http://www.usflag.org/history/flagday.html

A leaker named Edward Snowden gave information to the far-left London newspaper “The Guardian” saying the U.S. government is taking information from tech companies in order to fight the war on terror.

Snowden will be arrested if he doesn’t get asylum in a country that does not have an extradition treaty with the USA. And he should be arrested even though what he did may ultimately be a good thing. We simply can’t have Americans leaking national security information. That would be anarchy. If Snowden thinks his case is noble, then he should put it in front of a jury.

Despite the initial reporting we really don’t know exactly, exactly — exactly what the government is doing. Here is what President Obama says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Now with respect to the Internet and e-mails, this does not apply to U.S. citizens and it does not apply to people living in the United States. And again, in this instance, not only is Congress fully apprised of it, but what is also true is that the FISA Court has to authorize it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O’REILLY: Well, that may be a bit misleading. Yes, federal judges have authorized the data gathering. But phone calls and e-mails to and from American citizens are being scrutinized. And I believe that FISA judges have no idea how. It’s a massive intrusion and it affects all of us.

However, the director of national intelligence James Clapper doesn’t see a problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CLAPPER, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: The notion that we’re trolling through everyone’s e-mails and voyeuristically reading them or listening to everyone’s phone calls is on its face absurd. We couldn’t do it even if we wanted to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O’REILLY: And that’s true. There is too much stuff. But what could happen and what has happened is that corrupt government officials have put out private data illegally. We saw that in the IRS hearing last week, did we not? The pro-traditional marriage organization that testified had data leaked to its enemies allegedly by an IRS official, big problem. And that leaker must be arrested and charged soon.

So it is obvious that if the government is gathering communications, information from Americans, that information could be illegally used. Now, with phone calls it’s not much of a problem because the government isn’t taping the calls, it’s just chronicling time and place. So, in the name of national security that might be acceptable.

But e-mails are a far different story. There you have actual words on paper that people have said in private and if that stuff is being stored in Utah, that’s flat out unconstitutional.

Here is what Senator Rand Paul said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: The Fourth Amendment says that you have to look at and you can ask for a warrant for a specific to a person, place in the items. This is a general warrant. This is what we objected to and what our founding fathers partly fought the revolution over is they did not want generalized warrants where you could go from house to house with soldiers looking for things or now from computer to computer to phone to phone without specifying who you’re targeting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O’REILLY: I agree. The feds will tell you. They won’t go after a specific individuals unless there is probable cause. But there can’t be probable cause unless they look at the e-mails to find a dubious situation. Does everybody get this? Well, some people dissent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL KRISTOL, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: They are not allowed to go into that data until they have a particular warrant signed off on by a judge with some cause to suspect a foreigner of terrorism. That is totally different from the IRS abuses which I think are very serious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O’REILLY: But again, Mr. Kristol discounts that corrupt federal officials could very well look at stored e-mail data. Who is going to stop them? By the way, texts are not in play. They are not stored by the communication companies like Verizon.

So this is one big mess and ideologically, absolute chaos. Here is a partial list of people who support the NSA surveillance program called “Prism,” in support Senator John McCain, Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Karl Rove and Kirsten Powers, a Democrat.

Here are some people who oppose; Glenn Beck, Michael Moore, Rush Limbaugh, Arianna Huffington, Al Gore and Van Jones. The headline Van Jones and Glenn Beck agree on something. Are you kidding me? Now, some liberals are surprised that President Obama is behind the program. But “Talking Points” is not. The President wants a powerful federal government that runs nearly everything. His whole administration has been about accumulating power for the feds. So this is consistent.

New Rasmussen poll says 52 percent of Americans do not trust the President or the federal government on this surveillance issue. And that number is going to rise when we find out exactly how much data is being assembled by the feds.

Now, here is what I think. The war on terror requires an aggressive federal surveillance. Sane people know that. Storing phone call data is questionable but I think it’s permissible under the Constitution if things aren’t tapped. But seizing actual words of Americans said in private, unless there is probable cause they’re involved with some kind of terrorism, clearly unconstitutional.

The Fourth Amendment says, quote, “No warrants shall issue but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or things to be seized,” unquote. You can’t just seize everything and say you’re doing so to try to root out terrorism. You have to have probable cause to violate the privacy of an American.

Look, you know me. You know I’m a very tough guy on national security. I support the Patriot Act. I support drone warfare. I support Guantanamo Bay. But this is dangerous. The IRS scandal proves the federal government can and has abused its power for political reasons.

Simply can’t have American authority spying on the folks, storing their e-mails. It can’t happen. This “Prism” program should be shut down immediately. If it’s not, a class action suit should be filed and the Supreme Court should hear it as quickly as it can.

And one more thing, all this government intrusion didn’t stop those Boston bombers, did it? And those two terrorists were all over the net.

And that’s “The Memo.”

– You can catch Bill O’Reilly’s “Talking Points Memo” weeknights at 8 and oreilly.

Transcript Date:
Mon, 06/10/2013

Transcript Show Name:
O’Reilly Factor

Transcript Talent Byline:
Bill O’Reilly

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/06/10/the_question_is_not_whether_the_obama_regime_will_survive_but_will_america_as_founded_survive_the_obama_regime

THE-TRUTH-IS-OUT-THERE (Obama Files)

THE-TRUTH-IS-OUT-THERE (Obama Files)

Reuters.com – Venezuela Chavez says “Comrade” Obama more left-wing
http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSTRE5520GX20090603

Thiovided

The party-line vote of 224-201 was aimed at blocking implementation of President Barack Obama’s 2012 election-year order to stop deportations of many so-called DREAM Act individuals. Democrats on the House floor reacted with boos when the provision was added to a routine spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security.

The vote was largely symbolic, since the administration has threatened to veto the overall legislation on budgetary grounds. It nevertheless stood as a stark warning from conservatives who dominate the ranks of the Republican House majority about attempts in the Senate to grant a chance at citizenship to an estimated 11 million immigrants residing in the country illegally.

And the White House reacted sharply, saying the House-passed measure would affect “Dreamers” who are “productive members of society who were brought here as young children, grew up in our communities, and became American in every way but on paper.”

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said in a statement that the vote prohibits the administration “from implementing executive amnesty” without congressional action. “Bipartisan support for my amendment is the first test of the 113th Congress in the House of Representatives on immigration. My amendment blocks many of the provisions that are mirrored in the Senate’s `Gang of Eight’ bill. If this position holds, no amnesty will reach the President’s desk,” he said.

The vote took place as Senate leaders set Friday for the opening of debate on White House-backed legislation that would create a chance at citizenship for those in the country unlawfully, at the same time it takes steps to assure the borders are secure against future illegal immigration.

The measure was drafted by a bipartisan group of eight senators, then approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee last month on a vote of 13-8. It also creates a new low-skilled guest-worker program, expands the number of visas available for high-tech industry workers and reorders the system for legal immigration that has been in place for decades.

Debate is expected to consume weeks on the Senate floor as lawmakers of differing views try to change it more to their liking. Notably, Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who was part of the group that drafted the legislation, is saying he wants changes before he will support it on final passage. His office did not respond to a request for reaction to the House vote.

In the House, 221 Republicans and three Democrats voted for King’s proposal, while 195 Democrats and six Republicans opposed it.

“I can’t believe they just did that,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., a leading supporter of the DREAM Act. Ana Avendano of the AFL-CIO, said in a statement that King and his allies are playing to “a dwindling base of anti-immigrant Republican primary voters. We hope and expect that the leadership of the Republican party will understand that this is not only abhorrent policy but suicidal politics.”

Speaking to a group of reporters, a White House official, Cecilia Munoz, said, “If part of what is driving this debate is a recognition, particularly on the Republican side, that they need to do better with the Latino community, this is really not the right way.”

Obama announced a new policy in June 2012 that puts off deportation for two years for many of those brought to the United States as children, specifically if they were under 16 at the time and are no older than 31 now. They also must be in school, graduated from high school or have served in the military and have no criminal record. The order offers relief from deportation from many young immigrants who would be covered by the so-called DREAM Act, which has repeatedly failed in Congress.

Democrats argued vociferously against King’s proposal when it was debated Wednesday evening. “We should not hold children responsible for the actions of adults and their parents. We should give them an opportunity,” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat who has been involved in a sputtering attempt to produce a compromise immigration bill in the House.

Those efforts were dealt a potentially fatal blow on Wednesday, when Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, announced he was leaving the group because of a dispute over health care.

House GOP leaders have not yet announced a plan for considering immigration legislation, although it appears likely that several smaller bills will be considered rather than a comprehensive measure that covers the elements that are combined into one in the Senate.

One of them, introduced during the day by Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., permits state and local authorities to enforce federal immigration laws.

There is little, if any, support among the GOP rank and file for a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million or so immigrants estimated to be living in the United States illegally, although there appears to be some sentiment to allow many such individuals to remain in the country.

Speaker John Boehner has said privately he hopes to have committee action complete by the end of June, with a vote in the House by the end of July.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/06/house-votes-to-resume-deporting-young-dream-act-immigrants/#ixzz2VWxhS9wQ

• On Thursday, The New York Times officially fell off the Obama bandwagon. That doesn’t mean the Obama worship will stop. But the newest revelation that the Obama administration has been seizing millions of phone records leaves the Times with little choice but to publicly chastise its dream president.

  “Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it,” writes the Times editorial board. “There is every reason to believe the federal government has been collecting every bit of information about every American’s phone calls except the words actually exchanged in those calls …. Essentially, the administration is saying that without any individual suspicion of wrongdoing, the government is allowed to know who Americans are calling every time they make a phone call, for how long they talk and from where.”

  The Times editorial board noted, “The administration has now lost all credibility.”

  Sadly, the Times is only willing to say this after election cycles end. Good thing they were there to defend us from Mitt Romney’s car elevator and Ann Romney’s horses, though.

A high-ranking senate aide told Breitbart News on Wednesday that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is searching for an escape hatch from the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2336084/Michelle-Obama-threatens-leave-fundraiser-lesbian-protester-heckles-speech-White-House-deletes-exchange-official-transcript.html#ixzz2VJYFTlNp

http://wtop.com/109/3346880/Komen-cancels-next-years-3-Day-in-DC

In football, the risk of blitzing is that you expose your defense. You might sack the other team’s quarterback, but you may also give up the long touchdown that seals the game. In Tuesday’s hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee on the IRS scandal, Democrats blitzed the Tea Party–and got burned, badly …

http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/06/04/IRS-Scandal-Democrats-Blitz-and-Get-Burned

More here, including Video if this Idiot … http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/06/04/Dem-Rep-Lashes-Out-at-Targeted-Witnesses-You-Asked-For-It

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/06/dangerous_times_benghazi_revealed_collusion_with_al_qaida.html#.UaoIBy7Uyyw.email

THE-TRUTH-IS-OUT-THERE (Obama Files)

Marines at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan will lose a key daily meal starting Saturday, causing some to forgo a hot breakfast and others to work six-plus hours without refueling on cooked food, according to Marines at the base and Marine Corps officials.
The midnight ration service — known there as “midrats” — supplies breakfast to Marines on midnight-to-noon shifts and dinner to Marines who are ending noon-to-midnight work periods. It’s described as one of the few times the Marines at Leatherneck can be together in one place.
The base, which is located in Afghanistan’s southwestern Helmand Province, flanked by Iran and Pakistan, also will remove its 24-hour sandwich bar. It plans to replace the dishes long offered at midnight with pre-packaged MREs, said Marine Corps Lt. Col. Cliff Gilmore, who has been deployed in Afghanistan since February.

The moves, though unpopular with many Marines on the ground and their families back home, are emblematic of the massive drawdown of American troops in Afghanistan and the dismantling of U.S. military facilities. More than 30,000 U.S. service members will leave Afghanistan in coming months as the U.S. prepares to hand responsibility for security to Afghan forces in 2014.
While no Marine at Camp Leatherneck agreed to speak on the record, many are privately angry about the hit on base morale.
“This boils my skin. One of my entire shifts will go 6.5 hours without a meal. If we need to cut back on money I could come up with 100 other places,” one Leatherneck-based Marine wrote in an email this week to his wife and shared with NBC News. (The Marine declined to speak on the record.) “Instead, we will target the biggest contributor to morale. I must be losing my mind. What is our senior leadership thinking? I just got back from flying my ass off and in a few days, I will not have a meal to replenish me after being away for over 9 hours.”
Brennan Linsley / AP file

U.S. Marines enter the chow hall for dinner, left, after taking turns clearing ammo from the chambers of their weapons into a barrel, right, at Camp Leatherneck, in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province, in September 2009.

Until Saturday, Leatherneck’s dining facility will offer its customary four meals per day. After June 1, the menu drops to three daily meals and, eventually, there will be only two hot meals served, Gilmore revealed in an email to the impacted Marines, adding: “Any time a dining hall meal is eliminated it will be replaced from a plentiful stock of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat — or any one of several creative acronyms our Marines have come up with.)”
“The fact is our force in Afghanistan is shrinking fast and all the creature comforts and services deployed military-members have grown accustomed to over the past decade are going to be reduced,” Gilmore wrote in an email to NBC News. “When serving we are challenged to endure different things — to face different challenges — over time. But we’re an odd bunch, we Marines — probably no surprise that we’ll complain more about losing the sandwich bar on the way out than we did about getting shot at on the way in.”
The tactical reason for the cooking scale-down is that the people who are assigned to “support services” — such as food workers — “need to go home before the people who provide the security which enables those services,” Gilmore wrote. “This is a natural outcome of the drawdown process unrelated to sequestration or the ongoing budget issues back in the States.”
Back home, spouses and friends of the troops in Afghanistan are criticizing the loss of hot meals as a poor logistical choice that will impact the service members’ overall nutrition, energy and spirits.
“MREs are an alternative for when you can’t get to healthy food. They’re supposed to be for desperation,” said Babette Maxwell, founder and executive director of Military Spouse Magazine, the wife of a Navy pilot and an advocate for service members and their families. “These guys have six to nine months left on their deployment. These are highly athletic and highly physical people, toting guns, not working any less now than before — and not working out any less either. Now, they’re short a meal and they don’t have any healthy alternatives.”
According to the Marine Corps, a typical MRE may contain chili with beans, cornbread, cheese spread, crackers, a toaster pastry, a “dairyshake,” red pepper, a spoon, a flameless heater and a “hot beverage bag.”
To fill the hot food gap in Afghanistan, a group of U.S.-based military advocates and military-family members recently launched a Facebook page — called “Breakfast for Bagram” — to spur food donations that will be mailed to troops all around Afghanistan. The page states: “We are here to help collect and send non-perishable breakfast type foods to the deployed troops on the 17 bases in Afghanistan that are not currently serving breakfast ‘hot chow’ and Midnight chow due to the budget cuts.”
Gilmore described cooked-meal reduction as part of a larger effort to “become increasingly austere” as the force shrinks, but he said the base members will not face an unhealthy calorie shortage.
“The Marines here at Leatherneck may have to endure the monotony of a limited menu and sometimes an MRE — but they will not suffer from malnutrition unless they choose not to eat,” Gilmore said.
At home, some military family members nonetheless called the change a mistake.
“Psychologically, midrats is probably the most important of all the meals because that’s the big social time — where first (shift) crew is coming off and second (shift) crew is coming on,” Maxwell said.”That’s where you get the esprit de corps, the camaraderie. It’s not just the food you’re taking away, it’s their social sustenance.”
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/31/18592339-the-drawdown-diet-marines-steamed-by-loss-of-hot-meal-at-afghanistan-base?lite

Video here >>> http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/05/31/illegal-immigrant-mother-seven-given-food-stamps-meds-housing-and-social-security-20#ixzz2UsDUMfyF

The IRS and FBI: Breach of Faith
IRS pass for Obama brother tied to terrorist: FBI, IRS target
Tea Party activist.
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/05/30/the-irs-and-fbi-breach-of-fait

The VanderSlooting of America
The President, the Left, the IRS and a timeline of tyranny.
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/05/28/the-vanderslooting-of-america

Obama, Christie Signal Jersey Shore is Back

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/obamas_most_dangerous_enemies_are_being_targeted.html#.UaTIzSWcADU.email

THE-TRUTH-IS-OUT-THERE (Obama Files)

THE-TRUTH-IS-OUT-THERE (Obama Files)

WSJ.com – Opinion: The White House Fires a Watchdog

Many veterans who were gathered at the Herman A. Spear American Legion Post on Friday night are upset by the decision.

“It’s not right to me,” says Ron Innocenti. He is a Vietnam veteran who has not only marched in the city’s Memorial Day parade in the past, he says he has also been its grand marshal.

He hates to cancel because of the message it sends to men and women serving now.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/05/24/beverly-cancels-memorial-day-parade-due-to-lack-of-veterans/

Union leaders warn that unless the problem is fixed, there could be consequences for Democrats facing re-election next year.

“It makes an untruth out of what the president said _ that if you like your insurance, you could keep it,” said Joe Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. “That is not going to be true for millions of workers now.”

The problem lies in the unique multiemployer health plans that cover unionized workers in retail, construction, transportation and other industries with seasonal or temporary employment. Known as Taft-Hartley plans, they are jointly administered by unions and smaller employers that pool resources to offer more than 20 million workers and family members continuous coverage, even during times of unemployment.

The union plans were already more costly to run than traditional single-employer health plans.

But Obama’s Affordable Care Act has added to that cost _ for the unions’ and other plans _ by requiring health plans to cover dependents up to age 26, eliminate annual or lifetime coverage limits and extend coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

“We’re concerned that employers will be increasingly tempted to drop coverage through our plans and let our members fend for themselves on the health exchanges,” said David Treanor, director of health care initiatives at the Operating Engineers union.

Workers seeking coverage in the state-based marketplaces, known as exchanges, can qualify for subsidies, determined by a sliding scale based on income. By contrast, the new law does not allow workers in the union plans to receive similar subsidies.

Bob Laszewski, a health care industry consultant, said the real fear among unions is that “a lot of these labor contracts are very expensive, and now employers are going to have an alternative to very expensive labor health benefits.”

“If the workers can get benefits that are as good through Obamacare in the exchanges, then why do you need the union?” Laszewski said. “In my mind, what the unions are fearing is that workers for the first time can get very good health benefits for a subsidized cost someplace other than the employer.”

However, Laszewski said it was unlikely employers would drop the union plans immediately because they are subject to ongoing collective bargaining agreements.

Labor unions have been among the president’s closest allies, spending millions of dollars to help him win re-election and help Democrats keep their majority in the Senate. The wrangling over health care comes as unions have continued to see steady declines in membership and attacks on public employee unions in state legislatures around the country. The Obama administration walks a fine line between defending the president’s signature legislative achievement and not angering a powerful constituency as it looks ahead to the 2014 elections.

Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Firefighters, said unions have spent more than a year trying to get a regulatory fix that would allow low-income workers in union plans to receive subsidies too. But labor leaders say they have been told it won’t happen. And new legislation is unlikely anytime soon.

Both Hanson and Schaitberger said the frustration could spill over into the 2014 election cycle if union concerns aren’t addressed.

“It started out with some anxiety, and I think it’s translated into more anger,” Schaitberger said.

Sabrina Siddiqui, a Treasury Department spokeswoman, declined to discuss the specifics of any negotiations between the administration and union officials. But she said the law helps bring down costs and improve quality of care.

Katie Mahoney, executive director of health policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said employers were concerned about possible increases in health care costs and would do what was needed to keep their businesses running and retain worker talent. The Chamber has not taken a position on the union concerns, but Mahoney said it was highly unlikely that the administration would consider subsidies for workers in the union plans.

“They are not going to offset the expense of added mandates under the health care law, which employers and unions are going to pay for,” Mahoney said.

Unions say their health care plans in many cases offer better coverage with broader doctors’ networks and lower premiums than what would be available in the exchanges, particularly when it comes to part-time workers.

“It’s not favoritism. We want to be treated fairly,” said Hansen, whose union has about 800,000 of its 1.3 million members covered under Taft-Hartley policies. “We would expect more help from this administration.”

Unions backed the health care legislation because they expected it to curb inflation in health coverage, reduce the number of uninsured Americans and level the playing field for companies that were already providing quality benefits. While unions knew there were lingering issues after the law passed, they believed those could be fixed through rulemaking.

But last month, the union representing roofers issued a statement calling for “repeal or complete reform” of the health care law. Kinsey Robinson, president of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers, complained that labor’s concerns over the health care law “have not been addressed, or in some instances, totally ignored.”

“In the rush to achieve its passage, many of the act’s provisions were not fully conceived, resulting in unintended consequences that are inconsistent with the promise that those who were satisfied with their employer-sponsored coverage could keep it,” Robinson said.

Victoria Nuland — the State Department spokeswoman who famously altered the talking points regarding the Sept. 11, 2012 attack — will become assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs if the nomination clears the Senate.

It’s a toxic nomination for the president to put forward, particularly as congressional Republicans hammer the administration for failures in readiness and response to the attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

Nuland is a central character in those criticisms, having expressed “serious concerns” about any mention of terrorism.

Four Americans died in the terror attack, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.

Pres Obama boarded Marine One without returning salute of US Marine at the steps. The Pres then came back out to shake the Marine’s hand.
9:42 AM – 24 May 2013

Pres Obama chats with and shakes hand of US Marine whose salute he didn’t return on boarding Marine One today. pic.twitter.com/NzQZ7clXNS

9:46 AM – 24 May 2013

UPDATE: More from the pool reporter:

Under gray skies and intermittent drizzle, President Obama boarded Marine One at 9:30 a.m. EDT in an open press event.
A few White House regulars were atwitter (and on Twitter) when the President walked directly up the steps of Marine One without saluting the Marine on duty. He soon came out of the helicopter, walked down the steps, shook hands with the Marine and engaged in a brief conversation.

Kimberly Strassel has a must-read column at the Wall Street Journal today that explains the context in which the IRS scandal emerged–not just during the Obama administration’s attempt to quash the Tea Party, but in Obama’s efforts to shut down all opposition, both Republican and Democratic, in the 2008 campaign.

Strassel notes that Bob Bauer, the Obama campaign (and later White House) general counsel, wrote letters to the Department of Justice in August 2008 attacking a conservative 501(c)4 called the American Issues Project for running an ad that highlighted Obama’s connection to former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. Bauer did not stop there; he also contacted the Federal Election Commission. That same month, a left-wing activist created a 501(c)4 called Accountable America that was designed to intimidate GOP donors.

Earlier that year, Strassel notes, during the Democratic Party primary, Bauer had used the same tactics against a left-wing 501(c)4 that supported Hillary Clinton, and another against one supporting John Edwards. As even Ben Smith, then of Politico and a noted defender of the Obama campaign, noted:

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time Bauer has called for criminal investigations and prosecutions into the donors to independent groups critical of Obama, including one supporting John Edwards and another supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton. His words did have the effect of scaring their donors and consultants, but haven’t yet appeared to result in any prosecution.

There are many other examples that one can add to Strassel’s analysis. One that I remember with particular bitterness is from September 2008, when the Democratic National Committee and several Obama-aligned organizations pressured the Jewish community to un-invite Sarah Palin from a rally against Iran at the UN.

What happened was that a group of Jewish non-profit organizations had organized the rally and invited both Gov. Palin and Sen. Hillary Clinton. Clinton initially agreed to attend, but the Obama campaign was terrified at the prospect of her sharing a stage with Palin and sending a signal that Democrat women left frustrated by Clinton’s loss might switch parties. So they pressured Clinton to withdraw–and then pressured the Jewish groups to deny Palin a platform, claiming that the rally was now “partisan.” Jewish members of the Democratic National Committee reportedly made threats to challenge the groups’ IRS non-profit status.

J Street, which had only recently started up as an organization devoted to promoting criticism of Israel and Obama’s Middle East policy, joined in the pressure campaign, circulating a petition addressed to Jewish leader and rally organizer Malcolm Hoenlein. When Palin was un-invited, J Street celebrated its role in that deplorable display of thuggish intimidation of free speech and assembly: “We Won!” it boasted. (So did Iran, that day.)

The Obama campaign’s tactics weren’t confined to non-profit groups. Indeed, its present practice of trying to intimidate journalists emerged at the same time. In late August 2008, the Obama campaign organized an effort to shut down a radio interview between Chicago journalist Milt Rosenberg and conservative author Stanley Kurtz, who had just done the definitive research exposing the ties between Ayers and Obama. (The campaign declined an invitation to appear on the show itself.) The producer of the show later wrote: “It’s interesting to see what lengths the Obama campaign is willing to reach to stifle dissenting voices.”

Those of us who protested the Obama campaign’s tactics at the time were ignored, as were most who noted what the Obama administration later did to the Tea Party and conservatives. Strassel adds that Bauer came back for the Obama re-election campaign in 2012 and used the same tactics against Romney donors.

“None of this proves that Mr. Obama was involved in the IRS targeting of conservative nonprofits,” she writes. “But it does help explain how we got an environment in which the IRS thought this was acceptable.”

The important point is that the Obama administration’s behavior in the Benghazi scandal (intimidating whistleblowers), the IRS scandal (targeting conservative nonprofits and donors), and the AP and Rosen scandals (hounding individual journalists and news agencies) is a feature of Obama’s character and leadership, not a bug. He may know well enough to keep himself at arm’s length, to retain the façade of “plausible deniability.” But the pattern of behavior is becoming undeniable, as is Obama’s ultimate responsibility.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/dont_blow_the_opportunity_obama_has_handed_us.html#.UZ5GdRUb3Ek.email

Holding AWOL Obama Accountable
Where was he the night of the Benghazi attacks?
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/05/23/holding-awol-obama-accountable

THE-TRUTH-IS-OUT-THERE (Obama Files)

maybe he’ll address what bed he was hiding under on 9/11/12?…….

http://soa.li/YMMf6wC

Obama to address drones, Gitmo in security speech
President Barack Obama on Thursday is expected to address some of the thornier aspects of national security policy, including drone strikes, the prison at Guantanamo Bay and the dire threats Americans continue to face — even from fellow citizens.

The Senate will finally confront one of the architects of the subprime mortgage crisis today, hauling a tax-dodging, union-busting, bank-breaking, billionaire member of the “one percent” before the Senate Commerce Committee… to consider her confirmation as Secretary of Commerce in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet.

In the same week that the Senate grilled the CEO of Apple, Inc. about the low taxes it pays due to maintaining large cash deposits overseas, the Senate will roll out a warm welcome to Chicago heiress Penny Pritzker, who runs what Forbes called “one of the grandest and most successful family tax-avoidance schemes ever.”
Instead of being lectured about her patriotism, Pritzker is being praised to the heavens, with fellow Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) claiming that the heiress to the Hyatt hotel fortune “has broken through the glass ceiling with her extraordinary intelligence and business acumen.” The enthusiasm is bipartisan; fellow Illinoisan Mark Kirk is also on board.
Pritzker has a rather dubious record of public service, most recently serving on the board of the Chicago Public Schools, which just yesterday approved plans to close forty-nine failing schools. Her most notable public “contribution” has involved raising and bundling millions of dollars for President Obama’s lavish political campaigns.
Unions dislike Pritzker as well, and at least one has opposed Pritzker’s nomination based on its many battles with the Hyatt hotel chain regarding working conditions and wages. The left grassroots is also visibly irritated by the choice, seeing Pritzker’s nomination to Commerce as the pay-to-play, Chicago cronyism that it is.
But the fix is in. When future generations look back at this moment and wonder how Washington failed to hold Wall Street–or itself–accountable for the subprime crisis, they will understand that Washington never really cared about anything but its own political prerogatives. With the right political friends, you can get away with anything.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/23/Finally-Tax-Dodging-Subprime-Mortgage-Banker-Hauled-Before-Congress

Michelle Said to be Considering an Extended Vacation

With scandal swirling about the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama may be considering an extended exit from Washington this summer, fleeing for weeks to the Obamas’ traditional summer haven, Martha’s Vineyard.

According to the Boston Globe, “Michelle Obama and the children may be on the island for an extended period.” But the president would hardly be suffering by comparison. He may come up on weekends and then stay for two weeks at the end of the summer, the Globe reports.

The White House has not commented on the Obamas’ vacation plans.

The Obamas are said to be eying a house in Farm Neck on the Vineyard. If they land there, the president will have easy access to the lovely Farm Neck Golf Club and Cafe. Here’s the view from the tee on the third hole.

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2013/05/22/michelle-extended-vacation/

He and his wife were expecting there first child in two weeks.

Bradford’s body will return home tonight. Patriot Guard Riders will take Bradford’s hearse and family to the Funeral Home. Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery.

Bradford was among four NATO civilian contractors, two NATO service members and six Afghan civilians – including schoolchildren – killed May 16 when a suicide car bomber rammed a two-vehicle NATO convoy in Kabul. The bombing occurred during morning rush hour in the Afghan capital, according to NATO and Afghan government officials.

Survivors include wife Sasha Cantrell Bradford, their unborn son Michael Robert Bradford II, father Gary Bradford, mother Linda Faulkner Bradford, twin brothers Chris and Kenny Bradford, grandparents Bob and Nancy Faulkner and grandparents Bob and Gwen Bradford.

Memorials: Michael Bradford Memorial Trust Fund, Victory Community Bank, 602 S. Fort Thomas Ave., Fort Thomas, KY 41075-2230.

Click: N.Y. Times editorial board: Obama administration threatening press freedom

Not only did they go after Rosen, but also went after his mother (parents).

Click: Report: DOJ seized phone records of James Rosen’s parents

All of this honest reporting…

http://themadjewess.com/2013/05/22/n-y-times-obama-admin-threatening-press-freedom-rosens-mother-phone-records-were-seized/

The Utah Republican, who has said Obama may face impeachment over his handling of the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Libya, is ready to issue subpoenas and schedule more hearings, he tells National Review Online.

“[The Obama administration] purposefully and willfully misled the American people, and that’s unacceptable,” he said.

“It’s part of a pattern of deception . . . They’ve released 100 emails, but there are thousands of documents that we still need to see. The truth gets colder as time goes on, so we need to stay vigilant.”

As for Boehner, Chaffetz said “the speaker has more patience than I do.”

“He has told me to be patient, that the truth will eventually surface. But I’m not a patient person, and if this administration makes us do this the hard way, that’s what we’ll do,” the congressman added.

“The White House likes to say that our questions are a political sideshow, but it seems like it was their politics that caused a lot of the problems.”

http://redflagnews.com/headlines/rep-chaffetz-if-obama-wants-well-do-it-the-hard-way

Few actors can top the liberal bona fides of Avengers star Mark Ruffalo.

The ruggedly handsome actor is vehemently anti-fracking, longs to see Guantanamo Bay closed and marched in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Today, Ruffalo set aside his ideology to share his disgust over the Obama administration’s tactics in its war on the press.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2013/05/22/ruffalo-obama-press-clampdown