Chapter IV: For the slumlord's defense, Barack Obama, Esq.

 

via Getty Images and ap A security company owned by now-jailed political fundraiser Tony Rezko sought help from Obama and then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in an effort to gain a lucrative contract in Iraq, according to a report published in 2007.

 Writing in his 1995 autobiography, "Dreams from My Father," Obama said he became "a civil rights lawyer" because "to lend meaning to a community's suffering and take part in its healing -- that required something more."
There was indeed "something more" to Obama's legal career, but it wasn't civil rights litigation at the Chicago law firm of Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, where he was employed for a decade.

Media Put 18,000 in Not-Quite-Full 5,000-Seat Arena for Obama in Wisconsin

President Barack Obama is having trouble drawing large crowds on the campaign trail. At the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, his campaign was forced to move his acceptance speech from the 74,000-seat Bank of America Stadium to the 20,000 Time Warner Cable Arena, citing weather as the excuse. But the media are always eager to help--for example, putting 18,000 people inside a 5,000-seat arena at an Obama event in Milwaukee on Saturday.

Chris Wallace Asks Obama Adviser 'President Has Time for Whoopi Goldberg But Not World Leaders?'

Fox News's Chris Wallace on Sunday asked senior Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs an absolutely delicious question about the current White House resident's schedule.
During a Fox News Sunday interview, the host said, "The President has blocked out time to appear on The View on Tuesday. So, he has time for Whoopi Goldberg but he doesn’t have time for world leaders?" (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for commentary):

CHRIS WALLACE, HOST: I want to go back to the UN though and New York this week. You say that he’s got schedules, that foreign leaders have schedules. But the President has blocked out time to appear on The View on Tuesday. So, he has time for Whoopi Goldberg but he doesn’t have time for world leaders?

ROBERT GIBBS, OBAMA SENIOR CAMPAIGN ADVISER: No, Chris. Look, the President is going to be actively involved at the UN General Assembly.

WALLACE: He’s not meeting with any private leaders. He's giving a speech.

GIBBS: Chris, they have telephones in the White House. Last week, he talked to the President of Egypt. He talked to the leader in Libya. We don't need a meeting in Washington just to confer with leaders. We’ve got a strong...

WALLACE: But he does need the time to be on The View?

GIBBS: We have a strong diplomatic – I’m sure if he was doing an interview with you on Fox News, you’d have no problem with that.

WALLACE: Well, he hasn't, but that’s not the point.

GIBBS: I’m sure that’s not the point. No, look Chris, he’s got a strong schedule. He’s actively involved.

WALLACE: You don't have a problem with the fact that he’s not meeting with any world leaders, but he’s going to appear on The View?

GIBBS: I have no problem with that, because, Chris, you’re the President of the United States every minute of every day.

Obama Campaign Quietly Ditches Faux Flag

The Obama campaign produced a poster of an American flag, with Obama’s “O” symbol replacing the field of stars, as an item of campaign merchandise, selling for $35. The image was tasteless at best. It is hard to imagine any other politician arrogant enough to remake the flag in his own image:

Barack Obama, however, has never been one to be deterred by bad taste. The larger problem was that, as many pointed out, the flag bore an uncanny resemblance to this grisly photograph taken at the American consulate in Benghazi:



So the Obama campaign has quietly ditched the flag poster, which now returns an error message if you try to buy it at the Obama store.
I can’t think of an analogy to this fiasco: the Obama campaign’s initial insensitivity to proper uses of the flag was bad enough, and then it was compounded by bringing to mind one of the administration’s foreign policy disasters. One can only imagine the hysteria if a similar mishap had befallen George Bush’s re-election campaign. And yet, our reporters assure us that it is Mitt Romney who has had a bad couple of weeks!
JOE updates: The Obama website returns this “page not found” message when you try to buy the flag:


Yeah: your bad.

YOO-HOO, ANTIQUE MEDIA: You figured out yet that everything the White House told you about Benghazi was a lie?

Stephen Hayes does the rundown, which can be summarized as follows:

• Ambassador Susan Rice lied on five Sunday talk shows last week, saying that the attack that killed Ambassador Stevens was not "premeditated or preplanned".

• Ambassador Susan Rice also lied about Stevens' security, stating that " two of the four Americans who were killed were there providing security."

• White House Press Secretary Jay Carney lied that the attacks had nothing to do with the anniversary of 9/11.

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lied as well, indicating that an anti-Islamic film was the cause of the non-existent protests in Benghazi

• Hillary's State Department lied; first downplaying the possibility of 9/11 terror attacks and then scrubbing its website to remove its horrific mistake

• Clinton also lied to Senate Republicans, claiming they did not have details of the terror attacks when they were instead revealing those details to The New York Times

• President Barack Obama also lied, echoing the same falsehoods for days on end

The facts: There was no protest in Benghazi. There was only a planned, premeditated terror attack on the U.S. consulate. The attack was initiated on the anniversary of 9/11. And two heroic ex-Navy SEALs -- who were not part of Ambassador Stevens' security team -- jumped into the fray and died protecting him.

This is a scandal. And even Sixties media is going to have to cover it.

Nancy Pelosi objects to Mitt Romney

Nancy Pelosi has a starring role in a new ad for the Romney campaign -- and the House minority leader doesn't like it at all. The new 30-second ad, titled "Mute Button," uses an anecdote from the new Bob Woodward book "The Price of Politics" that shows Pelosi muting President Barack Obama while he was on a speaker phone during negotiations for the economic stimulus package in the early days of Obama's term.

Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "went on with their meeting, ignoring the president, not even listening to what he had to say," the ad's narrator says. "If he cannot lead his own party, how can he lead America?"
 In a statement Sunday, Pelosi called the ad "clearly ... an act of desperation" and denied that she ever muted Obama. "As speaker and as Democratic leader, any call from the president would be treated with great formality and respect," Pelosi said. "There was absolutely no situation in which either President Bush or President Obama were cut off from speaking. I respect the office of the President and the office of the Speaker, including the historic nature of any communication between these two offices."
Pelosi had a similar response when asked about it at the Democratic National Convention at a POLITICO event. "That didn't happen. ... First of all, whatever friendship you may have with an individual, when the president of the United States is having a conversation with the Speaker of the House and the leader in the Senate, ... it's a formal situation; it's history," Pelosi said in Charlotte. "Every call is history. ... Mostly, I clear the room when I'm talking to the president. I don't want anybody hearing one side of a [conversation]. I clear the room and then I take notes. "So, I don't even have any idea of where they could ever have gotten that ... [It would have been so] disrespectful and ... I viewed every one of those calls ... as history," she continued. "It wasn't Nancy and Barack. It was the president of the United States and the Speaker of the House."

Woodward has stood by his reporting of the episode.

“The Obama administration’s hypocrisy and utter lack of respect for the religious beliefs of Americans has reached an all-time high”

Unless, of course, you're a Muslim:

Religious groups are blasting President Obama for not condemning am anti-Christian art display set to appear in New York City and one Republican lawmaker said he is “fed up with the administration’s double standard and religious hypocrisy.
“Piss Christ,” once branded as a “deplorable, despicable display of vulgarity,” will be displayed at the Edward Tyler Nahem Gallery in Manhattan on Thursday. The artwork features a “photograph of the crucifix submerged in the artist’s urine.”
The artwork debuted in 1989 and was funded through prize money provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. The art gallery hosting the retrospective salute to Andres Serrano is privately owned.
Religious groups and some lawmakers have already started sounding off – and making comparisons to the controversy over a recent anti-Muslim film. The low budget movie “Innocence of Muslims” sparked violent and deadly clashes across the globe.
It also brought strong rebukes, condemnations and apologies from President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a host of administration officials.
...
Rep. Michael Grimm (R, C-NY) wants to know why President Obama hasn’t denounced the exhibit and said he’s fed up with what he called the administration’s “religious hypocrisy.”
“The Obama administration’s hypocrisy and utter lack of respect for the religious beliefs of Americans has reached an all-time high,” Grimm told Fox News. “I call on President Obama to stand up for America’s values and beliefs and denounce the ‘Piss Christ’ that has offended Christians at home and abroad.”
So will the Obama Administration condemn the anti-Christian art display? Will they air a television ad denouncing the exhibit? Will the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ask the gallery to cancel the exhibit?
The White House did not return calls seeking comment. Neither did the Pentagon.

I frankly think that the President's insistence in foisting the HHS Mandate on the Catholic Church is evidence enough for the administration's religious hypocrisy and its utter lack of respect for the religious beliefs of Christian Americans... this Piss Christ debacle is merely icing on that cake.
Sadly, 47% of the country won't give a damn and in fact are likely to bobble-head in agreement with Obama's silence on the subject.

When Exactly Did America Cease To Be A Republic?

  On a slow Friday afternoon in March, America ceased to be a Republic. In a sneaky political power grab, the White House outmaneuvered Congress, and America became a dictatorship. Steve Eichler, Chief Executive Officer of Tea Party, Inc., tells us that without any fanfare and hardly any attention from the media–obsessed with green beer and shamrock parades–the boldest assault on America since the Revolutionary War took place in Washington.

However did he do it? By Executive Order, Barack Hussein Obama completely bypassed the U.S. Constitution and powers of Congress and bestowed upon himself the power to impose a brutal version of Martial Law. 

Obama has been raised since early childhood to despise America and hate her freedoms.  He was mentored both by terrorist Bill Ayers and Frank Marshall Davis, who taught him that socialists only know what’s good for the people. So in March, 2012, their long-time anti-American quasi-Marxist plans finally came to fruition.
Through Presidential Executive Order, Barack Obama gave himself massive powers that allow himself to instantly bring about socialism in America and create a Soviet-like statist regime–whenever he wants.
We are the largest, strongest power on Earth. Why do we need Martial Law plans when there is no one who can possibly invade us?  It’s called the National Defense Resources Preparedness Plan –which runs to more pages of legal mumbo jumbo. But when you cut through the legalese, you will soon find out that Obama has hijacked our country, ridden roughshod over Congress, and really stuck it to the American people.
He can now:
-Raise gas prices
-fix any food prices
-cut back on health care for citizens
-reduce our pay
-bail out any person or company he wants
-halt consumer production and replace it with government work
-hike up airfares
-force the production of electric cars
-break existing labor contracts
-and much more
By limiting how we travel, what we can eat, and where we can work, he can create the communist utopia he has always dreamed about. How could this be? Can it be revoked?  The only way an Executive Order can be revoked is by another Executive Order, and Obama is not going to do that. There is only one other way. Congress can kill this by refusing to appropriate the money to implement his wishes and by passing legislation that makes his plans illegal. But do they have the guts?  The House may, but what about the liberal majority in the Senate?
Send your voice to speaker Boehner–send your faxes to all Republican Representatives at the House of Representatives. Phone them at 202-225-5161.  E-mail at www.house.gov.
WE THE PEOPLE WILL BE HEARD!

Energy Dept. Spends $10 Million on Water Turbine to Power 25 Houses

Photo credit courtesy of NREL
The first underwater turbine to make use of tidal energy went live last week in Maine, supported by a $10 million investment by the Department of Energy.
The Ocean Renewable Power Company Maine’s Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy Pilot Project received the Energy Department money to build, install, and operate the hydrokinetic energy conversion devices situated at the easternmost tip of the state.
The turbine, with a rated capacity of 180 kW, is expected to generate enough power for 25 to 30 homes.
The electricity produced by the tidal generation will be sold by Ocean Renewable Power Company to Maine’s utilities under a 20-year power purchase agreement, according to Boston.com. The initial price of 21.5 cents per kilowatt hour is almost double the current average price of 11.21 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity in Maine.
Heritage’s Nick Loris, a critic of government subsidies for energy sources, said Washington should stop propping up industries that happen to have good connections in Washington. “Taxpayer-funded programs do not create jobs; they shift them from one sector of the economy to another,” Loris recently wrote. “The opportunity cost of government spending is the lost labor and capital extracted from other sectors of the economy to artificially support the politically preferred ones. If underwater turbines are a good investment, companies shouldn’t need subsidies to build them.”
The power company plans to construct a network of as many as 20 of the seafloor-mounted underwater turbines to eventually produce electricity for approximately 1,200 homes:

The first tidal generator is expected to begin delivering electricity to the regional power grid in September, starting small, with just enough to power 25 homes. It is the product of several years and millions of dollars in investment by Ocean Renewable Power’s backers and the Department of Energy.
The Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy Project cost about $21 million, including research and development, design and fabrication of three turbine units, installation, and environmental monitoring. The systems capture the energy of the moving water, rotating a turbine that powers a generator.

According to Energy Department estimates released in the project’s impact statement, 53 new jobs are expected to be created over the course of the eight-year pilot period. In announcing the project’s culmination this summer, Energy Secretary Steven Chu put the figure slightly higher, at around 100 jobs “supported” by the project.
Generating energy from tidal forces is more predictable and reliable than other forms of renewable energy, especially wind turbines.
Paul Jacobson of the Electric Power Research Institute told Boston.com that predictability is crucial. “That’s highly valuable to the folks who have to manage the generation and transmission system,” he said. “To know how much power they can expect to get from a system over time is valuable.”
The Electric Power Research Institute is a recipient of approximately $1.5 million in Energy Department funding for a variety of ocean energy assessments, including ocean wave energy resource recoverability, fish injury and mortality, and available hydrokinetic energy from U.S. rivers.
The Energy Department believes the project represents the first step in promoting the development of tidal energy in the United States. Based on its own estimates from early 2012, the Energy Department projects that as much as 15 percent of the nation’s electricity could come from waves and tidal currents and up to one-third of the nation’s electricity demand could be generated along the coast, though it did not provide a specific plan on expanding the energy portfolio in the announcement.
The Energy Department has funded more than $87 million in marine and hydrokinetic projects since fiscal 2008, with more than 45 percent going to three states—Maine, Oregon, and Washington. Private industry received more than $49.4 million of the total, or 60 percent.
The Maine project’s $10 million award was the largest of the Energy Department’s Water Power Program projects.

A CLEAR PICTURE: UnskewedPolls.com

Well, this qualifies as interesting:

If you haven’t checked it out, please visit UnskewedPolls.com... Okay, so this website factors out the deliberate skewing that the Left is inserting in all the current national polls to give Barack Obama a lead over Mitt Romney when in reality Obama is trailing Romney and losing the election.

The corrupt, vintage media is running this propaganda for three reasons:

• Showing Obama in the lead causes a “bandwagon effect” where low-information voters think to themselves “Obama’s winning, and I like betting on winners, so I’ll vote for him too, I guess since the tee-vee told me I needed to”
• Eeyores in conservative ranks are a skittish, worrisome lot by nature and will seize on any poll with Obama in the lead to collapse onto the ground in tears, screaming “We’re DOOOOOOMED!” because they are gluttons for attention
• The Legion of Gloom (that band of Fifth Column writers at conservative sites and in the media) just loves running these polls with headlines like “Can Romney Still Win?” because Eeyores eat that garbage up like it’s McRib sandwiches, three for $5, and this succeeds in Eeyore-breeding (the process of creating new Eeyores by running nonstop poll-driven headlines that “Romney is losing! Doom is coming!”).

...Do you ever see headlines like this on TV or any of the Left’s sites?

• Can Obama still win? Considering he is polling far less than 50% in accurate samples that reflect current voter affiliation in this country, this is the question everyone should be asking right now… is there any way in Hell for Obama to win this, even with massive voter fraud? I think the answer to that is no. Too bad the jackasses on conservative sites fail to ask this question and instead love running “Can Romney still win?” instead.

• Will Obama Overcome? No, he won’t. Even here in Illinois, Obama’s ground game is week, he’s not paying out street money to thugs because he doesn’t have the funds available, and Democrats find nothing inspiring or motivational about his campaign...

• Does Obama Need A Shakeup? Yes, but it’s too late for that. Do you know that Obama staffers are sending out resumes for their next jobs, post-White House? David Axelrod long ago moved on to other things here in Chicago. He is minimally focused on Obama’s re-election campaign because he knows Obama won’t win... Axelrod left Obama after the 2010 midterms. He did not think he had until 2014 in the White House. THIS SHOULD TELL YOU SOMETHING.

• Is Obama Losing? Hell to the Yes. His campaign sends out 5 or 6 emails a day begging for money. Not “asking”. BEGGING. I’ve never seen anything so desperate. I am surprised he has not dragged Sally Struthers out of her house of clutter and junk (she was recently outed as a major hoarder) to make commercials for him begging for money like those old “Feed the Children” spots in the 80s where she’d lay down guilt like it was molasses. Michelle Obama sent emails out asking people to skip their family’s dinners and donate the money to the campaign. Obama asked people to sell their things at yard sales or on Craigslist and give him the money. Sometimes the emails I get from Joe Biden asking me to have dinner with him seem so creepy I want to report him as a romantic stalker. It’s all SO STRANGE and so desperate.

Some of the comments are interesting:

• I live in deep blue Brookline, MA, and my Romney yard sign stands out like a sore thumb, but it hasn’t been stolen yet, and I haven’t seen a single Obama yard sign anywhere. Last time they were everywhere, and almost every other car had an Obama bumper sticker. There are some of those this time, but nowhere near as many.

• NC is considered gone for Obama. He’s still advertising here, but no campaign stops. He and Biden were in NC every fifteen minutes in 08, as were Palin and McCain. The closest campaign stops R/R are in VA. And where in VA? Nearer to DC, the blue strongholds. Want something far more reliable to indicate the state of the race – look at where they are campaigning.

• Here in Ohio, There are NO Obama signs except in front of the Union Halls. Even in the blue parts of the states such as Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati, there are few if any signs. College campuses same thing few if any signs. In the suburban & rural parts of the state, NONE. Personally, I think his approval rating in Ohio is about 40%. All the commercials Team Obama & MSM spin have been running in this state are just a waste of money. Voters in this state voted down Obamacare by 2 to 1 margin last November. .Why would they turn around & reelect him. As far as, the debates probably won’t matter in the end. Romney will win Ohio.

• ...to prove the point you are making about polls, I looked up the NJ Governor’s poll from 2009. The Real Clear Politics poll average had Chris Christie winning by a single point. He beat Jon Corzine by a whopping 6 points. Even Rasmussen, who is the most accurate, was off by 3 points... And if you scroll down, just a week to 10 days prior to election day some of the polls had Corzine up by 4 to 5 points.

Tell the media to kiss it.

CBS Doesn't Air Obama Admitting Mistakes in Campaign Ads

Tonight, CBS aired a 60 Minutes interview with President Obama. But curiously enough, the news magazine show did not air a clip of Obama admitting to interviewer Steve Kroft that some of his campaign ads contain mistakes and that some even "go overboard."
60 Minutes did, however, post the clip online:



CBS describes the clip this way: "President Obama says some of his campaign ads might 'go overboard' or contain mistakes, but most of them simply highlight the differences between him and Gov. Romney."
"Look, the fact-checkers have had problems with the ads on both sides," Kroft says to Obama in the unaired clip, "and say they've been misleading and in some cases just not true. Does that disturb you? I mean, some of them are your ads."
Obama responds: "Do we see sometimes us going overboard in our campaign, are there mistakes that are made, areas where there is no doubt somebody could dispute how we are presenting things? You know, that happens in politics."
Kroft responds: "Aren't the American entitled to the truth? Or a better version of it?"
"The truth of the matter is, most of the time we're having a vigorous debate about a vision for the country," Obama says. "And, you know, there's a lot at stake in this election. So is it going to be sharp sometimes? Absolutely. But will the American people ultimately have a good sense of where I want to take the country and where Gov. Romney takes the country? I think they will."

Indeed, it's a newsworthy admission, but one that didn't make it into the news magazine's final cut.

Obama Refers to Israel Concern Over Iran as 'Noise'

In an interview to air tonight on CBS's 60 Minutes, President Barack Obama will refer to Israel's concern over Iran's march toward a nuclear program as "noise." "When it comes to our national security decisions -- any pressure that I feel is simply to do what's right for the American people. And I am going to block out -- any noise that's out there," Obama says,

 Here's the video and transcript:

STEVE KROFT: "How much pressure have you been getting from Prime Minister Netanyahu to make up your mind to use military force in Iran?"

PRESIDENT OBAMA: "Well—look, I have conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu all the time. And I understand and share Prime Minister Netanyahu's insistence that Iran should not obtain a nuclear weapon, because it would threaten us, it would threaten Israel, and it would threaten the world and kick off a nuclear arms race."

STEVE KROFT:  "You’re saying, you don't feel any pressure from Prime Minister Netanyahu in the middle of a campaign to try and get you to change your policy and draw a line in the sand? You don’t feel any pressure?"

 PRESIDENT OBAMA: "When it comes to our national security decisions—any pressure that I feel is simply to do what's right for the American people. And I am going to block out—any noise that's out there. Now I feel an obligation, not pressure but obligation, to make sure that we're in close consultation with the Israelis—on these issues. Because it affects them deeply. They're one of our closest allies in the region. And we’ve got an Iranian regime that has said horrible things that directly threaten Israel’s existence."

UPDATE: Romney press secretary Andrea Saul responds:

“Tonight on 60 Minutes, President Obama called Israel’s legitimate concern about the impact of an Iran armed with nuclear weapons ‘noise’ and referred to Israel as merely ‘one of our closest allies in the region.’ This is just the latest evidence of his chronic disregard for the security of our closest ally in the Middle East. Governor Romney's views stand in sharp contrast to the President's. Governor Romney strongly believes that Israel is our most important ally in the Middle East and that support for Israel is essential to extending freedom, peace and democracy throughout the region. As president, Governor Romney will restore and protect the close alliance between our nation and the state of Israel.”

 UPDATE: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the same word to describe Israel in an interview with the Washington Post, as Andrea Saul notes:

IGNATIUS: “I want to ask as my first question the one every citizen of the world would like to ask today: What is the chance of a war in Iran that would result from an Israeli attack on your nuclear facilities?”

AHMADINEJAD: “I have spoken about this topic at length, previously. We generally speaking do not take very seriously the issue of the Zionists and the possible dangers emanating from them. Of course they would love to find a way for their own salvation by making a lot of noise and to raise stakes in order to save themselves. But I do not believe they will succeed. Iran is also a very well recognized country and her defensive powers are very clear.”

AFP also reports that Obama will say that "he understands and agrees with Netanyahu's insistence that Iran not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons as this would threaten both countries, the world in general, and kick off an arms race."
But, as the article points out, Obama will not be meeting with Netanyahu this week during the United Nations General Assembly.
Romney, who also is interviewed on 60 Minutes tonight, will say, that Obama not meeting with Netanyahu "is a mistake and sends a message throughout the Middle East that somehow we distance ourselves from our friends and I think the exact opposite approach is what's necessary."