Carom Shot

To keep with its insidious methods of getting around Congress ... its oversight and funding controls ... the Obummer Justice Department under the direction of Eric Holder concocted a carom-shot way of the public funding of private lefty organizations ... in particular those ever-evasive "community organizers" (read voter fraud cabals). How was this bunco game pulled off you ask? Here's how:

1) The Justice Department fines a public company a large amount of money (often a financial institution and often in the billions of dollars) for misfeasance and malfeasance often associated with the bursting of the housing bubble.

2) Offer the fined company the option of paying just a fraction of this amount (sometimes as little as 10%) to a designated "community organizing" group who then were supposed to use this money to right the wrongs created by the fined company. This, of course, was often the option picked by the transgressors.

3) This community organizing group were then free to use these funds for often Democrat political purposes (such as voter fraud) ... away from the view and control of Congress. If you will, an Obummer administration sponsored extra-legal money laundering operation.

The degree to which the Justice Department has been politicized under this current administration is mind-boggling. To see the depressing details of this particular scam of theirs, see: GAI.

This also smacks of the Justice Department's Fast and Furious extra-legal gun running operation to Mexico ... that should have resulted in criminal indictments ... but, as we have too often seen this "Just Us" group seldom will prosecute its own or those on the left.

The Oath

When our president twice took his oath of office, he swore to protect the American people from "all enemies, foreign and domestic." I can't believe that anyone truly believes that Obummer has fulfilled this pledge. Here are but a few of the instances where he has fallen down on his job one:

The Fast and Furious scheme inside his Justice Dept., his premature pullout from Iraq, his release of thousands of immigrant criminals, his unwillingness to identify the radicalized Muslim enemy, the series of terrorist attacks inside the U.S. on his watch, the release of hundreds of terrorists from Gitmo, his open borders policy, his tepid response to the ISIS threat, the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner exchange, his politically motivated "surge" in Afghanistan with no chance of success, his embracing of the Muslim Brotherhood, his sponsoring the Arab Spring and its dire consequences (Egypt, Libya, etc.), and his capitulation to Iran on their nuclear program/sponsorship of terrorism.

Enough? (There are lots more.) Obviously this man then had scant regard for this oath ... or the Book upon which he swore it.

Collusion?

Now we learn that Mexico has stopped the flood of illegal minors from Central America somewhat before the past November's elections … see: Breitbart Article. This must mean that it purposely permitted the huge influx of this same group earlier this past summer. And the obvious question that this raises is, Why? Has the Mexican government been colluding with the Obama administration to try to influence the outcome of our elections … and earlier to grease the passage of an Obama immigration amnesty bill?

And was Mexico getting cold feet … which is why we were flying these illegals into Texas from Central America  … see: Forums Story?

It may take many years before we have definitive answers to these questions … but, seeing how, in the past, this administration has attempted illegal or immoral means to orchestrate things to satisfy its liberal agenda (remember Fast and Furious), I wouldn’t be half surprised that it had colluded with the Mexican poobahs in these matters. However, experiencing this kind of nasty and base corruption on the part of the Mexicans shocks … shocks me to the core!

I think that Charles Krauthammer keeps calling us a Banana Republic ... perhaps he is right?

Walter Mitty

Sometimes I like to slip into my Walter Mitty persona and imagine myself to be someone important … like a U.S. Senator sitting on the Judiciary Committee interviewing Loretta Lynch for her new position as Attorney General. My questioning might go something like this:

Me: Ms. Lynch, your predecessor, Eric Holder is your personal friend and confident and, I understand, he has sought your advice on many of his more controversial legal positions. Now I consider Mr. Holder to be the worst Attorney General since John Mitchell and he was the first Attorney General ever held in contempt of Congress. Because of this nexus, I would like to have you give us what you advised Mr. Holder on a number of his more contentious poses:

Me: Do you agree that we should be holding a trial for that enemy combatant, Abu Hamza al-Masn, in New York City, when, according to administrative precedent he should have been sent to Guantanamo?

Ms. Lynch: those noises that Charlie Brown’s teacher makes when talking to him.

Me: Would you have prosecuted those New Black Panthers for their intimidation activities at the Philadelphia polling places in 2008?

Ms. Lynch: a convoluted legal argument full of “whereas”s, “whatfor”s, and stare decisis

Me: Do you agree with the Attorney General that we are a nation of cowards for not discussing race relations more?

Ms. Lynch: yada, yada, yada

Me: Do you concur that Mr. Holder should have been held in contempt of Congress for withholding critical documents in the “Fast and Furious” scandal?

Ms. Lynch: Now you are asking me to violate the confidentiality between a client and his lawyer.

Me: Is President Obama within Constitutional bounds if he chooses to use an executive action to give green cards to millions of illegal immigrants?

Ms. Lynch: Senator Mitty, I think your questioning time has expired …

Pukata … pukata …

Afterward: For some more question topics see: ABC News Story.

After Afterward: More thoughts on this from the Powerline blog: Powerline Opinion.

Chaff

I am suffering from indignation fatigue due to a overabundance of national outrages … gender pay inequality, the Benghazi scandal, the Koch brothers’ political donations, the IRS’s Tea Party targeting scandal, climate change, the Fast and Furious government gun-running, the release of illegal-immigrant criminals, our botched foreign policy vis-à-vis Russia, the looming federal carbon tax, Obamacare disruptions to our health-care system, the return of school segregation, NSA eavesdropping, President Obama’s selective enforcement of our laws, Iran’s rush to atomic weaponry, the need to increase the minimum wage, Syria’s continued use of chemical weapons, extending unemployment benefits, continued lethargic national employment and economic growth, our refusal to approve the Keystone pipeline … and so on ad infinitum.

Perspicacious readers might have noticed that the above list contains numerous serious scandals of both commission and omission on the part of our current “government.” But every other outrage listed  is, in my opinion, chaff. Just like fighter planes release metallic chaff to confuse the tracking of enemy radar, the Obama administration and their henchmen are working overtime to manufacture news stories of little real consequence in order to crowd out their numerous serious failings. As a result, the public finds it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff … and Obama, Pelosi, Reid, etc. are doing their level best to skate through the governmental carnage they have created.

Now, dear reader, you might take some notice of the placement of such chaff on the evening TV news and in our biased print media … and ignore it. We have many too many serious scandals that are being conveniently buried by all this mostly-manufactured filler.

Buddy

It wasn’t too long ago when an United States Army General started an answer to Barbara Boxer’s question with, “Ma’am.” He was quickly reprimanded by Ms. Boxer (appropriate last name) with the strident request that she be addressed as “Senator” as she had worked hard for that title … see: YouTube Video .

Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder retorted to a Congressman’s comment that he doesn’t seem to be too concerned that the U.S. House had held him in contempt of Congress (for his unresponsiveness to its request for documents in the Fast and Furious investigation) with “You don’t want to go there, Buddy!” … see: The Daily Caller Video.

Can anything be more contemptuous than to call a Congressman, “Buddy?”

Angst Redux

Change produces anxiety.  Radical change produces angst.  Not that change necessarily is bad.  It’s just that its results are not necessarily predictable.  Take Obamacare for instance.  This is a radical remake of the United States’s health-care system … not just the way the insurance process works within it.  Therefore the American people (at least those who are paying attention) are suffering a bout of dyspepsia over this transformation … particularly since much of its consequences clearly have not been well thought through.  

It’s always been a puzzle to me that the Obama-ites are so good at the political processes … planning, polling, message construction, computer systems building, funding, communications, etc. … yet so inept at the policy processes.

Our current administration is fumbling so many fundamental policy issues that those who are watching things justifiably have great concerns.  Viz:

-        Our current handling of the nuclear threat from Iran is gone squishy.  Six months ago we seem to be putting the squeeze on Iran.  Now we are pulling a u-turn much to Israel’s consternation … see: Weekly Standard Story.

-        The United States military is undergoing a radical transmogrification under Obama.  In the last five years 197 top military officers have been summarily removed from their posts … including General Petraeus and General Ham.  For the disturbing details see:  Investors Business Daily Item.

-        President Obama has dramatically expanded the U.S. welfare state … despite his timid talk of entitlement reform.  Obamaphones, EBT cards, Medicaid expansion, etc. are costing tens of billions of dollars more than when he took office … see: National Review Article.

-        The many scandals that the Obama administration is playing Whack-a-Mole to keep off the front pages – Benghazi, Fast and Furious, IRS suppression of the Tea Party, NSA snooping, his extra-Constitutional executive orders involving immigration, global warming, gun control, etc.

-        [Add three or four more here of your own choosing.]

Barack Obama promised “hope and change” in his first Presidential campaign.  In fact he often added the word “fundamental” before the word “change” ... read this rather as "radical"… and he is surely living up to this pledge … a simple recipe for our current national angst.

The Buck Stops …

Somewhere else.  Apparently President Obama didn’t know about the NSA dragnet of electronic surveillance … including Angela Merkel’s cell-phone taps ... until this past August.  He didn’t know about the political malfeasance at the IRS despite hundreds of visits by IRS higher-up to the White House over the months leading up to the 2012 elections.  Apparently he was oblivious to the real cause of the Benghazi slaughter until weeks after the event … even though his surrogates kept up the fiction of the anti-Islam Internet video for months more.  He was also unaware that millions of Americans who buy private health insurance would lose this insurance under Obamacare even though he swore on a stack of Korans that this would not happen. 

He also had carefully-constructed plausible deniability in his administration’s unprecedented suppression of our Constitutional-guaranteed freedom of the press with the Justice Department’s (and now Homeland Security’s) seizure of reporter’s notes/computers and the JD’s illegal gun-running into Mexico under Fast and Furious.  He knew nothing about the woes of the HealthCare.gov website until just days before its launch … or presumably about Michelle Obama’s intimate connection to a Senior V.P., Toni Townes Whitley, at the Canadian firm, CGI, that screwed the pooch on this piece of software (after a no-bid contract and hundreds of millions of misappropriated taxpayer dollars).

You know dear reader, that with just a smidgen of effort, I could add many more paragraphs of Obama’s “ignorance” of things that have misfired under his administration … apparently all without his slightest foreknowledge.  I really sometimes wonder what he does to fill his days to be so much out of the loop about so many issues.  Perhaps he is too busy reading a biography of President Truman who kept on his desk a plaque with his motto, “The buck stops here.”

The Ship of State

Old Ironsides

The United States must really have some special resilience going for it to have survived the last five years ... maybe even longer ... of domestic and international screw-ups.  Whether this mismanagement is purposeful or as a result of incompetence is almost beside the point.  Our country has been buffeted by a series of fiscal, operational, and diplomatic tidal waves that would have sunk even the sturdiest of ships … yet we sail on … a little slower and shakier than would be nice … but we are thankfully still afloat.

I hope I need not detail these tsunamis … which should be quite obvious to those seamen even traveling in steerage.  Can I just tweak a few reminders …  the IRS, huge deficit spending, Benghazi, Iran, NSA, Obamacare, the Muslim Brotherhood, Fast and Furious, North Korea, the stimulus, amnesty, Solendra, illegal immigrants, Assad, the fiscal cliff, EBT cards, unemployment, Afghanistan, global warming, Edward Snowden, SDI, increased tax rates, the debt ceiling, Excel pipeline, etc.?  We have placed a tyro at the helm of our ship of state who appears somehow oblivious to these buffetings … just as long as he can play some golf, have his White House soirees, and pick his March Madness brackets.

Our man-o-war surely must be rock-ribbed.

Top 10 List

When Mitt Romney is inaugurated next January, these are the top 10 things that I would like to see him do in his first hours as President:

1) Kill or disable, in whatever ways possible, Obamacare.
2) Make all Obama's czars account for what they did during their tenures ... then fire them and their staffs.
3) OK the Keystone pipeline and restart all offshore drilling.
4) Fire all the political appointees in the Justice Dept. and insure that all Fast & Furious documents are not destroyed.
5) Stop all pending Energy Dept. loans and start an audit on all outstanding ones.
6) Restart the the missile defense shields in Poland and the Czech Republic.
7) Halt all foreign aid to Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, and Pakistan until and unless they accede to our demands.
8) Restore the bust of Winston Churchill to its place of honor in the White House.
9) Cut all Cabinet Dept. budgets to 2008 levels + 10%.
10) Count the White House silverware.

Our Imperial President

President Obama, when he was inaugurated, swore to uphold the United States Constitution and the laws of our land.  He lied. Repeatedly, and with increasing frequency, he has been ignoring Congressionally-codified laws and other established processes ... and has been issuing administrative orders/actions instead.  The President is disturbingly assuming the mantle of an emperor -- an I-know-better-than-you-peons imperialist.

Here is a short list of the laws, agreements or processes that have been ignored or circumvented by The Barry (there are more):

No Child Left Behind -- George W. Bush, in one of his more liberal actions, cajoled Ted Kennedy and Congress into passing this act in order to raise educational standards throughout our states via a series of increasingly-rigorous testing standards. Yet, even after doubling the spending in the Department of Education under Arne Duncan, many of these standards have been knocked into a cocked hat by Obama ... without any Congressional review or approval (see: USA Today Article).

Defense of Marriage Act -- no matter what one's view is on homosexual marriage, there is a law on the books defining marriage as between one man and one woman. This was passed in Bill Clinton's term and signed by him into law. A year ago Obama declared this law unconstitutional and indicated that his administration would not enforce its strictures (see: YouTube Video).

Don't Ask Don't Tell -- also back in Bill Clinton's administration, the issues of homosexuals serving in the military was resolved with a Department of Defense (DOD) policy that stated that homosexuals could serve therein ... as long as they didn't flaunt their sexual preference. Obama has recently tossed this understanding into the Potomac River by having his DOD revoke this policy (see: Wikipedia Entry).

Missile Defense Shield -- the United States had agreed, under George W. Bush's administration, to erect a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic … much to the dismay of Russia. Hardly a year later Obama abrogated this commitment and left these Eastern European nations slowly dangling in the breeze (see: Guardian Article). And more recently Russian’s Premier Putin has hardened his attitude toward the United States despite this unilateral attempt at appeasement.

Immigration Laws – the Obama White House is using administrative actions under Janet Napolitano’s aegis to create its own extra-legal process for dealing with millions of illegal immigrants. It recently effectively granted amnesty to such younger illegals (see: CNN Story). It also just responded to the current Supreme Court ruling (allowing Arizona law enforcement officers to ask anyone stopped for cause to produce proof of citizenship) by indicating that the federal government would no longer cooperate with Arizona in this process (see CNNPolitics Story). This is tantamount to a finger in the eye of both this state and the Supreme Court.

Obamacare – this wildly unpopular law, probably passed illegally using the Congressional reconciliation process, is now under review by the Supreme Court … with a decision expected this Thursday. If this law is struck down as expected, watch for our imperial President to find another slick way to continue to push his agenda on healthcare independent of our existing legal system. Stay tuned.

Recess Appointments – this past January, when Congress was not technically in recess, President Obama made “recess” appointments to the NLRP and the Consumer Protection Bureau (see: LATimes Story). Although clearly inappropriate, Congress yelped once and then rolled over.

Fast and Furious Subpoena – Eric Holder is expected to be voted in contempt of Congress this Thursday by the full House of Representatives (but it is expected to die later in the Senate). This is because he and President Obama have claimed executive privilege by refusing to turn over critical documents in the Fast and Furious gun-running investigation (see: CNNPolitics Story)

Does one see a disturbing trend in the high-handed governing style under the current administration? Clearly when Barack Obama took his Presidential oath of office three and one half years ago, behind his back, he surely must have had his fingers crossed.

Oaf Oath

When the Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder, testifies before Congress and, under oath, says that "Fast and Furious" doesn't refer to "Fast and Furious." we obviously have a problem (see: CNSnews Story).  And yet this revelation does not come from the New York Times or CBS or the Washington Post, it comes from CNSnews.  This is yet another egregious example of how our erstwhile primary news outlets are hiding under the covers ... afraid to report the obvious corruption in the Obama administration lest they too are exposed as the partisan frauds that they have become.