have frequently been arrested for disrupting hearings on Capitol Hill – but Obama patiently said that Benjamin’s concerns are “something to be passionate about.”

“We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us, mindful of James Madison’s warning that ‘No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.’ Neither I, nor any president, can promise the total defeat of terror,” he declared.

Uh huh. Speaking of Freedom, Scooter…regarding that little matter of  the DOJ spying on the Associated Press and other reporters, including fox News…

President Obama is a little uneasy with the way journalists have been dragged into the Justice Department’s aggressive pursuit of national security leak investigations. In fact, he has ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct a 45-day review of the department’s guidelines on the issue.

That bit of news was buried in the middle of the president’s hourlong speech today at National Defense University.

“Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs,” President Obama said. “Our focus must be on those who break the law.”

And then the news: “I have raised these issues with the attorney general, who shares my concern. So he has agreed to review existing Department of Justice guidelines governing investigations that involve reporters, and will convene a group of media organizations to hear their concerns as part of that review. And I have directed the attorney general to report back to me by July 12th.”

So…the president has Top Men on the problem …Top Men…And AG Holder is the pinnacle.

About your “Top Man”, Scooter…

Openchannel.nbcnews.com reports

Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday.

The disclosure of the attorney general’s role came as President Barack Obama, in a major speech on his counterterrorism policy, said Holder had agreed to review Justice Department guidelines governing investigations that involve journalists.

“I am troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable,” Obama said. “Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs.”

Rosen, who has not been charged in the case, was nonetheless the target of a search warrant that enabled Justice Department investigators to secretly seize his private emails after an FBI agent said he had “asked, solicited and encouraged … (a source) to disclose sensitive United States internal documents and intelligence information.”

Obama’s comments follow a firestorm of criticism that has erupted over disclosures that in separate investigations of leaks of classified information, the Justice Department had obtained private emails that Rosen exchanged with a source and the phone records of Associated Press reporters.

Back in the old Soviet Union,  The Proletariat (average citizens) couldn’t sneeze without a KGB Agent saying, “Gesundheit!”

I never never dreamed that Americans would be under an oppressive Politburo like they were.

It is time for the American people to demand that their servants in Washington move forward with Special Prosecutors in all three Scandals.

Justice…and the preservation of American Freedom requires no less.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama’s IRS: Punishing Perceived Enemies…Secular and Evangelistic

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

taxesThe 2012 Presidential Election was, as are all National Elections, one of great importance. The election would decide rather former Community Organizer and one-term Illinois Senator Barack Hussein Obama, would get to continue radically changing the greatest country on the face of the Earth, into a socialist nation.

Buoyed by a wonderful showing in the 2010 Mid-term Elections, American Conservatives actually thought that we could defeat Obama, and stop the radical change, if the Republicans chose the right candidate.

The Republican Elite, instead of choosing a Conservative, chose one of their own, the Moderate Former Governor of Massachusetts, and Godfather of Obamacare, Mitt Romney, to face Obama in the General Election.

Begrudgingly, the majority of the Conservative Base, having gotten the shaft once again from the Republican Elite, dutifully went to the polls, and voted for Romney.

Romney lost, and Obama ascended to the Throne of the Regime, once again.

Since then, it has been quite apparent that there was a lot of political chicanery at work behind the scene, during the 2012 Presidential Elections. However, noting could have prepared us for the scandals which have descended upon the Obama Administration in the last several days.

The massive scope of the actions of the Internal Revenue Service and their harassment of Conservative Groups seeking tax-exempt status, just keeps growing and growing.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Tuesday that the Justice Department and the FBI began the probe after the IRS acknowledged that it selected conservative groups with the words “tea party” and “patriot” in their names for special reviews.

“We are examining the facts to see if there were criminal violations,” Holder said at a news conference.

Also Tuesday, a widely anticipated report by the IRS’s watchdog described the agency’s tax-exempt unit — where the screening of conservative groups occurred — as a bureaucratic mess, with some employees ignorant about tax laws, defiant of their supervisors and blind to the appearance of impropriety.

The report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration described in detail the use of “inappropriate criteria” to screen political advocacy groups. An IRS unit created a “lookout” list for organizations with keywords such as “tea party” or “patriot” in their names. Organizations faced months of delays in getting their applications approved.

President Obama on Tuesday called the report’s findings “intolerable and inexcusable,” adding that he has directed Treasury Secretary Jack Lew “to hold those responsible for these failures accountable, and to make sure that each of the Inspector General’s recommendations are implemented quickly, so that such conduct never happens again.”

IRS officials told the inspector general that they had used the keywords as shorthand to efficiently manage a deluge of new political advocacy groups, but that explanation was rejected by the inspector general’s office.

“Developing and using criteria that focuses on organization names and policy positions instead of the activities . . . does not promote public confidence that tax-exempt laws are being adhered to impartially,” said the report, which Inspector General J. Russell George issued.

The report did not find evidence that the actions were motivated by partisan interests. IRS officials told investigators that they did not consult anyone outside the agency about the screening.

Think about this for a moment. The Internal Revenue Service, an agency of our nation’s Executive Branch, under the Department of the Treasury, acting as political watchdogs for a sitting administration, literally clearing a path to Barack Hussein Obama’s re-election in 2012.

Now…hold on to something. The IRS didn’t go after just secular perceived enemies of Obama. They went after the most famous Christian Evangelist on the face of God’s Green Earth:  Rev. Billy Graham.

Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the family’s international humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse, said that the IRS notified the organizations in September that it was conducting a “review” of their activities for tax year 2010.

With the IRS admitting it gave extra scrutiny to conservative political organizations, Graham says he now believes that the review was part of an Obama administration effort of “targeting and attempting to intimidate us.”

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association urging of voters to back “candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles and support the nation of Israel” during last year’s presidential race was the reason why IRS agents visited the North Carolina offices of both Graham groups, the letter accuses.

“While these audits not only wasted taxpayer money, they wasted money contributed by donors for ministry purposes as we had to spend precious resources servicing the IRS agents in our offices,” Graham wrote in the letter, which was shared with POLITICO. “I believe that someone in the administration was targeting and attempting to intimidate us. This is morally wrong and unethical – indeed some would call it ‘un-American.”

Graham said that “in light” of the IRS admission that it targeted tea party groups for added scrutiny, “I do not believe that the IRS audit of our two organizations last year is a coincidence – or justifiable.”

…The Graham organizations kept their federal income tax exemptions after the audit — but were not told they’d be able to until after the November election, he wrote.

Graham, who last week attended a White House meeting for religious leaders to discuss gun control, said the IRS story threatens to engulf all manner of non-profit organizations.

“Mr. President, the IRS has already publicly acknowledged it operated in a less than neutral and non-partisan way,” Graham wrote. “We also now know that the target of their improper actions was much wider than political or Tea Party organizations. Will you take some immediate action to reassure Americans we are not in a new chapter of American history – repressive government rule?”

Reverend Graham, sir, I would not hold my breath, waiting for Obama to respond. If he does, he will tell you that it is not his fault.

None of these scandals are his fault, if you ask the president. Benghazi, the IRS, the DOJ…if you ask him, he will either tell you that this is the first he is hearing of the matter, or, in the case of Benghazi, “There is no there, there.”

The problem with his reaction to these scandals is…He’s the President of the greatest nation on the face of the Earth. He is responsible for the safety of and security for millions of lives.

And, now, he is going to tell us that he does not know what is going on in the very United States Government he is supposed to be the President of?

He is either extremely incompetent, extremely stupid, or extremely lazy (Yeah, I said it.).

Or, he knew exactly what was going on…in all three scandals.

I believe that in all instances, the buck stops with the President of the United States.

Even if he does not want it to.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama 2.0: The Scandals Just Keep on Coming

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

ObamalyingJust when you think that the Obama Administration is slowly circling around the porcelain receptacle…something comes along to speed up its descent.

Yesterday afternoon, news broke that the Obama Administration through Attorney General Eric Holder, had secretly wiretapped editors and reporters, working for the Associated Press,  for two months, in April and May of 2012.

In a letter of protest sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt called the wiretapping a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news. According to Pruitt, the Obama Administration sought and obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation. Furthermore, Pruitt has demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all the copies.

This is the third Obama Administration Scandal to break wide open since Thursday, when the House Oversight Committee, chaired by Darrel Issa, interviewed 3 whstleblowers about that tragic night of  September 11, 2012, when Muslim Terrorists murdered 4 brave Americans at the U.S. Embassy Compound in Benghazi, Libya.  The brave men, who testified last Thursday, spoke of an Administration who turned a dear ear to their cries for help that night. They also related the fact that the Youtube Video, which Obama and his Administration had blamed for the attack, was not the reason for the attack at all. In fact, it was virtually unknown in the Middle East.

The Republicans clearly won the day, with the Future Presidential Aspirations of Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, seemingly shot to Blazes.

On Friday, the second Obama Administration Scandal broke wide open, as it was revealed that the IRS had targeted Conservative Groups seeking non-profit status. Originally, it was claimed this abuse originated out of the Ohio Area.  Yesterday, it was revealed that, officials in Washington and at least two other offices were responsible for the targeting of those conservative groups.

The officials at the IRS’ Washington headquarters sent forms to be filled out to conservative groups asking about their donors and other aspects of their operations, while officials in the El Monte and Laguna Niguel offices in California sent similar questionnaires to tea party-affiliated groups.

It was found out through interviews with those Conservative Groups, that the Cincinnati Office also told conservatives seeking the status of “social welfare” groups that a task force in Washington was overseeing their applications.

When asked about the IRS’ actions at the joint Press Conference in the Rose Garden yesterday morning with Britain’s Prime Minister Cameron, Obama claimed that he knew nothing of the unconstitutional activities of the IRS until Friday.

Uh huh. And, I’m a 22 year old, blonde Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader named Buffy.

And, when asked about the Benghazi Scandal, Obama remarked that “There’s no there, there.”

Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, and Tyrone Woods would disagree…if they were still alive to disagree.

According to reports, Obama had a tear in his eye as he answered the reporters’ questions about these scandals.

Somewhere, a crocodile is missing a tear.

One of our Founding Fathers, Samuel Adams, said,

The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men.

At the time of Adams’ quote, America was under the thumb of a tyrannical despot, who sought to restrict our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, and even, our freedom of thought.

Today, as the events of the last 4 days have shown us, in unmistakable clarity, we are once again facing tyrannical oppression.

Not from a foreign enemy, but a domestic one, who is supposed to be the leader of all of us.

As the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama is supposed to be a champion of Freedom. Not a destroyer of it.

The greatest United States of America President in my lifetime, and a true champion of Freedom, Ronald Wilson Reagan, once said,

The United States remains the last best hope for a mankind plagued by tyranny and deprivation. America is no stronger than its people — and that means you and me. Well, I believe in you, and I believe that if we work together, then one day we will say, “We fought the good fight. We finished the race. We kept the faith.” And to our children and our children’s children, we can say, “We did all what could be done in the brief time that was given us here on earth.

Americans can overcome this freedom-stifling situation we find ourselves in. Its time to put pressure on our Senators and Representatives, and remind them who put them in office and who pays their salaries.

The Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch are supposed to be co-equal branches of our Government.

It’s time for the Legislative Branch to pull their weight.

This President and his Administration need to answer for their punitive actions, which have been directed at those whom they are supposed to be serving.

They seem to have forgotten who is supposed to be serving whom.

Until He Comes,

KJ