My latest column examines the Obama administration’s continuing war on religious health care professionals, which I spotlighted when the ACLU first launched its salvo against Catholic hospitals in 2010. What’s noteworthy now is the united front that Catholic bishops (who have traditionally taken big government positions) are now taking against the Obamacare abortion edict. Better late than never. The Anchoress and LifeNews have excellent coverage of the controversy — see here , here , here , and here . As I mention below, the Becket Fund is representing two schools suing over the unconstitutional abortion mandate in federal court. Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio is sponsoring a bill to restore the conscience clause protections for health care providers of faith. This outrageous power grab is one which both fiscal and social conservative can rally behind. Every one of the GOP presidential candidates should be raising it on the campaign trail, in debates, and media interviews. Send messages to @HHSGov and @WhiteHouse . The grass-roots revolt is growing. NCHLA has a petition and action alert info here . Where’s the MSM? Mostly AWOL, as usual. Related news: Susan G. Komen foundation for breast cancer research has finally halted grants to Planned Parenthood. And: Pfizer recalls 28 lots of birth control pills . *** First, they came for the Catholics by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2012 President Obama and his radical feminist enforcers have had it in for Catholic medical providers from the get-go. It’s about time all people of faith fought back against this unprecedented encroachment on religious liberty. First, they came for the Catholics. Who’s next? This weekend, Catholic bishops informed parishioners of the recent White House edict forcing religious hospitals, schools, charities, and other health and social service providers to provide “free” abortifacient pills, sterilizations, and contraception on demand in their insurance plans – even if it violates their moral consciences and teachings of their churches. NARAL, NOW, Ms. Magazine, and the Feminist Majority Foundation all cheered the administration’s abuse of the Obamacare law to ram abortion down pro-life medical professionals’ throats. Femme dinosaur Eleanor Smeal gloated over the news that the administration had rejected church officials’ pleas for compromises: “At last,” she exulted, the Left’s goal of “no-cost birth control” for all had been achieved. As always, tolerance is a one-way street in the Age of Obama. “Choice” is in the eye (and iron fist) of the First Amendment usurper. Like the rising number of states who have revolted against the individual health care care mandate at the ballot box and in the courts, targeted Catholics have risen up against the Obamacare regime. Arlington (Va.) Bishop Paul Loverde didn’t mince words, calling the U.S. Department Health and Human Services order “a direct attack against religious liberty. This ill-considered policy comprises a truly radical break with the liberties that have underpinned our nation since its founding.” Several bishops vowed publicly to fight the mandate. Bishop Alexander Sample of Marquette, Michigan asserted plainly: “We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law.” It’s not just rabid right-wing politicos defying the Obama machine. Pro-life Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania denounced the “wrong decision.” Left-leaning Bishop Robert Lynch threatened “civil disobedience” in St. Petersburg, Florida, over the power grab. Lefty Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne wrote that Obama “botched” the controversy and “threw his progressive Catholic allies under the bus” by refusing to “ balance the competing liberty interests here .” White House press secretary Jay Carney blithely denied on Tuesday that “there are any constitutional rights issues” involved in the brewing battle. Yet, the Shut Up and Hand Out Abortion Pills order undermines a unanimous Supreme Court ruling issued just last week upholding a religious employer’s right to determine whom to hire and fire. And two private colleges have filed federal suits against the government to overturn the unconstitutional abortion coverage decree. Hannah Smith, senior counsel at the non-profit law firm, the Becket Fund, which is representing the schools boiled it down for Bloomberg News: “ This is not really about access to contraception. The mandate is about forcing these religious groups to pay for it against their beliefs .” How did we get here? The first salvo came in December 2010, when the American Civil Liberties Union pushed HHS and its Planned Parenthood-championing secretary, Kathleen “The Shredder” Sebelius , to force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions in violation of their core moral commitment to protecting the lives of the unborn. The ACLU called for a litigious fishing expedition against Catholic hospitals nationwide that refuse to provide “emergency” contraception and abortions to women. In their sights: Devout Phoenix Catholic Bishop Thomas Olmsted, who revoked the Catholic status of a rogue hospital that performed several direct abortions, provided birth control pills and presided over sterilizations against the church’s ethical and religious directives for health care. ACLU and the feminists have joined with Obama to threaten and sabotage the First Amendment rights of religious-based health care entities. The agenda is not increased “access” to health care services. The ultimate goal is to shut down health care providers – Catholic health care institutions employ about 540,000 full-time workers and 240,000 part-time workers – whose religious views cannot be tolerated by secular zealots and radical social engineers. Is it any surprise their counterparts in the “Occupy” movement have moved from protesting “Wall Street” to harassing pro-life marchers in Washington, D.C., and hurling condoms at Catholic school girls in Rhode Island? Birds of a lawless, bigoted feather bully together.
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First, they came for the Catholics
Official White House photo The Land of Obama Make-Believe by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2012 Where did President Obama go after killing off thousands of Keystone XL pipeline construction and manufacturing jobs? Why, Disney World, of course. Sabotaging work is hard work for Goofy and his pals. And where’d he head after that? Why, up to Manhattan for more high-priced campaign fundraisers charging up to $38,500 per partier. The business of wining and dining politically connected donors ain’t child’s play, you know. Obama touted a White House foreign tourism initiative on Thursday with Cinderella’s castle as his backdrop. “America is open for business,” he proclaimed chirpily to the rest of the globe. Tell that to the Keystone managers in Canada whom Obama and his State Department rebuffed — after years of planning and review — in order to appease militant environmentalists and Hollywood celebs. The Animatronic Divider robotically lambasted Republicans for pushing him to make a decision this week. But Senate and House Democrats issued the sharpest rebukes to White House obstructionism: “President Obama’s decision on the Keystone XL pipeline is a major setback for the American economy, American workers, and America’s energy independence,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., said. “The rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline permit is a missed opportunity to drastically turn this economy around. This pipeline would have created thousands of new jobs and helped to ensure our energy independence,” Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., lamented. “This delay is just playing politics with American jobs and American energy security,” Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, pointed out. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle scratched their heads as the job-snuffer-in-chief bolted to Orlando’s fantasyland to promote economic growth. But there’s no more fitting place on Earth for the man whose escapist administration occupies the land of make-believe and no consequences. (Bonus moment: Obama got to shake hands with Mickey Mouse, who infamously turned up on a Florida ACORN voter registration form in 2008. Constituent outreach at its most surreal.) On the very same day he quashed Keystone, Obama released his first campaign ad of 2012 — hyping his stellar record on energy jobs. It’s Opposite Day at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, 365 days a year. Even more comically, the ad touted his exemplary ethics record by quoting a moldy three-year-old endorsement from left-leaning Politifact. And as bipartisan Capitol Hill outrage over the half-billion-dollar Solyndra solar stimulus bust mounts, Obama had the nerve to sprinkle his inaugural campaign spot with — wait for it — solar panels. Instead of supporting new infrastructure jobs in America through an energy independence-enhancing project that has bipartisan legislative support on Capitol Hill, the president flew to Disney World to peddle looser visa restrictions in China and Brazil by executive order . He also will expand the Visa Waiver Program (a security loophole-ridden program that was suspended temporarily after the 9/11 terrorist attacks) to speed foreign travel. In case anyone needs reminding, it was the relentless drive of the tourism industry and kowtowing State Department bureaucrats that led to the Bush-era Visa Express Program, which relaxed visa policies, eliminated in-person consulate interviews and opened the door to the 9/11 hijackers. Brazil is just the latest base for al-Qaida and other Islamic jihadi groups. It does not consider Hezbollah or Hamas terrorist groups, and it disbanded its anti-terrorism force in 2009. The Visa Waiver Program and other efforts to expedite the tourist visa process also pose continuing security risks because — as the Government Accountability Office itself admitted last year — there is still no comprehensive, systematic way to track the 70 million-plus foreign visitors who enter the country on tourist and other short-term visas. Indeed, half of the nation’s estimated 20 million illegal aliens are visa overstayers. How many of the new Disney foreign tourists whom Obama is touting as America’s economic salvation will fail to return to their home countries after their Obama World visas expire? We’ll likely never know. And Team Obama doesn’t care. In his opening campaign ad salvo, Obama accuses his opponents of being “untethered to facts.” But this is an administration that believes lowering visa standards and risking homeland security to pump up Disney foreign tourism is a better path to economic recovery than supporting direct American job creation and enhancing energy security. Like the Disney characters he posed with this week, our cartoonish president is wholly untethered to reality.
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The Land of Obama Make-Believe
Old logo: New logo: Photoshop credit: Commenter jeffjackie The Bank of (Democratic Party) America by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2012 Well, isn’t this rich? And I do mean rich. President Obama, man of the people, will deliver his presidential nomination acceptance speech at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. — so that Democratic Party fundraisers can reward big donors with skyboxes and other lavish perks. As usual, the White House and its allies are trying to camouflage naked partisan money-grubbing in populist garb. “I think this would be a great opportunity to have tens of thousands of North Carolinians and others outside of the state to see and participate in the convention process,” one North Carolina Democratic Party flack told the Charlotte Observer . But it’s the heavyweight contributors, not the hoi polloi, to whom convention organizers are catering as they struggle to raise some $37 million to cover the coronation celebration’s costs. The self-proclaimed Party of the 99 Percent is reportedly busy creating special-access VIP packages for the 1 percent — under the illusion of throwing open its doors to the masses. DNC officials refuse to disclose fundraising updates until after the convention, even as they champion their own “openness and accessibility.” And no doubt, Obama will use his stadium-size pulpit to “stand up” to the very same “fat cats” who’ll be watching him while sipping Courvoisier in their DNC-appointed luxury seats. Such is the audacity of progressive cognitive dissonance. Despite the DNC’s vaunted promise to ban business donations and first lady Michelle Obama’s faux-folksy public relations campaign for a “people’s convention,” Bank of America (headquartered in North Carolina and Charlotte’s largest corporate presence) will be front and center at the festivities. No surprise. The Democrats and Bank of America have maintained a long, lucrative relationship as reciprocal bailout buddies. During the 2010 midterm elections, former DNC chairman and ex-Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine secured a $15 million revolving line of credit at BofA and then finagled another $17 million loan from the taxpayer-bailed-out bank. According to Federal Election Commission records, BofA accepted as collateral the DNC’s donor mailing list. Yep, its donor mailing list for $32 million in loans. As investigative reporter Richard Pollock asked at the time: “What message does a largely unsecured $32 million credit line for the Democratic Party send to thousands of cash-starved small businesses across the nation who can’t secure any credit even with tangible assets?” Message: crony business as usual. Bank of America is to sweetheart loans and Democratic Party payoffs as Paula Deen is to sugar and bacon grease: – The massively troubled bank raked in a middle-of-the-night, taxpayer-funded $45 billion banking bailout in 2008 and an estimated $931 billion in secret federal emergency loans. – In 2008, BofA’s political action committee gave its biggest contributions to Barack Obama totaling $421,000. – After purchasing junk mortgage company Countrywide, BofA agreed to pay $50 million in restitution payments for Countrywide subprime loan fraudster and Democratic fat cat Angelo Mozilo and one of his underlings. – BofA forked over payoffs to self-declared bank terrorist outfit NACA (the taxpayer-subsidized Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America). – BofA also capitulated to a Jesse Jackson shakedown. And it forked over at least $2 million to the ACORN Housing Corporation — which has had a long history of fraud and abuse that goes back decades. – The financial giant teamed up with the open-borders lobby (including newly appointed Domestic Policy Council chief Cecilia Munoz’s former employer, the National Council of La Raza) to offer illegal alien home loans. No word yet on whether Obama’s Greek columns from the 2008 convention will make a return appearance this fall. But if they do, they may yet be emblazoned with a new red-white-and-blue Bank of Democratic Party America logo. Optics be damned. The coffers must be filled.
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The Bank of (Democratic Party) America
Obama’s “Razist” Lobbyist Moves Up by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2012 With public attention focused on the GOP primaries, the White House quietly promoted another self-dealing lobbyist to serve as President Obama’s top domestic policy adviser. Promises? What broken promises? Cecilia Munoz, the current director of intergovernmental affairs at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., will now serve as head of the Domestic Policy Council. She’ll wield heightened influence at Obama’s daily morning briefings and expand her reach from immigration issues to education, health care and beyond. Gushing headlines heralded the advancement of Obama’s top Hispanic civil rights “advocate” as a win for the “middle class.” But Munoz is a veteran member of the Beltway lobbyist class whose former organization is reaping a taxpayer-funded windfall as she climbs the government ladder. Before joining Team Obama, Munoz spent two decades as chief registered lobbyist for the National Council of La Raza (“The Race”). Whose “middle class” does The Race represent? I’ve tracked the radical identity politics-driven group for years as it promoted drivers’ licenses and in-state college tuition breaks for illegal aliens; opposed cooperative immigration enforcement efforts between local, state and federal authorities; and opposed a secure fence along the southern border. Under Munoz, The Race advised the Mexican government on how to lobby for illegal alien amnesty in the United States. Mexico’s Institute for Mexicans Residing Abroad rewarded her with its Ohtli Prize for her service to the country. Their country, not ours. The Race vehemently protested post-9/11 homeland security measures and joined a failed lawsuit to block immigration information-sharing between the feds and local police. The group also has called for TV and cable news networks to keep immigration enforcement proponents (including yours truly) off the airwaves, in addition to pushing for Fairness Doctrine policies to shut up their foes. Most recently, The Race and other open-borders groups pressured the White House to deliver the DREAM Act illegal alien student bailout by executive fiat — after it was defeated repeatedly by bipartisan majorities on Capitol Hill. Obama started issuing the amnesty waivers last August. This week, the White House announced an even wider expansion of waiver status to illegal aliens claiming “hardship.” Who has benefited from Munoz’s Beltway lobbying? No, not the American middle class. The biggest beneficiary has been La Raza’s coffers. According to analysts at nonpartisan Judicial Watch in Washington, The Race raked in $4.1 million in federal subsidies in 2009 and more than $11 million in 2010. Much of that money came straight from the Obama stimulus boondoggle, and much of it went to mortgage counseling. As a result of “strategic partnerships” with Wachovia and Bank of America, The Race has succeeded in lowering mortgage application requirements and watering down documentation standards. Illegal aliens have secured countless federal and private home loans over the past decade thanks to the lending industry’s version of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” In addition, Munoz’s group collected a $1 million Democratic earmark that funded “community development” projects. And the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services kicked in $25,000 to co-sponsor the group’s annual conference in 2010. Munoz’s multi-culti armor has shielded her radical lobbying from scrutiny. You’ll recall that the Obama administration made a lofty vow to end lobbyist conflicts-of-interest as we know them. The declaration was crystal-clear: “No political appointees in an Obama-Biden administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration.” But something got lost in translation when the White House brought registered lobbyist Munoz aboard — to work on the very open-borders agenda she pushed at The Race. Team Obama invoked a shady “public interest” exemption to waive the lobbyist ban because, it determined, “Ms. Munoz’s knowledge and expertise are vital to the functioning of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.” Has Munoz recused herself on any of the myriad public policy issues she has advised the president on over the past two years? Who knows? The most transparent administration ever refuses to disclose recusal orders involving the nearly 100 lobbyists and ex-lobbyists on its payroll. Obama’s “Razist” revolving door isn’t a victory for “civil rights” or the 99 percent. It’s a triumph of politically correct business as usual.
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Obama’s “Razist” Lobbyist Moves Up
Romney and McCain: The GOP Frenemies’ Club by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2012 Michael Corleone said to “ keep your friends close, but your enemies closer .” But what, pray tell, do we do with our frenemies? This is the awful, election-year quandary of movement conservatives. And everything you need to know about our heartache can be summed up in one image: 2008 presidential election loser John McCain and Mitt Romney together on the campaign trail. When they’re together , they look like they’re holding each other (and the rest of us) hostage. Their toxic chemistry makes seething, ex-newlyweds Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries look like Fred and Ginger. In New Hampshire last week after Romney’s Iowa caucus squeaker, an overly giddy McCain mocked his endorsee for his “landslide victory.” Awkward. Then in South Carolina on Friday, McCain mistakenly referred to Romney as “President Obama” – as Romney and South Carolina GOP governor Nikki Haley rushed to correct the gaffe. Freudian slip? Senior moment? Sabotage? All of the above? Of course, if you choose to pal around with a double-talking, big government barnacle, you get what you deserve. McCain is the entrenched incumbent Arizona senator/war hero who lost to a neophyte, radical leftist community organizer from Chicago. The “straight-talk” GOP candidate flip-flopped on everything from illegal immigration to global warming to offshore drilling to closing Gitmo. He pandered to minority grievance-mongers and the liberal media. He proposed massive government interventions bigger than Obama’s. This Beltway fossil who now poses as a Tea Party hero proudly teamed with Big Government liberals Teddy Kennedy and Russ Feingold. He’s the “maverick” who supported the $700 billion TARP bailout, the $25 billion auto bailout, the first $85 billion AIG bailout , and a $300 billion mortgage bailout – yet, who now carps about “record deficits and debt.” A career politician for the past 30 years, McCain set the stage for the suicidal anti-capitalist rhetoric now polluting the GOP primary. Four years ago this month during a GOP primary debate held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, it was McCain up on stage denigrating Romney’s private-sector experience. Asked whether he thought Romney’s record as CEO made him qualified to lead, McCain snarked: “I know how to lead. I led the largest squadron in the United States Navy. And I did it out of patriotism, not for profit.” Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Jon Huntsman have all followed suit, bashing Romney’s venture-capitalist past at Bain Capital with Occupy Wall Street-style zeal. It’s one thing to carefully dissect Romney’s investments, as the Wall Street Journal did, and weigh his wins against his losses. (The paper found that “in total, Bain produced about $2.5 billion in gains for its investors in the 77 deals, on about $1.1 billion invested. Overall, Bain recorded roughly 50% to 80% annual gains in this period, which experts said was among the best track records for buyout firms in that era.”) It’s quite another to shamelessly disparage those who work in private equities as immoral corporate raiders and avaricious job-killers, as the three aforementioned GOP Occupiers have done. If they keep it up, they’ll soon be chaining themselves together with bike locks performing “mic checks” and “down twinkles” at the next GOP debate. Gingrich has pushed McCain’s profit-bashing line the furthest. Backed by a super PAC (the very campaign finance vehicle he was whining about last week) flush with $5 million from casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, the vendetta-driven former House Speaker accused Romney and a “handful of rich people” of “ looting ” companies. Channeling left-wing propagandist Michael Moore, Gingrich railed that Bain “manipulate[d] the lives of thousands of other people.” Gingrich – who raked in millions consulting for the taxpayer-subsidized Freddie Mac racket — also served on the advisory board of private equities firm and leveraged buyout experts Forstmann Little. But, hey, it’s only “looting” if it doesn’t line your own pockets. Mitt Romney’s chronic flip-flopping political career is teeming with reasons for grass-roots conservatives to oppose his nomination — from his support for racial preferences and government funding of abortion, liberal judges, global warming enviro-nitwittery, TARP, auto bailouts, the Obama stimulus, gun control, and of course, the Massachusetts individual health insurance mandates that presaged Obamacare. But instead of focusing on his long political record of expedience, incompetent non-Romneys have borrowed from McCain’s 2008 playbook and thrown wealth creators of all kinds who take risks in the private marketplace under the bus. With frenemies like these, who needs Democrats?
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Romney and McCain: The GOP Frenemies’ Club
As we wait for election results to come in tonight, enjoy my reflections on the snobs and sore losers exposed by the Iowa caucus process. Update: Results thread is here . Gingrich was true to sore-loser form, blaming super PACS and negative ads for his 4th place finish. *** Iowa-bashing snobs and sore losers by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2012 The Iowa caucuses may not have much predictive value, but they did a wonderful job of unmasking both elitist whingers on the Left and incompetent whiners on the Right. As they do every presidential election cycle, progressives of pallor wore their indelible disdain for middle America on their sleeves. Pale-faced University of Iowa journalism professor Stephen Bloom launched a 6,000-word jeremiad , littered with factual errors, against his home state’s residents. The abridged version: Raaaaaaaacists! Hicks! Christians! Argggh! In the safe harbors of The Atlantic just a few weeks before Tuesday’s electoral event, Bloom sneered: “Those who stay in rural Iowa are often the elderly waiting to die.” The rest are “[a]n assortment of waste-toids and meth addicts with pale skin and rotted teeth or those who quixotically believe, like Little Orphan Annie, that the sun will come out tomorrow.” One of the poison-tongued prof’s own former journalism students, Kirsten Scharnberg Hampton , took him to task for citing faulty demographic statistics, derisively stereotyping hunters, and falsely accusing a local newspaper of “splashing” the headline “He Is Risen” across its front page (it was a small, boxed quotation marking Easter Sunday). But the damage was done; the bait dangled. And at the overwhelmingly white NBC Nightly News on Sunday, Andrea Mitchell swallowed the Iowa-bashing chum whole – then dutifully regurgitated the attack on the state as “Too white, too evangelical, too rural.” She was quick to slip in a “critics say” disclaimer, of course. But let’s not kid ourselves about the network’s prejudices. This is the same news organization that attempted to conduct Islamophobia stings at NASCAR races to expose how racist racing fans supposedly were; whose Meet the Press host David Gregory smeared GOP leaders as “Grand Wizards” in November; and whose execs were forced to apology last month for MSNBC goons who falsely linked GOP candidate Mitt Romney to the Ku Klux Klan. One local Hawkeye State veteran journalist, David Yepsen, tried to correct the coastal myth of the redneck- hick-outlier Iowa voter by politely pointing out Barack Obama’s triumph in the 2008 Democratic caucuses at the hands of yes, mostly white voters. Moreover, over the last four presidential election seasons, the Iowa popular vote has “closely tracked national preferences.” Census statistics show that the majority of Iowans are urban, not rural; the median age is 38 (nationally, it’s 36.7); and out of a population of 3 million people statewide, some 90,000 are farming families. But snobs and demagogues on both sides of the aisle eschewed the facts and indulged in racial and class warfare instead. The Hispanic News website issued a clarion call: “ In Diverse & Urban Nation, Time to Kick Iowa White, Racist Farmers to Curb .” GOP strategist Roger Stone, who spearheaded the bungled bid to turn statist, pro-bailout, eminent-domain abuser Donald Trump into a Tea Party/GOP “Mr. Everyman” candidate, also jumped ugly. He railed against Iowans as a “bunch [of] hayseeds” who are “not representative of America today.” More Iowa sins according to Stone: “The food is awful, the people are stout and a lot of them smoke.” If only a utopian state of non-smoking, vegetarian supermodels and Apprentice reality-show contestants had first-in-the-nation status, imagine how much better off we’d all be. Joking aside, I’d have no problem with a rotating, kick-off caucus slot. But intermingled with the bi-coastal bigotry against Iowa is the distinct odor of sore-loser-dom. Split voters in Iowa simply reflected the wider discontent among grass-roots conservatives and Tea Party activists with the current Pageant of the Imperfects. Besides, Iowa caucus critics have had years to change the status quo. Like some of Tuesday’s big losers, the whingers and whiners who complain about the process have failed to get their act together. All talk, no follow-through. Take Newt Gingrich. The vaunted intellectual field marshal of the GOP whose campaign bubble quickly burst under the weight of his own gross incompetence, blamed his fall on money, staff, a “failed system,” negative ads, and the electorate’s inability to appreciate “big ideas.” But if you can’t convert a surge into an electoral win, if you can’t effectively rebut opponents’ charges without resorting to tears and tantrums, and — most damaging for Gingrich — if you can’t put people on the ground in places like Iowa and Virginia who can deliver votes and signatures when it counts, how can you win a general election? Frankly, to use a favorite Gingrich verbal crutch, the fault lies in just one place: on Gingrich’s shoulders. When I was a kid, we took something called the Iowa Test of Basic Skills – a nationally standardized test of minimum competence in core subjects. The Iowa Caucuses serve a similar purpose. When campaigns fail to meet the most elementary requirements of organizational politics, don’t blame the messengers. Blame the test-takers. *** Just Karl at Hot Air is on a similar wavelength: Don’t blame Iowa for this mess.
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Iowa-bashing snobs and sore losers
The Obama-mas Choir sings “Home for the Holidays” by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2011 They just don’t know when to quit. Consumed with the singular task of re-electing Barack Obama, progressives across the country will use the holiday season to propagandize their conservative relatives and friends. White House elves are directing the re-education Christmas camp efforts. On Tuesday, the Obama 2012 campaign released an instructional video titled “Home for the Holidays: Share Why You’re Working to Re-elect President Obama.” Instead of relaxing with loved ones, the president’s monomaniacal campaign staff and volunteers provide “pointers” and “strategies” for converting their “stubborn” families. Not coincidentally, the operatives at MoveOn.org – funded by Obama donor George Soros – spearheaded a similar holiday re-programming effort at Thanksgiving. Headlined “Your conservative uncle,” the group urged supporters (and e-mailed public school teachers across the country whether they approved of the message or not) to “correct” family members who watch Fox News or listen to Rush Limbaugh. Hark, hear the talking points. The slickly-produced Obama video spotlights testimonials from exasperated young people speaking condescendingly of their Republican-voting fathers and grandmothers. Obama, says one, is the politician of my generation.” He’s a “people’s man,” preaches another. Those who disagree are ignorant, “stuck in their ways,” and “works in progress,” the campaign drones complain. “If the conversation at the dinner table turns to politics over the holidays,” they advise, “don’t just quickly change the subject. As you head home this weekend, think about how you’ll steer the discussion to the progress we’ve made over the past three years—from health care to ending the war in Iraq—and why the people you’re passing the mashed potatoes to should support President Obama in 2012.” If those people happen to be medical device-makers hit by hidden Obamacare taxes or small business-owners still wondering why Big Labor cronies got regulatory waivers while they didn’t, the mashed potatoes might rightly end up somewhere other than on guests’ plates. Team Obama and their acolytes mock conservative family members who won’t sing from their hymnbook, but fail to address the commander-in-chief’s own Boy in the Bubble syndrome. The video also whitewashes away mounting left-flank gripes – like those of former White House cheerleader and Hollywood liberal activist Matt Damon, who this week challenged the president’s, er, manhood. “I’ve talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level.” Damon told Elle Magazine. “One of them said to me, ‘Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician,’” Damon told the publication. “You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better.” Just like their dear leader, the Obama pep-and-prep squad is convinced that the problem is their communication of White House policies instead of the costly, failed, corrupted policies themselves. If only Grandma would watch Obama’s Osawatomie speech on YouTube one more time. If only Uncle George would just be quiet and absorb one more indignant lecture from his Occupy Wall Street-championing niece and nephew. The Left’s single-minded holiday soldiers remind me of journalist Ambrose Bierce’s famous diagnosis: “A bore is a person who talks when you wish him to listen.” There’s a time for political proselytizing. There’s a place for ideological battles. And there’s a moment when you should give it all a rest. It is ridiculous to squander precious time with family and friends on partisan squabbles. Shouting over turkey about the payroll tax holiday? Turning the New Year’s Eve Party into a Democratic evangelical service? Severing life-long relationships over Kabuki Beltway brawls? My Christmas wish is for a collective deep breath and a dose of perspective before America hurtles into the 2012 presidential primaries and caucuses. This is the time to celebrate the gift of life. I’ll be counting my blessings, enjoying the company of loved ones regardless of their voting records, and engaging in prayerful reflection. And when a liberal family member passes the mashed potatoes, I’ll have only one thing to say: Would you mind passing the gravy, too? Thanks.
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The Obama-mas Choir sings “Home for the Holidays”
My column is a year-end review of Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi’s congressional self-dealing and ethics covers-up. On a related note, here’s an amusing story of blue-on-blue corruption conflict: Calif. Democrat Rep. Laura Richardson (flashback here on her financial scams) attacking Pelosi’s wealth: The sources disagreed on the exact wording of the unusually direct shot at the party leader, but Richardson’s sentiment was clear: Pelosi, whose net worthis at least $40 million, doesn’t need the money as much as some of her colleagues, and she should have consulted with them before deciding to protect the GOP-written pay freeze. It was “something like, ‘Well I am sorry, Madam Leader, but some of us are not in the financial situation you are in,’” said one source. Mic check! *** Nancy Pelosi, Down and Dirty by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2011 As a rueful Queen Elizabeth once said of a particularly rough year for the royal family, 2011 is “not a year on which” Queen Nancy Pelosi “shall look back with undiluted pleasure.” The former House Speaker relinquished her crown — er, gavel — in January. It’s been an epic downhill ski crash ever since. Most recently, Pelosi faced questions from liberal “60 Minutes” and conservative investigative author Peter Schweitzer about a 5,000-share Visa stock purchase she made with her husband as the House was considering credit card regulations. She made a “ killing ” off the highly sought-after initial public offering. The stock holdings more than doubled in a few weeks; the credit card regulations were put on ice somewhere in the back of Pelosi’s fridge. While she makes grand gestures toward banning congressional insider trading, San Fran Nan’s financial conflicts of interest are once again on display. This week, Reuters columnist Dan Indiviglio pointed to pending House legislation titled the “New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act of 2011,” which is stuffed with natural gas vehicle subsidies: $9 billion worth, to be precise. These very subsidies are championed by Texas billionaire and failed wind farm evangelist T. Boone Pickens . He just happens to be a major stockholder in the company that would benefit from the bill: Clean Energy Fuels. Question the timing? Indeed. As The Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney observes: “While Pickens, a longtime oil and gas man, has been lobbying for natural gas subsidies for decades, his cause has become particularly urgent this month. Pickens owns options to buy 15 million shares of Clean Energy Fuels at $10 per share, according to SEC filings. Those options expire Dec. 28. If Congress could pass the NATGAS Act this month, shares of Clean Energy would skyrocket.” Pelosi just happens to be a stockholder in — you guessed it — Clean Energy Fuels. The then-Speaker bought between $50,000 and $100,000 of stock in Pickens’ CLNE Corp. in May 2007 on the day of the initial public offering. As I reported in a column three years ago , Pelosi’s 2007 financial disclosure form listed “assets and ‘unearned income’ of between $100,001-$250,000 from Clean Energy Fuels Corp. — Public Common Stock.” If the natural gas giveaway passes, Pelosi profits. Of course, an endless parade of dirty Democratic scandals earlier this year had already completely obliterated what was left of Pelosi’s Mop-and-Glo reformer image. She and other liberal feminists rallied around disgraced Twitter freak and former N.Y. Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner even as evidence mounted that he lied to them. And used taxpayer resources and government buildings while sexting. And recklessly neglected to ensure that his Internet paramours were of legal age. Pelosi and fellow femme-a-gogue Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., led from behind, calling for Weiner’s resignation only after the public tide had shifted. Photo credit: Willamette Week Pelosi showed similar reticence in dealing with basket-case Oregon Democratic Rep. David Wu — whose sexually aggressive, alcohol-addled erratic outbursts stretched over decades. Despite knowledge of Wu’s staff’s panic about his infamous 2010 Tigger costume photos and despite months-old pleas for help from an underage victim of Wu’s sexual indiscretions, House Democrats sat on their hands. In July, Pelosi finally called for an investigation by the House Ethics Committee. That’s the same panel that slapped Pelosi pal and New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel on the wrist for serial tax-cheating and has yet to move forward with California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters’ ethics trial after charging her last year with three violations related to her crony TARP bailout intervention on behalf of minority-owned OneUnited Bank in Los Angeles. What a way to close out her annus horribilis. Nancy Pelosi, the proud feminist who boasted she would clean up Washington, is covering up and cashing in. Just like all the other self-dealing good old boys.
The rest is here:
Nancy Pelosi, Down and Dirty
My column follows up on Monday’s blog coverage of the West Coast Port Shutdown by the Occupy Wall Street movement (the D12 primer is here if you missed it) — and exposes how the so-called Big Labor progressives and their propaganda tools are the nation’s biggest enemies of economic and technological progress. It’s no coincidence that businesses using cutting-edge technology and automation are now being targeted and demonized while a man who blames ATMs (which have been around for four decades) and automation for his skyrocketing unemployment rate is sitting in the White House. Chaos is the progressive Luddites’ goal. Chaos is the reality — and enablers like left-wing Oakland Mayor Jean Quan are reaping what they sow: In Seattle, police used “flash-bang” percussion grenades to break-up demonstrators and made arrests. Police Detective Jeff Kappel said protesters hurled flares, bags of paint and debris at officers and police horses, injuring one officer. Two others were arrested in Oakland for ignoring orders to unblock a gate where trucks were entering the port, reported interim Police Chief Howard Jordan. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan is concerned about how the protesters will affect the people of the city this holiday season. “People have to think about the consequences,” she said. People have to think about who they are hurting. They are saying, ‘We want to get the attention of the ruling class.’ Well I think the ruling class is probably laughing, and people in this city will be crying this Christmas. It’s really got to stop”… They’re not getting the message. Neither are the clueless elites at Time Magazine, who celebrated “The Protester” as their “person of the year.” But it looks like more on the left side of the aisle are getting tired of the mob. The liberal Los Angeles Times editorial board pans Occupy’s second act: “The shipping industry didn’t get America into this economic mess, and there is little it could do to get us out. In times of rising joblessness, it’s common to blame foreign competition for the losses at home. But blaming ports or shippers for the changes wrought by an increasingly global economy is sort of like fingering automakers for urban traffic congestion. In its search for a new direction, Occupy Wall Street would probably do better to occupy the National Mall than San Pedro.” So did the Portland Oregonian: As the picketers meandered from one terminal to the next, they took a day’s pay away from almost 400 International Longshore and Warehouse Union workers who were told to avoid the protests and stay home on Monday. It’s doubtful that large exporters and ship-owning companies such as Goldman Sachs were affected in any way by Monday’s protest — but hundreds of Oregon families took a holiday hit to their paychecks. Moreover, the picketers interfered with the deliveries of dozens of locally based companies trying to get their products to the port — and to markets beyond — costing them and their Oregon employees many thousands of dollars. That probably didn’t win a lot of new converts to the Occupy movement. Still, if you glanced at the news coverage of the protests you got an unusual peek at a typical day of economic activity at the port — workers managing loads of animal feed and straw from Willamette Valley ryegrass fields, aircraft parts from Aurora and shipments from Oregon’s major international companies, including Columbia Sportswear, Intel and Nike. By coincidence, on Tuesday a South Korea trade officer, Juseong Lim, was in Portland to speak to Oregon business and government leaders about the recently approved Korean free trade agreement. Lim said the agreement will erase high tariffs in his country and clear the way for more Northwest products — everything from beef, blueberries and other Oregon agricultural products to knives, backpacks and other equipment produced by this state’s cluster of outdoor equipment-makers. “Oregon should be a big supporter of this agreement,” Lim said. So should everyone on the West Coast. Every day, on average, seaports from Seattle to Portland to Los Angeles and San Diego generate more than $700 million a day in economy activity creating more than 260,000 employment hours and more than $9 million in wages. Every day. The Korean free trade agreement will spur still more economic activity. So will efforts such as Gov. John Kitzhaber’s recent trade mission to Korea, China and Japan. Oregon already exports nearly $1 billion in goods to Korea and has even larger trading relationships with China and Japan. The Occupy movement shut down the port on Monday apparently to make some kind of garbled statement about big financial companies that contributed to the global economic meltdown. What they demonstrated, instead, is that if you’re looking for the beating heart of Portland’s and Oregon’s economy, you’ll find it down on the docks. In related news, GOP Rep. Darrell Issa is challenging the White House on whether it is allowing Occupy DC to camp illegally in McPherson Square for political purposes. In NYC, Occupy Wall Street chief flack and former public school teacher Justin Wedes was caught attempting to commit Americorps fraud and refuses to answer questions about the ripoff. And following up on my reporting last week about the Scholastic News Occupy whitewash , Susanne Hiller at Hot Air illuminates Scholastic’s hypocrisy problem. A NYC eatery closes down as a result of the Occupy blockades. And in case you missed it, here’s Neil Cavuto schooling an Occupy Portland tool. *** Port Whine: Big Labor’s Occu-punks by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2011 Scruffy progressive protesters locked themselves together across railroad tracks, blocked traffic and shouted profanities at police on Tuesday in a coordinated “West Coast Port Shutdown.” Truckers lost wages. Shippers lost business. This is what the Occupy Wall Street movement calls “victory.” Aging Big Labor bosses toasted one another from the sidelines as they declared the “ rebirth of the labor movement .” What’s really going on? It’s an old-school power grab by a decrepit union wrapped in self-deluded social media do-goodism. Peace-loving agitators wielding guitars and iPhones may earnestly believe they stood up to corruption and stood up for workers this week. A socialist website promoted the port shutdown as an expression of “solidarity” for the workers’ “struggle.” One Oakland, Calif., agitator decried “exploitation by capitalism” as the shiftless busily divided their work blockages into what they called — chortle — “shifts.” In reality, it’s the young Occupiers who are being exploited as human shields for the economy-strangling agenda of the violence-prone International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). These ignorant punks are putting the “front” in “waterfront.” Few remember now that the left’s three-month-long “Day of Rage” festivities kicked off in September at the Port of Longview, Wash . — a far cry from Goldman Sachs and the rest of New York’s financial district. Unionized longshoremen stormed the port there and took a half-dozen guards hostage. They damaged railroad cars, dumped grain, smashed windows, cut rail brake lines and blocked a train for hours while the ILWU and AFL-CIO cheered them on. The violence followed a similar outburst in July, when longshoremen tore down a chain link fence on EGT’s private property and blocked railroad tracks to prevent a grain delivery — a clear violation of the 1946 Hobbs Act , which makes it a crime to employ robbery or extortion to impede interstate commerce. Despite breaking federal law, violating a judicial restraining order and committing systematically planned sabotage and trespassing, most of the union thugs got away with wrist slaps. The ILWU received a $250,000 fine to cover damages from the vandalism — a fine that will be paid with rank-and-file workers’ hard-earned dues money. So, what’s their beef? No, it’s not about the “right” of unions to “organize.” It’s not about the welfare of the “99 percent.” It’s about one union losing its seven-decade-old grip on West Coast port operations. It’s about six-figure-salaried union suits at the ILWU , established by bloody radical Marxist Harry Bridges , throwing a lawless tantrum against economic efficiency and technological progress. The ILWU is trying to break the will of EGT Development, a multinational agribusiness that recently built a $200 million grain terminal in Longview. It’s a state-of-the-art facility with unprecedented automation features that will speed unloading, increase shipping capacity and bring in tens of millions of dollars in lease and tax payments alone to the region. EGT needs a nimble 21st-century workforce. The entitled overlords of the ILWU, who have ruled West Coast ports since the 1930s, are demanding a monopoly on the company’s master control system, control over the work hour structure, excessive mandatory breaks and extortionist man-hour “premiums” to bail out the union’s underfunded pension. “ We’ve worked these elevators since 1934, and we’ve always been in that master console ,” local ILWU President Dan Coffman told public radio. EGT refused and instead brought in an outside contractor with a different union to fill about 50 jobs. But the ILWU water-carriers in the Occupy movement don’t care about those workers. Or the American farmers who have been hurt by the port saboteurs. Or the independent non-union truckers who were forced to forgo work in the name of worker empowerment. Trucker Hai Ngo of San Leandro, Calif., told the San Francisco Chronicle: “The Occupy people handed out flyers to us, but never asked what we thought before they planned this. I will lose about $350, and at holiday time that hurts . It’s just a waste of our time and money, and won’t accomplish anything.” Unfortunately, Ngo and blue-collar workers like him are collateral damage in the ILWU’s ruthless battle for Big Labor survival. Coffman, who has stoked violence for months, vowed earlier this year that “we will fight to the end to secure what is rightfully our turf.” And now the gasping longshoremen’s union has a whole new set of Occu-tools to do the dirty work for them.
Read more:
Port Whine: Big Labor’s Occu-punks
On the left: Richard Cordray. Then…former contestant on Jeopardy. Now…Obama nominee in jeopardy. My latest column spotlights the upcoming Thursday vote on Dodd-Frank czar nominee Richard Cordray. The White House doesn’t have the votes. Not only are the Senate Republicans holding the line, but Team Obama is also bracing for several Dems to bail as well. Naturally, the administration is in full class warfare mode. Naturally, the Fishwrap of Record cheered his “populist chord” against “breathtaking greed” while ignoring his latest imperial attempt at a breathtaking power grab. See below for how the Soros monkeys are pushing Obama to follow in TR’s footsteps at ram Cordray through via recess appointment. “ This isn’t about class warfare . This is about the nation’s welfare,” Obama lectured in Osawatomie, KS. Nah. It’s about what Obama is and has always been out: His electoral welfare. Transparency you can count on. *** Ixnay on Cordray: Not another Obama czar by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2011 Wrapping himself in the mantle of Theodore Roosevelt’s “National Greatness” agenda, President Obama urged the nation to stand strong and unite behind…his umpteenth regulatory czar. Because nothing symbolizes American strength and vigor more than another unaccountable Washington bureaucrat! If Richard Cordray, the stalled White House nominee to enforce the Dodd-Frank financial bureaucracy, is not approved, the wheedler-in-chief warned in Osawatomie, Kansas: “Every day we go without a consumer watchdog in place is another day when a student, or a senior citizen, or member of our Armed Forces could be tricked into a loan they can’t afford – something that happens all the time.” In Obama’s America, you see, “greatness” springs from vastly expanding government power to shield every last borrower in the country from poor financial behavior. Senate Republicans have vowed to block Cordray or any other candidate for the job until key reforms are made to the sweeping law and its half-billion-dollar enforcement arm, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The common-sense changes include subjecting the CFPB to the congressional appropriations process instead of the Federal Reserve; restoring independent judicial review; ensuring that it takes into account the impact of new rules on the safety and soundness of financial institutions; and creating a bipartisan oversight board instead of a single director to run the agency. Obama himself supported such a panel — before he opposed and demagogued it. As it stands, the bureau remains under the Treasury Department. The minute a director is sworn in, the agency will transfer to the fed for administrative purposes, but will effectively have free rein. The Fed’s authority over it is illusory. And it would be impossible for the Dodd-Frank czar to be removed by a change of administration because his term is five years and his tenure protected. While crusading as a consumer watchdog who’ll take on Wall Street, Cordray (whom voters booted from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office last fall) is tight with securities class-action lawyers. As Daniel Fisher at Forbes Magazine reported, Cordray has a record of “taking money from lawyers who profit from private litigation that often follows closely on the heels of government investigations.” In other words: Exactly the kind of cozy, crony relationships that created our financial crisis in the first place. As for Cordray’s ability to police shady behavior by others, his own record as Ohio Attorney General raises more doubts than it allays. When local papers spotlighted shady campaign account-shifting involving nearly $800,000, even a liberal Ohio Citizen Action leader responded: “I’m sure he’s following the letter of the law. It’s certainly not following the spirit of the law.” A vote on Cordray is scheduled Thursday and the White House doesn’t have the support to secure a filibuster-proof approval. Thus, the taxpayer-funded barn-storming tour this week (which just happens to provide a handy pretext for targeting GOP senators in seven swing states). But Obama’s radical supporters aren’t about to let the deliberative process stand in their way. They’re pushing the president to follow in TR’s footsteps and ram Cordray through by recess appointment. The George Soros-funded propaganda outfit Think Progress led the rallying cry. In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt recess-appointed 160 officials during a recess of less than one day. “Such an appointment would not be without political controversy — but would likely be upheld as legal given the Roosevelt precedent,” a Soros operative opined. “Simply put, it’s time for President Obama to speak softly, and carry a big stick.” Obama’s been thwacking the economy with a Chicago-crafted billy club and wielding brass knuckles against critics, whistleblowers, and true regulatory reformers for the past three years. Memo to the White House: This is not what TR meant when he used his favorite phrase. “Bully!”
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Ixnay on Cordray: Not another Obama czar
