Intimidation

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The following items are archived chronologically and/or in order of discovery
Beckwith Responds To The Washington Post
The first thing I have to say about "An Attack That Came Out of the Ether," published by The Washington Post on June 28th, is that at NO time was I ever contacted by this woman, Danielle Allen, from Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS).  I spoke to two male Post reporters, who spoke to me over the phone for a period of months.  The first contact was in the fall of 2007.  They told me they were trying to track down the source of emails they considered negative to the Obamamessiah.

Allen, who is an Obama shill from Chicago and who has contributed $2,750 to Obama (going back to 2004), obsesses about the "Muslim" Obama stories, but steers clear of Obama's relationships with communists, Marxists, socialists, terrorists, racist reverends and convicted swindlers.  The trick she attempts to use is to knock down one or two or three items so the other four thousand don't count.

Read the back story of this attempt to intimidate The Obama File.
Obots Swarm
Obama supporters, alerted by campaign emails, made hundreds of telephone calls to WGN Radio, when conservative Stanley Kurtz appeared on Milt Rosenberg's WGN radio program in Chicago.  Kurtz had been researching Obama's relationship with unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers in Chicago Annenberg Challenge papers in the Richard J. Daley Library in Chicago -- papers that were closed off to him for some days, apparently at the behest of Obama supporters.

Obama fans jammed WGN's phone lines and sent in hundreds of protest emails.  They effectively shut the show down.  The message was clear to anyone who would follow Rosenberg's example.  We will make trouble for you if you let anyone make the case against The One.
State Apparatus To Censor Political Speech
Obama is striking back fiercely and swiftly to stamp out an ad that links him to a 1960s radical, eager to demonstrate a far more aggressive response to attacks than John Kerry did when faced with the 2004 "Swift Boat" campaign.

Obama not only aired a response ad to the spot linking him to William Ayers, but he sought to block stations from airing the commercial by warning station managers and asking the Justice Department to intervene.  The campaign also planned to compel advertisers to pressure stations that continue to air the anti-Obama commercial.

Obama's target is an ad by the conservative American Issues Project, a nonprofit group that questions Obama's ties to Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground organization that took credit for a series of bombings, including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol four decades ago.

"It seems they protest a bit too much," American Issues Project spokesman Christian Pinkston said.  "They're going all of these routes -- through threats, intimation -- to try to thwart the First Amendment here because they don't have an argument on merit."
Criminal Prosecution
In September, 2008, St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce warned citizens that they would bring criminal libel prosecutions against anyone who made statements against Obama that were "false."  I had been under the impression that the Alien and Sedition Acts had gone out of existence in 1801-02.  Not so, apparently, in metropolitan St. Louis.

Similarly, the Obama campaign called for a criminal investigation of the American Issues Project when it ran ads highlighting Obama's ties to Ayers.
Annapolis Grads Intimidated
Freeper RaceBannon  just heard from Freeper Flightline, a personal friend and mutual acquaintance of Walt Fitzpatrick.  Walt, an Annapolis graduate (1975), just got a visit from 3 to 4 Police Cruisers and one unmarked Government car from Knoxville, Tennessee.  Walt was informed that his most recent column, which he filed as a criminal complaint in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Knoxville, Tennessee, was being responded to as a criminal complaint against Walter himself; that the complaint he filed was ignored and was the basis for the complaint against himself.

The criminal Complaint against Walt specifically stated that Walter's complaint was considered a threat against the President of the United States.

Walter was interviewed by these officers in his yard and house and openly stated his belief of his criminal complaint along with his own personal documentation to defend his complaint and why he believed it to be true.

Walter was not arrested and the officers who visited his home responded by telling him the apparent threat against Obama was unfounded and they left the premises without incident.

Walter was not arrested, no search of his home was done and the officers were professional.

So much for the 1st Amendment.  I read the guy's blog.  I wouldn't have written it, but he certainly didn't threaten anybody.

These folks never got a visit from the Secret Service, and if you don't think there's a double standard, Google "kill Bush."

I guess "free expression" only applies to Democrats, illegal aliens, ACORN and the folks at the Daily Kos.
Justice Department to San Francisco Police:  Shut Up!
Allegations that Obama's pal Bill Ayers was involved in the murder of a San Francisco policeman appear to be running into something of a gag order from at the Department of Justice.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Justice Department and the San Francisco Police Department have contacted the San Francisco Police Officers Association and told them not to talk about the Ayers case.

Boy, that was fast!
Obama Fires GM CEO
The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.

The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government's behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason.

General Motors issued a vague statement Sunday night that did not officially confirm Wagoner's departure.

"We are anticipating an announcement soon from the Administration regarding the restructuring of the U.S. auto industry. We continue to work closely with members of the Task Force and it would not be appropriate for us to speculate on the content of any announcement," the company said.

The surprise announcement about the classically iconic American corporation is perhaps the most vivid sign yet of the tectonic change in the relationship between business and government in this era of subsidies and bailouts.

I love the "soft" language -- "Obama administration asked" -- "at the government's behest."

White House officials say that this action is "not extraordinary."
No Word From The White House
This March 29th item tells of actor Bob Basso, who has two runaway successful YouTube videos, being summoned to the White House "to discuss the disturbing nature of the videos."

In a statement released by Basso's associate, he said he had not yet been informed when he should appear at the White House.

Jesse Edwards, a Jerry Doyle Show producer, said it appears that when the "invitation" became public, the White House has let the issue drop.

"We went on the air with it.  Now he hasn't heard anything."
Obama Attorney Threatens Sanctions
After the flippant dismissal by U.S. Circuit Court Judge James Robertson of the lawsuit to attempt to determine whether Barack Obama is constitutionally eligible to occupy the Oval Office, D.C. attorney John Hemenway received a letter from a lawyer representing Barack Obama and Joe Biden.  (Hemenway had enjoined the suit launched by Hillary Clinton's ally, Philip Berg, the former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania and attorney Lawrence Joyce of Arizona, in an attempt to force Obama to disclose his birth records, currently being protected against public scrutiny by the Obama legal team at a reported cost of as much as one million dollars.)  The letter, written by Obama attorney Robert F. Bauer, states the following:

"I represent President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden. I write to request that, in light of the District Court’s March 24, 2009 Rule 11 order in Hollister v. Soetoro, No. 08-2254, you withdraw the appeal filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, No. 09-5080.  For the reasons stated in Judge Robertson’s order, the suit is frivolous and should not be pursued."

"Should you decline to withdraw this frivolous appeal, please be informed that we intend to pursue sanctions, including costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees, pursuant to federal Rule Appellate Procedure 38 and D.C. Circuit Rule 38."

Mr. Hemenway's response to the letter was a promise to "write and protest and attack those against the demand that Obama show proof of his birth, and I will continue to do anything I can think of doing that might perhaps deter or injure those who are opposed to "transparency" and "openness" and honesty in governmental operations -- all those good and vague promises that Obama threw out in speeches read from his teleprompter."

There's more here . . .
Obama's Banana Republic
On Thursday, PowerLine's John Hinderaker wrote about the banana republic capitalism that we are experiencing under the Obama administration.  In connection with the Chrysler bankruptcy, Obama, ignoring laws that assign priority to secured creditors, has tried to bully lenders into abandoning their legal rights in favor of the United Auto Workers Union.  To my knowledge, there is no precedent for this sort of arrogant lawlessness in American history.  (Germany, Italy and Argentina are familiar with it.)  Now, bankruptcy lawyer Tom Lauria adds more:

Lauria: "Let me tell you it's no fun standing on this side of the fence opposing the President of the United States.  In fact, let me just say, people have asked me who I represent.  That's a moving target.  I can tell you for sure that I represent one less investor today than I represented yesterday.  One of my clients was directly threatened by the White House and in essence compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under the threat that the full force of the White House Press Corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight.  That's how hard it is to stand on this side of the fence."

Beckman: "Was that Perella Weinberg?"

Lauria: "That was Perella Weinberg."

There is a pattern here.  Financial institutions holding billions of Chrysler's secured debt are being held hostage by the TARP loans they are not permitted to pay back.  They are being forced to accept just pennies on the dollar for loans they made in good faith less than two years ago.  Just like mob loan sharks, the administration wants them under its thumb so they can extort more and more concessions.

I drew the same analogy to organized crime loan sharking in my "banana republic" post.  Sadly, I'm afraid it is apposite.  Once again, the Obama administration has steered us into uncharted waters: we have no experience with this lack of respect for the rule of law.

By the way: does anyone doubt that Barack Obama can mobilize, as he threatened, the "full force of the White House press corps" against any political opponent?  No doubt there would be an honorable exception or two, but the threat is obviously credible.

Here is the audio of Frank Beckman interviewing Tom Lauria, bankruptcy attorney at White & Case, who represents a group of lenders that object to the Chrysler sale.

Update:  Here is a New York Times article that describes, in detail, Obama's intimidation of "a small group of speculators," as Obama called them -- who helped bankrupt Chrysler -- that, anyway, is Obama's argument.

In fact, the individuals Obama smeared have sparkling Wall Street pedigrees, are the epitome of white-shoe investment bankers, and their boutique investment bank, a latecomer to Chrysler, played only a small role in the slow-motion wreck of the Detroit carmaker.

But now the two men, along with a handful of other financiers, are being blamed for precipitating the bankruptcy of an American icon.

As Chrysler’s fate hung in the balance Wednesday night, this group refused to bend to the Obama administration and accept steep losses on their investments while more junior investors, including the United Automobile Workers union, were offered favorable terms.

In a rare flash of anger, the president scolded the group as Chrysler, its options exhausted, filed for bankruptcy protection.  "I don’t stand with those who held out when everyone else is making sacrifices," Obama said.

So, why is there any question about the veracity of Thomas Lauria's charges?  0bama did exactly what he is accused of threatening to do.  Obama publically attempted to start a smear campaign, against these people, in the media.

He's a sonofabitch!  Has been since his first campaign.

 Afterthought -- Why would anyone lend money to heavily unionized companies knowing that if things went wrong, Obama and his merry men could trash their security interests by executive decree, hold them up to public vilification, and subject them to future retribution by regulators?

The fate of Chrysler and its workers pale in comparison to the wrecking ball that would be taken to economic order if bankruptcy judge Arthur Gonzalez approves the administration’s plan to give Chrysler’s secured creditors the shaft.
Obama's Gangster Tactics Corroborated
Creditors to Chrysler describe negotiations with the company and the Obama administration as "a farce," saying the administration was bent on forcing their hands using hardball tactics and threats.

Conversations with administration officials left them expecting that they would be politically targeted, two participants in the negotiations said.

Although the focus has so been on allegations that the White House threatened Perella Weinberg, sources familiar with the matter say that other firms felt they were threatened as well.  None of the sources would agree to speak except on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of political repercussions.

The sources, who represent creditors to Chrysler, say they were taken aback by the hardball tactics that the Obama administration employed to cajole them into acquiescing to plans to restructure Chrysler.  One person described the administration as the most shocking "end justifies the means" group they have ever encountered.  Another characterized Obama was "the most dangerous smooth talker on the planet -- and I knew Kissinger."  Both were voters for Obama in the last election.

One participant in negotiations said that the administration's tactic was to present what one described as a "madman theory of the presidency" in which Obama is someone to be feared because he was willing to do anything to get his way.  The person said this threat was taken very seriously by his firm.

The White House has denied the allegation that it threatened Perella Weinberg.

Last week Obama singled out the firms that continue to oppose his plan for Chrysler, saying he would not stand with them.  Perella Weinberg says it was convinced to support the plan by this stark drawing of a line between firms that have his backing and those that did not.  They didn't want to be on the wrong side of Obama.  Privately, administration officials have expressed confidence that other firms will switch sides for this reason.

These allegations add to the picture of an administration willing to use intimidation to win over support for its Chrysler plans -- and then categorically deny it.

So, who's surprised?
A Bully In the White House
Barack Obama's lawless conduct in connection with the Chrysler bankruptcy is sending shock waves through the business community.  It is important to understand what is happening here.  Many think that Obama is merely engaging in crony capitalism, favoring his political supporters (most notably the Auto Workers Union) at the expense of others.  That's true, of course, but it is much worse than that: Obama has tried to bully those who have not bought his favor -- Chrysler's non-TARP secured creditors -- into giving up their legal rights by threatening to use the powers of the White House to damage their businesses.  This sort of lawlessness is common in some of the more corrupt Third World countries, but it is brand new to the United States.

Continue reading here . . .
More Obama Intimidation
The march of corporatism continues today as the Obama administration’s "stress tests" for TARP-funded financial institutions await release.  Now the Obama administration has heavily hinted that it will expect these institutions to change management if they don’t do well on these mid-term exams, apparently aiming for the decapitation of CEOs at companies like CitiGroup and BankAmerica just as Obama did with Genetral Motors.

As has been leaked (of course) the banks will have 30 days to come up with a plan once the results are made public.

One very interesting note, which David Zaring picked up on, is that in this 30 day period "…firms will need to review their existing management and board in order to assure that the leadership of the firm has sufficient expertise and ability to manage the risks presented by the current economic environment."

In other words, if you’re on the least-favored CEO list -- we’re looking at you Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and BankAmerica  CEO Ken Lewis -- it’s time to start talking about succession, planning for the future and resignation.

Once again, Obama sticks his fingers into the boardrooms, through the facility of TARP funding.  Under normal conditions, of course, the US government would have absolutely no say in the hiring decisions and compensation practices in the private sector, leaving those policies to stockholders.  This White House has shown itself adept at using TARP as a lever to force companies to bend to their will and dance to their tune.
Obama Threatens California
Obama is threatening to rescind billions of dollars in federal stimulus money if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers approved in February as part of the budget.

Schwarzenegger's office was advised this week by federal health officials that the wage reduction, which will save California $74 million, violates provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Failure to revoke the scheduled wage cut before it takes effect July 1 could cost California $6.8 billion in stimulus money, according to state officials.

The news comes as state lawmakers are already facing a severe cash crisis, with the state at risk of running out of money in July.

The wages at issue involve workers who care for some 440,000 low-income disabled and elderly Californians.  The workers, who collectively contribute millions of dollars in dues each month to the influential Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the United Domestic Workers, will see the state's contribution to their wages cut from a maximum of $12.10 per hour to a maximum of $10.10.

The SEIU said in a statement that it had asked the Obama administration for the ruling.

Of course this has nothing to do with the fact that SEIU PAC Spent $27 million supporting Obama’s election. (Source: FEC Filing)
Coercion
Obama's Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood told a group of reporters at the National Press Club on Thursday that he wants to "coerce people out of their cars."

Ray Lahood says he has joined a transformational administration: "I think we can change people's behavior."

Lahood has become a champion of using the Department of Transportation and federal transportation spending to get people to take trains, busses, and ride bikes instead of driving cars.

"We want to really...the idea of creating opportunities for people to get out of their cars -- and we're working with the secretary of HUD, Shaun Donovan, on opportunities for housing, walking paths, biking paths," said Lahood.  "If somebody wants to ride their bike, if -- to work or to the place of employment or to other places -- mass transit, light rail -- creating opportunities for what we call livable communities."

The moderator of the press club event asked Lahood: "Some in the highway-supporters motorist groups have been concerned by your livability initiative.  Is this an effort to make driving more torturous and to coerce people out of their cars?"

Lahood answered: "It is a way to coerce people out of their cars."

Lahood then made a joke about the fact that some conservatives believe that the way he wants to use the Department of Transportation represents an increased government intrusion in people’s lives.

"Some conservative groups are wary of the livable communities program, saying it's an example of government intrusion into people's lives," said the moderator. "How do you respond?"

"About everything we do around here is government intrusion in people's lives," said Lahood.
Obama Pressures Intelligence Agencies
Military intelligence officials have quietly told Congress they advised against transferring 25 of the 60 Guantanamo Bay terror detainees deemed eligible for relocation by the Obama administration, including five who are considered to be highly dangerous and likely to return to the battlefield.

But the Defense Intelligence Agency officials did not raise any formal objections with the administration because they concluded the decision to move prisoners already had been made, according to a letter Sen. Tom Coburn, a member of the intelligence committee, sent Tuesday to Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair.

In the letter, obtained by The Washington Times, the Oklahoma Republican senator questions whether Obama put political considerations ahead of national security.

"The DIA told the committee that DIA has not objected to the release of many rank-and-file members of terrorist organizations 'due to an explicit understanding that many detainees were destined to be transferred out of Gitmo regardless of intelligence-based objections,'" Mr. Coburn wrote.

"DIA's admission that it is not objecting to the release of some members of terrorist organizations due to a belief that policy considerations will outweigh intelligence concerns is highly troubling and highlights the need for the committee to hear from your office about the judgments of all agencies on this matter," Mr. Coburn wrote.

Continue reading here . . .
The Swine Flu Strategy
Dick Armey, 69, predicts that the "grassroots" backlash against what he called Obama’s "hostile government takeover of a sixth of the US economy" would cause the reform to fail spectacularly.  But he predicted that supporters of reform would attempt to win over the "bed-wetters caucus" -- a group of wavering lawmakers who spanned both parties, he said -- with a fear campaign in the autumn.

"In September or October there will be a hyped up outbreak of the swine flu which they’ll say is as bad as the bubonic plague to scare the bed-wetters to vote for healthcare reform," said Armey.  "That is the only way they can push something on to the American people that the American people don’t want."

Rahm Emanuel, Obama's Chief of Staff, told a Wall Street Journal conference of top corporate chief executives last November that, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."

He elaborated, saying that some things had been postponed for too long, were long-term, but are now immediate and must be dealt with.  A crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before.

So it doesn't matter if a crisis is real or manufactured to these guys, as long as it can be used to scare the crap out of Americans for the purpose of advancing Obama's socialist agenda.
White House Threatens Rush Limbaugh
In yet another blatant example of Obama-bullying of conservative media sources, the White House has issued another threat against radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

In addition to complaints that the rhetoric of Limbaugh and Beck may lead to "violence" at Town Hall meetings, the White House, the DNC, and others have warned Limbaugh in particular that he is 'on thin ice' for consistently comparing Obama tactics to that of Nazi Germany.  Click here to read from the Limbaugh website the comments of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbels concerning Rush being "on thin ice."

Of course, this may be only a precursor to an all-out assault on conservative talk radio through the FCC's new "Chief Diversity Officer" Mark Loyd, who was appointed by Obama.  I wrote extensively about Loyd and his views on conservative talk radio, and his plans for dismantling it, in a column several days ago.

The Obama plan is not unlike that of the Nazis in Germany and the Communists in the old Soviet Union who believed that it was essential to control all of the sources of news in order to maintain a stranglehold on the society.  All Obama has to do is to find a way to silence conservative talk radio and Fox News Channel, and he will have the bulk of the media in his hip pocket.

Continue reading here (with video) . . .
Vacationing Obama's Flight Rules Most Restrictive Ever
When plans were laid for next week's visit by the Obama family to Martha's Vineyard, the extent of the flight restrictions was a bit shocking to local pilots.  "This is the most restrictive temporary flight rules (TFR) we've ever seen," said James Coyne, the president of the National Air Transportation Association, who has a home on the Vineyard.  "I can't think of any example of such severe restrictions.  It's far, far more draconian than under Clinton," he told the Vineyard Gazette.  The TFR extends for 30 nautical miles (nm) for eight days, affecting seven local airports, which are in the midst of the busy tourist season.

General aviation (GA) pilots who want to land at the main Vineyard airport (KMVY), which is within a 10-nautical miles inner ring, must apply for a waiver 72 hours in advance and stop at one of several specified "gateway" airports for inspection first.   "It's really unfortunate... we'd hoped for some relief for the Katama tours," said Coyne, referring to the popular grass field on the island, which offers biplane and glider rides.  Since Katama is inside the 10-nm ring and there is no Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening facility there, the field will effectively be shut down.
  
  
Outside the 10-nm inner ring of the TFR, general aviation airplanes can take off and land if they follow certain procedures, but flight training, crop dusting, banner towing, and several other operations are restricted.  Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) spokesman Chris Dancy said the final TFR was not as bad as it might have been.  "AOPA did make the case for a less restrictive TFR and in fact was successful in advocating for gateway access to the inner ring -- the first time since the 30-nm presidential TFRs were instituted that GA has had access to the inner 10-nm ring," Dancy told AVweb on Wednesday.  Dancy added that now that the Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) is published, "it becomes incumbent upon pilots flying in that area to make sure they comply."  He noted that when a presidential TFR was implemented in Arizona earlier this week, there were eight violations.  "So it will be imperative that pilots in New England check NOTAMs immediately before departure, and that if their route of flight will take them anywhere near Cape Cod or Martha's Vineyard, that they know and follow the procedures for operating within the TFR," Dancy said.

One pilot who regularly commutes from his Edgartown home, Bill Brine, said he spent 90 minutes this week filling out forms, and expected to spend hours more clearing security while leaving and returning to the Island.

"They asked for my social security number, my pilot’s certificate number and my passport number," he said.

"So you need a passport to leave Martha’s Vineyard.  Just to be on the manifest for a private airplane leaving the Vineyard."

And the flight manifest had to record similar details for any passengers.  "And if one doesn’t have a passport number it shuts you out of the system."

The Vineyard Gazette reports that in sharp contrast to previous presidential visits, the public will be shut out when Barack Obama and his family arrive on the Vineyard somewhere in a five-hour window on Sunday afternoon.

As the Martha’s Vineyard Airport and later a White House spokeswoman confirmed yesterday, there will be no chance for the media, or, more importantly, Islanders to see the First Family.

"It will be what’s called a closed arrival," said the airport manager Sean Flynn.

"There will be no opportunity at all, really, for the public to view it.  That’s the straight up, honest answer.  You won’t catch a glimpse of anything."

Break my heart you liberal whiners. What ye sow, so shall ye reap. Martha's Vineyard, a summer haven for liberals, is being rewarded for their support of Obama, and they don't like it one bit.

But the Obamas, acting like the King and Queen of the World (and in the middle of a recession), don't give a damn how their royal behavior affects the hoi poloi.  After all, it's all about them.

As an aside, Obama is unbelievably paranoid.  He appears to be living in a constant state of fear and travels everywhere in a bubble of security, but to wipe out every airport on Cape Cod and The Islands for a week is bizarre even for the anointed one.
Obama In Bozeman
On Wednesday, August 5th it was announced locally that Obama would be coming here. There are many groups here that are against his healthcare and huge spending so those groups began talking and deciding on what they were going to do. The White House would not release ANY details other than the date.

On about Tuesday Bill found out that they would be holding the "Town Hall" at the airport.  This is only because Bill knows EVERYONE at the airport.  Our airport is actually located outside of Belgrade (tiny town) in a very remote location.  Nothing is around there.  They chose to use a hangar that is the most remotely located hangar.  You could not pick a more remote location, and you can not get to it easily.  It is totally secluded from the public.

FYI: We have many areas in Belgrade and Bozeman which could have held a large amount of folks with sufficient parking (gymnasiums/auditoriums).  All of which have chairs and tables, and would not have to be SHIPPED IN!! $$$$$.  During the week, cargo by the TONS was being shipped in constantly.  Airport employees could not believe how it just kept coming.  Though it was Obama coming, several expressed how excessive it was, especially during a recession. $$$$$

Late Tuesday/early Wednesday the 12th, they said that tickets would be handed out on Thursday 9am at two locations and the resident would be arriving around 12:30 Friday.  Thursday morning about 600 tickets were passed out.  However, 1500 were printed at a Local printing shop per White House request.  Hmmmm......900 tickets just DISAPPEARED.

This same morning someone called into the radio from the local UPS branch and said that THOUSANDS of Dollars of Lobster were shipped in for Obama.  Montana has some of the best beef in the nation!!!  And it ould have been really wonderful to help out the local economy.  Anyone heard of the Recession??  Just think...with all of the traveling the White House is doing.  $$$$$  One can only imagine what else we are paying for.

On Friday Bill and I got out to the airport about 10:45am.  The groups that wanted to protest Obama's spending and healthcare had gotten a permit to protest and that area was roped off.  But that was not to be.  A large bus carrying  Service Employees International Union (SEIU) members drove up onto the area (illegal) and unloaded right there. It was quite a commotion and there were specifically 2 SEIU men trying to make trouble and start a fight.  Police did get involved and arrested the one man but they said they did not have the manpower to remove the SEIU crowd.  The SEIU crowd was very organized and young.  About 99% were under the age of 30 and they were not locals!  They had bullhorns and PROFESSIONALLY made signs.  Some even wore preprinted T-shirts.  Oh, and Planned Parenthood folks were with them.....professing abortion rights with their T-shirts and preprinted signs.  (BTW, all these folks did have a permit to protest in ANOTHER area)

Those against healthcare/spending moved away from the SEIU crowd to avoid confrontation.  They were orderly and respectful.  Even though SEIU kept coming over and walking through, continuing to be very intimidating and aggressive at the direction of the one SEIU man.

So we had Montana folks from ALL OVER the state with their homemade signs and their DOGS with homemade signs.  We had cowboys, nurses, doctors you name it.  There was even a guy from Texas who had been driving through.  He found out about the occasion, went to the store, made a sign, and came to protest.  If you are wondering about the press.....Well, all of the major networks were over by that remote hangar I mentioned.  They were conveniently parked on the other side of the buildings FAR away.  None of these crowds were even visible to them.  I have my doubts that they knew anything about the crowds.  We did have some local news media around us from this state and Idaho.

Speaking of the local media...they were invited.  However, all questions were to be turned into the White House in advance of the event.  Wouldn't want anyone to have to think off the top of their head.  It was very obvious that it was meant to be totally controlled by the White House.  Everything was orchestrated down to the last detail to make it appear that Montana is just crazy for Obama and government healthcare.  Even those people that talked about their insurance woes........the White House called our local HRDC (Human Resource and Development Committee) and asked for names.  Then the White House asked those folks to come.  Smoke and mirrors...EVERYTHING was staged!!!!!!!!!!!

I am very dismayed about what I learned about our current White House.  The amount of control and manipulation was unbelievable.  I felt I was not living in the United States of America, more like the USSR!! I was physically nauseous.  Bill and I have been around when Presidents or Heads of State visit.  It has NEVER been like this.  I am truly very frightened for our country.  America needs your prayers and your voices.

If you care about our country please get involved.  Know the issues. And let Congress hear your voices again and again!! If they are willing to put forth so much effort to BULLY a small town one can only imagine what is going on in Washington DC.  Scary!!
Is Obama Creating A Civil War In America?
A Hollywood conservative has headed East.  It's "Freedom Concert" time for Jon Voight.  The Academy Award winner will join Sean Hannity in Cincinnati and Atlanta this weekend to honor fallen soldiers and present college scholarships to surviving children.  Mr. Voight -- a warrior himself in many ways -- has been cogitating about the state of America:

"There's a real question at stake now.  Is President Obama creating a civil war in our own country?"  Mr. Voight asked "Inside the Beltway."

"We are witnessing a slow, steady takeover of our true freedoms.  We are becoming a socialist nation, and whoever can't see this is probably hoping it isn't true.  If we permit Mr. Obama to take over all our industries, if we permit him to raise our taxes to support unconstitutional causes, then we will be in default.  This great America will become a paralyzed nation."

Be outraged, Mr. Voight advises.

"Do not let the Obama administration fool you with all their cunning Alinsky methods.  And if you don't know what that method is, I implore you to get the book 'Rules for Radicals,' by Saul Alinsky.  Mr. Obama is very well trained in these methods," he continues, citing a television campaign critical of the Republican Party and contentious town-hall meetings about health care reform.

"The real truth is that the Obama administration is professional at bullying, as we have witnessed with ACORN at work during the presidential campaign.  It seems to me they are sending down their bullies to create fist fights among average American citizens who don't want a government-run health care plan forced upon them," Mr. Voight says.  "So I ask again. Is President Obama creating a civil war in our own country?"
Government Thuggishness
The Washington Times says government coercion is becoming standard operating procedure in the nation's capital.

Obama's White House threatened financial institutions with ruin by selectively enforcing regulations unless they agreed to take government bailout money.  Similar threats were used to force financial institutions to let the government own part of their stock.  Those same institutions were forced to take losses on the bonds they held in General Motors and Chrysler.  It was only a matter of time until similar intimidating behavior was employed in the health care debate.

Democrats are unhappy that parts of the private insurance industry are opposing the government health care takeover.  The reaction is chilling.  Politico reports that by Sept. 4, "the firms are supposed to supply the government with detailed compensation data for board members and top executives as well as a 'table listing all conferences, retreats, or other events held outside company facilities from January 1, 2007, to the present that were paid for, reimbursed, or subsidized in whole or in part by your company.'  " For highly paid employees or officers, the companies are required to provide detailed "salary, bonus, options and pension" information.

The pharmaceutical industry -- which is putting up between $150 million and $200 million to promote government health care -- isn't being forced to provide this information.  Neither is anyone else.  The only firms being targeted for investigation are those in a sector openly fighting reform.

The target is obvious. On July 22nd, Obama warned, "Right now, at the time when everybody's getting hammered, [insurance companies are] making record profits and premiums are going up."  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "[Insurance companies] are the villains.  They have been part of the problem in a major way.  They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening."

Thuggish behavior by politicians is a valid reason not to give them even more power over people's lives.
Bill Would Give Obama Emergency Control of Internet
Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors.  CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit Obama to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.

The new version would allow Obama to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat.  Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

"I think the redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to its vagueness," said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which counts representatives of Verizon, Verisign, Nortel, and Carnegie Mellon University on its board.  "It is unclear what authority Sen. Rockefeller thinks is necessary over the private sector.  Unless this is clarified, we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill."

Continue reading here . . .
NEA Enlists Artists To Push Obama's Domestic Agenda
A 39-year-old Los Angeles film producer is accusing the National Endowment for the Arts of initiating a "call to action" to artists to support President Obama's domestic agenda.

The film producer, Patrick Courrielche, said he was one of roughly 75 artists, musicians, writers, poets and others on an Aug. 10 conference call hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement and United We Serve, a nationwide initiative launched by Obama to increase volunteerism.

Courrielche said officials on the hour-long call -- including NEA Director of Communications Yosi Sergant and Michael Skolnik, political director for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons -- encouraged the artists on the line to create works of art in their respective fields related to health care, energy and the environment.

"What I heard was a well thought-out pitch to encourage artists to create art on these issues," Courrielche told FOXNews.com.  "We were told we were consulted for a reason, and they specifically stated those issues as the issues we should focus on, to plant the seed.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what they're attempting to do."

Continue reading here . . .

Remember, these 75 artists, musicians, writers, poets and others rely on the NEA for a large portion of their funding.
It Ain't [America] No More, OK?


Officer doesn't Like anti-Obama poster  (01:36)
      
This video was taken on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at Rep. Jim Moran's (D-VA) Town Hall meeting on ObamaCare (Howie Dean was there too) held at South Lakes High School in Reston, VA.

Many people were left outside when the school filled to capacity.  School security officer Wesley Cheeks, Jr. did not like my anti-ObamaCare poster which used one of the gone-viral "Joker" graphics.

When I said to Officer Cheeks, "This used to be America!," his response was: "It ain't no more, OK?"
Obama Website, NEA Caught Making Devastating Political Gaffes

DigitalJournal.com is reporting that last week, NEA Communications Director Yosi Sergent denied claims that emails asking artists to create Obama policy art originated from his NEA office.  They did.  And an Obama website now features a post that calls ObamaCare opponents "Heirs of bin Laden."

 

Last week, I reported here at Digital Journal on the politicizing of the National Endowment for the Arts via NEA Communications Director Yosi Sergent.  Mr. Sergent arranged a conference call on August 10th with the White House Office of Public Engagement, NEA and United We Serve to recruit artists to create art advocating controversial Obama Administration policies, including ObamaCare and Cap-and-Trade.

 

That news came from filmmaker/art consultant Patrick Courrielche via Brietbart's Big Hollywood website.  Mr. Courrielce was a party to that call by invitation.  Mr. Sergent has since publicly denied any politicization of NEA, or that the invitations to that conference call originated from him or anyone else at NEA.  Mr. Sergent deferred all media inquiries to the Corporation for National and Community Service, from which Mr. Sergent claims the invitations originated.

Today, Mr. Courrielche is back at Big Hollywood with a new post, "Update: What The NEA Says vs. Documented Facts."  In his new post, Mr. Courrielche not only refutes Mr. Sergent's claims, he provides copies of two memos emailed directly to him, inviting artists to create new art promoting policies such as ObamaCare and Cap-and-Trade, that originated directly from Mr. Sergent's office at NEA.

You can view those emails in .jpg format here and here.  Mr. Courrielche's original claims of the politicization of the NEA at taxpayer expense in his first report at Big Hollywood have spread like wildfire, both across the Internet and in the media.  The Washington Post published a follow-up oped, "Art For Obama's Sake: The NEA Pushes the White House Agenda." Mr. Courrielche also appeared on FOX News to interview on the subject.

The new Big Hollywood piece contains samples of new art clearly promoting Obama's controversial health care bill.  In short, if you read the memos, not only will it be very clear that those emails originated from NEA, but that the political nature of the memos themselves are indisputable.  Here are excerpts as proof:
      

"A call has come to our generation. A call from the top. A call from a house that is White.  A call that we must answer.  And to answer it, we need you."

 

"President Obama is asking us to come together to help lay a new foundation for growth, focusing on core areas of the recovery agenda -- health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal."

   
Many in the media and the blogosphere are starting to ask questions as to whether these memos and conference calls constitute violations of NEA's charter, a key section of which reads as follows:
   

Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.

   

Meanwhile, over at the Obama website itself, the Gateway Pundit and Little Green Footballs blogs are reporting on a post by Organizing For America, the official website for promoting the ObamaCare bill, which contains the following shocking entry calling ObamaCare opponents the "heirs of bin Laden."

That post is also asking supporters to commemorate 9/11 by placing two phone calls, one to each caller's two US Senators, in order to fight the "Right Wing Domestic Terrorists." And that's just for starters. Here are some shocking excerpts direct from that Obama "Organizing For America" website post:
    

2 PHONE CALLS ON 9/11 – BE A TRUE PATRIOT!

DEFEAT ANTI-DEMOCRATIC FORCES OF HATE WHO CONSPIRE TO REMAIN HEALTHY + WEALTHY WHILE THE PUBLIC LANGUISHES UNDER THE BURDEN OF OUR PRESENT HEALTH CARE SYSTEM.

---* RECLAIM OUR LAND FROM THE HEIRS OF, YES: BIN LADEN *---* YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE *---

In case you haven't seen it in the News: Republican Representatives, Senators, GOP Party Leader, GOP Political Machine top personnel (e.g., Gingritch), etc etc etc --- they're ALL every one of them applauding and encouraging their zealot-horde by merrily referring to them as "Proud Right-Wing Terrorists". Google it - I'm not pulling your leg.

But don't hate them: Misguided citizens are easy-pickings for demagogues, whom they blindly follow because they’ve been trained all their lives not to question the dogma of their religion, so it’s natural for them NOT TO QUESTION what’s being spoon-fed to them by their FALSE PROPHETS who, themselves, shamelessly seek Worldly Glory.

They don’t apply the simple Test: "Am I being led closer to God, when I do what these folks say? – Or, am I on a Bullet-Train to the Devil, and I’m just a pawn to make these folks richer and more powerful?"
Inexpressibly Lame
John, at Powerline blog, thinks it's inexpressibly lame that Obama will deliver a webcast speech to the nation's students on September 8, the first day back at school for many kids.  The Secretary of Education describes the event:

Obama will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.  He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens. ...

This is the first time an Obama has spoken directly to the nation's school children about persisting and succeeding in school.  We encourage you to use this historic moment to help your students get focused and begin the school year strong.

Some conservatives, like Hugh Hewitt, are up in arms about the speech.  Hugh argues "that the president has no business injecting himself into every classroom or suggesting to teachers that they help students figure out how they can help the president."  The speech doesn't really seem that sinister to me.  But it does strike me as incredibly, inexpressibly lame -- Obama at his geekiest.

Which is, actually, the mode in which I like him best.  But I guarantee that America's school children won't see it that way.  To appreciate fully how lame this event is going to be you have to read the menu of classroom activities that teachers are asked to lead in conjunction with the speech.  The linked activities are for grades 7-12; there is another set for elementary school kids.  Here are some excerpts:

Before the speech:
 
•  Quick Write or Think/Pair/Share (Students spend a few minutes Thinking and writing about the question; Paired with another student to discuss, then Sharing their ideas with the class as a whole). What do we associate with the words responsibility, persistence, and goals? How would we define each term? A teacher might create a web of student ideas for each of the words. ...
•  Short readings. Notable quotes excerpted (and posted in large print on board) from President Obama's speeches about education. Teacher might ask students to think alone, compare ideas with a partner, and share their collaborations with the class (Think/Pair/Share) about the following: What are our interpretations of these excerpts? Based on these excerpts, what can we infer the President believes is important to be successful educationally?

During the speech:

•  Listening with a purpose: personal responsibility, goals, persistence. Teachers might ask pairs of students to create a word bank from the web of any one of the terms (personal responsibility, goals, or persistence) at the top of a double‐column style notes page. On the right‐hand side, students could take notes while President Obama talks about personal responsibility, or goals, or persistence, trying to capture direct quotations. At the end of the speech, students could then write the corresponding terms from the word bank in the left hand column, to increase retention and deepen their understanding of an important aspect of the speech.

After the speech Guided Discussion:

•  What resonated with you from President Obama's speech? What lines/phrases do you remember? ...
•  What are the three most important words in the speech? Rank them. What title would you give this speech? What's the thesis? ...
•  What do you believe are the challenges of your generation?
•  How can you be a part of addressing these challenges?

Try to put yourself in the place of a high school student confronted with this ordeal. It's worse than all of the lame "special events" I experienced in my school career, combined. It makes the grainy black and white filmstrip of lung cancer surgery that we had to watch back in the early 1960s -- Don't smoke! -- look like Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The only possible reaction by any self-respecting American adolescent is rebellion. An hour of this stuff, and President Obama will be the least cool person on the planet. No, in the galaxy.

President Obama's only hope is a denial of service attack on the White House web site by high school hackers who would rather slit their wrists than Think/Pair/Share on the topics of responsibility, persistence and goals, or participate in a Guided Discussion of the challenges of their generation.
Man Charged Over Obama "Joker" Posters
A Houston man said police were called and citations were issued because of his posters of Barack Obama, KPRC-TV reported Wednesday.

Mark Fuhre, 21, admits to hanging 20 of the controversial posters.  A single unidentified man, who saw what he was doing, called the police, who responded to the heinous crime with a task force of seven police officers.

Fuhre said he was detained after posting the signs around his neighborhood.  The signs depict Obama with his face painted like the Joker from Batman.  Fuhre said that as he drove into his driveway, he was met by the seven officers -- "They slammed me against the hood of my car, cuffed me, and threw me in the back of their car."

He was not arrested, but said he and his friend received tickets for criminal mischief and vandalism.

Now, he said he believes his right to free speech was violated. "It's the Constitution of the United States, that is being forgotten," Fuhre said.  "Everyone should have their liberties."

Kim Hammond, a member of a local Democratic group who lives in the area where Fuhre was posting the signs, spent time taking them down. "This is graffiti. This is vandalism," Hammond said.

More here . . .

I don't know about your town, but I've seen hundreds, and hundreds of political posters.  I don't ever recall the person(s) who hung them ever being detained and battered by the police -- and this is the second instance of police being employed as political agents -- remember Florida?

But, after all, there's different rules for the Obamamessiah.

Google returns  279,000 images when -- Bush Hitler poster -- is submitted to its search engine.  Did you ever read that anyone was hassled by the cops for hanging these images -- ever?
Obama Throws Out First Amendment
Sher Zieve  contends that it has now happened.  Obama has begun a full frontal attack against anyone who disagrees with him and is now shutting off free speech for Americans.  Obama is starting with insurance companies who disagree -- and then tell others -- with his Orwellian attitude of ‘I own you and everything you are,’ ObamaCare.

Acting like Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez, Obama has told his Health and Human Services Department -- and we assume other ObamaGov departments -- to launch its first assault against Humana.  The thinly-veiled threat that Obama will shut them down -- if not imprison those who oppose him on taking over our bodies -- is loud and clear to all who can still hear the truth.

Note: As more and more of We-the-People actually read the proposed ObamaCare legislations and marched 1.2 to 2 millions strong on the streets of Washington D.C., Obama and his adherents became disturbed by our actions to take our country back.  He does not like the fact that We-the-People -- in greater and greater numbers -- oppose him.  He will not stand for it.  He has now answered us.  Obama is, in no uncertain terms, warning us ‘This country now belongs to me and my Marxist allies and friends.  I will not allow you to take it back.  It’s mine and I’ll gut it -- and you -- as I see fit.  I now own you and everything you used to own. And, as it is hurting my lies about ObamaCare, I am now disallowing any and all truth about it to be spoken!’

On Monday, the Los Angeles Times carried an AP story that reads, in part:
   

"Teresa DeCaro, an agency official, sent the notice to all companies that sell private Medicare coverage and stand-alone drug plans to seniors.  The warning came as President Barack Obama’s health care legislation is moving toward key tests in a Senate committee over the next several days, and with public polls showing widespread skepticism among seniors.

"In one case, the Health and Human Services Department, which oversees CMS, launched an investigation of Humana after getting a complaint from Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., a senior lawmaker usually viewed as a reliable ally of the insurance industry.

"It is wholly unacceptable for insurance companies to mislead seniors regarding any subject -- particularly on a subject as important to them, and to the nation, as health care reform," Baucus said Monday, disclosing the HHS investigation.

"Humana Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is cooperating with the investigation and stopped the mailer earlier this month, company spokesman Tom Noland said Monday."

   
Like the old Outer Limits intro, Obama will now control what you see and what you hear.  There will soon be no more truth allowed other than ObamaTruth which is in actuality ObamaLies.  Whom of our elected officials are fighting this destruction of our first Amendment?  Any of you?  Are there any attorneys left who are ethical and willing to fight Dictator-and-Usurper-in-Chief Obama?  Are there any of you?

Obama has now begun a totalitarian attack against anyone having the temerity to tell the truth -- let alone be protected from attacks on their free speech.  It appears the time has come.  Obama has now left us but, two choices:  To fight against him or die because of him.  Never in the history of the USA has it been placed in such extreme and total jeopardy…never.

No surprise here.  After all, Obama believes that the U. S. Constitution is a flawed document -- perhaps that's why he has no problem usurping the office of POTUS.
Obama's Allies Aim For Critics' Jugular
Liberal allies of Barack Obama aren’t just getting mad at conservative attacks on his agenda.  They are getting even in a way calculated to hit conservatives where it counts: their pockets.

Former GOP House leader Dick Armey, former New York lt. governor and conservative activist Betsy McCaughey and even Fox News’s Glenn Beck have all seen their financial livelihoods threatened by political activists -- who in several cases managed to make good on the threats.

The latest prominent figure in liberal cross hairs is U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue.  Environmental activists, citing alleged conflicts of interest, have begun a campaign to pressure him to resign from the board of Union Pacific Railroad or from his longtime post as head of the nation’s top business lobby.

"We’re losing our self-government with these Chicago-style arm-twisting tactics," complained McCaughey, who resigned from the board of Cantel Medical Group after the firm was connected -- unfairly, according to it and McCaughey -- to her claims that Obama’s health care reform would lead to death panels and other calamities.  "Clearly, it’s an effort to silence critics," she added.

McCaughey and other Obama critics are falling victim to tactics by private firms, some with little connection to the policy debate and little warning.  They are being hauled into the public courtyard because of their association with an advocate-employee.  Several progressive groups are employing versions of the tactic, not as part of a coordinated effort but often enough to seem more than coincidence.

Faiz Shakir, editor of the progressive ThinkProgress blog, said the juncture of personal finances and political positions is fair game.

"The information we’ve put out is reliable, accurate and truthful," he said. "They put themselves out there as the leading opponents of health care reform, and, in doing so, they were not truthful and transparent about other motives they may have had."

Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org, is also unapologetic for pushing back against Obama’s critics.

"We said all along that we would take on the opposition and anyone standing in the way" of the White House agenda, he said.

"August was a real wake-up call for progressives when health care reform was endangered by an angry mob organized by an alliance of insurance companies, oil companies and right-wing fear-mongers," he added

Continue reading here . . .

"...an angry mob organized by an alliance of insurance companies, oil companies and right-wing fear-mongers."

"an angry mob" -- that's some description of ordinary American citizens exercising their 1st Amendment free expression right at orderly Tea Parties.

"organized by an alliance of insurance companies, oil companies and right-wing fear-mongers," is just a lie.
White House Escalates War On Fox News
Senior Obama administration officials took to the airwaves Sunday to accuse Fox News of pushing a particular point of view and not being a real news network.

The White House escalated its offensive against Fox News on Sunday by urging other news organizations to stop "following Fox" and instead join the administration's attempt to marginalize the channel.

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN that President Obama does not want "the CNNs and the others in the world [to] basically be led in following Fox."

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod went further by calling on media outlets to join the administration in declaring that Fox is "not a news organization."

"Other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way," Axelrod counseled ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "We're not going to treat them that way."

By urging other news outlets to side with the administration, Obama aides officials dramatically upped the ante in the war of words that began earlier this month, when White House communications director Anita Dunn branded Fox "opinion journalism masquerading as news."

On Sunday, Fox's Chris Wallace retorted: "We wanted to ask Dunn about her criticism, but, as they've done every week since August, the White House refused to make any administration officials available to 'FOX News Sunday' to talk about this or anything else."

Continue reading here . . .
Obama's Enemies List
Former Bush White House adviser Karl Rove has compared Barack Obama to Richard Nixon, saying the Obama administration's feud with Fox News is proof the White House is creating a Nixonian "enemies list" that "demeans" the office of the president.

"This is the White House engaging in its own version of the media enemies list," Rove told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace.  "It's unhealthy for the country and undignified for the president of the United States so to do."

A national survey conducted for the League of American Voters by the Global Marketing Research Center last week shows that 46 percent of those who watch Fox News regularly are Democrats or independents.

Hot Air has a video of Karl Rove alleging Obama is building an enemies list and adds, "Nixon built his enemies list as an extension of his general paranoia, but it took a little longer than the first few months of his presidency for that to reveal itself in that way.  The bunker mentality that produces this kind of thinking reflects a failure of the President himself to lead, and a search for scapegoats.  The public-relations mission of Anita Dunn and others serves no other real purpose except to have someone handy to blame when Obama’s agenda fails."

Mark Hyman says, "One cannot help but reach the conclusion an Obama Enemies List is already being compiled and free speech restrictions are being considered. "

David Limbaugh says, "Sorry to disillusion those of you who are still in denial about President Barack Obama's true socialistic and dictatorial nature, but this guy's militancy against his perceived enemies puts Richard Nixon's White House to shame. His war on Fox News is just his latest salvo."

Obama's gang is very comfortable using intimidation and have used the tactic often.
Who Are You To Decide?
Hot Air has some sheer comedy gold from one of the most honest White House correspondents in the business.  Jake Tapper used his time in the Briefing Room to challenge Robert Gibbels on the Obama administration’s attempts to brand Fox News as something other than a news organization.  Gibbs sputters but never answers Tapper’s essential question:
   

Tapper: It’s escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations "not a news organization" and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a news organization. Can you explain why it’s appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one –


(Crosstalk)


Gibbs: Jake, we render, we render an opinion based on some of their coverage and the fairness that, the fairness of that coverage.


Tapper: But that’s a pretty sweeping declaration that they are "not a news organization." How are they any different from, say –


Gibbs: ABC -


Tapper: ABC. MSNBC. Univision. I mean how are they any different?

   
Click over to Tapper’s blog to hear the answer.  Ultimately, though, Gibbs thoroughly misses Tapper’s point.  The White House is not just some political 501(c)3 issuing opinion statements on policy.  They’re the executive branch of government, who exist to enforce laws and are accountable to the people, at least in part (one hopes) through the media.  It’s entirely inappropriate to make pronouncements on the credibility of those organizations holding them accountable, especially when they try to wheedle other news organizations into ignoring them.

What do they have to fear from Fox News, after all? It makes them look petty and craven, instead of simply responding on each story and letting other news organizations tell their side of the story.  After all, they have no lack of volunteers for that task.

It’s the difference between campaigning and governing.  Gibbels et al still haven’t learned it, and they look like Amateur Hour as a result, or worse, Nixonian.  At the moment, no video of the exchange is available, but I’ll update this post with it as soon as its available.
Obama Strategy:  Marginalize Most Powerful Critics
Obama is working systematically to marginalize the most powerful forces behind the Republican Party, setting loose top White House officials to undermine conservatives in the media, business and lobbying worlds.

With a series of private meetings and public taunts, the White House has targeted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the biggest-spending pro-business lobbying group in the country; Rush Limbaugh, the country’s most-listened-to conservative commentator; and now, with a new volley of combative rhetoric in recent days, the insurance industry, Wall Street executives and Fox News.

Obama aides are using their powerful White House platform, combined with techniques honed in the 2008 campaign, to cast some of the most powerful adversaries as out of the mainstream and their criticism as unworthy of serious discussion.

Press secretary Robert Gibbels has mocked Limbaugh from the White House press room podium.  White House aides limited access to the Chamber and made top adviser Valerie Jarrett available to reporters to disparage the group.  Everyone from White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to White House Communications Director Anita Dunn has piled on Fox News by contending it’s not a legitimate news operation.

All of the techniques are harnessed to a larger purpose: to marginalize not only the individual person or organization but also some of the most important policy and publicity allies of the national Republican Party.

Continue reading here . . .
Axelrod And Emanuel Help Shape ACORN Coverage
While I know it doesn’t rise to the journalistic importance of the "Balloon Boy" story, I would have thought yesterday’s press conference at the National Press Club featuring Hannah Giles, James O’Keefe, Andrew Breitbart and the latest video featuring the Philadelphia office of ACORN would have gathered a little more main-stream media attention.

This past Sunday, David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel made unprecedented statements on the Sunday morning shows.  They both echoed the same two talking points which were essentially:
  

1. Fox News is not really a legitimate news source because it has a 'point of view' and

2. We encourage all legitimate news networks to stop treating them as if they are legitimate.

   
The ACORN press conference and new video have been news for over 24 hours, and as of now, the networks’ coverage is as follows:
 
•  Fox News – ran a story within an hour of the press conference and duplicated coverage on their web page
•  NBC – nothing
•  MSNBC – nothing
•  CNN – nothing
•  AP ran a story late yesterday.
•  CBS – has only re-run the AP story
•  ABC – has only re-run the AP story

I’m just wondering, do you think the networks got the White House’s message?
Obama's Chicago-Style Politics
The Swamp blog says Republicans are accusing the Obama White House of an offensive offensive strategy for confronting its critics -- which lately include FOX News Channel's most vocal commentators.  The White House says it's simply trying to keep the record straight.

And Chicago-based friends of Obama take exception to that "Chicago-style politics'' charge that the House Republican leader leveled at Obama -- "cracks at my city,'' friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett calls it.

Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, on the Senate floor, has accused Obama of reviving the old "enemies list'' of Nixon days, this from a guy who served the Nixon White House as a young man.  Those enemies include the insurance industry.

And now House Republican Leader John Boehner says the White House's attack tactics are nothing short of "Chicago-style politics.''

"The White House and congressional Democrats know that their liberal special-interest agenda is not very popular,'' Boehner (R--Ohio) said at his weekly press briefing on Thursday.  "And now they are following a familiar pattern:  when you can't win an argument based on the facts, launch vicious political attacks.

"This Chicago-style politics is shutting the American people out and demonizing their opponents,'' Boehner asserted.

"They are writing the health care bill in secret, even though the president called for all of this to be out on an open table and have C--SPAN cameras in the room,'' he said.  "Instead, Democrats are targeting those who don't fall immediately in line -- the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, doctors, Fox News.

"The administration promised during the campaign that they were going to usher in an era of 'post-partisanship' in here in Washington,'' the House Republican leader said, "but what they are doing is flat-out despicable."

Jarrett, one of the president's closest advisers and a friend from Chicago, was in Chicago this morning, where she told MSNBC's Morning Joe (video) that the White House is trying to be "clear and direct" with the public with a goal of passing health-care legislation this year.

"We're not going to let distortions get in the way of delivering health care to the people,'' said Jarrett, asked about Boehner's comments.  "It's not an attack, it's nothing other than trying to speak directly with people, so that they understand what's in the bill'' and health care is passed this year.

Asked on-air by the editor of Oprah Winfrey's O magazine about the meaning of Chicago politics -- and if it entails responding when attacked, Jarrett said:  "That's exactly right.  I'm home in Chicago (this morning).  I really don't like people taking cracks at my city.  I love this town.''
Mister Tough Guy
Mark Steyn reminds us that Benjamin Disraeli’s most famous advice to aspiring politicians was: "Never complain and never explain."  For the greatest orator of our time, a man who makes Churchill, Lincoln, and Henry V at Agincourt look like first-round rejects on Orating with the Stars, Barack Obama seems to have pretty much given up on the explaining side.  He tried it with health care with speech after speech after exclusive interview for months on end and the more he explained the more unpopular the whole racket got.  So he declared that the time for explaining is over, and it’s time to sign on or else.

Meanwhile, to take the other half of the Disraeli equation, Obama and his officials and their beleaguered band of surrogates never stop complaining.  If you express concerns about government health care, they complain about all these "racists" and "domestic terrorists" obstructing his agenda.  If you wonder why Obama can’t seem to find time in his hectic schedule of international-awards acceptance speeches to make a decision about Afghanistan, they complain that it’s not his fault he "inherited" all these problems.  And, if you wonder why his "green jobs" czar is a Communist 9/11 Truther and his National Endowment for the Arts guy is leaning on grant recipients to produce Soviet-style propaganda extolling Obama policies, they complain about Fox News.

The most recent whine -- the anti-Fox campaign -- is, apart from anything else, unbecoming to the office.  Obama is the chief of state of one of the oldest free societies in the world, but his official White House website runs teasers such as: "For even more Fox lies, check out the latest 'Truth-O-Meter.'"  It gives off the air of somebody only marginally less paranoid than this week’s president-for-life in some basket-case banana republic ranting on the palace balcony because his interior security chief isn’t doing a fast enough job of disappearing his enemies.

George W. Bush:  Remember him?  Of course, you do.  He’s the guy who’s to blame for everything, and still will be midway through Obama’s second term.  It turns out he’s in exile abroad.  He was giving a speech in Saskatoon.  That’s a town in Saskatchewan.  And Saskatchewan’s a province in Canada apparently.  And in the course of his glittering night playing the Saskatoon circuit, he was asked about media criticism of him, and he told them the attacks never bothered him although his dad used to get upset:  "He’d read the editorial pages, he’d watch the nightly news, and I didn’t.  I mean, why watch the nightly news when you are the nightly news?"

That attitude, while raising a bunch of other issues, is psychologically healthier.  If you’re going to attack the press, you need a lightness of touch, not a ham-fisted crowbar such as the White House wielded on Thursday, attempting to ban Fox from the pool interviews with the "pay czar."  Another bit of venerable Disraelian insouciance, on the scribblers of Fleet Street:  "Today they blacken your character, tomorrow they blacken your boots."  For two years, the U.S. media have been polishing Obama’s boots, mostly with their drool, to a degree unprecedented in American public life.  But now it’s time for the handful of holdouts to make with the Kiwi -- or else.

Continue reading here . . .
Obama Hits Out At Climate "Naysayers"
Barack Obama on Friday hit out at naysayers he blamed for peddling "cynical" claims that global warming is a myth to derail a landmark climate change bill in Congress.

Obama warned that the closer the Senate came to passing legislation which has already cleared the House of Representatives, the more opponents would resort to underhand tactics.

"The naysayers, the folks who would pretend that this is not an issue, they are being marginalized," Obama warned in a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"But I think it's important to understand that the closer we get, the harder the opposition will fight and the more we'll hear from those whose interest or ideology run counter to the much needed action that we're engaged in.

"There are those who will suggest that moving toward clean energy will destroy our economy," Obama said, a day after the release of a poll showing fewer Americans see solid evidence of global warming.

"There are going to be those who... make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change, claims whose only purpose is to defeat or delay the change that we know is necessary."

Necessary, huh?  Check out this chart:
   

     
Obama's "Declared National Emergency"
Marion Valentine lists some of the  Executive Orders that would suspend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights during Obama's  "Declared National Emergency."  These Executive Orders have been on record for nearly 30 years and could be enacted by the stroke of a Presidential pen:

Executive Order 10990 allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports.

Executive Order 10995 allows the government to seize and control the communication media.

Executive Order 10997 allows the government to take over all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals.

Executive Order 10998 allows the government to take over all food resources and farms.

Executive Order 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision.

Executive Order 11001 allows the government to take over all health, education and welfare functions.

Executive Order 11002 designates the Postmaster General to operate a national registration of all persons.

Executive Order 11003 allows the government to take over all airports and aircraft, including commercial aircraft.

Executive Order 11004 allows the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate communities, build new housing with public funds, designate areas to be abandoned, and establish new locations for populations.

Executive Order 11005 allows the government to take over railroads, inland waterways and public storage facilities.

Executive Order 11051 specifies the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international tensions and economic or financial crisis.

Executive Order 11310 grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President.

Here are the later Executive Orders:

Executive Order 11049 assigns emergency preparedness function to federal departments and agencies, consolidating 21 operative Executive Orders issued over a fifteen year period.

Executive Order 11921 allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money in U.S. financial institution in any undefined national emergency.  It also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President, Congress cannot review the action for six months.

Executive Order 12148 created the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that is to interface with the Department of Defense for civil defense planning and funding.  An "emergency czar" was appointed.  FEMA has only spent about 6 percent of its budget on national emergencies, the bulk of their funding has been used for the construction of secret underground facilities to assure continuity of government in case of a major emergency, foreign or domestic.

Executive Order 12656 appointed the National Security Council as the principal body that should consider emergency powers.  This allows the government to increase domestic intelligence and surveillance of U.S. citizens and would restrict the freedom of movement within the United States and granted the government the right to isolate large groups of civilians.  The National Guard could be federalized to seal all borders and take control of U.S. air space and all ports of entry.

All it takes is a stroke of Obama's pen to enact any or all of these Executive Orders -- scary, huh?
Where's The Emergency?
NaturalNews.com reports that according to the CDC, swine flu infections have already peaked, and the pandemic is on its way out. Peak infection time was the middle of October, where one in five U.S. children experienced the flu, says the CDC. Out of nearly 14,000 suspected flu cases tested during the week ending on October 10, 2009, 99.6% of those were influenza A, and the vast majority of those were confirmed as H1N1 swine flu infections.

Even though the H1N1 pandemic appears to have peaked out, Barack Obama has now declared a national emergency over swine flu infections.  The reasoning behind such a declaration?  According to the White House, it's designed to "allow hospitals to better handle the surge in patients" by allowing them to bypass certain federal laws.

That's the public explanation for this, but the real agenda behind this declaration may be far more sinister.  Did you know that emergency powers trump the Bill of Rights?

Declaring a national emergency immediately gives federal authorities dangerous new powers that can now be enforced at gunpoint, including:
   

•  The power to force mandatory swine flu vaccinations on the entire population.

•  The power to arrest, quarantine or "involuntarily transport" anyone who refuses a swine flu vaccination.

•  The power to quarantine an entire city and halt all travel in or out of that city.

•  The power to enter any home or office without a search warrant and order the destruction of any belongings or structures deemed to be a threat to public health.

•  The effective nullification of the Bill of Rights.  Your right to due process, to being safe from government search and seizure, and to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination are all null and void under a Presidential declaration of a national emergency.

   
None of this means that federal agents are going to march door to door arresting people at gunpoint if they refuse the vaccine, but they could if they wanted to.  Your rights as an American are no longer recognized under this national emergency declaration.

The declaration of this national emergency seems suspicious from the start.  Where's the emergency?  The number of people killed by swine flu in the United States is far smaller than the number of people killed each year from seasonal flu, according to CDC statistics.  People obviously aren't dropping dead by the millions from H1N1 influenza.  Most people are just getting mild flu symptoms and a few days later they're fine.

So where's the emergency?

The only emergency I can see is the emergency fabricated by Big Pharma to sell more vaccines.  By declaring a national emergency over the H1N1 pandemic, Obama is playing right into their hands.

I find the timing of all this curious.  Two days ago, New York gave up on its efforts to require mandatory vaccinations of health care workers.  This was designed to defuse a large number of planned protests from health freedom-conscious people who don't want government-mandated chemicals pumped into their veins.

By the way, it's not so much of an emergency that Obama is having his children vaccinated -- he has opted out on vaccinating his daughters -- just another example of Obama's double and triple standards.
 

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