President Obama's cabinet, staff and other associates

Note:  You might want to start at the Barack Obama Index Page, especially if you arrived here by using a search engine.

This page includes news and commentary about President Obama's appointments to various positions in his administration.  Besides an obvious series of low-level scandals, many of the appointments have required Mr. Obama to waive his own rules and violate his campaign promises about changing the way Washington insiders access the White House.

Some of Mr. Obama's selections, especially that of Timothy Geithner to head the Treasury Department, speak volumes about Mr. Obama's poor judgment and his complete lack of management experience.  There is a large subsection on this page about Tom Daschle, even though Mr. Daschle withdrew his nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services, just to show that President Obama has done an exceptionally poor job of filtering out people with excess baggage.

Eric Holder and the politicized Justice Department are discussed on a page of their own.



Note:  This page originated in late 2008 as President-elect Obama began to assemble his leftist cabinet.  Many of these people have already moved on to other jobs.

Ben Rhodes

Napolitano: Ben Rhodes, the Obama White House and the issue of lying.  What is a privilege?  It is the ability under the law to hide the truth in order to preserve open communications.  It is a judgment by lawmakers and judges that in certain narrowly defined circumstances, freedom of communication is a greater good than exposing the truth. [...] Executive privilege is the ability of the president and his aides to withhold from anyone testimony and documents that reflect military, diplomatic or sensitive national security secrets.  This is the privilege that Rhodes has claimed.  Yet the defect in Rhodes' claim of privilege here is that he has waived it by speaking about the Iranian negotiations to The New York Times.  Waiver — the knowing and intentional giving up of a privilege or a right — defeats the claim of privilege.

13 Incompetent Failures in the Obama Administration.  [#13] Ben Rhodes, a speechwriter without any foreign policy educational experience, military experience, or international experience, became Obama's deputy national security adviser for strategic communications and speechwriting.  The New York Times titled its profile "The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama's Foreign-Policy Guru."  As "master shaper and retailer of Obama's foreign policy narratives," Rhodes revealed his contempt for Congress, the press, and the public, along with his manipulation of the media on the Iran nuclear deal.

Gowdy, Defending Sen. Cotton, Questions Ben Rhodes' Qualifications.  Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) ripped into the administration Tuesday [5/17/2016] for criticizing Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) over his stance on Iran.  Gowdy contrasted Cotton, a U.S. Army veteran, to Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, who is under fire over the way the White House sold the Iran nuclear deal to the American people.  Speaking during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing at which the White House did not allow Rhodes to testify, Gowdy noted that Rhodes has a Master's degree in creative writing.

Why Hasn't Obama Fired Ben Rhodes?  [Scroll down]  Freighted with the far-reaching effects of a major treaty, the Iran deal was never submitted by Obama to the Senate for ratification as a treaty.  Framed as an agreement with Iran, it was never signed by Iran.  Sold by the administration as a transparent deal, it is turning out to be a slush heap of secrets.  The real blob in this drama is the rolling sludge of presidential over-reach, White House fictions and raw abuse of public trust that has brought us everything from the indigestible "Affordable Care Act" to the Benghazi "video" narrative, to the Iran deal.  As the Washington Free Beacon's Adam Kredo reports, leading members of Congress are calling on President Obama to fire Rhodes "over accusations the White House intentionally misled lawmakers and the American public about the contents of last summer's comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran."

Rhodes not leaving until 'very last day' of Obama's tenure.  Ben Rhodes, one of President Obama's top foreign policy strategists and chief media spinner, said Tuesday [5/17/2016] that he has no intention of leaving his post, as many Republicans want, despite the blow up he created when he boasted of creating an "echo-chamber" in Washington to sell the Iran nuclear agreement.  Rhodes on Tuesday declined to say whether he regrets the interview with the New York Times magazine in which he made the comments, but instead gave a long-winded response and indicated he would remain in his post until the very end of Obama's presidency.

Sen. Tom Cotton:  Iran Deception Is What You Get With 'Van Drivers, Campaign Flaks, and Failed Novelists in Charge of Foreign Policy'.  Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) said Tuesday [5/17/2016] that the Iran deception scandal is what you get when van drivers, campaign flaks, and failed novelists are put in charge of foreign policy and national security.  Cotton has become the Obama White House's "public enemy number one" in recent months because of his strong, vocal opposition to the Iran nuclear deal.  The freshman senator blasted the Obama White House during an appearance on the Hugh Hewitt Show Tuesday morning after Hewitt played a clip of White House Press Sec.  Josh Earnest calling him a liar.  Cotton hit back hard, calling Earnest a "chump" who has nothing to laugh about.

GOP reps hammer WH aide Rhodes at hearing; senators seek firing.  Republican condemnation of a top White House aide who boasted about the administration's success selling the Iran deal to the public reached new levels on Tuesday [5/17/2016], as several senators urged President Obama to fire him and a House committee looking into his claims went forward with its hearing — even though he didn't show up to testify.

Senators Demand Obama Fire Top Aide for Iran Deal Deception.  Leading members of Congress are calling on President Barack Obama to fire one of his top advisers amid a deepening scandal over accusations the White House intentionally misled lawmakers and the American public about the contents of last summer's comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran, according to a letter sent Monday [5/16/2016] to Obama and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  The lawmakers are pressing Obama to fire deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes following revelations he and other officials "spearheaded the charge to mislead elected lawmakers and the American people about the Iran nuclear deal and the negotiations that led to this agreement," according to the letter.

GOP knives out for Ben Rhodes.  Ben Rhodes, the famed White House spinmeister, is entangled in a growing fight with congressional Republicans — the latest fallout from his bombshell magazine profile two weeks ago.  On Monday [5/16/2016], three Republican senators called on President Barack Obama to fire his deputy national security adviser, saying Rhodes had been "disrespectful," "deceptive" and dishonest" in how he had sold the Iran nuclear deal to the public.  The White House, meanwhile, said Rhodes will not testify about the deal before a House committee, calling it a "separation of powers" issue.

The Pajama Boy White House.  [Scroll down]  Recently Ben Rhodes — "Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting," and author of the president's Cairo speech and the Benghazi talking points — confessed to the New York Times that he salted bogus talking points about the Iran deal among the field of novice wannabe Washington-New York foreign-policy "experts," on the expectation that Pajama Boy journalists on the make ("The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns.  That's a sea change.  They literally know nothing") would lazily draw on these pseudo-experts to complete the circular con ("We created an echo chamber. ... They were saying things that validated what we had given them to say").  Because the postmodernist Rhodes (who says he drives a "Beamer") is cynical and contemptuous of the value of traditional first-hand experience and classical education, he feels he can construct almost any reality he wishes, such as a manufactured reformist Iranian wing reaching out to the U.S. to offer concessions on a nuclear deal:

Washington's Idiotic Echo Chamber.  David Samuels' long-form essay last weekend in the New York Times Magazine about President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser and spokesmen Ben Rhodes has sent the media into a tizzy.  Rhodes had to sell the Iranian nuclear deal to a skeptical American public.  He freely admits that he did so by manipulating a select group of reporters that he and staff think are idiots and molded them into his own personal echo chamber.  It wasn't difficult.  "All these newspapers used to have foreign bureaus," he told Samuels.  "Now they don't.  They call us to explain to them what's happening in Moscow and Cairo.  Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington.  The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns.  That's a sea change.  They literally know nothing."

Obama administration tells public schools to let transgender students use bathrooms of their choice.  [Scroll down]  I can find no statistics on the number of adults, let alone children, who are transgender, but it is certainly a small number (less than 1 percent), and schools which tried to accommodate them by allowing them to use a single stall unisex bathroom or a curtained off locker room were rebuffed by the government.  This is what sensitive school administrations have done to protect these demonstrably vulnerable kids from bullying.  To use a facility designated for girls or boys when a child thinks he's in the wrong body does not require a note from a doctor under the Lynch extortion order, the kids can just decide this on their own, even if they fully retain their original biological equipment.  For those who remember adolescence, the rule seems certain to end badly.

GOP calls for Rhodes testimony after Iran spin job.  A House committee is calling Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes to testify on his claim that he helped to create an "echo chamber" among foreign policy experts in order to get the Iran nuclear agreement through Congress.  The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee invited Rhodes to testify next week, on Tuesday, May 17, according to a House aide.

Why Is Ben Rhodes Apologizing For Insulting The Press?  It's not clear why Rhodes felt the need to apologize, since reporters weren't complaining all that much.  The story began with a massive 9,500-word puff piece in the New York Times magazine about Rhodes, who at 38 has become President Obama's foreign policy guru.  You don't have to read too far into it to get a sense of the gauzy portrayal to come:  "Ben Rhodes' life is still unique, and perhaps not strictly believable, even as fiction," author David Samuels writes in the second paragraph.  But as the Times story unfolds, so does a picture of the press as a willing accomplice in the administration's effort to sell a phony "narrative" about the Iran nuclear arms deal, which arguably provided the support the White House needed to get it accomplished.

Brilliant Fools:  The Short Story of America's Liberal Elite.  The story is rich with detail that should scandalize anyone who is concerned with either truth or humility in American policymaking.  Rhodes apparently lied to sell the Iran deal to the American public, counting on ignorant, sympathetic leftist journalists and activists to peddle the administration's foreign-policy line and dominate the public debate.

Obama's 'boy wonder'.  [Scroll down]  In other words:  Mr. Obama did not cherry-pick intelligence — he disregarded it entirely.  He and his top foreign policy adviser, Ben Rhodes, made up a fictitious narrative that they thought would sell better than the truth.  They built on that falsehood, persuading journalists that Iran's "moderates," in particular Hassan Rouhani, elected Iranian president in 2013, were open to compromise and eager to improve relations — an opportunity too good to pass up.

Obama the Fabulist.  A number of people at AT and elsewhere have written about the New York Times' fascinating but also deeply disturbing story of how Ben Rhodes, a callow, unsuccessful but well-connected short-story writer became the Obama administration's primary foreign policy mandarin.  This should come as no surprise to careful observers of this administration.  Rhodes, according to the Times piece, is Obama's foreign policy "guru" a man who has a "mind meld" with the president.  What Rhodes and the president share though, is not so much a leftist approach to foreign affairs — though presumably that plays a role — but rather a talent for creating foreign policy fables that flatter Obama and his coterie, and can be passed off to lapdog media types as "successes."  In this, Rhodes is just one more piece of the fictional story that is Barack Hussein Obama, the country and the world his stage, and the rest of us merely players — if that.

White House on damage control after aide's magazine profile.  The White House on Monday worked to contain the damage caused by one of President Barack Obama's closest aides, who, in a seemingly candid, behind-the-curtain magazine story, ripped the Washington press corps, boasted of creating an "echo chamber" of supporters to sell the Iran nuclear deal and appeared to dismiss long-time foreign policy hands, including Hillary Clinton, as the Blob.

Meet the Democratic Liars Club.  [Scroll down]  The latest clincher is the admission of a top White House aide that much about the Iranian nuclear deal was a fabrication sold to a lazy, gullible press corps.  Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes boasts that most reporters were too dumb to know or care they were being misled.  "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns," Rhodes told The New York Times.  "They literally know nothing."

The runt of Rhodes.  President Obama and his team hold a low opinion of the intelligence of the American people. [...] Now comes Obama deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes to reveal the lies on which Obama's alliance with the Islamic Republic of Iran was promoted. [...] Rhodes is not, as he should be, confined to fetching coffee and performing other menial tasks befitting his qualifications to formulate national security policy. [...] Rhodes himself, however, is an odious ignoramus who knows one thing:  Obama's servitors in the mainstream media are useful idiots.

The man who creates the White House's own reality.  What is Ben Rhodes?  With a 10,000 word profile, published Thursday [5/5/2016], the New York Times Magazine certainly seems to indicate that his presence at the top of the Obama administration's foreign policy operation bears some kind of special significance. [...] The author observes Rhodes complaining bitterly on the day of Obama's final State of the Union address, during which 10 U.S. sailors were inconveniently seized by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, that the news can't be kept secret from the American public so that the president can deliver his speech without distractions.  Of the "average reporter" with whom the White House works to get out its message Rhodes provides the verdict, "they literally know nothing."

John B. King

Obama Violates the Constitution with Education Appointment.  When I heard that Education Secretary Arne Duncan was stepping down in December, my first reaction was one of elation.  Duncan was instrumental in forcing Common Core upon the states, he's been an advocate for more federal control of education, and, perhaps most troubling, of increased data collection and analysis in violation of the privacy of both students and parents. [...] Unfortunately, that's where the good news ends.  To replace Duncan, President Obama is appointing John B. King, Jr., the number two man at the Department of Education to serve as a "temporary" replacement, where "temporary" refers to the remainder of Obama's term.

Colleen Bell

White House unable to list qualifications of Obama's choice for U.S. ambassador to Hungary.  The White House struggled on Tuesday [12/2/2014] to defend Colleen Bell, President Barack Obama's choice for U.S. ambassador to Hungary.  Bell, a top Obama reelection campaign bundler and a producer of the soap opera The Bold And The Beautiful, was confirmed today without a single Republican vote in the last window of opportunity for Democrats to approve such 'patronage' appointments before the GOP takes over the Senate in January.

Senate Confirms Soap Opera Producer as Ambassador: Read Her Application Essay.  President Obama's nomination of Colleen Bell as ambassador to Hungary was confirmed by the Senate Tuesday [12/2/2014] on a 52-42 vote.  Here is the essay she submitted along with her application.

WH Can't Explain Why Soap Opera Producer Just Became Ambassador to Hungary.  White House spokesman Josh Earnest was unable to provide a cogent explanation for why Colleen Bell, a former soap opera producer, just became the U.S. ambassador to Hungary: [Video clip]

Two dangerously ignorant Obama ambassadors confirmed by lame duck Senate.  Yesterday, Barack Obama succeeded in pushing US foreign policy further down the crapper.  The Senate voted to confirm two monumentally unqualified party hacks and bag-people as ambassador.

Loretta Lynch

This subsection has moved to a page of its own, located here.

Sylvia Burwell

Let HHS nominee Sylvia Burwell explain Obamacare lie.  The agency Burwell heads, the Office of Management and Budget, is responsible for the president's budget.  But OMB also has another, lesser-known responsibility: fact-checking presidential speeches.  Every proposed presidential utterance is scrubbed for accuracy by OMB.  When speechwriters finish a draft presidential address, it is circulated to the White House senior staff and top cabinet officials in what is known as the "staffing process."  As part of that process, nonpartisan career policy experts at OMB review the speech and are responsible for attesting to the factual accuracy of everything the president says.

If You Liked the President's Lies, You Can Keep Who Approved Them.  "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it," Mr. Obama said at least 36 times.  You remember, right?  If not, just click on the video flashback atop this post.  Even Politifact, the leftwing "fact" "checking" organization, grudgingly awarded Obama their "Lie of the Year" last year in the face of this reality.  Guess who proofed at least some of those speeches for the Obama administration, in-between taking credit for shutting down the government last fall?

New Head of HHS Was Responsible for Making Outrageous Government Shutdown Decisions.  President Obama's pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services led the federal government's response during last year's "shutdown" — which included officials erecting barricades around open-air monuments.  Sylvia Mathews Burwell — who was deputy chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, among other roles — currently serves as Obama's director of the Office of Management and Budget.  Obama formally announced today that he will nominate Burwell to replace outgoing HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, whose resignation went public yesterday.

Meet Sylvia Burwell, the Titanic's New Captain.  The establishment media have made much of Burwell's long career in government, pointing out that it goes back to the 1990s when she served under President Clinton in various capacities, including Deputy Chief of Staff.  None of these reports, however, mentions the most bizarre feature of her tenure in that administration.  On the night that White House Counsel Vince Foster committed suicide during one of the myriad scandals that defined the Clinton presidency, Burwell (then Sylvia Mathews) rummaged through the dead man's garbage, presumably to make sure that it contained no documents implicating the President or Mrs. Clinton, one of Foster's law partners.

HHS nominee Burwell entangled in MetLife lawsuit.  Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President Obama's nominee to lead the country's health care overhaul, remains entangled in a lawsuit brought by shareholders of MetLife accusing her of misleading investors as a director of one of the country's biggest insurance companies.  The federal lawsuit, filed in New York, says the company used a Social Security death index to stop making payments when beneficiaries died, but the company wasn't as diligent about using the database to track deaths of its policyholders, which triggers payouts, the lawsuit said.

HHS nominee got $1.2M at 'zero' salary job at Wal-Mart.  Her White House biography touts her key private-sector experience as president of the massive foundation, but Internal Revenue Service records show that the job is unpaid and the more than $1.2 million in salary, deferred compensation and bonuses paid to Ms. Burwell came through her lesser-known role as a vice president at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., according to a government ethics filing.  James Joseph, a tax lawyer at Arnold & Porter LLP, said such arrangements are common among corporate foundations.

Palin on Sebelius Replacement Sylvia Burwell: 'You Can't Make This Stuff Up'.  After accepting Kathleen Sebelius' resignation Friday, Obama nominated Sylvia Burwell, the former Office of Management and Budget director.  This is the same person who sent the email initiating the barricading of the memorials, even as veterans were arriving in D.C. on their "honor flights" to see the memorials that they built.

Obama's HHS Nominee Proved Her Loyalty to Clinton by Digging Through a Dead Man's Trash.  In July 1995, Burwell (then Sylvia Mathews) was one of several key aides questioned by the Senate Whitewater Committee regarding the death of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster. [...] Under questioning, Sylvia Mathews and her colleagues denied impeding a police investigation into Foster's death after his body was found in a northern Virginia park.  According to the New York Times, Mathews testified "in laborious detail about what she had found in Mr. Foster's garbage on the night he died."  That experience may come in handy as she prepares to oversee the implementation of Obamacare.

Obama Banks on Sebelius Leaving to Take Heat Off Party.  The departure of Kathleen Sebelius from President Barack Obama's cabinet removes a focal point for criticism over Obamacare's troubled rollout, right at a moment when the White House can blunt attacks with enrollment numbers that exceeded targets.  Senate confirmation hearings on the president's choice to succeed Sebelius as Health and Human Services secretary, budget director Sylvia Mathews Burwell, will give Republicans days of media exposure for their criticism of a program that remains unpopular.

Sebelius' Replacement: The Person Who Shut Down the Veterans Memorials Last Year.  Within seconds of the announcement that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was resigning Thursday, news broke about who her replacement would be:  Sylvia Burwell of OMB. [...] But some red state Democrats might be on the spot as to whether they'll support the person who locked veterans — some who traveled hundreds or even thousands of miles from their homes to Washington — out of the memorials dedicated to their friends and comrades.

Meet Sylvia Burwell, the woman who ordered the government shutdown.  A single person shut down the entire U.S. government for the first time in 17 years.  Not a congressman, but an unelected woman named Sylvia Burwell who, as the relatively new director of the Office of Management and Budget, sent the email that initiated the process that has closed national parks, visitors' centers and even the "panda-cam" at the National Zoo.

Vivek Murthy

The Surgeon General is an idiot.  Back in the closing days of the Senate under One-Eye Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), Dr. Vivek Murthy was confirmed as US Surgeon General by the narrowest of margins. [...] The resistance to Murthy was led by the the NRA because Murthy is an reflexive, doctrinaire gun-grabber.

Lame Duck Dems Push Anti-Gun Murthy As Surgeon General.  No longer fearing electoral revenge from the National Rifle Association, an outgoing Democratic Senate pushed to confirm an anti-Second Amendment radical, who thinks guns are a health issue, as the nation's top doc.

Vivek Murthy confirmed as surgeon general.  The Senate on Monday [12/15/2014] narrowly confirmed Vivek Murthy to be the nation's surgeon general, making him one of the highest-profile beneficiaries of the Senate's nuclear option.  The nomination was strongly opposed by the National Rifle Association because of Murthy's support of gun-control laws and by Republicans who doubted that a 37-year-old physician was qualified for the public health position.

Unqualified nominees get their jobs — thanks, Harry.  Murthy's nomination originally came under fire from the National Rifle Association, and Democrats were scared to vote on him before the election because it might have hurt some of their incumbents.  The doctor, who co-founded the pro-Obama political group Doctors for America, had advocated publicly for gun control as a public health measure.

Senate finally confirms Surgeon General nominee.  With just enough votes to clear the required threshold, Dr. Vivek Murthy on Monday evening [12/15/2014] was confirmed by the Senate to become U.S. Surgeon General.  Under Senate rules, Murthy needed 51 votes to clear the procedural hurdle, and did so with 51 yeas to 43 nays.  The final confirmation reflected the procedural vote's numbers.

America in Decline.  [Vivek] Murthy, yet another political activist and the founder of "Doctors for Obama," repeatedly described gun ownership as "a public health issue."  He is opposed by the National Rifle Association, a powerful lobbying force in America.  He is also facing strong opposition by many Democrats.  The right to bear arms is an integral part of the US Constitution.  The job of Surgeon-General is not gun control.  It is about disease and disease prevention.  The usual criterion for Surgeon-General is someone who has run a major hospital or headed a state healthcare system.  Murthy has only been an attending doctor for eight years.  His political activism far outweighs his public health experience.

Surgeon General nomination forces Senate Democrats to hide gun views.  When will some Democrats who describe themselves as "pro-gun" realize that they aren't fooling anyone?  Here's their latest deception.  President Obama's nomination of Dr. Vivek Murthy to be surgeon general is in trouble, because the National Rifle Association decided that it was going to "score" the vote — that is, let its members know which senators voted for someone they believe is a threat to people being able to own guns for self-defense.

Democrats Lining Up to Oppose Obama's Anti-Gun Nominee For Surgeon General.  President Obama's anti-gun nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Hallegere Murthy, could go down in flames on the Senate floor.  Murthy, who has a history of calling guns a "healthcare issue," classifying guns as a "public health threat" and of slamming the National Rifle Association, is being opposed not by just Republicans, but numerous Democrats in an election year.

NRA opposition may sink Obama's surgeon general nominee.  Intense opposition from the National Rifle Assn. has all but doomed prospects for President Obama's nominee for surgeon general, officials said Saturday [3/15/2014] as pro-gun Senate Democrats peeled away from the White House on a volatile issue in an election year.

Senate Balks at Confirming Anti-Gun Hysteric for Surgeon General.  I've made fun in the past of some Second Amendment advocates who see black helicopters full of Men in Black out to take their guns from them in every effort at regulating firearms.  In the case of President Obama's choice for Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, they may be right.

Obama's controversial pick for surgeon general adopted his anti-gun stance by watching violent cartoons.  President Barack Obama's nominee to serve as the U.S. surgeon general, a 36-year-old physician who has attracted criticism for his anti-gun advocacy, complained to a newspaper in 1994 that 'society's preoccupation with firearms' comes from 'fiery gun battles' on Saturday morning cartoons.

The Editor says...
Many years ago, the loudest voices on the political left made fun of Vice President Quayle when they accused him of not knowing that Murphy Brown was a ficitional character, after Murphy Brown flaunted her unmarried state of maternity.  In this case, a 36-year-old doctor is deeply concerned about cartoons on TV (which, by the way, have been tremendously sanitized since I was a kid), whereas his concern should be directed toward Hollywood's endless stream of "action" movies in which the hero(es) almost always have guns (the bigger the gun, the more heroic he or she is) and gunfights are to be expected.  Come to think of it, can you name one cartoon televised on Saturday morning that has ever included a "fiery gun battle" — or any gun battle?  His story sounds like a fabrication.

Jeh Johnson

Watch the long faces as Jeh Johnson, Obama's DHS Secretary, tells MSNBC that the border is 'truly in a crisis'.  I have significantly upgraded my opinion of Jeh Johnson, President Obama's secretary of homeland security.  Appearing Friday [3/29/2019] on Morning Joe, he was honest and blunt in addressing the border crisis, drawing on his own experience and implicitly rebuking the Democrats' talking point that this is a "manufactured crisis."

DHS Chief: 'Vilifying Muslims' Risks 'Driving Them to a Place' Terror Groups Want.  Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told the Washington Ideas Forum this week that he's "very concerned" about the "prospect of terrorist-inspired plots because of terrorist organizations' effective use of the Internet, where somebody could self-radicalize at home, in their garage, in their basement, online without us knowing about it."

The Editor says...
Christians are vilified constantly, but that doesn't turn them into homicidal maniacs.

DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson Speaks at Convention of Hamas-Linked Group.  It was bad enough that Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson spoke at the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), a group with demonstrable ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.  But what he said made it even worse. [...] [T]he theme of Johnson's address was that Muslims in the U.S. were unfairly targeted for discrimination and harassment, and that he was on their side.

Obama cabinet member speaks at Islamist conference.  U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson spoke over this past weekend at the annual Islamic Society of America (ISNA) event, greeting the participants warmly and telling them, "Your story is the quintessential American story."  The Department of Homeland Security, the third largest Cabinet department in the U.S. government, is charged with protecting the U.S. from, and dealing with, terrorism as well as natural disasters.  The Washington Post called Johnson's appearance an "impassioned speech" to empower ISNA's participants.  The Clarion Project reports that ISNA is a group with Muslim Brotherhood origins and an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror-financing trial.

Homeland Security Chief: 'No Idea' Who Scrubbed Islam from Counterterror Materials.  Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson pleaded ignorance Thursday when asked during a Senate hearing about a massive purging of counterterrorism materials that cite Islam and jihad at his agency.  Specifically, Johnson was grilled over a DHS whistleblower's explosive charge that his agency ordered hundreds of classified counterterrorism files containing key intelligence data deleted or altered to avoid offending Muslims.  "Was that testimony accurate?" Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, asked the secretary, who was called to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee concerning Homeland Security oversight.  "I have no idea," Johnson claimed, shrugging off the controversy as an issue of semantics not particularly relevant to fighting terrorism.

Ted Cruz Blasts Disdainful, Dismissive, Disinterested Jerk Jeh Johnson Over Radical Islam.  Yesterday [6/29/2016], Ted Cruz exposed the Obama administration for their whitewashing of radical Islam in reports and their utter scrubbing of any reference to jihad or Islam in all official documents.  Today, Ted Cruz faced DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, who is far more interested in the scourge of "right wing" Americans than any threat from radical Islam and who was utterly disinterested and dismissive of Cruz's line of questioning.  This is simply amazing.  It is long, but it builds up like symphony.  [Video clip]

Jeh Johnson Holds Press Event With Reported Radical Islamic Leader in Virginia.  Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson spoke on Monday [6/13/2016] in Sterling, Virginia at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society — or the ADAMS Center. [...] However, according to reports, the ADAMS center is linked to the anti-Western radical Muslim Brotherhood.  The Washington Free Beacon's Adam Kredo writes, the ADAMS Center is, "a controversial Muslim center that was reportedly raided by federal agents as part of an investigation into a terror organization."  Johnson was joined by Imam Mohamed Magid, who, according to Kredo, "serves as a leading member of an Islamic organization long suspected of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas."

DHS chief sad over deportations: 'Is it pleasant? Absolutely not.'  The nation's top immigration officer said that the "11 million" undocumented aliens in the United States are "not going away," are "in effect" citizens, and added that deporting the few the administration wants out is unpleasant.  Jeh Johnson, secretary of Homeland Security, told Harvard University students this week that the administration is focused on its plan to integrate illegals into America, despite the policy being tied up in court.

Jeh Johnson Reveals Why He Sides With Muslims in the Terror War.  The ineffectiveness and incompetence of the Department of Homeland Security under the clueless moonbat Jeh Johnson may have you wondering what possible qualifications he might have, other than being black and a bundler of campaign donations for Obama.  He has exactly one.  Like Obama himself, he is a red diaper baby.

DHS Sec. Protecting Muslims from McCarthyism his Communist Grandpa Lived Under.  The Secretary of Homeland Security is the second high-ranking Obama administration official with a relative investigated for Communism by the U.S. government, Judicial Watch has confirmed.  This is relevant because, although Islamic terrorists keep attacking America, the cabinet official responsible for the nation's safety has vowed to protect Muslims from the type of persecution he says his grandpa suffered under McCarthyism in the 1940s. [...] Johnson's Communist connection had not previously been revealed and it certainly wasn't mentioned during Senate confirmation hearings before he took over the massive agency created after 9/11 to keep the nation safe.

Fire Jeh Johnson!  Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson has proven himself incapable of handling the grave responsibilities of his office, and he should either resign in disgrace or be fired.  Of course, that will never happen, for Johnson is black and comes from the American black aristocracy (his grandfather was a president of Fisk University). [...] President Obama is reeling from the public's accurate perception of fecklessness in the face of an escalating terror threat.  He needs to send a message to the lethargic bureaucrats under him that things are different now, that America is serious.  Firing Jeh Johnson would be a great first step.  But it won't happen.

Add Homeland Security's Jeh Johnson To List Of Obama Red Diaper Babies.  While speaking to Muslims last week, Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson revealed why he's so protective of them.  He compared growing suspicions cast on them to the plight of his communist kin.  Johnson dropped the bombshell that his grandfather had been investigated for communism and un-American activities.  We can't say we're surprised.  Add him to the parade of Red diaper babies in the Cabinet, including top White House advisor Valerie Jarrett, former political advisor David Axelrod and President Obama himself.  No wonder this administration isn't interested in monitoring radical Muslims for terrorist connections.

DHS Secretary: 'We Should Not Profile at Airports'.  Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said his agency considered signing on to the Justice Department's expanded non-profiling policy earlier this year, but because that policy was developed for law enforcement, it "didn't quite fit" for airport screeners.  "But TSA knows my view that we should not profile at airports," Johnson told the a Senate Homeland Security Oversight hearing on Tuesday [4/28/2015].

Report: DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson on Short List To Replace Hagel — Two Johnson Issues The Media Will Never Reveal.  At the time, June 2011, a little known attorney existed inside the Pentagon, Jeh Johnson.  Johnson was the legal counsel for the Pentagon, and as a consequence was also part of the administration's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC).  Jeh Johnson was part of the OLC who told President Stompy Feet his executive foundation for military engagement was illegal. [...] Remember, according to President Obama we were not technically bombing Libya — we were dropping "unsolicited detonation devices".

Homeland Security Chief: 'I Don't Understand Those Who Say We Are Not Enforcing' Immigration Laws.  As he paves the way for the country to further relax its immigration laws in his administrative review — like not deporting illegal immigrants who have only been convicted of "minor" crimes — President Barack Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said he could not understand why Americans, including 22 senators, would think he is not enforcing the nation's immigration laws.  "I don't understand those who say we are not enforcing the law," Johnson said in an interview that aired on ABC's This Week on Sunday. "We are enforcing the law every day."

Critics warn deportation review could cut 'what little is left' of enforcement.  Critics of the Obama administration's deportation policies are concerned that an internal review could lead to deeper cuts of "what little is left" of immigration enforcement.  The White House announced earlier this month that Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, at the president's request, would review enforcement policies.  The decision came after Johnson, President Obama and White House officials met with immigrant and Latino advocacy groups, many of whom have slammed the administration for being too tough.  One has gone so far as to call Obama the "deporter in chief."  But a look at the numbers shows deportations under this administration have been limited — Obama's critics would say, gutted.

Immigration czar: 11.5 [million] illegals 'are not going away,' citizenship, not fences, the answer.  President Obama's new Homeland Security boss dismissed the GOP's focus on building a border fence with Mexico as the answer to the nation's illegal immigration problem and urged Congress to OK a "path to citizenship" because 11.5 million illegals "are not going away."  In a major address to explain his agenda, Jeh Johnson on Friday [2/7/2014] also said that the government should shift from mass deportations to removing those who pose a national security threat.  "We must prioritize our resources on those who represent threats to national security, public safety and border security," he said in an address to the Wilson Center.

DHS Secretary on Illegal Aliens: 'They're Here, and They're Not Going Away'.  Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, the nation's top immigration law enforcer, said on Friday [2/7/2014] that the estimated 11.5 million illegal aliens in the United States are "not going away."  "They're here, and they're not going away," Johnson said at the Woodrow Wilson Center in remarks billed by the Obama administration as his "first major speech."

Obama Homeland Security pick defended Happy Meal Hoaxer.  Jeh Johnson, President Obama's nominee to head Homeland Security, represented a disgraced scientist who was sentenced to 30 months in prison for planting a fried rat's tail in his son's Happy Meal french fries as part of a failed extortion attempt.  Michael Zanakis took a rat's tail from the medical research laboratory where he worked, had it fried and then placed it in a package of french fries he bought at a Long Island McDonald's on Jan. 15, 1996, prosecutors said at the time.

Debo Adegbile

Forutnately, some of the Democrats in the Senate came to their senses and voted against the confirmation of this left-wing extremist, which leaves the rest of the Democrats exposed as extremists themselves.

Eric Holder Sides With Alleged Cop Killers, Again.  Earlier this year when President Obama nominated cop killer advocate Debo Adegbile to head up the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, Attorney General Eric Holder applauded the move.  Because of Adegbile's voluntary work on behalf of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal, who brutally murdered Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner in cold blood back in 1981, his nomination was voted down in the filibuster proof, Democrat controlled Senate 52-47.  In 2011 under Adegbile's leadership at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the death penalty sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal was overturned despite thirty years of multiple courts upholding the his murder conviction.

Obama Civil Rights Nominee Withdraws.  Obama tapped Debo Adegbile for the Justice Department job last year.  But a bipartisan group of senators blocked his nomination earlier this year because he had sought to get the sentence of a convicted cop killer overturned.

America in Decline.  Obama's nomination of Debo Adegbile to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division sent shockwaves through the American political system.  Adegbile represented an unrepentant cop-killer and spoke to rallies held in his defense.  This brought vocal opposition from national law-enforcement officials.  The president's judgment was badly flawed in selecting this candidate.

Dem Claims Senate Discriminated Against Cop-Killer's Lawyer Because He Was Black.  The race card never wears out.  According to Democratic Senator Tom Harkin, the problem with Obama DOJ nominee Debo Adegbile was not that he was a cop killer's lawyer, but that so many senators were huge racists.

Obama Surgeon General Pick Anti-2nd Amendment Radical.  Cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal's champion, Debo Adegbile, [...] is not the only radical on President Obama's wish list.  That list includes gun-grabbing advocate Dr. Vivek Hallegere Murthy, Obama's nominee to be U.S. Surgeon General.  Murthy is the 36-year-old president and co-founder of the anti-gun group Doctors for America, which advocates ObamaCare and gun control laws.  His group, which has been dubbed "Docs vs. Glocks," has pushed Congress to ban "assault" weapons and "high-capacity" magazines.  He also wants to spend more tax dollars on more research to prove that fewer guns mean a lower crime rate, despite the fact that a number of reputable studies prove the opposite.

Senate vote a stinging defeat for Obama.  The Senate rejected President Obama's nominee to lead the Justice Department's civil rights division on Wednesday [3/5/2014] in a stunning 47-52 vote in which seven Democrats abandoned their leadership.  The vote was all the more remarkable for the five Democrats in tough reelection races this year who voted in vain to move Debo Adegbile's nomination forward.  Their votes now become ammunition for Senate Republicans, who argued Adegbile was unfit to serve because of his legal work in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.

We should have seen Debo Adegbile's confirmation defeat coming a mile away.  The "shocking" defeat, on Wednesday, of Justice Department nominee Debo Adegbile sent shockwaves through America's political class. By qualifications alone, the civil rights attorney and former head of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund should have been a slam-dunk nominee and legal mind to head the department's Civil Rights Division.  Instead, he spent months getting slammed on conservative talk radio, Fox News, and far-right internet news aggregators as a racist political opportunist whose nomination by President Obama represented a "hate crime against our nation's police", according to Fox News' Greg Gutfeld.  His crime?  He was the head of the LDF in 2009, when the NAACP defended infamous radical and convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal from being put back on death row.

Reaction Inside DOJ to Debo Adegbile Defeat: "Sacred Mission" Continues.  What is the reaction inside DOJ to the Senate's defeat of the Debo Adegbile nomination to head the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice? According to an email sent by Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels, the "sacred mission" will continue. [...] This illustrates that to some in the civil rights field, civil rights is their religion.  Thus, it becomes sacred.  Regarding the Debo Adegbile nomination, one of the reasons Adegbile lost is because he did not believe in equality of opportunity.  He believed in giving out benefits based on race.  That's why he fought to keep Abigail Fisher out of law school simply because she was white.  Fisher was not the only victim of the NAACP's modern day segregationist agenda, and Senators knew it.

Ted Cruz Slams Obama for Nominating Cop Killer's Advocate to DOJ Leadership.  President Obama recently nominated Debo Adegbile to be head of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.  Texas Senator Ted Cruz today spoke out against the nomination and criticized Adegbile, who previously held a leadership position at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF).  During his time with the black activist group, Adegbile volunteered to defend Mumia Abu-Jamal, the criminal who murdered Philadelphia cop Daniel Faulkner in 1981.  Thanks to Adegbile and his colleagues, Abu-Jamal ultimately avoided the death penalty.

Should government force businesses to hire felons? Obama nominee Debo Adegbile says yes.  The Senate will soon vote on President Obama's nomination of former NAACP Legal Defense Fund official Debo Adegbile to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.  There are a number of reasons many Republicans oppose the nomination, most prominent among them Adegbile's passionate and continued advocacy on behalf of Philadelphia cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.  But one objection to the nomination has received little public notice, and it involves a quiet but growing controversy over the issue of criminal background checks.

Will Senate Confirm Cop-Killer Advocate?  [Scroll down]  Where his sponsor, President Obama, has shown a willingness to consider whether affirmative action in admissions should be based not on race but socioeconomic criteria that are race-neutral, Adegbile, to judge by the record of his nomination, has shown no such willingness to rethink some aspect of liberal civil rights orthodoxy.  Instead he is predictably to the left, as in his assessment of a voter ID card as a "modern poll tax," notwithstanding that 30 states have voter ID laws, and that the Supreme Court has sustained a voter ID law against constitutional challenge.

The Justice Nominee and The Cop Killer.  In the coming weeks, the Senate will consider the nomination of Debo Adegbile to be assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's civil-rights division.  There are those who object to the nominee on various grounds, and others who defend him.  We raise concerns here about only one issue:  Mr. Adegbile's support for convicted Philadelphia cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Go to Jail — Get Obamacare. Defend a Cop Killer — Get a Massive Job in DoJ.  It seems every day the Democrats currently in power find a new way to express sneering contempt for everyone who disagrees with them for any reason.  Democrat Leahy did not allow the widow of slain police officer Daniel Faulkner to testify as to why the attorney who represented her husband's murderer should not be confirmed to head DoJ's Civil Rights Division.  Why did he deny her her right to speak?  A technicality.  And because he could.  It would have been inconvenient to the Obama administration for Congress to have heard directly from Abu Jamal's surviving victim.

Committee clears controversial DOJ nominee on party lines.  The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday [2/6/2014] approved President Obama's nominee to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, who had drawn scorn from some Republicans and police unions.  Debo Adegbile had received criticism for his involvement in the legal defense of Mumia Abu Jamal, who was convicted of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1982.  Adegbile was approved on a 10-8 party-line vote.

FBI Agents revolt against Eric Holder.  First it was the Justice Department's career prosecutors; now it's FBI agents.  The federal employees responsible for fighting crime are simply unable to digest the anti-law enforcement slop being served up by their boss, Attorney General Holder.  The FBI's beef is with the selection of Debo Adegbile as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.  The FBI Agents Association's opposition is based on the way in which Adegbile defended, and led the cheers for, cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Democrats Block Widow of Murdered Police Officer From Testifying Against Obama DOJ Nominee Debo Adegbile.  Last month Maureen Faulker, the widow of murdered Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, requested a chance to give testimony against President Obama's nominee to head the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.  Her husband was killed in 1981 by former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of murder in 1982.  Thirty years after the conviction, nominee Debo Adegbile voluntarily took up Abu-Jamal's case and the cause in the name of race during his time as the head of NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Widow of murdered cop expected to testify at confirmation hearing for Obama's nominee to top civil rights post.  The widow of a Philadelphia police officer gunned down by a man whose lawyer has been picked by President Obama for a top civil rights post says she wants to testify at his confirmation hearing.  Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday that he backed Maureen Faulkner's request to speak at Debo Adegbile's nomination hearing.

Stop Giving Obama Radicals the Benefit of the Doubt.  Right now the nomination of Debo Adegbile to run the Justice Department Civil Rights Division is before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Adegbile was the former NAACP Legal Defense Fund head.  In that role, he oversaw the defense of the cop-killing Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal.  The Fraternal Order of Police has demanded that President Obama withdraw the nomination.  Adegbile has pushed every other crackpot racial theory popular among the civil rights industry.  His career has been characterized by attacking school discipline policies and employer background checks as racially motivated.  He fought to keep Abigail Fisher out of the University of Texas Law School merely because she was white.  Just a decade ago, this radical racialist background would have been a disqualifier for any nominee to the Justice Department.  But today, radicalism is a prerequisite for the job.

Fraternal Order of Police Sends Scathing Letter to Obama Opposing "Race-Baiting" Civil Rights Nominee.  President Obama has nominated attorney Debo Adegbile to head the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.  Adegbile has a long history of advocating for the release of unrepentant and convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.  Earlier this week the National Fraternal Order of Police, an organization representing 330,000 men and women in law enforcement, sent a scathing letter to President Obama strongly opposing Abegbile's nomination.

Obama's DOJ civil rights nominee represented cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.  President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Civil Rights Division led the group that represents convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.  Debo Adegbile, who awaits Senate confirmation to become assistant attorney general for civil rights in Eric Holder's DOJ, would bring a radical record on racial issues to his new job, which is responsible for enforcing federal discrimination statutes.

Obama Nominates Racist Supporter of Cop-Killer to Head DOJ Civil Rights.  Obama's nominee process involves finding the worst person on earth for that job or any job.  It's a process that never fails.  In this case, he came up with Debo Adegbilem cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal's lawyer and a supporter of discriminating against white students for reasons of race.

Cop Killer Mumia Abu-Jamal's Lawyer To Top DOJ Post.  The nominee to head the Department of Justice's civil rights division is a radical lawyer who fought to free from prison a cold-blooded killer of a Philadelphia cop.

NAACP Lawyer 'Honored to Represent' a Cop-Killer.  Fifty years ago, the NAACP was about treating every human being with individual dignity and breaking down racial segregation.  Today, the NAACP is proud to represent cop killers.

For Real Scandals, Check Out the Obama Administration.  It is ironic that just as Washington, D.C. and New York City — the two centers of cluelessness in American life — are convulsed with a mini-scandal involving lane closure on a bridge, two more major Obama administration scandals have come to light.  The first is Obama's nomination of Debo Adegbile to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.  We might have guessed that Obama couldn't do worse than Adegbile's predecessor, Tom Perez, but we would have been wrong.

Obama DOJ Nominee Evasive on Whether Amnesty a 'Civil Right'.  During Wednesday's [1/8/2014] Senate Judiciary Committee nomination hearing, President Barack Obama's nominee to be Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights refused to answer whether he believes that amnesty is a civil right, which is the belief of the person who may be his boss — Attorney General Eric Holder.

John Podesta

Obama Hires Incendiary Podesta as White House Counselor.  Podesta cofounded CAP in 2003, naming himself president and CEO.  He obtained funding for the organization from special-interest groups such as the renewable energy industry and wealthy liberal activists such as George Soros.  In 2009 the organization launched a progressive media "War Room" as a joint project of its 501(c)(4) Action Fund and the Media Matters Action Network to ratchet up aggressive attacks on centrists and conservatives.  Podesta also served as an independent advisory council member of the scandal-ridden and ultimately disbanded community organization group ACORN.  While chairman of CAP, Podesta focused on global warming policies that would raise energy prices, expand government control of the economy, and lock up more land for federal purposes, [Myron] Ebell said.

Podesta's Climate And Environmental Agendas Will Add To Obama's Executive Disorders.  President Obama's promise to be the most transparent administration in history is proving to be true with regard to the recent appointment of John Podesta as his high profile congressional circumvention strategist.  Podesta's belief in government by fiat is clear. [...] Never mind that having witnessed the past 17 years of flat global temperatures despite ballyhooed record atmospheric CO2 levels, John Podesta is hell-bent to reheat regulatory assaults on carbon emissions.

Rep. Scalise Calls for Obama to Fire Podesta 'Immediately' for 'Jonestown' Comparison.  Republican Study Committee Chairman (RSC) Chairman Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) is calling for the resignation of White House counselor John Podesta for comparing the House Republicans to the Jonestown cult.  Podesta was named to the post just one week earlier.  The Jonestown Massacre resulted in the deaths of more than 900 people who drank poisoned Kool-Aid in 1978 at the direction of cult leader Jim Jones in a South American Jungle.

Podesta: Climate game changer.  Environmental groups believe John Podesta will be a force for change on climate issues at the White House. [...] Three key areas Podesta and the climate team will work on are Environmental Protection Agency rules on existing power plants, developing a comprehensive methane strategy and developing new fuel economy standards for heavy-duty vehicles.  While Podesta's full portfolio won't be known until he arrives next year, an administration official said he'll probably spend time working with the Department of the Interior on its regulatory policies.  That's likely to include administration decisions about how to lease out federal lands and which energy development and mining projects to permit.

Keystone to the Kingdom.  [John] Podesta is joining the administration for one year as White House counselor specializing in energy policy.  And despite the fact that he has done more than any other unelected official to shape the policies of cap-and-trade and green energy subsidies, and to employ and place the talent that has attempted to implement those policies during the Obama presidency, the White House assures us that he will never, never have any say in whether the Keystone Pipeline, slow-walked by this president for years, is approved or denied.

Obama hires revolving-door lobbyist and Clinton fixer John Podesta.  Podesta founded a lobbying firm his brother still runs; he was a corporate lobbyist more recently than he was a White House chief of staff; and he was a registered lobbyist as recently as 2005.  This resume is noteworthy because Candidate Obama — in part to distinguish himself from Beltway insider Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries — promised that lobbyists "won't work in my White House."  Obama has maintained that he has "excluded lobbyists from policymaking jobs."  And much of the major media still somehow believes him.

Obama Is Laying the Groundwork to Move Without, Around, and Outside Congress.  [John] Podesta's appointment, which needs no congressional approval, comes at a time when Obama is already making moves to do without Congress.  He has used executive actions to re-write Obamacare, and to recalibrate immigration law, both in ways that just happen to favor either himself or the Democrats.  The New York Times reports that Podesta will work on executive actions when he returns to the White House.

Obama's appointment of Keystone XL opponent John Podesta to White House could mean pipeline rejection.  President Obama's appointment of Democratic adviser John Podesta, an opponent of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, to the White House could foretell a rejection of the controversial Canada-to-Texas pipeline, environmental groups said Tuesday [12/10/2013].  Podesta, former President Bill Clinton's chief of staff and the man who headed Obama's transition team, is leaving the top post of the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, for a new White House role focusing on climate change.

Center for American Progress is moving its headquarters into the White House.  Metaphorically speaking, of course.  But The Center for American Progress has so many contributors, fellows, and staffers who already work there they may as well make it offical and change the address on their business cards.  This is especially true now that the founder and chairman of the board of CAP, John Podesta, is going to work for Obama.

Podesta Hire Shows Obama Is Done Dealing With Congress.  The move to hire Podesta now, as opposed to waiting till after the 2014 elections, is an admission by the White House that their second term legislative agenda (immigration reform, gun control, and climate change) is already dead.  If progressives are going to make any progress expanding government during the rest of Obama's presidency, it will only be through unilateral executive action.  It will not be sanctioned by Congress.

Avril Danica Haines

New CIA #2 Pick Used to Read Anne Rice Aloud at Her Bookstore's Erotica Night.  The former host of "Erotica Night" at a Baltimore bookstore will be the first-ever female No. 2 official at the CIA. [...] As a lawyer in the White House Counsel's office, [Avril Danica] Haines oversaw the approval process for the CIA's covert actions, acting as a vital link between the CIA and the president.

Fifty Shades of the CIA?  Some days it looks like Barack Obama is just trolling the whole world.  The same man who opposed ousting Saddam Hussein now will arm Islamist rebels in Syria.  The same man who railed against Bush for wiretapping terrorists wiretapped all of us.  That same man has now nominated Avril Haines to the number two post in the Central Intelligence Agency.  It's an important job, one you'd think would require some intelligence or military background of some kind.  Haines has none of that.  What she does have is experience reading sexy sexy books out loud.

Samantha Power

AMLO Tells Joe Biden and Samantha Power to Knock It Off, Stop Interfering in Mexico and Trying to Create Instability.  If you understand what Samantha Power does via her role in using USAID as the mechanism to advance the color revolutions around the globe, these remarks from Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador are subtle like a brick through a window. [...] Keep in mind that nearly a million central American economic migrants can be unleashed by AMLO, and likely will be, as Joe Biden and the Mexican president have faced off for almost two years over North American energy policy.  Stunningly, AMLO has not backed down an inch, and instead went on the offensive against Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau.  This put a target on his back and was likely the impetus for U.S. intelligence agencies to call upon Samantha Power to do her thing.

Biden Official Clears Ukraine of Misusing U.S.  Financial Aid.  Ukraine is not misusing the tens of billions of dollars in direct financial assistance it is receiving courtesy of U.S.  taxpayers according to a top Biden administration official.  Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S.  Agency for International Development (USAID), gave the public affirmation during a CNN live town hall on Thursday evening.  Her assurances came just hours ahead of the White House revealing it would give another $2 billion in military aid to Ukraine as its war with Russia officially hits the one-year mark, bringing the total amount of American military assistance to over $30 billion in one year.

Biden Nominates Former Obama Official, Unmasker Samantha Power as USAID Administrator.  President-elect Joe Biden announced Tuesday he was nominating Samantha Power, a former Obama administration official and key unmasker of Trump campaign staffers, to a top position in his incoming administration.  "Ambassador Samantha Power is a world-renowned voice of conscience and moral clarity — challenging and rallying the international community to stand up for the dignity and humanity of all people," Biden said in a statement.  "As USAID Administrator, she'll be a powerful force for principled American engagement."

Joe Biden Picks Pro-Abortion Samantha Power to Head USAID, Will Make Americans Fund Planned Parenthood.  Abortion activists praised Samantha Power, President-elect Joe Biden's choice to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development, as a "steadfast voice for human rights" on Wednesday [1/13/2021].  Biden's transition team announced Power as his choice for USAID administrator this week.  She is one of a growing list of pro-abortion leaders slated to fill the new presidential administration.  In the position, Power will assist Biden in restoring taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood and other global abortion advocacy groups — funds that President Donald Trump cut through his Protecting Life policy.  Power previously worked in President Barack Obama's administration as a representative to the United Nations.  Before that, she served on the National Security Council where she advised Obama and Biden on "women's rights," which, to Democrat leaders, includes abortion on demand.

Biden names Samantha Power as pick to lead USAID.  President-elect Joseph R. Biden on Wednesday named Samantha Power, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Obama administration, as his pick to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development.  Mr. Biden also elevated the position to be in the National Security Council (NSC).  "As USAID Administrator, Ambassador Power will be a powerful force for lifting up the vulnerable, ushering in a new era of human progress and development, and advancing American interests globally," Mr. Biden said.

Samantha Power Caught Lying Under Oath, Testified She Had 'No Recollection' of Making Unmasking Request Related to General Flynn.  Former US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power lied under oath to Congress about unmasking General Flynn.  CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge on Wednesday obtained the list of Obama operatives who unmasked General Flynn and released it to the public.  Names included former VP Joe Biden, former CIA Director John Brennan, Samantha Power, former DNI chief James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey and others.  According to the new documents released, Samantha Power sought to unmask General Flynn SEVEN TIMES.

Samantha Power Claimed She Never Tried To Unmask Michael Flynn, But Records Show She Unmasked Him 7 Times.  Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power testified to Congress in 2017 that she never sought to unmask records containing information about former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.  Newly declassified documents from the National Security Agency (NSA), however, show that her name appeared on at least seven separate requests to unmask Flynn's name between Nov. 30, 2016, and Jan. 11, 2017.  Power was asked explicitly during sworn 2017 testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) whether she had ever attempted to unmask information related to Michael Flynn, a retired general and former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency who later briefly served as national security adviser under President Donald Trump.

The witch unmasked.  Samantha Power [...] has reappeared from obscurity this week amid questions concerning "unmasking" activities during the 2016 election.  Like most members of the Obama administration, Power left behind her a trail of mysteries, of events that are utterly incomprehensible unless they're part of a larger scheme still unknown to us.  In her case, these involved the illegal "unmasking" of American citizens. [...] Like much that went on under the Chicago Messiah, we'll probably never get to the bottom of this.  But, along with Joe Biden's Ukraine woes, it's yet another reminder that every last member of the "most scandal-free administration in history" was corrupt to the bone.

'Unmasker in Chief' Samantha Power spewed anti-Trump bias in government emails.  Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power may share an unflattering stage with a text-loving FBI agent and his Donald Trump-hating paramour from the bureau. [...] It turns out that Power — the diplomat whose authority inexplicably was used to unmask hundreds of Americans' names in secret intelligence reports during the 2016 election — engaged in similar Trump-bashing on her official government email, according to documents unearthed by an American Center for Law and Justice lawsuit.

"The Power Doctrine" — Denis McDonough Outlines The New Obama Israeli Policy.  And by Power we do not mean a force of strength; no, we mean the last name of the person who has constructed the doctrine, Samantha Power. [...] To understand the current threats now made by Obama toward Israel via the U.N everyone must remember the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power (wife of Cass Sunstein) has spent her professional career both as an academic, and as a governmental policy advisor, advocating the position that Israel "is an occupying force".

Samantha, Syria and the use of power.  Did you ever wonder why we have been teetering on the brink of war with Syria when virtually no one in America wants to go to war?  The answer can be summed up in two words:  Samantha Power.  Power is the new American ambassador to the United Nations and a longtime foreign-policy adviser to President Barack Obama.  She is also a dangerously radical proponent of military intervention in humanitarian crises around the globe.

Will the Senate Rubber-Stamp Power's Contempt?  Contempt of Congress and obstruction of the Senate's constitutional advice-and-consent obligation is the only way to interpret the performance of Samantha Power during Wednesday's [7/17/2013] hearing on her nomination by President Obama to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.  Power has a long history of decrying "crimes committed, sponsored, or permitted by the United States."  Of demanding that the United States apologize for its sundry "sins."

Obama's UN ambassador pick has history of controversial comments.  The former White House adviser and longtime Obama friend nominated Wednesday as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has a history of controversial comments that could haunt her in confirmation — including likening U.S. foreign policies to those of the Nazis.

Samantha Power to U.N.; Susan Rice to White House as National Security Adviser.  In a move sure to provoke congressional Republicans, President Obama appointed embattled U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice on Wednesday [6/5/2013] to serve as his national security adviser.  To replace Mrs. Rice as U.N. ambassador, Mr. Obama also nominated former aide Samantha Power, who once referred to Hillary Rodham Clinton as a "monster" during the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries and analogized U.S. foreign policy to that of Nazi Germany in calling for a "mea culpa" approach to foreign policy.

Rice And Power Lack Integrity And Ideological Compass.  The deliverer of the phony Benghazi talking points becomes national security adviser, while her job at the U.N. goes to an anti-Israel ideologue.  We have a president who rewards failure.

Samantha Power's Five Worst Statements.  Samantha Power will take over at as ambassador to the United Nations following Susan Rice's promotion to national security adviser.  Here are Power's five most embarrassing comments.

Loyalty Rewarded: Susan Rice and Samantha Power.  Obama cares little about the public's opinion of his appointees; see how tenaciously he has clung to Eric Holder so far through thick and thin.

Samantha Power, Hater of Israel.  These are harsh words.  Even some good faith supporters of Israel may consider them unfair.  But let's look at Power's harsh words about Israel.

Penny Pritzker

Obama's Commerce Secretary Didn't Report $80 Million in Income.  Barack Obama's close friend and major fundraiser, Penny Pritzker, who has been nominated to be the new Secretary of Commerce, didn't include more than $80 million in income in financial disclosures she filed last week.  Pritzker, who is a billionaire, supposedly "inadvertently omitted" this tiny part of her fortune.

Penny Pritzker looks to be on path to confirmation.  Senators may confirm Penny Pritzker next month to lead the Commerce Department, a top Senate Republican said after a drama-free hearing Thursday. Commerce Committee senators on both sides of the aisle largely shied away from the controversies surrounding the family of Chicago billionaire and Hyatt Hotel heiress Pritzker, despite GOP criticism centering on the use of subprime lending practices and offshore bank accounts.

Organized labor to oppose President Obama's nomination of Penny Pritzker for commerce secretary.  Organized labor will break its silence and oppose President Obama's nominee for Commerce Secretary, Chicago's Penny Pritzker, the Daily News has learned.  The decision stems from long-standing grievances with labor practices at the Hyatt Hotels chain, a source of her family's fortune, and despite earlier reports that unions would not raise objections to the nomination.

Penny Pritzker: Obama's Worst Insult to His Left-Wing Base.  In a crowded field, Chicago billionaire, bundler, sub-prime banker and union buster Penny Pritzker is clearly the worst nominee that President Barack Obama has chosen for his second term cabinet.  Though the position for which she has been nominated, Secretary of Commerce, often goes to a presidential crony or political insider, Pritzker would exceed all her predecessors and peers with her shocking record of cronyism and failure.

Commerce Appointment Opens A New White House Rift.  The nomination of billionaire Penny Pritzker to be secretary of Commerce will import a Chicago rivalry into the Obama administration.  Pritzker and Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett share roots in their native city's insular business community and will have overlapping portfolios of outreach to corporate America.

Four Things to Know About Penny Pritzker, a Billionaire and Obama's Commerce Secretary Pick.  [#4]  With a net worth of an estimated $1.8 billion, this heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, which her family founded, has become one of the leading philanthropists in the Windy City.  The Pritzker family name is one of the most prominent in Chicago.

Commerce nominee tangled in massive bank collapse that cost depositors millions.  President Obama's nominee for Commerce secretary was embroiled in a massive bank failure more than a decade ago, in a collapse that cost depositors and federal insurers millions of dollars.  The 2001 collapse of Superior Bank FSB now appears likely to re-emerge, more than a decade later, as Commerce nominee Penny Pritzker prepares for a confirmation hearing and Republicans already draw attention to the bank implosion.

Thomas Perez

Hardcore Marxist Tom Perez — Who Tried to Label Bernie a Racist — Wins DNC Chairmanship.  Former Labor Secretary and notorious racialist agitator Tom Perez has won the position of DNC Chair.  He is Barack Obama's choice and his doppelgänger.  As a liar, racialist, manipulator and Marxist, he is the right choice for the new hard-left Democrat Party.  Perez lied about his family history, is hard left, and will bring the Democrat Party to the furthest left fringe.

Just How Bad Is Tom Perez?  Everyone seems to think the Democratic Party dodged a bullet in selecting former Labor Secretary Thomas Perez over radical Islamist Rep. Keith Ellison for party chairman.  A look at Perez's record shows that the party dodged nothing.  Ellison's appeal to Democrats was in his openly deranged radical extremism, he was billed as the outsider, the upstart, the new wave to freshen up the stale party that had lost so badly last November.  Perez was somehow declared the moderate by default.  Fact is, he was just as extreme in his views, but less noisy than Ellison.

Obama's Nominee for Secretary of (Illegal Alien) Labor.  During the Clinton years, [Thomas] Perez worked at the Justice Department to establish a "Worker Exploitation Task Force" to enhance working conditions for illegal alien workers.  While holding down his government position, Perez volunteered for Casa de Maryland.  This notorious illegal alien advocacy group is funded through a combination of taxpayer-subsidized grants (totaling $5 million in 2010 alone from Maryland and local governments) and radical liberal philanthropy, including billionaire George Soros' Open Society Institute.  That's in addition to more than $1 million showered on the group by freshly departed Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez's regime-owned oil company, CITGO.  As I've reported previously, Perez rose from Casa de Maryland volunteer to president of the group's board of directors.

New DNC Chairman Tom Perez Is No 'Moderate' At All.  One of the amazing things about the now-completed Democratic National Committee chairman's race was how former Labor Secretary Tom Perez became perceived as the "moderate" or "centrist" choice.  This occurred in part because he was aligned with Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Democratic primary, and partially because his biggest rival was Rep. Keith Ellison, former member of the Nation of Islam, the congressman who meets with radical terror-sponsoring Saudi clerics, the one with the anti-gay imam, the one who used to "go on all the time about 'Jewish slave traders.'"  "Less radical than Keith Ellison" is an awfully low bar to clear.  Relax, fans of the Nation of Islam, Perez says he wants to make Ellison "the face of the Democratic Party," and I am sure many Republicans are ready and willing to help him out in that task.

It Should Come As No Surprise The DNC Picked This Guy.  The Democrat National Committee has elected to head their little Party of resistance and mouth breathing leftist by choosing Thomas Perez, former Obama Administration Secretary of Labor.  Yeah, the same Labor Dept. that gave us phony job numbers before the 2012 election, and almost unbelievable fairytale numbers just in time for the 2014 mid-terms.

A New Way That Obama's Justice Department Breaks the Law.  The current saga in the Civil Rights Division began nearly three and a half years ago, when its leader, Tom Perez — the embodiment of the Peter Principle, whereby managers rise to their level of incompetence — was promoted to the position of secretary of labor.  President Obama nominated Debo Adegbile, formerly an attorney with the NAACP (and this week appointed to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission), to replace Perez.  But Adegbile's nomination immediately ran into severe Senate headwinds.

Labor Secretary Misrepresented Grandfather's Ties to Dominican Dictator.  Labor Secretary Tom Perez, one of Hillary Clinton's top choices for vice president, misrepresented his grandfather's relationship to a Dominican dictator, according to a report.  Perez has lauded his grandfather, Rafael Brache, for "standing on the right side of history" against the brutal regime of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic.  He said that Brache was expelled for speaking out against the regime, but a new Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that Brache exited the country after years of support for the regime.  "In his comments, Mr. Perez rarely, if ever, mentions that Mr. Brache was one of the dictator's champions during at least the first five years of his repressive three-decade regime, a fact documented in dozens of cables, letters and memos in public archives in the U.S. and the Dominican Republic," the article states.

Labor Sec.  Tom Perez Used Personal Email Account To Leak Info To Planned Parenthood, New York Times.  Tom Perez, the Secretary of Labor considered to be on the short list of Hillary Clinton running mates, used a personal email account to leak information to The New York Times and Planned Parenthood while he worked at the Department of Justice's office for civil rights. [...] Perez is not the only potential Clinton VP pick to be involved in a personal email scandal.  The Daily Caller reported earlier Wednesday that Agriculture Sec.  Tom Vilsack used a personal email account while he served as governor of Iowa.  He became involved in a scandal in 2004 when he admitted deleting work-related emails.

Labor secretary Tom Perez invokes Nazi Germany in immigration speech.  Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who's been talked about as a potential running mate for Hillary Clinton, gave an impassioned speech defending immigrants, and he quoted a famous poem about Nazism to encourage Americans to stand up against anti-immigrant impulses.  Though he didn't mention Donald Trump by name, the presumptive Republican nominee was clearly on Perez's mind.  "History will soon ask where we were in the face of unrelenting attacks on immigrants, unrelenting attacks on our Muslim brothers and sisters, unrelenting attacks on voting rights," Perez said at a conference for national Latino elected officials Thursday.  "History will ask if you spoke up for the rights of people who didn't look like you."

Labor Secretary Perez Takes Time Out to Campaign for Hillary, Unions.  Labor Secretary Tom Perez, a potential running mate for Hillary Clinton, is coming under fire from critics and union watchdogs for joining a union-backed campaign to double the minimum wage on the taxpayer's dime.  Perez travelled across the country from Detroit to Milwaukee to lend his support to labor giant Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and its Fight for $15 campaign, according to a release from conservative research firm America Rising Squared.  Brian Rogers, the group's executive director, said that the frequent travel raised questions about Perez's political ambitions and work as a regulator.  "It's disturbing that Perez would use taxpayer dollars to fly all over the country to advance the liberal special interest agenda of the SEIU and other big labor unions through their multi-million-dollar 'Fight for $15' campaign," Rogers said in a release.

Top Of The List To Replace Eric Holder Is Left-Wing Radical Tom Perez.  Inside the beltway conversation has all but announced the nomination of current labor secretary Tom Perez to replace Eric Holder.  If you were inclined to think of Eric Holder as an activist Attorney General, you can multiply that by infinite magnitudes with Tom Perez. [...] However there are two serious issues which could disqualify Perez from contention to the job, IF they are reviewed by the Senate.

Thought Eric Holder Was Bad? Meet Tom Perez.  So who is Tom Perez?  Perez ran for Maryland attorney general in 2006.  But his campaign ended when he was thrown off the ballot for the embarrassing reason that he didn't practice law.  To Democrats, Perez is the charming, articulate, and politically savvy secretary of Labor.  He is the president's point man on Hispanic and labor issues.  But to anyone objective who has paid close attention, Perez is a menace to the rule of law in ways that make Eric Holder seem like a kitty cat.  Much of Holder's dirty work over the last six years was done by Tom Perez.

Department of Homeland Security Stacked With Pro-Amnesty Attorneys Ahead of Illegal Immigration Fight.  Former Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General and radical open borders attorney Tom Perez was safely put into the position of Labor Secretary by President Obama and the Senate earlier this year, knowing the Department of Justice is safely locked down as pro-amnesty.  Perez has a long history of advocating not for American workers, but for illegal alien workers and made sure the Department of Justice was stacked with pro-amnesty attorneys before making his way to the Labor Department. [...] Recently the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, followed suit by hiring nearly a dozen pro-amnesty attorneys.

GOP braces for business nightmare with Thomas Perez taking over at Labor Department.  During [Hilda] Solis' tenure at Labor, the department focused most of its energy on writing and implementing Obamacare while other regulatory work piled up.  Now, free-enterprise advocates are preparing for their worst nightmare — a flood of onerous regulations at a delicate time in the country's economic recovery from a man who Republicans know is smart and aggressive.

Senate confirms Tom Perez for Labor secretary.  The Senate confirmed Tom Perez as Labor secretary on a 54-46 party-line vote Thursday [7/18/2013], making him the second of President Barack Obama's nominees to win confirmation this week following a deal to preserve the filibuster.

'What did he know, and when did he know it?'  [Scroll down]  Then there is the Department of Justice official, Thomas E. Perez, who hid his efforts to arrange a secret quid pro quo between the City of St. Paul and the Department of Justice.  The department agreed not to join two False Claims Act cases (a decision that cost the U.S. government up to $200 million) in exchange for the City of St. Paul withdrawing its case before the Supreme Court.  That deal aided a private litigant and prevented the Supreme Court from deciding an important legal issue.  Mr. Perez seemed more interested in helping this private party than in representing the United States, which happened to be his client.  Moreover, the story Mr. Perez now tells does not easily fit within the emails thus far uncovered.  The president has nominated Mr. Perez to be secretary of labor.

Tom Perez: Obama's Man at the White House.  The big news today is that IRS head Doug Schulman visited the White House a stunning 157 times during the time a policy targeting the Tea Party was developed.  But Schulman isn't the only non-cabinet member from administration to visit the White House an extraordinary number of times.  So did truth-challenged and Senate-stalled Labor Department nominee Tom Perez.

GOP wins delay in battle to block Labor nominee Thomas Perez.  Mr. Perez is strongly backed by Democrats but has been attacked by Republicans and some outside groups for what they say is a record of activist overreach during his tenure at the Justice Department.  To delay the vote, Republicans invoked a rarely used rule that committees cannot start a meeting more than two hours after the Senate floor session starts for that day.  Committees routinely waive the rule with consent from both parties, a Democratic Senate aide said, but Republicans would not do so Wednesday.

The Perez Stonewall.  A Senate committee plans to vote Wednesday on Thomas Perez's nomination for Labor Secretary, and indications are that Democrats will ram him through on a party-line vote.  Republicans may not be able to defeat him, but we hope they take the time to educate the public about Mr. Perez's flagrant abuse of his legal powers in his current job at the Justice Department.

Hearings on Radical Labor Nominee Perez Begin.  Unions have made every effort to avoid transparency and reform, and the re-election of President Obama for which unions spent tens of millions of dollars ensures that the Labor Department will likely keep that away for the time being.

Perez vs. Coburn.  Add another issue to what will be a contentious confirmation fight over the nomination of Tom Perez for secretary of labor:  his defense of the federal government's requiring some doctors to provide translators for non-English-speaking patients.  In a scathing 2006 Mother Jones piece, Perez railed against an amendment authored by Oklahoma Republican senator Tom Coburn that would have repealed a Clinton-administration executive order leading to that requirement.

Justice attorneys wary of Perez's nomination for Labor, cite 'most devastating indictment'.  "People should be raising serious questions about this nomination," said Hans von Spakovsky, a veteran Justice Department lawyer who formerly served as counsel to the division.  "This is a man who misled both Congress and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.  "He was the focus last week of the most devastating indictment of a federal government agency I have even seen," he added, noting that the Justice Department's office of inspector general in a 258-page report documented widespread intimidation, harassment and even threats of violence under Mr. Perez's leadership.

The Labor Nominee's Other Lies.  When the Inspector General of the Department of Justice (DoJ) last week issued a report blistering DoJ's Civil Rights Division, much attention focused on the IG's recognition that division chief Perez, under oath, had "not reflect[ed] the entire story regarding the involvement of political appointees" in the now-infamous 2009 decision to dismiss voter-intimidation cases against several New Black Panthers in Philadelphia.  While this aspect of Perez's dishonesty deserves all the attention it can garner, it is far from the only example, from that very same testimony, of Perez pushing stories that were flagrantly false.

What You Need To Know About the Most Radical Cabinet Nominee.  The New Black Panther case is one small part.  But so are the eighth-grade transvestite lawsuits in New York, and so are the race quotas in New York City.  PJ Media has been covering Perez in a way that no other outlet has for the last three years:  his wars on peaceful Catholic pro-life protesters, his dishonesty under oath, and his overruling of career DOJ lawyers in the South Carolina Voter ID case are but three more from a long list of radical transgressions.  Make no mistake — that's why Obama appointed him.

DiGenova: Obama Labor Pick Perez 'Single Most Radical' Choice.  This morning on "Mornings on the Mall" on WMAL-FM, Washington DC, former US Attorney Joe DiGenova called for the Senate to come out against President Obama's choice for Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez.  "This guy is the worst of the worst," said DiGenova, citing the fact that Perez' open borders group Casa de Maryland had received over a million dollars from Hugo Chavez.

Obama to Nominate Sharia Supporter, Illegal Immigrant Advocate as Labor Secretary.  President Obama reportedly intends to nominate in-your-face radical leftist lawyer Thomas Perez as his next Secretary of Labor.  Now an assistant attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice, Perez is a former top aide to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and possibly a perjurer.

Inspector General Report on Racialist Dysfunction inside DOJ.  Today [3/12/2013] the Department of Justice inspector general released a report on potential Labor secretary nominee Tom Perez's DOJ Civil Rights Division. [...] The 250-page report offers an inside glimpse of systemic racialist dysfunction inside one of the most powerful federal government agencies.  The report was prepared in response to Representative Frank Wolf's (R-VA) outrage over the New Black Panther voter intimidation dismissal.

Justice Dept.: Racial disputes abound in voting section, but no partisan slant.  An assistant attorney general President Obama is considering for labor secretary oversaw a Justice Department section hampered by racially-charged ideological divisions, an inspector general report says.  The long-awaited report, spawned by the New Black Panther Party voter harassment investigation, takes issue with the working atmosphere at the voting rights section that falls under Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez.  The report's revelations are certain to surface during Mr. Perez's confirmation process [...]

Thomas Perez Should Be Blocked.  If President Obama thinks he can get away with appointing an obvious prevaricator to be Secretary of Labor — and a radical, race-baiting one at that — he has lost all touch with reality.  Even a group as confused and fractious as the caucus of Senate Republicans is sure to find the collective backbone to block the (expected) appointment of Thomas Perez.

IG Report Confirms PJ Media: Obama DOJ's Leftist Election Lawyer Hiring Blitz.  Sources familiar with the thinking of Civil Rights Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez report that he and others in the department believe the damning inspector general report actually vindicates the attorney hiring decisions over the last few years in the Civil Rights Division.  In essence, Perez believes that the report shows that the attorneys were qualified.  He must not have read page 218 of the report.

Obama's Purported Labor Nominee Rallied Pro-Amnesty Group As DOJ Assistant AG.  President Barack Obama is reportedly ready to nominate Justice Department Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez to become the next Secretary of the Department of Labor. [...] Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, accused Perez of engaging in political activism within the DOJ after Perez gave remarks to a National Council of La Raza (NCLR) luncheon in July of 2011.  The Assistant Attorney General has had a close relationship with the pro-amnesty organization for a number of years. and the Obama administration has expressed gratitude for NCLR's support during the president's campaigns.

Tom Perez: Obama's Radical Labor Secretary Nominee.  President Obama intends to nominate in-your-face radical lawyer Thomas Perez as his next Secretary of Labor, according to media reports.  Now an assistant attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice, Perez is a former top aide to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and possibly a perjurer, which makes him a perfect fit for the ethically-challenged Obama cabinet.

Unfit For Office: Thomas Perez As Labor Secretary.  Make a list of all the most outrageous, extremist and divisive acts of the Obama administration and odds are they will intersect in the person of Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez, who's run the Department of Justice's troubled civil rights division since 2009.
  •   The Black Panthers voter intimidation case — where goons from that hate group were filmed with truncheons at the polls to intimidate voters into voting for their candidate.  Perez's DOJ dropped the case.
  •   The Obama administration's lawsuit to stop Florida from purging its voter rolls of 182,000 non-citizens — a move so outrageous it was thrown out by a Clinton-appointed federal judge in June 2012.
  •   Race-baiting lawsuits against municipalities to force them to scrap written tests for police and firefighters for affirmative action hiring.

Internal report blasts DOJ Civil Rights unit.  A scathing new report exposing bitter divisions and racial hostility at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is certain to complicate the confirmation process for Tom Perez, who currently heads the unit and is expected to be President Barack Obama's pick as the next Secretary of Labor.  The 258-page internal watchdog report out Tuesday resurrects questions about the handling of the controversial New Black Panther Party prosecution and faults Perez for giving misleading public testimony in 2010 when he said political appointees were not involved in decisions about the case.  He stands by the accuracy of his statement.

Obama to Nominate Justice Aide for Labor Post.  Republicans quickly criticized Mr. Perez, suggesting that he may undergo tough scrutiny in confirmation hearings.  Critics described Mr. Perez as a radical legal activist who has presided over a politically charged division and has tried to help illegal immigrants avoid detection and receive public benefits.  "This is an unfortunate and needlessly divisive nomination," said Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama.  "The top priority of the secretary of labor should be to create jobs and higher wages for American workers.  But Mr. Perez has aggressively sought ways to allow the hiring of more illegal workers. [...]"

Justice Whistleblower Warns Senate on Labor Pick.  The Department of Justice whistleblower who resigned over the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case said President Barack Obama's labor secretary nominee Thomas Perez is the "most extreme cabinet nominee in 70 years."  J. Christian Adams, who worked for Perez at the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, sent a stern warning to the U.S. Senate about Perez's policies.

The Talented Mr. Perez.  President Obama nominated Thomas Perez on Monday [3/18/2013] to run the Labor Department, praising him as "a consensus-builder" who passed the nation's "first statewide living-wage law" in Maryland.  That isn't his only talent.  Consider how Mr. Perez worked behind the scenes to undermine two civil cases against the City of St. Paul in order to stop a Supreme Court case that might have repudiated his discrimination enforcement theories.

Race-Baiting Perez Would Enforce Hiring Quotas At Labor.  By putting his civil-rights pit bull in charge of the Labor Department, the president thinks he can force businesses to hire minorities amid record joblessness.  But he'll only alienate employers more.

Sen. Vitter threatens to block Obama nominee for Labor secretary.  Republican Sen. David Vitter vowed Monday [3/18/2013] to block President Obama's nominee for Labor secretary, citing a past run-in with his state of Louisiana as well as the nominee's role in the controversial voter intimidation case involving the New Black Panther Party.  The president on Monday tapped Justice Department official Thomas Perez for the Labor post.  The candidate, though, was already being questioned over a newly released report that found he gave incomplete testimony on the decision to drop charges against members of the new Black Panthers.

The race card is the Democrats' primary weapon.
Democrats defend Obama Labor pick by highlighting race.  Democrats are defending President Barack Obama's provocative March 18 pick to head the Department of Labor, Tom Perez, by highlighting his Hispanic heritage.

Secretary for Soros.  President Barack Obama's controversial labor secretary nominee is already under fire for his selective approach to racial discrimination as well as his ties to liberal billionaire George Soros.  The administration officially tapped Tom Perez to succeed Hilda Solis as head of the Department of Labor on Monday morning [3/18/2013].

John Kerry

The Most Destructive Americans of the Last 70 years.  [#1] John Kerry:  Some readers will likely say Kerry does not deserve to be number one on this list.  I have him here because I regard him as the most despicable American who ever lived.  After his three faked Purple Hearts during his cowardly service in Vietnam, he was able to leave the US Navy early.  As a reserve naval officer and in clear violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, he traveled to Paris and met privately with the NVA and the Viet Cong.  He returned to the United States parroting the Soviet party line about the war and testified before Congress comparing American soldiers to the hordes of Genghis Khan.  It was a clear case of treason, giving aid and comfort to the enemy in a time of war.  We got a second bite of the bitter Kerry apple when as Obama's secretary of state, he fell into bed with the Iranian ("Death to America") mullahs giving them the ultimate green light to develop nuclear weapons along with billions of dollars that further supported their terrorist activities.  Only the heroic Swift Vets saved us from a Manchurian Candidate Kerry's presidency.

John Kerry just proved he's even more of a dolt than anyone imagined.  What an unbelievable idiot:  Biden "climate envoy" John Kerry actually said that if Russia makes "a greater effort to reduce emissions," it might "open up the door for people to feel better about what Russia is choosing to do" in its barbaric war to conquer Ukraine.  Kerry's always been a self-regarding twit, but this might be the dumbest thing any politician has said in decades (and the competition is stiff).  Vladimir Putin has proved time and again that he holds all civilized norms in utter contempt; oil and gas exports are all that keep his economy afloat.

John Kerry:  People would 'Feel Better' about Russia's War in Ukraine if Russia would 'Make a Greater Effort to Reduce Emissions'.  80-year-old John Kerry announced recently he was stepping down as US Special Envoy on Climate for the Biden regime after years of hard work battling global warming and destroying the economy and US middle class.  Kerry led the effort to unleash hundreds of billions in subsidies that aim to green the economy.  It's a lucrative business if you can call the shots or live in China where the windmills are made — using fossil fuels.  During a presser this week Kerry made another of his timeless statements, this time connecting global warming and war with Russia.

John Kerry Suggests America's Real Beef With Russia Is Its High Carbon Emissions.  Former Secretary of State John Kerry has suggested that America's real problem with Russia is their high rate of carbon emissions.  During his final press conference on Wednesday as Joe Biden's Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, Kerry said that given Russia's willingness to wage a war in Ukraine, they should also step up their efforts to combat so-called climate change: [...] Kerry added that if Russia would only show "good faith" on the climate issue, then people may be more sympathetic to the country's illegal invasion of a sovereign country[.]

Also posted under Democrats think you're stupid.

The Five FUBARs.  [#4]  The people of this land are not being allowed to do business, to find a livelihood, to transact fairly.  "Joe Biden's" shadow string-pullers are messing as badly with the oil and gas producers as they have messed with Ukraine.  And they are doing it in pursuit of a laughable mirage: their "green new deal."  John Podesta, the "clean energy czar" who replaced the Haircut-in-search-of-a-brain called John Kerry, sits on a $370-billion slush fund that can be used to just dole out to anyone and everyone as a political patronage payoff, especially to janky "community" orgs and NGOs with fake agendas.

John Kerry has unwittingly exposed the climate change wheeze.  Here's a good wheeze: prod every last inch of your own country, open the taps and become the world's largest producer of fossil fuels.  Then, when other countries start to try to develop their own resources, tell them they mustn't, for the good of the planet.  In other words, make them all dependent on you.  That is pretty well what John Kerry, the outgoing US special envoy on climate change, suggested on the BBC's Today programme this morning.  'We do need gas to keep our economies moving but we don't need to open a whole raft of new exploration,' he said, adding that US president Joe Biden had made a 'courageous step' not to approve a recent gas project.  Asked whether this meant that Britain shouldn't develop new oil and gas fields — as the current government wants to do — he blathered on:  'According to the International Energy Agency, they have said we do not need new field exploration and development.  What we need is to deploy more renewables.'  Just the one problem:  Kerry is saying this from a position of US dominance in the West's current energy market.

You Need to Die.  John Kerry: "Agriculture contributes about 33% of all the emissions of the world.  And we can't get to Net Zero — we don't get the job done — unless agriculture is front and center as part of the solution.  You just can't continue to both warm the planet while also expecting to feed it.  It doesn't work.  So, we have to reduce emissions from the food system."  What a dilemma.  If we feed people, we will continue to warm the planet.  If we continue to warm the planet, billions will die in 100 years from global warming because of the food we are eating now.  So, we must reduce "emissions" which will reduce global warming — excuse me, climate change — and since food production accounts for about 33% of "emissions," agriculture, i.e., feeding people, is obviously the biggest culprit.  Therefore, to prevent global warming, er, climate change which will kill billions of people, we must stop agriculture and quit feeding people.  Which will kill billions of people.  I told you it was a dilemma.  Which solution do you think John Kerry favors?

John Kerry lobbyist scandal just erupted.  The House Oversight Committee has opened an investigation into Special Presidential Envoy for Climate and former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry over his ties to private climate lobbyist organizations and his use of taxpayer money.  Republicans say Kerry had years of extensive — and expensive — private meetings with private climate organizations, paid for by taxpayers.  Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-K.Y., warned that excessive private meetings violate government oversight and create conflicts of interest between the Biden administration and outside lobbyists.

Kerry Now Facing Oversight Investigation, Lawsuit Over Secretive Office, Meetings With Climate Activists.  Climate czar John Kerry is leaving his job with the Biden administration, as we reported.  He's exiting that job to work for Joe Biden's reelection campaign.  But hopefully, they will both get tossed out of their "jobs" with the vote in November.  But there's news that's not good for Kerry, and I wonder if it may have anything to do with him heading for the exits.  The House Oversight Committee has launched an investigation into Special Envoy for Climate Kerry for frequently meeting with climate and environmental activists.  Comer demanded unreacted documents and communication related to Kerry's "collusion with leftist environmental groups," as well as information about Kerry's secretive office, known as SPEC, and the payroll.  He's looking for everything since Kerry came in three years ago and demanding that they turn it over by Feb. 21.  Comer was looking particularly at meetings of the "Kitchen Cabinet."  Comer said these meetings with leftist groups went "far beyond normal briefings and raise questions regarding possible conflicts of interests involving SPEC staff's ties to these groups regarding climate finance investments."

What Did Climate Czar John Kerry Actually Accomplish During His Stint In Biden Admin?  Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry is resigning soon to help President Joe Biden's reelection campaign, leaving behind a checkered record as the Biden administration's climate czar.  Biden appointed Kerry to his post in the State Department in November 2020, giving him a seat on the National Security Council and a key role in advancing the administration's massive climate agenda, particularly in coordinating with foreign diplomats to secure international cooperation on climate policies.  Kerry helped negotiate several high-profile climate agreements, but the ultimate success of those deals lies in the hands of other countries, including China, a reality that has made Kerry the subject of wide criticism.

John Kerry slaps the 'disinformation' label on the real inconvenient truths of EVs.  John Kerry consistently shows how dangerous and uncaring he, and all the other people pushing the radical green agenda to move the world backwards, really are.  If all these people who go to the United Nations gabfests and Davos, Switzerland really were worried about their carbon footprint, they would just use Zoom meetings, instead of flying in their private jets to stay in five star hotels, enjoying every luxury, delicacy, and amenity the world has to offer.  Kerry recently said he really doesn't care if people don't want to switch out their gas-powered vehicles for electric ones, because they will be forced to do it anyway.  Isn't that what dictators do?  Force the people to do things against their will?  Freedom of choice seems to be a foreign concept to them.  Kerry says [...] the only reason that people don't want electric vehicles is because of "disinformation."

Kerry calls for greenie restrictions on farming, or people will starve.  Does Joe Biden's climate czar, John Kerry, ever listen to himself?  He made this dunderheaded speech at the World Economic Forum, unwittingly contradicting himself as he sought applause from the elites. [Tweet] [...] Fewer farms, all to prevent people from going hungry.  Does this clown know where food comes from?  Does he understand that more production of food means more emissions of oxygen and less production of food means fewer emissions?  Or does he really think that food has nothing to do with the farms that produce it, but comes solely from a grocery store?

John Kerry Snaps At Reporter Asking Him About His 'Carbon Footprint' At Davos.  U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry lashed out at a reporter who asked him about his "carbon footprint" at the World Economic Forum's Davos conference on Tuesday.  Kerry will leave his role later this winter to assist President Joe Biden's presidential campaign because he feels that is the most effective way for him to pursue his preferred climate policies, according to Axios.  He neglected to answer questions regarding the "carbon footprint" of the Davos conference, instead snapping at Rebel News Reporter Avi Yemini.

John Kerry: Goodbye, Good Riddance.  In a city overflowing with useless people, agencies and institutions, one of its most worthless figures is (finally) leaving his government post.  While John Kerry is not quite going away, he is closer to the exit than the entrance.  This is good for the country.  At some point this spring, Kerry will leave his billet as the administration's climate envoy (see what we mean by "useless"?).  He will reportedly join the re-election campaign of President Joe Biden, who was for decades useless but eventually became destructive, as the last three years have shown.  If voters act rationally, Kerry, an insufferable hypocrite, will disappear from public life for good by the middle of November.

Why Is Everything So Stupid?  The Climate Scam is the Father of Lies.  And John Kerry is its progenitor.  Well acquainted with power, he has spent the last thirty years insinuating climate panic into every discipline, every sector, forcing every CEO to confess that what is unreal is real, that what is not a problem is a problem, and demands your sacrifice.  The national security state was tasked with selling the climate scam, bullying every plutocrat feeding off government dollars — Bezos, Musk, Gates, whatever fascist fiend runs Google — to sell this idiocy, this madness.  Everyone who protested was sidelined, which means anyone both intelligent and principled was sent to the sidelines.  And with the departure of the principled, the unethical, or the go-along-to-get-along gang took power.  And to keep power, they lied. [...] The climate is not changing in dramatic ways.  Human activity is probably NOT the chief driver.  And nobody is agreeing on anything.  Media were bullied, universities were bullied, every institution was tasked with climate emissions draw-down.

Boom Boom:  Out Go the Lights!  Ruling like the dictator whom he says Donald Trump aspires to be, President Joe Biden has decreed restrictions, if not prohibitions, on gas stoves, gas furnaces, gasoline-powered cars and trucks, and other products.  Congress has passed no such laws for Biden to sign.  Instead, he has acted unilaterally, as despots do. [...] Biden's "Climate!" guru, John Kerry, attended the just-concluded COP28 global-warming hoe-down in Dubai.  Some of its 80,000 participants got delayed en route, as their private jets bogged down as 17 inches of snow closed Munich's airport.  Kerry soldiered forth and soon declared that "There shouldn't be any more coal power plants permitted anywhere in the world."  He added: "I do not understand how adults who are in a position of responsibility can be avoiding responsibility for taking away those things that are killing people on a daily basis."  When coal took a break from its homicides du jour, it also yielded 19.7% of U.S. electricity in 2022, according to Biden's own Energy Information Administration.  Biden's Environmental Protection Agency unveiled edicts on Dec. 2 that would clamp down on methane emissions from new and existing oil and gas wells.  Methane and natural gas are essentially interchangeable.  So, this bid to reduce 58 million tons of methane through 2038 is a barely disguised billy club to beat down the natural gas industry.  Never mind that, last year, 39.9% of U.S. electricity came from natural gas.

Newt Gingrich:  U.S. Climate Czar John Kerry Is 'Not Mentally Sound'.  John Kerry's call to end all coal-powered electricity generation is "silly" and "self-destructive," writes former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and "makes the United States look delusional."  In his punchy essay, Gingrich insists that it is "not hyperbole or exaggeration" to call John Kerry "crazy," since the word crazy means "marked by thought or action that lacks reason."  Mr. Kerry's failing mental state was on full display during his recent "emotional speech" to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, where he made a plea to "end all coal burning power plant construction in the entire world."

Most Deserving Of A Lump Of Coal.  Climate czar John Kerry, who must have nightmares of everyone's carbon footprint but his own, dreams of outlawing coal-fired power plants across the world.  Doing so is "how you can do something for health," he said from the United Nations 28th global warming cocktail party in oil-rich Abu Dhabi.  Avoiding blackouts and holding down electricity prices are also good for health, but health is not what the warming activists are interested in.  After declaring that "there shouldn't be any more coal power plants permitted anywhere in the world," the White House's climate hector in chief admitted "the reality is that we're not doing it."  How dare India, with a growing population of 1.43 billion, displease the imperious Kerry by asking "private firms to ramp up investments in new coal-fired power plants to meet a dramatic rise in electricity demand and bridge nearly 30 gigawatts of additional requirement by 2030."  How dare the Chinese unleash "a massive coal power expansion" to meet its needs.  It's as if they want to get a small taste of the sweet life Kerry has enjoyed for all of his now nearly 80 years on Earth, the advantages that come only when cheap and plentiful electricity is available at the flip of a switch.  He won't stand for it.

John Kerry Scolds World on Climate: 'Not Everybody Is Doing What They Promised'.  Former Senator John Kerry, climate envoy for thet Biden administration, scolded the world for not making enough sacrifices to fight climate change at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai on Wednesday.  "There's too much business as usual still.  We have got to bring people to the table who are not yet there.  And we will make progress in that," Kerry said.  "Not everybody is doing what they promised to do.  And needless to say, that's a problem and we need to have accountability at this COP, for that lack of follow-through by some," he lectured.  Kerry said the world — by which he presumably means the Western world, since the developing world has made it clear that climate change is purely a Western problem — will "need to step up and help get the job done at a faster rate."

Meet the New Dark Age.  The mystical nature of climate hysteria harkens back to the old Dark Age.  No detailed explanations are ever presented to support the alarm — such as how does CO2 actually trap heat on the Earth's surface, especially when it's only less than 0.05% of what "air" is made of?  Faith in the concept is supposed to be sufficient, and skeptics are verbally pilloried for their deviation from orthodoxy.  Sound familiar?  In a classic gesture of obedient compliance with this orthodoxy, President Biden made John Kerry America's ambassador to the upper atmosphere.  He looks and sounds the part.  He reeks of assumed authority.  And, having mashed potatoes for brains, he'll say whatever his programmers want.  It never makes any sense, but it has the tone of a serious effort.  I just saw him on the PBS version of the BBC.  His remarks were so stupid that I had to cut the feed.  Looking and sounding the part without any actual substance only works in the depths of a serious Dark Age.

The Latest Juicy Nugget in the Biden Bribery Scandal.  The evidence that Hunter Biden was selling influence with his father's full knowledge and participation is already quite substantial. [...] As we know from Archer's testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Burisma's leadership called on Hunter Biden, who was sitting on the Burisma board at the time while earning $1 million a year, to help the company, which was under investigation.  A call to Washington, D.C., was made two days before Joe Biden visited Kyiv, Ukraine, in December 2015 to request that the Obama-Biden administration do what they can to get Shokin fired.  Shokin was ultimately fired due to Biden using a $1 billion loan to Ukraine as leverage, under the pretext that Shokin was not doing enough root out corruption.  However, a Department of Justice memo from shortly before Biden's visit indicated that the position of the Obama-Biden administration was that Ukraine had made sufficient progress implementing anti-corruption reforms and deserved the loan — proving that Joe Biden was acting in his own personal interests, not that of the administration.  So, what did Devon Archer and John Kerry discuss?

An influencer's death foreshadows the left's war on food.  John Kerry is a weasel.  I don't say this because of his political positions.  I say this because when it's pointed out that he owns or has owned five homes, a yacht, a private jet, and multiple very big cars, he always denies it.  Those aren't mine, he self-righteously puffs; they're my wife's.  In addition to being a kept man, Kerry has never made the slightest push to relieve himself of the burden of all this luxury.  Indeed, he believes he's so important that it's only right and just that he benefits from these privileges of wealth.  Why do I mention this?  Because John Kerry has now joined Holland and Ireland in waging a war on farmers:  ["]Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry was blasted on social media over the weekend by critics who accused him of trying to destroy the agriculture industry in order to achieve "net zero" emissions.[..."]  Waging a war on farmers and farming means waging a war on food.  When Sri Lankan pushed its farmers to all-organic farming, people starved, and the government collapsed.  Meanwhile, the Netherlands and Ireland, in obedience to World Economic Forum dictates, are planning to seize farmland to wage an utterly pointless war on CO2, which is the fuel for plant life on our planet. [...] He wants you eating veggies that are uncooked because you won't own a stove.

Kerry Defends Secret Meetings With Iran During Trump Admin.  John Kerry, President Joe Biden's climate envoy, on Thursday defended his decision to conduct backdoor negotiations with Iranian officials during the Trump administration in a bid to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal.  Kerry, who was not in government at the time, held at least three secret meetings with former Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, during which he attempted to undermine the Trump administration's hardline policies towards Tehran.  Kerry defended these powwows under questioning from Rep. Michael Waltz (R., Fla.) during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Thursday.  "Shadow diplomacy," Kerry said, is permissible "depending on what it does.  Shadow diplomacy has also saved us from a war," Kerry said, referring to back-channel discussions that helped diffuse the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.  Kerry's behavior, Waltz said, "undermined current administration diplomacy."

'Climate Czar' John Kerry can't answer a question about his own staff — let alone his private jet.  The former secretary of state and current "climate czar" looked most unhappy yesterday as he appeared before a congressional hearing.  No wonder.  It seems Kerry never expected to actually be questioned about his special role.  Indeed, he seems to have thought that the position given to him by President Biden not only entitled him to year-round perks, but to lifelong immunity from criticism.  Kerry has been in his role since January 2021.  Since that time, his office has said he reports simply and solely to the president.  During his time in office, he has jetted around the world to explain why other people shouldn't use jets.

John Kerry Makes Unbelievable Statement About Private Plane.  [Scroll down]  Then there's this glaring hypocrisy on Thursday from his climate czar John Kerry telling Congress he never "personally" owned a private jet.  [Tweet with video clip]  Yes, it's just his family that owns a jet, as a report explained last year. [...] As my colleague, Scott Hounsell, explained in 2021, Kerry even took the jet to pick up an award for his "leadership" on climate change.

John Kerry compares climate battle to D-Day.  Swift Boat John Kerry, the former Senator who compared US soldiers to Genghis Kahn's genocidal maniacs and threw his medals from the Vietnam War away, today compared climate activists to the troops who stormed the beaches in Normandy.  He is a man whose vacuousness is only matched by his arrogance.  [Tweet]  Kerry has always been a stupid and contemptible man, making it unsurprising that the Democrats chose him as a standard-bearer for their party.  He led the 2004 Democratic Party ticket with an even more despicable John Edwards.  What a pair of sweethearts they were.  Kerry has failed all his life upward, having won the lottery of life by being both born into and marrying wealth.  A member of the extended Forbes family, he married into the Heinz family.  As such he is one of the people in the world who individually contributes most to greenhouse gas emissions.  Still, he is a climate alarmist of the highest order, and as he has often admitted, sees promoting climate extremism as a massive financial opportunity for his class.

Elitist Climate Cultist, John Kerry Calls For The End Of Farming To Achieve Net Zero.  Multi-millionaire climate doomsday preacher, John Kerry, admits that destruction of the farming industry is essential to achieve 'Net Zero':  "Agriculture contributes about 33% of all the emissions of the world.  And we can't get to net zero — we don't get this job done — unless agriculture is front and centre as part of the solution."  [Video clip]

Nobody care about "climate change" if there's no food.
John Kerry says farmers need to stop growing food in order to achieve "net zero" climate goals.  Failed presidential candidate and political fossil John Kerry, a Democrat, is back in the news for ominous comments he recently made about how the only way for leftists to achieve their "net zero" climate goals is for farmers all around the world to stop growing food.  The illegitimate Joe Biden regime's Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, Kerry told an audience at the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) AIM for Climate Summit the other day that "we can't get to net zero, we won't get this job done, unless agriculture is front and center as part of the solution."  According to Kerry, he and other world leaders' "lives depend" on farmers ceasing their operations.  This will lower agriculture "emissions," Kerry added, noting that he does not even call it climate change anymore — "it's not change; it's a crisis."

The Editor says...
John Kerry will always have plenty to eat, and will always live in a massive house with a really good HVAC system.  Whether the climate changes or not, his life will be unaffected.  If you were to ask him specific questions about trace gases in the atmosphere, or about dairy farming, or exactly how carbon dioxide affects polar ice, he probably would either change the subject or make up an answer that would likely be incorrect or deceptive.  He is a political appointee, not a scientist.

Will We Wake Up When We're Hungry?  John Kerry, the man who has almost perfected the art of looking down his nose at the commoners so very far beneath him, told a group of co-elitists at a recent climate summit that, in the words of a Reuters reporter, "cutting greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production is essential to the global fight against climate change."  In Kerry's own words, he claimed "we can't get to net zero, we don't get this job done, unless agriculture is front and center as part of the solution."  The special presidential envoy for climate, a job he is perfectly suited for as it requires no accomplishments, only a membership in a "select group of human beings" and an enormously inflated sense of self, then confused matters by declaring that "a 2-degree future could result in another 600 million people not getting enough to eat." [...] What, then, is their solution for feeding the masses while at the same time lowering greenhouse gas emissions?  Of course — we must reduce food consumption and when eating is absolutely necessary, gobble up some bugs.  The climatistas are focused on a forced austerity.

John Kerry targets agriculture as part of climate crusade.  Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry warned Wednesday that the world can't tackle climate change without first addressing the agriculture sector's emissions.  Kerry lamented that agriculture production alone creates 33% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions, arguing that reducing those emissions must be "front and center" in the quest to defeat global warming, during remarks Wednesday morning at the Department of Agriculture's AIM for Climate Summit.  The former secretary of state also touted so-called climate smart agriculture as a potential solution.

John Kerry 'finds' his Vietnam War medals, pops them onto his suit at the U.K. coronation.  Kerry is famous for tossing his Vietnam war medals over a fence, or at least, saying he did, before he later said it was just his ribbons, and then later still saying [they were] some other guy's medals. [...] Now he's suddenly found them — and found a use for them, wearing them over his suit, the way Soviet apparachiks and third-world dictators do, in order to participate in the British coronation pageantry.  Can you say with Jeff Jacoby 'phony'?  Americans historically are supposed to be plain, simple yeomen who shake hands rather than bow to British kings and who don't put on crowns or recognize titles.  Well, not anymore.  Kerry seems to have wanted a big ermine robe and sash, but the medals would have to do.  First, how [...] did that guy cadge an invitation to this rather exclusive and prestigious event?  He's hardly an important person from the U.S., serving as Joe Biden's global warming czar and basically flying to conferences on a trail of private jet exhaust fuel, and focusing on buffet tables.

Viewers Noticed Something Strange About John Kerry at King Charles' Coronation.  Amid the fanfare of King Charles' coronation over the weekend, it was easy to miss President Biden's climate czar John Kerry — who flew to the U.K. without regard for the emissions his travel necessitated — sitting in attendance at the official ceremony.  There were some, however, who did pick Kerry out in the crowd and noted something interesting about his appearance.  Dressed in a suit, the former Secretary of State was weighed down with service medals from the United States military...the medals he previously was publicly proud to discard as a show of his allegedly strongly held convictions.  [Tweet]  You see, back in 1971, a much-younger John Kerry told WRC-TV on November 6, 1971, that he "gave back" the medals he earned with his service in Vietnam.  He, along with other anti-war veterans who discarded their honors, Kerry said at the time, "decided to give them back to their country."

'Climate Czar' John Kerry Is Negotiating With the CCP, James Comer Threatens Subpoena to Find out Why.  One-time presidential candidate and former Secretary of State John Kerry wasn't elected to his current position as Special Presidential Envoy for Climate — nor was he confirmed by Congress for the cabinet-level role.  In fact, President Joe Biden created simply created the title and appointed Kerry to fill it, which conveniently does not require congressional approval.  But the unelected, unconfirmed "Climate Czar" has been holding private meetings with his Chinese counterparts, and House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer (R-KY) wants to know why.  In February, Comer served notice that his committee would investigate the matter, and on Friday he doubled down, saying the committee was going to subject Kerry and his activities to "intense scrutiny": [...] Comer also sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken requesting all documents and information related to the activities and budget of the SPEC and said he expects "full cooperation" from the State Department.  Fox Digital opines that it's not even clear that Blinken has authority over Kerry, adding that they have obtained department emails that suggest that Kerry is "on the same level" as the congressionally-confirmed Blinken.

Kerry: Green Energy Will Be More Competitive if We Raise Prices of Oil, Gas.  On Friday's broadcast of MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports," Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry stated that wind and solar power will become "far more price competitive than oil and gas" if oil and gas companies see their costs rise because they "have to spend huge amounts of money for carbon capture and storage and utilization."  Kerry said, "I would say to you, Andrea, that, frankly, I'm surprised, pleasantly, on the positive side, by the amount of things that are just taking hold.  We see remarkable progress on batteries and battery storage.  We're seeing the price of wind and solar coming down still, even as the technology is getting better, and it's going to be far more price competitive than oil and gas if they have to spend huge amounts of money for carbon capture and storage and utilization.  We don't know the answer to some of those questions now. [...]"

Biden's climate czar John Kerry claims climate change policies [are] not driven by 'ideology'.  On Friday, Biden's climate czar, John Kerry spoke to MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell and said that the president's climate change policies were not driven by "ideology" but that "Mother Nature" was screaming at human beings about the climate.  "We need to learn the lessons that Mother Nature is teaching us and screaming at us about," Kerry said.  "This is about math, mathematics and science, about physics.  There's no politics, no ideology, no liberal conservative, no Democrat or Republican.  This is about facts, scientific facts that dictate that if we don't respond in the way the science has called on us to, we will pay even more for damages."

Climate Czar Kerry Boasts There's 'No Rolling Back' Clean Energy Transition.  U.S. climate czar John Kerry claimed in an interview on Sunday [4/16/2023] that "so much has been invested in clean energy that there can be no rolling back of moves to end carbon emissions," according to an interview with the Associated Press.  Kerry claimed that if countries phase out petroleum-based fuels, the world can purportedly limit average global warming to 1.7 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

The Editor says...
Here are a few questions that no reporter will ask John Kerry:  [#1] You want to limit average global warming to 2.7 degrees above what?  What is the starting point for this arbitrary 2.7° increase?  On what date long ago was the temperature just right, Goldilocks?  [#2] Why are you focused on "petroleum-based fuels," when China is burning coal like there's no tomorrow?  [#3] If you are opposed to "petroleum-based fuels," please tell me about the fuel in your private jet.  Does somebody pick you up at the airport in an electric limousine?  [#4] Why do you say "carbon emissions," when you are talking about carbon dioxide?  Is your target audience too dumb to understand what "dioxide" means?  Can you prove that carbon dioxide is harmful to anyone?

Here's a news bulletin for John Kerry:  China couldn't care less about climate change.
Kerry Threatens More Biden Executive Orders, Thinks China-Russia Will Help Combat Climate Change.  Turns out Joe Biden's climate czar is deeply concerned about our imminent death from climate change, but don't worry, he has a plan to save us all — we'll just get the Chinese, Russians, and Indians to work with us: [...] It's hard for me to believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin wakes up wondering if he's not helping the U.S. reach "the goals we've set."  Actually, I'm guessing he doesn't give a whit, and if anything takes pleasure in defying us.  Meanwhile, China and its leader Xi Jinping may say the right things about climate change at international conferences, but their main goal is to build more coal-fired power plants, which they continue to do at a prodigious rate.

John Kerry Says More Climate Mandates Coming From Biden Regime.  Joe Biden's Climate Envoy John Kerry sat down for an interview with Yahoo News Senior Climate Editor Ben Adler to discuss climate change.  The interviewer began by admitting Biden's so-called 'Inflation Reduction Act' is actually a Marxist 'Climate Change' bill.  Ben Adler asked John Kerry if the Biden Regime will be taking more aggressive climate action in addition to what is already in the 'Inflation Reduction Act.'  "We are doing a lot more than just the IRA.  The IRA is a package that in and of itself could get to 40% but in addition to that, the president is issuing executive orders, there will be changes on automobile, on light truck, heavy truck... a number of initiatives are being made," John Kerry said before he trashed Trump.

Banks Facing Reality Ditch the Climate Foolishness!.  As I noted yesterday, John Kerry wants to use the climate change narrative as leverage to bring banks into his elitist campaign for control — of us.  He wants a world of only big banks merged with government who can utilize digital currency as the vehicle for a CCP type social credit system.  But, Kerry is not a particularly smart fellow.  He just uses his NPR type voice to make it seem so.  Reality, though, has suddenly slammed into his agenda and big banks are backing away.

John Kerry Condemns Fossil Fuels That "Heat Our Homes" and "Propel Our Vehicles".  John Kerry condemned fossil fuels during remarks at the 2023 Our Ocean Conference in Panama.  Biden's so-called Climate Envoy John Kerry traveled all the way to Brazil and Panama this week to lecture on the virtues of making sacrifices to stop climate change.  John Kerry said we are facing a climate change crisis because of "how we live" and the choices we make on a daily basis.  "That crisis is caused by unabated emissions from fossil fuels that burn so that we can propel our vehicles, heat our homes, light our businesses," John Kerry said.

China barrels ahead on coal plant construction.  Joe Biden's greenie czar, John Kerry, has been looking like a boob lately, jetting around the world in a plume of greenhouse gas emissions, and talking up China as America's partner in making the climate green. [...] Coal is king in China and to the Chinese, John Kerry is just another Western green idiot to pat on the head as the real business of state powers onward.  They had a good time playing him with his greenie games, however.  Just this past year, Kerry was touting China as a partner in the quest to go green, and China played along with the farce to perfection.

John Kerry's Taxpayer-Funded Fight Against the 'Climate Crisis' Takes Him to Five-Star Island Resort.  John Kerry's fight against the "climate crisis" has taken the jet-setting Biden administration official to yet another luxurious location:  a five-star island resort in the Bahamas.  Kerry, who has served as President Joe Biden's climate czar since January 2021, is on the Caribbean island for three days this week to "advance international cooperation among nations particularly vulnerable to the climate crisis," the State Department announced Monday.  Included in his itinerary was an opulent opening ceremony held at Atlantis Paradise Island, a lush five-star resort that boasts 14 swimming pools, 14 lagoons, dozens of luxury restaurants, a yacht marina, a private golf course, a world-class casino with more than 700 slot machines, at least 3 nightclubs, and a movie theater.  Bahamian prime minister Philip Davis during a Wednesday night speech thanked Kerry for attending the ceremony, a line that was met with muffled applause.

Is John Kerry negotiating treaties on his own?
House Oversight Committee Demands John Kerry Turn Over CCP Climate-Negotiation Documents.  The House Oversight Committee on Thursday [2/2/2023] demanded that Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) John Kerry release documents pertaining to his negotiations with the Chinese Communist Party.  In a letter obtained by National Review, committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) accuses Kerry of using his SPEC role — a cabinet-level position that was created by President Biden and does not require Senate confirmation — to engage "in activities that could undermine our economic health, skirt congressional authority, and threaten foreign policy under the guise of climate advocacy."  The Thursday letter represents the second such request for documents related to Kerry's climate negotiations with America's chief geopolitical rival; it was sent after Kerry ignored an initial request sent by Comer during the last Congress, according to Comer's office.

At Davos, the Rev. John Kerry Signals His Place Among the Elect.  In my 2015 book, Scarlet Letters, I spoke of the emergence of a Neo-Puritan movement in America.  But not until Biden "climate envoy" John Kerry began pontificating at Davos did any prominent member of the Neo-Puritan elect speak specifically to the cult's existence. [...] With that doomsday approaching, Kerry felt emboldened among friends at Davos to announce his personal proximity to the gates of heaven.  "I mean, it's so almost extraterrestrial to think about saving the planet." said Kerry. "If you say that to most people, most people think you're just a crazy, tree-hugging, lefty liberal, you know, do-gooder, or whatever, and there's no relationship.  But really, that's where we are."  The next step is for him and Al and Greta and Klaus to don their matching dark clothes and Nike sneakers, leave their bodily "containers" behind, and enter an extraterrestrial spacecraft hidden behind the Hale-Bopp comet.  Really, that's where we are.

Insanity On Display?  John Kerry, former senator, former secretary of state, and now chief climate alarmist for the Biden administration, said in so many words Tuesday during his World Economic Forum rant that it's too late to save the planet from global warming.  Yet he claimed climate programs still need more "money, money, money, money, money, money, money." The only reason he's not the worst person in the world is because he has so much competition at Davos.  What Kerry actually said was that he is "not convinced we're going to get there in time to do what the scientists said, which is avoid the worst consequences of the crisis," meaning that he doubts that the global temperature will stay under the cap of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial temperature set by scientists (though it is actually a random figure with no scientific support). [...] With absolutely zero self-awareness, the man who flies in private jets, has multiple homes (which most of us would consider mansions) and more cars than most families, and up until a few years ago owned a yacht, preached about "the way we live," and thundered against "the incredible sort of destructive process of growth the way we interpret it."

Climate Lunatic John Kerry Offers His Most Ridiculous Take Yet.  Every time I run across a story about climate alarmist bilge from John Kerry, the first "United States special presidential envoy for climate," I think back to Al "Polar Ice" Gore and how loony we thought he was.  Listen, John Kerry makes Al Gore look like a piker without breaking a global-warming-induced sweat.

John Kerry Pontificates About a "Select Group of Humans" at the World Economic Forum.  During a sidebar conversation with those rare elites who wax philosophically about their magnanimous ability to protect the vulgarian eaters, former Secretary of State and current Climate Czar John Kerry, praises the audience for their unique traits and gifted high-mindedness that will protect all humanity.  While the lizard tongue darts, the grand pontifications are espoused.  The audience oohs and ahhs, at the nature of their entitled superiority.  They are so good, so magnanimous, so altruistic in their disposition, according to Kerry they are literally "extraterrestrial," which is to say out of this world.  [Video clip]

Biden 'green czar' John Kerry's jet unleashes tons of CO2.  Looks like John Kerry's efforts at making the world a greener place on behalf of President Biden come with a big environmental price tag.  Biden's special envoy for climate has used his family's private jet to travel the globe in pursuit of pushing a green agenda — while the plane has emitted more than 300 metric tons of carbon dioxide since he assumed the post, according to a new report.  The jet, a Gulfstream GIV-SP, has made 48 trips lasting more than 60 hours and released an estimated 715,886 pounds — or 325 metric tons — of carbon dioxide since Biden entered the White House in January 2021, Fox News reported, citing data its obtained through flight-tracker FlightAware.  The jet belongs to a charter company, Flying Squirrel LLC, which is owned by Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz-Kerry.

John Kerry:  We Don't Need to Drill More for Oil and Gas.  John Kerry, who is the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, stated at a recent event at the University of Southern California that the country does not need to put more effort into drilling for oil and gas as energy costs continue to rise.  The most obvious sign of the increase in energy costs has been at gas stations, where the national average now stands at $5.01 per gallon, but utility bills are also expected to increase this summer.  Republicans in Congress have called for more domestic production to increase the supply of oil in order to reduce the cost.

Proof Former Obama Admin Officials Committed Treason Under Trump.  It's impossible to say that I'm shocked by the latest bombshell courtesy of the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ).  According to a memo obtained by ACLJ via a FOIA lawsuit, several Obama administration officials held secret meetings with Iran during Trump's presidency.  [Tweet]  Former Obama Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to undermine Trump by negotiating with Iran as Trump was working towards pulling out of the nuclear deal have been known for years.  But the memo obtained by the ALCJ is from October 2018, titled "Notes From 'Iran and the US: An Off-the-Record Conversation with Foreign Minister Mohamad Javad Zarif" has never been seen before now, and shows that Kerry wasn't the one working to undermine Trump.

Biden's climate envoy Kerry gives natural gas a 10-year expiration date.  President Biden's climate envoy, John Kerry, says he's putting the natural gas industry "on notice," suggesting it has a decade at most to solve for the emissions that are driving Earth's temperature dangerously higher.  Kerry, speaking with Bloomberg Television on Thursday, left open the possibility that the industry exists as is, although with the capability to fully capture emissions, including carbon dioxide and the shorter-lasting, but more-potent, methane emissions.  But he made clear in the interview that time is running out.  "If you can capture the emissions — literally, genuinely — then you're reducing the problem," said Kerry, who is Biden's lead abroad on climate-change matters, including on related trade issues.

The Editor says...
[#1] People like John Kerry have been warning that we only have a few years to "solve" global warming... for at least the last fifty years.  [#2] The emissions resulting from the combustion of natural gas and other hydrocarbons are not "driving Earth's temperature dangerously higher."  They're not driving global temperatures higher by any perceptible amount.  In other words, if there is a difference, you can't feel it.  If natural gas (or gasoline or coal) is outlawed, you'll definitely feel that.

John Kerry Pushes Green Energy, Says Putin Cannot Exploit Wind, Sun.  Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry on Wednesday [4/13/2022] pushed renewable offshore energy, claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot manipulate the wind and sun.  "Now is the time to accelerate the transition to an independent and a clean energy future.  President Putin cannot control the power of the wind or the sun," Kerry said at the Our Oceans conference in the pacific island of Palau, according to Reuters.  Kerry, a global-warming activist who flies gas-guzzling jets, said Putin's invasion of Ukraine is just one more reason the island nation should substitute fossil fuels with more expensive green energy.

The Editor says...
Mr. Kerry should figure out how to use Zoom, instead of flying his jet to Palau for a conference with other do-nothing bureaucrats.

How Much Are Taxpayers Paying Climate Czar John Kerry?  He Won't Say.  John Kerry, President Joe Biden's White House climate czar, flies around the globe in a gas-guzzling jet warning refugees that the worst is yet to come if the world does not stop emitting carbon dioxide into the air.  It is unclear how much he is paid or who is on his office's staff — which is odd, because the United States taxpayer is footing the bill for his travel and salary.  After the Boston Herald was told by the government to submit a Freedom of Information Act request to find out that information, Alaska Republican Senator Dan Sullivan is demanding answers.  On Thursday, Boston radio legend Howie Carr interviewed Sullivan on his daily radio show.  Carr informed the senator that Kerry's office told the Herald — where Carr also writes a column — that they would have to submit a FOIA request and could expect to hear back by 2024 to find out how much money Kerry is taking in from government coffers.  "What? ... That should be public.  My salary is online," Sullivan responded.  "The Secretary of State's is online, and the president is, too."

The Rhetorical Gymnastics of Climate Change.  Common-sense environmental economist, Bjorn Lomborg, points to the fact that recent increases in CO2 have caused the earth's biomass to expand and become significantly greener.  Lomborg argues that the whole global warming argument utterly fails to account for three important human factors.  First, Lomborg presents statistics that cold kills more people world-wide than heat.  Each year, more than 100,000 people die from cold in the U.S. and 13,000 in Canada alone — which is more than 40 cold deaths for every heat death.  Second, human ingenuity and resilience to global warming is never factored into academic or political-based models or the discourse of climate alarmists.  This is because federal government funding only gives grants which bolster their global climate warming agenda.  Finally, the bevy of high-minded commitments made in Paris to reduce global emissions by less than 28%, would reduce the Earth's temperature increase by less than 0.17 degrees Celsius by 2100.  Such evidence negates the figure of 1.5 degrees people like John Kerry allege is needed to avoid Armageddon... while flying around the world in his private jet.

Awash In a Sea of Stupid.  [Example #3] John F. Kerry Fights Climate Change:  This gassy fop is always a fit target for ridicule, but in recent days he's outdoing himself.  Inflation in the U.S. is at a forty year high.  Gas prices, supply chain problems, food shortages (which will only increase as fertilizer shortages and higher transport costs increase the cost of production and shipment), and housing costs are bankrupting whatever is left of a middle class already devastated by the ill-considered COVID lockdowns.  He's still fixated on the ludicrous international griftarama disguised as a means to fight "climate change."  Kerry took a beating about a week ago on social media for saying he hoped Putin would stay on the climate change bandwagon after invading Ukraine.  This week, he told the UN meeting on "Climate Finance for Sustaining Peace and Security" that the U.S. taxpayer would fork over $10 billion dollars a year for a decade to the UN to redistribute our wealth to poorer countries.

John Kerry Promises U.N. $10 Billion in U.S. Taxpayer Dollars Annually for 'Climate Crisis'.  Climate czar John Kerry told an informal U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday that President Joe Biden is committed to increasing U.S. funding to developing countries by upwards of $10 billion annually to help combat the "climate crisis."  Kerry told the meeting on "Climate Finance for Sustaining Peace and Security" U.S. taxpayer dollars will be forthcoming and placed at the disposal of the globalist body to help redistribute wealth in a time of crisis to poorer countries that need it most.

The Editor says...
[#1] No "combat" is necessary, for indeed there is no climate crisis.  [#2] Where did either Kerry or Biden get the authority to give an extra $10 billion to the U.N. — every year?

John Kerry: Putin's Useful Climate Idiot.  In a BBC World Service interview, presidential climate envoy John Kerry expressed concern about the amount of greenhouse gas being emitted from the war in Ukraine.  Kerry was just getting warmed up with a string of platitudes that show him as a deluded climate relic, unable to come to terms with the reality that Putin has imposed on the world.  "Equally importantly," Kerry complained, "you're going to lose people's focus," as if the first invasion of a sovereign European country since World War II is an annoying distraction.  We can hope, Kerry continued, Putin would realize that Russia's land is thawing, and the people of Russia are at risk.  Kerry concluded with an expression of pure self-deception, saying he hopes Putin "will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate."  Stay on track?  Russia has never hidden its intention to avoid cutting its emissions.

We Are Not a Serious Country — Part Four.  Almost-president and former Obama administration Secretary of State John Kerry remains in the employ of the United States as a special envoy of the Biden administration.  How special can you get?  MEMRI tweeted out the video below in which Kerry applies his perspective to Russia's rape of Ukraine earlier this week.  [Video clip]

Kerry: I sure hope Putin remains a partner for climate change.  Russian troops have invaded Ukraine from three directions in an all-out war.  Ukrainians have had to rush into full civilian mobilization in an attempt to survive it.  At stake is the post-Soviet world order that provided for at least some semblance of diplomatic engagement over use of arms between major powers.  Those life-and-death issues aren't the big priority, at least not to former Secretary of State John Kerry.  This morning, he expressed hope on BBC Arabic that Putin will remain a partner with the West on ... climate change.

John Kerry's gas-guzzling family jet has taken 16 trips this year alone.  The gas-guzzling private jet owned by climate czar John Kerry's family has already taken 16 flights this year alone, online records show.  Flight Aware data indicates the most recent flight on Kerry's family jet was on Wednesday when it traveled from Idaho's Friedman Memorial Airport to Boston.  Trips were also made earlier this week between Idaho and California.  Kerry and his wife Teresa have vacationed in Idaho's Sun Valley for decades, local media reports say.  Earlier records, obtained by Fox News, also show the jet has flown multiple times within Massachusetts since January, including to Martha's Vineyard and Boston.  Two trips were between Massachusetts and New Jersey.

John Kerry says US 'won't have coal' by 2030.  President Joe Biden's climate envoy John Kerry said the United States won't have coal plants by 2030.  "By 2030 in the United States, we won't have coal," Kerry said Tuesday [11/9/2021] during an interview with Bloomberg at the United Nations's COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.  "We will not have coal plants."  The U.S., the world's largest economy, generates nearly 25% of its electricity from coal despite the rapid retirements of coal plants in recent years that have struggled to compete with cheaper and cleaner natural gas and renewable energy.  Kerry's comment is among the most explicit to-date of a Biden official making clear that the administration sees no role for coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, in the future power grid.  The U.S. refused to join a pledge among more than 20 countries agreed to this week at COP26 to phase out coal use at home.

U.N. Climate Summit:  A Meaningless Meeting Of Useless People.  Later this month, private- and public-sector "leaders" will meet in Glasgow, Scotland.  Nearly all will fly to the conference, many in private jets.  And what will they talk about?  Saving the climate from greenhouse gas emissions, of course.  The United Nations Conference of Parties on climate change, the 26th version of this long-running clown show, starts Oct. 31 and will run through Nov. 12.  Media coverage will be both intense and obsequious; attendees, especially the ever-smug John Kerry, "special" climate envoy to the president, will speak in somber tones due to the seriousness at hand; warnings of impending doom will be issued; and absolutely nothing will be accomplished.  This is because there's nothing to accomplish.  Despite the incessant screeching demands that we must save our planet by severely cutting our greenhouse gas emissions, it's obvious that man's impact on the climate is not creating an existential crisis.

Does China Really Believe in 'Climate Change'?  China told Biden climate czar John Kerry that it would march to its own drummer on the issue of global warming.  The South China Morning Post wrote that "Beijing has rebuffed American calls to make more public pledges on climate change before a UN climate summit in November, insisting it should follow its own plan rather than bowing to US pressure, according to a person familiar with the two countries' negotiations."  Without China's subscription to the model endorsed by the Paris accord, Biden's "climate change" program is effectively dead on arrival.  "China is the world's largest [carbon {dioxide}] emitter, accounting for 27 percent of global emissions."  Beijing effectively wields unilateral veto power over the targets set by climate science should it ignore its mandates or pursue unrelated or separate goals.

John Kerry's Heinz ketchup heiress wife has millions of dollars in Chinese investments, leaving Biden's climate change envoy facing an ethical dilemma.  Joe Biden's climate change envoy and former secretary of state John Kerry disclosed millions of dollars in Chinese investments held by his wife's family trust, government documents show.  Kerry's latest filing with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) in March shows his wife benefits from an investment of 'at least $1 million' in a hedge fund that specializes in private partnerships and investments with Chinese government-controlled funds.  In his senior government role Kerry regularly meets with Chinese diplomats and leaders, and is in the delicate position of negotiating with the industrial superpower to cut deals on reducing carbon emissions.

John Kerry's family jet emitted around 30 times more carbon [dioxide] than [the] average American does all year.  Vocal climate change theory proponent John Kerry seems to be struggling to practice what he preaches.  Fox News conducted a review of the flight data for Kerry's family jet, compared against an industrial emissions calculator, and discovered that the former secretary of state's personal jet setting has produced roughly 138 metric tons of carbon pollution between January 10th and August 6th.  Ironically, Kerry is President Joe Biden's "climate envoy" and has recently been quite vocal about the need for "climate action" at the United Nations.  As part of that role and plenty outside of that role, he has taken over 20 trips, totaling more than 26 hours in the air.  One might see the necessity of this for transoceanic flights, yet many of those were within Massachusetts, including minor jaunts between Martha's Vineyard and Boston International Airport.  One trip involved his private jet — to Obama's birthday party (itself a lightning rod of criticism for COVID standards of elitism and hypocrisy.)

The Editor says...
Carbon dioxide is not carbon, nor is it a pollutant.  John Kerry can burn all the jet fuel he likes, but while he does, he is in no position to tell us to cut back on energy consumption.

It's Beginning to Look Like Enemy Action.  In 2015, the Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC) acquired Henniges Automotive.  This acquisition is significant because Henneges Automotive provides stealth technology for the F-35 program.  AVIC's U.S. partners in this acquisition were none other than Hunter Biden and Chris Heinz.  The acquisition was approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Secretary of State John Kerry was a member of the CFIUS during this decision.  He is also the stepfather of — surprise, surprise — Chris Heinz!  Dong provided details of how China was able to acquire stealth technology after the U.S. approved its purchase of Henniges Automotive.

Our Increasingly Unrecognizable Civilization.  [Scroll down]  John Kerry gave a commencement address a couple of years ago in which he told the students, "You are going to be the first generation to live in a borderless world."  And for the elite, the idea of a borderless world rings true.  A typical member of the ruling class will get a job with a firm like Goldman Sachs, work for a couple of years in Hong Kong, then move on for a couple of years in Geneva, and then maybe come back to America.  What are borders to such a person?  Meanwhile, for the common American, COVID has literally ended, to a large degree, any freedom of movement.  They live in the farthest thing from a borderless world.  Oftentimes they're trapped in a town that is dying because of the open-border, cheap-labor policies advocated by people like John Kerry.

What Trump Meant to Millions.  Now it appears that John Kerry, a key figure in both the Obama and Biden administrations, passed sensitive information regarding Israel's military to Iran and may have attempted to undermine Trump's foreign policy in the Middle East.  Kerry and Biden have now revoked much of that policy, and the result is a dangerous unravelling of Middle East peace.  Again, the American people are disgusted with what they see, but the administration and the liberal media remain silent as if the people are underserving of an answer.  The idea that one can rule by fiat while rigging elections and coordinating with a complicit media constitutes an astounding assault on American democracy.  The corruption is so vast as to take one's breath away.

GOP Rep.: What was Kerry doing on 'taxpayer-funded world tour?'.  A member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs is demanding the Biden administration shed some light on special envoy John Kerry's meetings with his Chinese counterpart, the State Department staff of 45 he maintains and his "taxpayer funded world climate tour."  In a letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) questioned Kerry's April meeting with China, arguing that the communist country has proven itself to be adversarial and took aim at President Biden's green czar for his recent comments that China's human rights abuses should not interfere with a climate deal.  "I write to express my concern with Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) John Kerry's taxpayer funded world climate tour, and, especially, his latest meeting with China's climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua," Burchett wrote.

Report: Iranian Foreign Minister Said He Had No Knowledge of Israeli Airstrikes Until Kerry Tipped Him Off.  Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif claimed he did not know that Israel was behind 200 military airstrikes in Iran until secretary of state John Kerry tipped him off, a new translation of a leaked audiotape reveals.  The New York Times buried the revelation of Kerry's treasonous behavior deep in a story about the leaked audiotape last week.  Kerry is now the Biden administration's United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.  Amid calls for him to resign or be fired, the corporate media and State Department officials stepped up to the plate to defend Kerry, saying Zarif had already heard about Israel's actions from the media before Kerry blabbed about it.  At the same time, Kerry claimed (unconvincingly) that none of it was true.  [Tweet]  On Thursday, the Washington Free Beacon released the results of their independent translation of the audiotape.  The translation shows that Zarif indicated that he had no prior knowledge of the Israeli airstrikes before Kerry told him.

A Leopard Can't Change Its Spots, and a Skunk Can't Change Its Smell.  With the recent revelations that John Kerry has for years been in bed with the terrorist regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, it[']s long past time for [...] an independent and complete investigation into Obama's former Secretary of State — and now the current Climate Czar of the new Biden (Obama) Administration, and his activities during the Trump Administration. [...] Kerry has been in politics for decades now, even running for president against George W. Bush in 2004, which tells you a lot about the Democrat Party.  He lost that race for president partly due to the fact that many former military veterans of Vietnam came out against him.  The 'Swift Boaters' forcefully spoke out against Kerry and his anti-war activities, and likely contributed to Kerry being rejected by American voters.  During his time as Secretary of State under Barack Obama I found it amazing that they could both occupy the same space inside the Oval Office together, considering the size of their swelled heads.  Kerry's ego and high opinion of himself is only matched by that of Barack Obama.  And both Obama and Kerry's disdain for America is patently obvious.

Maybe John Kerry really did share intel on Israel with Iran.  [Scroll down]  While we here at American Thinker are not particularly impressed with Kerry's history of veracity, in the face of that unequivocal denial, we opted to wait and see if the report had more legs than Kerry's statement.  Democrats rushed to back Kerry up, claiming that anything Kerry said was already public knowledge, a narrative the State Department has promoted — and it is true that, on September 2018, the IDF publicly announced that, since 2017, it had hit over 200 Iranian targets in Syria.  On Friday, though, more information emerged suggesting that John Kerry reported this information to Zarif — foreign minister to a regime that openly states its desire to destroy America and Israel — before it was public knowledge.  This doesn't mean that the newest information is true or that we're properly understanding it, but the mere fact that there's pushback against Kerry's denial is itself newsworthy.  The new information clarified that Zarif was not surprised that Kerry wanted to discuss publicly available information about Israel.  Zarif was surprised because Kerry's statements were the first he'd heard about the Israeli strikes.

John Kerry Invested In Oil And Gas Stocks Before Joining White House, Filings Show.  Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry owned shares of multiple oil and gas corporations prior to joining the White House, ethics filings show.  John Kerry previously invested in Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation, Duke Energy, Cimarex, Dominion Energy, Xcel Energy, Exelon Corporation, Valero Energy Corporation and WEC Energy Group, according to Office of Government Ethics filings obtained by Axios.  Kerry sold off his entire stock portfolio, which was worth between $4.2 and $15 million, prior to joining President Joe Biden's administration.  The Texas-based Valero Energy Corporation was recently ranked the fifth-worst emitter of greenhouse gasses despite having just 14 facilities, the San Antonio Current reported in December.  The company was ordered to pay $2.85 million in a civil penalty in October for Clean Air Act violations, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Fourteen Most Troubling Obama And Kerry Lies About The JCPOA Iran Nuke Deal.  Joe Biden and his foreign policy team are negotiating with Iran, trying to get the U.S. back into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ("JCPOA") Iran nuclear deal.  Many support this objective, not realizing that the JCPOA allows Iran to build nuclear weapons in the near future, and place the United States, the Sunni Gulf States, and Israel in grave danger.  The support for returning to the JCPOA stems from naïvité.  Much of Obama and Kerry told America about the JCPOA was not true.  Most of the MSM covered up the lies back then and are still not reporting the truth about the deal.

ABC, CBS, NBC, and MSNBC all ignore New York Times report on Kerry allegedly leaking Israeli intel to Iran.  Many major news outlets ignored a bombshell New York Times report that presidential envoy for climate John Kerry shared intelligence with Iran about covert Israeli military operations.  ABC, CBS, NBC, and 24-hour news network MSNBC dedicated zero coverage on their morning and evening news programs to the Sunday New York Times report, according to Fox News.  CNN addressed the report just twice on Tuesday [4/27/2021], once in the morning and briefly during Jake Tapper's interview with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Don't Believe John Kerry's Denials, All the Evidence Says He Betrayed the United States to Iran.  On Sunday, the New York Times committed a rogue act of journalism.  It reported on an obvious violation of the Espionage Act by Joe Biden's Special "Presidential" Envoy for Climate, former Secretary of State, former Democrat presidential candidate, former senator, and perennial douchebag John F. (Mr. Teresa Heinz) Kerry. [...] The shocker in the story is that John Kerry gave highly classified information to Zarif.  Former Secretary of State John Kerry informed him that Israel had attacked Iranian interests in Syria at least 200 times, to his astonishment, Mr. Zarif said.  Both Kerry and the State Department spokescritter Ned Price have denied it.

Pompeo Pushes Investigation Into Kerry for Leaking Secrets to Iran.  Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Republican foreign policy leaders in Congress are demanding a formal investigation into John Kerry following revelations he informed Iranian leaders about covert Israeli military operations.  A leaked audio recording of Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, who worked closely with Kerry when the 2015 nuclear accord was negotiated, catches the Iranian official claiming the former Obama administration secretary of state informed him about at least 200 Israeli strikes on Iranian military positions in Syria.  That Kerry shared these intimate details "to his astonishment," according to the New York Times, suggests Kerry may have been disclosing classified information.  It would also represent a stunning betrayal of America's closest Middle East ally.  Israel relies on the United States to protect shared intelligence from its top regional enemy.

John Kerry Has Made A Career Of Violating Logan Act.  According to the NY Times, in 2018, while Donald Trump was president, former secretary of state John Kerry told Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif about over 200 covert Israeli attacks on Iranian interests in Syria.  The report comes from a leaked tape recording of comments Zarif made to an Iranian journalist last month obtained by the New York Times.  Based on John Kerry's history of violating the Logan Act, the NY Times report is not surprising.

John Kerry Is a Treasonous Idiot Who Needs to Be Perp-Walked.  We all knew that the Harris-Biden-Fauci administration was going to be an un-American nightmare.  As we have discussed here on more than one occasion, we really didn't expect it to be this bad.  When Grandpa Gropes began putting his team together he went Beltway old school and recycled people from the Obama hell years.  A bunch of left-wing bureaucrats who should have been put out to pasture were brought back and given positions of power to further the Democrats' lust for ruining the Republic.  The worst of the Harris-Biden-Fauci administration is John Kerry.  Kerry is a paste-eater who is proof that one doesn't need a lot of intellectual firepower to rise to the top of Democratic politics.  Barack Obama made this idiot secretary of state.  That's right, the world's ugliest trophy wife was trotted out to represent the United States to other countries.  Kerry's only real accomplishment was marrying two really wealthy women.

John Kerry Should Resign — Or Be Fired.  The headline at Fox News could not be plainer.  It reads:
    Iran's foreign minister says John Kerry told him about Israeli covert operations in Syria
    Kerry has previously been accused of colluding with Iranian leaders to undermine Trump administration
[...] Recall the Democrats and media making a "scandal" out of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the incoming national security adviser to then-President-elect Trump, speaking with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak?  The cry went up that Flynn had violated the Logan Act, the late 1700s-era law that criminalizes negotiations of unauthorized Americans involving themselves in government business with foreign governments.

Buried Bombshell:  Kerry Tipped off Iran About Covert Israeli Operations in Syria.  During the Obama years, former Secretary of State John Kerry informed Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that Israel, a United States ally, had attacked Iranian interests in Syria at least 200 times, according to leaked audio obtained by the New York Times.  During the Trump years, Kerry repeatedly held unauthorized meetings with the Iranians to undermine the Trump administration's plans to end the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal.  In May of 2018, Kerry sat down with Zarif in Paris to discuss ways of preserving the Obama administration's "crowning diplomatic achievement."  It was the second time in about two months that the two had met to strategize over ways to salvage an agreement Trump planned to scuttle.  Although there were calls at the time for Kerry to be investigated for potential crimes, nothing was ever done about it.

Iran's foreign minister says John Kerry told him about Israeli covert operations in Syria.  Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif claimed in recently leaked audio that John Kerry, when he was serving as Secretary of State during the Obama administration, informed him of more than 200 Israeli operations in Syria.  Kerry has previously been accused of colluding with Iranian leaders to undermine the Trump administration.  Kerry is now a part of the Biden administration and has a seat on the National Security Council as the special presidential envoy for climate.  Kerry shocked Zarif by revealing that Israel had attacked Iranian targets in Syria more than 200 times, according to leaked audio obtained by The New York Times and other outlets.  Zarif also spoke frankly about his limited power compared to Ayatollah Ali Khameini and the blow the U.S. dealt to Iran by killing Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January 2020.

John Kerry faces calls to resign over allegations of leaking Israeli intel to Iran.  The Biden administration is refusing to weigh in on the Iranian foreign minister claiming in a leaked recording that former Secretary of State and current Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry told him about secret Israeli operations being carried out in Syria.  In response, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) called on Kerry to resign during a speech on the Senate floor.  "It's become clear... that our adversaries, whether Beijing or Iran, like it when John Kerry is in charge of foreign policy and national security.  Why?  Because they know how to use him to their advantage," Sullivan said.

Iran's foreign minister says John Kerry told him about Israeli covert operations in Syria.  Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif claimed in recently leaked audio that John Kerry, when he was serving as Secretary of State during the Obama administration, informed him of more than 200 Israeli operations in Syria.  Kerry has previously been accused of colluding with Iranian leaders to undermine the Trump administration.  Kerry is now a part of the Biden administration and has a seat on the National Security Council as the special presidential envoy for climate.  Kerry shocked Zarif by revealing that Israel had attacked Iranian targets in Syria more than 200 times, according to leaked audio obtained by The New York Times and other outlets.

Iranian foreign minister:  Kerry informed us of hundreds of Israeli covert actions.  Talk about burying the lede.  The New York Times got information that a high-ranking official in the Obama administration tipped off Iran to Israel's covert actions, and that news ended up in paragraph 21 ... in a 26-paragraph story.  A leaked audio recording of Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reveals that John Kerry revealed that information to Tehran, presumably during the negotiations for the deal with Iran over its nuclear-weapons development.

John Kerry Implies Net-Zero Emissions Goal Not Good Enough, Says We Need To 'Get Carbon Dioxide Out Of The Atmosphere'.  At the virtual Leaders' Climate Summit on Thursday, climate czar John Kerry made the claim that even if a goal of net-zero emissions is achieved, carbon dioxide will still need to be removed from the atmosphere.  Kerry spoke through a screen as the summit was held on a virtual format, saying, "Even if we get to net zero, we still have to get carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.  This is a bigger challenge than a lot of people have really grabbed onto yet."  Scientists have pointed to a rise in carbon dioxide levels in Earth's atmosphere as a force behind global warming.  That said, carbon dioxide also plays a crucial role in sustaining life on Earth because it keeps heat in the atmosphere and prevents the planet from becoming too cold.

The Editor says...
[#1] As I understand it, the CO2 content of the atmosphere increases as a reaction to global warming, and is not the cause of it.  Flies don't cause garbage.  [#2] John Kerry would know all about the role of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere if he were not so poorly educated and badly misinformed.  [#3] There are about 2,250 billion tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  Even if it were possible to remove one percent of the CO2 from the air, where would you put it?  [#4] It's a good thing Mr. Kerry isn't so worried about rising sea levels, or he might spend trillions of dollars trying to drain the oceans.

We've Lost Count Of How Many 'Last Chances' We've Had To Save The Planet.  John Kerry said earlier this month that we've reached "the last best opportunity we have to get real and serious" about global warming.  What's the difference between him and a loon walking down Manhattan's Fifth Avenue wearing one of those sandwich boards proclaiming the end of the world is nigh?  We're struggling to see any.  Kerry, the Biden administration's special presidential envoy for climate [...] is part of a chorus of fearmongering that goes back more than three decades.  "In 1989 the United Nations gave us 10 years to save the world," science site Watts Up With That posted last year.  Guess blogger Eric Worrall then went on to list more than a dozen "last chances" to stop global warming.  "If we do not heed this last chance, I'm sure there will be another last chance in the near future, just like all the previous last chances," he said.  Dire, way-off-base predictions have been the hallmark of radical environmentalism for at least a half century.

John Kerry wants "to remove CO2 from the atmosphere."  All of it?
John Kerry reports for duty in war on carbon dioxide.  Three months into the job, and already Joe Biden's climate czar, John Kerry, is making a fool of himself on the world stage. [...] Kerry comes off as a particularly ignorant boob, declaring war not on man-made carbon emissions anymore, (nor aerosol emissions, as had been done in the past) but on carbon dioxide itself, and a creepy plan to manipulate the atmosphere, whether we like it or not.  Too bad about the plants.  There were other problems with his speech, too, as Milloy and the Competitive Enterprise Institute note.

Kerry Agrees to Cooperate With China in Destroying US Economy
  [#1]   Outsourcing all our manufacturing to China while allowing it to self-inspect to meet climate goals
  [#2]   Buying lots of Chinese solar panels to save the planet
  [#3]   Making manufacturing in the United States too expensive to be viable
and soon, no doubt,
  [#4]   Hiking energy prices until America from space looks as dark as North Korea and then every day can be Earth Day

Kerry family jet flies to Idaho while he goes on international climate tour.  The jet belonging to climate czar John Kerry's family made its way to Idaho, where he and his wife have reportedly vacationed, as he traveled in Asia to promote the Biden administration's message on the issue.  Flight records show that the jet left Boston late afternoon and landed in Hailey, Idaho, later that evening. [...] According to the State Department, the former secretary of state is currently on a trip through Asia that's set to end on Friday.  The trip, which started April 1, extends from Abu Dhabi to Dhaka and is intended "for consultations on increasing climate ambition" ahead of a climate summit hosted by President Biden.  In the past, Kerry has encountered scrutiny over use of his family jet while speaking out against climate change.  Most notably, when Kerry took his jet to receive a climate award in Iceland, he called it "the only choice for somebody like me who is traveling the world to win this battle."

Climate czar John Kerry caught going maskless on flight.  President Biden's climate czar, John Kerry, sparked outrage Wednesday when he was spotted going maskless on an American Airlines flight to Washington D.C.  The Tennessee Star published a photo of a bare-faced Kerry apparently flying first-class from Boston to D.C. on Wednesday [3/17/2021].  The airline requires all passengers wear masks on board, in accordance with directives from the CDC and TSA and Biden's Jan. 21 executive order mandating face coverings during interstate travel.  A man who sat next to Kerry took to Twitter to describe the former Massachusetts senator and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate's time on the flight.

Barack Obama And John Kerry's Fifteen Biggest LIES About Iran And The JCPOA.  Joe Biden and his foreign policy team are looking to push the U.S. back into the JCPOA Iran nuclear deal.  Many, especially on the left, support their objective, not realizing that the JCPOA allows Iran to build nuclear weapons in the near future, which will place the United States, the Sunni Gulf States, and Israel in grave danger.  I do not believe that most supporters of the Biden Iran policies are doing so out of a hatred of Israel, the US, or the Sunni states.  IMHO, their support stems from naivete.  Much of what America was told about the JCPOA by Obama and Kerry were not true.  Most of the MSM covered up the lies back then and are still not reporting the truth about the deal.  The below are what I believe are the fifteen most troubling examples of the lies we were told about the JCPOA by former President Obama and former Secretary of State John Kerry: [...]

John Kerry endorses 'climate weirding' term, warns of doomsday within nine years.  John Kerry says the world faces a climate change doomsday within nine years unless drastic action is taken now.  The comment by President Biden's special envoy for climate change came during a segment for CBS' "Eye on Earth" hosted by senior national and environmental correspondent Ben Tracy.  "Some people get hung up on the term 'global warming' and say, 'well, I thought everything's supposed to get warmer?'  I heard one scientist say this is really 'global weirding.'  Is that a better way to think of this?"  Mr. Tracy asked Friday while referencing a recent cold snap causing havoc across the nation.

John Kerry Blames Frigid Temperatures and Record Cold on Global Warming, Says We have 9 Years Left to Save the Planet.  Joe Biden's Special Climate Envoy John Kerry said that the record cold temperatures we are seeing are because of global warming.  Kerry, who flies on private jets, owns a mega yacht and several mansions, said that we only have 9 years left to save the planet from a catastrophe.  Joe Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Accord on Friday [2/19/2021] and John Kerry said it is still not aggressive enough to prevent catastrophe.  According to Kerry, "global warming" is now "global weirding" since he is unable to explain why frigid temperatures took Texas hostage this week.

The Editor says...
[#1] Nine years from now, John Kerry's political career will be over, and he will be hidden away somewhere, unavailable for comment, when his prediction falls flat.  [#2] If we only have nine years left, what will the weather be like in 8½ years?

Kerry doesn't follow his own rules because he doesn't believe climate rhetoric.  Last week, a 2019 video clip resurfaced showing climate envoy John Kerry's attempt to reconcile his beliefs about climate change with his practice of flying around the world in private jets.  Asked whether his carbon-spewing private aircraft is an "environmental way to travel," Kerry responded thus:  "It's the only choice for somebody like me who is traveling the world to win this battle."  This is quite rich.  For one thing, Kerry was not traveling the world "to win this battle" or, to use the nonsensical expression popularized by Biden's campaign, "defeat the climate crisis."  (One does not "defeat" a crisis.)  Rather, he was in Iceland to receive an award in his personal capacity.  Kerry was not even a government official at that time, so there was no public-minded rationale for his use of a private jet.

'Only choice for somebody like me': John Kerry flew on private jet to accept climate award.  It turns out Leonardo di Caprio isn't the only one taking private jets to pick up climate awards.  Biden global climate czar John Kerry flew by private plane in 2019 to accept an award for his climate work in Iceland, a decision he defended at the time as "the only choice for somebody like me," as shown on a video posted Wednesday by FoxNews.com.  Mr. Kerry, who has been criticized for owning a climate-unfriendly Gulfstream jet, appeared in person in October 2019 to receive the Arctic Circle Prize for his "leadership in international climate cooperation" at the Arctic Circle Assembly held in Reykjavik.

John Kerry, Global Warming Ghoul.  Presidential climate envoy John Kerry stirred up a black cloud last week when he said the workers who lost their jobs over the administration's decision to shut down Keystone XL pipeline construction could just make solar panels instead.  At least he didn't tell them they should learn to code.  But it was a cruel comment nonetheless, and representative of the political left's careless destruction of livelihoods in service of their climate god.  At a news conference last week, Kerry said "what President Biden wants to do is make sure that those folks" who lost jobs "have better choices, that they have alternatives, that they can be the people who go to work to make the solar panels."  Unsaid yet clearly understood is the Democrats' contempt for calloused-hand working class Americans — these "deplorables" just can't make good decisions and need the guiding hand of government to help them avoid the briar patches and potholes of life.

WaPo: Two Pinocchios For Kerry's Wind-And-Solar Jobs Claims.  If you missed John Kerry's remarks on the job-destruction impact from Joe Biden's executive orders on climate change, let's refresh memories first.  Reporters asked Kerry how the new administration would explain to hundreds of thousands of energy workers about the necessity of making them unemployed, Kerry suggested that they could "make better choices," and told reporters that they should learn to build solar panels instead. [...] Obama, Kerry, and Biden had eight years to prove the assertion that massive government subsidies in renewable energy would pay off with "millions" of green-tech jobs.  Remind us again how many wind and solar installer jobs America currently has 12 years after the massive Porkulus bill?  The most significant lie here isn't Kerry's statistical claims.  It's that this administration cares one whit about energy-sector jobs while they take every step they can to destroy them without viable employment or energy options.

Funny how the party that claims to be for the little guy always supports the billionaires.  [Scroll down]  I have never seen anyone as dangerous in the White House as Joe Biden in his first nine days as he signs executive order after executive order, some 40 now at last count.  He has stacked his cabinet with radical leftists pushing the green agenda to destroy America.  He sends out John Kerry, with multiple mansions, a yacht and a private jet, to tell the public that is good for them that he is destroying their jobs.  After all, he drove a Tesla from Massachusetts to D.C.  On Fox News, I heard left-wing Juan Williams say he didn't really care about Kerry's or anyone else's lifestyle, even as they are dictating how all of us should live our lives.

Biden climate envoy John Kerry is a lifelong joke.  What was Joe Biden thinking for his choice of climate-change ambassador extraordinaire?  John Kerry is one of the biggest gasbags in American politics, singlehandedly responsible for massive amounts of terrible emissions.  People have been laughing at him since Yale, when "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau was zinging his pretentious, vacuous self-promotion.  We look forward to the anti-carbon lectures from a guy who travels the globe on private jets and luxury yachts.  Set aside his deer-in-the-headlights loss as the Democrats' presidential nominee in 2004.  He was a joke as secretary of state under President Barack Obama — off on his yacht during Egypt's 2013 military coup.

John Kerry reportedly still owns private jet as he fights climate change.  John Kerry, President Biden's top environmental policy adviser, still owns a private jet — despite his intention of fighting fossil fuels in the new administration, according to a report.  A Federal Aviation Administration registry shows a Gulfstream Aerospace aircraft owned by Flying Squirrel LLC, the name previously reported as the climate czar's wife Teresa Heinz-Kerry's private charter jet company, Fox News reported.  The company's address in the registry matches that of the Heinz Family Foundation, according to the network.  The plane's registration certificate was issued in July 2005 and expires in October 2023, according to FAA records cited by Fox News.

Apparatchik John Kerry, Climate Czar.  Suppose you are a man with a long history of personal mediocrity in important positions.  You aren't quite as publicly toxic as, say, Hillary Clinton.  But no one really respects you either.  You're old, 76.  You're definitely a "me too" lothario.  You have said nothing notable in 35 years in the public eye, first as a U.S. Senator, then failed presidential candidate, and finally Secretary of State.  Your biggest success was in being the face of Obama's Iran deal, the entire premise of which was to set up an untrustworthy, fundamentalist regime hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons, and deeply hated by its own people, as a dominant regional power.  So which job do you get in a Joe Biden Administration?  Climate Czar!

Jet-setting John Kerry will no doubt burn up the miles as climate czar.  Back in the day, when Mama T was still making public appearances, Kerry had his own personal private jet, the Flying Squirrel.  Actually, the Flying Squirrel was owned, more precisely, by his second wife's first husband's trust fund, in much the same way that he claimed not to own those five SUVs at each of his second wife's first husband's trust fund's mansions.  No, the "family" owned them, and he was just a gigolo.  But apparently once you get used to gallivanting around on one of those Boeing C-32s or a 757 or whatever the SOS is using these days, it's tough to scale back to a mere plebeian corporate jet.  I mean, the Flying Squirrel was certainly an upgrade, shall we say, over the D.C. shuttle, when Kerry had to rub elbows with the hoi polloi at Logan and occasionally ask the gate attendants that eternal question:  "Do you know who I am?"

Biden climate envoy John Kerry is a lifelong joke.  What was Joe Biden thinking for his choice of climate-change ambassador extraordinaire?  John Kerry is one of the biggest gasbags in American politics, singlehandedly responsible for massive amounts of terrible emissions.  People have been laughing at him since Yale, when Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau was zinging his pretentious, vacuous self-promotion.  We look forward to the anti-carbon lectures from a guy who travels the globe on private jets and luxury yachts.  Set aside his deer-in-the-headlights loss as Democrats' presidential nominee in 2004.  He was a joke as secretary of state under President Barack Obama — off on his yacht during Egypt's 2013 military coup.

John Kerry's just mad that Trump's foreign policy is working far better than his.  It took approximately 20 seconds for former Secretary of State John Kerry to drop the first flagrant lie in his Democratic National Convention speech, when he claimed that the Obama administration's so-called Iran deal had "eliminated the threat of an Iran with a nuclear weapon."  It didn't get any better from there.  Kerry knows well that sunset provisions in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action provided Iran's government with a pathway to building nuclear weapons in a few years.  He knows well that Israel uncovered a giant cache of documents with instructions on how to jumpstart a program to build a nuclear arsenal, which undermined both the spirit and the rationale of the nonproliferation agreement Iran signed.  He knows that Iran was developing ballistic-missile programs.

History Keeps Proving John Kerry Wrong.  It took approximately 20 seconds for former secretary of state John Kerry to drop the first flagrant lie in his Democratic National Convention speech on Tuesday [8/18/2020], when he claimed that the Obama administration's so-called Iran deal had "eliminated the threat of an Iran with a nuclear weapon."  It didn't get any better from there.  Kerry knows well that sunset provisions in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) provided Iran's government with a pathway to building nuclear weapons in a few years.  He knows well that Israel uncovered a giant cache of documents with instructions on how to jumpstart a program to build a nuclear arsenal, which undermined both the spirit and the rationale of the nonproliferation agreement Iran signed.  He knows that Iran was developing ballistic-missile programs meant to deliver nuclear weapons.

Kerry Loses It When CBS Busts Him With What He Said About Iran Deal Funding Terrorists in 2016.  John Kerry really isn't the person who has any standing to talk about what should be done in regards to Iran.  But that hasn't stopped him from getting out in media and trying to spin the colossal failure of their dealings with Iran.  We've reported here and here on how they sent "pallets of cash" to Iran plus lifted sanctions, releasing $150 billion some of which Kerry acknowledged would go to terrorists.

Documents Show Senior Kerry Aide Used Private Email to Send Steele Reports to State Department Colleagues.  Eleven pages of State Department documents released on Jan. 7 in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch show that Jonathan Winer, an assistant to then-Secretary of State John Kerry, used his private email address to convey information he received from former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to top U.S. diplomatic officials.  "I will send them to her [his assistant, Nina Miller] from my non-State email account, not copying myself," Winer said in response to a December 2014 email from Paul Jones, principal deputy assistant secretary for European Affairs.  Jones wanted Winer to use the State Department's secure email system, known informally as the "high side," to transmit reports from Steele's firm, Orbis Business Intelligence.

Secretary Pompeo:  Former Obama Officials Are Telling Iran to Wait Out Trump — Then America Will Go Back to Appeasing Iran.  Barack Obama's former Secretary of State, John Kerry was secretly meeting with Iranian officials to salvage Iran's nuclear weapons program.  After the news broke last week, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee called on G-men to arrest John Kerry for his treasonous acts.  Kerry was working against the Trump administration to salvage the Iranian nuclear deal.  In May of 2018 former Obama Secretary of State was seen dining with several Iranian regime officials.

The only thing President Trump has smashed is the Deep State Uniparty Fake News status quo, and the political career of Hillary Clinton.
John Kerry Endorses Joe Biden for President to Fix 'the World that Donald Trump has Smashed Apart'.  "The world is broken," Kerry told The Washington Post.  "Our politics are broken.  The country faces extraordinary challenges.  And I believe very deeply that Joe Biden's character, his ability to persevere, his decency and the experiences that he brings to the table are critical to the moment.  The world has to be put back together, the world that Donald Trump has smashed apart."

Marco Rubio calls on Barr to investigate John Kerry.  Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr Monday calling for him to investigate former Secretary of State John Kerry for potential violations of the Logan Act or the Foreign Agents Registration Act.  President Trump had previously called on Kerry to be investigated after it was revealed that Kerry had been in secret talks with the Iranian government in a bid to salvage the Iran nuclear deal after Trump backed out of it.

Trump says John Kerry should be prosecuted for talking to Iran amid rising tensions.  As tensions with Iran escalate, President Trump accused a top Obama-era official, former Secretary of State John Kerry, of violating the law by talking with the Iranian government and said he should be prosecuted for allegedly advising the government in Tehran not to negotiate with the Trump administration.  "John Kerry speaks to them a lot," Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House Thursday, referring to the Iranian government.  "John Kerry tells them not to call.  That's a violation of the Logan Act.  And frankly he should be prosecuted on that, but my people don't want to do anything."

President Trump Suggests John Kerry Violated Logan Act with Unprecedented Private Meetings with Iranian Regime.  President Trump called out former Obama Secretary of State John Kerry for a likely violation of the Logan Act for his working with Iran against the United States.  Trump tweeted his criticism of Kerry as he commented on new harsh sanctions against Iran targeting the state sponsor of terrorism's for oil exports by the elimination of waivers for importers.

"People are Going to Die" Because of Trump, Says the Guy Behind the Iran Deal.  The only people dying because of President Trump are Islamic terrorists.  But people are dying every day because of John Kerry.  They're dying in Iran.  They're dying in Israel.  They're dying in Asia and Latin America.  But here's John Kerry, trying to advance his hopeless prospect of windsurfing to the White House in 2020.

Huckabee: Kerry Talking to Iranians 'Makes the Case' for First-Ever Logan Act Conviction.  [Mike] Huckabee said [John] Kerry could be suited for the first successful prosecution of the Logan Act of 1799, which prohibits conducting unauthorized diplomacy with governments in dispute with the United States.  The act's name refers to a 1798 incident in which Philadelphia farmer George Logan traveled to France, outside the purview of President John Adams, to try to avoid war during a time of tension over merchant shipping.

John Kerry:  A Traitor for the Ages.  We had news this past week that John Kerry is undermining the United States once again, working with her enemies, this time the Iranian mullahs trying to salvage his deeply flawed Iran nuclear deal.  Kerry's notorious 2015 nuclear deal featured the transfer of billions of dollars (1.7 billion of it on pallets stacked with cash) to the world's leading exporter of Islamic terrorism.  Iran's fanatical mullahs were essentially put on a pathway to acquire nuclear weapons at the end of 10 years.  What was even crazier about the deal is that compliance and inspections were to be handled by Iran itself.  As President Trump cancelled the deal and slammed Iran with further sanctions, Kerry has once again gone back to his arrogant old tricks — meeting with the enemy in direct opposition to official American policy.  He refuses to deny that told the Iranians to hang on until Trump leaves office, once again giving aid and comfort to a leading American enemy.

John Kerry's freelance diplomacy is an invitation to disaster.  Former Secretary of State John Kerry admitted to meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif "three or four times" since leaving office.  Seeking to preempt criticism that his talks violated US laws prohibiting private citizens from advising or negotiating with foreign states, he said he merely wanted to see "what Iran might be willing to do in order to change the dynamic in the Middle East."  Even if Kerry violated no laws, a more self-aware statesman would recognize that such freelance diplomacy weakens the US, emboldens enemies and has a track record of failure.

John Kerry deserves jail for secret Iran diplomacy.  [John] Kerry has always been an arrogant and aloof man.  During his long career on Capitol Hill, Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle described him as the least-liked senator, an opinion repeatedly affirmed by his own office staff during his long career.  He is disdainful of democracy.  Simply put, he sees himself as above the law, deserving of privilege and special dispensation not only when he is in government, but also as a private citizen.

Trump Slams John Kerry For 'Illegal Meetings' With Iran: 'Was he registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act?'.  As we pointed out yesterday, it's now been confirmed that John Kerry had meetings with Iran where he was basically trying to undercut the Trump administration.  He had no business doing it and Trump has taken notice.

John Kerry slammed for 'shameful' shadow diplomacy after admitting to meetings with Iran.  Former Secretary of State John Kerry is being slammed for conducting shadow diplomacy with Iran after admitting to multiple meetings with Iranian officials behind the backs of Trump administration officials — including over the scrapped nuclear deal.  An administration official on Thursday told Fox News Kerry's meetings are "shameful," pointing out what Iranian-backed militias are doing to kill and injure people in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.  Other Republicans suggested it may not even be legal.

Kerry Meeting With Iran to Salvage Nuke Deal With Rogue Diplomacy.  Former Secretary of State John Kerry disclosed that he has been conducting rogue diplomacy with top Iranian officials to salvage the landmark nuclear deal and push the Islamic Republic to negotiate its contested missile program, according to recent remarks.  Kerry, in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt to promote his new book, said that he has met with Iranian Former Minister Javad Zarif — the former secretary's onetime negotiating partner — three or four times in recent months behind the Trump administration's back.  "I think I've seen him three or four times," Kerry said, adding that he has been conducting sensitive diplomacy without the current administration's authorization.  Kerry said he has criticized the current administration in these discussions, chiding it for not pursuing negotiations from Iran, despite the country's fevered rhetoric about the U.S. president.

Kerry Doesn't Rule out 2020 Presidential Campaign.  Former Secretary of State John Kerry told CBS's "Face the Nation" anchor Margret Brennan in a recent interview that he's not ruling out a 2020 presidential run.  "Talking about 2020 right now is a total distraction and waste of time," Kerry told Brennan.  "What we need to do is focus on 2018.  We need to win back the confidence of the country to move in a better direction and to do it in sensible ways."

Run, John, run!  John Kerry, the Democratic Party's 2004 loser, informed us this weekend he hasn't ruled out a 2020 run, and we should welcome this.

Bolton's Zero Option.  When it came to Iran, Obama chose to get in bed with the mullahs.  Nothing was allowed to stand in the way of the consummation represented by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to place Iran on the path to a nuclear weapon and fund its international wrongdoing.  In the annals of misguided international diplomacy, the JCPOA takes pride of place over the Munich Agreement.  Not even Neville Chamberlain thought to fund the realization of Hitler's dreams for Europe.  Following the adoption of the JCPOA, Secretary of State John Kerry hit the road to build up foreign investment in Iran.  He sought to reward the Iranian regime for its deigning to take the cash and do the deal.  No greater fool has ever served in that high office.

John Kerry's Fitting Ending.  John Kerry ends his long career in politics the same way he began it:  disgracefully. [...] He loved to reach out to the world's rogues.  In 1985, he traveled to Nicaragua to meet and praise the country's Communist strongman, Daniel Ortega, and to accuse the Reagan administration of funding terrorism.  He praised the Clinton administration's 1994 agreement to send aid to North Korea.  Pyongyang's violation of the agreement, a secret uranium-enrichment program, was discovered in 2002.  Starting in 2009, he visited Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad several times, and in 2011 he said Assad was "very generous with me in terms of the discussions we have had. ... My judgment is that Syria will move; Syria will change, as it embraces a legitimate relationship with the United States and the West."  Against this ignoble record, one wonders why Kerry never seemed to get tired of giving dictators, terrorists, thugs, and brutal regimes the benefit of the doubt and having it blow up in his face.

John Kerry's practiced betrayal of friends.  John Kerry doesn't come late to the betrayal of friends.  He has had considerable practice.  In 1971, when he was a young lieutenant just back from Vietnam, where he was a decorated skipper of a Swift Boat patrolling the Mekong River, he appeared before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee to pay his "respects" to the American soldiers, sailors and Marines he fought a war with.  Representing all those veterans, he told the senators, he wanted to talk about war crimes he said "were committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."

Foundation Run by Kerry's Wife Funds Anti-Israel Eatery.  A foundation chaired by Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Secretary of State John Kerry, who is deeply involved in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, is funding a radical anti-Israel, anti-American snack bar near the Carnegie Mellon and Pittsburgh University campuses.  The restaurant, Conflict Kitchen, which proudly boasts that it serves food only from countries with which the U.S. is in conflict, received a $50,000 grant from the Heinz Endowment in April to assist it in moving locations.

Traitor John Kerry.  Let's start at the beginning of our Secretary of State's career.  As an officer, John Kerry was put in charge of men, young men of honor and perseverance who were sent to fight and die in a hellhole called Vietnam.  Kerry spent his time there taking every step he could for personal and career gain, and the integrity of the agenda he was given was secondary.  The main focus for Kerry was to write up as many medals as he could for himself and get out.  In the book "About Face" Colonel David Hacksworth, shows while there were many fine officers that served there in all branches of the military, John Kerry stood out and continues to stand out as a poor example of what an officer should be.  There has been much written about his going to Paris to undermine the accords at that time, as a panderer to the Viet Cong.  His "Winter Soldier" testimony at the Fulbright Commission was nothing more than an attempt to undermine the war and his fellow soldiers.  He was once again, looking out for himself and using the publicity to further his own career.  The two miserable people I remember from that time are John Kerry and Hanoi Jane Fonda.  Neither, I can say with certainty to ever be forgiven by the brave and loyal men who served in our fighting forces, that day or ever.

Fact Checking John Kerry, the Man who Knows Everything but Understands Nothing.  John Kerry's Wednesday speech that, essentially, pinned the future of the entire Middle East on freezing the settlements enterprise, was rife with so many facts and assessments the Secretary of State regurgitated with an air of conviction and Brahmin self-assurance, many listeners might have been misled to accept them at face level.  Thankfully, the complete collapse of the Obama foreign policy before international players who are smarter and better than them, should serve as a reminder to the American people that Kerry is one of those highly educated gentlemen who know everything but understand nothing.  And so, like many other rightwing journalists this morning, we've embarked on the Herculean effort of removing Kerry's horse manure from the region's stables.

The future's calling for our Mr. Secretary.  In case you missed it, John Forbes Kerry went before some women's group in Washington last week and said:  "I am not going to go quietly into the night."  Quietly, loudly, nobody cares how you go, Liveshot, just as long as you go.  He spoke for an hour — talk about cruel and unusual punishment for an audience.  During the course of those 60 interminable minutes, Kerry claimed he hasn't decided exactly what he's going to do next, so let's help him out with some suggestions.

Kerry's Daughter Traveled On Taxpayers' Dime To Get Government Contracts.  Secretary of State John Kerry's daughter and her staff traveled around the world on the taxpayers' dime to secure more than $9 million in Department of State-funded contracts, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation.  The Peace Corps authorized an estimated $46,000 for 20 international and domestic trips for Dr. Vanessa Kerry and her staff, agency documents obtained by TheDCNF show.  The purpose of the travel was to form the Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP) — a Peace Corps-run and State Department-funded program Kerry proposed.

Special Treatment Gave John Kerry's Daughter $9 Million In Gov't Contracts.  Peace Corps officials directed Department of State funds to a nonprofit run by Secretary of State John Kerry's daughter by disqualifying other potential applicants through half-hearted analysis.  "We'll never know, but this market research seems like an effort to steer this deal to Kerry's group, which might not have been in the government's best interest," Project On Government Oversight (POGO) General Counsel Scott Amey told The Daily Caller News Foundation.  POGO is a nonprofit watchdog that has extensively investigated government contracts among other oversight issues.

State Department-Funded Nonprofit That John Kerry Had 'No Role' In Was Founded In His Home.  A nonprofit created in Secretary of State John Kerry's upscale Boston home and managed by his daughter Vanessa Kerry has received more than $9 million from the Department of State, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has found.  Seed Global Health was founded at 19 Louisburg Sq in Boston's Beacon Hill, tax forms indicate.

Kerry to Congress:  If you don't pass TPP, that will be bad because I said you would.  Having gone to the leaders of another nation on his own and made assurances he could not back up, John Kerry then came back to the United States and threw a snit before Congress because they saw what he didn't — that the deal Kerry negotiated was bad for the United States.

John Kerry Knew The State Department Funneled Millions To His Daughter's Charity.  Secretary of State John Kerry lauded a program run by his daughter's nonprofit as he announced an extension of its non-competitively awarded Department of State funding in 2014, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.  "What we're talking about here is a multi-million dollar effort that will strengthen the capacity of healthcare workers to deliver lifesaving HIV services," Kerry said in December 2014, at a World AIDS Day event.  "[I]t will build on the Global Health Service Partnership with Peace Corps and Seed Global Health."

John Kerry's State Department Funneled Millions To His Daughter's Nonprofit.  More than $9 million of Department of State money has been funneled through the Peace Corps to a nonprofit foundation started and run by Secretary of State John Kerry's daughter, documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation show.  The Department of State funded a Peace Corps program created by Dr. Vanessa Kerry and officials from both agencies, records show.  The Peace Corps then awarded the money without competition to a nonprofit Kerry created for the program.

Kerry to media: Stop reporting on terrorism so I can fix global warming.  Besides the obvious attempt to duck responsibility for his and Obama's failure to engage in any meaningful fight to destroy radical Islamic terrorism, Kerry appears to have his facts confused.  If the media not doing its job results in people not knowing what's going on, then it looks like they are already there.  Because the Obama Administration has been clueless about the war on terror from the very beginning.  Kerry could have another motivation to his request.  If he didn't have to constantly defend his ineptitude and indifference when these attacks occur, he would be free to tackle the really big problems ... global warming and a lack of economic opportunities for would-be terrorists.

Putting your head in the sand [is] no magic cure to stop terror.  So much for information as power.  Kerry says no information is power.  This is the guy who infamously said you have to do well in school or you end up in Iraq.  Now he's saying don't worry about learning anything in school and you'll be better off.

John Kerry:  You Media People Should Stop Reporting on Terrorism So People Don't Know What's Going On.  Speaking from Bangladesh Tuesday morning, Secretary of State John Kerry suggested members of the media stop covering (Islamic) terrorism so people won't "know what's going on."  Kerry attempted to preempt his statement by implying media coverage creates copy cats and promotes more terrorism. [...] While the copy cat, attention seeker argument may be true in a handful of cases, the media ignoring terrorism as the Obama administration has arguably chosen to do for nearly a decade, isn't going to make terrorism go away.

John Kerry says ignorance is bliss.
Kerry: 'Media Would Do Us All a Service If They Didn't Cover' Terrorism as Much.  Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday during an appearance in Bangladesh that the media could "do us all a service" if they didn't cover terrorism "quite as much."  "No country is immune from terrorism," Kerry said at a press availability in Dhaka, Bangladesh.  "It's easy to terrorize. [...] Perhaps the media would do us all a service if they didn't cover it quite as much.  People wouldn't know what's going on."

13 Incompetent Failures in the Obama Administration.  [#4] Well before he became secretary of State, John Kerry profited from the Obama administration.  While he was helping to craft Obamacare, the Massachusetts senator bought stock in a pharmaceuticals company which would benefit from the law.  He also bought shares in a medical device manufacturer — a company whose stock rose 71 percent when the bill passed.  Finally, Kerry and his wife sold off their investments in United Health and Wellpoint, two of the healthcare providers which ended up losing big from Obamacare.

Kerry slams Trump's wall, tells grads to prepare for 'borderless world'.  Secretary of State John Kerry took a shot at Donald Trump during his Friday [5/6/2016] commencement speech at Northeastern University, by saying no wall is big enough to keep dangerous terrorists out of the United States.

America's Secretary of State is either Stupid or Insane; No other possibility exists.  This statement speaks for itself:  ["]Religion does not necessarily play a role in radicalization of Muslims, Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday [5/3/2016] night, citing... the lure of 'regular meals [and] companionship.'["]

The Editor says...
On the contrary, there is a third possibility:  The Secretary of State is probably just following the orders of President Valerie Jarrett.

'We Killed Osama Bin Laden' Is No Strategy To Defeat ISIS.  John Kerry's plan to defeat ISIS is basically:  "We killed Osama bin Laden."  But al-Qaida is active worldwide post-bin Laden, and even Democrats aren't buying his ISIS nonstrategy.  'We began our fight against al-Qaida in 2001, and it took us quite a few years before we were able to eliminate Osama bin Laden and the top leadership, and neutralize them as an effective force," Secretary of State Kerry claimed last Thursday [11/19/2015], promising to defeat the Islamic State "much faster than that."  Where to begin sorting out the bunk?

Unspeakable Kerry.  Speaking in Paris on November 17, Secretary of State John Kerry made what are already infamous comments about the fight against terrorists and terrorism.  He spoke to the staff and families of the U.S. embassy in Paris, and his remarks deserve quoting at some length — because they display a deep misunderstanding of what we are up against and how it must be fought.  In State Department lingo his remarks would be called "deeply troubling."  In normal English usage, they are astonishing and unforgivable.

Kerry, after gaffe, says terrorist attacks can never be rationalized.  A day after suggesting that there was a "rationale" for the January terrorist attack at the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo, Secretary of State John Kerry was explicit on Wednesday in rejecting any grounds for a terrorist attack. [...] On Tuesday [11/17/2015] in Paris, Kerry commented that there is "something different" about the Charlie Hebdo attack than the assaults on a concert hall, a stadium and restaurants in and around the city last Friday that claimed the lives of more than 100 and injured hundreds more.

John Kerry's mouth [is] a diplomatic incident.  Lately, like ISIS, Liveshot has grown exasperated with anyone who has the audacity to call him out ... on anything.  The Charlie Hebdo faux pas (to use his favorite language) wasn't the first time he's come down on the wrong side of the First Amendment.  This is Liveshot recently on global warming:  "When science tells us that our climate is changing and human beings are largely causing that change, by what right do people stand up and just say 'Well I dispute that or I deny that elementary truth.'"  By what right?  How about the Bill of Rights?  How about the fact that you don't have a clue what you're talking about?

Kerry in Paris: Charlie Hebdo Attack Had 'Rationale' to 'Aggrieve One Particular Sense of Wrong'.  Secretary of State John Kerry told employees at the U.S. Embassy in Paris this morning [11/17/2015] that Friday's attacks were more senseless than the Charlie Hebdo assault because there was some "rationale" for slaughtering the staff of the magazine that drew Mohammad caricatures.

John Kerry Justifies Charlie Hebdo Slaughter.  In remarks today [11/17/2015] in Paris, France, Secretary of State John Kerry justified the terror attack earlier this year that targeted the magazine Charlie Hebdo in January.  This latest attack, by contrast, was different, said Kerry.  "In the last days, obviously, that has been particularly put to the test," Kerry said, according to a State Department transcript.  "There's something different about what happened from Charlie Hebdo, and I think everybody would feel that.  There was a sort of particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of — not a legitimacy, but a rationale that you could attach yourself to somehow and say, okay, they're really angry because of this and that.["]

John Kerry has lost 'legitimacy' as Secretary of State.  An American Secretary of State addressing American Embassy employees spoke of the "legitimacy" of the murderous attack on Charlie Hebdo, before realizing how outrageous that was and correcting himself to speak of a "rationale."  Too late and still awful.  By expressing his understanding of, if not agreement with, the right of Muslims to murder those who violate their Sharia code while freely expressing themselves in the tradition of the West, Kerry has forfeited his ability to act as defender of American interests on the world stage.  He should resign or be fired.

John Kerry Is a Disgrace.  The top diplomat in the United States just publicly argued that because the victims at Charlie Hebdo had spoken risqué words but the victims at the Bataclan had not, the violence against the former was more comprehensible than the violence against the latter. Has he lost his mind?

Kerry Goes to France, Fails to Bring James Taylor.  I understand that with getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom, alongside heroes like Steven Spielberg, James Taylor might be a bit busy.  But it was less embarrassing when Kerry brought him to France.  First Ambassador Hartley introduced Kerry. Hartley got the gig because she's part of a well-connected Democratic donor couple who bundled over $500K for Obama.  That's what it takes to get an ambassadorship.  So one joke introduced another.  Hartley called Kerry, "A true friend of France and a person who has been fighting for freedom and liberty all his life."  That explains his friendship with Assad, his lobbying for the Sandinistas and his libeling of American soldiers in Vietnam.

The 3 Stooges are running the country.  As the new Secretary of State, Kerry is boning up on Islam and has learned that it "is not represented by a lot of jihadists and others," but is, instead, "a beautiful religion." [...] That should be enough to immediately let us know the direction of Kerry's tenure in his new position, a direction wholeheartedly endorsed by President Obama.

Second-Rate Appointments From A Third-Rate President.  How fitting for John Kerry, speciously decorated brown-water U.S. Navy officer in Vietnam, disgracing his service and his uniform with dubious testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971, now the champion for the Afghan quagmire, and third in succession to the White House.  Meanwhile Kerry's top treaty-making priority is defeating global warming.  Such gallantry, deserving of another medal someday.

Let them eat lead!
John Kerry under fire as Secretary of State takes Nantucket vacation amid Egypt military coup.  As Egypt plunges into crisis John Kerry has been allegedly spotted relaxing at his holiday home in Nantucket for Independence Day.  The Secretary of State, who has just returned from a 12-day tour to the Middle East, was spotted near the July 4 festivities in the center of town, and on his yacht.  With the Egyptian military ousting President Morsi amid violent protests, many in Nantucket were surprised to see Mr Kerry at his holiday home rather than in Washington.

State Dept: Oops, We Lied, Kerry Was Yachting During Egypt Coup.  On Friday, the State Department admitted that Secretary of State John Kerry was on his yacht off of the coast of Nantucket as the Egyptian military took over the country from elected Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi.  Originally, the State Department denied the report from CBS reporter Mosheh Oinounou that Kerry was aboard the "Isabel" Wednesday afternoon.  The State Department said that Kerry was working "all day" on Egypt, and State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki — the same Obama campaign worker who once claimed that the campaign knew nothing about Joe Soptic — said that the CBS report was "completely inaccurate."

Kerry Datelines Press Releases 'Washington, D.C.'.  John Kerry might be yachting in New England, but he's datelining press releases "Washington, D.C."

John Brennan

Guilty! — But Not Really Guilty?  In 2011, then Homeland Security Advisor to President Obama, John Brennan, swore before Congress that drone-targeted assassination missions near the Pakistani border had not led to "a single collateral death."  That was an obvious lie with grave consequences, given that Brennan was sworn under oath and was one of the top officials in the US national security community.  Yet there were no subsequent repercussions.  In fact, the opposite occurred.  Brennan was subsequently rewarded with a 2013 appointment as CIA Director.  But the next year, once again, Brennan lied to Congress, assuring the Senate Intelligence Committee that his CIA had not secretly accessed senate staffers' computers.  Again, there were no consequences for his repeated lies.  Instead, Brennan, upon retirement, went on to be an MSNBC/NBC analyst who helped to promulgate the Russian collusion/laptop disinformation hoaxes.

John Brennan, Enemy of the People.  The just-released Durham report confirmed that the FBI not only failed to corroborate the Steele dossier, Hillary Clinton's oppo-doc against former President Donald Trump, but it regularly ignored existing, sometimes dispositive, evidence to keep the investigation alive.  Some officials were credulous.  Others were devious.  But no one "stole" our democracy — other than perhaps intelligence officials and the journalists who helped feed the collective hysteria over Russia.  John Brennan, Hamas-loving authoritarian and partisan propagandist, almost surely knew it was a con from the start.  Yet he spent four years on television sounding like a deranged subreddit commenter.  Even after privately admitting he knew there was no collusion, Brennan kept lying and using his credentials to mislead the public.

In A Healthy 'Democracy,' John Brennan Would Already Be In Prison.  The just-released Durham report confirmed that the FBI not only failed to corroborate the Steele dossier, Hillary Clinton's oppo-doc against Donald Trump, but it regularly ignored existing, sometimes dispositive, evidence to keep the investigation alive.  Some officials were credulous.  Others were devious.  But no one "stole" our democracy — other than perhaps intelligence officials and the journalists who helped feed the collective hysteria over Russia.  John Brennan, Hamas-loving authoritarian and partisan propagandist, almost surely knew it was a con from the start.  Yet he spent four years on television sounding like a deranged subreddit commenter.  Even after privately admitting he knew there was no collusion, Brennan kept lying and using his credentials to mislead the public.

Disgraced Former CIA Chief John Brennan Joins 'Secretive' Firm Staffing Biden White House.  John O. Brennan, the former CIA director whose security clearance was revoked by President Donald Trump, has joined the WestExec Advisors, a "secretive consulting firm" whose alumni hold posts throughout President Joe Biden's administration.  The firm, described as "Biden's Cabinet in waiting" by Politico after the 2020 presidential election, employed Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, White House press secretary Jen Psaki, and many others.  Politico noted:  "WestExec is loaded with other former top Democratic national security and foreign policy officials who raised money for the Biden campaign, have joined his transition team, or have served as unofficial advisers."

The Deep Roots of Radicalism.  In 2016, John Brennan, Obama's CIA director, acknowledged that he had once voted for Gus Hall, the Communist Party's candidate.  Brennan feared that his vote for Hall in 1976 threatened to doom his chances of entering the CIA. [...] Brennan's rise to the top of the CIA speaks volumes about the liberal transformation of America.  He went from supporting the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War to running one of America's most important defense agencies.  Brennan is a symbol of the Left's long march through American's institutions.  It steadily absorbed those institutions, particularly conservative ones, into the counterculture.  The radicalism of Brennan and his cronies now stands culturally regnant.  Anti-American stances once thought outlandish are now considered thoroughly mainstream. [...] Gus Hall somewhere must be smiling.  That communist agitator assumed change would come in America from outside government.  John Brennan and other radicals have proven otherwise.

Ex-CIA head Brennan confesses to MSNBC: 'I'm increasingly embarrassed to be a white male'.  Former CIA Director John Brennan confessed to MSNBC's audience on Monday [3/1/2021] that these days he's "increasingly embarrassed to be a white male."  The racial self-flogging came during a segment on the Jan. 6 Capital riot and reporting on the death of Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick by The New York Times.  "Deadline White House" host Nicolle Wallace teed up Mr. Brennan by saying reporter Katie Benner's recent work "renders at best, hypocritical, at worst cynical and false, any notion that the Republicans care about the lives and safety of law enforcement."

The Editor says...
If you are embarrassed about being a white male, why do you go out of your way to appear on television as often as possible?  Shouldn't you stay out of sight?

Liberal authoritarians like John Brennan are real threat to democracy.  Every time former CIA Director John Brennan appears on cable news to warn about some new "insidious threat to democracy," I am reminded again that he deserves to be in federal prison.  In this corrupt media environment, however, the official who oversaw an illegal domestic-spying operation on the legislative branch of the US government, who tried to cover it up and blame innocent Senate staffers when discovered and who then brazenly lied about it to legislators and the American people — this man is held up as a paragon of civic virtue.  We still don't even know what role Brennan played in spying on his political opponents during the 2016 campaign.  We do know he went on TV for years after, alleging to have insider knowledge of an unprecedented seditious criminal conspiracy against the United States.  Never once was he challenged by his hosts.  And when an independent multimillion-dollar investigation couldn't pull together a single indictment related to those claims, Brennan shrugged it off by saying that he may have "received bad information."

DNI Declassifies Handwritten Notes From John Brennan, 2016 CIA Referral On Clinton Campaign's Collusion Operation.  Top U.S. intelligence officials were so concerned heading into the 2016 election that the Russians were aware of and potentially manipulating Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's plans to smear Donald Trump as a Russian agent that they personally briefed President Barack Obama on the matter, newly declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents show.  CIA officials also requested that the FBI investigate Russian knowledge of the Clinton campaign's collusion smear operation.  Newly declassified handwritten notes from former CIA Director John Brennan show that the U.S. intelligence community knew in 2016 that Russian intelligence was actively monitoring, and potentially injecting disinformation into, Clinton's anti-Trump collusion narrative.  The intelligence concerning Russia's knowledge of Clinton's campaign plans was so concerning to Brennan and other national security officials that they personally informed Obama of the matter in the Oval Office in the summer of 2016.  The handwritten notes from Brennan were declassified by Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe and provided to Congress on Tuesday afternoon.

John Brennan says there was 'no spying' on Trump's campaign.  Former President Barack Obama's CIA Director John Brennan on Sunday said there was "no spying" on President Donald Trump's campaign, despite findings from a continued investigation that suggest otherwise.  "I sat down for eight hours with John Durham and his team, answering all his questions, and looking back at 2016 were there some mistakes made in terms of the FISA applications and those types of things, yes, apparently there were," Brennan told Fox's Chris Wallace.  "But that doesn't mean that there was criminal intent and there was no spying on Donald Trump's campaign."

John Brennan Lies About the Steele Dossier, Fox News' Chris Wallace Just Nods Along.  I'm assured by some conservatives (most of which also happen to have Fox News gigs) that Chris Wallace is a serious newsman whose more recent bias against Republicans is really just him be a fair arbiter of the facts.  Of course, we all know that's nonsense, and it was never more evidenced than his embarrassing performance during the first presidential debate.  That was hardly the only example though, and the level of bias with which Wallace is willing to operate with was on display again today.

John Brennan on Fox News Sunday blatantly lies to Chris Wallace, who doesn't call him out.  To be honest, I didn't watch the much-hyped interview of former CIA chief, and now CNN contributor, John Brennan by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.  I detest both men, and did not want to vomit on the TV or floor.  But my thanks go out to those like Bonchie of RedState, who did the job this American (and many other former Fox News viewers) refuses to do.  Tom Elliott, the founder of Grabien, tweeted out video of the lie:  [Video clip]

John Brennan, Hillary's Helper.  It came out this week that John Brennan, the most partisan CIA director ever, briefed Barack Obama on Hillary Clinton's plans to smear Trump as a Putin-besotted collaborator.  Brennan's 2016 briefing notes to Obama refer to "alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 28 of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services."  Did Obama tell his CIA director to steer clear of this partisan mischief?  Clearly not.  Brennan had already joined in it.  Auditioning for a role in the Hillary administration — Brennan had told his colleagues he wanted to remain as CIA director under her — Brennan was pushing the Trump smear as hard as anyone.  CIA interference in elections was once one of the gravest sins in the liberal catechism.  How times had changed.

Suppressed House Intel Report:  Analysts Believed That Russia Favored Hillary Clinton in 2016.  [Scroll down]  Paul Sperry reports more: 1, that Durham is using this report as a "roadmap" into his investigation into whether Obama politicized intelligence agencies for private political advantage, and that 2, Brennan included Christopher Steele's utterly-rubbished "intelligence" in the January 2017 presidential briefing to supply what he claimed was information "consistent" with his partisan claim that Putin favored Trump.  Remember:  That's the best evidence they had for this claim.  We've seen no actual evidence besides Steele's made-up partisan document.  If that's the only evidence for this claim:  There is no evidence for this claim.  One more thing:  Usually these assessments have an annex included, which is written by dissenters.  The dissenters are included so that the president can evaluate competing claims in making decisions.  This "report" did not include any dissenters' report — something Sperry calls unprecedented.  And there was, of course, dissent.  Dissent that Brennan and Comey and McCabe did not want in the report they planned to leak to CNN.

John Brennan Was Put in a Perjury Trap Yesterday — A Completely Legitimate One.  John Brennan's long-time advisor Nick Shapiro put out a statement yesterday at the conclusion of Brennan's eight-hour interview with John Durham and his investigators.  It might all be true.  All I have are opinions on the text and circumstances.  But I also know that the CIA is an institution designed to engage in manipulation using lies and deception — in a good way.  It's how they accomplish their mission in defense of the country.  John Brennan is an embodiment of the CIA — it's all he's ever known.

Former US Attorney Joe DiGenova Says John Brennan Is Clearly Part of Durham Investigation While Criticizing NPR and Other MSM Reporting.  Former US Attorney Joe DiGenova says he believes that Obama's CIA Director John Brennan is included in the Durham Investigation and believes NPR and the MSM's reporting is not accurate.  Former US Attorney Joe DiGenova was again on Mornings at the Mall on Monday morning [8/10/2020].  In his discussion this week, it was noted that reports came out this past week that John Brennan was not a likely candidate in John Durham's investigation of the Russia collusion crimes.

John Brennan escapes prosecution in John Durham investigation:  Report.  Former CIA Director John Brennan appears to have dodged prosecution in U.S. Attorney John Durham's criminal inquiry into the Russia investigation.  After NBC News reported Thursday that Brennan agreed to do an interview with Durham, signaling that his investigation is nearing its end, a lawyer familiar with the situation told NPR that the Obama-era CIA director has been told he is not a target of prosecutors.  Instead, this source said, the interview will mainly consist of technical questions.  The news is sure to disappoint some of President Trump's most ardent supporters who believe Brennan and other top officials in the Obama administration sought to sabotage Trump's candidacy in 2016 and later his presidency.

John Brennan blocked from accessing classified information.  Former CIA Director John Brennan, a vocal critic of President Trump, found out he had been blocked from accessing his classified notes and records while working on his new memoir.  He writes in his forthcoming book, [...] that after months of "haggling" he discovered the CIA was abiding by the directive Trump gave in August 2018 "that purportedly forbids anyone in the intelligence community from sharing classified information with me."  The White House confirmed the directive was being enforced, which is news considering the New York Times reported in May of last year that the president never revoked Brennan's security clearance.

Before 'takedown' of General Flynn, he was planning to audit John Brennan for running billions 'off the books'.  Sidney Powell, attorney for retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, said her client, in his duties as the White House national security adviser, was prepared to "audit" the U.S. intelligence community.  That, according to the former federal prosecutor, is partly why federal agents "set up" Flynn.  Powell, who took over Flynn's defense last summer, told the "Vickie McKenna Show" on 1310 WIBA Madison that her client was "totally set up" because he threatened to expose wrongdoing by top intelligence officials in the Obama administration.

Brennan Lashes Out at President Trump, Encourages Rioting and Looting by Left Wing Terrorists, 'Necessary For Real Change'.  Former CIA Director and Spygate architect John Brennan lashed out at President Trump Sunday morning [5/31/2020] amid nationwide looting and rioting by far-left radical terrorists.  Brennan also approved of the nationwide looting and rioting by left-wing terrorists such as ANTIFA, asserting that it's 'necessary for real change.' Violent protests have spread across the nation since a Minneapolis police officer killed a black man named George Floyd on Monday.  Black Lives Matter thugs and Antifa terrorists are using the death of George Floyd as an excuse to destroy businesses and raze buildings to the ground.

John Brennan and the Plot to subvert an American Election.  Let's talk about John Brennan a bit.  You remember John Brennan.  He was Barack Obama's director of the CIA.  Once upon a time, he was an enthusiast for Gus Hall, the Communist candidate for president, for whom he voted in 1976.  I can't think of any better background for the head of the country's premier intelligence service under Obama.  In 2014, having put childish things behind him as St. Paul advised, Brennan spied on the Senate Intelligence Committee.  He denied it indignantly.  "Nothing could be further from the truth.  We wouldn't do that.  That's just beyond the scope of reason in terms of what we'd do."  But that was before irrefutable evidence of the CIA's spying transpired.  Then Brennan apologized, sort of.  Senators were outraged.  They shook their little fists.  "What did he know?  When did he know it?  What did he order?" asked one of the Lilliputians.  Guess what happened to John Brennan for spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee?  If you said "Nothing," go to the head of the class and collect your gold star.  Nothing happened to Brennan for spying on U.S. senators.

Fox News:  John Brennan Suppressed Intel Saying Russia Wanted Hillary Clinton to Win.  Fox News' Ed Henry reported Tuesday evening [5/12/2020] that Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell has declassified information calling into question the conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump.  Henry told Tucker Carlson on Tucker Carlson Tonight that the new information would suggest that John Brennan, who headed the Central Intelligence Agency under President Barack Obama, "also had intel saying, actually, Russia wanted Hillary Clinton to win because she was a known quantity, she had been secretary of state, and Vladimir Putin's team thought she was more malleable, while candidate Donald Trump was unpredictable."

Fmr CIA operative, Dem voter bluntly says Comey, Brennan should get death penalty for coup against Trump.  Former CIA operative Bryan Dean Wright isn't pussyfooting around when it comes to fired FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan, and their actions in the Russian collusion hoax.  Declaring that Comey and Brennan, who went on to become virulent Trump bashers, decided to "take out" a member of President Trump's administration, Wright said the two are "traitors" and should get the death penalty, if convicted.  His remarks are in response to the bombshell report last week that former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn, a retired three-star U.S. Army general, may have been set up by the FBI.  Wright, who is a Democratic voter, appeared on "Fox & Friends" over the weekend, and he was skeptical that there would be any admission of wrongdoing.

CIA Watchdog Sitting on Secret House Report Allegedly Critical of Brennan's Role in Russian Meddling Assessment.  The CIA Inspector General has taken more than a year to clear the release of a House Intelligence Committee report which contradicts the key conclusion of the intelligence community assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to the former chief of staff of the National Security Council.  The January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), prepared at the behest of President Barack Obama, claimed that Russia interfered in the presidential election in order to help candidate Donald Trump.  The House Intelligence Committee's public report (pdf) on Russia had already challenged the analytic tradecraft behind this central claim and suggested that the process of arriving at the assessment was not free of political interference.

Obama's Communist CIA Chief Brennan speaks out about his Muslim faith in fluent Arabic.  [Video clip]

Here's what's behind the Senate-House disputes on Russian meddling in 2016 election.  [Scroll down]  House Intelligence Committee staff members found the opposite.  They told me there was conflicting intelligence evidence on Russian motivations for meddling in the 2016 election.  More gravely, they said that CIA Director Brennan suppressed facts or analysis that showed why it was not in Russia's interests to support Trump and why Putin stood to benefit from Hillary Clinton's election.  They also told me that Brennan suppressed that intelligence over the objections of CIA analysts.  House Intelligence Committee staff told me that after an exhaustive investigation reviewing intelligence and interviewing intelligence officers, they found that Brennan suppressed high-quality intelligence suggesting that Putin actually wanted the more predictable and malleable Clinton to win the 2016 election.

It Appears John Brennan Pulled a Deep State Move to Benefit Hillary Clinton.  [Scroll down]  Is this part of the dirty laundry that these Obama officials thought would remain buried because Hillary Clinton was a sure thing in 2016? I think we deserve some more answers regarding this allegation, no?

Former CIA officer accuses highly 'politicized' John Brennan of cooking the books to favor Hillary Clinton.  Obama CIA Director John Brennan, who might be considered the "governor" of the anti-Trump Deep State, allegedly buried evidence that the Russian government actually preferred Democrat Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 presidential election while pushing substandard, low-quality information that Moscow favored the Republican standard-bearer.  That is the conclusion of former CIA officer and National Security Council chief of staff Fred Fleitz, who described Brennan as "the most politicized intelligence chief in American history."

Report: John Brennan Hid Evidence That Putin Actually Wanted Hillary to Win in 2016.  According to a former national security official that worked for the Trump administration, former CIA Director John Brennan purposely buried intelligence evidence showing Russian President Vladimir Putin actually wanted "the more predictable and malleable" Hillary Clinton to be elected in 2016.

Hillary, Comey And Brennan Must Face Justice For Deep-State Spying On Trump.  The media have been saturated with coronavirus news for weeks now, with literally hundreds of stories each day about the pandemic.  But while you're quarantined and self-distancing yourself from the dreaded COVID-19 virus, you might not have noticed something big: the investigation into the Russian spygate fiasco is coming to a head.  As the old saying goes, the wheels of justice turn slowly but grind exceedingly fine.  Some time after our nation reopens for business in a few weeks, the wheels will turn when the Durham report on the Russian collusion case will be released and hit the front pages.  If recent revelations are any indication, it will be a blockbuster, potentially leading to indictments of former senior intelligence and justice officials.

Will John Brennan Get Away With It?  [Scroll down]  It was Brennan who initiated the sham investigation, which rested upon nothing more than flaky tips he claimed to have received from foreign intelligence agencies, from Estonia to Great Britain.  It was Brennan and the Trump-hating Peter Strzok (the FBI's liaison to the CIA, who received a special award from Brennan) who cooked up schemes to infiltrate the campaign, such as having a Cambridge academic, Stefan Halper, try and entrap George Papadopoulos.  And it was Brennan who criminally leaked information about the FBI investigation into Trump to the former Nevada senator Harry Reid.  Brennan's CIA was a gusher of leaks before and after the election.  Even Peter Strzok couldn't believe the flagrancy of the leaking.

John Durham investigation intensifies focus on John Brennan.  U.S. Attorney John Durham's review of the Russia investigation is putting increased scrutiny on former CIA Director John Brennan, searching for any undue influence he may have had during 2017's intelligence community assessment of Russian interference.  Durham, selected by Attorney General William Barr last year to lead this inquiry, drove to Washington, D.C., in March to ensure the investigation stayed on track during the coronavirus outbreak.  The top Connecticut federal prosecutor is looking into highly sensitive issues, including whether Brennan took politicized actions to pressure the rest of the intelligence community to match his conclusions about Russian President Vladimir Putin's motivations, according to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal.

Durham scrutinizing John Brennan's handling of Russian interference in 2016.  U.S. Attorney John Durham is reportedly reviewing John Brennan's analysis of Russian election interference, including scrutiny of the former Obama CIA director's handling of a secret source said to be close to the Kremlin.  Durham, who was selected by Attorney General William Barr in 2019 to look into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation and the government's response to Moscow's meddling, is investigating whether Brennan's CIA was attempting to keep other agencies in the dark as he pushed for a specific preconceived analytic assessment about Russia's true intentions in 2016, the New York Times reported Thursday [2/13/2020].

Joe DiGenova Blasts 'Corrupt' Obama Officials:  Brennan and Comey Were 'Coup Leaders'.  Former US Attorney Joe diGenova blasted the corrupt Obama administration and its 'coup leaders' who were involved in Spygate.  DiGenova told OAN's John Hines that former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan led the coup attempt to oust President Trump from office.  The former US Attorney said Obama knew exactly what Comey, Brennan and other "corrupt" officials were doing during the 2016 election.

Report: Durham is Zeroing in on John Brennan's Role in Russia Hoax.  The federal prosecutor investigating the Trump-Russia hoax has set his sights on the alleged ringleader of the hoax, former C.I.A. director John Brennan, the New York Times reported on Thursday. [...] Retired National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have both made statements that suggest Brennan may have perjured himself when he testified about anti-Trump Steele dossier.  Rogers stated in a classified letter to Congress that the DNC and Clinton campaign-funded dossier did factor into the assessment, and Clapper conceded in a recent CNN interview that the ICA was based on "some of the substantive content of the dossier."

Criminal probe into the Trump-Russia collusion investigation zeros in on Obama's CIA director.  The federal prosecutor probing the origins of the government's Trump-Russia investigation is examining the role of former CIA director John O. Brennan and has requested his communication records.  U.S. Attorney John H. Durham, the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut, is investigating the origins of the FBI's investigation into Russia led by Attorney General William P. Barr in May.  At first the inquiry was an administrative review in October, but later turned into a criminal investigation.

Durham Is Scrutinizing Ex-C.I.A. Director's Role in Russian Interference Findings.  The federal prosecutor scrutinizing the Russia investigation has begun examining the role of the former C.I.A. director John O. Brennan in how the intelligence community assessed Russia's 2016 election interference, according to three people briefed on the inquiry.  John H. Durham, the United States attorney leading the investigation, has requested Mr. Brennan's emails, call logs and other documents from the C.I.A., according to a person briefed on his inquiry.  He wants to learn what Mr. Brennan told other officials, including the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, about his and the C.I.A.'s views of a notorious dossier of assertions about Russia and Trump associates.

Former CIA director John Brennan caught lying to Congress.  Former CIA Director John Brennan was infuriated Monday evening when he tweeted his acrimonious invective at the President, members of Congress and anyone who supports the President about the "damage being inflicted" on "our government."  He sees it as "tragic."  While demonizing others as deceitful for defending themselves and calling for justice, he himself is a proven liar, proven by the Horowitz report itself.

The Brennan Dossier:  All About a Prime Mover of Russiagate.  In the waning days of the Obama administration, the U.S. intelligence community produced a report saying Russian President Vladimir Putin had tried to swing the 2016 election to Donald Trump.  The January 2017 report, called an Intelligence Community Assessment, followed months of leaks to the media that had falsely suggested illicit ties between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin while also revealing that such contacts were the subject of a federal investigation.  Its release cast a pall of suspicion over Trump just days before he took office, setting the tone for the unfounded allegations of conspiracy and treason that have engulfed his first term.

Our Bankrupt Nomenklatura.  Before Trump, both John Brennan and James Clapper, respectively CIA director and director of national intelligence, lied under oath to Congress — and paid nothing for doing so.  Or rather their past prevarications became good CV items for the new fake news industry.  From them, we respectively once learned that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was largely secular and that jihad was a mostly a non-violent expression of personal growth and discovery.  In their world, drones never hit bystanders, the intelligence agencies never spy on Americans, and the two of them never lied under oath.  Both leveraged their past service and security clearances into lucrative cable TV analyst contracts — and often editorialized about ongoing investigations in which they were either knee-deep or of which they later became targets.

Free Flynn, Jail Clapper and Brennan.  Sidney Powell, the attorney for Gen. Flynn, has filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him based on indications that the FBI altered his 302s, essentially written reports based on witness interviews, to make him look guilty and leaking information on Flynn's calls to the Washington Post. [...] Powell, a former federal prosecutor and a veteran of 500 federal appeals, is the author of Licensed to Lie:  Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice, a biting tome exposing the prosecutorial misconduct of government lawyers such as Robert Mueller's "pit bull," Andrew Weissmann, and other members of Obama's inner circle that have threatened the foundations of true justice in our democracy.  Powell has sunk her legal teeth into the fraudulent case against Flynn that should result in his, with apologies to Robert Mueller, exoneration.

All The Russia Collusion Clues Are Beginning To Point Back To John Brennan.  Last weekend, NBC News reported that the Justice Department's probe into the origins of the Russia collusion investigation is now focusing on the CIA and the intelligence community.  NBC News soft-peddled this significant development by giving former CIA Director John Brennan a platform (a pen?) to call the probe "bizarre," and question "the legal basis for" the investigation.  Politico soon joined the spin effort, branding the investigation Attorney General William Barr assigned to Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham "Trump's vengeance."  However, if the media reports are true, and Barr and Durham have turned their focus to Brennan and the intelligence community, it is not a matter of vengeance; it is a matter of connecting the dots in congressional testimony and reports, leaks, and media spin, and facts exposed during the three years of panting about supposed Russia collusion.  And it all started with Brennan.

The Case for Indicting John Brennan.  Former CIA director John Brennan calls the Justice Department's widening probe into Spygate's origins "bizarre."  It has no "legal basis," he bleats.  What's bizarre is that the expanding inquiry didn't happen earlier.  Brennan's responsibility for criminal leaks during the Obama administration's investigation of Trump has been obvious for at least two years.  Even Trump hater Peter Strzok, the FBI liaison to John Brennan, couldn't believe the leaks coming out of his shop.  Referring to Brennan's agents as "sisters," Strzok said to his mistress Lisa Page, "our sisters have begun leaking like mad.  Scorned and worried and political, they're kicking in to overdrive."  The "leaking like mad" began in the thick of the 2016 campaign, as the feverishly partisan John Brennan sought to sabotage Donald Trump before Election Day.

Brennan: US 'no longer a democracy' under 'autocrat' Trump.  Former CIA Director John Brennan declared that the United States is "no longer a democracy" under the leadership of President Trump.  Brennan, who has been sharply critical of Trump since leaving office in January of 2017, appeared Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press with Chuck Todd to give analysis on the current state of intelligence affairs as the House of Representatives launches an impeachment inquiry into the president.  Asked to assess the U.S. as he would a foreign government from the perspective of the CIA, Brennan said, "We would look at it as a very corrupt government that is under the sway right now of this powerful individual, who has been able to just corrupt the institutions and the laws of that country."

John Brennan Complains He's Being 'Pilloried As an Example of the Deep State'.  nd continue to question, whether the Obama intelligence community used foreigners — from Australia, Italy and the United Kingdom — to spy on the Trump campaign.  Did they outsource spying, in other words.  That is part of what Connecticut Attorney General John Durham is investigating, at the request of Attorney General William Barr.  But in a very sympathetic interview with former CIA Director John Brennan, NBC's Chuck Todd never asked difficult questions about the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation and Brennan's possible role in it.

The Coup against Trump:  Is John Brennan a Russian Agent?  In the coming weeks, former CIA director John Brennan will be meeting with Attorney John Durham about the origins of the Russia Hoax.  There can be no question that Brennan is at the center of the Obama White House campaign to use unconstitutional and extra-judicial means to target and destroy Donald Trump.  There is little doubt that Brennan and his compatriots in the Deep State have done more damage to America than the Russians could ever do in 100 years.  Obama, Clinton, and Brennan have much to answer for.

John Brennan's not-so-subtle sows of sedition.  John Brennan put out a call to arms on Twitter for anyone with information on unlawful activities that may have been conducted by President Donald Trump to come forward and report it.  Nice.  Kind of like calling for a whistleblower movement, right?  He's digging for dirt and wants anyone in a position to report dirt to hurry up and get it out there.  The election dawns, dontcha know.  His tweets have the sour smell of sedition.  "A reminder to federal officials:  There is no limit on the number of individuals who can use the whistleblower statute," he wrote just a few days ago.  "If you think you were involved in unlawful activity as a result of a directive from Mr. Trump or someone doing his bidding, now is the time to report it."

Former CIA Director John Brennan Reveals He will be Interviewed by US Attorney John Durham in Coming Days.  Former CIA Director under Barack Obama, Trump-hater and the suspected architect of the Spygate scandal, will be questioned by US Attorney John Durham in the coming days.  Brennan told Nicole Wallace on MSNBC that he is "supposedly" going to be interviewed by US Attorney John Durham but that he just doesn't understand why there is an active investigation on the Obama administration's spying on the opposition candidate in the 2016 election.

John Brennan Engages In Sedition On Twitter — Gets Called Out For His Own Treason.  Since John Brennan is a suspected Muslim convert, I think it might be fair to call this #Impeachmentjihad.  The Deep State is desperate but some, like John Brennan, might be a little more desperate than others.  John Brennan knows that if they fail to stop Trump, his own justice might be waiting in the wings.

Focus in Spygate Scandal Shifts to CIA, Former Director Brennan.  More than 2½ years after President Donald Trump assumed office, focus on actions taken during the 2016 presidential campaign is starting to shift toward the CIA and its former director, John Brennan.  While some observers, including this publication, have pointed out for more than a year that Brennan appears to have played a key role in the scandal that's become known as Spygate, actions taken by Brennan and the CIA now appear to have become a central focus of investigators.  Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo that Justice Department Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz was "doing a very in-depth dive about the FISA warrant application" and "the behavior regarding the counterintelligence operation."

Obama Brennan coup involved State Dept., DOD, DNI, DOJ, CIA and FBI.  The coordinated efforts of the Obama Brennan Coup to spy on and destroy Donald Trump involved the highest levels of the State Department and Department of Defense.  It is now clear that the inner circle of the Obama White House, including the former President himself, were coordinators of the entire Russia hoax from inception through the Mueller inquisition.  From the start all the way up to the coming indictments.  That all elements of the senior departments of the major agencies of the United States Government were illegally weaponized to destroy a political opponent.  A coordinated assault on the constitution and the Republic.

Maria Bartiromo Outlines The Architect of "Spygate" and "Crossfire Hurricane", CIA Director John Brennan.  Among all media personalities Maria Bartiromo easily has the most comprehensive grasp of the 2016 operation against President Trump.  During two interviews today Bartiromo outlines the evidence that leads directly to the person at the origination point, former CIA Director John Brennan.  First, here's a mash-up of the two interviews (Senator Graham and John Solomon) where Bartiromo asks the same question.  [Video clip]

Brennan's Role in Russia Collusion Hoax Becomes Clearer.  The question of who knew the full scope of the Russia collusion hoax has, thus far, remained unanswered.  The bit players like Bruce Ohr and Peter Strzok seemed to understand their role in carrying out what Strzok called "the insurance policy", but surely someone knew what all the disparate moving pieces were doing.  As mentioned, that question is unanswered.  But there are candidates, one being former CIA Director John Brennan, who has popped back up again in the news as someone who, even if he turns out to be simply one of the moving pieces in the larger scheme to denigrate the Trump campaign with false allegations of Russia connections, may have perjured himself (again) before Congress nonetheless.

Did John Brennan Lie to Congress About 2016 Gang of Eight Briefings?  During an interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo Sunday morning, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) suggested that former CIA director John Brennan lied under oath to Congress in May 2017.  In written testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, Brennan claimed that he had briefed each member of the so-called Gang of Eight about "Russian attempts to interfere in the election" between August 11, 2016 and September 6, 2016.

Rand Paul:  Deep State Ignored Order to Pull John Brennan's Security Clearance.  Appearing Tuesday [6/4/2019] on CNN, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) slammed the intelligence community over a recent report claiming it defied an order from President Donald Trump to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan.

Geraldo Rivera:  AG Barr interview should have Comey, Clapper, Brennan 'quaking' in their boots.  Fox News correspondent at-large Geraldo Rivera is warning several Obama-era intelligence chiefs that they should be worried after Attorney General William Barr aired his concerns about the origins of the Mueller investigation in a new interview.  During an appearance on "Fox & Friends" Friday [5/31/2019], Rivera said it's clear Barr wants to get to the bottom of the Russia probe's origins and that he has "his target" on some of the biggest names associated with it.  "If I were James Comey right now or James Clapper right now or John Brennan right now, I would be quaking in my boots," Rivera said.

The Case for Prosecuting Comey and Brennan.  Twenty-five years ago, the Arnold Schwarzenegger action hit "True Lies" depicted a jealous husband abusing his access to powerful tools intended to fight terrorism to discover whether his wife was having an affair.  The character played by Tom Arnold lamely warns Schwarzenegger's Harry Tasker that using government surveillance to spy on his wife is a crime (which is true) and that abusing these tools could land them both in prison.  Tasker retorts that they violate the law all the time.  Once you have a person's search history, access to her emails, text messages, and listen to her phone calls, it's not hard to construct a blackmail scenario.  But that could never happen in real life, right?

Trump never revoked John Brennan's security clearance.  President Trump never revoked former CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance.  The president announced in August that Brennan's security clearance was being stripped due to "erratic behavior" that disqualified him from having access to sensitive information.  But the White House never followed through with the complicated bureaucratic process of revocation, a source told the New York Times.

Both Comey And Brennan Voted Communist While Cold War Was Raging.  The heads of Obama's FBI and CIA both voted for Communists during the Cold War, yet were somehow able to move up the ranks within the same US intelligence community that had spent decades fighting that very ideology.  Journalist Paul Sperry noted on Wednesday [5/15/2019] that former FBI Director James Comey admitted in a 2003 interview to having voted Communist before casting his ballot for Jimmy Carter in 1980.

Joe diGenova: 'John Brennan Is the Mastermind' of 'Conspiracy to Frame Donald Trump'.  "John Brennan has lost his security clearance," recalled diGenova, "much to the credit of the President of the United States, a good result for the American people."  DiGenova added, "Make no mistake about it, John Brennan is the mastermind of this conspiracy to frame Donald Trump and to steal his presidency from him after he was elected."

Why Are Clapper and Brennan Not in Jail?  Beginning in January 2017, Brennan and Clapper made essentially the same statements on national television.  The only possible excuse — that their allegations were lies — is irrelevant because the essence of the violation is the revelation that U.S intelligence was monitoring the communications of the Russians in America, and those of the Trump campaign as well.  This is true, and that revelation is a textbook violation of the Comint Statute.  The reasons no prosecutions have followed should be plain enough.  The offenders are big people, in the permanent government and in the Democratic Party.  They have a great many friends in the U.S Justice Department.  From the top down, the Trump Administration has been filled by much smaller people.  Loud words aside, the president has kowtowed to the intelligence agencies in every way imaginable.  No prominent Republican has chosen to challenge the de facto privileged relationship between Democrats in the intelligence agencies and the media.

Muslim Advocacy Group:  There's No Evidence That John Brennan Converted to Islam.  Former FBI Agent John Guandolo incited an Internet buzz this week by accusing John Brennan, President Barack Obama's nominee to lead the CIA, of secretly converting to Islam while working as the CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia from 1996 to 1999.  Guandolo's evidence was scant — largely that Brennan said during a public address that he "marveled at the majesty of the Hajj," something Guandolo says only could be done as a Muslim inside Mecca, a city that is off-limits to non-Muslims.

Brennan Attacks Bill Barr For Saying Obama Admin Spied on Trump's 2016 Campaign.  Former CIA Chief John Brennan, who is up to his eyeballs in Spygate, attacked Attorney General Bill Barr over his 'spying' allegation.  John Brennan was spooked after Attorney General Bill Barr said in a Senate hearing that the "upper echelon" of Obama's Intel agencies spied on Trump's 2016 campaign.  Yes, that includes John Brennan, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency — no wonder why he's panicking.

Here's The Full Story of How Obama, Hillary and Brennan Carried Out The Crime of the Century.  The "Operation Crossfire Hurricane" plot against President Donald Trump is now exposed for the world to see, with special counsel Robert Mueller coming up empty in his quest to pin Trump with Russian collusion or obstruction of justice.  We have explosive information about this scheme, including the involvement of former president Barack Obama, Obama intelligence officials John Brennan and James Clapper, failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok, the Fusion GPS set-up agent Natalia Veselnitskaya, and even foreign leaders including Angela Merkel.

'John Brennan, the Russia lie ringleader?'.  The best defense, the saying goes, is a good offense.  The key orchestrators of the Big Trump-Russia Collusion Lie seem to have hewed tightly to that tactical advice.  Over the past two years, one of their biggest "tells" has been their hyper-aggressive and gratuitous attacks on the president.  Given that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation found no collusion or obstruction of justice, their constant broadsides now look, in retrospect, like calculated pre-emptive strikes to deflect attention and culpability away from themselves.  By accusing Mr. Trump of what they themselves were guilty of, they created a masterful distraction through projection.

Rand Paul: 'Source' says John Brennan pushed discredited Steele dossier.  Citing a "high-level source," Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul charged in a bombshell Twitter post late Wednesday that anti-Trump ex-CIA Director John Brennan "insisted that the unverified and fake Steele dossier" be included in a classified intelligence community report on Russian interference in the 2016 elections — a decision that ultimately lent credibility to the dossier and may have played a key role in fomenting unfounded fears of Russia collusion for two years.  Paul called on Brennan to testify under oath immediately, as Republicans continue to aggressively seek out the origins of the collusion narrative.  Fox News had not independently verified Paul's source, and Brennan has not replied to Fox News' requests for comment.

MSM Journalists Turn on Obama CIA Director John Brennan.  Former Obama CIA Director John Brennan faced a day of reckoning on Monday [3/25/2019], after the Special Counsel investigation did not establish there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia after extensive investigation.  Although conservatives have long cast a wary eye at the former CIA director, whose hyper-partisan rants and high-profile role as a senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC and MSNBC went beyond the partisanship of previous CIA chiefs in recent memory, mainstream media journalists are now also questioning his credibility.

An intelligence failure.  Appearing on MSNBC a little over two weeks ago, former Obama administration CIA Director John Brennan foresaw a raft of indictments coming out of the heart of Robert Mueller's investigation.  From his position of service at the top of the Obama administration, Brennan was of course a key participant in the peddling of alleged Trump campaign collusion with Russia.  Since his departure from office, Brennan has revealed himself as a rabid left-wing partisan.

Who Do Our Intelligence Agencies Think They Work For?  [B]oth the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA have yet to fully recover from the Obama years.  Remember, John Brennan, an avowed Communist who voted for the Communist Party USA's presidential candidate in 1976, before he joined the CIA, was elevated to the director of that agency by Barack Obama.  Brennan used his power to press then-FBI Director James Comey to launch a politically motivated investigation of the Trump campaign based solely upon Russian-sourced opposition research paid for by Hillary Clinton's lawyers and the Democratic National Committee.  Obama's director of national intelligence, General James Clapper, likewise left a trail of politically motivated malfeasance, not least of which was his committing perjury in front of Congress over whether or not the NSA illegally spies on American citizens.

Words have meaning, John Brennan.  Has former CIA director John Brennan just made a very public threat against the physical well-being of the president of the United States?  Director Brennan often comes across as an angry, ignorant man and may have just displayed proof of both of those character traits in a nasty public statement.

Is John Brennan a traitor who willfully allowed 9/11 terrorists to enter the United States?  According to Freedom Outpost, Brennan was the CIA station chief in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, when the 9/11 hijackers were given visas to travel to the United States.  There are even reports he gave the final approval for those visas.  In September 2014, a whistleblower named Greg Ford, a former military intelligence officer, told Ground Zero Radio's Clyde Lewis that Brennan actually overrode CIA objections to the approval of those visas.

John Brennan's Disturbing Connection To 9/11 Will Forever Convince You He's A Traitor.  You probably don't need to be told that John Brennan is a very dirty player in Washington.  Everyone in the Obama administration was.  But is it possible that by revoking his security clearance, Trump also may have done far more than simply protect his administration from someone who may have been working with the deep state to overthrow his administration... but someone who has actively been plotting against the US for years?  Obama, Clinton, Kerry, Jarrett... far too many people in the previous administration had highly troubling ties to the terrorist state of Iran and in Obama's case, there is quite a bit of evidence pointing to the fact that he was a Muslim, a fact which remained in question throughout the entirety of his presidency and he did little to dispel by always referring to the Koran as "The Holy Koran" and the Bible simply as "the Bible."

CIA director John Brennan is a Muslim convert?  Peter Baker and Mark Mazzetti write for The New York Times that "in the 67 years since the C.I.A. was founded, few presidents have had as close a bond with their intelligence chiefs as Mr. Obama has forged with Mr. Brennan.  It is a relationship that has shaped the policy and politics of the debate over the nation's war with terrorist organizations, as well as the agency's own struggle to balance security and liberty."  Given Obama's special bond with Brennan, if the latter is a Muslim convert, there are troubling national security implications.  Brennan's questionable loyalty dates back to the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

Former Obama CIA Director John Brennan Praises Washed Up Athlete.  It's well established John Brennan is a weird one.  How a man who once voted for a communist to be President of the United States became head of the CIA is a story unto itself (See:  China) but just as confounding is how Mr. Brennan has conducted himself since riding into the proverbial has-been sunset.  The most recent example is his effusive praise of washed-up former NFL quarterback turned racist division-maker, Colin Kaepernick.  Mr. Kaepernick lost his starting position due to lackluster play and soon after he declared himself an anti-white and anti-police advocate who was then warmly embraced by the radical Black Lives Matter crowd.  Nike threw Kaepernick some "good boy" bucks for which Brennan is now glorifying as the Second Coming.

The Most Treasonous Thing John Brennan Ever Did.  It has long been rumored that John Owen Brennan, Obama's CIA Director, is a Muslim convert. [...] Whether Brennan truly is a Muslim convert, or not, I want to discuss something today that should make you very angry.  John Brennan was Chief of the CIA station in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at the time 9-11 hijackers had their visas approved.  And it is alleged that he gave the final approval.  [Audio clip]  Michael Springmann was the head of the visa bureau in Saudi Arabia at the time those visas, and numerous other questionable visas, were stamped.  In this interview, Springmann recounts the time when his decisions were consistently overruled and many highly questionable visas were being issued, against his recommendations.  [Video clip]

Bolton, in Israel, suggests Brennan may have misused classified info, warns of meddling by four countries.  National Security Adviser John Bolton on Sunday suggested that former CIA Director John Brennan might have misused classified information, and that the "unprecedented leaks" from the administration may prompt broader changes in how security clearances are handled.  Bolton was in Israel for the first time as a Trump administration official to discuss national security issues with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials.

Former CIA Director John Brennan Outlines Criminal Conspiracy Case Against Clinton, Fusion GPS, DOJ and FBI.  In a rather interesting part of last Friday's interview between former CIA Director John Brennan and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, Mr. Brennan outlined what makes a criminal conspiracy.  When you consider the issues surrounding Russian influence agent Oleg Deripaska and his centrality to many of the events, well, Brennan is actually — and ironically — outlining the criminal conspiracy of the DOJ and FBI.  [Video clip]

Flashback: When Democrats Demanded John Brennan Resign.  Former CIA Director John Brennan is being held as a martyr by the left after President Trump stripped his security clearance last week.  They're defending Brennan as a truth teller, even a whistleblower, and claiming Trump is infringing on Brennan's First Amendment rights by denying him access to classified information.  But it wasn't so long ago that Democrats felt very differently about Brennan.  In fact, a number of lawmakers on the left side of the aisle have called for his resignation in the past.

John Brennan Claims He Was Only Aware of Russia Dossier Because it Was in Media Reports.  Where have we heard this before?  Former CIA Director John Brennan claims he only became aware of Hillary's phony Russia dossier in December of 2016 because it was in the news. [...] It is unclear when exactly Brennan knew Christopher Steele began compiling the dossier, but his claims that he became aware of it because of media reports are utterly absurd.

8 Reasons John Brennan Is a "Clear and Present Danger' to National Security.  [#1] Brennan oversaw the Iran deal.  It was a horrendous deal, so bad that Ben Rhodes had to lie to sell it which he admitted to.  He was right there for Obama all those 11 times he catered to the world's worst dictators, including the Ayatollah.  Brennan covered up the truth about Benghazi and Libya in general.  As Foreign Policy Magazine wrote, it was a big lie.

Brennan [is] one of the biggest frauds in the history of America:  Giuliani.  Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's attorney, said Sunday he would "love" to have former CIA Director John Brennan under oath, after the ex-security chief said he was considering taking legal action due to his security clearance being revoked by the president last week.  "We take his deposition right away," Giuliani told Maria Bartiromo on "Sunday Morning Futures."  "As the plaintiff he'd have to go first.  I'd volunteer to do that case for the president.  I'd love to have Brennan under oath for two, three days.  We'll find out about Brennan and we'll find out what a terrible job he did."

John Brennan, a Security Risk from the Start.  The real story about John Brennan's security clearance is not that he lost it under a Republican president but that he once got one.  One of the peculiar footnotes of Brennan's history is that he obtained a position in Bill Casey's CIA after having supported the Soviet-backed American Communist Party at the height of the Cold War.  Had Casey conducted the polygraph test in which Brennan admitted to voting for Soviet proxy Gus Hall in 1976, Casey would have tossed him out of the office.  Casey hated communists.  Whoever hired Brennan must have been a Deep State holdover from the Carter years.  All of Brennan's propaganda about "Trump-Russian collusion" is just sour grapes over the loss of his preferred candidate, Hillary, for whom he was desperately auditioning by launching an unfounded investigation into her opponent, and a remnant of his pro-Soviet nostalgia.

Army Brigadier General blasts Brennan as a "clear and present danger" who wants to "overthrow" Trump.  Army Brig.  Gen. Anthony Tata said former CIA director John Brennan is a "clear and present danger" to the United States and wants to "overthrow" President Donald Trump on Fox News Thursday [8/16/2018].  Tata, who is now retired, said Brennan's tweets disparaging Trump and calling for his removal are enough to revoke his security clearance.

Brennan made himself the face of the resistance.  While it is true that the Communist John Brennan with his hard-nosed anger is a gift to President Trump, the fact is Brennan volunteered for the job.  He launched an unprecedented (at least I hope) espionage campaign against candidate Donald John Trump using the national security apparatus.  Since Brennan left office, he has threatened the president in ways that go well beyond criticizing a president's policy or performance.  He has warned the president of reprisals from people inside the government.  His tweets are hilariously inane, the ramblings of a man no longer moored to reality.

John Brennan:  Political Hack.  Six months after the attacks on US personnel in Benghazi, Libya, several of the survivors flew to Washington, D.C., to attend a memorial service for those who died there.  They expected to see old colleagues, to reminisce about their shared experiences, to mourn the passing of their friends.  They did not expect to be handed new, legally unnecessary nondisclosure agreements. [...] The NDAs were meant to silence those with information that would expose the Obama administration's misleading Benghazi narrative.  Remarkably, in a letter to congressional oversight committees four months later, Brennan denied even presenting the Benghazi survivors with NDAs to sign.  "Has any officer, either staff of contractor, been required to sign any non-disclosure agreement because of their presence at Benghazi or their participation in any activity related to the Benghazi attacks?"  Brennan's unqualified response?  "No."

Brennan and the Security Clearance.  The reality is that John Brennan never should have been named to head the CIA.  Only an Obama could pick such a dubious character for such a sensitive role.  The guy voted for Gus Hall — the Soviet Communists — in a Presidential election when the Democrats offered an alternative to the GOP.  No matter how much Brennan may have changed from his Soviet Communist inclinations — if he changed — he never should have been made head of the CIA.  Without getting ad hominem, honestly there is something objectively not normal about him. [...] [W]hen a previous CIA head calls the President of the United States a "traitor," either formal charges must be proffered and the trial begun, or the maniac typing those frenzied words must be deemed a nut-job whose access to state secrets and national intelligence must be withdrawn immediately.

Ex-CIA Director Brennan shouldn't have a security clearance — He's a national security risk.  Former CIA Director John Brennan is a serious national security risk, and President Trump was wise and correct to revoke his security clearance Wednesday [8/15/2018].  Brennan has repeatedly shown he cannot be trusted with classified or top-secret information.  He has a history of leaking and exploiting confidential material for partisan reasons.  Maybe it keeps him on TV, but it also jeopardizes national security.  The primary job of the agency Brennan ran for President Obama is to collect, process, and analyze intelligence information from all over the world.  This valuable material is then utilized to protect Americans from harm.  However, Brennan has demonstrated that he is all too willing to use this information to harm Americans, including President Trump.  He did so in the 2016 presidential election.

Actually, Brennan Should Be In Jail Right Now.  [S]ecurity clearances involve principles precisely opposite to those of free speech.  In fact, it is a felony to violate security clearance rules in order to "speak out."  [...] Stifling speech is the entire point of security and clearances.

John Brennan:  I Didn't Mean That Trump Committed Treason When I Said That Trump Committed Treason.  Former Obama CIA Director and alleged puppet master of the Trump-Russia conspiracy accused President Trump of acting treasonous after the president met with Vladimir Putin in Finland. [...] On Friday night [8/17/2018] Brennan told Rachel Maddow he didn't mean that Trump committed treason when he accused him of treason.

Gen. Tata: 'Communist John Brennan' Never Should Have Had a Security Clearance.  U.S. Army Brigadier Gen. Anthony Tata (Ret.) said President Trump was justified in revoking the security clearance of John Brennan, who Tata described as a "clear and present danger" to the nation.  Trump on Wednesday [8/15/2018] revoked the former CIA director's clearance, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders announced, saying Brennan "has a history that calls his credibility into question."  In response, Brennan tweeted hours later:  "This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech & punish critics.  It should gravely worry all American's, [sic] including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out.  My principles are worth far more than clearances.  I will not relent."

Brennan Called Trump "Treasonous" But He Didn't Mean "Treasonous".  Remember when the former CIA director John Brennan said the President meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki was treasonous?  He was very specific and he clearly meant the meeting was "treasonous" and the President was a traitor.  It was an imbecilic comment for a former CIA director to make when it would in no way met the constitutional definition.  Just the same, people took it seriously with 216,000 'liking' it and nearly 100,000 retweeting it, sending fake news around the world.  Brennan tweeted about the so-called "treason" on July 16 of this year.

He has not a leg to stand on.
Brennan: I'm 'Thinking About' Taking Legal Action over Security Clearance Revocation.  On Friday's [8/17/2018] broadcast of MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show," former CIA Director John Brennan stated that he has heard from lawyers who say "there is a very strong case" to take legal action to prevent the president from revoking more security clearances like he did Brennan's.  Brennan also said he is "thinking about what it is that I might want to do."

Special ops shoot down Brennan and his defenders: 'You put your politics before us'.  John Brennan rallied numerous high-powered defenders to his corner over his security clearance clash with President Trump, but some well-known special ops heroes are firing back suggesting the former CIA director got what he deserves.  Kris "Tanto" Paronto, a former Army Ranger and private security contractor who was part of the CIA team that fought back during the 2012 Benghazi terror attack, accused Brennan of putting his "politics" before those in the field.  "He is lucky the security clearance is all he is getting away with," Paronto told Fox News in an interview on Friday [8/17/2018].

Trump revokes ex-CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance.  President Trump has revoked the security clearance for former CIA Director John Brennan, the White House announced Wednesday, in the first decision to come from a review of access for several top Obama-era intelligence and law enforcement officials.  White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders read a statement on behalf of the president during the start of the press briefing, saying Brennan "has a history that calls his credibility into question."  The statement also claimed Brennan had been "leveraging" the clearance to make "wild outbursts" and claims against the Trump administration in the media.

Joe diGenova:  "A Glorious Day for America.  An Evil Man Has Lost Something He's Not Entitled To".  Former US Attorney from the District of Columbia Joe diGenova joined Lou Dobbs on Wednesday night following the news that former CIA Chief John Brennan had his security clearance revoked.  For months crazy John Brennan attacked the sitting US president.  On Wednesday [8/15/2018], Sarah Sanders announced President Trump revoked ex-CIA Chief John Brennan's security clearance during a press briefing.

Trump pulls security clearance of ex-CIA director Brennan.  President Donald Trump on Wednesday revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, who has become a harsh critic of the president, and appeared to be targeting others who have disagreed with the administration.  "Mr. Brennan's lying and recent conduct characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary is wholly inconsistent with access to the nation's most closely held secrets and facilities, the very aim of our adversaries which is to sow division and chaos," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, reading a statement from Trump while briefing reporters on Wednesday [8/17/2018].

The Ten Most Hateful Americans and Why they Matter.  [#3] John Brennan was Obama's CIA director who once voted for Communist Gus Hall for president.  This Deep State denizen, who many believe helped organized the Obama spying on the Trump camp during the election, is suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.  Following Trump's meeting with Putin, he tweeted "Donald Trump's press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of "high crimes & misdemeanors."  It was nothing short of treasonous."  Treasonous?  What about Obama's bromance with Putin and using the IRS to interfere in the 2012 elections and DOJ/FBI/CIA in 2016?

Dear Mr. Brennan,.  I understand that you are a political opponent of the current President of the United States.  I understand that you are an American citizen, and you have the right to freedom of speech.  I encourage you to utilize that right.  I encourage you to speak your mind.  I encourage you, as I do all Americans, to be heard.  I implore you, however to cease and desist from continuing to attempt to portray yourself in the public media as some sort of impartial critic concerned only with the fate of the republic.  I beg you to stop attempting to portray yourself as some sort of wise, all-knowing intelligence professional with deep knowledge of national security issues and no political inclinations whatsoever.  None of this is true.  You were never a spy.  You were never a case officer.  You never ran operations or recruited sources or worked the streets abroad.  You have no idea whatsoever of the true nature of the business of human intelligence.  You have never been in harm's way.  You have never heard a shot fired in anger.  You were for a short while an intelligence analyst.  In that capacity, it was your job to produce finished intelligence based on information provided to you by others.  The work of intelligence analysts is important, however in truth you never truly mastered this trade either.

The Brennan Factor Revisited.  Following former Obama administration CIA Director John Brennan on Twitter, we see his animus nakedly on display.  He is demented by hatred.  Is this really the public role a former Director of the CIA is to be playing?

Sebastian Gorka:  John Brennan Is A "Traitor" & "Communist".  Dr. Sebastian Gorka is a brilliant man whose foreign policy/history credentials are impeccable.  Gorka has become a favorite punching bag of the left in recent years because of his defense of President Trump's foreign policy ideas.  Gorka became such a lightning rod for criticism that he was forced out of the Trump administration, but he can still be found going toe-to-toe with liberals on how America should act abroad.  Gorka's most recent foil was former Obama-era CIA Director John Brennan.  Brennan most recently attacked the President for daring to spend time with Russian President, Vladimir Putin.  Brennan went so far as to call Trump's behavior "treasonous."  Which led Gorka to deliver this scathing rebuke of the far-left former intel chief. [...]

Rand Paul:  Brennan Was the Most Biased, Bigoted, Unhinged CIA Director.  Wednesday [7/18/2018] on Fox News Channel's "Newsroom," Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) reacted to comments from former CIA Director John Brennan, who called Trump's performance at a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin treasonous.  Paul said, "You know John Brennan started out his adulthood by voting for the Communist Party presidential candidate.  He is now ending his career by showing himself to be the most biased, bigoted, over-the-top, hyperbolic, sort of unhinged director of the CIA we have ever had.  It really is an insult to everything about our government to have a former head of the CIA calling the President treasonous just because he doesn't like him."

John Brennan, Melting Down and Covering Up.  It isn' t a pretty face, but one scarred from a dark past, repackaged now by the frenzy of "resistance."  Accusing Donald Trump recklessly, implying he knows more than he lets on, promising redemption:  John Brennan is the face of American politics in 2018.  But before all that, Brennan lived in a hole about as far down into the deep state as one can dwell while still having eyes that work in the sunlight.  He was director of the Central Intelligence Agency.  He was Obama's counterterrorism advisor, helping the president decide who to kill every week, including American citizens.  He spent 25 years at the CIA, and helped shape the violent policies of the post-9/11 Bush era.  He was a fan of torture and extrajudicial killing to the point that a 2012 profile of him was entitled, "The Seven Deadly Sins of John Brennan."  Another writer called Brennan "the most lethal bureaucrat of all time, or at least since Henry Kissinger."  Today, however, a New York Times puff piece sweeps all that away as a "troubling inheritance."

Senator Rand Paul Meeting With Trump to Request John Brennan's Security Clearance Be Revoked.  Senator Rand Paul will be meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday afternoon to request that disgraced former CIA Director John Brennan have his security clearance revoked.  Brennan has been working in the media and bashing Trump for airtime, even accusing the president of treason following the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a series of unhinged tweets.

John Brennan Misses Communist Russia.  John Brennan's anti-Trump tweets grow more and more maniacal.  His latest tweet holds that Donald Trump's Russian diplomacy in Helsinki "rises to & exceeds the threshold of 'high crimes & misdemeanors.'  It was nothing short of treasonous."  That tells people all they need to know about the unseriousness of the left's impeachment drive, not to mention exposing once again the demented malice behind the Obama administration's spying on the Trump campaign.  The unhinged criticism is also hilariously rich, given that John Brennan, who supported the Soviet-controlled American Communist Party, meets the textbook definition of a useful idiot for the Russians.  At the height of the Cold War, he was rooting for the Reds, casting his vote in 1976 for Gus Hall, the American Communist Party's presidential candidate.  If anyone is adept at serving as a dupe for the Russians, it is John Brennan.

Trump blasts John Brennan as a 'very bad guy' after ex-CIA chief accused him of 'treason' and demanded his impeachment.  President Trump turned on the ex-CIA director who accused of treason after his meeting with Vladimir Putin, telling Fox News in an interview airing Tuesday [7/17/2018]:  'I think he's a very bad person.'  He slammed John Brennan repeatedly in comments released from his interview with Tucker Carlson, which he recorded immediately after one with the network's Sean Hannity.  'I think Brennan is a very bad guy, and if you look at it, a lot of things happened under his watch,' Trump told Carlson.  'I think he's a very bad person.'

CIA Brennan Might Have to Answer for Perjury, Planning a Coup.  Devin Nunes plans to investigate former CIA director John Brennan and he is in jeopardy for possibly committing perjury.  There is also the coup he promoted.  Devin Nunes plans to release more information and more memos.  The next one will expose corruption in the State Department.  The Department was integral to launching the FBI Trump-Russia probe.  Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and all their minions routinely lied and there was never any accountability.  It was a big joke.  All Brennan had to say when he lied under oath to Congress was the administration's intelligence services might have spied on Americans "unwittingly".  If he is investigated for perjury, they will find it.  Brennan was very involved in the dissemination of the dossier under illicit circumstances.

Exclusive: CIA Ex-Director Brennan's Perjury Peril.  House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes next plans to investigate the role former CIA Director John Brennan and other Obama intelligence officials played in promoting the salacious and unverified Steele dossier on Donald Trump — including whether Brennan perjured himself in public testimony about it.  In his May 2017 testimony before the intelligence panel, Brennan emphatically denied the dossier factored into the intelligence community's publicly released conclusion last year that Russia meddled in the 2016 election "to help Trump's chances of victory."

Self-hatred?
CIA Director Bemoans Growing Up 'A White Male from New Jersey'.  Director John Brennan said growing up a "white male from New Jersey" led him to his strong promotion of gay rights in the Central Intelligence Agency, which included his wearing a rainbow lanyard around Langley to show he is an LGBTQ ally.  In his final interview as head of the CIA, Brennan told the Wall Street Journal that he hopes his legacy is the "way he fought to nurture a workforce that reflected America's diversity."

John Brennan is completely unqualified to be Director of Central Intelligence.  Allegations that Brennan is a convert to Islam are based upon firsthand reports of those who served with him in Saudi Arabia.  Those allegations include that Brennan was the target of a Saudi intelligence influence operation, one outcome of which was Brennan's conversion to Islam.  At that time, Brennan was chief of station, a billet that is designed for an operationally trained officer with experience in the CIA's Directorate of Operations, which Brennan was not.  Brennan's background is that of an analyst, which may explain why he lacked the sophistication and experience to understand that he was being played by the Saudis in an influence operation.  Anyone so inept as to be oblivious to basic hostile intelligence tactics such as this influence operation is unqualified to be DCI.

Brilliant — Congressman King Calls for Investigation of CIA Head John Brennan.  It is remarkable how disingenuous, and hypocritical, partisan democrats (and media) become with the issue of manipulation and intents of CIA Chief John Brennan.  Everyone reading here is old enough to remember Democrat Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Diane Feinstein, accusing Brennan of lying to her and congress; and worse yet, accusing Brennan of illegally hacking into, and spying on, her staff and congressional oversight personnel.  Now, however, all of a sudden, John Brennan is the bastion of intelligence integrity.  Ridiculous.  Thankfully, not everyone has forgotten.

CIA Director:  Terrorist Groups 'Are Driven by This Ideology That Is Not Rooted in Islam.  CIA Director John Brennan said Wednesday "words or comments that taint a religion as being the source of the problem" are "detrimental to our interests" in dealing with the Muslim world.  Brennan argued incendiary remarks about Islam do not help "to arrest this cancer that has taken over so many of the communities because of a lot of the underlying conditions that exist within the Middle East and Africa, South Asia areas because of economic deprivation, political disenfranchisement, lack of opportunity."  He said that "fanatics, extremists and terrorists ... are driven by this ideology that is not rooted in Islam."

Did Barack Obama Vote Communist in 1980?  A fascinating tidbit was reported by CNN:  Barack Obama's CIA director, John Brennan, recently reminisced about being asked a standard question for a security clearance in his early days applying to the agency:  Had he ever worked with or for a group that was dedicated to overthrowing the United States of America?  Of course, one group dedicated to overthrowing America had been Lenin's group, Stalin's group, Khrushchev's group, Brezhnev's group — Communist Party USA.  Yeah, but that couldn't have any relevance here, right?  Think again.  Brennan certainly did.

CIA Director John Brennan Admitted Voting For the Communist Party in 1980 During Polygraph.  A stunning admission.  Made even more stunning when you consider what the climate was at the time between Russia and the United States.  Remember, '70-'80 is the peak soviet era of intensely hardline psychological communism.

CIA Director John Brennan Proudly Acknowledges That He Once Voted for a Communist.  As most people know, joining the intelligence community means that one has to explain and be honest about one's former peccadillos.  One must also be aware of what figures in government spied against their own country in the past.  Some years ago, as a CIA study of the Alger Hiss case noted, President Clinton's nominee to head the CIA was rejected partially because of what he said about Soviet spy Alger Hiss: [...] Last week, however, CNN reporter Tal Kopan found a striking admission from CIA Director John Brennan.

Polygraph panic: CIA director fretted his vote for communist.  At his first polygraph test to enter the CIA, the future director had a secret.  John Brennan on Thursday recalled being asked a standard question for a top security clearance at his early CIA lie detector test:  Have you ever worked with or for a group that was dedicated to overthrowing the US?  "I froze," Brennan said during a panel discussion about diversity in the intelligence community at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's annual conference.  "This was back in 1980, and I thought back to a previous election where I voted, and I voted for the Communist Party candidate,"

It Was John Brennan Himself Who Halted LEO Training on Islam, Jihad.  As I reported earlier this week, John Brennan is the person who — after U.S. Muslim groups demanded he do so — "purged" all mention of Islam and jihad from law enforcement counter-terror training materials in 2011.  A chief reason that the Islamic State's "global reach" has not been reduced is because the U.S. has failed to identify, confront, and oppose the ideology that has enabled it to amass "a large cadre of Western fighters."  That ideology has spread unchecked in the U.S. in large part because Brennan didn't think it was worth teaching law enforcement about it.  The enforcement of his "purge" edict has been thorough.  Intelligence and law enforcement agents training to counter terrorist threats today are taught all about militiamen and white supremacists — but they hear nary a word about the beliefs, motives, and goals of Islamic jihadists.  Unless they educate themselves on their own, our agents have no training on what jihadis are intent on doing and why.  They are left abjectly incapable of devising effective strategies for countering them.

The Feckless Mismanagement Of John Brennan, CIA's Captain Unreality.  [Scroll down] That this CIA director would say something so preposterous is symptomatic of the damage the Obama administration has done to our national security with his assistance.  It also is not the only example of Mr. Brennan's denying the obvious.  He has repeatedly echoed President Obama's refusal to use the terms "jihadist" or "Islamist" to describe members of Islamic terrorist groups like al-Qaida and ISIS.  He explained this in a 2010 CSIS speech by disputing ties between these groups and Islam.  Brennan also said in this speech that we should not label "our enemy as jihadists or Islamists because jihad is holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam meaning to purify oneself of one's community."  Brennan had a controversial tenure as President Obama's assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism in the National Security Council.  He played a role in the administration's decision to read Miranda rights to Umar Abdulmutallab, the so-called "underwear bomber" who tried to destroy a civilian airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

Obama's CIA Director Is Opposed to Spying .  Unbelievable, but true:  President Obama's CIA Director, John Brennan, doesn't think the agency should engage in spying. He finds espionage unsavory, apparently. [...] Barack Obama has undermined our national security on so many fronts that it is hard to keep track of them all.  But appointing the rank incompetent John Brennan as an anti-spying CIA Director must rank high on the list.

20 watchdog groups call for Brennan's resignation.  A coalition of 20 transparency and ethics watchdog groups are fed up with CIA Director John Brennan's leadership and are calling on President Obama to ask him to step down.  The group, which includes the Project on Government Oversight, the Sunlight Foundation and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, among many others, on Tuesday [8/12/2014] accused the CIA of abusing its power and obstructing the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation into agency's use of torture in the years following the Sept. 11 attacks.  In a letter to President Obama, the groups, which includes a number of left-leaning organizations, argued that the CIA has repeatedly tried to conceal and obstruct oversight of its detention and interrogation practices.

Does John Brennan Know Too Much for Obama to Fire Him?  It's difficult to cross man with details on every secret drone strike you've authorized — especially the legally dubious ones.

Obama remains confident in CIA head John Brennan despite Senate spying.  President Obama remains confident in CIA Director John Brennan's leadership despite an independent investigation that concluded that the agency had overreached its authority by spying on Senate staffers.  White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the findings had not diminished Brennan's standing in the administration.  When asked whether it damaged his authority or credibility in any way, Earnest said:  "Absolutely not."

CIA confesses: Yeah, we hacked the Senate's computers.  In March, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) revealed that CIA Director John Brennan told her that the intelligence agency he leads had improperly accessed Senate computers and secretly removed classified documents while the agency's War on Terror interrogation tactics were under investigation.  Feinstein alleged that Brennan told her the CIA took that action because the agency believed the Senate might have accessed documents that they were not authorized to see.  In a statement, Brennan said the Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman had leveled "spurious allegations about CIA actions that were wholly unsupported by the facts."  While he confessed that the agency had made mistakes, the CIA director insisted that there was no merit to the charge that the agency had spied on members of Congress.

Senate Now Mad at CIA Director? How About When He Was A Leaker on National Security?  Two Democratic senators, Mark Udall (D-CO) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), have called on CIA Director John Brennan to resign after he admitted that the CIA had spied on Senate computers used by Senate staffers to research a report on the agency's interrogation and detention practices during the Bush administration.  Brennan apparently called Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to apologize.  Despite this admission, however, neither President Obama nor Feinstein has called for Brennan's resignation and the likelihood is the president won't.

CIA Chief: Jihad a Product of Injustices, Economics, and Ignorance.  CIA director John Brennan is at it again — equivocating over the nature of jihad by evoking paradigms familiar to the West.  Last Tuesday [3/11/2014], "during an event at the Council of Foreign Relations, Brennan was asked about the 'war of ideas' surrounding Islam, which the questioner said many Americans tend to equate with violence."  The CIA chief responded by saying that al-Qaeda's ideology is "a perverse and very corrupt interpretation of the Qur'an"; that "al-Qaeda has hijacked" Islam; that "they have really distorted the teachings of Muhammad."

John Brennan: From Mecca to Washington.  Whether or not Brennan had a moment of submission on the road to Mecca or whether he is simply acting as a useful idiot for the people who perpetrated the attacks of September 11, he is not qualified to be the point man in the War on Terror.  As the military side of the war draws to a close with a defeat in Afghanistan, the Central Intelligence Agency will take on a greater degree of importance in the fight against Islamic terrorism.  During the Cold War, the CIA was often infiltrated by the KGB, nullifying America's intelligence capabilities in the Cold War. It would be a terrible shame if history repeated itself with Islam in the War on Terror.

What Did John Brennan Know?  If a thorough investigation is conducted into the origins of the al-Qaida attacks on Benghazi, Republicans will regret not blocking John Brennan's confirmation as CIA director.

CIA Chief Brennan takes oath on draft Constitution — with no Bill of Rights.  "Bad optics" as they say in the political business.  Not that it matters.  Even if Brennan had taken an oath on the Constitution with the Bill of Rights included, does anyone think that would stop him from making a mockery of the document if the president ordered him to?

Brennan's Oath.  Has anyone bothered to read the Federalist lately?  Publius (Hamilton) in Federalist 84 makes the case that a bill of rights is unnecessary and perhaps even dangerous to the liberties protected by the Constitution.  C'mon, people, maybe Brennan is a Hamiltonian.  Or maybe Brennan is, as the rumor has it, a Muslim, allegedly converted while serving in Saudi Arabia, and avoiding the use of a Bible for that reason.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, as they say, though it would be nice to know where he's coming from.

John Brennan's Spooky Swearing-In.  [Scroll down]  How can you take an oath on the Constitution to defend the Constitution?  Normally, one takes an oath with his hand on a Bible, or a Koran, on some other Scripture one holds sacred.  Taking an oath to defend the Constitution by putting your hand on the Constitution is a skyhook.  It is supported by nothing else.  It neatly avoids the central question:  Is this a valid oath?  Can we rely on a person who creates such a stir by the simple act of taking an oath of office?

The Islamic cloud over Brennan and Hagel.  [Scroll down]  The report stated that Mr. Brennan was converted to Islam while CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia from 1996 to '99.  Let's be clear:  In America, a man's religion can never be a condition to his holding a government position.  It is protected by both the First Amendment and Article 6 of the Constitution.  Therefore, even if it is true that he converted, Mr. Brennan's religion should not be an issue.  However, [...] what should be an issue was the Saudis' targeted recruitment of Mr. Brennan to the ideology of Islam while he was serving as the CIA station chief in Riyadh.  This was not just a conversion but a political act by a foreign intelligence service.  If verified, this would indicate Mr. Brennan's susceptibility, whether witting or unwitting, to manipulation by a foreign intelligence entity.

The spook who couldn't see the perils of jihad.  John Brennan, President Obama's nominee for CIA director, does not believe we are at war with jihadists because "jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one's community, and there's nothing holy, legitimate, or Islamic about murdering innocent men and women."  On May 26, 2010, speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Mr. Brennan said, "Nor do we describe our enemy as jihadists or Islamists."  That is Mr. Brennan's view, but how about the view of the Islamist enemies who are fighting us?

Senators Push Brennan on Misleading Testimony.  On Tuesday [2/12/2013], two Republicans on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Marco Rubio and James Risch, wrote to Brennan to request additional information concerning Ali Harzi, a suspect in the attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi.  Brenan, in an exchange with Rubio, had said of Harzi that the U.S. government "didn't have anything on him."  The claim is almost certainly false.

Brennan Signals 'Our Saudi Partners'.  When President Obama met Saudi King Abdullah in London in 2009, the former bowed low before the latter.  No American president had ever so abased himself before one of the world's most oppressive rulers before.  Now, Mr. Obama has nominated John Brennan to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency. [...] When he spoke of Jerusalem — his "most loved city in the world" — he referred to it first by its Arabic name, al Quds.  Nobody refers to Jerusalem as al Quds unless he wants to send a signal:  "I agree with you."

The next Director of the CIA calls Jerusalem... "Al Quds".  Aside from his hippy past, and his horrible, obsequious Arabic, the thing that made me most uncomfortable about Brennan's whole paean to Islam is the fact that he said "Palestine" twice and never said Israel, and when he finally felt compelled to say Jerusalem, after saying "Al Quds" twice he sounded like he was either going to spit or apologize for mentioning the word Jerusalem in the presence of his audience.

Dangerous Times: John Brennan's Black Ops .  John Brennan is an open Israel-hater who was National Security Advisor for the last four years, in charge of White House-directed secret ops, and has now been nominated to head the CIA, the most visible post in the jungle of US intelligence.  Brennan is the covert operations meister for the most leftist administration in US history.  Unless the US Senate comes to its senses, Brennan will be Secret Puppeteer in Chief.  With characters like John Kerry and Chuck Hagel heading the anti-Israel parade, John Brennan is trying to slip under the radar.

Barack Obama's choice for CIA chief 'converted to Islam' former FBI agent claims.  The incoming head of the CIA converted to Islam while working as a station chief in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s, a former FBI agent has claimed.  John Guandolo, who retired from the FBI in 2008, said in a radio interview that John Brennan — who has been nominated by Barack Obama as the new director of the CIA — visited the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina accompanied by Saudi officials who may have persuaded him to convert.

Emerson, IPT Expose Brennan Letter: FBI Training 'Substandard and Offensive' to Muslims.  Steven Emerson and the Investigative Project on Terrorism have revealed that on Oct. 19, 2011, Muslim Advocates President and Executive Director Farhana Khera sent a letter to Chief Counterterrorism Advisor John Brennan, listing numerous Islamic-based grievances against the FBI.  On Nov. 3, 2011, Brennan capitulated and began a fundamental change of FBI practices.

Oppose Brennan for CIA Director.  To cut to the chase, a country that was serious about its national security would never put John Brennan in charge of its premier intelligence service.  Of course, it is by no means clear that the United States is any longer a serious country in this regard.

Brennan's Surrender.  We've seen the enemy and it's not just the jihadists.  It's also our own government, which refuses to see this very real enemy.  How can we fight and defeat what we refuse to see?

The Great Hezbollah Snipe Hunt.  John Brennan, deputy national security adviser for homeland security, has come up with a new way to waste the foreign-policy establishment's time — locate the so-called "moderate elements" within Hezbollah and somehow promote them.

Chuck Hagel

America's Recessional: President Obama's Legacy.  Hagel was a leading critic of the war in Iraq, after he voted to fully entangle the U.S. in Iraq's endless tribal conflicts.  As president, Mr. Obama surely knew that Hagel could serve as a kennel-fed "Republican" and a heat shield, presiding over the decline in U.S. military strength and purpose.

What Hagel's exit means.  Whether he was fired or voluntarily resigned, Chuck Hagel's decision signified only one thing:  Barack Obama no longer enjoys the confidence of the American military establishment.  Basically, Sergeant Hagel resigned because his generals either would not or could not.

Why Did President Obama Appoint Chuck Hagel In The First Place?  First, notwithstanding Hagel's prior management experience in the private sector, the USO and the Veteran's Administration, it is clear that what the administration really wanted was a Republican who would preside over declining defense spending to provide political cover. [...] Second, while it is probably true that new leadership is necessary in the fight against ISIL, the problem seems to be less with the Pentagon's civilian head but with the commander-in-chief and his close advisors.

How Do You Spell Scapegoat? H-A-G-E-L.  So Chuck Hagel has been fired as defense secretary.  We were critical of his appointment, and opposed his confirmation by the Senate.  But let's be clear:  Hagel has done what he was asked and what was expected of him at the Pentagon.  To the degree he has deviated from the Obama White House line, he's been more right than wrong (e.g., on the threat the Islamic State poses).  So why has he been fired?  Because the Obama White House needs a scapegoat.

Exploring the options to replace Chuck Hagel as defense secretary.  Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is stepping down under pressure.  The news emerged Monday morning, just a couple hours before an expected announcement by President Obama.  It isn't a complete shock — Hagel has long been derided as indecisive — but it amounts to one of the most significant administration shake-ups in Obama's time in the White House.  Who could replace Hagel?

Aren't we all?
John McCain: Chuck Hagel Was 'Very Very Frustrated' With Obama.  Sen. John McCain says:  "I thank Chuck Hagel for his service, and I know that he was very, very frustrated."  McCain, expected to become chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee in January, was reacting to news that President Obama is forcing Secretary of Defense Hagel to resign.

Obama Forces Chuck Hagel Out: 'He Wasn't Up To The Job'.  President Obama is forcing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel out of his administration after less than a year on the job according to multiple reports.  The New York Times broke the news early Monday morning, reporting that Hagel was resigning "under pressure" and was quickly confirmed by administration sources.  According to NBC News, senior defense officials said that Hagel was forced to resign.  "He wasn't up to the job," one senior official said.

Stop Giving Obama Radicals the Benefit of the Doubt.  Consider Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.  As Jonathan Tobin has noted, Hagel had two qualifications that resulted in his nomination for Secretary of Defense — his distaste for Israel and his willingness to make nice with Hamas and Iran.  Nevertheless, most media outlets focused on Obama's bipartisan willingness to nominate the former Republican senator from Nebraska.  His extremist views toward Israel were largely ignored.

Hagel confirmation vote looms despite myriad controversies.  Critics have accused Hagel of being anti-Semitic, overtly hostile to Israel, and cozy with Iran's ruling regime, which has endorsed him.  The nominee has also faced questions about his failure to disclose multiple speeches and his financial entanglements, which include ties to a number of foreign governments.

Farrakhan: Hagel Says What I've Been Saying for 30 YearsNational Review Online reports that Chuck Hagel has been endorsed by Louis Farrakhan.  The Nation of Islam head likes Hagel because he sounds just like himself.

Farrakhan Endorses Hagel.  Defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel has a new supporter:  Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.  Speaking to thousands of supporters at an annual Nation of Islam convention, Farrakhan "decried" the death of Muammar Gaddafi and stated his support for Hagel, according to DNA Info.

Caligula's Horse.  Chuck Hagel easily proved himself unfit to be secretary of defense during his nomination hearing.  Not only was he ignorant of fundamental aspects of the job, but his positions on some of the critical defense issues of the day are preposterous if not dangerous.  No one disputes that his performance at the hearing was the worst and most embarrassing of any nominee for any prominent position in memory.  Yet by all reports he will be our next secretary of defense.  Why?

Hagel Stonewalls, Refuses to Grant Access to Archive.  Chuck Hagel's archive is housed here at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.  But despite his nomination for secretary of defense, reporters, as well as the public writ large, are being denied access to the thousands of papers, speeches, audio and video files, and artifacts in the archive.

Our Incorrigible Media.  For the last several weeks, as you are no doubt aware, the Washington Free Beacon and other news outlets — most of them conservative — have been investigating secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel's positions, finances, associations, career history, and utterances.  Which seems to us to be precisely what you would expect an intrepid and creative and entrepreneurial press to do when the president of the United States nominates a controversial former senator to one of the most important cabinet posts in the land.

Hidden Hagel 2008 Speech Surfaces: No Attack on Iran Even if Israel Threatened.  New footage of a speech by Chuck Hagel in 2008 has surfaced, in which the former Senator mocked the idea of continuing the U.S. policy of confronting Iran and supporting Israel.

Friday News Dump: Partial Hagel Donor List Includes Saudis, Turkey.  The Atlantic Council, chaired by former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), released a list late Friday evening [2/8/2013] of corporate donors as well as foreign governments that had funded it over the past five years.  The list did not shed light on individuals such as Saad Hariri, whose family has given generously to the Atlantic Council and who has supported the Hamas terror organization publicly, as well as offering financial support to Syrian rebels.

Hagel Went to Five Colleges, Was 'D' Student; Media Oblivious.  The media have shown some skepticism over Hagel's qualifications after his poor showing in his Jan. 31 confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.  But they have shown little interest in his checkered academic background, and certainly none of the derision they once poured upon Sarah Palin.

More Hagel Speeches Emerge, Suggesting he Misled Senate.  In fact, there are many additional speeches "out there," and they show Hagel's long-standing devotion to the view that the U.S. should "engage" Iran and back away from traditional support for Israel.

Big Job: Wrong Man.  [Chuck Hagel] did so badly in the confirmation hearings that, as Stephen Hayes writes, "any senator who takes the advise-and-consent role seriously had to have real concerns about [Hagel's] basic competence."  Still, presidents are entitled to appoint the people they want, you think, even when they are, manifestly, not the best possible choice or even up to the job.

Harry Reid Set Precedent for Disclosure of Hagel's Foreign Funders.  Senate majority leader Harry Reid helped set the precedent for looking into foreign backers when, in 2002, he demanded that Henry Kissinger reveal the source of his funders before serving on the 9/11 Commission.  Kissinger refused to release his own documents, and therefore did not serve on the commission.  It's relevant now because Chuck Hagel, who has been nominated as secretary of defense, is not fully disclosing his own foreign financial dealings.

Will Chuck Hagel Be Obama's Pentagon Downsizer-In-Chief?  Chuck Hagel's record in the Senate is a problem, but just as troubling is his failure to explain how he'll keep America strong within an administration that's bent on shrinking the military.

Chuck should be toast, not just roast.  Hagel's nomination now is an embarrassment.  If he does not fully and completely disclose foreign sources of income, his nomination should be withdrawn.

Maybe Mr. Hagel didn't know there would be a confirmation hearing.
Hagel in the Headlights.  Former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel went through a whole day of questioning in his quest to be the next Secretary of Defense by delivering fumbling, nearly incoherent remarks, flip-flopping on his long record of opposition to Israel and toughness against terrorists (including Iran) faster than a freshly-caught fish.

Levin: What Kind of Commander-in-Chief Would Nominate Chuck Hagel?  "Well, the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated our government, it's called Barack Obama.  No, he's not a formal member, he's a sympathizer.  There, I said it.  Prove otherwise.["]

Ted Cruz shows that Hagel slandered both Israel and the U.S.  I had thought that Lindsey Graham would be the most effective questioner of Chuck Hagel at today's hearing, and Graham did his usual fine job of "cross-examination."  But for my money, Ted Cruz topped Graham and everyone else with questions that exposed not just Hagel's contempt for Israel, but his contempt for the United States.

Hagel's Disastrous Hearing Ought to Make 'No' Vote a No-Brainer.  Former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) has vindicated his critics thus far today in his confirmation hearings before the Senate Armed Service Committee for the post of Secretary of Defense.  He has stumbled in attempting to explain his positions on Iran, nuclear disarmament, Israel, the Iraq "surge," and the "Jewish lobby."  He has failed to explain contradictions between his voting record and his past statements on the one hand, and the positions he professes today on the other.

Hagel Stumbles His Way Through Hearing.  While the strict partisan divide over the nomination should ensure that he would get the support of a majority of senators, his bumbling performance undermined any notion that the president's choice to lead the Pentagon was winning over any of his critics.  More to the point, his effort to portray his recent recantations of his long-held skepticism about attempts to stop Iran from going nuclear, his criticisms of Israel, and his belief in engagement with Hamas and Hezbollah as consistent with his record was a flop.

Why Obama picked Hagel.  The two share similar views and philosophies as the Obama administration attempts to define the role of the United States in the transition to a post-superpower world.

Chuck Hagel Advocated for Drastic Cuts, Elimination of U.S. Nuclear Arsenal.  Former Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) has spent a lot of time pressing for international reductions in nuclear arsenals.  And since joining hands with the anti-nuclear weapons group Global Zero in 2009, Hagel has not only supported a nuclear weapons-free America, but has even advocated unilateral U.S disarmament, "if necessary."

As candidate, Hagel supported de-funding Radio Free Europe.  Secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel sought to eradicate U.S. funding for pro-democracy broadcasts across the globe during his tenure in the Senate, according to a candidate questionnaire from his 1996 race against then-Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson (D).  Asked if the U.S. should "continue funding for Radio Free Europe [RFE] and Radio Liberty [RL]," the pro-democracy networks that helped reshape the world, Hagel replied, "No."  Asked if the U.S. should "continue funding for Radio Marti and TV Marti," the U.S.'s voice of freedom in Cuba, Hagel replied, "No."

Former Dem Senator Praises Hagel Pick on Iranian State TV.  Iran's English language propaganda arm said last week that the choice of Chuck Hagel for secretary of Defense indicates that the United States would allow Iran to get a nuclear bomb rather than confront the Islamic Republic.  The Iranians used a former Democratic Senator, Mike Gravel, as the centerpiece of this report.

Hagel's Controversial Foreign Connections and Backers.  Two seemingly unrelated events — Obama's nomination of Chuck Hagel as Pentagon chief and the sale of Al Gore's Current TV to Al Jazeera — are coming together in a way that illustrates the role that the foreign propaganda channel can and will play if Congress lets the television deal go through.  House Homeland Security Committee chairman Rep. Michael McCaul is being encouraged by a group of media critics, journalists, academics, and national security and Middle East experts, to open hearings into Al Jazeera's media power play on American soil.  In regard to Hagel, Breitbart blogger William Bigelow notes that Al Jazeera seems to be having a love affair with the Obama nominee.

Treason? Obama's Plans to Disarm America.  President Barack Obama's nomination for US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, is a board member of the far left, resolutely anti-military Ploughshares Fund. [...] The Obama Administration's number one priority is the destruction of US defensive capability.  If this is allowed to occur, the United States and indeed the entire West, will be at the mercy of the combined military might of Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, radical Islam and all of their growing army of allies.

Obama Defense Pick Linked to Institute for Policy Studies, Anti-Military Marxists.  President Barack Obama's proposed appointment of former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as US Secretary of Defense is generating interest and even approval, on the far left. [... Phyllis] Bennis is particularly happy that Hagel's appointment is a clear signal that Obama intends to move forward with the anti-American left's number one priority — dramatically downsizing the US military.

Jack Lew

Can't Obama Find an Honest Man For Treasury Secretary?  News reports indicate that President Obama will appoint White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew to replace Tim Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury.  The Associated Press applauds Obama's choice, telling us that Lew is a "pragmatic liberal" who "is well-liked in Washington by both Democrats and Republicans."  What the AP doesn't tell us is that Lew has made signal contributions to the culture of lies, dishonesty and lack of transparency that characterizes the Obama administration.

Sen. Sessions: 'Jack Lew Must Never Be Secretary of Treasury'.  On Wednesday [1/9/2013], the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said he plans to vigorously oppose President Barack Obama's Treasury Secretary nominee Jack Lew.  "Jack Lew must never be Secretary of Treasury," said Mr. Sessions in a statement.  "His testimony before the Senate Budget Committee less than two years ago was so outrageous and false that it alone disqualifies."

Jack Lew's Budget Ineptitude Disqualifies Him From Top Treasury Post.  Only in Washington can someone who is singularly identified with failure not only be commended for it, but also actually win promotion to even greater responsibility.

Forrest Gump at Treasury.  Senate Democrats are in a hurry to confirm Jack Lew as Secretary of the Treasury before anyone notices his biography.  Otherwise, liberal lawmakers might be embarrassed voting for a man who represents everything they've been campaigning against.  Investor in Cayman Islands tax haven?  Check.  Recipient of a bonus and corporate jet rides underwritten by taxpayers at a bailed-out bank?  Check.  Executive at a university that accepted student-loan "kickbacks" for steering kids toward a favored bank?  Check.  Excessive compensation with minimal disclosure?  Check.

Susan Rice

Report: Former Obama Adviser Susan Rice is the 'Central' Figure in the Biden Administration's Approach to the Border.  For months, people have been openly wondering who is the real power behind the throne in the Biden administration?  Who is really running the country?  We now know who is calling the shots when it comes to their policy on the border.  Word is that former Obama security adviser Susan Rice is calling the tune on border issues.  Additionally, members of Biden's team must have been looking at polling on immigration and the border, because they have formed a circular firing squad over the issues. [...] Would anyone be surprised if we learn that Susan Rice has been in charge of other issues?  Wouldn't it make sense?

Only One Question Remains as Susan Rice, Biden's Shadow President, Leaves the White House.  [Susan] Rice is the female version of the entire apparatus of the Obama team.  Susan Rice is Barack Obama in female form, and as Ric Grenell said eloquently, Susan Rice is "the shadow president."  A Newsom/Rice or Rice/Newsom ticket is a no brainer.  Both are foot soldiers for the Lightbringer movement's fundamental change agenda, although Rice is the apex player and Newsom is the ideological, intellectual and cognitive equivalent of John Fetterman with better style.  Most people still do not understand that Barack Obama is not just a person, he is a complete political construct — a movement in a box — consisting of multiple component groups all working in synergy.  The focus of the Obama movement is domestic and ideological.  The "fundamental change", as outlined previously by the front man for the group, is domestic — exclusively domestic.  The Lightbringer doesn't care about foreign policy stuff; all of that angle is sold to the multinationals and highest bidders.

Top Biden Advisor Susan Rice Makes High-Profile Exit From the Troubled Administration.  In what marks the most high-profile exit from the White House to date, Susan Rice was announced to be leaving the Biden administration on Monday [4/24/2023].  Here's some of the president's statement, lauding Rice's performance as the head of his domestic policy.  [Omitted for brevity, among other things.]  He continued from there, praising Rice's work on healthcare, gun violence, making college more affordable, and the border.  Of course, in reality, the Biden administration has done a horrific job on all those fronts.  Healthcare has only gotten more expensive, gun violence has increased, college costs continue to skyrocket, and the border is an abject disaster.  Even Biden's brag in the statement about reuniting 670 children who were "separated" from their parents is laughable.  As a recent report exposed, migrant children have been turned into indentured servants under the president's watch, being put to work instead of going to school or reuniting with family.  Rice's involvement as leading Biden's border strategy does explain the dystopian conditions, though.  She's also been absolutely terrible at her job, even when dealing with foreign policy as part of the Obama administration.  When she was put in charge of domestic policy, many people questioned how that would work out.  We now have our answer:  It was a dumpster fire.

Will the Dems dump Kamala for Susan Rice?  Kamala Harris is a big problem for the Democrats as Joe Biden's senility becomes harder and harder to disguise.  Harris is widely disliked, if not regarded as an embarrassing joke, with her trademark cackle betraying an utter unsuitability for high office.  If Biden has to step down before the election of 2024, or if he does not ultimately run for re-election, denying the office of the presidency or the party's nomination to Harris would be difficult.  But not impossible.  Has anybody else noticed the increasing visibility of Susan Rice, Joe Biden's domestic policy advisor?  Rice is thought by many to be acting president due to the dementia episodes now more and more common in the occupant of the White House?  See, for example, how Susan Rice was the source explaining the administration's new child care executive orders, even though Biden did the announcement in the Rose Garden Tuesday.  At this point, nobody expects Biden to be current with the details of the program, but Rice assuredly is.

If 'No One Is Above The Law,' Democrats And Their Partisan Pawns Would Be Arraigned, Not Trump.  President Barack Obama's National Security Adviser, Susan Rice, unmasked members of the Trump transition team and then lied about it.  Unmasking may be a legitimate and legal process for those with the authority, but covering up an attempt to target the political enemies of the regime is an abuse of power that deserves examination.  Instead, it was yet another action taken by the U.S. intelligence apparatus to justify spying on American citizens.

A reminder from a past Susan Rice column of Democrats' vicious COVID lies.  It is more than serendipity, I believe, that I happened upon a Susan E. Rice column, nearly three years old, that I spied in a closet that I hadn't opened for years till this time of truth about the source of the COVID-19 pandemic.  This particular Rice column appeared in The New York Times (print edition, April 8, 2020, p.  A25) and highlighted this accusation, where it had this title "Trump's Hobbesian Jungle":  "People will die because of the perfidy of our 'wartime president.'"  This Rice column was filled with mendacious accusations.  But the truth has finally emerged that the source of the COVID-19 pandemic was the leak at the Wuhan lab, the truth of which was denied by propagandists like Susan E. Rice for invidious political ends, as her April 2020 Times column makes abundantly clear.

Joe Biden Picks Obama Enforcer Susan Rice to Implement Critical Race Theory Throughout the Federal Bureaucracy.  Thursday, Joe Biden signed an executive order embedding the tenets of Critical Race Theory into the operations of the federal government.  EO 13985, Executive Order on Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government, requires the establishment of "Agency Equity Teams" to ensure that equal outcomes are imposed on federal programs. [...] Life isn't equal.  Half of the country has a below-average IQ.  Not everyone can play pro sports.  The bald-faced assertion that a lack of equal outcomes is due to "communities" (whatever [...] that means anymore) being "underserved" by the government is balderdash.  "Communities" have different outcomes because they are different.  The intellectual bankruptcy of the DIE stupidity lies in the fact that it sees 100% of all problems as racial.

An Election, If You Can Hold It.  One thing a congressional committee might probe post haste: who exactly has been running the executive branch for two years?  My guess would be Barack Obama by way of Susan Rice, Director of the Domestic Policy Council (office in the White House) whose activities are never, ever discussed in the news media.  In fact, her mere presence is unacknowledged.  I doubt that one-in-a-thousand people in Times Square could tell you who she is and what she does.  How many times a day is Ms. Rice on-the-horn with the Gentleman of Kalorama?  Are there logs of her calls?  Does she use an endless supply of cheap untraceable burner phones?  Or does she limo across town regularly to get orders in person?  Is there some penalty for running a shadow government, perhaps something in the sedition or treason folders of federal law?  The degree of malign policy coordination throughout Western Civ also suggests that outside actors exert some heavy influence on our affairs.  Is Mr. Obama running "Joe Biden" according to a WEF playbook, as appears to be the case with WEFfer implants Justin Trudeau of Canada and Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand?

Biden Puts Susan Rice in Charge of Effort to Expand Vote by Mail.  President Joe Biden put controversial former national security adviser Susan Rice in charge of directing hundreds of federal agencies and departments to expand access to mail-in voting.  Biden signed an executive order in March that put Rice, now the assistant to the president for domestic policy, in charge of soliciting strategies from federal agencies to produce "relevant information" on expanded voting registration procedures.  Federal agencies must submit to Rice "a strategic plan outlining the ways identified under this review that the agency can promote voter registration and voter participation" within 200 days under the terms of the order.  "Agencies shall consider ways to expand citizens' opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process," the order states.

How Did Susan Rice Make As Much As $149 Million?  Democrats fight for the people.  And by the people, they mean the oppressed and downtrodden working classes of the swamp.  Themselves. [...] It goes without saying that no one is inviting Susan Rice to speak because of her deep insights into how to get ahead by using your political connections.  No more than they were paying Hillary millions because they wanted to listen to her shriek from a teleprompter.  And the speaking tour has died down, for the same reason that Rice kept cashing in.  Companies invest in people who are going to be power players in the government.  Everyone knows it.

Obama-era officials return to White House worth millions.  As several Obama-era officials return to the White House under President Joe Biden, their reunion comes with fuller pockets and deeper ties to corporate interests, new financial disclosure reports show.  According to ABC News' analysis of the most recent disclosure reports, many of Biden's top White House officials, including Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, and coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients, have substantially multiplied their wealth over the past few years.  Rice, who is among the wealthiest members of the Biden White House team, dramatically increased her wealth since her previous White House job during the Obama administration, reporting between $36 million and $149 million in various assets in her new disclosure filing released Saturday morning [3/20/2021].  That's nearly three to four times the amount she reported back in 2009, when she joined the Obama administration as the ambassador to the United Nations.

Biden Admin Officials Had Roles in Probes [and] Surveillance of Trump Campaign.  As Joe Biden constructs his new administration, individuals from the Obama administration are quietly resurfacing in positions of power.  Some of these people are well known, others lesser so.  But they all played critical roles at various times during the Obama administration.  Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser and now the "top adviser to the president on domestic policy and related decisions," has admitted to participating in the unmasking of members of the Trump transition team.  Unmasking is the process whereby a U.S. citizen's identity is revealed from collected surveillance.  Initially, Rice publicly denied the allegations, claiming that "I know nothing about this.  I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that count today."  Two weeks later Rice stated that she had not done so for "for any political purposes."  It was later reported that Rice told House investigators that "she unmasked the identities of senior Trump officials to understand why the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates was in New York."

Grenell: 'President Rice is doing a great job'.  Former Trump administration official Richard Grenell said Director of the United States Domestic Policy Council Susan Rice is pulling the strings behind the scenes when it comes to foreign policy while President Joe Biden has been absent.  "President Susan Rice is doing a great job," Grenell told "The Count" on Newsmax TV Saturday [3/6/2021].  "She's literally behind the scenes just pulling all the strings and nobody's paying attention.  It's a joke that we think that she's not running foreign policy, we know she is."

Biden Appoints Susan Rice To Drive Racial Politics Deep Into Federal Bureaucracy.  Joe Biden has brought on former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice as a domestic policy aide to promote racial justice and equity.  This is the latest example of Biden promoting policy that sounds like it came directly off of a college campus.  [Video clips]  Now might be a good time to remind Democrats and especially members of the Biden administration, that before COVID hit, the unemployment rate for minorities across the board were at historic lows.  It's also a good time to remember that this woman went on five Sunday news shows after the Benghazi attack and blamed it on a YouTube video.  It's amazing she has not been shamed off the national stage.

Grenell Has a Theory About Who's Running a 'Shadow Presidency' in the Biden Administration.  Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell believes that the person calling the shots in the White House is not the president or vice president, but rather, Susan Rice.  The former Obama national security adviser is now the White House Domestic Policy Council director and Grenell called that "a joke."  "Look, I've said it before but I think it's worth repeating... she's been given a portfolio as to domestic policy.  We all know that that's a joke," he said Monday on Fox News.  Though she lacks experience in domestic policy, "she's run the national security portfolio and certainly has run the U.N. portfolio," Grenell said.  "She knows the State Department and certainly wants to be the secretary of state," he added, "so there's no question that she's running domestic and foreign policy."

Ric Grenell doubles down on claim Susan Rice is the 'shadow' president calling the shots.  Former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell said that, based on President Joe Biden's initial executive actions, he believes someone else is actually setting the agenda — Susan Rice.  Grenell raised eyebrows earlier this month when he first said he believes that Rice, who was President Obama's UN ambassador and national security adviser and is now serving as Biden's domestic policy director, is calling the shots in the current administration.  "Susan Rice has been tapped to do domestic policy, and what is really interesting about that is she's got no experience in domestic policy," Grenell, who served as acting DNI and U.S. ambassador to Germany under former President Trump, said.  "She is going to be somebody who is incredibly influential.  Remember that she was National Security advisor so she knows that entire apparatus."  Grenell repeated his views Monday [1/25/2021] in an interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo.  [Video clip]

There's no "i" in "team," but there are plenty in Rice.  Susan Rice has produced a "Trump is harming national security/democracy by stalling the transition" article for the New York Times.  This is now the party line, and Rice has been dutifully spouting Democratic talking points for years — most notoriously with her lies about Benghazi.  A few things make Rice's latest set piece stand out in relation to others of the same genre.  One is the use of "I."  My friend who alerted me to Rice's article wasn't exaggerating when he said, "Not since [former Washington Post columnist] Richard Cohen retired has there been an author who so abused the pronoun 'I.'"  Another thing that stands out is that Rice's article is self-refuting.

Susan ["Benghazi"] Rice Accuses Trump, AG Barr of 'Voter Suppression'.  Susan Rice, a former Obama administration official who lied about the terror attack in Benghazi on five newsmaker shows, says mail-in balloting and absentee voting are "essentially the same thing."  Speaking to "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer Tuesday evening, Rice accused President Trump and Attorney General William Barr of "undermining confidence" in mail-in balloting, which she described as "another form of voter suppression, nothing less."

The Democrats' Latest Religious Test.  No sooner did President Trump air at the Republican convention Secretary of State Pompeo's endorsement video recorded in Jerusalem than the Biden camp is unleashing a new objection — that the secretary is too religious to represent all of the American people.  We kid you not.  This has got to be the most desperate, offensive, and unconstitutional claim against a state secretary that the Democrats have ever aired.  It comes from one of Mr. Biden's closest consiglieres, Susan Rice.  She was President Obama's National Security Adviser and, before that, envoy at the United Nations.  Vice President Biden had her on his short list for his running mate.  She just gave an interview to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow in which she asserted that "Mike Pompeo has been an overtly religious secretary or state, which in and of itself is problematic."

Susan Rice, Benghazi & the Spygate Scandal.  When it comes to Susan Rice's involvement in the Benghazi scandal, "you might not be surprised to learn that Susan Rice can't remember much."  As you might recall, Susan Rice was Obama's National Security Advisor and U.N. Ambassador.  Judicial Watch investigations have documented her unmasking requests for General Flynn, as well as her broader involvement in the January 2017 Oval Office meetings, which are believed to have established the groundworks for Spy Gate.  As per her involvement in the Obama Admin's Benghazi cover-up, much remains to be discovered, according to Fitton.  Rewinding to the aftermath of the attack in 2012, viewers might recall how "Susan Rice proved her worth in lying to the American people on Sunday television talk shows in the months prior to Obama's re-inauguration," Fitton explains.  Pressing for more information on the Benghazi talking points, Judicial Watch revealed how Susan Rice's narrative was in fact, a crafted "set of talking points based on the political assessments of Ben Rhodes, one of the political hacks working in the Obama White House."

As Potential Veep, Susan Rice and Husband Stepped Up Contributions to Biden Campaign.  Susan Rice and her multimillionaire husband have poured thousands of dollars into Joe Biden's presidential campaign, substantially increasing their contributions as the former national security adviser was floated as a potential running mate.  Rice and her husband, the former ABC News producer Ian Cameron, increased their contributions to Biden as Rice's name moved to the top of his list of vice presidential options, campaign finance records show, funneling $24,000 to Biden in the month of June alone.  The sum marks a vast increase over their previous giving:  Prior to that time, the couple had contributed a total of $5,800 to the campaign over the course of the cycle.  On June 2, two days before CNN reported that Rice was among eight women who had met with the campaign, Cameron cut a $5,600 check to the Biden Victory Fund, his largest contribution of the cycle.  Cameron donated another $5,600 to the Biden Victory Fund three weeks later on June 26, the same day Rice herself gave $12,800, bringing the total to $24,000.

The Editor says...
Rice wants a political favor from Biden, so she's heaping thousands of dollars into the Biden Victory Fund.  That sounds very much like bribery.

Progressives alarmed by Rice's vast financial investments.  When Susan Rice was under consideration for secretary of state in 2012, she was attacked by environmentalists for holding stock in the controversial Keystone Pipeline XL deal.  Now, with the multimillionaire Rice in contention to be Joe Biden's running mate, that investment is again drawing fire from progressives.  They say her extensive past holdings in an array of industries at odds with liberal causes — particularly the Keystone investment — could make her ill-suited to be vice president in a Democratic administration.

Desperate: Biden grasps for Gretchen Whitmer as potential running mate.  [Scroll down]  Former NSC Advisor Susan Rice was a comfortable old shoe for Biden, having worked with her for eight years.  But she's also a lightning rod for conservative opprobrium, having lied to Americans about the 2012 Benghazi attacks on an American diplomatic installation, claiming it was just an overexcited crowd instead of a bona fide terrorist attack, and having unmasked dozens of innocent Americans caught up in an intelligence dragnet, quite an amazing abuse of government trust and power.  She's also famous for her toilet mouth and rudeness to opponents, and has no experience outside the beltway.  She's be comfortable for Old Joe, but would bring nothing but criticism to the party.

Susan Rice Sells Large Amount Of Stock, Fueling Speculation That She Will Be Picked As Biden's VP.  Former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice has been a sort-of sleeper candidate for Joe Biden's running mate.  There's been a lot of talk about her lately, but something she just did is fueling more speculation.  She just sold a large amount of stock she held in Netflix.

Susan Rice sells Netflix stock worth more than $300G as Biden mulls choice of running mate: report.  Former national security advisor Susan Rice has reportedly sold her shares in the streaming service Netflix amid rumors that she is on the shortlist of candidates to be presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's running mate.  Deadline reported Friday that Rice sold her shares valued at $305,323, according to an SEC filing dated Thursday [8/6/2020].  A spokesperson for Rice told Deadline that her sale "has nothing to do" with Biden's VP search.

Joe Biden, Susan Rice, and Seal Team Six.  Benghazi liar and former U.N. ambassador Susan Rice has seemingly risen to the top of Joe Biden's VP list, which would make a unique pairing of someone who can't tell the truth and someone who can't remember the truth.  One of the chief unmaskers of Trump officials caught up in deep state surveillance of the 2016 Trump campaign and an architect of the attempted coup against Trump, Rice recently lied again by pushing the false claim that Trump ignored reports of Russian bounties for the killing of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and was doing Putin's bidding by callously letting American soldiers get killed.

How Obama is clearing the VP field for Susan Rice.  Joe Biden's campaign recently delayed his self-imposed August 1 deadline to announce his running mate.  Biden's handlers were under pressure from Senator Kamala Harris and Representative Karen Bass to name them.  The Biden brain trust delayed the announcement so surrogates could discredit Harris and Bass.  That opens the door for Obama's choice:  Susan Rice.  Former President Barack Obama, indispensable to the campaign, knows Biden lacks the cognitive skills to govern, and his tenure will likely be brief.  Like four years ago, Democrats have convinced themselves President Donald Trump cannot win.  For Obama, Biden's running mate will be our next president.  Obama must control that person to continue his socialist transformation of America and protect himself from exposure for undermining candidate and President Trump.

Susan Rice, Biden VP Finalist, Said Bowe Bergdahl Served 'With Honor And Distinction'.  [Bowe] Bergdahl infamously walked off his Army post in Afghanistan in June 2009 and was then captured and held hostage by a Taliban-aligned group for nearly five years.  Former President Barack Obama's administration secured Bergdahl's release on May 31, 2014 as part of a prisoner swap for five members of the Taliban.  [Former National Security Adviser Susan] Rice defended Bergdahl's record in a June 1, 2014 ABC News interview, after she was asked if Bergdahl should be punished for deserting.  "He is going to be safely reunited with his family.  He served the United States with honor and distinction," Rice answered.

More about The Bergdahl Prisoner Exchange.

Susan Rice's 'Benghazi baggage,' F-bombs would make her 'lightning rod' as Biden VP pick, writer claims.  Former national security adviser Susan Rice would be a "human lightning rod" if selected to be Democrat Joe Biden's running mate, a Washington Post columnist wrote Friday [7/31/2020].  Rice, who is reported to be among the shrinking list of Biden vice presidential contenders, has the advantage of a longstanding close relationship with the former vice president, unlike any of the other names on the list.  But Biden's want for "familiarity and comfort" are luxuries the nation doesn't have time for in this singular time of crisis, Post columnist Dana Milbank writes.

Susan Rice's Testimony on Being Out of Russiagate Loop Doesn't Add Up.  Susan Rice, the vice presidential contender with a high-profile history of questionable public statements, has another dubious claim in her past that until now has escaped scrutiny.  Rice swore under oath that as President Obama's national security adviser she was never told about the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation.  But former FBI Director James Comey testified that Rice was present when he informed Obama all about Crossfire Hurricane just weeks after the investigation was launched.  The contradiction could lead to charges that Rice lied to Congress about a topic still of intense interest to investigators:  How actively involved in the effort to spy on the Trump campaign was the inner circle of the Obama White House, including the president himself?  More immediately, the question of whether Rice told the truth on Capitol Hill might damage her bid to join Joe Biden on the Democratic presidential ticket.

Susan Rice brings Joe Biden nothing but baggage.  With his unforced error of a promise that he would tap a woman as his running mate, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden preemptively limited his options for the single most consequential choice he will make in his political career. [...] Now the pressure is on for Biden to pick to a woman of color, and a black woman in particular.  Biden didn't have many great options to begin with, and today he has even fewer.  The fact that President Barack Obama's former national security adviser Susan Rice is under serious consideration for Biden's running mate is a testament to the silent crisis plaguing an otherwise stellar presidential bid. [...] Tapping Rice would reignite every real Obama administration controversy that Democratic hagiography has successfully purged from public memory.  As the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Rice spearheaded the lie that the 2012 attack on our Benghazi Embassy was motivated an anti-Islamic internet video, a malfeasance so politically toxic that it cost her the chance to replace Clinton as secretary of state.  But Rice was no average anti-Israel, pro-Iran agent of the Obama administration.  She is the link that ties together the Comey FBI's legally dubious crusade against Michael Flynn and Obama and Biden's White House.  Rice is the one who "unmasked" the identities of Flynn and fellow Trump associates Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon.

Susan Rice says Obama administration was 'absolutely' not spying on Trump campaign.  Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, who "unmasked" officials in the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, said Tuesday that President Trump is wrong when he accuses the Obama administration of spying on his campaign in 2016.  "Absolutely no, it did not happen.  That is false.  That is another lie designed to deflect from the president's own very bizarre relationship with Russia; to distract from the much validated reality that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to benefit Donald Trump," Rice said during a discussion with Washington Post Live.  Unmasking is a term used by the intelligence community that refers to legally revealing the identity of a U.S. citizen whose communications are being monitored to learn more about that person and the case.

Susan Rice makes claim Russians could be behind violent George Floyd demonstrations.  Former Obama administration national security adviser Susan Rice bizarrely suggested in a televised interview Sunday [5/31/2020] that the Russians could be behind the violent nationwide demonstrations following the in-custody death of George Floyd, although she offered no evidence for the incendiary claim.  Rice's made the claim after top Democrats insisted for years that the White House had conspired with Russia, although Special Counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence to support any conspiracy with Russia by any U.S. actor to influence the 2016 election.  Her remarks also came amid efforts by Democrats to pin the blame on outside white supremacist agitators, even though data suggests the vast majority of arrested protesters in recent days are local.

Susan Rice Makes New Claim; Media Rolls Over.  Unsurprisingly, the media are all too happy to take Rice at her word regarding new information about her role in the controversial prosecution of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.  It was all a reminder, as if any was needed, that you can tell all the tall tales you want and make the most implausible assertions, and the media won't care so long as they are at Donald Trump's expense.  Susan Rice is reportedly even on the short list for vice president on the 2020 Democrats' ticket.  The week's case study in double standards in the press came when the administration declassified a portion of a bizarre email Rice wrote to herself just minutes after Trump was inaugurated, chronicling the events of a Jan. 5, 2017 White House meeting in which President Obama and other top officials discussed surveilling Trump's incoming national security adviser.  Rice claims she was directed to memorialize this version of events at the Flynn meeting by Obama's White House counsel, which is curious to say the least.

Susan Rice's Email Proves FBI Had No Legitimate Reason To Question Flynn.  Yesterday's [5/19/2020] release of Susan Rice's inauguration-day email to herself provided further evidence of former President Barack Obama's participation in the FBI's targeting of Michael Flynn.  The recently declassified paragraph in Rice's email, however, proves significant for another reason:  It confirms the FBI had no valid investigative purpose for questioning Flynn on January 24, 2017.  In February 2018, Sens. Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham announced that as part of their efforts to conduct oversight of the FBI and DOJ they had discovered "a partially unclassified email sent by President Obama's former National Security Advisor (NSA) Susan Rice to herself on January 20, 2017 — President Trump's inauguration day."  At the time, the Republican senators noted that in her email Rice "purport[ed] to document a meeting that had taken place more than two weeks before, on January 5, 2017," and then quoted the unclassified portions of the document: [...]

Susan Rice's now-infamous memo was blatant bid to cover Obama.  Susan Rice's memo about a high-level Jan. 5, 2017, meeting plainly aimed to protect the then-national security adviser's boss, President Barack Obama — but it's backfiring spectacularly.  Rice sent the Jan. 20, 12:15 p.m., note (recently declassified) to herself at literally the last minute:  President Trump was sworn in at noon that day; her administration was headed out the door.  Oh, and Rice's lawyer says she drafted it "upon the advice of the White House Counsel's Office," Fox News reports.  The point?  Ostensibly, to memorialize the meeting with her, Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, FBI boss James Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, following a briefing on Russian hacking.

The Rice CYA Memo, Unredacted.  How amusing to find President Obama's national-security advisor, Susan Rice, suddenly calling for public release of the Flynn-Kislyak conversation intercepted by the Obama administration in late December 2016.  I called for its release nearly three-and-a-half years ago.  Dr. Rice, in a familiar pattern for her, has spent the ensuing years saying things that were obviously untrue only to reverse herself once the paper trail starts to dribble out.  Try not to get dizzy.  Rice has gone from claiming to have had no knowledge of Obama administration monitoring of Flynn and other Trump associates, to claiming no knowledge of any unmaskings of Trump associates, to admitting she was complicit in the unmaskings, to — now — a call for the recorded conversation between retired general Michael Flynn and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak to be released because it would purportedly show that the Obama administration had good reason to be concerned about Flynn (y'know, the guy she said she had no idea they were investigating).

Susan Rice Confirms that She was Directed to Write Her CYA "By The Book" Memo By Obama's White House Counsel.  Everyone knows that note-to-self CYA emails you write at the direction of a lawyer, weeks after the event allegedly being memorialized, is the Gold Standard as regards candor and truthfulness.  Right?  But wait, you should ignore that, because partisan Democrat operatives Bill Kristol and Literal Nothing Tim Miller declare that Obamagate is a "conspiracy theory" and that the email Rice admits she was directed to write by Obama's in-house shyster proves that everything was in fact done "by the book."

Declassified Susan Rice Email Confirms Michael Flynn Was Personally Targeted In Oval Office Meeting.  Michael Flynn was personally targeted during a crucial Jan. 5, 2017 Oval Office meeting arranged by then-President Barack Obama, a newly declassified document shows.  On Jan. 20, 2017, as President Donald Trump was being inaugurated, former White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice sent herself a bizarre email detailing the Jan. 5 meeting between her, Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden, then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and fired former Federal Bureau of Investigations Director James Comey.  In the email, portions of which were not declassified until recently, Rice recorded that Flynn, who at the time was the incoming national security adviser for Trump, was personally discussed and targeted during the meeting with Obama.

Full Text of Susan Rice's January 20, 2017 Email About Secret Oval Office Meeting Released — Comey and Obama Targeted Flynn!.  Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) wrote a letter to US Attorney General William Barr on Monday [5/18/2020] requesting he declassify the remaining portion of Susan Rice's January 20, 2017 email to herself about the secret Oval Office meeting with the coup cabal.  "I request you review and declassify the remaining portion of Ambassador Rice's January 20, 2017, email and provide it to my office," Johnson wrote.  Acting DNI Richard Grenell on Tuesday [5/19/2020] declassified the remaining portion of Susan Rice's email.

Susan Rice's resurfaced 2017 comments denying knowledge of Trump team surveillance raise eyebrows.  A three-year-old interview clip of former National Security Adviser Susan Rice resurfaced Tuesday [5/19/2020] after the declassified email she sent to herself on the final day of the Obama administration was released.  During an April 2017 appearance on PBS News Hour, Rice was asked about the then-breaking revelations about members of President Trump's transition team having been surveilled before he took office. [...] "I know nothing about this," Rice said at the time.  "I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that count today."

Susan Rice Queen of Hypocrisy in Al- Baghdadi Raid Aftermath.  When it comes to the most blatant hypocrisy of them all in the aftermath of the takedown death of Islamic State ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice, is Queen.  Make that Queen of Hypocrisy who takes the whole cake.  Rice, who provided cover for both Obama and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Benghazi tragedy — making five televised appearances with rat-a-tat lies that protests and an obscure anti-Muslim video were the cause for American loss of life in the Benghazi boondoggle — is now in a huff because President Trump did not inform Obama about the coming al-Baghdadi take down.  Rice terms Trump not informing Obama about the perfectly executed raid, denying Obama "normal protocol" and "common courtesy".

One might as well call Baghdadi himself, as to tell Obama.
Susan Rice:  Trump should have notified Obama ahead of Baghdadi raid.  Former national security adviser Susan Rice believes President Trump should have notified his predecessor about the U.S. raid that ended in the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.  Rice appeared on CBS's Face The Nation Sunday [10/28/2019] following Trump's press conference, during which he announced Baghdadi's death.  During the presser, Trump confirmed that the now-former head of ISIS was killed after detonating a suicide vest while he was surrounded by three of his children in a cave.  Rice began by praising the military action, calling it "a major milestone" and adding that "it's one that we should be welcoming quite plainly."  However, she did warn that Baghdadi's death does not mean "the fight against ISIS is over."

Susan Rice book airs frustration with being put on air in Clinton's place after Benghazi attack.  "Where is Hillary?"  That was the question then-U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice's mother asked when she told her she would be appearing on all five Sunday morning political shows on Sept. 16, 2012 — just five days after the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.  The plan was to appear in place of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at the White House's request.  "I smell a rat," her mother said.  "This is not a good idea.  Can't you get out of it?"

585 Days Since Susan Rice Email Was Exposed — Content Still Redacted, Why?  On February 8th, 2018, Senator Lindsey Graham first revealed an inauguration day email from Susan Rice to herself.  That's 585 days ago and yet we still don't know what is behind the removed and classified paragraph.  Why is this being kept hidden? [...] This has the hallmarks of an Obama administration justification memo, written by an outgoing National Security Advisor Susan Rice to document why there have been multiple false and misleading statements given to incoming President Trump and his officials.

Biden Present at Russia Collusion Briefing Documented in 'Odd' Susan Rice Email.  Vice President Joe Biden was documented as being present in the Oval Office for a conversation about the controversial Russia probe between President Obama, disgraced ex-FBI chief James Comey, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and other senior officials including Obama's national security advisor Susan Rice.  In an action characterized as "odd" last year by then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Rice memorialized the confab in an email to herself describing Obama as starting "the conversation by stressing his continued commitment to ensuring that every aspect of this issue is handled by the Intelligence and law enforcement communities 'by the book.'"

Why Did Susan Rice Issue a Stand Down Order on Russian Hacking?  There are two possible answers.  [#1] Obama was all-in on appeasement.  And while he enjoyed browbeating allies like the US and Israel, he rolled over and played dead for enemies like Iran, China and Russia.  [#2] The hacking was politically useful.  Since we now know that Obama Inc. was conducting surveillance and eavesdropping on Trump associates, Russian intervention provided a very useful justification for the domestic operation.  Rice issued a stand down order because she wanted the Russians to go on doing exactly what they were doing.

Obama Cyber Chief:  You'd Better Believe I Was Ordered To Stand Down On Russia.  Consider this a confirmation of an allegation that first emerged in March, because the co-author of the book that contained it certainly does.  Michael Isikoff and David Corn published an explosive allegation that the Obama administration issued a stand-down order to efforts to counter Russian cyberwarfare in 2016.  Yesterday [6/20/2018], the head of the Obama administration's cyber programs told the Senate Intelligence Committee that's precisely what happened.

Obama's cybersecurity coordinator confirms Susan Rice ordered him to 'stand down' on Russian meddling.  Over the past year, the Obama administration has been criticized for allegedly being aware of Russian attempts to influence the election yet primarily remaining silent on the subject.  The Washington Post reported that Obama himself — along with three top aides — was given direct evidence from the CIA of Russian President Vladimir Putin's cyber campaign to influence the election.  The Obama administration reportedly knew of Russia's actions for months ahead of the 2016 election, but failed to take retaliatory action until December.

Five Reasons for Conservatives to Boycott Netflix.  [Reason #2] Susan Rice on the board of directors.  What does she bring to the table other than her ability to tell brazen whoppers designed to cover up political incompetence and malfeasance?  Rice, who was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former president Barack Obama's national security adviser, is infamous for making politically convenient but provably false comments to the press.  In the wake of the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya, for instance, she appeared on five Sunday talk shows and characterized it as a "spontaneous demonstration" that got out of hand.  The administration already had intelligence indicating that it was a pre-planned terrorist attack.  Also, in June 2014, she declared preposterously on national television that Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl had served in the Army with "honor and distinction."

Susan Rice attorney denies message she sent herself on Trump's inauguration was 'unusual'.  An attorney for Susan Rice said on Friday that there was nothing "unusual" about an email the former national security adviser sent herself on President Trump's Inauguration Day.  The email — which apparently memorializes a meeting with former President Barack Obama, former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates — was surfaced earlier this month by Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).  The meeting touched on whether the Obama administration should withhold certain information about the FBI investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election from the Trump administration.

Susan Rice ought to explain her weird email under oath.  At first glance, the e-mail, which purports to recount remarks President Obama made two weeks earlier to Rice, FBI head James Comey and others about the Russia probe, makes no sense.  But ask yourself why Rice repeated that Obama wanted everything done "by the book," and it smells as if she's preparing a last-minute defense for Obama, and maybe herself.  Senators Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham, pit bulls on government misbehavior, wrote to Rice about the e-mail while noting that there were lots of doubts about whether the FBI actually did proceed "by the book."  Hopefully, she'll have to give her answer under oath, as should Comey and anybody else in the room.

What Did Comey Tell President Trump about the Steele Dossier?  On her way out the White House door and out of her job as national-security adviser, Susan Rice writes an email-to-self.  Except it's not really an email-to-self.  It is quite consciously an email for the record.  Her term having ended 15 minutes before, Rice was technically back in private life, where private people have private email accounts — even notepads if they want to scratch out a reminder the old-fashioned way.  Yet, for at least a few more minutes, Rice still had access to her government email account. [...] An email written on January 21 to record decisions made on January 5 is not written to memorialize what was decided.  It is written to revise the memory of what was decided in order to rationalize what was then done.

When Susie Met Comey.  January 20, 2017, was inauguration day for president Donald Trump and last day on the job for national security advisor Susan Rice.  At 12:15 p.m. that day, Rice sent herself an email about a January 5 meeting with POTUS 44, FBI boss James Comey, deputy attorney general Sally Yates, and vice president Joe Biden.  In this meeting, Rice wrote, "The president stressed that he is not asking about, initiating or instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective.  He reiterated that our law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would by the book."  From a national security perspective, however, the president "said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia."  Senators Lindsey Graham and Charles Grassley, among others, found the email highly unusual.

Susan Rice tries posterior-covering, pokes a hornet's nest instead.  The truth is that Rice is a henchwoman.  She'll do whatever is asked of her in support of those who elevated her to power.  But because she's not that bright, she causes problems worse than the original ones she's trying to fix.  That is the only explanation I can see for the extraordinarily "curious" email she sent to herself in the very last minutes of the Obama administration on Inauguration Day.  That email has drawn the attention of Senator Chuck Grassley, and now Rice has a big problem (as in needing expensive lawyers) on her hands.

Susan Rice's Inauguration Day email raises new questions for Comey.  A newly released Inauguration Day email in which Obama national security adviser Susan Rice detailed a meeting with the outgoing president, James Comey and others is raising new questions for the former FBI boss, considering he never mentioned such a sit-down in Senate testimony last June.  In his opening statement at the time to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Comey downplayed his meetings with then-President Barack Obama, contrasting them with the numerous conversations he had with President Trump before his firing.  "I spoke alone with President Obama twice in person (and never on the phone) — once in 2015 to discuss law enforcement policy issues and a second time, briefly, for him to say goodbye in late 2016," Comey said in his written statement.

Why Susan Rice Wrote an Email To Herself.  Scott wrote this morning [2/13/2018] about the extraordinary email that National Security Advisor Susan Rice wrote to herself at 12:15 on January 20, 2017, within minutes of when President Trump was inaugurated.  It must have been her last act, more or less, before she vacated the White House.  So obviously the email was important to her.  But why would it be important to send an email to herself (the only person copied was one of her aides)? [...] Most attention, so far, has focused on the first two paragraphs of the email, which describe a meeting that occurred around two weeks earlier.  The participants included Barack Obama, Joe Biden, James Comey, Sally Yates — who turns up like a bad penny whenever skulduggery is afoot — and Rice.

The Liar's Paradox on Steroids.  Susan Rice's Email Documents a Lie By James Comey.  Former National Security Adviser and world-champion liar Susan Rice received a nice letter from the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday.  The subject was a rather strange email that Rice sent to herself at 12:15 p.m. on January 20, 2017.  Minutes before Donald Trump took the oath of office she sent herself a most curious email.  It demonstrates two things.  First, that Barack Obama was giving instructions to members of his administration who were being held over on how to deal with the Trump administration.  Second, that James Comey is a liar if we are to believe Susan Rice who is certified liar.  If you'll recall, the Sunday following the Benghazi attack, by which time the Obama administration knew full well who was behind the attack, Susan Rice appeared on all five major Sunday shows and blamed a bogus YouTube video.

Senator Chuck Grassley Questions Susan Rice About 'Unusual' Documentary Letter to Herself.  [Scroll down]  Senator Grassley is not asking questions he doesn't already know the answers to.  Grassley and Nunes are now beginning to draw the upper part of the administration into the matrices of the conspiracy.  Secretary of State John Kerry; CIA Director John Brennan; ODNI James Clapper; Attorney General Loretta Lynch; AAG Sally Yates; DAAG John P Carlin (DOJ-NSD), DAAG Mary McCord (DOJ-NSD); Asst.  FBI Director Andrew McCabe and FBI Director James Comey are inherently wound-up in the larger plan.  Chairman Grassley is simply expanding the net.  All narrative collapses eventually lead to President Obama's involvement.

Susan Rice's Strange Email: Note To Self, We Did Nothing Wrong.  Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham released an email by Susan Rice to Susan Rice that seemed odd in both its timing and content.  Fifteen minutes after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States Susan Rice, who had just become the former National Security Adviser sent out her last email using her official White House email account.  It was strange email, about a meeting fifteen days before regarding Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election, whose attendees included Rice, the POTUS, the SCHMOTUS Joe Biden, former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates[.]  The strange part of the email was that its purpose seemed to be to get on the record that the Obama administration did nothing wrong in the Russia investigation.  She noted repeatedly how Obama emphasized during the meeting on Russian that he wanted every aspect of the issue handled "by the book."

Susan Rice:  Take a Memo to Susan Rice.  Ah, some of the nearest and dearest names of the recently departed administration have the strangest habit of popping back into the news in the most peculiar ways.  Like, in an email.  Take Susan "Served With Honor and Distinction" Rice, former National Security Adviser to President Obama and proud public purveyor of memorable whoppers.  She's back in the headlines again this afternoon because a crusty old Republican senator and his sidekick read the materials presented to their committee.  When they did, they noticed something "unusual": [...]

Like Rats from a Sinking Ship:  Comey vs.  Rice Edition.  For your consideration, a letter from the Senate Judiciary Committee to one Susan "Benghazi" Rice.  Perhaps this pathetic attempt was Rice's own form of an 'insurance policy'.

Hmmm: Susan Rice Sent An Email To Herself On Inauguration Day Memorializing A Chat Between Obama And Comey On Russiagate.  Note the date and time:  January 20, 2017, 12:15 p.m.  Trump had just been sworn in as president minutes before.  Was Susan Rice commiserating with friends while he took the oath of office?  Ruminating on the legacy of the Obama years?  Planning her next career move?  Texting angrily to someone about how much she hates Trump?  Getting plastered?  Nope, she was thinking about Russiagate, intently enough that she wanted to get something down on the record where she knew the National Archives would record it about a meeting that had been held more than two weeks before.  In her final moments as a White House employee, this is what Susan Rice was focused on.

Senators flag 'unusual' Susan Rice email on Russia probe from Inauguration Day.  Ex-national security adviser Susan Rice sent an "unusual email" to herself the day President Trump was sworn into office documenting former President Barack Obama's guidance at a high-level meeting about how law enforcement should investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race, two Republican senators said Monday [2/12/2018].  According to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Lindsey Graham, the partially unclassified email was sent by Rice on Jan. 20, 2017 — and appears to document a Jan. 5 meeting that included Obama, then-FBI Director James Comey, then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, then-Vice President Joe Biden and Rice.

Severed Heads.  Susan Rice managed to be at the center of almost every major Obama-administration scandal involving national security.  She lied repeatedly on national television about the cause and nature of the Benghazi killings.  She misled the U.N. about the nature of humanitarian and no-fly-zone resolutions in Libya, in order to facilitate bombing Qaddafi out of power.  She fantasized about the Bowe Bergdahl swap and in Orwellian fashion assured the nation that the AWOL soldier had "served with honor and distinction" before being captured on the field of battle as a POW; "Sergeant Bergdahl wasn't simply a hostage; he was an American prisoner of war captured on the battlefield," she said.  She was a party to the dissimulations about the Iran Deal side agreements (whose sordid details are slowly trickling out), falsely assuring the nation that there was no connection between cash payments to the Iranians and the release of American hostages.

'Unmasking' of Trump aides reveals Susan Rice at center of multifarious controversies.  Despite having been given a huge boost by the Clintons, Ms. Rice backed Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary, citing early opposition to the Iraq War by the one-term senator from Illinois.  The Clinton camp saw her as a defector, but Mr. Obama appointed her United Nations ambassador and later his national security adviser.  She became one of his closest aides, but her style attracted serious enemies, reportedly torpedoing Mr. Obama's plans to name her as secretary of state when Mrs. Clinton stepped down in 2013.

The Obama Administration's Zelig.  Susan Rice is the real version of Woody Allen's cinematic character Zelig, who in the movie of the same name popped up almost anywhere as an expert on anything.  As U.N. ambassador from 2009 to 2013, and later as National Security Adviser from 2013 to 2017, Rice seemed to have turned up everywhere there was an Obama-administration implosion.  She was always eager to offer a supposedly expert assessment — one that also always proved wrong or untrue or both.

Flashback: Susan Rice Praises Obama for Ridding Syria of Chemical Weapons Without Use of Force.  Another day, another lie from Susan Rice.  And hey, great job, Obama!

Susan Rice Lied About Syrian Chemical Weapons.  The chemical weapon attack by the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad on the rebel-held town Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib Province on April 4 once again underscores what a foreign policy failure President Obama was and what a serial liar Susan Rice is.  On January 16, 2017, Rice, who served as U.N. ambassador during Obama's first term and was rewarded for her Benghazi lies with the post of National Security Advisor, where she could be compelled to testify before Congress, gave what amounted to an exit interview with NPR.  During the interview she crowed about the Obama administration's success in eliminating the threat of Syrian chemical weapons: [...]

Susan Rice Admitted Eight Years Of Smoking Weed In Her Background Check.  Susan Rice, President Barack Obama's National Security Advisor, admitted on her 2008 federal appointment background investigation questionaire that she smoked marijuana "very infrequently" for eight years during her teens and twenties, according to a document made public by Wikileaks.  Rice described the activity as the "rare recreational use of marijuana prior to and in 1990," adding that she had smoked "none since 1990."  That was the year Rice earned her doctorate from Oxford University in Britain.

Susan Rice Laughs Uncontrollably When Charlie Rose Mentions Ukraine's 'Humiliating' Retreat.  Apparently Susan Rice finds the Ukraine situation hilarious.  The National Security Adviser for President Obama laughed uncontrollably when asked about how humiliating it was to have Ukrainian troops retreat.  Rice accused Charlie Rose of trying to get her off track while still laughing.  [Video clip]

Obama Administration Elitists Have Contempt For Voters.  Susan Rice, former U.N. ambassador and now national security adviser, has misled in chronic fashion.  She was untruthful about the Benghazi killings on national TV, claiming the attacks on the American consulate were the result of a spontaneous riot over a video.  She defended the surreal Sgt. Beau Bergdahl prisoner swap by claiming that the AWOL soldier had served with "honor and distinction."  She again prevaricated when she boasted of a diplomatic breakthrough in getting Turkey to provide U.S. bases and support against the Islamic State.  The list of deceptions and untruths goes on.

Susan Rice Defends James Clapper And The Indefensible.  The diplomat who blamed four American deaths in Benghazi on a video claims the denials by the director of national intelligence of blanket surveillance of Americans were inadvertent false representations.

Susan Rice's Consolation Prize.  The news that Susan Rice will be named to replace Tom Donilon as President Obama's national security adviser is not surprising in the least — indeed, it was close to a sure thing as soon as Rice's name was dropped from consideration to be secretary of state.  But there is irony aplenty in this promotion, and it explains why the New York Times is wrong to cast the appointment as "a defiant gesture to Republicans."  The Times joins many commentators on the left in being completely confused by the complicated politics of l'affaire Rice, so it's worth reviewing.

Jason Chaffetz: Susan Rice Is a Terrible Choice for National Security Adviser.  In a move that is already angering Republican lawmakers, President Obama will name as his next national security adviser Susan Rice, the administration official who delivered (but did not draft) the talking points that downplayed the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Sunday television shows in September five days after the incident.

Obama's 'Defiant' Tapping of Susan Rice Says He Thinks He Won Benghazi Again.  President Obama is making Susan Rice his national security adviser, even though what she said on five Sunday talk shows about the cause of the attack on an American diplomatic outpost in Libya has been the focus of Republican scrutiny for almost nine months.  Obama "was embittered by the attacks against Rice to an extent unmatched by nearly any other episode in his fight-filled presidency," Politico's Glenn Thrush says.  Picking Rice is a "defiant gesture to Republicans," The New York Times' Mark Landler writes.  It also seems to indicate that the White House thinks Benghazi is kind of over.

The real reason Obama tapped Susan Rice for national security adviser.  [Scroll down]  She has zero credibility with the media, on Capitol Hill, with the foreign policy community and foreign leaders, and is so badly tarnished by the Benghazi scandal that she walks into the job on Day One weak and wounded.  The most obvious problem is her disastrous performance on the Sunday talk shows peddling the administration's fairy tale on Benghazi; when she was either complicit in the cover-up or incompetent.  Either she knew what really happened and deliberately lied to the American people or she was a mere actress who read the script she was given and didn't know enough to question whether the words she spoke were accurate.

Susan Rice to replace Donilon as national security adviser.  The ambassador had earlier been considered in the running for the secretary of State post, which does require confirmation, but withdrew from consideration amid the continuing fallout over her role following the Benghazi attack.  Rice went on five Sunday shows after the attack and claimed it was triggered by protests over an anti-Islam film, an explanation many lawmakers said at the time was inaccurate.

Rice Bows Out: Media Unable to Save Her.  NBC News reports that US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has withdrawn her name from consideration as Secretary of State.

The Left vs. Susan Rice.  Though the discussion appears to be moot now that Susan Rice has apparently withdrawn her name from consideration to be secretary of state, I agree with Max that the criticism of Rice's undiplomatic style would seem to be complements when coming from conservatives.  But I fear an important point is being lost:  this criticism was not coming from the right, by and large.  The attacks on Rice's disposition have been driven by the left.

Thoughts on Rice's Withdrawal:  UN Ambassador Susan Rice has formally withdrawn her name from consideration to be the next Secretary of State.  She will remain in her current position.  Despite the strong support of President Obama, Rice could never escape the fact that she repeatedly said the attacks in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 were a spontaneous reaction to the anti-Muslim YouTube video as opposed to a terrorist attack.

The Other Susan Rice File.  The trouble with a newspaper column lies in the word limit.  Last week, I wrote about some of Susan Rice's diplomatic misadventures in Africa during her years in the Clinton administration:  Rwanda, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo.  But there wasn't enough space to get to them all.  And Sierra Leone deserves a column of its own.

Susan Rice's Real Crimes.  Whether as a co-conspirator or as a dupe of the Deceiver-in-Chief, Rice's pushing the idea of a demonstration, versus an attack, is the real crime.  Obama and his minions can hide in the fog of war from questions such as whether the attacks were preplanned or triggered by current events, but that these were attacks, not demonstrations, was obvious within a few hours of their onset.

Susan Rice and Africa's Despots:  During her career, she has shown a surprising and unsettling sympathy for Africa's despots.  This record dates from Ms. Rice's service as assistant secretary of state for African affairs under President Bill Clinton, who in 1998 celebrated a "new generation" of African leaders, many of whom were ex-rebel commanders [...]

Rice in Limbo as Nomination Remains Uncertain.  It did not take long for Susan E. Rice and her champions at the White House to realize that the Republican furor over the Benghazi attack was not going away after the presidential campaign ended.

Hillary's replacement:  Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice's deceptive Benghazi spin ought to be enough to sink her bid for promotion. [...] Yet there's plenty more in her past that calls into question her fitness as a potential replacement for Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state.

Susan Rice's Enrichment Program.  The portfolio of embattled United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice includes investments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in several energy companies known for doing business with Iran, according to financial disclosure forms. [...] Rice has the highest net worth of executive branch members, with a fortune estimated between $24 to $44 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.  A Free Beacon analysis of Rice's portfolio shows thousands of dollars invested in at least three separate companies cited by lawmakers on Capitol Hill for doing business in Iran's oil and gas sector.

Environmentalists Petition Susan Rice to Divest 'Every Dollar of Stock' in Oil Pipeline Co.  Environmentalists are furious that potential Secretary of State nominee and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice owns stock in TransCanada Corp, the pipeline firm that would benefit from the Keystone XL pipeline, which the State Department would have to approve.  In an online petition, they have urged Rice to divest "every dollar of stock" in TransCanada Corp.

Should the Secretary of State be a dupe?  According to CBS News, the talking points, which were also given to members of the House intelligence committee, make no reference to terrorism being a likely factor in the assault.  So, as Obama previewed, Rice's defense, if she is nominated to be Secretary of State, will be that she was just parroting her talking points.  That may be a good defense for a press secretary.  Whether it suffices for a U.N. ambassador or a would-be Secretary of State is another matter.

More about the Benghazi scandal.

U.N. Ambassador Rice Helped Thwart Bin Laden Capture.  Our U.N. ambassador, champion of the altered Benghazi talking points, helped block attempts by Sudan to turn over the world's most wanted terrorist outright or share intelligence leading to his capture.

From Rwanda to Benghazi, Susan Rice's Record of Political Cronyism.  It would appear that Ms. Rice was part of a coordinated effort by unknown elements within the White House to downplay the terrorist aspect of Benghazi attack, which happened on the 11th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks and with less than eight weeks to go before a Presidential election.

The Editor says...
Unknown elements within the White House.  Really?  How many "elements within the White House" are in a position to tell the ambassador what to say on nationwide television?  Only one comes to mind, and that's the President of the United States.  And why would the President want to soft-pedal any mention of Islamic terrorism or Muslim extremists?  Why would he want to portray the Muslims as victims rather than aggressors?  Get a clue.

Rice-a-Phony?  So what's wrong with this picture?  For one thing, we are told Rice is a fierce advocate for human rights — yet she opposed the war to liberate Iraq, which overthrew one of the most sadistic figures in the last half-century, an architect of genocide, and the aggressor in wars against Iran and Kuwait.  If Ms. Rice had had her way, Iraq would still be ruled by Saddam, rather than be on the road to self-government.  And if Ms. Rice and President-elect Obama had both had their way, the surge would never have happened...

Susan Rice Twarted Capture Of bin Laden.  During a campaign interview on CNN, Barack Obama's-then national security adviser Susan Rice stated that President Bush blew opportunities to capture Osama bin Laden and she wouldn't mind seeing him killed.  It turns out Obama's choice of UN Ambassador blew opportunities as well.

Susan Rice:  Another Do-Little Obama Appointee.  Like many of her cohorts in the Obama administration, U.N. Permanent Representative Susan Rice seems to spend more time gallivanting around the Washington, D.C. social scene than doing any actual productive work. ... There seems to be a pattern here:  Perhaps B.O.'s staffing decisions revolve around establishing the best group of partiers in Washington, D.C. regardless of their previous accomplishments or proclivity for work.

Susan Rice:  Another Obama Failure.  America's Ambassador to the United Nations has been a failure.  Perhaps Susan Rice should spend less time career-climbing in DC, angling to replace Hillary Clinton (she has been "wildly inattentive" according to the non-partisan The Hill magazine) and more time doing her job.  Rice (and the US) was AWOL when it came to the vote to allow Libya onto the UN Human Rights Council; was AWOL in a Sec Council Resolution that condemned Israel (the first time such as Security Council resolution was not vetoed by America).

Newt: Fire Chu.  Finally someone in the Republican presidential sweepstakes is saying what needs to be said:  Fire Energy Secretary David Chu. ... On Chu's watch, the Department of Energy co-signed for a $535 million loan to a company that promised to make solar panels in the most expensive way possible using the most expensive materials available for a market already glutted with cheap foreign competitors.  The loan was used to build a second factory to expand Solyndra's ability to make solar panels no one was buying.  This made no sense, yet Chu signed off on the loan.

The Editor says...
That's all very good, but I think the man's name is Dr. Steven Chu, not David Chu.  Am I wrong?

Allen West: Rice Is "Asinine, Naive, Inept, Incompetent And Borderline Ignorant".  Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) on FOX News' Justice with Judge Jeanine Sunday night [9/16/2012]:  ["]Well, it's very simple.  When I listened to the UN ambassador Susan Rice today several words came to mind:  asinine, naive, inept, incompetent and borderline ignorant.  Because when you understand that the Egyptian government, their intelligence services, put out a letter talking about the potential threat of an attack, uprisings, about a week before this.  It was even printed in the Jerusalem Post on 9/11.["]

Who Was UN Ambassador Susan Rice Before Benghazi?  Unlike many in government, Rice holds a rare claim to Washington, D.C.:  she's a local.  She hails from a prominent family with deep ties to the Democratic Party.

Susan Rice Is Unqualified To Be Secretary Of State.  "Her meeting with GOP senators begs the question that if all she can do is read talking points handed to her by the White House then perhaps she should be the next White House press secretary."

Susan Rice in 1986 book: Make white students learn black history.  In a 1986 book by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, the future diplomat argued for the aggressive inclusion of a black history curriculum in American schools, claiming that its omission had "crippling effects" by "providing a child with no more than ... a white interpretation of reality."

Rice Has Up to $600K Stake in Keystone Company.  Potential secretary of state candidate Susan Rice owns up to $600,000 of stock in the Canadian company pushing to build the Keystone XL Pipeline, according to her financial disclosure reports.  OnEarth reports that Rice, Obama's preferred candidate to succeed Hillary Clinton, owns millions of dollars of stock in oil companies, including TransCanada, the company behind the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.

For Susan Rice, Benghazi Was Kenya 1998 Deja Vu.  A mission was attacked after warnings, Americans were killed after security requests were denied, and a diplomat went on TV to explain it all — our current U.N. ambassador, after embassy bombings in 1998.

With Rice, Benghazi Is Only the Start of the Problem.  Ms. Rice, of course, has recently gained notoriety — infamy, really — for her appalling performance as megaphone for the Obama administration's effort to mislead the country into believing that a protest over an obscure video about Islam's prophet Mohammed somehow led to the September 11 Benghazi massacre of four Americans, including Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya.  In reality — as the administration well knew when Rice was dispatched to misinform Americans five days after the slaughter — there was no protest.

Greg Craig

Obama Lawyer Greg Craig Found Not Guilty of Lobbying Violations.  Greg Craig was accused by special counsel Robert Mueller and lead litigator Andrew Weissman of FARA (Foreign Agent Registration Act) lobbying violations; and later charges he lied when questioned about them.  The Greg Craig FARA pursuit was similar to special counsel accusations made against Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, and special counsel threats toward the same objective against George Papadopoulos.  The sketchy use of potential FARA violations to capture targets was a specific technique deployed by Weissmann.

Jury Acquits Greg Craig In Case Spun Off From Mueller Probe.  A federal jury Wednesday acquitted former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig on charges that he lied to federal officials regarding his work on behalf of the Ukrainian government in 2012.  The Washington, D.C., jury delivered the verdict after several hours of deliberation.  The case was spun off from an investigation that originated with special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.

Greg Craig found not guilty on foreign lobbying charge.  Greg Craig, a top lawyer in the Obama administration, was acquitted by a federal jury in Washington on Wednesday afternoon of allegedly making a false statement to the Justice Department.  It was a stunning rebuke of the Justice Department's recent efforts to spin off a lobbying probe from the Mueller investigation into an equal opportunity comeuppance for a top former Democratic official.

Greg Craig, ex-Obama White House counsel, indicted for alleged false statements.  Greg Craig, former White House counsel for then-President Barack Obama, was indicted Thursday [4/11/2019] on two counts of making false and misleading statements to investigators — including Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team — in connection with his work on behalf of Russia-backed former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.  Craig is the first prominent Democrat to be indicted in a case arising from Mueller's now-completed probe into Russian election interference.  Mueller referred the Craig case to prosecutors in New York last year after uncovering possible wrongdoing while he investigated former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's Ukraine lobbying work.

Former Obama White House Counsel Gregory Craig Indicted in Foreign Lobbying Probe.  Former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig was indicted Thursday on false statement charges stemming from a foreign lobbying investigation into his work on behalf of Ukraine.  The Department of Justice charges Craig hid "material facts" and lied to the National Security Division's Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Unit in relation to legal work he did for Ukraine in 2012 after leaving the White House to join Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Ex-Obama lawyer  one big step closer to being  first high-profile Dem indicted under Mueller probe.  Greg Craig, a high-powered attorney who served as White House counsel in the Obama administration and as senior legal adviser to Bill Clinton during his impeachment investigation, is expected to be indicted for lying to DOJ investigators during the Mueller investigation.  It's possible other charges will also be leveled.  As BPR reported last month, Craig will likely be the first high-profile Democrat to be charged in connection with the special counsel witch hunt.  Because Craig refused a plea deal, a grand jury indictment may come as soon as today, Thursday [4/11/2019], the Wall Street Journal reported.

Former Obama WH counsel Greg Craig indicted in charges connected to Mueller probe.  A federal grand jury on Thursday [4/11/2019] indicted Greg Craig, a prominent Democratic attorney who worked for two presidents, charging him with false statements and concealing material information in connection with work he performed for Ukraine.  An indictment in the case against Craig, which originated in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, has been expected for several weeks, with Craig's own lawyers saying Wednesday they anticipated such an outcome.

Ex-Obama counsel expects charges in Mueller-related probe.  Former Obama administration White House counsel Greg Craig expects to be charged in a foreign lobbying investigation spun off from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, his lawyers said.

Obama WH counsel faces possible prosecution in Mueller-initiated probe.  Former Obama White House Counsel and Clinton-linked attorney Greg Craig may soon be charged by the Justice Department for engaging in illegal unregistered overseas lobbying, in a case initially probed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller — a development that would make him the first Democrat to face prosecution amid the long-running Russia investigation.  The case centers on lobbying work that Craig performed in 2012 for the Russian-backed president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, while Craig was a partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.  Craig allegedly never registered as a foreign agent under a U.S. law known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, which requires lobbyists to declare publicly if they represent foreign leaders, governments or their political parties.

Exclusive:  Gregory Craig to be White House counsel.  Gregory B. Craig, a well-known Washington lawyer who quarterbacked President Bill Clinton's impeachment defense, has been chosen White House counsel by President-elect Barack Obama, according to Democratic officials.

Meet Greg Craig, Obama's White House Counsel.  Mike Allen reported over the weekend that "Gregory B. Craig, a well-known Washington lawyer who quarterbacked President Bill Clinton's impeachment defense, has been chosen White House counsel by President-elect Barack Obama".  Believe it or not, the time Craig spent shilling for Clinton may have been his most honorable days of work.

Craig's clients at times at odds with U.S.  As a top Washington lawyer, newly named White House counsel Greg Craig has represented high-profile clients, from Bill Clinton to John Hinckley to Alexander Solzhenitsyn to Elian Gonzalez's father.  But less well known is Craig's work in the 1990s for at least four foreign governments or leaders facing a variety of tricky situations in Washington.

The Obamameter Points Left.  When reports surfaced that Gregory Craig was to be named White House counsel to the incoming Obama administration, most journalists focused on the fact that a former staunch ally of the Clinton family (he led President Clinton's impeachment defense) was joining Team Obama.  But Cuban-Americans and moderate Hispanics worry about the other legal clients Mr. Craig has collected over the years.

Greg Craig and the Terrorist.  American prosecutors have long wanted to put [Pedro Miguel] González behind bars; the nearly 17-year-old murder charge stands today.  But in addition to his family in Panama, González has at least one very well-connected, very influential advocate in the United States:  Gregory Craig, the man Barack Obama chose to be the next White House counsel.

Flashback to 2008:
Release of Clinton Schedules Offers Chance to Test Campaign Assertions.  Gregory B. Craig, who was a senior State Department official in the Clinton administration and is now a policy adviser to Mr. Obama, said Friday [3/21/2008] that the White House records showed that Mrs. Clinton was absent when critical foreign policy decisions were made and that her trips abroad were largely ceremonial.  "The fact is, and this was established by the White House schedules, that she did not attend N.S.C. meetings or routinely meet with the secretary of state or the national security adviser," said Mr. Craig, a lawyer who represented Mr. Clinton in his 1998-99 impeachment and trial.

Tom Daschle

Daschle's Lobbyist Wife Might Complicate New Post.  President-elect Barack Obama has chosen [Tom] Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat to fill the cabinet post, and that of "health czar."  The 59-year-old Daschle, according to sources speaking to The Washington Post's Ceci Connolly and Chris Cillizza, is expected to take the jobs.  Daschle's new position might be complicated by his wife, Linda Hall Daschle, who is a registered lobbyist with the Washington firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz.

Obama's Pick of Daschle May Test Conflict-of-Interest Pledge.  At issue is Mr. Daschle's work since leaving the Senate four years ago as a board member of the Mayo Clinic and a highly paid adviser to health care clients at the law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird.  In a detailed list of campaign promises, Mr. Obama pledged that "no political appointees in an Obama administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years."

Driving Mr. Daschle.  So Tom Daschle, the erstwhile prairie populist and scourge of multiple Presidential nominees, failed to disclose and pay taxes on hundreds of thousands of dollars of income.  He also waited months to pay up and told the Obama transition team about his tax oversights only days before his Senate confirmation hearing to become Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Daschle Faces Questions on Trips.  Former Sen. Tom Daschle, already facing questions over his failure to pay some taxes in a timely fashion, will likely face another question when the Senate Finance Committee meets Monday to consider his nomination as health and human services secretary:  whether he improperly took gifts of value from charities with which he was involved.

Who's Limousine Lounging Now?  Back in 1986, when Tom Daschle was a member of the House, President Reagan nominated a man named Richard Lyng to be Agriculture Secretary.  Daschle didn't like the nomination.  Why?  Lyng, Daschle said, was "a limousine-lounging corporate executive" who didn't know anything about agriculture.

The Daschles:  feeding at the Beltway trough.  Other than his ability to know how to swing doors wide open in Congress, what "expertise and insights" worth that level of compensation does Tom Daschle have?  It's pure legalized influenced peddling, and — upon being booted out of the Congress — he ran right to it as quickly as he could and engorged himself at the trough as hungrily as possible.

Daschle takes 'a bad first-day hit'.  Senate Republicans on Saturday [1/31/2009] were still trying to come to grips with the scale of Daschle's tax issues, and had yet to decide whether to support him or block his nomination as Health and Human Services secretary.

Daschle's Prospects.  The Daschle nomination could (and certainly should) be in very serious trouble after the last 24 hours.  Surely no senator who voted against Tim Geithner (34 senators) could vote to confirm him, and many of those who voted for Geithner's confirmation said they did so because he seemed to have unique qualifications to serve the country in this particular economic crisis that few if any other possible candidates could match.  That is simply not the case for Daschle.

Daschle Owed Back Taxes That Exceeded $128,000.  Thomas A. Daschle, nominated to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, did not pay more than $128,000 in taxes over three years, a revelation that poses a potential obstacle to his Senate confirmation.  The back taxes, along with $12,000 in interest and penalties, involved unreported consulting fees, questionable charitable contributions, and a car and driver provided by a private equity firm run by entrepreneur and longtime Democratic Party donor Leo J. Hindery Jr., according to a confidential draft report prepared by Senate Finance Committee staff.

Questions arise after Daschle surprise.  It was designed as the most comprehensive vetting form ever — 60-plus inquiries meant to leave not a single gap in what Barack Obama's nominees must divulge about their lives.  But when he returned his questionnaire, Tom Daschle forgot to mention the free limo rides.

Marion Barry for Drug Czar.  If a certain sort of conservative tends to be moralistic about sex, liberals tend to be moralistic about money.  That makes Tom Daschle the equivalent of a televangelist caught in a sex scandal.  Daschle, now President Obama's nominee for secretary of health and human services, was first elected to Congress in 1978 as a Democrat from South Dakota.  In 2004, in the final throes of the Bush majority, voters ousted him from the Senate. ... he stayed in Washington, joined a lobbying firm — albeit as a "special policy adviser," since as a former senator he was prohibited by law from "lobbying" — and raked in the bucks.

Cabinet roulette.  It most likely won't happen, but the majority Senate Democrats should vote down the confirmation of their former leader, Thomas Daschle, as health and human services secretary because of his income tax "oversights."  They probably should not have approved Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary for his.  One can be assured that would be the case had a Republican president nominated them.

Taxes? Too Busy, Busy, Busy!  When someone earns more per week than the U.S. median yearly household income, we naively assume that person has more sophistication about money than the rest of us. ... Even if we don't know what Daschle did to earn all his money, we do know that when you monetize the job of Senate majority leader, as Daschle's financial disclosure forms reveal, you come up with almost $5.3 million in two years.

Senators rally round their pal Daschle.  It's unclear whether the American people will accept the apology; they tend to look unfavorably on people who amass more than $350,000 in unreported income and improper deductions.  They also might be skeptical of somebody who used his connections and influence to pile up more than $5.2 million since he left the Senate, much of it from a major Democratic donor and $220,000 of it from health care interests that Daschle, if confirmed by senators, will begin to regulate.

O's Ethics 'Exceptions':  Did the Democrats adopt a plank in their party platform last summer requiring all of their top dogs to have serious personal tax problems?  Sure looks that way. ... Daschle has raked in a staggering $5.2 million since being defeated for re-election in 2004 — including a big bag of cash from the health-care industry, which he's set to regulate.

Daschle Never Forgot to Vote for Higher Taxes.  During his 26 years in Congress, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) consistently supported tax hikes, opposed tax cuts and had tough words for tax scofflaws.  "Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter," Daschle said in 1998, according to the Congressional Record.

Daschle's derailment.  Does anyone important in Washington pay taxes?  Or is that civic duty — like jury duty or serving in the military — now something that only the "little people" in America, those without deep pockets and connections, do?

How Did Daschle Realize He Had a Limo Problem?  One of the unanswered questions concerning Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Tom Daschle's tax problem is why it suddenly occurred to Daschle, in June 2008, that the car and driver he had been provided by a wealthy Democratic donor in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 might count as income and thus be subject to taxes — taxes which Daschle had not paid.

Daschle withdraws as nominee for HHS secretary.  Tom Daschle has withdrawn his nomination to be Health and Human Services secretary.  That's according to a joint White House statement from President Barack Obama and his former nominee.

Obama scrambles after Daschle's fall in tax controversy.  President Barack Obama scrambled to regain control of his political message Tuesday [2/3/2009] after a series of tax and vetting scandals forced one of his most important nominees to withdraw and raised questions about the new president's central campaign pledge to change politics as usual.

Barack Obama and Tom Daschle — inept, naive, tone-deaf or arrogant?  So Tom Daschle has ended the farce and withdrawn as health secretary nominee.  But why did Barack Obama stick by him so defiantly for so long?  And in the current horrendous economic climate, how did he think this was playing outside the Beltway?  And what happened to that much-vaunted vetting process?

Daschle spares Democrats further embarrassment.  [Scroll down]  [Harry] Reid, along with other Democratic colleagues, signaled strong support for Daschle.  Other senators, like Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), risked making themselves look utterly ridiculous.  A few weeks ago, Conrad called Geithner's tax problems "completely unacceptable."  "I'm a former tax commissioner," Conrad said.  "I've dealt with hundreds of cases like this one, and in normal times that alone would lead me to oppose his confirmation."

Tom Daschle Withdraws:  Another Ethics Casualty for Obama.  How quickly they fall.  Tom Daschle, who just yesterday had the full backing of President Barack Obama, has announced he is withdrawing his name from consideration as Health and Human Services secretary.  For both Daschle and Obama, it has been a rough ride, calling into question the latter's judgment and skill as a chief executive.

Nonprofits Linked to Daschle Spread Cash Around Washington.  The founders of two nonprofits that figured in the failed cabinet nomination of former Sen. Tom Daschle have cultivated ties to an array of prominent Washington figures, even as their businesses were coming under scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service, according to public records, court documents and people familiar with Senate Finance Committee investigation.

Daschle gave a speech on tax cheats.  If Tom Daschle had his way, Tom Daschle would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for failing to pay his taxes.  At least according to the old Tom Daschle, who gave an impassioned speech on the Senate floor about the scourge of tax scofflaws.

Geithner Skated, So Daschle Couldn't.  Initially, it looked like we would simply witness a repeat of the Geithner saga.  On Monday, Daschle apologized, Obama publicly stuck up for him, White House aides lobbied on his behalf, and some key senators — most notably from Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, whose panel would also have voted on Daschle's nomination — reaffirmed their support.  And then on Tuesday morning, Daschle pulled the plug, withdrawing his name from consideration on the grounds that he risked becoming a distraction for the new administration.

You're Out, Tom.  Tom Daschle's decision to withdraw his nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services after revelations that he had failed to pay more than $120,000 in back taxes will not only embarrass President Obama in the short term, but it will be a major setback in his administration's push for universal health care.

Obama:  The Hollow Man.  Daschle was supposed to become health and human services secretary, but his dirty laundry included more than just unpaid taxes.  He had been getting $1 million a year from a big D.C. law firm — and he's not a lawyer.  He had been getting another million a year (plus the limousine and chauffeur that became the flashpoint of his tax evasion) for unspecified services to an investment firm.  Why were these companies paying Daschle so much money?  Because he was an elitist in good standing and would use his influence to their benefit.

Hillary Clinton

Political Climate:  Incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tells the Senate that global warming "threatens our very existence" and she'll shape a foreign policy to fight it.  Pardon us, but remember Iran and the nukes?

Hillary for Secretary of State — Is Obama Kidding?  Obama would do well to remember the history of Harry Truman and Jimmy Byrnes in 1944. ... If Obama nominates Hillary, he will put himself in the same position as Truman was with Byrnes, and the results will be just as predictable.

Hillary Clinton would face tough questions about Bill's finances.  The President-Elect has reportedly sounded out his former bitter rival to be the international face for his new administration — just months after she mocked his foreign policy inexperience and criticised his plans to talk to America's enemies.  But the ex-First Lady would first have to go through a gruelling confirmation process on Capitol Hill at which, The Sunday Telegraph has learned, Republican senators will raise her husband's secrecy-shrouded business deals and fund-raising for his glitzy presidential library and foundation.

No drama?  With Hillary aboard?  Forget it.  When the man they call No Drama Obama met the Clinton Psychodrama in the Democratic primary campaign, it was bound to produce an epic for the ages.  The iron self-discipline of the long-shot pretender proved just enough in the end to overcome the front-runner whose strengths were undermined by the self-indulgent incontinence characteristic of the Clinton political machine.

Hillary's Big Ethics Problem:  Bill.  What guidelines should govern Bill Clinton's future activities if Hillary becomes Secretary of State?  Recent events suggest that at least two are necessary:  no more favors for human rights violators in exchange for big contributions to the Clinton Foundation; and no more lying to the news media about such deals.  It's worth remembering the nearly-forgotten story we could call "Bill Clinton and the Kazakh uranium."

"Complications" = "baggage"
Clinton's Sec. of State Chances Improving.  Clinton would give the Obama administration someone who is already a familiar face to many foreign heads of state, as well as to foreign populations around the world, who know her and her husband from the Clinton presidency.  Her appointment, however, would also come with complications stemming from Bill Clinton's constant world travels and fundraising among foreigners for his presidential library and William J. Clinton Foundation.

Hillary Clinton to State?  Bill Clinton has been busy touting his wife for the post of secretary of state, which should remind President-elect Barack Obama's transition team of the need to examine Mr. Clinton's paid speechmaking in connection with his wife's future responsibilities at State.  Mr. Clinton earned more than $10 million in speaking fees in 2007, some of it for speeches abroad.

Rubber-Stamp Approval Slips Over Hil's Chasms of Conflicts.  "The (William J.) Clinton Foundation exists as a temptation for any foreign entity or government that believes it could curry favor through a donation," cautioned Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana.  "It also sets up potential perception problems with any action taken by the secretary of state in relation to foreign givers or their countries...."  Therefore, he concluded, in a sharp reversal of his own logic, "I believe that every member of this committee will seek ways to support Senator Clinton's work as secretary of state."  Huh?

Senate Confirms Clinton as Next Secretary of State.  Hillary Clinton was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the next secretary of state Wednesday [1/21/2009], after questions about her husband's foundation sidetracked her nomination for a day.

Hillary and the Emoluments Clause, Part II.  Generally speaking, the emoluments argument goes like this:  when the compensation for a certain cabinet position increases, all members of the Congress in office during the time of the increase shall be disqualified from later holding that position.  According to several academics, the Emoluments Clause is in play because the Secretary of State got a cost-of-living adjustment in January of this year, at which time Hillary Clinton was a senator from New York.

Another day, another scandal from Team Obama.  From pocketing $100,000 for a cattle futures trade made in her name by a lobbyist, to White water, to Filegate, to Travelgate, to Monicagate, to the Mark Rich pardon, to Norman Hsu, to hubby investing overseas, to hubby collecting $50 million in speeches, to hubby pocketing money from the Saudis... (Have I left anything out?  Probably.)  Mrs. Clinton is the most corrupt official ever appointed to a Cabinet post.

Hillary and the Peter Principle:  Hillary, remember, had gone oh-for-February and under the rules of the Democratic Party it was not likely she would be able to overtake Barack by the end of the primary season, but she refused to get out.  It is now clear to me — although I have absolutely no reason to know this to be true — that Hillary agreed not to blow up the Democratic convention in Denver if she became Secretary of State.  Which she is.  And she is dreadful at it.

More about Hillary Clinton.

Arne Duncan

Obama Violates the Constitution with Education Appointment.  When I heard that Education Secretary Arne Duncan was stepping down in December, my first reaction was one of elation.  Duncan was instrumental in forcing Common Core upon the states, he's been an advocate for more federal control of education, and, perhaps most troubling, of increased data collection and analysis in violation of the privacy of both students and parents. [...] Unfortunately, that's where the good news ends.  To replace Duncan, President Obama is appointing John B. King, Jr., the number two man at the Department of Education to serve as a "temporary" replacement, where "temporary" refers to the remainder of Obama's term.

Public Schools Change Young Evangelicals' Values.  Barack Obama's selection for secretary of education is his crony Arne Duncan, who most recently made news by recommending the creation of a Chicago Social Justice High School-Pride Campus, where half the students would be homosexuals and the other half straight.  Somehow that school was canceled just about the time that Obama announced Duncan's appointment.

Schools Led by Obama's Education Secretary Designee Failed NCLB Standard.  The Chicago Public Schools, whose superintendent, Arne Duncan, has been tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to be the next education secretary, failed to meet the Illinois state standards set under the No Child Left Behind Act for the last five years.

U.S. Education Secretary Signs Partnership with Chinese Communists.  U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has signed a formal educational partnership agrement with the Peoples Republic of China, a Communist regime that, according to the U.S. State Department, subjects political dissidents to re-education through labor.  Duncan signed the 2009 Joint Statement of Exchange and Cooperation with the Chinese Minister of Education Zhou Ji on April 16.

Chicago schools report contradicts Obama and Duncan.  New research from a Chicago civic group takes direct aim at the city's "abysmal" public high school performance — and puts a new spin on the academic gains made during the seven years that Arne Duncan led the Chicago schools before he was named U.S. Education secretary.

Arne Duncan's list and the Chicago Way.  When U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan ran the Chicago Public Schools for the boss of Chicago, he kept a secret list of those who hoped to clout children into the city's top-tier public schools.  "We didn't want to advertise what we were doing because we didn't want a bunch of people calling," CPS official David Pickens admitted to Tribune reporters Azam Ahmed and Stephanie Banchero, who broke the story.  So the schools kept a clout list.  But they didn't want nobody nobody sent hassling them with calls.

Arne's List:  A World Of Privilege.  Education Secretary Arne Duncan taught us Orwell this week, showing how some are more equal than others with his VIP list for admission to Chicago's best schools.  Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there.  Duncan, hailed as a miracle-working reformer in the Chicago school system he once led, didn't quite persuade that city's well-connected elites of the value of his reforms, given the number who sought placement in the district's better schools.

Education Secretary Advises School Districts on Homosexual Clubs for Students.  Education Secretary Arne Duncan issued a "Dear Colleagues" letter on June 14 advising federally funded schools about establishing clubs on campuses, specifically Gay-Straight Alliance clubs for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.  The letter was issued from the department's Office of Civil Rights for elementary and secondary schools and was sent to all school districts in the United States, according to Jo Ann Webb, spokesperson for the Department of Education (DOE).

Obama's Education Secretary Denounces States Who Don't Like His Policies.  A strongly-worded statement from Education Secretary Arne Duncan last week revealed his distaste for federalism, since it undermines his goal of having all states agree to one set of education standards.

Leon Panetta

Panetta Revealed Classified Info to Zero Dark Thirty Filmmaker.  Former CIA Director Leon Panetta revealed classified information at a 2011 awards ceremony attended by Zero Dark Thirty filmmaker Mark Boal, according to documents obtained by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.  The CIA allowed Boal, the screenwriter of Zero Dark Thirty, to attend a June 24, 2011 award ceremony celebrating the successful raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan that May.  A transcript of Panetta's speech that night obtained by Judicial Watch is labeled "top secret," and significant portions of it are redacted.

An Awful Pick.  Would you ask your accountant to perform brain surgery on your child?  That's the closest analogy I can find to the choice of Democratic Party hack Leon Panetta to head the CIA.

Amateur Hour at the CIA.  Barack Obama and his team of Cabinet-vetters and political balancers were doing so well there for a while. ... Then came the announcement of Barack Obama's choice as head of the Central Intelligence Agency — no minor appointment when the country is involved in two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) and a third, over-arching War on Terror.

Obama Is Under Fire Over Panetta Selection.  On Capitol Hill, Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence were still stewing over Obama not consulting them on the choice before it was leaked Monday and continued to question Panetta's intelligence experience.

Can A Politician Fix The CIA?  Does it make sense for a political operator such as Leon Panetta to head the CIA?  Maybe.  The flawed agency has a checkered history, and has had repeated run-ins with presidents of both parties.

Panetta Chosen as C.I.A. Chief in Surprise Step.  Leon E. Panetta, a former congressman and White House chief of staff, has been selected by President-elect Barack Obama to head the Central Intelligence Agency.  The choice, disclosed Monday by Democratic officials, immediately revealed divisions in the party as two senior lawmakers questioned why Mr. Obama would nominate a candidate with limited experience in intelligence matters.

Will Leon Panetta be the next body under Obama's bus?  Apparently, his reports to ethics officials indicate the onetime congressman who hung around Washington anyway is now worth nearly $4 million, which makes hanging around Washington seem a worthy pastime for washed-up pols.  Last year Panetta took in about $1.2 million in investments, consulting and speaking fees, plus other income from corporate boards like BP and banks that have now failed or taken bailout money like Wachovia.  Let's all do that.

CIA Nominee Panetta Received $700,000 in Fees.  The White House's nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, has earned more than $700,000 in speaking and consulting fees since the beginning of 2008, with some of the payments coming from troubled financial firms and from a firm that invests in contractors for federal national security agencies, according to financial disclosures released Wednesday.

What on Earth Was Leon Panetta Doing Palling Around With a Spy-Linked Communist?  President Obama's nominee for Secretary of Defense had a previously undisclosed friendship with Communist Party USA figure Hugh DeLacy, according to a new report.  The nominee, Leon Panetta, is currently director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).  He previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Obama's CIA Director Linked to Spies Through Communist Party Figure.  New research from writers and researchers Trevor Loudon and Cliff Kincaid shows that Leon Panetta, the CIA director being considered on Thursday [6/9/2011] for the position of Secretary of Defense, had a previously undisclosed personal and friendly relationship with Hugh DeLacy, a prominent member of the Communist Party USA.  DeLacy visited such countries as China and Nicaragua and was himself a personal contact of identified Soviet spies Solomon Adler and Frank Coe and accused spy John Stewart Service.  Panetta spoke at DeLacy's memorial service, directed a series of letters to him personally as "Dear Hugh," and placed a tribute to him in the Congressional Record.

Is the Panetta Scandal the Next Alger Hiss Case?  Researchers Trevor Loudon and Cliff Kincaid are warning the Senate to examine CIA Director Leon Panetta's anti-defense record, associations with identified communists, and support for the Marxist Institute for Policy Studies before voting on his nomination as Secretary of Defense.

Panettagate: A Real Scandal Involving National Security.  Trevor Loudon and I have dug into the background of CIA director and Secretary of Defense nominee Leon Panetta.  It's too bad that we didn't have this material assembled before now, but better late than never.  The evidence shows that Panetta had a close and personal relationship with a member of the Communist Party by the name of Hugh DeLacy, whose record included meeting with communist espionage agents.  By any objective standard of journalism, this should be big news.  But the question now is whether the media, liberal and conservative, will take time off from Weinergate to pay attention and examine the evidence.

Flying Panetta Leads Charge Against The Carbon Enemy.  Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says climate change is a national security issue.  Isn't he the fellow who jets across the country to go home on weekends?  If he's right, then he's undermining his own mission.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Obama Wants Journalist for Surgeon General.  President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and correspondent for CNN and CBS, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

CNN's Gupta:  A Surgeon General Who Backs an Obesity Tax?  A look into the Business & Media Institute archives revealed that Gupta thinks iPods are potentially dangerous to "breathe," tax increases are okay for the sake of the war on obesity, and the federal food grant program WIC isn't large enough.

Sanjay Gupta Bows Out As Surgeon General Candidate.  Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and CNN's chief medical correspondent, has withdrawn his name from consideration as surgeon general of the United States, according to a new release from the cable news network.

Timothy Geithner

13 Incompetent Failures in the Obama Administration.  [#7] U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner determined where the "stimulus" money would go.  His decisions lost billions on auto bailouts for failed companies, wasted even more billions on "cash for clunkers," and produced economic confusion by supporting failing companies at the expense of strong ones.  This crony capitalism and financial mismanagement contributed to the Obama economic slump masquerading as a "recovery."

Secretary of Bailouts.  Barack Obama's widely leaked selection of Timothy Geithner as his Treasury Secretary is certainly a sign of the financial times:  About Mr. Geithner's views on taxes and economics, the world knows very little.  His specialty at the Clinton Treasury and as President of the New York Federal Reserve has been negotiating bailouts and otherwise navigating through financial panics.  His first and primary task, in other words, will be to serve as Secretary of Bailouts.

Geithner's apology makes it worse.  Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner apologized for his $34,000 tax mistake.  He said, "These were careless mistakes.  They were avoidable mistakes.  But they were unintentional.  I should have been more careful."  I take him at his word.  That's why he should not be confirmed as Treasury Secretary.

Geithner should not be Secretary of the Treasury.  The media rush to exonerate Timothy Geithner's failure to pay his self-employment tax as an "innocent mistake" (in Obama's words) ignores a crucial fact: even after he knew of his liability thanks to an IRS audit, he failed to pay taxes on years covered by the statute of limitations.  Additionally, his failure to pay in the first place flies in the face of the fact that his employer, the IMF, notified him regularly of his obligation, and even paid him half of the tax liability, in lieu of the employer's share, money which he kept for himself.

Geithner Accepted IMF Reimbursement for Taxes He Didn't Pay.  Although it has been dismissed by some observers as a "hiccup" in an otherwise smooth confirmation process, treasury secretary-designate Timothy Geithner's failure to pay self-employment taxes during the years he worked at the International Monetary Fund is causing some Republicans on Capitol Hill to ask serious questions about his actions.  First among those questions is why he accepted payment from the IMF as restitution for taxes that he had not, in fact, paid.

Is he incompetent or dishonest?  Or both?
Obama's Treasury pick faces delay as questions mount.  [Scroll down]  Geithner's confirmation still seems likely, but it isn't assured.  He's under fire for underpaying federal taxes from 2001 to 2004.  During most of that time, he was an employee of the International Monetary Fund.  When he was made aware of the error, he paid the Internal Revenue Service — an agency under the Treasury's jurisdiction — about $43,000 in back taxes and interest.  Blogs written by accountants were abuzz Wednesday [1/14/2009] over the revelation that Geithner prepared his own taxes at the time, a practice he's since stopped.

Too Taxing.  We're tempted to say America needs a Treasury secretary who is smart enough to figure out his own taxes.  But such a cheap shot would be beneath us.  Instead, we are going to make a serious point:  America needs a tax code simple enough for the Treasury secretary to figure out.

Schumer, Durbin and Barney Frank See No Problem with Treasury Nominee's Tax Problems.  House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told CNSNews.com that Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner is qualified to serve despite his failure to properly pay at least $34,000 in taxes.  Other members of Congress, including Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) agreed, but some Republicans questioned the nomination.

Geithner Can't Explain His Failure to Pay Taxes.  In the end, senators will be looking for any reason to explain why a man of [Timothy] Geithner's financial sophistication — he came to the IMF after a stint as a high-ranking official in the Treasury Department and left the IMF to become head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — could have made such mistakes on his taxes.  If he were confirmed as treasury secretary, Geithner would, among other things, oversee the IRS, something that makes his tax problem all the more relevant to his confirmation.

41% Say Geithner Should Not Be Treasury Secretary.  Voters are evenly divided over whether President Obama should scuttle his embattled choice for secretary of the Treasury.  Forty-one percent (41%) of U.S. voters say Geithner's failure to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes in 2001, 2002 and 2003 should prevent him from being Treasury secretary, while the identical number (41%) disagree.  Eighteen percent (18%) are not sure in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Obama's Economic Genius Can't Understand the Tax Code.  Geithner's confirmation by Congress was supposed to be a formality (and with this Congress, what Obama nominee wouldn't see it all as a formality?).  But a funny thing happened on the way to the Treasury Department:  it has come out that Geithner, who would be put in charge of "saving" our economy from economics and be head of the IRS among other things, can't do his own taxes.  He keeps making mistakes and the mistakes always seem to go one way — in his favor.

A Comedy of Tax Errors.  You would not be mistaken to think there was a bit of showbiz going on with Geithner's hearing yesterday.  Senators plan to confirm him, but they don't want to encourage tax cheats.  The solution:  3½ hours of ritual flagellation.

42 million Americans know better.  Treasury nominee Timothy Geithner is now blaming Turbo Tax for his failure to pay the self-employment tax he owed.  The excuse may work with Senators, but users of that, and other tax preparation programs, know better.

Liberal Media Anxious to Get Geithner Confirmed.  If Obama Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner is so smart, why was he so dumb in handling his own taxes?  Or perhaps he wasn't so dumb.  Perhaps he thought he could get away with not paying his taxes.  Either way, how is he fit to be Treasury Secretary, with jurisdiction over the IRS?

A Free Pass for the Indispensable Man.  One of the main talking points, particularly among left-wing bloggers, was that ["Joe the Plumber"] Wurzelbacher was a tax cheat because, it was revealed by ABC News, he had a tax lien of $1,182 for back Ohio state taxes.  This fueled the argument that he was a fraud, his opinion didn't matter.  Nothing to see here, folks.  Move along.  Fast-forward to today.  Timothy Geithner, President Obama's choice to be the next treasury secretary, quite clearly tried to defraud the government of tens of thousands in payroll taxes while working at the International Monetary Fund.

Geithner Accused of Lying About Tax Cheating.  In a major conflict of interest media scandal, General Electric's media properties, which include CNBC, NBC News and MSNBC, are indirectly benefitting from the Wall Street bailout through a federal loan guarantee of $139 billion extended to GE Capital, the lending arm of GE.  What's more, GE chairman Jeffrey Immelt is a member of the board of the New York Federal Reserve, headed by one Timothy Geithner.

The Big Money Behind Geithner.  A guy who can't figure out his own taxes is supposed to fix the economy?  This is the absurd rationale being offered by media figures such as Andrea Mitchell of NBC News for confirming Timothy Geithner as Obama's Treasury Secretary after it was disclosed that he was a serial tax evader.  He did his own taxes for a couple years and got into trouble, Mitchell chuckled.  And everybody can relate to that, right?

Top Ten Disturbing Aspects of Obama's Choice of Treasury Secretary.  Barack Obama's nomination of Timothy Geithner for Treasury Secretary, and the circumstances surrounding it, have raised many issues and questions — not only about the nominee himself, but also about senators and others reviewing it, the media's coverage, and ultimately his presumptive boss's leadership.

Who's better to take care of the horses than a reformed horse thief?  In one respect Timothy Geithner is just like most of us; he doesn't want to pay taxes and he will do all he can to send the government as little as possible; however that's where the similarity ends.  Timothy [Geithner] will likely be the next Secretary of the Treasury and will be in charge of the Internal Revenue Service and the rest of us will not.

Wall Street's Marxist Presidential Pawn.  There was big news out of the U.S. Senate on Monday evening but the major media were not paying much attention.  By approving exposed tax cheat Timothy Geithner as President Obama's Treasury Secretary, the Democratic Party was confirming and advertising itself as the party of Wall Street. ... Wall Street control of the Democratic Party may come as a surprise or shock to those who have been led to believe over the years by the liberal media that the Republican Party is the party of fat cats, rich people, and special interests.  But the vote count for Geithner, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, speaks for itself.

Geithner receives large severance sum.  Newly minted Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's finances got a recent boost, thanks to a plump $435,000 severance payment from his old employer — the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.  In addition, Geithner last year earned $411,000 as president of the New York Fed and got another $50,000 to $100,000 for unused vacation and comp time, according to a mandatory financial disclosure statement released by the Office of Government Ethics.

Obama's Wounded Treasury Man.  Over a third of the Senate voted against Tim Geithner's confirmation as Treasury secretary, though he did pass the test by 60 to 34 early Monday evening [1/26/2009].  That is the closest post-WWII margin for a Treasury secretary.  According to Bloomberg, seven of the last 23 Treasury-secretary nominees — under which actual Senate roll-call votes were taken — were confirmed by an average vote margin of 95 to one.  (The others were confirmed without an official vote count.)

The 'Geithner: Boy Genius' myth exploded.  The Sydney Morning Herald has an absolutely devastating expose of Treasury Secretary Geithner as the former Australian Prime Minister during the Asian financial crisis of the 1990's relates how Geithner's actions destroyed the Indonesian economy — a feat thought impossible at the time.

Tim Geithner's Black Hole.  Pity Barack Obama's economic advisers.  The blogs are now demanding their scalps, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and his colleagues face a nasty dilemma:  There are no solutions to the banking crisis without extraordinary political and financial risks.  Thus, they have adopted a three-pronged approach, delay, delay, delay, in the hope that somebody comes up with a breakthrough.

Tiny Tim.  The public detected a faintly rank odor produced by the act of installing a tax evader as head of the IRS, but a number of Republican senators judged Geithner's nomination the way Geithner had judged Bear Stearns:  too big to fail.  Perhaps that sentiment is less unanimous today than it was a few months ago, when he was confirmed, since Geithner's raggedy performance so far suggests anything but indepensability.

Secretary Loophole.  When Timothy Geithner worked at the International Monetary Fund, he managed a feat that probably very few Americans have even contemplated:  he got himself reimbursed by his employer for taxes he never paid. ... From his time at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to his turbulent four months so far at Treasury, Geithner has made a career out of seeking — and usually finding — ways to do what most people thought the rules wouldn't allow.

Geithner's Radioactive Record at the Fed.  Last week, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner admitted the Fed failed miserably during his tenure as New York Fed president, and contributed mightily to the financial calamity the world is digging out from under.

Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians" for 2009.  [Including] Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner:  In 2009, Obama Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner admitted that he failed to pay $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes from 2001-2004 on his lucrative salary at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an organization with 185 member countries that oversees the global financial system.  (Did we mention Geithner now runs the IRS?)  It wasn't until President Obama tapped Geithner to head the Treasury Department that he paid back most of the money, although the IRS kindly waived the hefty penalties.

Secretary Geithner's Got Some Explaining to Do.  Just about everyone has had something to say about [the AIG] bailout — mostly that it was an ugly but necessary step to stave off a domino effect that would have brought the world's financial system to its knees.  But what we have not yet heard is just how Treasury Secretary Geithner, as then-head of the NY FED, got away with taking ownership of 77.9% of AIG's equity and voting rights in clear violation of the law.

Carter Country.  Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says the world can no longer depend on the U.S. to drive the global economy.  Yes, that's the demoralizing sound of the White House spreading more malaise.

Does Barack Obama Have a Learning Disability?  [Scroll down]  Timothy F. Geithner is Secretary of the Treasury. Geithner is a person who demonstrated an inability to properly do his own taxes even with the help of a mass-market consumer tax preparation software package used by people without a financial background.  It would be expected that a person nominated for Treasury Secretary would be able to figure out how to do taxes, unless [a learning disability] was present.

Fire Geithner before he kills the economy.  If a corporate financial officer in the private sector had overseen the wasteful spending of hundreds of billions of borrowed dollars without producing anything to show for it, he would be summarily fired.  But corporate performance standards don't apply to President Obama's Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner.  He was a guiding hand on the government boondoggles and bailouts that have enraged taxpayers since 2008.

Geithner Cornered On Tax Hypocrisy.  Either Tim Geithner has elephant-sized chutzpah or he's completely clueless. ... Geithner himself doesn't have the moral authority to push tax hikes on anyone.  He's a tax cheat.  Recall that before his confirmation hearings to head the Treasury Department, Geithner paid $42,702 in back taxes and interest for the years 2001 through 2004.  He blamed this "error" on TurboTax.

Tim's secret war.  The Treasury Secretary is at war, and it's a war he is determined to win and which the US consumer may be a casualty.  It's not about hearts and minds, it's about dollars and cents.  Geithner's enemy isn't Larry Summers or Peter Orzag — they were quickly vanquished this summer.  No, the Treasury secretary is battling the US dollar.

Treasury Secretary Geithner downgrades his own credibility to junk.  FOX Business reporter Peter Barnes began his televised interview with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner two days ago with this question:  "Is there a risk that the United States could lose its AAA credit rating?  Yes or no?"  Geithner's response:  "No risk of that."  "No risk?" Barnes asked.  "No risk," Geithner said.

How Big Gov't Strangles The Job Creators.  Some factions just won't accept shrinking the size of government.  Most in them run in the same tight circles as [Timothy] Geithner.  Never hearing anything other than support for increasing the size of government, they assume that's what Americans want.  But quite a few Americans have been wanting to cut government for decades, and that number is growing as the almost intractable problems created by overspending have become more obvious.

Debt Increased More Under Geithner Than Under Any Treasury Secretary.  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner oversaw the largest increase in the national debt of any Treasury secretary in American history, presiding over a $3.7 trillion increase in the debt.  According to data from the Treasury Department's Bureau of the Public Debt, the national debt has increased $3,723,575,990,130.10 from Jan. 26, 2009 until June 30, 2011, Geithner's entire tenure to date as Treasury secretary.

He rescued us?  On Sunday [7/10/2011], on Meet the Press, Treasury Secretary Geithner said "The Amercian economy was falling off the cliff in the Fall of 08 and the first months of [President Obama's] Administration and he put in place the most creative, the most forceful set of economic measures we have ever done as country, and because of that we prevented a second Great Depression ...." If you haven't seen this performance, you should — the forcefulness and conviction with which the Secretary delivered these lines is impressive.  There's something I don't understand.  Why didn't David Gregory, the host of MTP, laugh in Geithner's face?

Facts? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Facts.  [Scroll down]  Here's two ideas, Mr. president: one, give up the ghost on your tedious and ultimately destructive allegiance to re-distributionist Marxism, masquerading itself as Keynesian stimulus.  It hasn't "created or saved" anything other than government budgets and public sector unions.  Those priorities demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that getting re-elected, rather than fixing the economy, is your first priority.  Second, show Tim Geithner the door.  His credibility, highlighted by his assurance in April that the U.S. would never get a ratings downgrade, is completely gone.  He should be completely gone as well.

The AA+ Presidency.  A few months ago, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner predicted with unshakable confidence that there was "no risk" of a downgrade of U.S. debt.  In fact, he argued, "things are better than they've been if you want to think about the prospects for improving our long-term fiscal position."  In his self-assured cluelessness, Geithner reflected the president he serves.

When You Open That Refrigerator Door The Lights Don't Come On'
Rep. Allen West On Tim Geithner.  Upon hearing the news that Geithner plans on sticking around in the role of Treasury Secretary throughout the rest of Obama's term, [Allen] West provided a blunt assessment of Geithner's job performance.

Cabinets gone wild.  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has overseen some $5 trillion in new debt.  To help pay for it, he wants the rich — the top 1 percent already contributes more in income taxes than does the bottom 90 percent — to pay more for what he calls "the privilege of being an American."  Geithner, whose department oversees the IRS, should have taken his own advice:  As a rich American one-percenter, he once failed to pay his own self-employment taxes, and improperly claimed his children's camp costs as a dependent-care deduction.

Let's Apply Harry Reid's 'Dog Catcher' Standard to Barack Obama.  It is worth reminding Sen. Reid (and the media) that several of President Obama's nominees for the Cabinet did, in fact, have very serious tax problems — and were confirmed anyway (though at least one, with a sense of humility lacking in her colleagues, withdrew).  The most notorious is "TurboTax" Tim Geithner, who outrageously blamed a computer program for his failure to pay self-employment taxes while he was working for the International Monetary Fund.  He was confirmed anyway, under considerable pressure from the mainstream media (and after an inexcusable capitulation by Senate Republicans), which painted Geithner as the only person who could possibly be qualified to run the U.S. Treasury in crisis.

Special IG: Geithner dropped 'f-bombs' when I said he wasn't transparent enough.  Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner gets very angry at the suggestion that he conduct the bank bailouts in a transparent manner, according to Neil Barofsky, the former special inspector general for the Treasury Department.

The New Liberal Aristocracy.  [Scroll down]  Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, who nominally oversees the IRS, did not just not pay his own taxes while advocating higher taxes on others, but found incredible ways not to pay what was due — avoiding payroll taxes, improperly deducting his children's camp costs, and taking improper charitable deductions, improper retirement-plan withdrawals, improper small-business deductions, and so on.  The question in Geithner's case was not whether he had avoided taxes, but whether there was any category of taxes that he had not avoided.

Nancy Killefer

With Daschle's withdrawal, can Obama repair image as 'change' agent?  Tom Daschle, nominated to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services and as White House health reform "czar," succumbed to a growing firestorm over his admission that he owed more than $128,000 in delinquent taxes for the use of a private car and driver provided by a wealthy businessman and political activist.  Just hours earlier, Nancy Killefer, Mr. Obama's appointee for a new position — chief White House performance officer — announced she was stepping down, acknowledging a failure to pay employment taxes on household help for 1½ years.

Time for Tim Geithner to Step Down, Too.  Now that Tom Daschle has withdrawn his nomination for health secretary because of his failure to pay taxes, and Nancy Killefer, who was appointed chief performance officer and deputy OMB director, has also withdrawn because of non-payment of taxes, it is time for Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner to do exactly the same.

Tax issues force Nancy Killefer to bow out.  Tax troubles have tripped up another Obama administration official.  Nancy Killefer withdrew from consideration to be the federal government's chief performance officer — a new position — because of her past failure to pay unemployment taxes for household help at her D.C. home.

Janet Napolitano

Update:
Napolitano's UC hid $175 million while demanding money, audit says.  The University of California hid a stash of $175 million in secret funds while its leaders requested more money from the state, an audit released on Tuesday [4/25/2017] said.  The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the audit found that the secret fund ballooned due to UC Office of the President overestimating how much is needed to run the school system that includes 10 campuses in the state.  Janet Napolitano, the former Department of Homeland Security chief, is in charge of the school system.  Napolitano denied the audit's claim.  She reportedly said the money was held for any unexpected expenses.  Her office also denied the amount in the fund.

The Staggering Administrative Bloat of Universities.  Obviously [Janet] Napolitano's office is particularly bad as compared to peers, but she has 1667 staff and spends over a half billion (billion with a B) just on the office of the President!  This is not in any way shape or form the total administrative size of the system — each university has its own administrative staff, for example.  This is just her central office.  This is a staggering number.  It equates to every student in the system paying over $2500 a year just for the central headquarters staff that they will never see, this is before the first dollar is spent on their individual campus — or God forbid — on teaching or academics.  To my mind this is way more of a scandal than her hiding a money reserve in various accounts.

State audit slams Janet Napolitano's office of University of California president.  Janet Napolitano, President of the University of California, is not only missing in action as her premier campus is embroiled in a free speech crisis and threatened mob violence, she has run an operation that just received a scathing audit.

13 Incompetent Failures in the Obama Administration.  [#8] Former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano resigned in July 2013 to become president of the University of California system.  As PJ Media's Bryan Preston wrote, her tenure at Homeland Security "has been marred by scandal and dishonesty."  Napolitano infamously declared that the U.S.-Mexico border is "as secure as it has ever been," citing bogus statistics.

The Power Of Drudge: A Little Civics Lesson For Janet Napolitano And Barack Obama.  Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, is on the list of potential Democratic presidential candidates compiled by the extraordinarily astute Prez16.com As a cabinet secretary (and as a potential, if dark horse, presidential nominee) Madame Secretary should refrain from slurring the Drudge Report, as recently she did, a slur Drudge, confidently, featured.  Drudge is no fan of Napolitano.

Napolitano is no stranger to Washington scandals.  President-elect Barack Obama's likely pick for Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano, is no stranger to headline-making Washington scandals and controversies.  Napolitano was a Clinton-appointed U.S. attorney in Phoenix when the Justice Department decided against prosecuting Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain's wife, Cindy, for the theft of prescription drugs from her medical charity.

Janet Napolitano's sleaze campaign against Clarence Thomas.  Wonder why, in a survey reported by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism, only 28 percent said they "believed all or most" of what they see on CNN?  CNN's Campbell Brown took three minutes of prime evening news time the other night to berate Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell for remarks, unwittingly made next to a live microphone, that in Brown's view were sexist.  Speaking, in what he thought was a private conversation, Rendell called the selection of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano to head the Department of Homeland Security perfect "Because for that job, you have to have no life.  Janet has no family.  Perfect.  She can devote 19, 20 hours a day to it."

Ideology versus Competence:  Janet Napolitano.  [Scroll down]  You see, Janet is an ideologue.  She is the kind of person who will pursue ideological goals without regard for truth, a person who can be expected to reinvent reality to fit the ideological vision of the administration, which she does with abandon.  She is the perfect Obama Administration appointee.

Conservative reps. want Napolitano out.  House Republicans are calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to step down or be fired in the wake of a controversial department memo that has sparked indignant battle cries from conservatives and some veterans.  "Singling out political opponents for working against the ruling party is precisely the tactic of every tyrannical government from Red China to Venezuela," said Texas Rep. John Carter, a member of the party's elected leadership who has organized an hour of floor speeches Wednesday night [4/22/2009] to call for Napolitano's ouster.

Napolitano's Warped Vision for America: Up With Illegal Aliens, Down With Vets!  How in the world did this great nation deteriorate so rapidly and so profoundly?  What insanity inspired We the People to install a leftist regime that would, in less than 100 days, declare war on veterans, opponents of illegal immigration, abortion, higher taxes and spending, and other "right wing extremists," while deciding that those who enter the U.S. illegally are NOT committing a crime?  Why would any president with even minimal concern for the security of American citizens appoint someone like Janet Napolitano to head the Department of Homeland Security Secretary?

Shake-up needed at Homeland Security.  Janet Napolitano has to go.  President Barack Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security, who had no experience for the job when she was appointed by the president last year, is in way over her head as director of the vast agency that controls everything from natural-disaster response, counterterrorism, immigration and customs to the U.S. Coast Guard and the Secret Service.

House Democrats Scold No-Show Homeland Security Secretary.  Top Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee publicly scolded Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for failing to show up at a Wednesday hearing where the committee examined the attempted Christmas Day suicide bombing of Northwest Flight 253. ... That evening, Napolitiano did prominently show up at the Capitol to attend President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.

Lack of Intelligence.  On January 27, the secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, was roundly criticized at a meeting of the House Homeland Security Committee.  She had ducked the hearing, which was about the Christmas Day terrorist attack, and lawmakers were animated.  The surprise was that it was Democrats doing most of the attacking.

Janet Napolitano Lied, Rob Krentz Died.  Rancher Rob Krentz spent his life working on his 35,000-acre cattle ranch by the border with Mexico in Cochise County, Ariz.  His family had owned the ranch since 1907.  He died there last weekend, he and his dog shot by an illegal alien that he was trying to help.  The Arizona Cattle Growers' Association immediately posted a $15,000 reward.  The Monday before Rob Krentz was killed, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, made a speech claiming "significant progress" in controlling violence along the border.  It was a lie.

Abortion Lobby Dedicates Its Annual Report to DHS Secretary Napolitano.  NARAL Pro-Choice America, a pro-abortion advocacy group, has dedicated its annual report on "the status of reproductive rights in America" to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for "her courage, principled stance, and commitment" to legalized abortion in America.  The report was released on Friday [1/14/2011].

Napolitano: No "Logic" In Profiling Muslim Men Under The Age Of 35.  "You're not using good logic there.  You've got to use actual intelligence that you received.  And, so, you might — all you've given me is a kind of status.  You have not given me a technique for tactic or behavior.  Something that would suggest somebody is not Muslim, but Islamic, that has actually moved into the category of violent extremists," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said at a forum on U.S. security and preventing terrorist attacks.

Janet Napolitano Still Giving Non-Answers on Operation Fast and Furious.  Earlier today [10/26/2011] House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa grilled Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Capitol Hill about Operation Fast and Furious.  Not surprisingly, Napolitano still gave non-answers to specific questions asked by Issa about the lethal program, what she knew, when she knew it, if she was outraged about the program and more.

Napolitano queried on lack of Fast and Furious probe.  Congressional Republicans are trying to expand the scope of questions over the disastrous ATF gun-sting operation "Fast and Furious" to Homeland Security Secretary Janet A. Napolitano, asking her why she never investigated even after suspected guns showed up at the scene of a dead U.S. Border Patrol agent.

Napolitano Grilled Over 'Fast and Furious,' Likens Hearing to Cross Examination.  Napolitano, at one point likening the questioning to a cross-examination, said repeatedly she only learned of "Fast and Furious" after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in December.  She emphasized the operation, conceived and run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, "was an ATF operation," under the auspices of the Justice Department, not her department. ... Napolitano said she has never spoken with Attorney General Eric Holder about "Fast and Furious," a revelation Republicans strongly criticized.

More about the Fast and Furious scandal.

Congresswoman takes on Napolitano.  Florida Republican Rep. Sandy Adams wants answers from Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.  Adams says she is not following existing law, which requires the federal government to cut off visas from countries that refuse to re-admit their citizens who have committed crimes while residing in the U.S. illegally.  If these countries refuse to take the criminal illegal immigrants back after a six-month "detention period," the U.S government releases them back into U.S. communities.

Napolitano perjured herself to Congress in Fast & Furious testimony.  In her explosive new book Fast and Furious, Katie Pavlich makes the case that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano not only failed to stop an operation that led to the death of one of her own, Border Agent Brian A. Terry, but she may have also lied to Congress in sworn testimony at a hearing held to find out what really happened.

Janet Napolitano Signed 'Stand Your Ground' Law for Arizona in 2006.  Amid Democrat attempts to use the Trayvon Martin shooting as a means to push for the repeal of Stand Your Ground laws, it's been interesting to note how many Democrats have a past that includes support for them.

Top 10 most dangerous liberals.  [#9]  Janet Napolitano:  For all the yapping from progressives about President George W. Bush's disregard for the Constitution and the evils of the PATRIOT Act, there is little being said about the vast expansion of the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Janet Napolitano.  From groping Transportation Safety Administration workers to drones monitoring America, the massive agency is increasingly eroding our freedoms while trying to protect them.

Big Sis Janet Napolitano 'promoted woman with whom she had a 'long relationship'.  Homeland Security boss Janet Napolitano is facing a mega lawsuit from an official who claims she gave a less-qualified woman with whom she has a 'long-standing relationship' a job over him.  The suit also accuses Napolitano of turning the department into a female-run 'frat house' where male staffers were routinely humiliated and on the receiving end of 'sexually charged games'.  Napolitano's chief of staff Suzanne Barr repeatedly targeted men because of their gender and once called a male employee's hotel room to use sexually explicit language, the suit claims.

Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano favored women pals for jobs: lawsuit.  A veteran US law-enforcement official has filed a blockbuster discrimination lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, charging she pushed him aside to make way for a less-qualified woman who's "enjoyed a long-standing relationship" with the anti-terror chief.  The lawsuit, which was first reported yesterday [8/9/2012] by blogger Debbie Schlussel, identifies the woman as Dora Schriro, who was later appointed by Mayor Bloomberg as commissioner of the city Department of Correction, a post she still holds.

Homeland big on ICE.  Homeland Security boss Janet Napolitano's embattled high-ranking immigration aide took a leave of absence following salacious new claims about the agency's alleged sexually hostile environment toward men, while Napolitano herself indicated she is pondering stepping down.  Suzanne Barr, who has close Arizona ties to Napolitano, took a "voluntary leave," according to Brian Hale, spokesman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.  Barr's leave, which began Tuesday [8/12/2012], comes as two more male accusers claimed they personally witnessed Barr engage in lewd and hostile behavior with subordinates.

Janet Napolitano Accused of Running Female Frat House.  In August 2010, seven thousand ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) agents voted "No Confidence" in their leadership and specifically "Acting" Director John Morton and Phyllis Coven.  Morton is still the "acting" Director.  Suzanne Barr, a Chief of Staff at the agency is now accused of "lewd" conduct in the working environment.

Inside Napolitano's 'Frat House' Department.  James T. Hayes Jr., special agent in charge of New York City investigations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has filed a potentially explosive lawsuit against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano, alleging that he was shunted aside so that Napolitano could give a job to a "less qualified woman" with whom she "enjoyed a long-standing relationship."  The federal complaint also alleges that Napolitano's handpicked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Chief of Staff, Suzanne Barr, "created a frat-house type atmosphere that is targeted to humiliate and intimidate male employees."  The suit was filed in United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

The Editor says...
That's right, a frat house, not a sorority house.

Napolitano refuses to use email, calls it 'inefficient'.  Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Tuesday that she refuses to use email because it is "inefficient" and it "sucks up time."  Napolitano's lack of email use has left many inside the smartphone-obsessed Beltway wondering how she can survive without it.

The Editor says...
If this is true, and I have my doubts, I suspect that she probably avoids email because email leaves permanent trails of evidence.

Docs Show Napolitano Thanked Missouri Governor For Breaking State Law.  Missouri Governor Jay Nixon repeatedly denied knowing anything about Missouri illegally sharing its citizens private CCW information with the federal government, even after his own head of Missouri Highway Patrol contradicted him in a public hearing.  Now we've learned that Nixon not only knew about the violation of Missouri law, but he was thanked in a letter by Janet Napolitano.

This is an original compilation, Copyright © 2024 by Andrew K. Dart

Hilda Solis

Endless Corruption: Ex-Obama Cabinet Official sought Campaign Funds, Broke the Law.  Former Obama cabinet secretary of labor, Hilda Solis, has been accused of soliciting money from a fellow government official while in office in 2012.

Outgoing Marxist Labor Secretary Blames Unemployment on... Tea Party.  Outgoing Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who along with Barack Obama presided over the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression, spoke with FOX News Latino about her own miserable record.

Solis leaves big labor losses behind.  When Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced Wednesday that she is leaving the Obama administration, my colleague Philip Klein remarked that President Obama "may as well cut to the chase and nominate Richard Trumka" to replace her.  It was a reasonable idea, given big labor's influence in the Democratic world.  But the fact is, even AFL-CIO chief Trumka could not have been more loyal to organized labor's agenda than the departing secretary.

Labor Dept. Targets the Family Farm.  Yes, sometimes the work is dangerous and accidents do happen.  They can be serious, even fatal.  But the rewards of the culture of the family farm have long been believed to far outweigh the risks, and government historically left parenting and farm family life alone.  That's about to change.  The Obama Administration is proposing to use the force of federal law to usurp the judgment of farm parents and replace it with government regulations.  Led by big labor, union advocate Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor, the Administration is proposing a sweeping set of new rules ... Solis believes that some farm work is "too hazardous for children to be engaged in."  How she knows this is anyone's guess since she apparently has never lived or worked on a farm, nor do we find any evidence that she has children of her own.

Hearings and Evasions.  You might think a confirmation hearing for, say, the labor secretary would elicit her views on, say, labor issues.  Not, it seems, in the case of Barack Obama's nominee, California Democratic Rep. Hilda Solis. ... The new transparency, it seems, has its limits.

The Nominee Who Lobbied Herself.  A seemingly innocuous letter sent to the Clerk of the House of Representatives last Thursday by President Obama's Secretary of Labor nominee Hilda Solis raises serious and troubling legal questions about her nomination and apparent violation of House ethics rules.  Not only was she involved with a private organization that was lobbying her fellow legislators on a bill that she has cosponsored, but she apparently kept her involvement secret and failed to reveal a clear conflict of interest.

Solis Senate Session Postponed in Wake of Husband's Tax Lien Revelations.  A Senate committee today abruptly canceled a session to consider President Obama's nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis to be labor secretary in the wake of a report saying that her husband yesterday paid about $6,400 to settle tax liens against his business — including liens that had been outstanding for as long as 16 years.

Husband of Rep. Solis, Labor nominee, settles tax liens.  The confirmation of another Cabinet member stalled Thursday because of unpaid taxes after USA TODAY disclosed that the husband of Labor secretary nominee Hilda Solis paid about $6,400 this week to settle numerous tax liens against his business dating to 1993.  Solis and her husband, Sam Sayyad, were unaware of liens against his auto repair shop until USA TODAY asked about them Tuesday, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said Thursday.

The Editor says...
Does anyone else find it hard to believe that Mr. Solis didn't know about those tax liens?

Solis Senate Session Postponed in Wake of Husband's Tax Lien Revelations.  A Senate committee today abruptly canceled a session to consider President Obama's nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis to be labor secretary in the wake of a report saying that her husband yesterday paid about $6,400 to settle tax liens against his business — including liens that had been outstanding for as long as 16 years.

Obama Needs To Fire Someone.  The first revelations were Tim Geithner and Bill Richardson.  Now Daschle and Killifer are gone because of unpaid taxes.  Next Hilda Solis comes along letting us know she was not only pimping for a labor group against Congressional rules, but her husband had tax liens for 16 years.  She wants us to believe that she has no knowledge of the tax matter.  It is possible that her husband did not know that she was in the California Legislature or a member of Congress, but now realizes that he should do the right thing and be a model citizen.  It certainly possible he hid it from her until Obama came calling and he had a "Honey, we need to talk" conversation.  However that scenario seems a little farfetched to me.

Senate confirms Solis as labor secretary.  California Rep. Hilda Solis won confirmation Tuesday as President Barack Obama's labor secretary, giving the agency a decidedly pro-worker tilt after years of business-friendly leadership under the Bush administration.

Communist Groups Support Card Check.  The appointment of Hilda Solis as Labor Secretary was noted with accolades on the Web site of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). ... The CPUSA has also been a longtime supporter for the Employee Free Choice Act — also known as card check.

Obama's labor secretary lets union officials off transparency hook.  Never mind about those revised union financial disclosure requirements President Obama inherited from his predecessor.  Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis now says she won't make union officials comply.

Obama Administration Not Enforcing Union Reporting Laws.  Are you a union member trying to find out information of the criminal actions and shady financial dealings of your union?  Well don't expect Obama and his toady in the Labor Secretary's office, Hilda Solis, to help you uncover any illegalities perpetrated by your union bosses.

The U.S. Department of Illegal Alien Labor.  President Obama's Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is supposed to represent American workers.  What you need to know is that this longtime open-borders sympathizer has always had a rather radical definition of "American."  At a Latino voter registration project conference in Los Angeles many years ago, Solis asserted to thunderous applause, "We are all Americans, whether you are legalized or not."

Amid Wisconsin battle, Labor Secy joins union planning call.  Labor Secretary Hilda Solis took part in a Communications Workers of America conference call Wednesday night [3/2/2011] in which she expressed her strong support for unions fighting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's proposed budget.  "Let's keep fighting," Solis told CWA president Larry Cohen and thousands of CWA shop stewards listening to the call.

It's time for Labor Secretary Solis to go.  Thanks to his dogged insistence on prosecuting 9/11 conspirators in civilian courts and his refusal to prosecute the Philadelphia New Black Panther case, Attorney General Eric Holder has long appeared to us as President Obama's worst Cabinet appointment.  But based on her wholly inappropriate remarks at a recent Democratic National Committee gathering, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis is running a close second.

An unratified treaty is now called a partnership.
Labor Dept. Signs 'Partnerships' with Foreign Gov's to Protect Illegal Workers in U.S.  U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis today [8/29/2011] signed "partnership" agreements with ambassadors from a group of Latin American nations aiming to protect what she described as the labor rights of both legal and illegal migrants working in the United States.

Obama Labor Boss Buys Canadian-Built Car.  To show her support for American workers, President Obama's labor secretary, Hilda Solis, has junked the standard black limo and purchased a new Chevrolet Equinox to ride around Washington in.  The problem:  the crossover SUV is built and assembled in Canada from parts also made in Canada.

Beware: Obama's executive fiat.  On Friday, it was announced zero net jobs were created nationwide in the whole month of August.  Labor Secretary Hilda Solis stammered, "I do believe that we're going in the right direction, but we need cooperation and it begins with members of the House and the Senate agreeing to do something now."  Going in the right direction?  It's a perfect admission of the cluelessness of this White House that the head of the Labor Department thinks zero new jobs and a permanent unemployment rate above 9 percent mean the country is headed the right way.

Boosting only illegal labor.  The Labor Department is now zealously protecting the workplace rights of illegal aliens even as it shuts down avenues for people to come to America and work legally.  You see, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has to serve both the liberals' ideological fixation on illegals and labor unions' hostility to any competition.

A Labor Chief As Clueless As The President.  It appears that Labor Secretary [Hilda] Solis had no interest in looking at how a state with 8% of the nation's population had created nearly half of the nation's new jobs over the past 10 years.

Obama officials play defense during 'green jobs' hearing.  U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis admitted Thursday morning [9/22/2011] during a congressional hearing that she and the Obama administration believe driving a bus that happens to run on "clean energy" should count as a "green job."

The Question Hilda Solis Won't Answer.  I followed along on a short tour that Catholic University gave on Tuesday [10/4/2011] to Hilda Solis, President Barack Obama's Catholic secretary of labor, who has spent much of her political career zealously advocating legalized abortion.  When Solis served in the U.S. House in 2003, she voted against the partial-birth abortion ban.  The day President Bush signed it, she called for the Supreme Court to reverse it.  "I would just like to say it's the wrong decision that the president is making today," Solis said, "and we have to stand up and challenge him."  On the 31st anniversary of Roe v. Wade in 2004, Solis celebrated three decades of abortion on demand.

Cabinets gone wild.  Labor Secretary Hilda Solis just tried — and failed — to draft a proposal prohibiting kids under 18 from working "in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials," even on family farms.  And she wanted to turn over some farm training programs now run by the Future Farmers of America and the 4-H to the government.  Most Americans raised on a farm believe that the times spent doing chores with their parents, siblings, and neighbors were the most important and rewarding years of their lives.  Yet more worrisome, Solis is selective in her enforcement.

Labor Secretary Cheers Youth Unemployment Rate of 17.1 Percent.  Labor Secretary Hilda Solis cheered a slight decline in the youth (16-24) unemployment rate, saying that it was a sign that the job market was improving for America's young people. [...] Solis' statement marked the release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' annual youth unemployment report.  Solis said that the report showed positive signs for young job seekers, noting that the youth unemployment rate had fallen to 17.1 percent over the past two years.

Rahm Emanuel

Beg Your Pardongate.  [Alejandro] Mayorkas highlights the challenge the Obama campaign is having in bringing in experienced hands to the transition and administration.  "We either have Clinton holdovers or folks from the campaign, but honestly, a lot of the people from the campaign aren't the types you want being the face of the new administration right now," says the outside adviser to the campaign.  "The people coming to me looking for jobs aren't people I'd hire to work in the White House or at a senior level for a cabinet office.  I don't know that they could pass a basic security clearance, let alone a full national security vetting.  So that's why you're seeing all these Clinton re-treads.  That, and these are folks who have been waiting eight years to get back in."

Rahm Emanuel:  A profile of Barack Obama's enforcer.  Rahm Emanuel, who has been chosen by Barack Obama to be the White House chief of staff, is known by colleagues as "Rahmbo" — a nickname reflecting his reputation as one of the most ferociously combative figures in Washington.

Emanuel Was Director Of Freddie Mac During Scandal.  President-elect Barack Obama's newly appointed chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, served on the board of directors of the federal mortgage firm Freddie Mac at a time when scandal was brewing at the troubled agency and the board failed to spot "red flags," according to government reports reviewed by ABCNews.com.

Obama's Chief of Staff Pick Took Campaign Contributions from Wall Street.  President-elect Barack Obama's choice for White House chief of staff is one of the biggest recipients of Wall Street money in Congress, according to a Washington, D.C.-based "money-in-politics" watchdog group.  The Center for Responsive Politics has issued a report highlighting millions of dollars in campaign contributions that Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) has raised from individuals working in the hedge fund industry, private equity firms, and large investment firms.

Emanuel Will be Wall Street's Man in the Obama White House.  Sixteen years ago, when Bill Clinton was moving into the White House, good-government liberals were disheartened that the President-elect named his campaign's top fundraiser, Rahm Emanuel, as White House political director.  They read this as a sign that cash would be king in the Clinton Administration.  They were right.  Four elections later, after getting rich in a brief stint in finance, Emanuel is the favorite congressman of Wall Street, measuring by campaign contributions.

Rahm Emanuel's Dope Basement Pad Haunted by Ethics, Tax Issues, Possibly Furnace Monster.  Big Democrats just can't seem to get right with Big Government, lately.  Tim Geithner "mistakenly" avoided more than $40,000 in taxes.  Nancy Killefer withdrew her nomination over word that she failed to pay employment taxes for household help.  Tom Daschle "honestly" overlooked more than $100,000 for a car service donated to him by a lobbying company.  Hilda Solis, Obama's Labor Secretary nominee, faces questions over her husband's failure to pay thousands in tax bills, some of them 16 years old.  Now, it turns out, skull-cracker Rahm Emanuel himself has been crashing in a colleague's basement for five years for free and, you guessed it, not paying taxes on the abode.

Rahm Emanuel and the Classless Society.  Several of my friends voted for Obama on the premise that he would, when elected, govern from the center and not the far Left.  Their anger with Bush and the Republicans drove them to a willing suspension of critical thinking.  His selection of Emanuel as Chief of Staff is one early signal that their critical thinking yielded to wishful thinking.

Rahm's 'rent' Is Just The Tip Of Ethics Iceberg.  News broke last week that Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff, lived rent-free for years in the home of Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.) — and failed to disclose the gift, as congressional ethics rules mandate.  But this is only the tip of Emanuel's previously undislosed ethics problems.  One issue is the work Emanuel tossed the way of De Lauro's husband.  But the bigger one goes back to Emanuel's days on the board of now-bankrupt mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

Emanuel's story line is fishy.  White House Chief of Staff and partisan hit-man-in-chief Rahm Emanuel wouldn't know a real idea if was served up to him on a fish platter. ... Emanuel, a foul-mouthed would-be tough guy best known for having sent a decomposing 30-inch fish to a pollster he didn't like, clearly doesn't even want to pay attention — because conservatives have been pushing innovative ideas for just about every issue of national importance.

Let all of us run for mayor of Chicago!  On Sunday [10/3/2010], Rahm Emanuel declared his candidacy for mayor of Chicago.  Instantaneously, he had problems with his campaign, not the least of which is that he is as much a resident of Chicago as I am.  So on Monday, I declared my candidacy for mayor of Chicago.  Why not?

Shauna Daly

Obama's Very Dirty Pool.  In 2001, when President Bush's chief political strategist Karl Rove moved from the campaign into a senior position in the White House, the Left went mad:  how dare they "politicize" the White House, they yelled. ... And yet.  Nobody has said a word when Barack Obama's chief political strategist, David Axelrod, was brought into the White House in a senior position.  Nobody has said much when The Bama moved the U.S. Census from the Commerce Department to the White House, to be overseen by partisan attack terrier Rahm Emanuel. ... Nobody has said much when The Bama brought into the White House counsel's office a 29 year old campaign operative, Shauna Daly.

Political operative leaving White House.  A Democratic operative whose hiring a month ago by the White House legal office raised conservative hackles is leaving to go back to work at the Democratic National Committee.  Shauna Daly, 29, will be the DNC's research director, returning to the fast-paced realm of bare-knuckles politics that associates said suits her best.

To The Left.  Shauna Daly, who for about a month was ensconced in the White House Counsel's Office as research director there, didn't stay very long in that position.  It was announced late last week that Daly was leaving her White House post to become Research Director at the Democratic National Committee.  But DNC, White House, and Congressional Democrats say she was at counsel's office long enough. ... "She saw everything, and who knows what she was able to scan and pull out on data sticks," says a Senate Republican Judiciary Committee staffer.

Charles Freeman

How Long?  How long can the rest of the mainstream media hold out without reporting on an embarrassing debacle for the Obama administration?  This is the John Edwards story on steroids — a virtual conspiracy of silence with little if any journalistic justification.  And here the issue is really important — the appointment of a key intelligence official who is alleged to harbor serious conflicts of interest and extreme views.

Why the Cover Up Matters.  The mainstream media, with the exception of ABC's Jake Tapper, utterly ignored the Chas Freeman story.  A large number of mainstream outlets simply wouldn't report on it at all.  In doing so they not only missed a significant event — made more significant by Freeman's self-revelation as a ranting aranoid — but they missed a key insight into the administration's current travails.

Why Democrats Too Should Oppose the Freeman Appointment.  Do the Democrats really want someone like Freeman choosing what national security information to give to the President each morning, given Freeman's track record of being a shill for the Saudis and a man in the pocket of the Chinese government?

Chas And The ChiComs.  It seems the foreign conflicts of interest to the man President Obama wants to oversee his eyes-only intelligence are worse than first reported. ... Now we learn that, in addition to co-chairing the pro-China lobby's U.S. China Policy Foundation, he sits on the international advisory board of the Beijing-controlled China National Offshore Oil Corp.

Obama's National Intelligence Crackpot.  On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal published a letter from 17 U.S. ambassadors defending the appointment of Charles Freeman to chair the National Intelligence Council.  The same day, the leaders of the 1989 protests that led to the massacre at Beijing's Tiananmen Square wrote Barack Obama "to convey our intense dismay at your selection" of Mr. Freeman.  If moral weight could be measured on a zero to 100 scale, the signatories of the latter letter, some of whom spent years in Chinese jails, would probably find themselves in the upper 90s.

Another man down.  On Monday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair announced that Charles Freeman had withdrawn his name from consideration for the post of Chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), ending weeks of acrimonious debate that had been triggered by Freeman's nomination.  But while Freeman has receded from the spotlight, his selection to a critical intelligence post — despite a deeply troubling political background — lingers as a dark cloud over the Obama administration.

More on Chas Freeman, Obama's Pick to Head the National Intelligence Council.  To give an idea of just how far off the rails the government has gone under the current leadership, here's more information on Chas Freeman, the bin Laden associate Chairman Zero deems fit to head the National Intelligence Council.  Here's what he had to say about the communist Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989...

Freeman Affair Reveals Problems For Obama and the Media.  The recent appointment and ultimate withdrawal of Chas Freeman to head the National Intelligence Council has exposed much that is wrong with President Barack Obama's first months in office, both in terms of policy and vetting, as well as the media coverage surrounding both.  Many of Obama's supporters said it was unfair to criticize Obama's associations with people like the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers and the anti-Semitic preacher of hate, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and called it guilt by association.  It is now becoming clearer why those sorts of associations matter.

Tony West

Obama Nominates S.F. Lawyer for Justice Post.  Tony West, a high-powered San Francisco lawyer whose clients have ranged from corporate giants to "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, has been nominated by President Obama as an assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's Civil Division.

Obama's Nominee to Justice Dept. Was a Terrorist's Lawyer.  On March 9, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on one of Barack Obama's latest nominees.  This time it was to assess the suitability of Tony West, Obama's nominee for the assistant attorney general in charge of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Division. ... Curiously enough, though, not one of these brief reports mention that Tony West was "American Taliban" terrorist John Walker Lindh's defense lawyer.  Another key bit of info left out of these announcements was that Tony West raised $65 million for Obama's presidential campaign.

David Hamilton

Moderate nominee?  Not according to some.  Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody runs through the reasons why some conservative Christians likely aren't going to be pleased by President Obama's decision to nominate federal district Judge David Hamilton to fill a vacancy on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Seventh Circuit Nominee David Hamilton:  "Allah" Yes, "Jesus" No.  In 2005, in Hinrichs v. Bosma, federal district judge (and now Seventh Circuit nominee) David Hamilton enjoined the Speaker of Indiana's House of Representatives from permitting "sectarian" prayers to be offered as part of that body's official proceedings. ... One peculiar aspect of Hamilton's ruling is how he drew the line between "sectarian" and "non-sectarian" prayers.  On the one hand, Hamilton made clear that prayers that "use Christ's name or title" are sectarian.  On the other hand, he ruled (on a post-judgment motion) that it is presumptively not sectarian for a Muslim imam to offer a prayer to "Allah".

GOP Senators Boycott Hearing on Obama Judicial Nominee.  Most Republicans boycotted the hearing Wednesday [4/1/2009] for President Barack Obama's first judicial nominee, allowing Democrats to pitch softballs to David Hamilton in his quest for a seat on a Midwestern appeals court. ... Hamilton, a U.S. district judge from Indiana, has issued a number of controversial rulings in more than 1,100 opinions and nearly 15 years on the bench.  He struck down the use of sectarian prayer to open the Indiana legislature and also ruled against a state law that required a woman seeking abortion services to receive counseling from her doctor.

The President's Radical Court Pick.  President Obama has made a number of controversial appointments during his first 100 days in office, but perhaps none more so than activist judge and ACLU alumnus David Hamilton. ... The appointment serves as an early warning that Obama's judicial nominees, presented as "moderates," will be anything but.

Jesus, no, but yes to Allah.  Senate Democrats are proving once again that no judicial nominee is too extreme for them to stomach.  A move seems to be afoot to open debate on the Senate floor this week on the nomination of David Hamilton of Indiana to the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.  This judge is a radical's radical.

Another Radical Judge.  Yet another judicial nominee seeks to impose the "empathy" standard on the courts.  He thinks judges should base rulings on a plaintiff's status, legislate from the bench and amend the Constitution.  Indiana federal judge David Hamilton stands poised to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to assume a seat on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals serving Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.  He's a former fundraiser for Acorn and a former leader of the Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Former ACORN fund raiser gets Obama judicial nomination.  President Obama's first federal court nominee was Judge David Hamilton of Indiana. ... Among Hamilton's "qualifications" is the fact that he is a former fund raiser for ACORN.  That fact was conspicuously left out of the White House statement announcing Obama's nomination of the federal district judge for a position on the Seventh Circuit federal appeals court.

Now Obama wants to put an ACORN fund-raiser on the federal bench.  Hamilton ignored a felony conviction on a man's record when being prosecuted for his third felony drug crime to avoid imposing a life sentence, for which Hamilton was unanimously reversed on appeal.  Hamilton also struck down a law requiring convicted sex criminals from reporting information to police to track their whereabouts.  He also petitioned the White House for clemency for a police officer who produced child pornography.  He has also shown surprising hostility to people of Christian faith.  He ruled that any prayers uttered in the Indiana statehouse that invoke the name of Jesus Christ are unconstitutional and cannot be permitted.

Senate confirms controversial judge.  The Senate confirmed Judge David Hamilton to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals 59-39 Thursday [11/19/2009] after breaking a GOP filibuster Tuesday and a five-and-a-half month delay.  Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), who represents Hamilton's home state of Indiana, cast the lone Republican vote for the judge.

Filibustering to Preserve the Constitution.  There is no question that [David] Hamilton, a former fundraiser for ACORN and board member of the ACLU, is a radical.  He has plainly said that judges have the right to amend the Constitution by writing "a series of footnotes to the Constitution."  Hamilton believes judges have the ability to make the law and has demonstrated his determination to implement his own views on social issues instead of following the precedents of the Supreme Court.  He was chastised by the Seventh Circuit for refusing for seven years to allow Indiana to implement an informed consent abortion law despite the Supreme Court's approval of such laws.  Even the ABA rated him as "not qualified" when he was first proposed for a federal district court judgeship.

Kathleen Sebelius

13 Incompetent Failures in the Obama Administration.  [#10] Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is perhaps best remembered for the absolutely disastrous rollout of the Obamacare website in 2013.  President Obama's signature healthcare achievement, ironically known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, has put providers out of business, caused thousands of Americans to lose their coverage, and driven up the costs of health care.

Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians" for 2013.  [Scroll down]  The Obama administration's own lawyers determined [HHS Secretary Kathleen] Sebelius could be fired for violating federal law when reports surfaced that she had campaigned for Obama while acting in her official capacity as an executive branch official during the last presidential campaign.  This made Kathleen Sebelius the first member ever of a president's cabinet to be found guilty of violating the Hatch Act. [...] But, that was just for openers — because in October Sebelius redefined the term "incompetence" when she oversaw the disastrous launch of the Obamacare website.

Obama: Sebelius has done a 'great job'.  President Obama defended his embattled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Thursday [11/7/2013], saying she had done a "great job" setting up the ObamaCare insurance despite the botched rollout of HealthCare.gov.  "I think Kathleen Sebelius, under tremendously difficult circumstances over the last four and a half years, has done a great job in setting up the insurance markets so that there is a good product out there for people to get," Obama said when NBC News's Chuck Todd asked him if the secretary retained his "full confidence."

Ten Republican senators press Obama relieve Sebelius.  Ten Republican senators asked President Obama on Thursday to fire his top health official because the problems tied to the federal Obamacare website are "profound, systemic and undeniable." [...] They outlined a litany of problems with HealthCare.gov, which is supposed to connect residents of 36 states with health plans on the individual market but has frequently crashed since its Oct. 1 debut.  The site also has struggled to transmit accurate reports to insurers that correspond to individual transactions.

HHS secretary is now the 'laughingstock of America,' says senator.  A Republican senator called Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius the "laughingstock of America" after she was lampooned on "Saturday Night Live."  The sketch, which aired Saturday [10/26/2013], poked fun at Sebelius's attempts to downplay serious problems with ObamaCare's enrollment website.

5 Questions Kathleen Sebelius Must Answer.  The hottest hot seat in Washington is the one occupied by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, whose office confirmed Monday she'll testify about the Internet disaster that is HealthCare.gov, the Affordable Care Act website.  It's not yet clear when she'll go before Congress, but it won't be soon enough for the Republicans who are calling for her resignation.

Complaint: Sebelius' illegal campaign trip for Obama worse than we thought.  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius violated federal law by campaigning for President Obama on the taxpayers' dime, but now that initial violation has the Democratic National Committee and an HHS aide in the spotlight for related alleged infractions.  A nonprofit government watchdog filed a complaint alleging that the DNC violated campaign finance law by misreporting the money it spent to reimburse HHS for Sebelius' trip in a way that masked the fact that the Hatch Act, a ban on political campaigning by government employees working in their official capacity, had been violated.

HHS Leader Sebelius Brings A Radical Abortion Record.  Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is being reported as the front-runner as President Barack Obama's appointment for Health And Human Services Secretary.  Although Ms. Sebelius was touted by The New York Times as a bipartisan politician, she comes with a strong pro-abortion record.  Not only has Ms. Sebelius — governor in a battleground state on the abortion issue — repeatedly vetoed any measures that would limit or regulate abortion that came across her desk, she also has ties to an abortionist with a history of performing risky abortions in the third trimester of pregnancy.

Aspects of Sebelius' record apparently taboo.  A conservative media watchdog organization says the mainstream media is going out of its way to cover up the radical abortion record of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as she vies to become President Barack Obama's HHS secretary.  Dan Gainor is vice president for business and culture at the Culture and Media Institute (CMI).  He notes that during the 2001 confirmation hearings for Tommy Thompson to become George W. Bush's Health and Human Services secretary, CBS anchor Dan Rather reminded Evening News viewers of Thompson's "hardline anti-abortion stand."

Obama Nominates Pro-Abort Radical to Run America's Health and Human Services.  President Barack Obama campaigned on the noble promise of bringing the country together and uniting citizens around common goals.  Yet, with just two months in office under his belt, he has made some radical decisions.  The most prominent of his extreme choices are those surrounding the issue of abortion, personified by his recent selection of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.

D.C.-Area Bishops To Enforce Communion Ban On Sebelius.  Two Washington, D.C.-area Catholic bishops have instructed Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, D-Kan., President Barack Obama's pick to Be Secretary Of Health and Human Services, to refrain from receiving Holy Communion on account of her stances on human-life issues such as abortion and embryonic stem cell research.  This comes as Ms. Sebelius undergoes Senate confirmation hearings before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Honor Killing, American-Style.  In the Obama administration there can be no dissent from the view that abortion must be unrestricted, paid for, and with no shilly-shallying about parental notification, partial birth abortion, or other such measures that would actually reduce the frequency of abortion.  Certain appointments stand out.  For HHS, where abortion regulation resides, the president chose a Sadduccee of abortion purity, Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius.  Despite her kindly mien, Sebelius is a strict constructionist of abortion rights.

More about Governor Sebelius and the abortion issue.

Another Obama Nominee Has Tax Issues.  Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama's nominee to become Health and Human Services secretary, said in a letter obtained by the Associated Press that she made "unintentional errors" on her taxes and has corrected her returns from three different years.  In the letter, which was sent to senators and dated today [3/31/2009], Sebelius wrote that she had made changes related to charitable contributions, business expenses and the sale of a home, according to the AP.

Sebelius admits errors, pays $7,000 in back taxes.  Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius recently corrected three years of tax returns and paid more than $7,000 in back taxes after finding "unintentional errors" — the latest tax troubles for an Obama administration nominee. ... Sebelius said she filed the amended returns as soon as the errors were discovered by an accountant she hired to scrub her taxes in preparation for her confirmation hearings.

Obama's Toxic Assets:  It has happened again!  Another Obama appointee has admitted to tax problems.  Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius has admitted to irregularities in her tax returns extending over the past three years. ... According to my calculations that makes five Obama nominees who have reported similar tax irregularities, none of which was discovered until they began making preparations for their confirmation hearings. ... Two other Obama Administration nominees withdrew from consideration when their tax problems were discovered.

Sebelius spared tough questions.  Here's one way to breeze through a confirmation hearing: Get it scheduled for the same day that the Senate votes in a marathon session on the budget resolution.  Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius fielded less than two hours' worth of softballs tossed at her Thursday by members of the Finance Committee as they rotated through the hearing room between votes in the chamber.

Sebelius lowballed donations from abortion doctor.  President Barack Obama's health secretary nominee got nearly three times as much political money from a controversial abortion doctor as she told senators.  The Health and Human Services Department said Monday [4/13/2009] that the omission was an oversight that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius would correct.

The Editor says...
Yeah, right.  Just like her tax problems were an oversight.  It's pretty hard to believe.

Sebelius-Tiller story 'always changing'.  More questions are being raised about financial issues surrounding HHS secretary-designate Kathleen Sebelius.  The Kansas governor is President Obama's pick for secretary of Health and Human Services.  During confirmation hearings she said she had received $12,450 from well-known late-term abortionist George Tiller and nothing from him in her run for governor.  Operation Rescue's Cheryl Sullinger offers her take on that story.  "We were able to uncover documentation that she, in fact, received at least $26,000 more than that —and possibly even more...," says Sullinger.  Sebelius then changed her statement to reflect the new amount.

Senators Urged to Vote 'Nay' On Sebelius Confirmation.  Media Research Center Founder and President Brent Bozell today [4/22/2009] — in his private capacity as concerned individual citizen — joined with a list of other conservative luminaries on a letter to the members of the United States Senate calling on them to vote down President Barack Obama's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services — current Democratic Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius.

Murder, Inc.  Usually when a president picks a friend of a big but controversial industry to run a federal department that regulates that same industry, some eyebrows are raised.  The press wonders how independent the nominee could be.  Senators fret over the long financial relationship between the nominee and the controversial industry.  In time, the White House quietly withdraws the nomination and insiders chortle that the administration never should have made such a foolish nomination. ... So we are wondering why President Obama nominated Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Sebelius Wins Senate Confirmation as Health Secretary Nominee.  Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius won Senate confirmation Tuesday [4/28/2009] as the nation's health and human services secretary, thrusting her into the middle of a public health emergency with the swine flu sickening dozens of Americans.  The 65-31 confirmation vote came after Democrats urged quick action so that Sebelius could get to work leading the federal response to the flu outbreak.

America's Most Powerful Woman:  [Kathleen] Sebelius was handed one of the biggest jobs in Washington when she left the Kansas governor's office to run HHS.  She oversees about 70,000 employees (full-time equivalents), manages a budget of about $860 billion (for 2010) and runs the largest health insurance programs in the world, Medicare and Medicaid.

Obama's Burden of Being So Bright.  Sorry, but I can't allow Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' statement that "we have a lot of re-education to do" slip by without comment.  It's amusing when avowed leftists don't even recognize the Marxist buzzwords they're sputtering. ... The most remarkable thing is that Sebelius didn't actually use the term "re-education" accidentally or out of school.  Perhaps unwittingly, she's quite comfortable using a term long associated with tyrannical regimes.  As one of Obama's chief lieutenants, she obviously believes this administration knows better than the public what is good for them.

Gov't 'Has Finally Come Out of the Closet'.  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius spoke at the first "Federal LGBT Youth Summit" on Monday [6/6/2011] after being introduced by a homosexual on her staff, who said the secretary "gets us" and is "tireless" in her support of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender youth.  "Your federal government has finally come out of the closet in support of LGBT youth," said Pam Hyde, HHS administrator for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services.

Mark Levin recommends 'articles of impeachment' for HHS Secretary Sebelius.  On his Monday [2/13/2012] show, radio talk show host Mark Levin, author of "Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America," said "what would happen if we were living in a functioning constitutional republic is articles of impeachment would be drawn up against the secretary of [Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius]" over a slew of charges, most recently the contraception mandate for Catholic institutions.

Obama's Nurse Ratched.  Behind every powerful health care mandate under Obamacare is a power-hungry woman named Kathleen Sebelius.  As the Health and Human Services Secretary, she has unprecedented power under Obamacare to control health care decisions, the approval of medical products and the national biomedical research agenda.  The Secretary is not only the key player; she is the only one on the field.  "The Secretary shall..." is mentioned more than 1000 times in the new health care law.  Sebelius is using that power to promote a liberal agenda and Obama's re-election.

Is she bragging or complaining?
Obama Cabinet Secretary: 'The Private Market is in a Death Spiral'.  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday [2/28/2012] that the days of private health insurance are coming to an end in the United States.  "The private market is in a death spiral," Sebelius said, contending this would be the case whether or not President Barack Obama's health care law had been enacted.

The Sebelius savings plan.  There's something perverse about a government $15.5 trillion in the red espousing a strategy to "save money" by discouraging the birth of human beings.  That's what Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is advocating through the implementation of President Obama's contraception mandate.

Kathleen, I've got a feeling you're still in Kansas.  Witness Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.  Before she was wielding the iron fist of power granted to her by Obamacare, she was the Kansas' governor and, before that, the Kansas insurance commissioner.  Health insurance mandates were her stock in trade, and with each new government dictate, Kansans saw their premiums increase.  No matter how well-intentioned, the very nature of a mandate is that it forces consumers to buy something they don't want, or why the need for a mandate?  It's unavoidable, then, that Kansas families' costs increased and many simply could no longer afford insurance.  The net result?  Mrs. Sebelius chased nearly a dozen health insurance companies out of the state, leaving behind 40,000 Kansans who no longer had health insurance.  That President Obama would choose her to head HHS and implement Obamacare is telling and terrifying.

Sebelius Admits She Never Consulted the Constitution or Legal Precedent on the Abortifacient Mandate.  Watch the video, which is from hearings earlier today [4/26/2012].  Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina asks the HHS secretary a simple question:  When you say that you weighed the balance of the Constitution versus the administration's contraceptive mandate, what did you mean by that?  It turns out that she meant nothing at all by that.  "Balance" is just a word that sounded good.  She did not look into past Supreme Court cases regarding religious liberty.  She did not look at any case law at all.  She did not even have any sort of legal memo drafted to back up the mandate.

Sebelius' Constitution.  An account of the hearing was issued by the Catholic News Agency.  It's almost painful to read.  The secretary admits she was unaware of legal precedents confirming religious freedom, even as she sought a "balance" between believers' rights and the contraception mandate.  "I'm not a lawyer, and I don't pretend to understand the nuances of the constitutional balancing tests," Mrs. Sebelius told Mr. Gowdy.  She also admits she is unaware of Supreme Court cases stretching back decades in which, as the Catholic News Agency put it, "religious believers' rights against government intrusion were upheld by the court."

Sebelius Says GAO Report Is 'Just Not Accurate' Then Helps Confirm That It Is.  To the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, and Gator Aid, President Obama has now added the Senior Swindle — a ploy to spend $8.35 billion in taxpayer money to hide the effects of Obamacare's Medicare Advantage cuts until after the election. [...] The Obama administration is claiming that this expenditure of $8.35 billion is legal because this money is being spent, the administration claims, on a legitimate "demonstration project" to help improve the implementation of current law.

Group says Sebelius speech at Georgetown 'insulting' to Catholics.  Georgetown University is facing criticism from some Catholics for inviting Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius to give a commencement address.  The Cardinal Newman Society, an organization focused on Catholic universities, called the invitation "scandalous and outrageous," given Sebelius's involvement in the Obama administration's controversial contraception mandate.

A Solyndra for Sebelius.  The Senate Appropriations Committee has created a $20 million fund for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to invest in biotech startups, shifting money to a program that some say resembles the Department of Energy's controversial loan guarantees.  The Strategic Investor initiative allocates $20 million to "allow the Federal Government to partner with small biotechnology companies in order to foster and accelerate the generation of novel medical countermeasures and technologies," according to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Sebelius Calls for AIDS 'Education Campaign That Helps Reduce Homophobia or Promotes Gender Equality'.  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius speaking at the opening session of the 2012 International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., said the key to helping someone stay on their HIV treatment might be "an education campaign that helps reduce homophobia or promotes gender equality."  Sebelius, who spoke on Sunday [7/22/2012] about what strategy is needed to achieve "an AIDS-free generation," including educating people about "homophobia."  She touted how the "historic health care legislation," or Obamacare, will eliminate pre-existing conditions so that more people with HIV/AIDS can have access to treatment.

Sebelius violated Hatch Act, agency finds.  Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius violated the federal law prohibiting federal employees from partisan activities, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) reported Wednesday [9/12/2012].  "OSC concluded that Secretary Sebelius violated the Hatch Act when she made extemporaneous partisan remarks in a speech delivered in her official capacity on February 25, 2012," the office said in its report.  The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from trying to influence the outcome of an election while using their official authority or using their official title or when speaking about agency business.

Office of Special Counsel Says HHS Secretary Violated Hatch Act.  President Obama was notified today by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel that one of his key Cabinet officials violated the Hatch Act, the law that restricts the political activity of anyone employed or holding office in the Executive Branch except for the President and Vice President.  Carolyn Lerner, head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel concluded that Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius violated the Hatch Act when she served as the Guest of Honor and Keynote Speaker at the February 25, 2012 gala for the pro-gay rights Human Rights Campaign in Charlotte, North Carolina.

OSC report: Sebelius violated Hatch Act.  HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits certain political activity, when she made "extemporaneous partisan remarks" during a speech in her official capacity earlier this year, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said Wednesday.  The office sent an official report outlining the rare Hatch Act violation and Sebelius's response to President Barack Obama.

Sebelius' unhealthy campaigning.  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius — the person most responsible for implementing the Frankenstein monster called ObamaCare — seems to have serious difficulty following federal law herself.  The Office of Special Counsel — an independent investigative and prosecutorial agency overseeing federal employees — has determined that Sebelius violated the Hatch Act, which bars on-duty government employees from engaging in politics.

Probe: Sebelius broke the law by campaigning for Obama reelection.  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius violated federal law by using her Cabinet position to campaign for President Obama, federal investigators said Wednesday.  The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) said Sebelius broke federal law by saying in a February speech that it is "imperative" to reelect President Obama.  She also used the speech, delivered at a Human Rights Campaign event in Charlotte, N.C., to plug local Democrats.

Pro-Obama speech ruled Hatch Act violation, Sebelius repays travel costs.  The White House stood by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius after federal investigators reported Wednesday that she unlawfully stumped for President Obama while delivering a speech earlier this year.  The Office of Special Counsel found Mrs. Sebelius violated the Hatch Act in February, when she told attendees at a Human Rights Campaign gala in North Carolina that re-electing Mr. Obama was "hugely important."  The law prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity in their official capacity.

Sebelius' Impunity On Hatch Act Violation Portends More Dirty Government.  The White House has dismissed HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' politicking on the taxpayer dime as "an inadvertent error" and is letting her get away with it.  It shows a pick-and-choose attitude to law.

Legal Questions Dog Administration Officials on Campaign Trail.  Executive-branch officials aren't barred from endorsing candidates; they just can't do it in their official capacity.  But the escalating deployment of top officials for campaign purposes presents an ethical problem, experts say — one thrown into sharp relief by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's recent violation of the Hatch Act.

N. Carolina paper calls on Obama to punish Sebelius.  A North Carolina newspaper is calling on President Obama to punish cabinet secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who was found in violation of the Hatch Act earlier this month for giving a political speech while conducting official business in the Tar Heel state.  An editorial published Tuesday [9/25/2012] in The Gaston Gazette of Gastonia, North Carolina declares, "Either we should enforce the Hatch Act or take it off the books."

Sebelius to hit campaign trail again after Hatch Act violation.  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will soon be back to doing what she does best — campaigning for President Obama.  Sebelius will travel to New Hampshire this weekend for a swing of "grassroots events" with Obama, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.  The campaign trip comes after the Office of Special Counsel found that Sebelius had violated federal campaign law by campaigning for Obama during an official event.

A Guide to the Obama Administration's Five Major Scandals for Mainstream Media Dummies.  Scandal 2:  Kathleen Sebelius breaks federal law, keeps her job.  In February 2012, Secretary of Health and Human Services (that's a federal position, just in case you're not up on your civics) Kathleen Sebelius openly electioneered on government time in her official capacity during a visit to North Carolina.  The Hatch Act, a federal law, expressly forbids such activity.

Why Sebelius Campaigns So Hard for Her Boss — and Why He Won't Fire Her.  In fact, if the president makes no appointments, or the Senate rejects the president's appointees, then all of IPAB's considerable powers fall to one person: the Secretary of Health and Human Services.  The HHS secretary would effectively become an economic dictator, with more power over the health care sector than any chamber of Congress.  If Obama wins in November, he would have zero incentive to appoint any IPAB members.

Kathleen the Terrible.  The stench of corruption has followed [HHS secretary Kathleen] Sebelius from her confirmation hearings, during which she admitted that she had made "errors" on her tax returns, to her "inadvertent" violation of the Hatch Act last February.  Nor did revelations of the latter outrage stem the steady stream of skullduggery that has flowed from her office. Even as her Hatch Act violation came to light, she launched a program that illegally postponed Obamacare's cuts to Medicare Advantage until after the recent election.  And it hardly needs to be said that her behavior since November 6 contains no hint of moderation.

Dawn Johnsen

Johnsen's Radical Views Will Alienate Pro-Life Americans.  Nominating [Dawn] Johnsen [to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel] is a serious slap in the face of pro-life Americans.  Johnsen has condemned virtually every type of regulation of abortion conceived by a legislature and espoused a passionate pro-choice agenda throughout her career.  Her public records are dominated by pro-abortion rhetoric and criticisms of the pro-life movement.

It's Not Unusual to be Fooled by Anyone (Especially a President).  If you still think that President Barack Obama is about hope and change and moms and apple pie and nothing objectionable or radical, consider his nominee for head of the Office of Legal Counsel, Dawn Johnsen.  Her record sets off many alarms, with the most distressing sirens arising from her views on abortion.  Regardless of what the New York Times might write, (they called her position on abortion "hardly unusual" in a recent glowing endorsement,) I'd like to think that you'd have to attend a wacky women's studies lecture in order to find people who equate pregnancy with slavery.

Obama re-nominates Johnsen; Once sued to punish Catholic Church for its pro-life stance.  [Dawn] Johnsen, you may recall, is more famous for comparing pregnancy to slavery in a legal brief.  In a footnote from the landmark 1989 Supreme Court case Webster v. Planned Parenthood, Johnsen made this argument in a footnote:  "Statutes that curtail [a woman's] abortion choice are disturbingly suggestive of involuntary servitude, prohibited by the Thirteenth Amendment, in that forced pregnancy requires a woman to provide continuous physical service to the fetus in order to further the state's asserted interest."

Pro-choice is too kind a word for Obama's latest nominee.  Dawn Johnsen is President Obama's nominee to head the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC).  It's arguably the most important office at DoJ.  OLC sets policy for the entire federal government.  When not serving in government, Dawn Johnsen spent her career promoting abortion-on-demand.

Dawn, Go Away.  President Obama is big on civility.  He talks a very good game.  But his nominee for a top slot at the Department of Justice — Dawn Johnsen — is a leading exponent of incivility.  Johnsen worked with the ACLU for years.  And she joined ARM — the so-called Abortion Rights Mobilization — to strip the Catholic Church of its tax-exempt status because of its pro-life advocacy.

Dems Advance Obama's Nominee for Justice Department Post.  The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted 12-7 along party lines for the full Senate to cast an up-or-down vote on Dawn Johnsen to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. ... Republican committee members who oppose the nomination made it clear that they believe Johnsen's past activism with liberal groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and her pro-abortion stance disqualify her for the post.  "She has aggressively opposed even modest restrictions on abortion, such as partial birth abortion, and parental involvement," Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said at Thursday's hearing.

An Obama Nominee and Disappearing Persons.  Dawn Johnsen, another of President Barack Obama's remarkable nominees, discovered a way to make a person disappear by making two persons into one. ... She saw a great danger to liberty in laws enacted to protect babies in the womb from external threats (not including abortion) such as drunk drivers and acts of negligence.  In her view, it was OK to make such laws to protect the interests of the woman carrying unborn child — or to protect whatever interest the baby may have retroactively in its fetal existence if it is ever born alive — but it was not OK to make such laws in the interest of the unborn child himself.

Obama pick for Justice post withdraws.  President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel has withdrawn her bid for confirmation, after several Republicans objected to her criticism of the Bush administration's terrorist interrogation policies.

Steven Chu

Former Energy Secretary Joins Board of Stimulus Recipient.  Former Energy Secretary Steven Chu will join the board of a company that got millions of dollars from the Department of Energy during Chu's tenure and is backed by some of the nation's most politically connected investors.  Lithium ion battery manufacturer Amprius announced Chu's move on Monday [1/20/2014].  His "ideas and experience will help Amprius accelerate the development of even higher-energy batteries," the company said in a statement.  Chu has already helped the company accelerate that development through more than $4 million in DOE grant money paid to the company since 2011.

Top 10 Examples Proving Obama Wants High Energy Prices.  Perhaps the strongest indication that Obama wants higher gas prices is the fact that he appointed Steven Chu as energy secretary.  Before his nomination, Chu told the Wall Street Journal, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe," which are considerably higher than the U.S. due to steep levels of taxation.

Energy Nominee Shifts His Stance.  Physics met politics at the confirmation hearing Tuesday for Steven Chu, the Nobel laureate scientist chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to head the Department of Energy, and the physics bent a bit, as Dr. Chu backed away slightly from earlier statements he has made — that gasoline prices should be higher, and that coal was his "nightmare."

Key Questions for Steven Chu, Nominee for Secretary of Energy.  The federal government already has several anti-energy forces in place, particularly the Environmental Protection Agency, whose statutory duties require it to impose environmental constraints on energy production and use, especially fossil fuels, and often without regard to cost.  Therefore, it is an important part of the secretary of energy's job to act as a pro-energy counterweight to EPA rather than as a redundant anti-energy voice within the executive branch.

Update on the "Chu Effect".  One month ago, Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu warned of apocalyptic drought in California.  "We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California."  And, he added, "I don't actually see how they can keep their cities going" either."  USA today warned:  "Calif. facing worst drought in modern history"[.]  Almost immediately after Dr. Chu's pronouncement, the rain and snow started in earnest.  As of today, all California Snowtel stations report normal snow depth and water content, as do all stations in Colorado where California gets much of their water from.

Energy Sec. now admits he was 'Silly' to call for $8 per gallon gas in U.S.  REP. STEARNS:  No.  But somehow, your statement, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the ($8 a gallon) levels in Europe," doesn't that sound a little bit silly in retrospect for you to say that?  SEC. STEVEN CHU:  Yes.

Save the Planet — Paint the Roof.  The other day, the current Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu was speaking at the "St James's Palace Nobel Laureate Symposium" in London which, if it is not the most pretentiously named meeting on the planet, it must be among the top five, told his laureateal colleagues that we should paint much of the world white to reflect heat back up into space and, thus, cure global warming.  I am not making this up.

Greens Want Black and White.  Energy Secretary Steven Chu appeared at noted climatologist Prince Charles' symposium in London today [5/26/2009], and expressed the Obama administration's support for painting roofs white and cars black in order to reflect energy and fight global warming. ... This is the kind of dictatorial looniness that might awaken the general public to the fact that greens are stark-raving mad.  In fact, the public is already awake in California.

'Global warming', painting your roof white, and the Chattanooga Chu-Chu.  Will painting the town white be a cool thing to do?  Scientists answer questions like this by doing a little math. ... About 75% of the Earth is covered in water or ice.  [Water can't be painted,] and there's no need to paint ice because it's white already.  That leaves 25% of the surface. ... About 40% of the atmosphere is covered in clouds.  They're white too, ... And up to 30% of the land surface of the Earth is covered in snow for up to six months of the year.

Leftists assume that the teeming masses are too dumb to do what's right.
Steven Chu:  Americans Are Like 'Teenage Kids' When It Comes to Energy.  When it comes to greenhouse-gas emissions, Energy Secretary Steven Chu sees Americans as unruly teenagers and the Administration as the parent that will have to teach them a few lessons.  Speaking on the sidelines of a smart grid conference in Washington, Dr. Chu said he didn't think average folks had the know-how or will to to change their behavior enough to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Energy Sec. Chu claims he knows 'what the future will be 100 years from now'.  President Obama's Energy Secretary Steven Chu is at it again.  Fresh off his declarations in May claiming computer model predictions as evidence of a certain climate catastrophe, he has now gotten more bold, confidently predicting a certain climate catastrophe by the year 2109.  (When he and everyone who hears his warning today will be unable to verify his predictions because they will be conveniently DEAD!)

Chu announces grants for 'out-of-the-box' global warming projects.  Fulfilling a campaign pledge to tap Silicon Valley innovation to combat global warming, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced Monday [10/26/2009] at Google's headquarters the first federal grants for high-risk, high-reward clean-tech ventures — including revolutionary technologies like using bacteria to create gasoline. ... Chu added that he'll call the program a success if three of the 37 projects, picked from a pile of 3,700 competing projects by 500 volunteer scientists, work.

Skating on thin ice for climate change.  Energy Secretary Steven Chu didn't reach the pinnacle of his profession by treading the well-worn path of modern group-think.  It's regrettable that the Nobel Prize-winning physicist is stuck in that rut now. ... You have to feel for a man of science trying to make the jump to politics.  In science, facts speak for themselves.  In politics, facts are often run to ground by baloney.  As energy secretary, Mr. Chu has traded fact for fiction and now spends his days selling President Obama's discredited climate-change policy.

Chortling At Chu.  Our secretary of energy pushes bio-refineries and windmills to oil executives at an energy conference as the administration announces a three-year offshore drilling ban.  This is a policy for economic suicide.

Your Insane U.S. Energy Department.  The Department of Energy was created in the wake of the oil crisis of the 1970s and was signed into existence by President Jimmy Carter on August 4, 1977.  Its responsibilities were the nation's nuclear weapons program, a nuclear reactor for the U.S. Navy, energy conservation, energy-related research, radioactive waste disposal, and domestic energy production.  It currently employs 16,000 federal workers and, in 2009, had an annual budget of $24.1 billion.  President Obama appointed Dr. Steven Chu as its Secretary.  Dr. Chu is perhaps best known for recommending that global warming can be avoided by painting the roofs and highways white in order to reflect back the sun's radiation.

Chu's Guessing Game.  The secretary of energy says the U.S. doesn't need to be 100% certain humans are heating the planet to enact policies to mitigate climate change.  Apparently just a hunch will do.

US Energy Secretary Plays Climate Activist.  At the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun, the US government has fought back against accusations that it isn't doing anything to combat global warming.  In his speech, Energy Secretary Steven Chu criticized climate change deniers, highlighted inventions by US scientists and even quoted a Native American saying about saving the planet.

Energy Secretary Chu Embraces High Gas Prices, Again.  This weekend, Energy Secretary Steven Chu appeared on Fox News Sunday and host Chris Wallace asked him about his desire in 2008 for Americans to punitively pay more at the pump in order to wean them off of gasoline.  Shockingly, Chu did not walk back his comments as he has attempted to do in the past.  In fact, he embraced the strategy noting that his focus is to ease the pain felt by his energy policies by forcing automakers to make more fuel-efficient automobiles.

Newt: Fire Chu.  Finally someone in the Republican presidential sweepstakes is saying what needs to be said:  Fire Energy Secretary David Chu. ... On Chu's watch, the Department of Energy co-signed for a $535 million loan to a company that promised to make solar panels in the most expensive way possible using the most expensive materials available for a market already glutted with cheap foreign competitors.  The loan was used to build a second factory to expand Solyndra's ability to make solar panels no one was buying.  This made no sense, yet Chu signed off on the loan.

Holding Obama accountable on Solyndra.  [Scroll down]  EPACT did not create a citizen-suit provision and it would be next to impossible for any one litigant to show the harm necessary to establish standing.  So it is unlikely Republicans can hold Obama accountable for breaking the law in court.  But the Constitution does provide other means for Congress to check Executive Branch lawlessness:  impeachment.  House Republicans would not have to impeach Obama, just the highest ranking official(s) that knowingly broke the law.  Apparently, that just may be Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Energy Secretary Chu offers no apologies for Solyndra.  Energy Secretary Steven Chu made no apologies Thursday for the $535 million loan guarantee the government made to now bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra, saying the company's collapse was unforeseeable and politics did not play a role in the approval process.

Chu: taxpayers won't recover much from Solyndra.  Taxpayers shouldn't expect to recover much money from bankrupt solar panel manufactuer Solyndra, which received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration, Energy Secretary Steven Chu testified on Thursday [11/17/2011].

DOE's Chu Takes Responsiblity for Solyndra Amid Charges of Unlawful Conduct.  Today [11/17/2011] embattled Energy Secretary Steven Chu finally ended his silence and took personal responsibility for the controversial Soyndra loan amid congressional charges that he may have violated federal laws.  At the contentious hearing he repeatedly said he was unaware of many governmental emails and reports that warned Solyndra was a bad bet.  Chu testified under oath before a key House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee.  He asserted "the final decisions on Solyndra were mine" and that "I did not make any decision based on political considerations."

Steven Chu Should Lose His Job Over The Solyndra Scandal.  The Secretary of Energy takes responsibility for and defends the granting of a half-billion-dollar-loan guarantee to an imploding solar panel maker.  But that's not where the campaign donor buck stopped.

Chu offers no apology for fleecing taxpayers for Solyndra.  People can debate all day whether government should be in the business of picking winners and losers in the marketplace by selectively awarding loan guarantees.  What's beyond dispute is that any official decision that results in the loss of half-a-billion tax dollars should elicit an apology from somebody in government.  Just don't expect that somebody to be Secretary of Energy Steven Chu...

Steven Chu's Solyndra testimony: Misleading jobs stats and missing context.  We always warn readers to be wary of claims about the number of jobs created by some government, congressional or corporate initiative.  These are almost always suspect and based on dubious assumptions.  (Chu, we should note, carefully used the word "employ" instead of "create.")  As it happens, Carol D. Leonnig and Steven Mufson of The Washington Post examined the job-claim figure two months ago and found it wanting.

Mad About High Gas Prices? Then Chu On This.  This has been a mantra of Obama's for years:  There's nothing anyone can do about gasoline prices, so the only option is to find "alternative" fuel sources.  It's total bunk.  Recoverable oil has never been more plentiful, as the industry finds new sources and develops new drilling technologies.  The oil boom in North Dakota is proof enough of that.  In fact, according to the Institute for Energy Research, there's enough oil within our borders to supply our fuel needs for 250 years.  The problem is the country has put itself in an energy straight-jacket, in deference to environmental groups who challenge any and every effort to tap new oil supplies.

Not only that, he's proud of himself!
Obama's Energy Secretary gives himself an 'A-'.  President Obama's Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu assigned himself an "A-" when asked him to assess his "management of the DOE resources" in light of the millions of taxpayer dollars lost through the DOE loan program.  "I would give myself a pretty good grade ... There's always room for improvement, [so] maybe an A-," Chu told Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., during a House hearing today [3/1/2012].

Chu must have told the truth.  [Scroll down]  Once in ... office, President Obama has revoked coal permits and forced at least a half-dozen coal plants to shut down.  On Tuesday [2/28/2012], Stephen Chu got caught testifying before Congress that his department could not care less about the rising price of gasoline.

Chu: Decrease dependency on oil, not gas prices.  Rep. Alan Nunnelee of Mississippi challenged Chu on rising gas prices, reminding him that it was a "cruel tax" on the poor people of his state and suggested that the Obama administration was dragging its feet on oil exploration.  Chu said that he was aware of the rising prices, and cited "agressive efforts" to develop alternative fuels for transportation such as natrual [sic] gas, electrification, and bio-fuels for American vehicles as a solution.

Energy Secretary Chu Should Resign.  There is no doubt that this Nobel-prize winning scientist is an exceptionally smart man.  Yet watching Chu in action goes to show you that one can be as sharp as a tack and dumb as a sack of hammers simultaneously.  During a Wall Street Journal interview in September of 2008, Mr. Chu said, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe" to encourage consumers to sever their addiction to petroleum.  Chu's comment reminds us that earned degrees do not amount to a hill of beans if you lose your ability to understand common sense and fail to relate to the common man.

Chu chooses a BMW over a Volt.  The big news yesterday was that Energy Secretary Steven Chu does not own a car.  But his wife owns a 2002 BMW 325i, which gets 21 MPG, according to the Daily Caller.  Why did Chu not get her to trade in the Beamer for a Chevy Volt?  Also, as a Cabinet secretary, he gets a security detail that drives him around in an SUV, most likely a Cadillac Escalade.  We can mince around with words over whether he owns a car or not, but he is not taking public transportation, walking or riding a bicycle to get everywhere.

Energy secretary's wife drives a gas-guzzling BMW.  In a piece of video that shot across the Internet Thursday like a sports car doing zero-to-60 in four seconds, Energy Secretary Stephen Chu told the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power that he does not own a car. ... But The Daily Caller has confirmed that Chu's wife does — and it's quite an automobile.

Chu renounces his desire for higher gas prices.  President Obama's Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, renounced his previously-stated desire to see gas prices rise to match European levels in order to motivate alternative energy research, telling the Senate today that he wants gas prices to fall for the sake of the economy.

Obama energy chief disavows '08 remark favoring higher gas prices.  Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday [3/13/2012] disavowed his 2008 comments about increasing gas prices to European levels, remarks that Republicans have pounced on in recent weeks.  "I no longer share that view," Chu said during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, adding that he wants to lower gas prices.

Chu: I would give myself an 'A' for energy prices.  Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a House panel Tuesday [3/20/2012] that he'd give himself top marks when asked to grade his policies' effects on energy prices.

Obama's Jokes Are On Us.  Before President Obama chose him to be his Secretary of Anti-Energy, Berkeley Professor Steven Chu said what America needs is the same gas prices as Europe.  That is $8 to $10 a gallon.  He believes that because he thinks that is good for the environment. ... Why did President Obama choose Chu for his Energy Secretary?  Because Obama agrees with him.

Recycling renewable-energy rhetoric.  At a congressional hearing Tuesday on Department of Energy green-energy programs, Secretary Steven Chu said, "I am not an expert on oil reserves."  You don't say.  In 2008, Mr. Chu famously said, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe," revealing a level of animus toward oil that President Obama's handpicked energy secretary has carried with him throughout his tenure as America's chief energy policymaker.

Faith-Based Energy Policy.  Americans remember that [President Obama's] team boasted about wanting higher energy costs in 2008, when Obama was still basking in hope-and-change adulation.  Energy Secretary-designate Steven Chu, who doesn't own a car, pontificated about wanting higher American gasoline prices, hoping they would somehow reach European levels.  Candidate Obama breezily warned of skyrocketing energy prices — the necessary cost of his planned cap-and-trade, anti-global-warming legislation.

Secretary Chu's $10 Million Fiasco.  During a hearing last week of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Wyoming Senator John Barrasso (R) asked Energy Secretary Steven Chu a seemingly simple question:  "(D)o you think a $50 light bulb is affordable for American families?"  "No, absolutely not," Chu replied.  Well, if that's the case, why did Chu award a $10 million top prize for a $50 light bulb in his department's competition for an "affordable" light?

Chu: Not the Brightest Bulb in the Administration's Lamp.  During a recent committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) asked Energy Secretary Stephen Chu if he thought a $50 light bulb was "affordable" for American families.  "No, of course not," Chu answered.  Then why did Chu award $10 million to a company for winning a contest to design an "affordable" alternative to the ubiquitous 60 watt incandescent light bulb that would cost $50?

Cabinets gone wild.  [Scroll down]  Then there is the even stranger case of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, whose department helped oversee millions in bad loans to green companies like Solyndra, First Solar and Solar Trust of America — the Teapot Dome scandals of our times.  Chu once infamously quipped before assuming office that he wanted U.S. gas prices to reach European levels.

Steven Chu quits, misunderstands the end of Stone Age.  It seems sort of weird that the Department of Energy has been morphed into an activist organization promoting negligible, ideologically justified, uneconomic sources of energy.

Harold Koh

The Crackpot Mentor of State Department Nominee.  With the nomination of Harold Hongju Koh, the Dean of Yale Law School, as the Legal Adviser for the State Department, President Barack Obama is putting a world government team in place under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  The other key appointment was Anne-Marie Slaughter, the dean of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, as Director of Policy Planning at State.  Slaughter wrote the 2004 book, A New World Order, and believes in an international system dominated by the U.N. and other global institutions and networks.

Koh's Academic Hero Proposed 'Global Dictatorship'.  Criticism of President Obam'a nomination of Harold Koh, the dean of Yale Law School, has focused so far on Koh's extremely radical outlook that appears to elevate international law above U.S. law.  Some critics contend he even espouses the application of Islamic sharia law in the U.S.

Obama's Most Perilous Legal Pick:  Judges should interpret the Constitution according to other nations' legal "norms."  Sharia law could apply to disputes in US courts.  The United States constitutes an "axis of disobedience" along with North Korea and Saddam-era Iraq.  Those are the views of the man on track to become one of the US government's top lawyers:  Harold Koh.  President Obama has nominated Koh — until last week the dean of Yale Law School — to be the State Department's legal adviser.

The Editor says...
If the dean of the Yale Law School believes all that, imagine what the classes are like.

Critics Decry Obama Nominee for State Department Legal Adviser.  Former Clinton administration official Harold Koh, who has been dean of the Yale Law School since 2004, once wrote that the U.S. was part of an "axis of disobedience" with North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.  Koh also has long held that the U.S. should accept international law when deliberating cases at home.  Obama nominated Koh on March 23 to become the State Department's legal adviser — an appointment that, if confirmed by the Senate, will give Koh far-reaching influence over the extent to which international norms affect U.S. law.

Who Is Harold Koh?  President Obama's nominee for State Department legal adviser could be a future Supreme Court pick.  He believes U.S. law should be based on foreign precedent, and even Shariah law could find a home here.

Harold Koh's Transnationalism:  What is "transnationalism" generally?  Well, let's start by considering how two academics — one a critic of transnationalism, the other an ardent proponent — have described it.

Trans-national law at State is not the American way.  Could international laws override American laws even if the United States has refused to ratify a treaty accepting a foreign authority?  Harold Koh, President Barack Obama's nominee to be the chief legal counsel at the State Department, thinks so.  That's reason enough for the Senate to reject this Yale Law School dean.

Questions on the Role of International Law in the U.S. Legal System.  On March 23, President Obama nominated Harold Koh to be the next Legal Adviser, which is the top legal position at the U.S. Department of State.  While Koh has had a distinguished career in government service and legal academia, his views raise serious national security and constitutional questions.

Pay More Attention to Harold Koh.  It is said that there are two kinds of lawyers — those who know the law, and those who know the judge.  And then there is Harold Koh, the man who is likely to be the next Legal Adviser to the State Department.  Koh most recently served as Dean of the Yale Law School and before that as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Labor and Human Rights in the Clinton administration.  He is a prolific author and a legal activist of the Left. ... His pending appointment has received scant attention from the media or the senators who will decide his fate.  It deserves a closer look.

U.S. Courts Should 'Download' International Law into Domestic Law, Obama Nominee Says.  Harold Koh, nominated by President Barack Obama to be the State Department's top legal adviser, once argued that U.S. federal court judges — including the Supreme Court — are the "critical link" between international and domestic law and play a critical role in bringing international norms into force as domestic law.

Harold Koh Is Too Dangerous for America.  Does Barack Obama really want to make Americans subject to foreign law and courts?  That is the question Senators should ask when they vote on his nomination of Harold Hongju Koh, former dean of the Yale Law School, to be the top lawyer at the State Department.  Koh is encumbered by a long paper trail that proves he is eager to use foreign and international law to interpret American law.  He calls himself a transnationalist, which means wanting U.S. courts to "domesticate" foreign and international law, i.e., integrate it into U.S. domestic law binding on U.S. citizens.

Harry Knox

The problem with a heretic like Obama...  Harry Knox is not just critical of faith based people.  He's one of these demonic forces that parades as an angel of light, to accomplish the work of darkness.  For my "born again" friends / "followers of Jesus" who voted for Obama, how do you defend this move.  Harry Knox worked against Prop 8 in California... meaning he worked AGAINST the side of God on the issue of marriage and its definition.  Harry Knox before accepting Obama's post most immediately had just come from the Human Rights campaign, the most virulent anti-God, pro-sexual promiscuity, same sex issues defense group in the nation.

Obama's Christian Appointee Says New Testament Teaching on Homosexuality Is 'Not True'.  President Obama has named to his faith-based advisory council a self-professed Christian who holds that the New Testament's teaching that homosexual behavior is unnatural and wrong — which is found in St. Paul's letter to the Romans — "is not true."

House Republican Leader Calls on Obama to Fire Adviser Who Attacked Catholic Church.  House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) ... is the most high-profile public official so far to speak out against the appointment of Harry Knox to the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.  Knox is director of the Faith and Religion Program at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a homosexual rights organization.

Hard Knox.  [Harry] Knox — a member of the United Church of Christ and a long time voice for faith and gay issues — became known in recent months for inflammatory remarks he made about Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church, most of which surfaced after he was named to the 25-member President's Advisory Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Boehner Calls for Obama Adviser to Resign.  House Minority Leader John Boehner (R.-Ohio) said today [2/4/2010] that Harry Knox, who serves on President Barack Obama's faith-based advisory council, appears to be an "anti-Catholic bigot" and should resign as a White House adviser.

Rosa Brooks

It's like making Jane Fonda senior adviser on Vietnam.
A disaster for Defense.  President Obama is surrendering national security with a radical appointment at the Defense Department.  Rosa Brooks, this month made adviser to Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michelle Flournoy, will be in a position to do significant damage to U.S. security.  This position is unknown to most outside the Beltway but is at the critical locus of defense policymaking.

Soros Invades Pentagon.  Democratic Party financier George Soros, who puts much of the blame for Islamic terrorists on America and former president George W. Bush, can celebrate his first foothold inside the Pentagon.  It is in the person of Rosa Brooks, far-left former Los Angeles Times columnist.  She was once counsel to billionaire Soros' Open Societies Institute, whose funding arm bankrolls a number of hard-left pressure groups, such as MoveOn.org.

New Defense Department advisor Rosa Brooks is about as far to the left as one can go.
Political Extremism Infiltrates the Pentagon.  Every once in a while something happens so shocking, so inconceivable, that it threatens to remove the last bastions of confidence I have in the federal government.  The appointment of Rosa Brooks, the radical left-wing Los Angeles Times columnist, as an advisor to Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michelle Fluornoy is one of those moments.  And by advisor, I don't mean someone who talks on an informal basis — I mean a full-time advisor so committed to helping formulate policy that she had to leave her position as a fire-breathing partisan columnist.

Who Is Rosa Brooks?  Before she was a far-left columnist for the Los Angeles Times, Rosa Brooks was once counsel to Soros' Open Societies Institute.  Now she's the "principal adviser" to Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy, the Pentagon's No. 3 official and top policymaker.  Soros is the mover and shaker behind MoveOn.org, famous for its ad depicting Gen. David Petraeus, the architect of our Iraq victory, as a traitor and a Web ad depicting Bush as Adolf Hitler, something our Ms. Brooks would agree with.

Van Jones

Amazon's Jeff Bezos Gives $100 Million to Van Jones for 'Courage and Civility'.  Jeff Bezos announced he is giving away $100 million each to activist Van Jones and humanitarian José Andrés during a press conference Tuesday morning [7/20/2021] following his ten minute space flight with his company Blue Origin.  At the end of the press conference, Bezos said, "I have a little surprise for you.  I am announcing today, a new philanthropic initiative ... The Courage and Civility Award.  It recognizes leaders who aim high, and who pursue solutions with courage, and who always do so with civility."

The Whole Lot of Them Are Bat-Crazy.  Van Jones, who really is a very deeply plagued person who sees racism and White privilege in every spoonful of Cocoa Krispies in milk, in every appearance of black ink printed on a white piece of paper, called the President psychotic.  Have you ever walked down a Manhattan or Los Angeles street and been called a "filthy slob" by a homeless person on the curb who has not bathed since the invention of indoor plumbing?  That is how to receive a Van Jones insult.

Czarred And Feathered.  It's been suggested that the White House has more czars than the Russian Romanov dynasty.  Has the administration forgotten that we have a government of elected officials, not of imperial appointments?  Many of these czars, most of whom are useless or counterproductive, are sitting in newly created positions.  [They include the] Green jobs czar.  This post is held by Van Jones.  Officially he is Obama's special adviser for enterprise and innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.  Jones was a founder and leader of Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement.  The group, now disbanded, had Marxist, Leninist and Maoist influences.  Jones admitted that he became a communist and radical after the officers accused of using excessive force on Rodney King were acquitted.

Fox News Notes Communist Past of the 'Green Jobs' Czar.  The administration's "Green Jobs" czar, Van Jones, has a "very checkered past" deep-rooted in radical politics, including black nationalism, anarchism, and communism.  The broadcast network newscasts have mostly failed to report on Mr. Jones's past political affiliations which are lock-step with the network's downplay of coverage regarding President Obama's associations with the former radical and terrorist William Ayers during the election.

"Green Jobs Czar" is a self-described "communist".  Like a character out of The Big Chill, Van Jones seems to have evolved from radical activist to Establishment insider.  Perhaps only a left-wing administration incapable of recognizing irony would put a self-described communist in charge of creating jobs.  Luckily for Van Jones, and Obama's many other "Czars", his new job was not dependent upon making it through Congressional hearings.

Also posted under Here a czar, there a czar, everywhere a czar czar.

Van Jones and His STORMtroopers Denounced America the Night After 9/11.  Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), the revolutionary group formed by self-described "communist" and "rowdy black nationalist" Van Jones, held a vigil in Oakland, California, "mourning the victims of U.S. imperialism around the world" on the night after Sept. 11, 2001.  The reason this is important is because Van Jones is now President Obama's green jobs czar.  He does not appear to have distanced himself from his past communist activities and is now part of the Obama administration's push to turn Sept. 11 into a National Day of Service focused on the promotion of the radical environmentalist agenda.

Czar: 'Spread the wealth! Change the whole system'.  Just days before his White House appointment, Van Jones, President Obama's environmental adviser, used a forum at a major youth convention to push for what can easily be interpreted as a communist or socialist agenda.  As WND previously reported, Van Jones, special adviser for green jobs, enterprise and innovation to the White House Council on Environmental Quality, is an admitted black nationalist and radical communist.

White House Green Jobs Adviser:  Republicans Are 'A**----s'.  Van Jones, the Obama administration's "green jobs" adviser, told a group of listeners earlier in the year that the reason Republicans are stonewalling the president is because they're "a**----s."  Jones' remarks were recorded in a video from February that was posted to YouTube.

The truth according to Van Jones:  Obama administration green jobs commissar Van Jones is a funny guy.  He's a self-avowed Communist.  He has also kindly revealed the truth about his interest in the whole "green jobs" shtick.

The Real Van Jones Scandal:  Why Glenn Beck Is Right.  The question:  What did the Obama White House know about Van Jones and when did they know it?  Jones, the Obama White House "green jobs" adviser, is getting in deeper trouble by the minute with revelations of his radical statements about being a Communist, having been twice arrested, and, in the last few hours, with news surfacing that he had signed onto a petition accusing the Bush administration of being responsible for 9/11...

Green jobs 'czar' apologizes for 'truther' statement.  President Obama's "green jobs czar" Van Jones is apologizing for the second time in two days, this time for signing a 2004 petition for an organization that seeks to expose the "official lies and cover-up surrounding the events of 9/11."  This comes after a video that recently surfaced in which Mr. Jones called Republicans a disparaging name at an energy lecture in Berkeley, California last February.  He apologized for doing that on Wednesday [9/2/2009].

'Green Jobs' Adviser's Past Could Stir Trouble for White House.  President Obama's "green jobs" adviser could become a mounting liability for the Obama administration, as the latest revelation about Van Jones shows his apparent belief that the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks may have been an inside job.

A vulgar Marxist twice over.  We've written about Obama administration green jobs commissar Van Jones as a Communist in the White House. ... Now courtesy of Breitbart.tv and Naked Emperor News we have Jones explaining the deep meaning of the Obama administration's devotion to "green jobs."  The goal of green jobs is complete revolution step by step away from gray capitalism until the forces of oppression are overcome.

Pence calls on Van Jones to resign.  Rep. Mike Pence, the no. 3 Republican in the House, is calling on Obama green jobs czar Van Jones to resign.  This sort of thing would usually be laughed off by Democrats — a conservative Republican telling a Democratic appointee to quit.  But the Obama team isn't exactly jumping to back Jones today in wake of revelations that in the past he signed on to one of the "truther" groups that claimed 9/11 was an inside job.

The Radicalization of Obama's 'Green Czar'.  The political radicalization of Van Jones, President Obama's "green jobs" adviser, dates back to 1992, when he and hundreds of others took their anger to the streets of San Francisco in the infamous Rodney King protests.  Jones, a Yale Law School student who was working in the Bay Area as an intern, was part of a mob that stormed the city following the acquittal in Los Angeles of four white police officers who had been charged with beating King, who is black, after a car chase.

The Editor says...
He must not have learned much about law and order in the Yale Law School, if he participated in a riot.

Yale Law School and Why Van Jones went There.  During the Anita Hill hearings after a series of implausible witnesses all of whom were black Yale law school graduates, Juan Williams wrote in the Washington Post that he could now understand the wisdom of the saying that Yale law school had ruined more good black minds than crack.

What Van Jones signifies:  Not that we're inclined to do so, but it would be a mistake to write off Van Jones as a one-off nutjob in the Obama administration.  He signifies.  The Obama team sought him out and signed him up for his job as green jobs commissar precisely because he is who he is.

I Could No More Disown Van Jones Than...  Jones' own deprecations of the U.S. are no more extreme than Michelle Obama's 'downright mean country' and for the first time she has become proud of America.  When Van Jones talks about coal, he is simply amplifying Obama's own suggestion that he would "bankrupt" those who wished to build new plants.  So I do believe Valerie Jarrett that the administration had been looking at Van Jones for a long time, and liked what they saw.

Van Jones resigns, says he was victim of 'vicious smear campaign'.  The White House announced the resignation of green jobs adviser Van Jones early Sunday morning [9/6/2009].  In a departure letter, Jones, whose extensive record of radical politics became public in recent weeks, said he was the victim of a "vicious smear campaign" and that "opponents of reform" had used "lies and distortion" against him.

Jeremiah Wright behind a White House desk.  The key point about the Van Jones affair is what it tells us about Barack Obama.  Jones isn't someone who slipped through the cracks of the vetting process.  We know this because, as Scott pointed out earlier today, top Obama aide Valerie Jarrett has said, "So, Van Jones, we were so delighted to be able to recruit him into the White House; we were watching him ... for as long as he's been active out in Oakland."

White House Adviser on 'Green Jobs' Resigns.  In a victory for Republicans and the Obama administration's conservative critics, Van Jones resigned as the White House's environmental jobs "czar" on Saturday [9/5/2009].

Van Jones Joins the Global Struggle Against America.  "Who's the real terrorists? Uncle Sam."  That according to a record put out by Freedom Fighter Music, a label created by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which Van Jones founded.  There are a number of different voices on the record, including that of convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal and Van Jones himself.

Conspiracy Czar.  Not only is Green Jobs Czar Van Jones a 9/11 Truther, but his organization believes Hurricane Katrina was a Bush conspiracy, as well.  His unique combination of radicalism and irresponsibility provides a remarkable window into Barack Obama's own radicalism.

'Oooh. Van Jones, alright!'  The problems with Van "change the system" Jones are not just his serial slurs against much of American society ("an apartheid regime") as we know it (e.g., capitalism, the coal industry, American farming, the white population, the Bush administration (for causing 9/11), the [Republicans], etc. — but that he simply cannot tell the truth about his own history, in disavowing almost everything he has said, written, or signed in the recent past.

Beck:  'The American people stood up'.  Fox News host Glenn Beck, who led the charge against Van Jones, the environmental adviser who resigned early this morning following controversy over past radical statements and affiliations, said in a statement to POLITICO that "the American people stood up and demanded answers."

Van Jones goes down swinging.  Obama green jobs commissar Van Jones resigned at midnight as a result of controversy over his past statements regarding 9/11 and a few other subjects.  His departure is unfortunate.  A self-avowed Communist and transparent hater of the United States before the Age of Obama, he was a perfect symbol of the animating spirit of the Obama administration.

Obama's gaffe-prone adviser says 'only suburban white kids carry out Columbines'.  Referring to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, in which two white teenagers shot dead 12 pupils and a teacher before killing themselves, [Van] Jones said 'a black kid is not going to shoot up the whole school'.  His comments were revealed no sooner than he had been forced to apologise twice for other slip-ups.

Jones was recruited not in spite of his wacky beliefs but because of them.  Just how comfortable was the Obama team with the far left, radical statements and beliefs of Van Jones?  Obviously, they believed he fit right in.

Van Jones Did Not Fill Out WH Questionnaire.  Van Jones, the Obama green jobs czar who resigned shortly after midnight Sunday, did not fill out the exhaustive questionnaire White House officials required of every Cabinet-level secretary and deputy-secretary position.  An administration official said special advisers to the president, or czars, are not required to fill out the questionnaire that runs 7 pages and contains 63 questions.  The entire questionnaire, the official said, is reserved for appointees who must win Senate confirmation.

Van Jones on 'The Enemy'.  Van Jones's extremist convictions, quick departure, and the refusal of the administration to mount a defense all lead one to assume that no reasonable mainstream figure would stand against Jones's exit.  Yet Newsweek is now questioning Jones's resignation, while Sierra Club Executive Director, Carl Pope, mounts a belated (and very incomplete) defense.

Moving Van, the Mainstream Green Man.  The lesson not to be missed in the rush to "move on" is that Van Jones is fairly mainstream when it comes to modern environmentalism. ... Van Jones is gone — Obama proving just as able to throw him under the bus as his grandmother, Rev. Wright, and I'm guessing a few more staffers to come — but the shared philosophy stays.

The Fall of the Red Czar.  No thanks to the establishment media and Congressional Democrats, the Obama administration's "green jobs czar" Van Jones is out of a job. ... Now that Jones has stepped down, the media has rallied to his defense, depicting Jones as the victim of a "vicious smear campaign" by foes of his environmental politics — a charge echoed by the administration's Democratic allies.  The less palatable truth is that Jones is a racial provocateur and opportunist who tried to capitalize on the administration's sympathy for the "green" agenda to bring his own brand of socialist and black radical politics to national prominence.

Van Jones:  Black, Red, and Green.  The Van Jones incident boiled to the surface and exploded very suddenly.  When I first heard the sound bites and the pundits, I doubted their veracity.  I thought to myself, there is no way that this man is a self-confessed communist.  I hoped that the brilliant Yale Law School graduate did not really have a racial "chip" on his shoulder.  Unfortunately, as I did just a little research on Van Jones' life and times, I quickly discovered I was wrong.

The "True Identity" Of Van Jones.  Some people are wondering who is next after Van Jones.  But the Van Jones story is not over.  And we still don't know who hired this "obscure" official, as some on the left are now trying to refer to him.  Some of these controversies are currently being investigated by the new media.  Blogger Trevor Loudon, who broke the story about Jones' communist background, thinks White House official Valerie Jarrett needs to be seriously scrutinized.  She appears to have had a family connection to Barack Obama's childhood mentor, Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis.

Are You Smarter Than A Fifth-Columnist?  Many concerned Americans breathed a sigh of relief when the Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Anthony "Van" Jones, resigned.  The idea of an avowed communist as the president's "Green Jobs Czar" was not only alarming; it prompted the question of how carefully he was vetted.  Is there no longer a requirement that personnel at the White House obtain a security clearance?  After viewing the videos of Mr. Jones's radical speeches, however, I was more alarmed at the audience cheering them.  How clever are the fifth columnists and how dumb are we that we didn't recognize the enemy?

The Editor says...
It's not just Van Jones.  Obama himself would not be able to get a security clearance, because of his past associations with known communists and domestic terrorists.

New Zealand Blogger Nails Van Jones.  Obama's "brain" Valerie Jarrett is on tape as saying "they" have been watching Jones for years and were happy to recruit him.  If the Van Jones resignation is blamed on his controversial statements about Republicans and 9/11, a great lesson will have been lost.  If people don't recognize the dangers of having a communist in the White House, then the nature of the scandal will not have been understood.

Damaging Disclosures in Van Jones Scandal.  When Van Jones resigned his White House job, under fire for his pro-communist views, White House adviser David Axelrod said that Jones had himself made the decision to leave the administration.  But new documents indicate that Jones didn't even write his own resignation letter.  It is now abundantly clear that he was pushed out because the scandal threatened to implicate Obama friend and White House adviser Valerie Jarrett in the scandal that gave him a critical White House position without proper vetting.

Obama And His Appointees Dismantling US.  President Barack Hussein Obama is proceeding to destroy America and has opened up a six-front war to do so. ... He is filling the White House, the executive branch and the court system with an army of radicals, socialists, Communists, Marxists, Maoists, and America-haters.  The most outrageous example was Van Jones, the avowed Communist and believer that 9/11 was an American plot fashioned by President George W. Bush.

Whatever happened to Van Jones?  Ordinary folks working in private industry who publicly make outrageous, unproven statements about their chief executive, or just don't get the facts right are usually fired or forced to quit.  Finding new employment, especially in this economy, is often quite difficult.  But if the person works for the government, especially in the upper echelons, such misconduct is often rewarded with a better job with a higher salary, more perks and a platform to criticize those who behave responsibly.

Van Jones Goes Back To School.  The former green jobs czar in the Obama administration and self-avowed communist has landed a job at an Ivy League school, where he'll be teaching your children why America is racist, capitalism is bad, and redistribution of wealth is good.

We Need Green Money, Not Green Jobs.  Van Jones is back, reconstructed and rehabilitated. ... The Center for American Progress announcement says he'll be a senior fellow and leader with its Green Opportunity Initiative.  CAP was founded by rich liberals who thought the left needed a think tank like conservatives have (as they concluded they needed talk radio, and hence founded the now defunct Air America).  One of the major sources of funding of CAP was Marion and Herbert Sandler who got rich building Golden West Financial selling Adjustable Rate Mortgages with teaser rates to unsophisticated buyers.  Yes, the very greedy kind of businesspeople that the Obama administration would have us believe caused our current economic crisis.


"It takes an honest, upright, innocent man to resign at midnight on a holiday weekend when the boss is on vacation."
Lucianne          


Van Jones Helping to Push 'Human' Rights for Mother Nature.  Van Jones, the Obama administration's controversial former "green jobs czar," has found a new calling:  helping to push for a new, global architecture of environmental law that would give Mother Nature the same rights status as humans.  The new movement is almost certain to be showcased at a U.N.-sponsored global summit on "sustainable development" to take place in Rio de Janeiro in May 2012, when similar issues of "global environmental governance" are a major focus of attention.

Keeping Up with Van Jones.  Back in 2009, the public knew little about Van Jones.  Perhaps, if anything, we knew only that he was one czar among many in the Obama administration.  Like most czars, he did not need to be confirmed by Congress.  However, as more was learned about his radical background, Van Jones was exposed.  Americans were repulsed by what they heard.  With his hateful statements and Communist views revealed, a personal history of radicalism emerged.

How Obama Betrays Martin Luther's King's Dream.  [Scroll down]  He appointed Van Jones to be his Special Advisor for Green Jobs.  Jones had a record that came to light after he assumed office that was filled with bigotry towards whites (he accused white polluters of steering poison into the people-of-color community), radicalism, flirtation with communism, and conspiracy theories regarding George Bush and 9/11.  According to Valerie Jarrett, Obama's right-hand woman, they knew all about Van Jones and had been following his career for years. ... Was he chosen for the content of his character or for the color of his skin?

Van Jones: Obama Opponents 'Hate Everybody In America'.  Disgraced former Obama "green jobs czar" Van Jones made an appearance in Hawaii last night in which he ripped on the "American fantasy" and called for socialistic approaches to wealth redistribution, while castigating Obama opponents as America-haters.

Van Jones Is The Ultimate Watermelon.  In March 2009, President Obama picked Van Jones to be his Green Jobs Czar.  In September 2009, Jones resigned after Glenn Beck exposed the fact that Jones was a militant communist radical.  After his departure from the Obama Administration, Jones went to work at Center for American Progress, a socialist group funded by one-worlder George Soros.  Jones is also currently teaching at Princeton University at the African American Studies center and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

More Taxpayer Millions for Van Jones and His Nest of Vipers.  A solar installation research company based in Oakland, California called Solar Mosaic has just received $2 million in grant monies from the Department of Energy's SunShot Initiative program.  Mosaic pulled in 4 times more money than the other eight companies that made the cut.  Why did the California company fare so well?  Simple.  Obama's former green jobs czar buddy, Anthony K. "Van" Jones is listed as an adviser while two radical organizations he co-founded are cited as "members of the Solar Mosaic family."  The payouts for Mr. Obama's radical cronies just keep on coming.

Valerie Jarrett

This subsection has been moved to this page.

John P. Holdren

WH Science Advisor: Make CO2 Emissions 'Close to Zero'.  White House Science Adviser John Holdren says the global goal is to have world-wide carbon dioxide emissions "close to zero by 2100."  He admitted, "That will not be easy."  As part of the White House "Open For Questions" video posted last week, Holdren was asked:  "Do you know the rate of reduction in carbon emissions the world would have to achieve in order to prevent an unstoppable process of methane release from the Arctic areas?"

Obama's mad science adviser:  Earlier this month, [John P.] Holdren served as co-chairman when the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology met for the first time.  It's a disgrace that Mr. Holdren is even on the council.  In "Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment," a book he co-authored in 1977 with noted doomsayers Paul R. and Anne H. Erlich, Mr. Holdren wrote:  "Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society."

Two Scientists, Two Standards.  The New York Times recently warned its readers about a wacky scientist in the Obama administration.  But the fish wrap of record let the real nut job off the hook. ... The rationality police in the newsroom have not ... seen fit to print the rantings of a radical secular evangelist now serving as the White House "science czar."  John Holdren, Obama's director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, co-authored the innocuously titled "Ecoscience" in the 1970s with population control extremists Paul and Anne Ehrlich.

The Mind-boggling Extremism of Obama "Science Czar" John P. Holdren.  As part of his series of profiles on President Barack Obama's many policy "czars," last night FOX News host Sean Hannity looked at the new "Science Czar", John P. Holdren. ... The longtime Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, Holdren is no stranger to controversy.  As Hannity pointed out in his segment, Holdren has been quoted as calling the United States the "meanest of wealthy countries."  He has also, according to Hannity, "left the door open" to prosecuting "global warming deniers."

Obama's Science Czar:  Traditional family is obsolete, punish large families.  President Obama's Science Czar, John Holdren, took a controversial and amoral approach to the science of population by recommending mass compulsory sterilization and even forced abortion (and/or forced marriages) under certain circumstances.  His 1977 tome, Ecoscience, which he co-authored with Paul and Anne Ehrlich, also displays a revealing disregard for the institution of the traditional human family.

It gets worse:
Obama's science czar suggested compulsory abortion, sterilization.  Internet reports are now circulating that Obama's Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, John Holdren, penned a 1977 book that approved of and recommended compulsory sterilization and even abortion in some cases, as part of a government population control regime.  Given the general unreliability of Internet quotations, I wanted to go straight to this now-rare text and make sure the reports were both accurate and kept Holdren's writings in context.  Generally speaking, they are, and they do.

Is Obama's Science Czar a Crackpot?  It is late, considering that he has already been nominated by Obama and confirmed.  But members of the Senate can still demand that he return for a serious examination of his views and agenda.  Then there might be more pressure on the major media to finally pay attention.

Czar 54, Who Are You?  In a recently rediscovered 1977 book, "Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment," co-authored with doomsters Paul and Anne Ehrlich, [John] Holdren, who holds the post of presidential assistant for science technology, revealed his pessimistic and apocalyptic views on all three topics.  They are disturbing.  He hates people and views them as the root of all planetary evils.  Large families are a target of Holdren and the Ehrlichs, who write that they "contribute to general social deterioration by overproducing children" and "can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility."

Ghoulish Science Plus Obamacare Equals Health Hazard.  After investigative bloggers and this column reprinted extensive excerpts from "Ecoscience," which mused openly about putting sterilants in the water supply to make women infertile and engineering society by taking away babies from undesirables and subjecting them to government-mandated abortions, the White House issued a statement from [John] Holdren last week denying he embraced those proposals.  The Ehrlichs challenged critics to read their and Holdren's more recent research and works.  Well, I did read one of Holdren's recent works.  It revealed his clingy reverence for, and allegiance to, the gurus of population control authoritarianism.  He's just gotten smarter about cloaking it behind global warming hysteria.

Obama's Science Czar Said a Born Baby 'Will Ultimately Develop Into a Human Being'.  President Obama's top science adviser said in a book he co-authored in 1973 that a newborn child "will ultimately develop into a human being" if he or she is properly fed and socialized.  "The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being," John P. Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, wrote in "Human Ecology:  Problems and Solutions."

When Is a Human a 'Human Being'?  Ask the White House Science Adviser.  [Scroll down slowly]  "From this point of view, a fetus is only a potential human being," the authors continue.  "Historically, the law has dated most rights and privileges from the moment of birth, and legal scholars generally agree that a fetus is not a 'person' within the meaning of the United States Constitution until it is born and living independent of its mother's body."  The authors then make a case for aborting unwanted children.

White House Science Adviser Advocated 'De-Development' of the United States.  President Obama's top science adviser, John P. Holdren, advocated the "de-development" of the United States in books he published in the 1970s.  "A massive campaign must be launched to restore a high-quality environment in North America and to de-develop the United States," Holdren wrote in a 1973 book he co-authored with Paul R. Ehrlch and Anne H. Ehrlich.  "De-development means bringing our economic system (especially patterns of consumption) into line with the realities of ecology and the global resource situation."

When do human rights begin?  Last August, the Rev. Rick Warren stumped then-Sen. Barack Obama with a seemingly simple question.  "At what point," asked Mr. Warren, "does a baby get human rights, in your view?"  "Well, I think that whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade," Mr. Obama said.  It turns out, however, that an even simpler question once stumped the very person Mr. Obama now pays to give him advice about science:  When does a person become a "human being"?

Obama's science adviser called for 'zero economic growth'.  At a time when it was popular among environmentalists to talk about capping pollutants, John Holdren was writing about placing "caps" on the U.S. economy itself — and working toward "zero economic growth."  Holdren, who is now President Obama's top adviser on science and technology policy, wrote in the 1970s that it would be "entirely logical" to cap the Gross National Product — the total productivity of the American economy.

Obama's Science Czar:  Traditional family is obsolete, punish large families.  President Obama's Science Czar, John Holdren, took a controversial and amoral approach to the science of population by recommending mass compulsory sterilization and even forced abortion (and/or forced marriages) under certain circumstances.  His 1977 tome, Ecoscience, which he co-authored with Paul and Anne Ehrlich, also displays a revealing disregard for the institution of the traditional human family.

GOP Congressmen Say Science 'Czar' Should Explain His Views.  White House science adviser John Holdren should return to Congress to explain his views, including his notion that a baby that has already been born might "ultimately" become a human being if given the proper resources.

Meet the White House's Alarmist in Chief.  If you had devoted your entire scientific career to predicting the end of the world, what do you think would be the symbol of success with which to crown that career?  Why, to be President Obama's choice as White House Director of Science and Technology.  That's his formal title, but what John Holdren is, in fact, is the nation's Alarmist in Chief.

Radicals to rule us all.  John Holdren [is] director of the White House's Office on Science and Technology Policy (the "science czar").  Mr. Holdren has the president's ear about how to spend our money on science.  During the 1970s, he co-wrote a book with the overpopulation panic couple Paul R. and Anne Ehrlich in which they floated the idea of putting birth-control agents in public drinking water and made the case that mandatory abortions could be justified under the U.S. Constitution.  More recently, Mr. Holdren has been a major backer of global-warming treaties.

Obama's Science Czar on His Past Work:  John P. Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and President Barack Obama's top science adviser, said last week that his past work is a "stale topic" and:  "If you read it and you have a problem, you're misreading it."  Holdren has co-authored works in the past that called for a campaign to "de-develop the United States" and said people need to eventually face up to a "world of zero net physical growth."

White House Science Czar:  'De-Develop the United States'.  In a video interview this week, White House Office of Science and Technology Director John P. Holdren told CNSNews.com that he would use the "free market economy" to implement the "massive campaign" he advocated along with Population Bomb author Paul Ehrlich to "de-develop the United States."

This is a man with very little work to do:
Holdren: US Must Prepare for Asteroid.  If an asteroid were on a collision course with Earth, would we be ready to defend against its destructive impact or would we be helpless and defenseless?  NASA, America's space agency, is being charged with leading the way to protect not only the U.S. but the entire world in the event of such a horrifying scenario.

In the 70s, Obama's Science Adviser Endorsed Giving Trees Legal Standing to Sue in Court.  Since the 1970s, some radical environmentalists have argued that trees have legal rights and should be allowed to go to court to protect those rights.  The idea has been endorsed by John P. Holdren, the man who now advises President Barack Obama on science and technology issues.

Obama's Science Adviser: Don't Call it 'Global Warming'.  John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, says that the term "global warming" is "a dangerous misnomer" that should be replaced with "global climate disruption."  At the Environmental Protection Agency's 40th celebration of the Clean Air Act on Tuesday [3/6/2012], Holdren said, "I think one of the failures of the scientific community was in embracing the term 'global warming'.  Global warming is in fact a dangerous misnomer."

WH Adviser Explains Vision for 'Public-Private Partnerships Involving Foreign Nations'.  John P. Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, recently told a conference sponsored by the Office of Naval Research that "public-private partnerships involving foreign nations" are an "important element of the Administration's focus on public-private collaboration."  In the past, writing in collaboration with anti-population-growth advocate Paul Ehlrich, Holdren has said that humanity must face up to a "world of zero net physical growth" and that:  "Redistribution of wealth both within and among nations is absolutely essential, if a decent life is to be provided for every human being."

Dr. Regina Benjamin

Critics Slam Overweight Surgeon General Pick, Regina Benjamin.  Dr. Regina M. Benjamin, Obama's pick for the next surgeon general, was hailed as a MacArthur Grant genius who had championed the poor at a medical clinic she set up in Katrina-ravaged Alabama.  But the full-figured African-American nominee is also under fire for being overweight in a nation where 34 percent of all Americans aged 20 and over are obese.

Obama's surgeon general nominee advises Burger King.  President Obama's nominee for surgeon general, whose job it is to help encourage Americans to get thinner and healthier, has been working part time as a scientific adviser to the fast-food giant that sells sandwiches like the Whopper and BK Triple Stacker.

Does Barack Obama Have a Learning Disability?  [Scroll down]  The president has recruited a number of key appointments who appear to have [learning disabilities].  Regina Benjamin is the Surgeon General of the United States.  Benjamin states that overweight/obesity is incompatible with health.  She admits that she is fat.  According to the definition she accepts and publishes, she is a health illiterate:  "Health literacy is the ability of an individual to access, understand, and use health-related information and services to make appropriate health decisions."

A radioactive remark.  If ever there were a time when federal officials needed to speak with one voice regarding nuclear energy, this is it.  US Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, especially, needs to watch her tongue.

David Axelrod

Obama Appointees in the Communist Orbit.  [David] Axelrod was the Chief Strategist for Obama's presidential campaigns, and a Senior Advisor in the White House.  His mother worked for a communist newspaper.  His father, according to Axelrod in his memoir, "listed his party affiliation as 'Communist.'  Axelrod got his start in Chicago politics through working for hardline Stalinist Soviet agents Harry and David Canter.

David Axelrod's Very Big Problem.  The allegations in this Bloomberg story — if true — pose a huge problem for a senior advisor to the president, David Axelrod.

Obama Campaign Ad Firms Signed On to Push Health-Care Overhaul.  Two firms that received $343.3 million to handle advertising for Barack Obama's White House run last year have profited from his top priority as president by taking on his push for health-care overhaul.

Corporate Shills for Hope and Change.  Two weeks ago, the White House embraced $150 million in drug industry ads supporting Obamacare.  This week, Bloomberg News reported that White House senior adviser and chief campaign strategist David Axelrod's former public relations firm, AKPD Message and Media, has raked in some $24 million in ad contracts supporting Obamacare — along with another PR firm, GMMB, run by other Obama strategists.  The ads are funded by Big Pharma, the AARP, AMA and the powerhouse Service Employees International Union (whose Purple Shirts dumped $80 million in independent expenditures to get Obama and the Democratic majority elected).

Questions For Mr. Axelrod, et al.  The deal itself may well be completely legal if a little starting to outsiders.  What matters is whether Mr. Axelrod knowingly or unknowingly broke the law in striking the deal with his former firm and then participating in negotiations with people or entities that directly or indirectly sent cash to his former firm to produce and air ads pushing the president's health care agenda. ... The only question that really matters is whether or not David Axelrod violated any of the federal laws.

President Axelrod?  The trips to battleground states, the stimulus money being directed towards blue-tinged states, the omnipresence of Obama in the media, the high profile trips, the Bush-bashing, the formation of astrotruf groups, the threatening of adversaries, the name-calling — the non-stop campaigning.  Isn't it now becoming more obvious by the day that David Axelrod is running the White House?

Why would Obama's campaign strategist attend Obama's Kill List Meetings?  David Axelrod evidently attended the highest level national security meetings that decided who would be subjected to targeted assasination from above via drone strikes. [...] Wonder if Axelrod has security clearance?  Recall that Axelrod also attended meetings with Netanyahu — why was he there then?

Mark Lloyd

Inspired by Saul Alinsky...
FCC 'Diversity' Chief Calls for 'Confrontational Movement'.  Mark Lloyd, chief diversity officer of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), called for a "confrontational movement" to combat what he claimed was control of the media by international corporations and to re-establish the regulatory power of government through robust public broadcasting and a more powerful FCC.

FCC Diversity Chief Says Republican Communications Policies Hurt Civil Rights.  Mark Lloyd, chief diversity officer at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), claimed that communications policies enacted by Republicans negatively impacted the civil rights of minorities.  Lloyd made the claim in a 1998 essay he wrote while working for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

FCC's Diversity Czar.  Mark Lloyd is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s Chief Diversity Officer, a.k.a. the Diversity Czar.  And he has in a recently discovered bit of archive audio goodness detailed his rather disturbing perspective on race, power and the American system. ... We have said repeatedly that Lloyd is a man myopically focused on race.  What is revealed here is more than just that.

FCC Diversity Officer Lloyd Vociferously Denies Things He's Written and Said on Tape.  Someone who has been so copious about his ridiculous thoughts and positions, and intentions to control the speech of others, should perhaps have practiced a little more speech self-control.  It would have given us less to work with in working to ensure his anti-First Amendment plans do not become a censorious reality.

Glenn Beck Revisits the Ample Evidence Against FCC Diversity Czar Mark Lloyd.  Fox News Channel and radio talk show host Glenn Beck has quickly risen to be one the most prominent targets of the Left.  Radio Talk King Rush Limbaugh is Liberal Enemy #1; there's a strong case to be made that Beck is now running second.

Chavez Arrests Last Opposition TV Station Owner.  Is this what Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chief Diversity Officer Mark Lloyd meant when he said (on camera) Venezuelan thug dictator Hugo Chavez (take that, Sean Penn) had begun "to take very seriously the media in his country" — while praising Chavez's "incredible...democratic revolution?"

Al Sharpton Helping FCC Design Rush Limbaugh 'Free Speech' Show Trials.  [Scroll down]  This particular portion of the FCC trend towards the totalitarian may be explained thusly — they have in their employ as their inaugural Chief Diversity Officer Mark Lloyd.  Who in 2007 co-wrote a Center for American Progress-Free Press "report" — entitled The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio — that calls on the government to "equalize" Conservative talk radio.  Who wrote a follow-up essay that directed "community organizations" (run one would think by community organizers) to threaten the FCC broadcast licenses of stations with whom they do not agree politically.

Kevin Jennings

Why Obama's Elementary Queering Must Be Stopped:  Obama sought to distract with his own, "Once, Twice, Three times a Muslim" act in Cairo, all the while praying that no one would notice that a protector of a child sodomist was being given access to children in our public schools.  Kevin Jennings is not just your normal activist nominee.  He is a firm advocate of mandated affirmation of approval of homosexual actions by school children, and to this end, his involvement with the GLSEN's "Day of Silence" has moved them to go beyond that to demand "Queer Proms" in the local public schools, and to lobby for legislation in each state to change the definition of marriage to make it mean something it has never meant.  With Jennings' support, the GLSEN chapter in Connecticut has begun pushing not just for "tolerance" or "acceptance" of those who choose to engage in homosexuality in the public schools, but they have actually created an "activity" for the school systems which pushes "positive levels of attitude" such as mandated "admiration" and "nurturance."

Critics say Obama's 'Safe Schools' Czar is the Wrong Man for the Job.  [Kevin] Jennings was appointed to the position largely because of his longtime record of working to end bullying and discrimination in schools.  In 1990, as a teacher in Massachusetts, he founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which now has over 40 chapters at schools nationwide.  He has also published six books on gay rights and education, including one that describes his own experiences as a closeted gay student.

At the president's pleasure.  A teacher was told by a 15-year-old high school sophomore that he was having homosexual sex with an "older man."  At the very least, statutory rape occurred.  Fox News reported that the teacher violated a state law requiring that he report the abuse.  That former teacher, Kevin Jennings, is President Obama's "safe school czar."

Obama's 'Safe Schools' Czar Admits He Poorly Handled Underage Sex Case.  President Obama's "safe schools czar," under fire from critics who say he's unfit for his job, acknowledged Wednesday [9/30/2009] that he "should have handled [the] situation differently" years ago when he was a schoolteacher and didn't report that a 15-year-old boy told him that he was having sex with an older man.

Obama appointee lauded NAMBLA figure.  Kevin Jennings, President Obama's Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug FreeSchools at the U.S. Department of Education, is in hot water this week for having failed to report that a 15-year-old sophomore student in his school had told him of having sex with an older man.  But failure to report what appeared to be a case of statuatory rape of a child may be the least of Jennings' worries.

Lawmaker calls on Obama to fire official in gay sex ed controversy.  Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King is calling on President Obama to fire gay activist Kevin Jennings, the controversial head of the Education Department's Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools.  Although Jennings has come under heavy criticism from social conservatives in recent months, King is the first member of Congress to call for his ouster.

53 Republicans demand firing of 'safe schools czar' Kevin Jennings.  Fifty-three House Republicans have written President Barack Obama asking him to remove "safe schools czar" Kevin Jennings from that position.  The lawmakers accused Jennings of "pushing a pro-homosexual agenda" and said that Jennings's past writings exhibit a record that makes him unfit for the position.

Queering our schools.  Fifty-three Republican congressmen yesterday [10/15/2009] demanded that President Obama fire his embattled "safe schools czar," Kevin Jennings.  Mr. Jennings' bizarre sexual agenda for American grade schools is one reason the president should dump this dangerous radical.  Mr. Jennings wrote the foreword to a 1998 book titled, "Queering Elementary Education."

Facts hurt Jennings in youth sex controversy.  [Scroll down]  But there are other objections to his role as head of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools.  There is his authorship of the foreword to the 1999 book Queering Elementary Education.  There is a life's work singularly focused on bringing the topic of homosexuality into the nation's classrooms, including elementary schools. ... And then, given the title of the office he heads, there is the fact that he has no experience in school safety or drug prevention.

Besieged czar, EEOC chief safe, Obama tells homosexual crowd.  President Obama last night received a warm welcome at the annual dinner of the homosexual support group Human Rights Campaign, promising to sign hate crimes legislation, to repeal both Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act and to continue supporting his besieged appointments as "safe schools czar" and head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Obama's buggery czar.  The media is trying to keep this story in the closet, but it's important not to wink at all the serious problems surrounding President Obama's controversial "safe schools czar," Kevin Jennings.  Mr. Jennings is the moral malefactor who gave a speech about how he merely advised a 15-year-old high-school sophomore who was having sex with an older man that, "I hope you knew to use a condom."  He knew the boy had met the adult in a bus-station restroom.  Mr. Jennings also expressed admiration for Harry Hay, a notorious and extremely prominent supporter of the North American Man Boy Love Association.

Warning message in original.
Obama's risky-sex czar.  WARNING:  This editorial includes discussion of topics that are sexually graphic.  Under usual circumstances, we would never entertain these subjects or the rancid language involved.  In this case, however, a very unusual exception must be made because the issues are central to the background of a senior presidential appointee at the U.S. Department of Education who is in a position to influence how and what our children are taught in our nation's schools.

EDITOR'S WARNING:  This article is replete with graphic descriptions of perverse sexual practices.
Kevin Jennings and "FistGate" Should Make Parents Furious.  Why are watchdogs barking this dude down?  Well, it's not because he's mildly gay but because he's wildly militant in his homosexuality, and both he and his hombres at GLSEN have had no problemo whatsoever filling your kids' heads and bodies with weirdness galore.

Obama's Safe Schools Czar Tied to Lewd Readings for 7th Graders.  President Obama's "Safe Schools Czar," already a target of social conservatives for his past drug abuse and what they say is his promotion of homosexuality in schools, is under fresh attack after it was revealed that the pro-gay group he formerly headed recommends books his critics say are pornographic.  The group under fire is the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which Kevin Jennings, now the assistant deputy secretary for safe and drug-free schools in the Department of Education, founded and ran from 1990 to 2008.

NAMBLA-Gate:  The Case of Kevin Jennings.  Harry Hay, who "inspired" Obama-appointed Education Department official Kevin Jennings to lead a life of homosexual activism, was not only a supporter of the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) but a prominent member of the Communist Party USA and "Radical Faerie" who believed in the power of the occult.  As disclosed by Peter LaBarbera's Americans for Truth organization, Jennings said in 1997 that Hay should serve as an inspiration.  "One of the people that's always inspired me is Harry Hay, who started the first ongoing gay rights group in America," Jennings said.

The Strange Case of Kevin Jennings, Part Two.  [Harry] Hay was summoned to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1954 to testify about his CPUSA membership.  But because he was officially out of the party by then, he refused to talk about it.  His real contribution to communism in America was developing the idea that homosexuals, like the "workers" under capitalism, were being oppressed and had to assert their "rights."  Although some CPUSA officials disapproved of the homosexual lifestyle, the Hay approach was seen as a means by which American society could be subverted and undermined.

The Editor apologizes for the graphic nature of this article, but the truth must come to light.
Upward Bound Is Down... Radical Sexual Indoctrination of Kids Is In.  Despite the runaway federal spending and record budget deficits, Barack Obama is including $410 million in the 2011 budget for his "safe schools" czar Kevin Jennings.  This is an increase of $45 million over last year's budget.  Obviously, some things are more important than others. ... Kevin Jennings, the founder of the GLSEN organization, has a long history of promoting sexual material in classrooms including books that describe sex between first graders and books that promote S&M.  The GLSEN group also pushes books that romanticize child rape and books that show men having sex with boy scouts in the background.

Obama Administration Specifically Recruited Homosexual Activist to Be 'Safe Schools Czar'.  Kevin Jennings, the long-time homosexual activist who is now the Obama administration's safe schools czar, never sought public office.  Rather, he said, the Obama administration recruited him.

Carol Browner

Watermelon Environmentalism, Green on the Outside, Red on the Inside.  President Obama, who wants to emphasize science, has chosen Carol Browner for his "Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change," a new post being dubbed the "Climate Czar."  Browner's recent career will be of interest to Americans struggling with a weak economy and cold weather.  Carol Browner is not a climate scientist but an attorney and bureaucrat who ran the EPA during both terms of the Clinton Administration, so she does not exactly represent "change."  She also put in a stint with the Socialist International, "the worldwide organization of social democratic, socialist and labour parties.

A Secret White House Power Grab Is In Full Swing.  It's one thing for President Obama to surround himself with the advisers he'd like to have, but it's another to bestow on them sweeping powers to broker secret negotiations and push forward vast new regulations that could cost American families thousands of dollars. ... Driving the push for this massive power grab and circumvention of the elected branches is a key White House official who avoided Senate confirmation by being installed not as EPA director, but instead as White House Climate Czar:  Carol Browner.

Transparency According to Carol Browner.  "Put nothing in writing, ever," sounds like a command a veteran CIA official may give to an incoming class of new officers.  One would not expect such a directive to issue from one of the President's trusted advisors, especially from a White House that proudly proclaims itself to be the most transparent in history.  But according to various media reports, that "cloak and dagger" tactic was Energy and Climate Change Czar Carol Browner's underlying rule for auto industry executives involved with secret negotiations concerning the federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.  Yet, we should not be surprised about her oral-communication-only policy, since she has apparently learned from her past mistakes.

Throw Carol Browner Under the Bus.  Energy czar Carol Browner needs to go the way of disgraced green jobs czar Van Jones:  under the bus and stripped of her unbridled power to destroy jobs and lives in the name of saving the planet.  ASAP.  One of the Beltway's most influential, entrenched and unaccountable left-wing radicals, Browner has now been called out twice by President Obama's own federal BP oil spill commission and Interior Department inspector general.  How many strikes should a woman who circumvented the Senate confirmation process and boasts a sordid history of abusing public office get?

Brown-Out on Browner Testimony.  Controversial 'energy and environment czar' Carol Browner, a former commissioner of the Socialist International who was appointed to a non-existent position to avoid Senate confirmation testimony, is stepping down from her post.  Rumors that this move is calculated to avoid testifying under oath to a House oversight committee are of course being circulated by people who know precisely what they are talking about.

White House Energy 'Czar' to Exit in Staff Shake-Up.  Carol Browner is leaving her position as White House "energy czar," and a staff shake-up is likely to eliminate her post altogether, according to Democrats familiar with events.  The czar position, and Ms. Browner herself, have been lightning rods for critics of the president's environmental-policy agenda and a reassurance to its supporters, who liked having a top official in the White House devoted to their priorities.

Carol Browner Goes, Draconian Policies Stay.  With cap-and-trade seemingly dead and EPA's regulatory authority under attack, the administration's climate czar is abandoning ship.  Too bad she's not taking the administration's energy policies with her.

Browner Resignation, Obama Omission Could Spell the End of Global Warming Policy.  The abrupt resignation of Carol Browner, President Barack Obama's global warming czar, and the omission by Obama of global warming from his State of the Union speech on Tuesday could mean that the White House has given up on global warming, according to climate change analysts.

Climate 'czar' Browner joins liberal think tank.  Carol Browner, President Obama's former top climate and energy policy adviser, has accepted a position at the Center for American Progress (CAP).  CAP, a liberal think tank with close ties to the White House, said Wednesday that Browner will be a senior fellow focused on "domestic and international policy development."  She'll also be on the think tank's executive committee.

Chai Feldblum

Obama Nominee to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Argued 'Gay Sex Is Morally Good'.  Chai R. Feldblum, nominated by President Barack Obama to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), has argued that homosexual sex is "morally good" and that government should foster all types of domestic partnerships, including "non-sexual" ones.

Obama's EEOC Nominee Would Redefine Marriage.  Chai Feldblum, Obama's nominee for the EEOC, aims to fundamentally change America's definition of marriage.  Feldblum is perhaps the nation's leading LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) rights activist.  A graduate of Harvard Law School, once Legislative Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), she's now Professor of Law at Georgetown University.  She's also a self-avowed lesbian.

The Privatization of the First Amendment.  President Obama's nomination of Chai Feldblum to be a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) represents one of the most serious threats to religious freedom we have seen in a long time. ... Feldblum is a radical homosexual activist whose views on "homosexual rights" are among the most extreme.  Although our right to religious freedom is expressly guaranteed by the Constitution, Feldblum argues that the "homosexual rights" judges have read into the Constitution should be held higher.

Radicals to rule us all.  [Chai R.] Feldblum, a lesbian activist at Georgetown Law Center who has said she cannot think of a single instance in which religious freedom would trump "gay rights," is the newest commissioner on the five-member Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).  That's the agency that enforces federal civil rights laws in the workplace.  Ms. Feldblum once said the culture war could be resolved in a simple manner:  "Gays win, Christians lose."

Anita Dunn

Biden Effort to Turn Ultra MAGA into a Disparaging Epithet Came from Six Month Study Headed by Anita Dunn.  The Washington Post is reporting the shift from the White House to disparage their political opposition with the terms "MAGA", "Ultra-MAGA" and President Trump as the "Great MAGA King," came from a six-month poll study led by Anita Dunn, the latest senior advisor in the White House.  Keep in mind, a few days ago White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said the terminology "ultra-MAGA" was an "organic utterance" from Joe Biden. [...] On May 5th the White House announced Anita Dunn would return to the JoeBama administration as senior advisor.  Dunn's specific expertise is using pressure, blackmail and political leverage to control information distribution by media organizations.  Apparently "ultra-MAGA" was Dunn's first branding effort for the White House.

Report: Liberals Spent Six Months Coming Up with 'Ultra MAGA' Attack Line.  Liberal, Democratic Party-aligned strategists, pollsters, and think tank experts spent six months coming up with the "ultra MAGA" label that President Joe Biden has begun to deploy against Republicans ahead of a difficult midterm election. [...] The [Washington] Post noted that conservatives had since appropriated the label, with former President Donald Trump's super PAC even selling "superMAGA" T-shirts for $45. [...] [Biden adviser Anita] Dunn, notorious for having praised Chinese tyrant Mao Zedong, and for having advised disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, returned to the White House in late April.  President Biden began using the "ultra MAGA" line soon thereafter.

Mao Lover Anita Dunn to Return to West Wing as Regime Braces For GOP Investigations of Joe Biden.  Top Obama-Biden advisor and Mao Tse Tung lover Anita Dunn is returning to the West Wing as the Biden Regime braces for GOP investigations of Joe Biden.  "Anita Dunn will return as a senior advisor," the Biden White House announced on Thursday.  [White House statement omitted for brevity.]  CNN suggested Joe Biden is bringing Anita Dunn back into the fold to help him with the onslaught of investigations the GOP has promised to launch if they win back the House.

Forced from Obama Admin for Praising Mao, Anita Dunn to Return to White House.  President-elect Joe Biden will tap Anita Dunn, an Obama-administration alumna who praised Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong's political philosophy, for senior White House adviser, Axios reported Friday [1/15/2021].  Dunn's last stint in the White House ended after just seven months, when she resigned after former Fox News anchor Glenn Beck aired a clip of the then-communications director saying Mao was one of her "favorite political philosophers."  Dunn worked as senior adviser for the Biden campaign from 2019 until last spring when she took over its operations following a disastrous Iowa caucus showing.  She then became co-chair of Biden's transition team after his victory in November.

Former Obama Adviser Anita Dunn Helped Harvey Weinstein Strategize Before New York Times Story.  A former top adviser to Barack Obama was among the list of public relations professionals and lawyers consulting Harvey Weinstein over a major New York Times story, according to two people familiar with the matter.  Anita Dunn, a top Obama campaign staffer and former White House communications director, helped offer damage control advice for the Hollywood mogul.  On Thursday afternoon [10/5/2017], the New York Times published a major investigation into Weinstein that features on-the-record claims of sexual harassment, including from actor Ashley Judd.

Video of Obama Communications Director Claiming Mao One of Her 'Favorite Political Philosophers'.  The feud between the White House and the Fox News Channel took another, thanks to one of Glenn Beck's viewers.  On Beck's Oct. 15 program, the Fox News host played video sent to him of White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, who had previously slammed Fox News and called it an organ of the Republican Party.

What would Mao do?  White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told a group of high school students last June that former Chinese communist dictator Mao Zedong was one of her two favorite political philosophers, and you could tell she was speaking from the heart.  Of course, Mao's usual response to those who questioned his authority was to have them killed, but mentioning that inconvenient truth might detract from Miss Dunn anointing him a philosopher.  Miss Dunn's quotation of Chairman Mao as one of the two people she "most turns to" has created a media sensation.

Top White House Official Says Obama Team 'Controlled' Media Coverage During Campaign.  White House Communications Director Anita Dunn is seen in a video from January talking about how the Obama campaign exercised absolute "control" over media coverage.

Anita Dunn:  How We Created Obama's Cult of Personality.  With a compliant media willing to focus on his "rock star" personality, Obama got away without having to address many of his questionable friends that never even made it into the public discussion.  Seeing how well this method worked on Obama's church, the campaign decided to use his charm as an answer for most everything else. ... Most Obama supporters had no idea there was a purposeful strategy of fabricating an intimate relationship.  Yet once again, the media chose to ignore all warning signs and encourage people to get swept off their feet.

Anita Dunn Claims Mao Praise Was An Innocent Joke.  Standup comedian Anita Dunn, who doubles as President Obama's White House communications director, now claims she was only joking when she praised Mao Zedong by calling him "one of the two people that I turn to most," Glenn Beck revealed on his TV show Monday.  Hilarious!  There have to be 70 million murdered Chinese rolling in the aisles!  What a knee-slapper.

The Editor says...
This is a very common Democrat tactic:  They will say or do something outrageous, and if there are any objections, follow up a few days later with, "Can't you take a joke?"  Examples abound:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37][37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42]

Anita Dunn's Husband Emerging as Top Contender to Replace White House Counsel.  Bob Bauer, the top lawyer for the Democratic National Committee and husband of White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, is under serious consideration to replace Greg Craig.

Look who's married to Obama's media 'controller'.  [Anita] Dunn is targeting Fox News with criticisms emanating from the administration that it isn't even a news network, while [Robert] Bauer has done his best to prevent the American public from seeing a wide range of Obama's records that could prove, or disprove, his eligibility to occupy the Oval Office.

She Is Gone.  My guess is that [Anita] Dunn's expressed admiration for Mao is the cause of her departure.  For this revelation I suppose we have to thank Fox's Glenn Beck.  He aired a tape of Dunn notifying an audience of students at St. Andrew's Episcopal School near Washington that this cuddly little butterball of a tyrant — who oversaw the murder of some 70 million people — is one of her "favorite philosophers."

Who was Chairman Mao, Lionized by Obama's White house?  It's easy to briefly describe Mao Zedong.  He was a radical progressive who fought for a Marxist revolution in his native China, prevailing to lead the country for 27 tumultuous years.  Despite boasting he fought "for the People," Mao's Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, and other progressive policies resulted in the killing of 77 million people, according to genocide expert Professor J.R. Rummel.

Socialism is Great!  (And Other Chinese Fables):  Anita Dunn, then President Obama's director of communications, last fall held up Mao as an example of individualism.  In reality, under Mao's regime, the communist government was so intent on wiping out individuality that it even demanded ideological allegiance from those it had branded enemies of the state — as it was killing them.

Edward Chen

ACLU:  Pipeline for Obama Judges.  For sixteen years, [Edward] Chen worked as a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, working on affirmative action, the death penalty, and discrimination cases, among other issues.  He was the second nomination of the day that had ties to the ACLU, leading Rep. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, to comment, "I think we're seeing a common DNA run through the Obama nominees, and that's the ACLU chromosome."

Edward Chen:  Son Of Sotomayor.  The nominee for a California federal district court is an ACLU activist and another advocate for the empathy standard of jurisprudence.  He also has a problem with "America the Beautiful."  The nomination of Edward Chen is the latest in a series of nominations of people who have no particular fondness for the traditions of law and justice.  These nominees see racism everywhere, and believe the courts should be used as instruments of social justice and not to discern the intent of the Founding Fathers who wrote the U.S. Constitution.  They believe their "life experience" should be the final arbiter of justice.

Outrageous judicial pick still requires scrutiny.  Tomorrow [2/4/2010] the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on five of President Obama's controversial court-and-justice nominees.  Among them is federal district court nominee Edward Chen of Northern California, whose radical agenda has not been fully exposed and requires further public hearings rather than a vote.

Patrick Gaspard

ACORN at the White House.  The newly released list of visitors to the Obama White House makes the president's claim he's clueless about his former employer ACORN — and its election fraud trials and tribulations — especially difficult to believe.  Of particular significance is the visit by ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson who met with White House political director Patrick Gaspard in March.  The purpose of the meeting with Gaspard, a former ACORN employee himself, was not disclosed.

ACORN's Big Spender.  More proof has emerged of White House political director Patrick Gaspard's ties to the radical advocacy group ACORN.  Gaspard, a longtime operative for ACORN and one of its partisan arms, New York's Working Families Party, currently holds the title of White House political affairs director, the same title Karl Rove held in President Bush's White House.  Internal ACORN documents show that Gaspard gave ACORN $40,000 over the past two years.

ACORN's Man in the White House.  Newly discovered evidence shows the radical advocacy group ACORN has a man in the Obama White House.  This power behind the throne is longtime ACORN operative Patrick Gaspard.  He holds the title of White House political affairs director, the same title Karl Rove held in President Bush's White House.  Evidence shows that years before he joined the Obama administration, Gaspard was ACORN boss Bertha Lewis's political director in New York.

Erroll Southers

DeMint:  TSA nominee isn't qualified, shouldn't be confirmed.  Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, who has been the target of much Democratic criticism for his efforts to slow down Senate confirmation of Erroll Southers, the Obama White House's nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration, now says Southers should not be confirmed.  DeMint has been critical of Southers for refusing to answer questions about whether Southers would work toward unionizing the TSA.

Obama's latest homeland security fiasco.  For a while, it seemed the nomination and confirmation of Erroll Southers to head the Transportation Security Administration would be a routine affair. ... Wrong.  As the new year begins, the Southers nomination has become the latest Obama confirmation mess, raising questions not only about the nominee but the White House's selection process.

Sex, lies and federal databases.  Democrat Ritter's announcement that he would not run for a second term ... focused renewed attention on Transportation Security Administration nominee Erroll Southers, who gave Congress conflicting reports over his personal use of the same crime database to run unauthorized background checks on his then-estranged wife's boyfriend.

Obama's TSA Nominee Misidentified Domestic Security Threats.  Erroll Southers, who President Barack Obama has nominated to head the Transportation Security Administration, described groups that were a domestic security threat as being "anti-abortion" and "Christian-identity oriented."

CQ reporter:  Southers withdraws.  Southers was controversial because he refused to take a position on unionization of TSA employees.  He had also misled Congress about a decades-old incident in which he abused his position as an FBI agent by using a government database to spy on his estranged wife's boyfriend.

TSA Nominee Southers Withdraws Name Amid Controversy.  Erroll Southers, nominated by President Obama to head the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), withdrew his name from consideration on Wednesday, saying his nomination had become a target of those with a "political agenda."

Amanda Simpson

President Obama Names Transgender Appointee to Commerce Department.  President Obama recently named Amanda Simpson to be a Senior Technical Advisor to the Commerce Department. ... While Simpson is clearly one of the first transgender presidential appointees, Democratic officials say they're unsure if she is the very first one.  The White House had no comment on her appointment.

Meet Obama's transgender appointee.  The Obama administration's appointment of Amanda Simpson to a relatively low-profile spot as advisor to the Commerce Department felt intentionally buried over the New Year's news cycle.  Why?  Simpson, who will be working in the Bureau of Industry and Security, used to be a man.

Craig Becker

Obama's Big Labor Ethics Loophole.  Everything you need to know about President Obama's fraudulent ethics pledge can be summed up in four words:  SEIU lawyer Craig Becker.

Acorn's Ally at the NLRB.  One of Big Labor's priorities in Washington is to place allies in key government jobs where they can overturn existing labor policy without battles in Congress.  This is a very good reason for the Senate to hold a hearing on the nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  Mr. Becker is associate general counsel at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is most recently in the news for its close ties to Acorn, the disgraced housing shakedown operation.

Republicans Oppose Nomination of Pro-Labor Union Activist.  In a 13-10 vote along party lines, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved the nomination Thursday [2/4/2010] of Craig Becker to join the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), paving the way for a full Senate vote on the controversial nominee in the coming weeks.

Vote on Obama labor nominee spells trouble for unions.  The vote on Craig Becker's nomination — the first controversial vote since the Senate Democrats' 60-seat majority shrank by one last week — highlighted the difficulty that Democrats will have trying to push union-friendly legislation through Congress.  Only 52 senators voted to cut off debate on the nomination, eight short of the number needed, and 33 were opposed.

Obama Makes Labor Board Appointment During Recess Over GOP Objections.  Despite intense Republican objections, President Obama on Saturday [3/27/2010] used recess appointments to fill some administration posts, including Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board.

Obama names 15 recess appointments, including union lawyer.  President Barack Obama on Saturday [3/27/2010] wielded his recess appointment powers for the first time, clearing 15 nominees to assume posts that have remained vacant for months due to insurmountable congressional roadblocks.  Among the 15 named just days before the Senate departs for Easter recess are Craig Becker and Mark Pearce, the White House's two, hotly contested nominees for the National Labor Relations Board.

Obama rewards the SEIU.  Once again Mr. Obama has thumbed his nose at the American people.  Emboldened by his big win in passing ObamaCare, the future former president placed both of his thumbs squarely on the American worker's windpipe and squeezed.  With the U.S. Senate in recess Mr. Obama moved quickly to wield his executive sword to fill a number of federal positions including the appointment of Craig Becker to the NLRB.

Will Craig Becker recuse himself from cases involving National Right to Work?  Despite having loudly objected to Bush's use of recess appointments, over the weekend Obama made 15 recess appointments of his own.  Among them was [Craig] Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), despite the fact that the former lawyer for the SEIU and AFL-CIO had been held up in the Senate by a bipartisan vote on the grounds that he was too radical.

Radical Labor Law Changes After Becker's Appointment?  [Scroll down]  So why should anyone care about this procedural maneuver?  "Because recess appointments last only until Congress adjourns at the end of 2011," noted former NLRB Chairman Peter Kirsanow, a Bush appointee, "But if the Senate confirms Becker and Pearce in exchange for getting Hayes on board also, Becker and Pearce's confirmed terms would be extended by approximately three more years — plenty of time for the Obama-controlled board to make a substantial imprint on labor law."

Obama Appointee under Ethics Cloud.  Atty. Gen. Eric Holder is facing his first real test to enforce the most heralded value of President Obama's Administration — the ethics pledge.  Holder is being pressured to determine whether Craig Becker, a controversial recess appointment to the National Labor Relations Board, has violated that pledge more than a dozen times in just a few short months.

Obama launches new fight over nominees.  President Obama has triggered a new fight with Republicans by re-nominating two controversial officials to key administration posts.  Obama on Wednesday [1/26/2011] re-nominated former labor lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board, and Donald Berwick to serve as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  Both are already serving those posts, as they were named as recess appointments in the last year.

Craig Becker and Boeing.  Federal financial disclosure forms reveal that Craig Becker, a key union-friendly vote on the NLRB, owned stock in Boeing at the beginning of this year.  Becker is one of federal agency's Democratic board members.  According to documents obtained by the National Right to Work Committee, as of January 2011 Becker owned between $1,001 and $15,000 in Boeing stock, earning between $201 and $1,000 in dividends.

More about The NLRB vs Boeing.

Rashad Hussain

Rashad Hussain's Troubling Ties:  President Obama has chosen Rashad Hussain to be his special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a post originally created by the Bush Administration in 2008.  Hussain's past association with Muslim Brotherhood-connected entities raises major questions about the type of outreach he envisions for the Muslim world.

Troubling Views at Event Attended by Obama's Muslim Envoy:  The Islamic organization whose event was attended by President Obama's new envoy to the Muslim world six years ago has a history of radical stances, and at the time of the event it was urging members to support incarcerated Muslims including terror suspects and a convicted cop killer.

Is White House Attorney Involved in Media Cover-up?  There is a somewhat convoluted story flying under the radar about a White House official, Rashad Hussain, who back in 2004 allegedly spoke out in support of Sami Al-Arian, a man accused (and subsequently convicted) of aiding the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization.  Hussain has worked in the White House Counsel's Office since January 2009, and just last week was appointed by the President as his Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

W.H. affirms confidence in Islam envoy.  The White House is expressing its confidence in a White House counsel's office attorney President Barack Obama recently named as U.S. envoy to the Islamic Conference, Rashad Hussain, despite his concession last week that he made ill-considered statements in 2004 about Bush-era terrorism prosecutions.

Obama selects a voice of radical Islam.  As [Washington] Examiner columnist Cal Thomas wrote recently, Obama's selection of Rashad Hussain, his deputy associate White House counsel, as U.S. special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, "should be of concern to Congress and the American people."  Comprising 57 member states, the OIC's charter makes clear its purpose is to "defend" and "disseminate" the Muslim faith.  Whenever human rights collide with Islam, the OIC sides with the latter.

Obama assisting in imposing Islamic Sharia law, prohibiting criticism of Islam.  Barack Hussein Obama, catering to both Muslim and globalist agendas, is exposing his preference to Islamic and globalist agendas and placing yet another nail in America's coffin by appointing Rashad Hussain as special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Our Islamist Envoy:  What a tangled web Islamist appointees weave.  When his pro-terrorist quotes surfaced, a new White House envoy dismissed them as someone else's.  A recording says otherwise.  Now Rashad Hussain, President Obama's pick as special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, has changed his story.

Ambassador to Islam?  The US shouldn't legitimize the OIC.  On February 13, President Obama announced the appointment of Rashad Hussain, deputy associate White House counsel, as U.S. special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). ... It was a bad precedent for Bush to set, and it is worse for Obama to continue.  Appointing an American envoy to the OIC gives that organization a legitimacy it does not deserve.

Obama's Envoy to the Muslim World:  A Soros Tie?  The Washington Post published an article on [Rashad Hussain's] ascent that charts how he came to the White House in the first place.  He was recruited to the White house counsel's office by Cassandra Butts — a classmate of Barack Obama's at Harvard Law School.  Who is Cassandra Butts?  She as an alumna for the left-wing think tank Center for American Progress (one of many staffing the Obama administration).  This organization is an ideas factory for the Obama administration and its hiring hall.  It just took on Van Jones, for example.  The Center for American Progress was created and funded by George Soros.

Goodwin Liu

Goodwin Liu Must Be Stopped.  President Obama recently nominated Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, looking to shift an already-radical panel even further to the left. ... He actually states that the Constitution mandates "a minimal safety net" (where?), "basic employment supports" (where?), "health insurance" (where?), "child care" (where?), "transportation subsidies" (where?), "job training" (where?), and a "robust earned income tax credit" (where?).  Apparently Liu isn't just ideologically driven, he's constitutionally illiterate.

Liu Nomination Pushes 9th Circuit Farther Left.  By nominating UC Berkeley Law Professor Goodwin Liu to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Barack Obama is working to push the nation's most liberal — and most overturned — court even further outside the mainstream of American jurisprudence.  Liu, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, will face certain opposition from many Republicans in part because of his many liberal positions but also because he took an active role in opposing Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito.

The American Bar Association exposes its liberal bias once again.  I wrote here about Goodwin Liu, the leftist law professor nominated by President Obama for a spot on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  Among my observations was that Liu has only practiced law in earnest for two or three years.  The rest of his time since graduating from law school has been spent as a law clerk or a law professor.  Moreover, Liu appears to have no trial experience.  Nor, as far as I can tell, has he ever argued a case before a court of appeal. ... Yet the ABA has rated Liu "highly qualified."

Goodwin Liu:  Unqualified, and Hostile to the Constitution.  [Others have written] about Goodwin Liu, a left-wing law professor whom President Obama has nominated to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.  To say that Liu is thinly qualified would give him too much credit, as he has scarcely ever practiced law at all.  Now, an attack Liu launched against John Roberts in 2005 has surfaced and has raised new questions about his nomination.  When President Bush first nominated Roberts to succeed Sandra O'Connor, Liu responded with an attack that tells us nothing about Roberts but a great deal about Liu.

A constitutional right to welfare?  Another day, another radical judicial nominee.  President Obama once again has nominated for a federal judgeship a lawyer whose own words demonstrate unfitness for the position.  In the case of Goodwin H. Liu, nominated on Feb. 24 for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the substance behind the words is even worse than the verbiage.

Republicans Slam Obama Judicial Nominee Over 117 Omissions From Record.  Senate Republicans on Tuesday [4/6/2010] slammed one of the Obama administration's most controversial judicial nominees for failing to initially disclose more than 100 of his speeches, publications and other background materials — an omission the Republicans called unprecedented and a possible attempt to "hide his most controversial work."

Goodwin Liu caught hiding the ball, Part Two.  Appeals court nominee Goodwin Liu claims that his failure to provide the Senate Judiciary Committee with more than 100 of his speeches and writings was inadvertent.  In support of this claim, Liu's supporters claim the omissions were inconsequential.  Former Bush White House ethics adviser Richard Painter has tried to minimze them as "a brown bag lunch here, a talk with alumni there, etc."  As Ed Whelan has shown, the facts do not support this defense.

My Last Goodwin Liu Column — I Really Hope.  When Republicans argued that simple fairness demanded a full floor vote on Alito, Feinstein, like Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., supported the use of the filibuster to prevent it.  They tried, but failed to prevent a majority-rules vote.  Now that Democrats are in power, judicial philosophy doesn't matter.

The worst judiciary ever.  [Scroll down to Goodwin H. Liu]  This University of California at Berkeley law professor has argued there is a constitutional right to welfare and that the judiciary should be "a culturally situated interpreter of social meaning" that can "cue the policymaking process during greater deliberation and rationality."  Translation:  Judges should help create law, not just interpret it.

Jerry Brown defends high court nominee's lack of judicial experience.  Gov. Jerry Brown said he was not bothered by his California Supreme Court nominee's lack of judicial experience or that conservative Republicans painted him as a liberal ideologue in rejecting him for a seat on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.  Brown on Tuesday [7/26/2011] nominated UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu, 40, to the state's highest court, which would give the seven-member panel it's fourth Asian.  He is the son of Taiwanese immigrants.

Judge Robert N. Chatigny

Hearing Delayed for Obama Judicial Nominee Who Supported Serial Killer.  The Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed the hearing for a controversial Court of Appeals nominee after the panel received a letter from a home-state prosecutor blasting the candidate as a judicial loose cannon and after Republicans raised concerns about bias in favor of sex offenders.  U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chatigny gained notoriety in 2005 for his role in trying to fight the execution of convicted serial killer and rapist Michael Ross, also known as The Roadside Strangler, whom Chatigny had described as a victim of his own "sexual sadism."

Obama's Second Circuit Nominee Another Radical?  Judge Robert N. Chatigny — President Obama's new nominee for the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — ruled against a state sex offender registry while in a District Court, and as judge also scolded and threatened a lawyer, whose client consented to execution while on death row, with negligence for his client.

Obama nominee's sympathy for sexual sadists.  President Obama's judicial nominees are getting more dangerous with each White House announcement.  If you don't believe us, consider one judge's opinion that the "sexual sadism" of a multiple rapist-murderer was "clearly a mitigating factor" that argued against executing the murderer and perhaps even against convicting him in the first place.

Obama's 'Empathy for Sexual Sadists' Judge.  Judge Robert Chatigny, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, did just that in an appeal of a defendant who confessed to raping and murdering eight young women.  Chatigny also repeatedly gave light sentences for sexual crimes such as possession of child pornography, and who overturned Connecticut's law requiring registration of sex offenders (a decision later overturned unanimously by the Supreme Court).

The worst judiciary ever.  [Scroll down to Louis Butler]  While a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, he earned the name "Loophole Louie" for so often finding ways to interpret laws in precisely the opposite way from how they were intended.  A law written to limit casino gambling thus became a law interpreted to expand gambling; a law written to expand the right to carry guns became interpreted as a gun limitation.  And so on.

Will Media Report Professional Misconduct?  Did you know that President Obama has nominated for a federal judgeship someone who believes a serial killer and rapist's "sexual sadism" should be a cause to give him a less serious punishment?  Probably not, since the media have given it almost no coverage.

Obama's Federal Appeals Court Nominee Did Legal Work for Serial Killer.  President Barack Obama's nominee to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, Robert N. Chatigny, did legal work as a private defense attorney in 1992 for convicted serial killer Michael Ross and then, in 2005, as a federal district judge, led a proceeding that resulted in a delay in Ross' execution.  Chatigny says he forgot about the earlier work and should have recused himself from the matter.

Devastating take-down of an obscure nomination.  [Scroll down]  But setting aside the political angle, the biggest problem with Chatigny's nomination is not the odd extremes to which he went to in order to protect a serial killer from a legally imposed death sentence, nor even his willingness to give light sentences for child pornography offenses and strike down Connecticut's version of Megan's Law.  The biggest problem is that Chatigny presided over the Ross serial killer case despite having previously worked for Ross as a lawyer, without making anyone else aware of that fact.

The worst judiciary ever.  Declaring that a serial rapist-murderer's "sexual sadism" was a "mitigating factor" that made him perhaps "the least culpable" prisoner on Connecticut's death row, the judge [Chatigny] threatened the law license of the defense attorney who tried to fulfill the murderer's own request to end years of appeals.

Elena Kagan

Obama's Attorney General:  President-elect Obama has decided to tap Eric Holder as his attorney general, putting the veteran Washington lawyer in place to become the first African-American to head the Justice Department, according to two legal sources close to the presidential transition. ... The sources said the Obama transition team is still debating over who should serve under Holder in the key post of deputy attorney general.  One top candidate ... is Elena Kagan, dean of the Harvard Law School and a former lawyer in the White House counsel's office under Clinton.

Possible Supreme Court pick had ties with Goldman Sachs.  A top prospect for the Supreme Court was a paid member of an advisory panel for the embattled investment firm Goldman Sachs, federal financial disclosures show.  Solicitor General Elena Kagan was a member of the Research Advisory Council of the Goldman Sachs Global Markets Institute, according to the financial disclosures she filed when President Obama appointed her last year to her current post.

Obama Interviews Solicitor General Elena Kagan for Supreme Court.  President Obama on Friday [4/30/2010] interviewed Solicitor General Elena Kagan for an upcoming vacancy on the Supreme Court, a source close to the president's selection process told Fox News.  The interview came one day after Obama conducted his first known formal interview with federal appeals court Judge Sidney Thomas of Montana.  The White House has not confirmed either interview.

Note:  After Ms. Kagan was nominated to the Supreme Court, the rest of the commentary about her (and the rationale behind President Obama's selection) began to accumulate here.

Dr. Donald Berwick

Redistributing Health?  The administration's nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid is a fan of Britain's National Health Service and rationing services.  He believes in less discretion for your doctor, more power for your government.

Berwick and Obamacare Equal Socialism on Steroids.  We knew Obama was prevaricating when he told us his purpose to cram through Obamacare was to provide universal access to coverage and reduce costs, but how many people did he manage to fool?  How many are still fooled?

Time Magazine Introduces Radical Obama Nominee, Says He's Not Radical.  "Any health care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate.  Excellent health care is by definition redistributional.  Britain, you chose well."  Was that a British socialist speaking in Parliament?  Nope.  It was Dr. Donald Berwick, a Harvard professor about to face Senate confirmation as President Obama's nominee to head Medicare and Medicaid.

Obama's Rationing Man.  While much of Washington is focused on President Obama's Supreme Court pick, Republicans are gearing up for a confirmation battle over another Obama nominee who promises to put health care back in the spotlight.  At issue is Obama's choice to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Donald Berwick, a Harvard professor with a self-professed love affair with Britain's socialized health care system.  In his writings and speeches, Berwick has defended government rationing and advocated centralized budget caps on health care spending.

Whistling past the death panel.  President Obama has selected Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  Berwick is a Harvard professor, a pediatrician, and the CEO of a nonprofit that, according to its website, has a staff of over 100 people.  These seem like dubious qualifications to head a massive organization with a budget greater than that of the Department of Defense.

An Incurable Romantic.  Arguably, the single most powerful person in the U.S. health care system is the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  As the head of a federal agency that directs the flow of nearly $1 trillion per year through our medical system and effectively dictates quality standards for the nation's hospitals, nursing homes and clinical laboratories, this bureaucrat's influence reaches far beyond the bounds of his statutory authority.  Moreover, that influence will be considerably augmented by ObamaCare.  Thus, the American public should be alarmed that President Obama has nominated Donald Berwick to head CMS.

The Real Face of Obamacare.  Once a sleepy federal backwater, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) now has primary responsibility for implementing the federal takeover of the U.S. health-care industry, and Pres. Barack Obama proposes to fill a key position there with Dr. Donald Berwick, who exemplifies the worst aspects of the Democrats' health-care agenda:  Denouncing the "darkness of private enterprise," he celebrates the centralization of power, the redistribution of wealth, and the subordination of health-care professionals to political players.

O's radical pick for Medicare.   Controversy is mounting over Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama's nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid — and for good reason.  Berwick's writings reveal that he would make radical changes — seniors beware. ... A fervent ideologue, Berwick puts social engineering ahead of the individual patient's needs.  In contrast, most doctors understand that their duty is to heal each patient who comes to them.

Just the Facts (No Slander) on Berwick.  In an attempt to defend Sir Donald Berwick, President Obama's nominee for healthcare czar, Democrats are accusing Republicans of taking his words out of context and of slandering the Harvard professor.  Berwick, nominated to head Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), has never tried to hide his obsession with socialized medicine.  He even published an op-ed in the Washington Post in 1992 where he stated he was "in love" with Britain's National Heath Service.

Want worse health care?  Try British model.  All you need to know about Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama's choice to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is summed up in the nominee's own words.  At the 60th anniversary celebration of Britain's socialized National Health System, Berwick praised NHS, which he clearly views as superior to America's private medical system:  "You could have had the American plan ... Britain, you chose well."

Baucus Objects to Recess Appointment.  The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, joined a chorus of Republicans on Wednesday [7/7/2010] in criticizing the White House for bypassing Congress and appointing a Medicare chief while the Senate was in recess.  Senator Baucus did not object to the appointee, Dr. Donald M. Berwick, who will be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  Mr. Baucus did object to President Obama's decision to short-circuit the normal confirmation process.

Obama's Unconfirmed 'Recess' Appointee Advocated Rationing, Redistribution of Wealth.  President Barack Obama today circumvented the Senate confirmation process by granting a recess appointment to Dr. Donald Berwick to be director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid.

Re: Berwick.  President Obama will bypass the Senate's advice and consent and use a recess appointment to install Harvard's Donald Berwick — a self-avowed admirer of Britain's National Health Service — as head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Berwick Blues.  As one who generally believes that administrations should receive deference in their personnel selections, I found the recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick to be the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) disturbing.

Obama names a health czar who favors rationing.  Donald Berwick is no household name, but President Obama just handed him immense power to shape what kind of health care will be available to every American man, woman and child.  Berwick is the president's newly appointed administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that is ground zero for Obamacare's politicization of American medicine.

Gibbs Evades Question of Whether Obama Agrees With His Medicare Director.  White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs has evaded answering the question of whether President Barack Obama agrees with Dr. Donald Berwick, his newly appointed director of Medicare and Medicaid, who has insisted that health-care systems must redistribute wealth.  "Excellent health care is by definition redistributional," Berwick said in a speech delivered on July 1, 2008.  When asked directly at the July 7 White House press briefing whether Obama agreed with this, Gibbs would not answer the question.

Obama Names Rationing Czar to Run Medicare.  Dr. Donald Berwick of the Harvard Medical School does not like free enterprise, but he does like rationing.  Two years ago, in England, he delivered a talk celebrating the 60th birthday of Great Britain's National Health Service, the bureaucracy that runs that nation's socialized medical system. He apparently entertained some fear that day that the Brits might turn back to free enterprise.

The President's One-Man Death Panel.  The president recess-appoints a fan of rationing and Britain's National Health Service to direct one-third of American health care.  Why does the administration want his views hidden from scrutiny?

Obama, Say It Isn't So!  [Scroll down]  Obama used the 4th of July congressional recess to implant Donald Berwick as his healthcare czar.  Talk about wing nuts, this guy was knighted by the English Queen because he is such a big fan of their healthcare system which has people dying in hospital corridors awaiting someone to help them.  Berwick makes no bones about rationing only that he says rationing must be done with your eyes wide open.

Obama appointee's prescription for socialism.  Barack Obama promised the most open and transparent administration in history.  His vow didn't convince him to extend senators the courtesy of listening to their advice and consent on the nomination of Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

A Short History of the Recess Appointment.  [Scroll down]  Obama used a recess appointment for Dr. Berwick not to avoid a filibuster but to avoid the Senate's advice and consent power altogether.  He blamed — surprise! — the Republicans for delaying the process, but that is a bald-face lie, as Republicans would be only too happy to have hearings on Dr. Berwick's appointment in order to put the deeply unpopular ObamaCare back on Page One four months before the midterm elections.  President Obama's action here shows his contempt for everything that stands in the way of his agenda, even the Constitution.

Bowdlerizing Berwick.  [Donald Berwick] has written and spoken extensively, and his views concerning wealth redistribution, rationing, and the free market are very much at odds with those of mainstream health policy experts as well as the electorate.  Moreover, he has not been reticent about revealing his positions in writing and public statements.  This is one of the reasons Obama chose to bypass the Senate confirmation process and it is why Democrat-friendly journalists and bloggers have worked diligently, since his nomination last April, to bowdlerize Berwick's record.

Berwick battle escalates.  Kansas Republican Sen. Pat Roberts has just introduced an amendment calling for the Senate to declare the recess appointment of Medicare and Medicaid chief Donald Berwick "an abuse of power."  The nonbinding "sense of the Senate" resolution also calls on Berwick to appear before the Senate Finance Committee to answer questions.

This Will Make You Sicker.  In addition to the grave medical concerns pertaining to the appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is another issue that speaks to his political perspectives.  Berwick has been actively involved with the international advocacy group Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which was established with funding from the Ford Foundation.  In 2000, Berwick "began donating thousands of dollars [to PHR] when PHR was focusing most, if not all, of its investigations on Israel's treatment of terrorists during the Intifada."

Does Berwick answer to no one?  Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama's recess-appointed administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, may be the least accountable federal agency head.

Dr. Berwick and Mr. Hide.  The Dr. Berwick with whom we have become all too familiar was a vocal advocate of health care rationing.  In a 2009 interview for Biotechnology Healthcare, he gushed with enthusiasm for the heavy-handed rationing regime of Great Britain's National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE) and advised his interlocutor that "The decision is not whether or not we will ration care; the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open."  When the good doctor's alter ego appeared before the Ways and Means Committee, however, he told a different story.

Obama 'Stands Firmly Behind' Medicare Chief Berwick.  President Barack Obama is standing "firmly" behind Dr. Donald Berwick, the man he put in charge of Medicare and Medicaid with a "recess" appointment thus bypassing the normal Senate confirmation process.  Berwick's nomination has been highly controversial because of statements he has made including his insistence that in order to be just a health-care sytem "must redistibute wealth."

The Big Obama Defeat the Media Ignored.  Lost amid all the excitement over the Rio trip, the anti-obesity campaign, and the March Madness picks was the revelation that Senate Democrats had given up any attempt to confirm Donald Berwick as chief of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  It seems that 42 Republicans had informed the Democratic majority by letter that they would vote for Berwick's confirmation when Hell froze over.

Is it his decision to make?
Never-Confirmed Medicare Chief Won't Say If He Wants Confirmation Hearing.  His recess appointment will expire at the end of December, but Dr. Donald Berwick, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, isn't saying whether he would like the Senate to hold a confirmation hearing for him.

Cathy Zoi

Obama energy official has ties to firms that stand to benefit.  A top Obama administration official who's helping lead a campaign for energy conservation has a major financial interest in two companies that are poised to benefit from the government's spending.  Cathy Zoi, the assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy, owns between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of stock in Landis+Gyr, a Swiss-based manufacturer of special electric meters that are used to create an efficient "smart" grid of electricity use.

Still Flouting the Law, Still Stonewalling the Investigation.  Documents obtained from the Department of Energy and elsewhere appear to present a prima facie case of a senior Obama administration official, Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Cathy Zoi, participating substantially in decisions impacting companies in which she is heavily invested.  This flouts ethics requirements and would be a violation of U.S. criminal law.  The Department of Energy has yet to provide additional requested documents regarding Zoi.  Even more troubling, the designated ethics officer has so far refused to even acknowledge the request for records she is required by law to provide the public.

Your Insane U.S. Energy Department.  In mid-September, Cathy Zoi, an Assistant Secretary of Energy, said that the U.S. Department of Energy has a "mandate" to issue regulations about what household appliances should be available to Americans in the future. ... The DOE intends to "set efficiency standards for energy-consuming products."  These will include commercial clothes washers, small electric motors, water heaters, direct heating equipment and pool heaters, among the countless products consumers use on a daily basis.

Thomas Perez

Thomas Perez, Illegal Activist and Obama's Civil Rights Officer.  In the wake of the Van Jones resignation, Townhall.com is taking a look at a few other characters in Obama's closet and what their policies could mean for America.  First on the list is Thomas Perez, Obama's nominee to head the Department of Justice's Civil Rights division.

The Zealot heading up the DOJ's Civil Rights Division.  Has anyone ever heard of Tomas de Torquemada, the fanatical leader of the Spanish Inquisition?  Well... he is back.  He has been re-incarnated as Thomas Perez, the head of the Civil Rights Division in the Obama-Holder Department of Justice.  Not surprisingly, he is a zealot who is stretching the responsibilities of the office to the breaking point.

Obama's zealous civil rights enforcer gets busy.  "I love this job," said Thomas Perez, the hard-charging head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, in a speech last December to the liberal legal group American Constitution Society. ... Of all the transformations that have taken place in the Obama administration, perhaps none is so radical as that within the Civil Rights Division.  Under Perez, it is bigger, richer and more aggressive than ever, with a far more expansive view of its authority than at any time in recent history.

Maria del Carmen Aponte

Another Obama recess appointment, another radical avoids scrutiny.  Another controversial Obama recess appointment without Senate scrutiny.  And one of those appointments has a suspect history, reports the Washington Post[:  "]The most contentious of the appointments is Maria del Carmen Aponte, the administration's pick for ambassador to El Salvador.

Sleeping With The ...  President Obama hit a new low in using a recess appointment to name Maria del Carmen Aponte as U.S. envoy to El Salvador.  The radical has consorted with Cuban spies but will be taking no questions.

Elizabeth Warren

This subsection has moved to a page of its own, located here.

James R. Clapper

Guilty! — But Not Really Guilty?  In 2013, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also lied under oath to Congress when he laughably stated that the National Security Agency did not spy on American citizens.  Later, when called out by senators, Clapper fudged in a televised interview.  "I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful, manner by saying no."  Try that contortion with the IRS.  Some members of Congress referred a criminal complaint of perjury against Brennan to then Attorney General Eric Holder.  Nothing happened.  Again, one of the chiefs of the American national security community was exempted after lying to members of Congress.  Clapper went on to a lucrative position as a CNN national security analyst, and at one point he claimed that Trump was a Putin "asset."

The Shameful Six:  Never listen to these people again.  [#5] Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper helped lead the charge on trying to discredit The Post's reporting on Hunter Biden's laptop.  He signed a letter alongside 50 other intel officials (who all belong on this list too) stating with no proof that it was part of a Russian disinformation ploy.  When the laptop was "authenticated" by The New York Times and others, Clapper doubled down.  And that's to say nothing of his efforts in helping propagate the RussiaGate nonsense.  That this delusional self-seeker — who ducked a perjury charge for lying to Congress — ran our most sensitive intelligence operations should make any sensible person shudder.  That he still has any credibility is a total outrage.

Jaw-Dropping Audacity, James Clapper Says President Trump Used Classified Information "To Target Political Enemies".  The sheer audacity of James Clapper in this segment is jaw-dropping.  After the former ODNI participated in weaponization of the entire intelligence apparatus specifically to target Donald Trump as a candidate and President, James Clapper now says that JoeBama should not give President Trump classified information because he "has used it to attack political enemies" in the past.  [Video clip]

The Leaked Interrogation Of James Clapper Reveals The Dirty Tricks The Deep State Tries To Get Rid Of Trump.  James Clapper Interrogated — and he tells all, and he names names.  The corruption he describes is worse than we ever imagined.  This clip is only a fraction of what Clapper disclosed.  [Video clip]

Signal cuts out when CNN asks Obama spy chief James Clapper about leaking classified information.  The signal cut out when former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was asked about leaks of classified information to the media.  CNN host John Berman pressed Clapper on the issue Thursday morning, a day after a declassified memo containing a list of Obama administration officials who received information in response to "unmasking" requests pertaining to retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President Trump's first national security adviser, was made public.  Clapper was on the list, which has generated renewed interest in the mystery of who leaked classified details about Flynn's conversations with a Russian ambassador to the Washington Post in early 2017.

The Editor says...
"Technical difficulties" are easy to arrange.  From the sound of it, Mr. Clapper had a handler off-camera who literally pulled the plug on the interview when an embarrassing question arose.

Did James Clapper Lie To Congress About Briefing Obama On Flynn's Phone Calls?  Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper testified to Congress in July of 2017 that he never briefed then-President Barack Obama on the substance of phone calls between Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak and incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.  Accounts from fired former Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) executives James Comey and Andrew McCabe, however, directly contradict Clapper's claim under oath that he never briefed Obama on the conversations between Flynn and Kislyak which were used to justify Flynn's ouster as President Donald Trump's top foreign policy adviser.  The identities of the Obama administration officials who were aware of the calls between Flynn and Kislyak have become a key question in the investigation of U.S. attorney John Durham to determine whether any laws were broken during the course of the Crossfire Hurricane probe of the Trump campaign.

Transcript: James Clapper Admitted No Direct Evidence of Russia Collusion in 2017.  Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper admitted to the House Intelligence Committee in July 2017 that he was not aware of any direct evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.  In a closed-door session on July 17, 2017, Clapper told the committee:  "I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting/conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election."

The dishonest pursuit of Michael Flynn.  James Clapper, former director of national intelligence under President Barack Obama, took extreme umbrage when he was accused of lying to Congress after he lied under oath to Congress during 2013 testimony about the administration's program of widespread surveillance of American citizens. [...] Despite his public record of lying to Congress under oath, Mr. Clapper is heralded up and down the corridors of Washington for his particularly trenchant vitriol toward President Trump.  Obviously, Mr. Trump must be doing something right to earn such enmity from such an established and vile creature of the Potomac Swamp.  But it is not just CNN that slathers Mr. Clapper with praise.  The lying former top spy has now been hired by the University of Pennsylvania to serve on the law school's "Center for Ethics and Rule of Law."  To be sure, this is a strange area of expertise for a guy who lied under oath to Congress about spying on American citizens.

Clapper's Nuremberg Defense.  Last week, Attorney General William Barr's investigation into the illegal FBI-CIA spy operation against President Trump's 2016 campaign was formally shifted to a criminal investigation.  The means the investigative team, under the direction of John Durham, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, can subpoena witnesses, convene grand juries, and obtain indictments.  One of the principal perpetrators, former FBI director James Comey, insists he's not worried at all.  He and his co-conspirators have undoubtedly talked often and coordinated their stories.  All voice communications, emails, text messages, and other communications have been erased or otherwise destroyed to the extent they can be.

Our Bankrupt Nomenklatura.  Before Trump, both John Brennan and James Clapper, respectively CIA director and director of national intelligence, lied under oath to Congress — and paid nothing for doing so.  Or rather their past prevarications became good CV items for the new fake news industry.  From them, we respectively once learned that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was largely secular and that jihad was a mostly a non-violent expression of personal growth and discovery.  In their world, drones never hit bystanders, the intelligence agencies never spy on Americans, and the two of them never lied under oath.  Both leveraged their past service and security clearances into lucrative cable TV analyst contracts — and often editorialized about ongoing investigations in which they were either knee-deep or of which they later became targets.

Multitasking the Intelligence Community Roundup.  [Scroll down]  Big takeaway:  it is "disconcerting" now to be "investigated for doing our duty, what we were told to do by the president."  And exactly what were they doing?  Investigating a candidate, President-elect Trump, with the end, said Clapper, of preparing a big, comprehensive report for Congress and "the next administration."  You see that James Clapper, despite appearances to the contrary, does have a wry sense of humor.  He can say with a straight face that the covert investigation aimed at destroying Donald Trump was actually an investigation intended at least in part for the incoming Trump administration.  Yuck, yuck, yuck.  What a card!  But note that Clapper, funny though he was, was not himself laughing.  I don't blame him.  The spook-turned-media-lap-dog is as much in the crosshairs as anyone, except perhaps another spook-turned-media-lap-dog, former CIA director and Gus Hall voter John Brennan, who now lends his authoritative anti-Trump commentary to MSNBC.

Free Flynn, Jail Clapper and Brennan.  Sidney Powell, the attorney for Gen. Flynn, has filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him based on indications that the FBI altered his 302s, essentially written reports based on witness interviews, to make him look guilty and leaking information on Flynn's calls to the Washington Post. [...] Powell, a former federal prosecutor and a veteran of 500 federal appeals, is the author of Licensed to Lie:  Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice, a biting tome exposing the prosecutorial misconduct of government lawyers such as Robert Mueller's "pit bull," Andrew Weissmann, and other members of Obama's inner circle that have threatened the foundations of true justice in our democracy.  Powell has sunk her legal teeth into the fraudulent case against Flynn that should result in his, with apologies to Robert Mueller, exoneration.

Clapper stammers through segment after launch of DOJ criminal probe.  Obama's former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper seemed to struggle with his poker face as he reacted to news of a DOJ criminal inquiry.  The current CNN contributor spoke with Anderson Cooper about reports of the transition of U.S. Attorney John Durham's review into the origins of the Russia probe into a criminal investigation.  And his body language spoke louder than his words.  [Video clip]

James Clapper Admits He Was Following Orders From His 'Commander-In-Chief, President Obama'.  In the transcript and the video below, Obama's Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, speaks to CNN's Jim Sciutto and makes the stunning admission that he'd been following Obama's orders — and he says it twice.  This is very big news because it's the first time a member of the deep state has admitted that President Obama was not only aware of the investigation, but was issuing orders to his team.  "What were we supposed to have done... blown off what the then commander-in-chief, President Obama, told us to do?"  And, as if we missed it the first time, he says it again.  "It's kind of disconcerting now to be investigated for, you know having done our duty and done what we were told to do by the president."

That's a good place for him.
James Clapper throws Barack Obama under the bus.  Former DNI Director James Clapper threw former President Barack Obama under the bus on CNN yesterday.  Clapper admitted to CNN's Jim Sciutto that everything he and John Brennan had done prior to and during the 2016 election was explicitly on Barack Obama's orders.

Bombshell Admission:  Clapper Says Obama Made Them Do It.  [Scroll down]  There wasn't any Russian interference.  You can't prove it.  There wasn't any.  Don't give me the $150,000 ad buy the Russian troll farms made on Facebook after the election.  The Russians didn't tamper with any votes.  The Russians didn't [a]ffect anything on any election result anywhere.  The Russians did not meddle.  You know, it really comes off of that.  These people are still living off the idea the Russians meddled because they might have wanted to, the Russians interfered because they might have wanted to — and because Mueller went to the obvious step of making sure some Russians were indicted.  We couldn't find any Russians in the story!  From the beginning, the only Russian in the story was that fat ambassador who took everybody to lunch, Kislyak.  Other than that, there weren't any Russians in the story!

Proceed With Caution — Media Reporting ODNI Dan Coats Possibly Being Replaced.  The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ODNI, was created post-9/11 at the recommendation of the 9/11 commission. [...] Due to the structure of the ODNI, the cabinet member filling that position has an important role in:  (a) knowing what each intelligence agency is doing; and (b) sharing intelligence operations and outcomes, beyond the originating agency, to those national security offices who may have an operational need/interest in cross-agency information.  President Obama saw the ODNI structure as a problem.  The ODNI would know what each agency is doing.  The structure of the ODNI means corrupt CIA, State, DoD and/or DOJ and FBI cabinet officials couldn't keep secret intelligence operations hidden from review by alternate officials.  The structure of the ODNI was a risk.  President Obama together with Donilon, Holder, Emmanuel and Jarret, solved this problem early on by placing an abject idiot named James Clapper into the position of ODNI.

Falsehood shames Clapper, Brennan and pledge to protect whistleblowers.  In the summer of 2014, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper sent a letter assuring Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that enhanced monitoring of Intelligence Community workers was designed to find leakers and insider threats, and was not intended to thwart lawful whistleblowing.  Specifically, America's top spy told the two senators that if any protected whistleblowing was intercepted by the Obama administration's new monitoring, it wouldn't be used to tip off spy agency leaders. [...] It turns out that entire pledge was false and disingenuous.  And it took us four years and a new presidential administration to get the truth.  Just four months before Clapper penned that letter, the CIA intercepted one or more whistleblowers' disclosures, legally submitted and intended to go to Congress through the Intelligence Community's official whistleblowing office.  And the intercepts were briefed to CIA leadership, contrary to Clapper's assurance.

James Clapper - Why does this man still have a job in the Obama administration?  Clapper has taken the fall for the Obama administration, saying that altering the talking points used by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice by removing any mention of terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda or Ansar al-Sharia was on him and his staff.  But by no means was it his first embarrassing public exhibition of ineptitude and incompetence serving as a key member of the Obama administration tasked with protecting the American people!

Clanging Clapper caper.  When President Obama named retired Air Force Lt. General James R. Clapper to replace Dennis Blair as the Director of National Intelligence, I had never heard of him. ... Yesterday [2/10/2011] Clapper told a House Intelligence Committee hearing that the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood — which seeks to render Egypt an Islamic state ruled by sharia law — is "a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried Al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam."

There's Willful Blindness, and Then There's Willful Stupidity.  James Clapper, the head of intelligence for the United States of America, has explained to Congress that the Muslim Brotherhood is "largely secular."  It further has "eschewed violence," decries al-Qaeda as a "perversion of Islam," and really just wants "social ends" and "a betterment of the political order in Egypt."  I kid you not.  This is the Muslim Brotherhood whose motto brays that the Koran is its law and jihad is its way.

The Spooks' Black Thursday.  Bad day for the "Intelligence Community" here in Washington.  CIA chief Leon Panetta opined that Mubarak was very likely going to resign in a few hours, while DNI (Director of National Intelligence) General James Clapper declared the Muslim Brotherhood "largely secular" and has "eschewed violence." ... Oh, well... tomorrow's another day.  Indeed this afternoon is another day, as Clapper's spokespeople assured us that he really knows all about the Brotherhood, and is "well aware that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a secular organization."  Pity he didn't say that to Congress.

Reelection Slogan for Obama & Co:  We Bring Down Governments?  The Obama regime is now the unsurpassed and most bizarre combination of outward stupidity and hidden (by the media and others) pure evil intent ever to rule over the citizens of the United States of America.  Starting with the stupidity factor — perhaps just to throw us off — Obama's Director of National Intelligence (Intelligence?  Really?) James Clapper has again placed his foot in it and this time, it was both feet.

Intelligence breakdown.  No matter how things shake out in Egypt, one thing has become depressingly clear:  Something is very wrong with the American intelligence services.  First it was CIA Director Leon Panetta ... Then it was Panetta's nominal boss, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, telling Congress that the violent pro-jihad Muslim Brotherhood is "largely secular" and has "eschewed violence."

More about General Clapper's involvement with the two-year Mueller investigation can be found here.

Jamie Gorelick

Another Brick In 'The Wall'?  Jamie Gorelick may be back, this time as attorney general.  It was her "wall of separation" that that left us blind pre-9/11.  And let's not forget her admirable service at Fannie Mae.

How To Ruin The FBI:  A lieutenant of Attorney General Janet Reno in the Clinton administration, it was [Jamie] Gorelick who created "the wall" preventing the CIA from sharing espionage information with the FBI — this owing to her preposterously fastidious resistance to anything hinting of "domestic spying."  Such bureaucratic "stovepiping" blocked agents from knowing of 9/11 jihadists' activity.  Scandalously, Gorelick was appointed to the 9/11 Commission, whose publicized probe highlighted the stovepipe issue.  Her conflict was clear, but she refused to remove herself from the panel.

Clinton Official Embroiled in 9/11 Controversy and Subprime Crisis Reportedly Shortlisted to Run FBI.  Jamie Gorelick, a former Clinton administration official who reportedly has made the Obama administration's short list to become the next director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), was paid more than $26 million in total compensation as a top executive at Fannie Mae — before taxpayers had to bail out the mortgage giant.

There's more about Ms. Gorelick on this page.

John Bryson

Bryson: U.S. Has 'Obligation to Lead' on Climate Change Legislation.  John Bryson, President Barack Obama's nominee to be secretary of commerce, said it was "incredibly important" that the United States pass cap and trade legislation and that America needed to be a global leader in combating man-made global warming.

A Disaster At Commerce.  The nominee for commerce secretary founded an anti-energy group and believes in redistribution of wealth to help poorer nations.  At this rate, we'll be one of them.

America needs the Commerce Department like solar power plants need an eclipse.
Nobody for commerce secretary.  In choosing John Bryson as his nominee to be the next U.S. secretary of commerce, President Obama has chosen a perfect representative of our new ruling class.  He is the founder of a lobby group, the powerful Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), who became a regulator with California's Public Utility Commission, then a rent-seeker with Edison International and Boeing.  His experience is not in commerce at all, but in getting government to direct monies to favored companies.  To be fair, that is the role of the Commerce Department these days, which is exactly why Congress needs to abolish the Commerce Department.

Obama Commerce Nominee Entangled with Chinese Business.  John Bryson, President Barack Obama's nominee for commerce secretary, may be best known as co-founder of the radical activist group Natural Resources Defense Council and as CEO of Edison International, parent company of giant electric utility Southern California Edison.  But one of his biggest obstacles to Senate confirmation may be his relationship with troubled Chinese-backed electric car company Coda Automotive.

John Bryson, job destroyer.  President Obama's pick to replace Gary F. Locke as commerce secretary faces an uphill Senate confirmation battle.  Even before the White House handed in the name of John Bryson for the job, Senate Republicans had vowed to block any nominee over administration foot-dragging on free-trade agreements.  The selection of this particular leftist for a business-outreach post is rallying the opposition.

Austan Goolsbee

Goolsbee heads for the hills.  It can't be easy serving as chief economic adviser to President Obama.  The harder Austan Goolsbee has worked to implement the administration's borrow-and-spend philosophy, the worse the economy has become.  No wonder Mr. Goolsbee wants to get out of town.  If only he were more honest about it.

Professor disaster:  Bam's theories killing economy.  No billions or trillions needed — here's the simplest number to describe the dismal state of the US economy:  One.  With the departure of chief economic adviser Austan Goolsbee, that's the number of members from the original Obama economic team still working for the administration, not quite three years into the first term.

Ken Salazar

Interior secretary may have violated law in Obama campaign appearance.  Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar may have violated federal law during his appearance at an Obama campaign event in Colorado on Wednesday [10/17/2012].  The Hatch Act limits how federal employees in the executive branch of government may engage in partisan political activity.  For instance, they may not use their official titles at political events.  But Salazar was presented as "Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar" in the Montrose County Democratic Party's online event calendar.

Drilling Ken Salazar.  After two years of practicing unrepentant contempt for science, jobs, law and truth, why should Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's words mean anything anymore?  While President Obama promotes offshore drilling overseas thousands of miles away in Brazil, Salazar now promises to revitalize America's oil and gas industry.

Salazar's War On Jobs.  The plight of the prairie chickens, smelt fish and dunes sagebrush lizards is not just a policy cause for environmentalists anymore, but the weapon of choice in a war on jobs by the Obama Administration, say critics in Congress.  The policies in effect at the Interior Department, now led by Secretary Ken Salazar, are supposed to protect endangered species against certain annihilation.  But they're also turning farmlands into dust bowls and running oil and gas development off the land, out of the water and out of the country.

Salazar: 'No one knows' if US headed to $9/gal gas.  Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that "no one knows" if gasoline prices in the United States will reach $9 per gallon, and acknowledged that the possibility is outside his control.

Cabinets gone wild.  [Scroll down]  Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has pulled off the near impossible:  At a time when the known gas and oil reserves of the United States on public lands have soared, he has cut back on federal leasing of them to just about 2 percent of available offshore lands and 6 percent of onshore.  Meanwhile, huge new amounts of oil are now found on private lands despite, not because of, the Interior Department.  When he was a U.S. senator, Salazar claimed that even $10-a-gallon gas would not change his mind about voting to increase offshore drilling.

Is Salazar the New Holder?  Charges of cover-ups, data manipulation, and junk science; noncompliance with congressional requests and mandates; putting a chokehold on energy:  Interior scandals stack up.

Lisa Jackson

13 Incompetent Failures in the Obama Administration.  [#2] When [Lisa] Jackson left, Gina McCarthy took over.  The scandals under her watch just kept ballooning.  Last May, it was discovered that an EPA employee downloaded 7,000 porn files, and watched them — for two to six hours during the work day.  This employee was not fired.  Another employee was accused of sexually harassing 17 women.  Supervisors "were made aware of many of these actions and yet did nothing."  That "nothing" consisted of promoting the alleged harasser to a higher position within the EPA's Office of Homeland Security, where he went on to harass six more women.  Oh, and I guess it would be good to mention the Animas River spill in Colorado which the EPA caused last August.  Yes, the Environmental Protection Agency led a team of contractors and workers to bust open a defunct mine in San Juan County, Colorado, thereby unleashing three million gallons of toxic sludge into the Animas and San Juan rivers, which flow from New Mexico and Utah.

Snitch I must.  Growing up in Brooklyn, NY, one learns early on that being a snitch can be hazardous to one's health but my President has asked and I have decided to forgo my own personal safety and expose those who are doing harm to my President and my Country.  First and by far most damaging must be Valerie Jarrett. ... Second, in my humble opinion, Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA, may very well be a subversive plant within your administration.

How Obama Betrays Martin Luther's King's Dream.  [Scroll down]  Lisa Jackson was chosen by Obama to be the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.  Since assuming office she has been reckless in her war on carbon and in the wake is leaving job losses, slow growth and an uncertain electric energy supply.  She has been accused of exceeding the bounds of her regulatory authority to such an extent that businesses are paralyzed by uncertainty — unsure of what she will unleash next.  She is blithely unconcerned that Congressmen have taken her to task for performance.  Was she chosen for the color of her skin or the content of her character?

Rogers rips EPA chief over coal permits.  The powerful Republican head of the House Appropriations Committee got rough with President Obama's environmental chief over the Environmental Protection Agency's coal mine permitting process on Wednesday [2/29/2012].  The wood-paneled committee hearing room suddenly seemed like a small-town courtroom as Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) turned prosecutorial on EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.  At one point, after Jackson fumbled when trying to name any Appalachian mines she had permitted during her tenure, Rogers declared "I rest my case!"

Cassandra Butts

Obama's Envoy to the Muslim World:  A Soros Tie?  The Washington Post published an article on [Rashad Hussain's] ascent that charts how he came to the White House in the first place.  He was recruited to the White house counsel's office by Cassandra Butts — a classmate of Barack Obama's at Harvard Law School.  Who is Cassandra Butts?  She as an alumna for the left-wing think tank Center for American Progress (one of many staffing the Obama administration).  This organization is an ideas factory for the Obama administration and its hiring hall.  It just took on Van Jones, for example.  The Center for American Progress was created and funded by George Soros.

Cassandra Butts — Bell Devotee, Obama Advisor, Judicial Scout.  The story of Cassandra Butts is an important example of how Critical Race Theory and its adherents continue to shape President Barack Obama's worldview and his administration.  At Harvard Law School from 1988-1991, Butts was one of the student advocates of Professor Derrick Bell's strike for "faculty diversity."  She was also a fast friend of Obama's, whose career she has helped to promote from the halls of the Harvard Law Review to the White House.  Her role in the Obama White House is not a mystery.

Ray LaHood

'This Is the End of Favoring Motorized Transportation at the Expense of Non-Motorized'.  Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has announced that federal transportation policies will no longer favor "motorized" transportation, such as cars and trucks, over "non-motorized" transportation, such as walking and bicycling.  LaHood signed the new policy directive on March 11, the same day he attended a congressional reception for the National Bike Summit, a convention sponsored by a bicycling advocacy group, the League of American Bicyclists.

Transportation Secretary LaHood pines for Chinese authoritarian government.  This is pretty shocking stuff from a cabinet secretary.

Transportation Secretary: Without Obama 'No One Would Have Ever Predicted' Lexus Hybrids — Which Debuted in '04.  The Obama administration is taking credit for inspiring Lexus to create a hybrid SUV — even though the automobile company began the well-publicized production of its RX 400h SUV hybrid in 2004 — four full years before Obama was elected.

LaHood: 'I'm very proud' of DOT stimulus spending at $738,000 per job.  Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood told The Daily Caller that he is "very proud" of the Economic Recovery Act of 2009 that put 65,000 people to work with $48 billion in federal funds for the Department of Transportation, amounting to $738,461 per job.  The Recovery Act of 2009, which in total cost taxpayers $825 billion, has been criticized because it did not prevent the unemployment rate from rising above 8 percent, contrary to what the Obama administration predicted.

Cass Sunstein

Animal-Rights Fanatic to Be Obama's Next "Czar"?  Glenn Beck reports that an animal-rights fanatic is on track to become President Obama's regulatory czar.  That individual is the radical legal theorist Cass Sunstein who has argued that:
 •  your money doesn't really belong to you because the government laid the foundations for your success;
 •  Internet censorship is a good idea;
 •  animals should be allowed to sue people;
 •  the names of carbon dioxide emitters should be compiled as part of a "greenhouse gas inventory" and publicized to shame those emitters into changing their behavior; and
 •  Americans' support for property rights and freedom of contract is an "incoherent" form "of so-called individualism."

Regulatory czar leaving White House to return to Harvard Law School.  [Scroll down]  But Sunstein also drew fire from some conservatives like Glenn Beck, who, in April of 2010, called the professor "the most dangerous man in America" and seized on comments about gun control he made in his academic writing.  Sunstein has long been rumored as a potential choice of Obama for a Supreme Court vacancy, if one were to open.

Chuck Hagel

Senator Coats: Hagel 'Has Had So Much Disrespect for the Military'.  In an interview with an Indianapolis radio station, Senator Dan Coats blasted Chuck Hagel, President Barack Obama's rumored choice to be the next secretary of defense.  "I don't know how you can nominate someone and make them Secretary of Defense who has had so much disrespect for the military," Coats told radio host Tom Rose.

An anti-Israel, anti-military incompetent would be a perfect fit in Obama's cabinet.
Rejecting Chuck Hagel.  Former Republican Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel may no longer be President Obama's favored pick to run the Defense Department, sources told the [Washiington] Free Beacon. [...] "Yes, Hagel has crazy positions on several key issues.  Yes, Hagel has said things that are borderline anti-Semitism. Yes, Hagel wants to gut the Pentagon's budget.  But above all, he's not a nice person and he's bad to his staff," said a senior Republican Senate aide who has close ties to former Hagel staffers.

Hagel sounds just like Obama:
There's No Case for Hagel.  What's striking about the case for Hagel is its absence.  His backers can cite no significant legislation for which Hagel was responsible in his two terms in the Senate.  They can quote no memorable speeches that Hagel delivered and can cite no profound passages from the book he authored.

Chuck Hagel's Biggest Problem: He's Like President Obama.  By nominating Chuck Hagel to be his Defense Secretary, President Obama is putting forward an aloof contrarian who doesn't suffer fools — a striving politician who considers himself above politics.  Hagel's intellectual arrogance angers party colleagues, raising suspicions about what he really stands for, and doubts about whether he's a team player.  In other words, Obama has picked a man very much like himself.

Sarah Saldaña

Obama's ICE Director: No Immigration Enforcement Until Amnesty Is Passed.  President Obama's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director tells lawmakers that no consequences are planned for sanctuary cities until Congress first passes "comprehensive immigration reform."  Sarah Saldaña testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on criminal alien violence.  After hearing emotional testimony from families torn apart by illegal immigrant murderers, Republican members of Congress grilled two administration witnesses: [...]

Nominee to Head Immigration and Customs Enforcement Doesn't Oppose Obama's Executive Amnesty.  President Obama's nominee to head up Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Sarah Saldaña, could be confirmed by the lame duck Senate any day now.  The problem?  She isn't opposed to Obama's executive amnesty. [...] [Sarah] Saldaña's amnesty position might be in touch with President Obama, but it's out of touch with Americans and with ICE agents working on the front lines to combat illegal immigration.

Sally Jewell

Interior Secretary:  More Diversity Needed In National Monuments — 'Bronze White Guy' Too Prevalent.  Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said on Tuesday [6/28/2016] at an event focused on Hispanic-American Entrepreneurship that the national monuments in the nation's capital need to be more diverse.  "If you drive around Washington, D.C., in every circle and every square you generally see a bronze white guy — sometimes on a horse, sometimes not — you have to work really hard — like in front of the Indian embassy you'll find Mahatma Gandhi," Jewell said.

Interior Secretary nominee Sally Jewell received Obamacare waiver for REI.  REI CEO Sally Jewell, President Obama's nominee for Interior Secretary, received an Obamacare waiver in 2011 for her company's health care coverage for 1,180 employees.  The controversial waivers were issued to select companies after Obama's health care reform bill passed in 2008, temporarily excusing them from the Obamacare health insurance mandates.

Obama Interior pick: Global warming hurt profits.  REI, the popular outfitter run by President Obama's choice to head the Interior Department, cited the impact of global warming as a reason for poor profits in its most recent annual report. [...] Obama's pick is REI CEO Sally Jewell, who has run the firm since 2005.  Under Jewell, REI has blossomed while pursuing a green agenda aimed at cutting carbon emissions and dressing shoppers in environmentally-sensitive gear and clothing.

Victoria Nuland

Nasty Surprises.  In the previous post I referenced Victoria Nuland's recent claim that "Putin will face some nasty surprises on the battlefield" — that's the actual direct quote.  But she also refers in that exact context to "asymmetric warfare."  In the context of her remarks she's clearly not referring to bombs and missiles and artillery shells.  "Asymmetric" is a very specific word, a word intended to distinguish that type of warfare from "symmetric" warfare:  shell for shell, bomb for bomb, missile for missile.  The next tweet contains the 24 second clip of Nuland making that statement, in which she touts Ukraine's "asymmetric warefare" capabilities.  Yeah, I thought we just gave the Ukro-Nazis money and munitions?  How does Nuland know about the Ukrainian "asymmetric warfare that has been most effective"?

Was Victoria Nuland involved in the Moscow terror attack?  [Scroll down]  Now a new name emerges, none other than pro-Ukraine warmongering Democrat State Department operative Victoria Nuland, who left office for greener, swampier pastures a few weeks ago. [...] Nuland is often blamed for the no-name attack on the Nord Stream II pipeline, for which no one has claimed credit and no one for sure has been blamed, but many believe that she or her allies were behind.  She bragged that it would happen before it happened, Wauck noted, and her bragging about asymmetric warfare now would seem to be part of the same she-can't-help-herself spilling of secrets. [...] Maybe it's all a coincidence, of course, that she bragged about "nasty things" and "asymmetric warfare." Maybe she meant something else, some different "nasty things." And yes, we should consider that possible because it's natural for people like us to suspect her, given that she is so loathesome.

FBI Memo:  Obama State Dept. [was] In Communication with Dossier Producer Fusion GPS.  Victoria Nuland, a former Hillary Clinton associate who served as a senior official in John Kerry's State Department, was in communication with Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, according to a newly released FBI document.  The controversial Fusion GPS opposition research firm infamously produced the Christopher Steele dossier alleging now debunked Russian collision charges and was paid for its anti-Trump work by Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Obama nominates Nuland for assistant secretary of state.  President Obama on Thursday nominated Victoria Nuland, a State Department official involved in the editing of the administration's talking points on Benghazi, to be the next assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.  Nuland, a career foreign service officer who was until recently State's top spokesperson, had long been expected to be nominated the post to replace Philip Gordon, who Obama picked to serve as Middle East coordinator for the National Security Council.

Update:
35 Key People Involved In The Russia Hoax Who Need To Be Investigated.  [#9] Victoria Nuland was a top Obama State Department official, and potentially Clinton's secretary of state.  Nuland had a role in pushing Fusion GPS conspiracy theories in the State Department, and in the broader Obama administration.  She received the Steele dossier just after it was created, via Jonathan Winer, in July 2016.  That was possibly two months before the document was in the hands of the FBI, unless the FBI had it sooner than we currently know.  She then ultimately gave permission for the FBI to make the contact with Steele, which was initiated by Michael J. Gaeta, an FBI agent based in Rome who became Steele's handler.

Sally Yates

Biden's Pretend Campaign.  Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates' performance at the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday was the most dignified and plausible attempt yet by any serious Obama Administration official to try to maintain the fiction that its justice department and intelligence agencies didn't go rogue and assault the Constitution. [...] Yates warbled on in the customary manner of Democrats about the already active and implicitly extremely dangerous effort of the Russians to subvert the current election, replete with Democratic senators' questions asserting that the president was perfectly equable about soliciting foreign interference.  Does anyone, except the Stelter-Tapper-Blitzer-Scarborough nether region of liberal cable-loopies, still pay any attention to this bunk?

Sally Yates throws James Comey under the bus.  With investigations revealing treasure troves of evidence of deep-state malfeasance in their bid to Get Trump, rats are fleeing a sinking ship.  Deep State is now trying to get its stories straight.  And in former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates's Senate testimony this Wednesday, it looks as if James Comey is the designated fall guy.  Blame him and the rest get off the hook. [...] She's saying that Comey, not Joe Biden, brought up the gamy Logan Act charge idea, something that is obviously now an embarrassment.  Yates is someone who is a Democrat from a prominent Democrat family and her claims of no bias are nonsense.  She stands to benefit from a Joe Biden presidential appointment in a Joe Biden administration, so no surprise, she's defending Joe by hurling Comey under the bus.

Sally Yates tries to deny Trump campaign was surveilled, Sen. Cruz helps clear it up for her.  Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, as part of the panel's review of the Russia investigation.  Things got interesting when Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, began his time by asking Yates when she was aware "the Obama administration was surveilling" President Trump's 2016 campaign.  Yates engaged in a game of words, saying that when the FBI began spying on Carter Page, he was a former member of the campaign — with an emphasis on former.  "The Obama administration was not surveilling the Donald Trump campaign at that point," Yates said, matter-of-factly.  Cruz informed Yates "you don't get it both ways," asking the question again.  "Carter Page was a former member of the Trump campaign at the time that the FISA was initiated," she repeated, as if the campaign had never been spied on.  [Video clip]

Sally Yates says James Comey went 'rogue,' but she was just as unscrupulous.  Sally Yates, who served as Deputy Attorney General during a critical period as the Russia collusion hoax evolved in 2016-17, trashed fired FBI director James Comey during her testimony Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  She readily agreed that Comey went "rogue" in his unauthorized pursuit of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.  But that, of course, was stating the obvious.  It was too easy.  Comey managed to turn himself into a human piñata when he engaged in blatant acts of corruption.  Like Comey, Yates was a model of prevarication and insincerity on nearly all other matters.  She minimized her own negligence and incompetence while blaming everyone else.

What to Make of Sally Yates's Senate Testimony.  [Sally] Yates became acting attorney general when AG Loretta Lynch stepped down toward the end of the Obama administration.  She was thus present at the important January 5, 2017, Oval Office meeting, when she and the FBI's then-director, James Comey, met with President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Susan Rice, Obama's national-security adviser.  The meeting centered around a scheme to withhold from the incoming Trump administration information about the Trump-Russia investigation — what's now often called "Russiagate" because of its similarity to Watergate-era domestic spying, part of what led to President Nixon's resignation to stave off impeachment.  Yates stayed on as acting AG in the early days of the Trump administration, but she was quickly fired for insubordination when she declined to enforce the new president's travel-restriction order.

Biden's running mate.  If Joe Biden gets the Democratic nomination, it's a good bet he will select a woman as his running mate.  Biden has mentioned four women he might pick.  They are Sally Yates, Stacey Abrams, Jeanne Shaheen, and Maggie Hassan.  Yates has spent her entire career as a lawyer, not much of a recommendation for the second highest office in the land.  Her biggest claims to fame are helping to set up Michael Flynn for prosecution and, as acting attorney general, refusing to enforce Trump administration immigration policy.  These actions made her a hero to the Trump resistance.  However, they do not recommend her for the second highest office in the land.

18 Real Attacks on the 'Rule of Law'.  [#5] The Sally Yates insurrection:  Shortly after President Trump assumed office, he issued an executive order citing his power under the Immigration and Nationality Act to place a travel moratorium on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries.  Sally Yates, the Obama-era holdover who temporarily served as acting attorney general, oversaw a vetting of this executive order and the Department of Justice issued a legal opinion confirming the order was legal and proper.  Nevertheless, Yates used her authority to instruct the Department of Justice to defy the president.  She clearly violated the president's authority under Article II of the Constitution as the chief executive by refusing to carry out an order she acknowledged was legal.  Unfortunately, this appears to have set the tone for the Justice Department's continued resistance to the president ever since.

Others / Everybody

TikTok Hires Firm Founded by Biden Senior Adviser, Nets Yawn.  On Thursday night, Politico's Daniel Lippman reported that the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok "hired top Biden-connected consulting firm SKDK" founded by current White House senior adviser Anita Dunn within "the last few months" to likely help it escape scrutiny and a possible ban from the federal government amid legitimate concerns its stored data can be used by the Chinese Communist Party.  Given the liberal media's penchant for littering their newscasts with puff pieces on TikTok bringing people together and viral trends, the major broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC ignored this story on their flagship morning and evening newscasts.

The Primary Architect of The Trump Targeting Operation Surfaces on ABC News.  For the past five years Mary McCord has been one of a small and select lawfare group organizing the targeting of President Trump.  Mary McCord led the support team who created the Carter Page FISA warrant using the Steele Dossier to replace the required 'Wood's file'.  McCord was the DOJ-NSD official who traveled with DOJ Deputy AG Sally Yates to talk to former White House counsel Don McGhan which weaponized the Flynn-Kislyak call to remove Trump's National Security Advisor.  Mary McCord was the person who organized Alexander Vindman and Eric Ciaramella to construct the first impeachment effort.  Additionally, it was Mary McCord along with her former legal counsel, turned Intelligence Community Inspector General, Michael Atkinson, who changed the ICIG whistleblower rules allowing an anonymous complaint to underpin the false accusations from Ciaramella against Trump.  It was also Mary McCord who was appointed by FISA court Judge James Boasberg as an amici curia to the court, intercepting issues of false information in filings from the DOJ-NSD to the court as constructed by Kevin Clinesmith.

Ex-Obama education chief compares anti-mask Americans to suicide bombers.  A former Obama administration Cabinet official on Sunday compared Americans who oppose face masks and vaccines to suicide bombing terrorists that killed Americans at the Kabul airport.  As the families of U.S. service members that died as a result of the ISIS-K attack in Afghanistan last week met with President Biden, Arne Duncan tweeted that he saw a comparison between the killers in Afghanistan and those Americans who oppose masks and vaccines.  "Have you noticed how strikingly similar both the mindsets and actions between the suicide bombers at Kabul's airport, and the anti-mask and anti-vax people here?" Mr. Duncan said on Twitter.  "They both blow themselves up, inflict harm on those around them, and are convinced they are fighting for freedom."

Richard Grenell critics ought to remember Leon Panetta.  President Donald Trump has named Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, as the new acting director of national intelligence, and now the anti-Trumping faction is going nuts, claiming Grenell does not possess the necessary requirements to successfully serve in the position.  Hmm.  But Leon Panetta, ex-CIA chief, did?  In 2009, Barack Obama picked Panetta, the politician-with-no-intel experience, to head the Central Intelligence Agency.  There was some outcry from even Democrats.  Yet he still served as top CIA dog.  So what's wrong with Grenell?  What's wrong is Grenell is pro-Trump and he's being appointed to head an agency with a deep state reputation filled with deep state resentments about this president.  The left is panicked about the potential for light to shine on their anti-Trump — anti-American — covert activities.

Attorney Requests WH Security Clearance Applications Of Obama Era-Senior Advisers.  An attorney representing a White House civil servant being scrutinized by the House Oversight Committee wants the security clearance applications of senior Obama White House staff including Valerie Jarrett, Jay Carney and Ben Rhodes.  The White House security application of National Action Network President Al Sharpton was also requested.

Sharyl Attkisson asks the key question post-Mueller report.  [Scroll down]  The biggest reason I want to start with shaming these people [Clapper, Brennan, Rice, Power, Comey] is what it says about the man that appointed them:  Barack Obama.  He entrusted our national security to a bunch of dishonest clowns.  And their efforts have been aimed at covering up his culpability in the Hillary email scandal (because he received emails from her private account, and lied about not knowing she had one, thereby incriminating him in improper handling — "gross negligence" — of classified), and the even bigger scandal of authorizing spying on the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.  Make no mistake:  Obama is the prize.  Unraveling the threads that lead directly to him would have a seismic impact on the course of American politics.

Congress Probes FBI Over Top Obama National Security Advisor's Security Clearance.  A top White House national security adviser and key proponent of the Obama administration's diplomacy with Iran is the focus of a congressional inquiry following disclosures the FBI may have denied him top-level security clearances, according to communications exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  Ben Rhodes, a White House deputy national security adviser who led the administration's efforts to mislead Congress about the terms of the Iran nuclear agreement, is under scrutiny in the wake of disclosures he was declined interim clearance status by the FBI in 2008, when the administration was moving into the White House.  Since that time, Rhodes has emerged as a key adviser to President Obama and a major player in the administration's efforts to create a self-described pro-Iran deal "echo chamber" to mislead Congress and Americans about the terms of the Iranian nuclear agreement.

A New Way That Obama's Justice Department Breaks the Law.  The current saga in the Civil Rights Division began nearly three and a half years ago, when its leader, Tom Perez — the embodiment of the Peter Principle, whereby managers rise to their level of incompetence — was promoted to the position of secretary of labor.  President Obama nominated Debo Adegbile, formerly an attorney with the NAACP (and this week appointed to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission), to replace Perez.  But Adegbile's nomination immediately ran into severe Senate headwinds.  During his time at the NAACP, he contributed to a brief on behalf of the convicted cop-killer and cause célèbre Mumia Abu-Jamal.  That connection prompted an outpouring of objections, stalling his nomination.  While Adegbile's nomination was pending in the Senate, the civil-rights shop was led by a succession of "acting heads," as permitted under the FVRA.  Eventually, in September 2014, Adegbile withdrew his nomination in the face of certain defeat.  At that moment, an important statutory timer began running:  Acting officials may serve for a maximum of only seven months after a permanent nominee's withdrawal.

Obama Appoints Cop Killer Mumia Abu-Jamal's Attorney to 6-Year Civil Rights Post.  In a move that has already sparked a backlash among law enforcement groups, President Barack Obama on Thursday appointed Debo Adegbile, a former attorney for convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, to a six-year post on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.  The eight-member commission consists of four members appointed by the president and four appointed by Congress.  Unfortunately, the six-year appointments are not subject to Senate confirmation.

Obama appoints Mumia Abu-Jamal's attorney to Civil Rights Commission.  In a move sure to fray his relations with law enforcement, President Obama on Thursday [12/15/2016] appointed Debo Adegbile, a former attorney for convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, to a six-year post on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.  Mr. Adegbile worked at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund when he represented Abu-Jamal in the appeal of his conviction and death sentence for the notorious 1981 shooting death of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.  Abu-Jamal's sentence was reduced to life in prison.  The case prompted the Senate to reject Mr. Adegbile's nomination in 2014 when Mr. Obama appointed him to lead the Justice Department's office on civil rights.  Some Democrats joined Republicans in voting down the selection at that time.

The President's Beloved Islamic Grievance Monger.  Linda Sarsour is a Palestinian-American community activist who since 2005 has served as executive director of the Arab American Association of New York (AAANY), which views the U.S. as a nation awash in racism and Islamophobia.  She is also a board member of the Muslim Democratic Club of New York, whose mission is to help elect as many Democrats as possible to political office.  An outspoken critic of Israel, Sarsour supports the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) movement, a Hamas-inspired initiative that uses various forms of public protest, economic pressure, and court rulings to advance the Hamas agenda of permanently destroying Israel as a Jewish nation-state.

7 Things You Need To Know About Omarosa, Trump's New Black Outreach Director.  [#2]  Before The Apprentice, Omarosa was a political consultant for the Clinton Administration — where she was transferred from four different positions in two years.  Omarosa reportedly worked as a political consultant for then-Democratic Vice President Al Gore during the Clinton Administration.  She was first named Deputy Associate Director of Presidential Personnel before reportedly being transferred a whopping four times in just two years due in part to her disruptive behavior.

The America-Hating Obama 'Homeland Security' Appointee.  Good ol' Barack Obama.  So deeply do he and his administration love America, that they felt secure enough in their own patriotism to appoint an America-hating radical to the Homeland Security Advisory Council's Subcommittee on Countering Violent Extremism (SCVE).  After all, they undoubtedly reasoned, what possible harm could such an individual do in that kind of a setting?  Perhaps you've heard of her — a young woman named Laila Alawa, born to Syrian parents who immigrated to the United States when the girl was ten.  Soon after she became a U.S. citizen in April 2015, Ms. Alawa wrote:  "I will always be Syrian.  I will always be from Syria.  I will always be of Syria."  Ain't that nice?  Ms. Alawa has long regarded the United States as a nation that oppresses and abuses Muslims, as she explained in a July 2014 piece which she wrote for The Guardian.

Obama Wants 'Radical' Who Fought for PORN in Public Libraries to Run Library of Congress.  There is now a Republican-led effort for the Senate to confirm President Obama's nomination of Carla Hayden to be the librarian of Congress.  Her confirmation hearing proceeded without any serious review of her record, her views, or her qualifications.  The American people should be asking why any senator would be anxious to confirm a nominee who is not only unqualified, but whom The Nation magazine celebrated as a "radical librarian" who champions unrestricted access to pornography in public libraries.

White House's Susan Rice:  U.S. national security agencies are too white.  In a White House often accused of being stacked with loyalists, President Obama's national security adviser said Wednesday [5/11/2016] there are too many white people in key government posts, endangering national security because they think alike.  Speaking at Florida International University's commencement, Susan E. Rice, who is black, said a diversified government workforce is more likely to yield "better outcomes" than a predominantly white one.

Ben Rhodes is Proud Administration Never 'Used Language That Suggests That America is at War With Islam'.  Deputy national security advisor for strategic communications Ben Rhodes told a Muslim audience Wednesday night that one of the things he was most proud of was the fact that under the Obama administration "people never have used language that suggests that America is at war with Islam."  "One of the things that I'll leave this job proudest of, is that for eight years people never have used language that suggests that America is at war with Islam," Rhodes told a Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) gala in Washington.

Obama's New 'Anti-Islamic State' Czar Advocated Funding Hamas Government.  Robert Malley, President Obama's new senior adviser on defeating the Islamic State, advocated negotiations with Hamas and urged the international community to provide financial assistance to a Palestinian government that included the terrorist group.  He also acknowledged holding meetings with Hamas members.  The Obama administration announced Malley's appointment two weeks ago.

Sources: Vocal supporter of sanctuary cities on short list to be next head of Border Patrol.  A former San Francisco police chief and vocal supporter of a sanctuary cities policy is on a short list of candidates to become the new chief of the Border Patrol, according to sources.  As police chief, Heather Fong shielded illegal immigrants, including aliens who committed crimes, from deportation.  In contrast, it is the job of the U.S. Border Patrol to catch and deport all illegal immigrants, including those with a criminal history.

Is this woman the new Lois Lerner?  As some at the Federal Election Commission seek to broaden the power of the agency, critics are arguing that it's beginning to look increasingly like the Internal Revenue Service under Lois Lerner, who has been accused of using her office for partisan purposes.  They take special aim at the commission's Democratic chairwoman, Ann Ravel, who also served as chairwoman of California's equivalent to the FEC, the Fair Political Practices Commission, before coming to Washington in 2013.  Ravel has lambasted the commission as "dysfunctional" because votes on enforcement issues have often resulted in ties, and she has said the commission should go beyond its role of enforcing election laws by doing more to get women and minorities elected to political office.  She has complained that super PACs are "95 percent run by white men," and that as a result, "the people who get the money are generally also white men."

Barack Obama names two new top aides.  President Barack Obama will name Shailagh Murray, a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reporter, to serve as his new senior adviser, and has tapped Jason Goldman, a Silicon Valley veteran, to become the White House's first-ever chief digital officer.  Murray replaces Dan Pfeiffer as a member of the president's core team of advisers, and Goldman will take over and expand Pfeiffer's role overseeing digital outreach by heading up an amped-up Office of Digital Strategy.

President Obama Rewards Media Matters with a Political Nomination.  With a quiet, almost unnoticed nomination just before Thanksgiving, President Barack Obama rewarded Media Matters for its help in attacking reporters and critics of the administration.  At the same time, he virtually guaranteed that a federal agency that is supposed to improve the administration of elections will instead become a partisan battleground intended to help his political party.  On Nov. 19, the White House issued a press release announcing that it was withdrawing the nomination of Myrna Perez, a lawyer at the Brennan Center, to be a commissioner on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.  It instead nominated Matthew S. Butler, the former CEO and president of the George Soros-funded left-wing advocacy group Media Matters, to replace her.

Cringe-worthy Obama nominee withdraws.  I confess that I halfway looked forward to George Tsunis being confirmed as ambassador to Norway.  He could have made for a highly amusing storyline on Season 3 of Lilyhammer, the hilarious Netflix Original series that satirizes political correctness in Norway and the clash of cultures between American Mafiosi and Scandinavian self-righteous niceness.  But when Harry Reid failed to shove him through Senate confirmation in the back-door deal last weekend, the handwriting was on the wall for the spectacularly unqualified nominee.

Nominee for Norwegian ambassador withdraws after cringeworthty Senate hearing.  Opposition to President Barack Obama's nominee for U.S. ambassador to Norway has grown in Congress to the point where Long Island, New York businessman George Tsunis now says he doesn't plan to pursue the job when the new Congress convenes in January.  Ambassadorial posts require Senate confirmation, and Tsunis's cringe-worthy performance in a January 2014 hearing virtually guaranteed that he wouldn't be getting a thumbs-up.

Ted Cruz Was Right, Again.  The usual suspects are attacking Ted Cruz for doing his job. [...] Apologists for Republican cowardice claim to be upset with Cruz because, as they claim, his parliamentary maneuvers to stymie the amnesty somehow allowed some objectionable Obama nominees to move forward in the confirmation process.  Of course, they're lying.  All Obama nominees are objectionable — remember, our president is a red diaper baby — yet the Senate eventually caves to Obama on more or less all of them.

Is Hagel's resignation a first sign of the administration's implosion?  Cabinet officials come and go, they'll note, but this White House has made a point of standing by its embattled figures.  Former Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius resigned in April of this year, well after the controversy surrounding the botched debut of Healthcare.gov.  Some speculated that the delay was an intentional effort to disassociate her resignation from the controversy that likely hastened it.  Similarly, the political press was shocked when Obama went ahead and accepted former Veterans Affairs Sec. Eric Shinseki's resignation in late May.

What a Real White House Shake-Up Looks Like.  It says here that Denis McDonough is asking top White House aides whether they plan to serve out the remainder of President Obama's term.  They should all say "no."  The president's approval ratings are underwater, his credibility is shot, he's politically toxic to Democratic candidates, his leadership is a bipartisan source of scorn, and a vast majority of Americans think the country is careening down the wrong track.  If Obama has any hope of rebuilding his legacy, he needs to dismantle his staff.

The Editor says...
A wholesale staff turnover will never happen, because that would require the approval of Valerie Jarrett, who is probably the very person who selected the entire staff.

ACLU lawyer given Justice Dept. civil rights post.  An American Civil Liberties Union attorney was named Wednesday [10/15/2014] to be the acting head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

Yellen says rising income inequality in U.S. 'greatly' concerns her.  Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen raised alarms Friday about rising income inequality in the U.S., saying it "greatly" concerned her and suggesting the trend was incompatible with American values.  The last several decades "have seen the most sustained rise in inequality since the 19th century," and by some estimates the gap in incomes and wealth is near its highest level of the last 100 years, Yellen said.

Janet Yellen made more than $7 million in speaking fees in 2019, 2020.  Janet Yellen, President-elect Joseph R. Biden's pick for treasury secretary, pulled in more than $7 million in speaking fees over the last two years — much of the money coming from major banks and consulting groups.  The totals were included as part of financial disclosure forms the U.S. Office of Government Ethics posted on New Year's Eve.  Ms. Yellen's speaking engagements included stops at Citi, UBS, Bank of America, Google and Goldman Sachs.

Senator Doc: Obama Needs to Withdraw Nomination of Young Activist for Surgeon General.  One of the physicians serving in the Senate called on President Obama to withdraw his 37-year-old nominee for surgeon general, an appointment that has stalled amid opposition in the upper chamber.  Vivek Murthy, a Harvard Medical School instructor who founded Doctors for Obama (which changed its name to Doctors for America), was nominated in November 2013.  Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak has been acting surgeon general since Regina Benjamin's resignation in July 2013.

Obama's new regulatory czar.  San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, a rising star in the Democratic Party, got most of the attention at the White House Friday afternoon [5/23/2014] when President Barack Obama announced him as the new choice for secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Veterans Secretary Eric Shinseki is missing in action.  Like most presidents before him, President Obama has surrounded himself with a cabinet full of gray non-eminences.  With the notable exceptions of Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta and Kathleen Sebelius, Obama's department secretaries have been little known to most Americans.  Even so, were there to be an award for the most obscure Obama cabinet secretary, it would undoubtedly go to Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki.  His department is the federal government's second-biggest bureaucracy — only the Department of Defense has more employees — and it is supposed to care for the noble men and women who served this country in its military.

Senate Democrats set to confirm zealous foe of fossil fuels.  Rhea Suh is living the sweetest dream of every radical environmental activist toiling in the trenches of Big Green's war against fossil fuels.  Suh has received a fat salary and extremely generous benefits since 2009 as assistant secretary for policy, management and budget for the Department of the Interior.  In that position, she helped shape every major Interior Department policy, including the infamous Gulf of Mexico drilling moratorium that was twice rejected by the federal courts.  Before that, she was a member of the Environmental Grantmakers Association, which represents 200 major environmental groups that are devoted to halting development of U.S. natural resources, especially in the western states. [...] Suh's dream is about to become even sweeter because she will soon step into a new job that will make her one of Big Green's most powerful Washington players, thanks to her appointment by President Obama as assistant secretary of the Interior for fish, wildlife and parks.

Obama's Rogues Gallery Of Radicals.  America is a country of 320 million people, most of them holding to traditional values.  Yet President Obama keeps mining the fringes for his hires.  Does he have any friends who aren't crackpots?  Seriously.  The president keeps saying he champions the middle class and its values.  But his choices of people to help him run the country are the most extreme in U.S. history, and his second-term nominations are more radical than the first.  No sooner had even some Senate Democrats joined Republicans in voting down a cop killer-coddler for civil rights chief, Debo Adegbile, than Obama sent up a 2nd Amendment-basher for U.S. Surgeon General.  Dr. Vivek Murthy advocates doctors asking patients if they keep guns in the home, a shocking invasion of privacy.  Murthy may also have a rocky path ahead of him, but other extreme-left nominees are getting confirmed.

HealthCare.gov: How political fear was pitted against technical needs.  [Scroll down]  In the end, the economic team never had a chance:  The president had already made up his mind, according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to be candid.  Obama wanted his health policy team — led by Nancy-Ann De-Parle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform — to be in charge of the law's arduous implementation.  Since the day the bill became law, the official said, the president believed that "if you were to design a person in the lab to implement health care, it would be Nancy-Ann."

Obama nominee behind 'driving while black' case.  A federal judge that President Barack Obama wants to promote to the appellate bench successfully sued the Maryland State Police for racial profiling.

Obama housing nominee: Most white people [...] should be excluded from 'democratic process'.  President Obama's pick to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency once said that a "majority of white voters" would never vote for a black candidate and that they should be excluded from "the democratic process."

Obama to Name Wheeler to Head FCC.  President Barack Obama is expected to tap a venture capitalist and former lobbyist to be the country's next top telecom-industry regulator.  Mr. Obama's choice to run the Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler, appeared open in 2011 to letting wireless giant AT&T Inc. acquire T-Mobile USA despite a lawsuit from antitrust regulators seeking to block the deal.  But he had a price.  In exchange for a $39 billion merger, AT&T would have had to agree to a slew of new regulations, according to an idea Mr. Wheeler laid out at the time on his personal blog.

Another dim bulb for energy.  President Obama's nomination of Ernest Moniz for secretary of energy seemed at first to offer some promise for the hapless department.  In the wake of Steven "Solyndra" Chu's departure, Mr. Moniz's nomination caused immediate worry among the radical green crowd for his support of nuclear power and the game-changing energy development of hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking.  However, after watching Mr. Moniz at his April 9 confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, it's clear that he is another automaton against fossil fuel.

Obama's Religious Freedom Appointee Involved in Muslim Event Calling for Limits to 1st Amendment.  America's free-speech model is in desperate need of an update, says an American-Muslim human rights activist who recently spoke at an event linked to an Obama administration appointee.  Dr. Qasim Rashid argued that cyber-bullying laws could be used to limit freedom of expression — such as the burning of Korans — in war time.

Obama's Nominees Exhibit Extremism And Incompetence.  Imagine a defense secretary decimating the Pentagon, a CIA chief favoring killing U.S. citizens on U.S. soil and a treasury secretary ignorant of where his own money resides?  Say hi to President Obama's new team.

Obama's Apparent Pick for Commerce Secretary Has a History of Shady Commerce.  As he continues to fill out his cabinet, a report emerged late Wednesday [2/6/2013] that President Obama is "close to choosing" Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker as America's next Secretary of Commerce.  There's only one problem.  She and her secretive family have been caught up in some pretty dodgy commercial ventures including but not limited to dodging taxes and running a bank that specialized in subprime mortgages.

So Apparently Gigolo John Kerry is a Scientist Now.  The longfaced new Secretary of State, John Kerry, delivered his first major address today.  It was not on the recent North Korean nuclear tests or the ongoing strife in the Middle East or the rise of China.  It was on global warming aka climate change.

Sec. of State? Kerry's Criticism of U.S. Foreign Policy Goes Back 42 Years.  Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), President Barack Obama's nominee for Secretary of State — Hillary Clinton is expected to resign from the position this spring — has often been critical of U.S. foreign policy, likening some American soldiers in Vietnam to Ghenghis Kahn and to war criminals, and being "Messianic" and fueling international animosity, among other criticisms.

Is Ben Bernanke Unleashing Inflation?  Conservative economists are paying attention to the man behind the curtain and not liking what they see.

Education 'Change Agent' Michelle Rhee: The Left Connection.  Does anyone care to find out why Rhee's resume reads like science fiction?  She claims to have upped scores in her three-year teaching stint in Baltimore from 13% to 90% proficiency in reading and math for her second- and third-grade classes.  No records of this exist.  Nada.  It's straight out of the Obama playbook.  She could say she was the first woman on the moon, and Americans, who have long since regarded objective truth, facts, and logic as relative, would believe her.

Obama labor agency nominee sent her kids to Communist-rooted summer camp.  A forthcoming report from the conservative organization Americans for Limited Government (ALG) details how President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) sent her children to a politically left-wing Jewish summer camp with Communist roots.  Obama nominated Erica Groshen to bea the BLS commissioner in February, but this new report — obtained by The Daily Caller and set to be released on Thursday [7/19/2012] — reveals for the first time publicly that she sent her children to Camp Kinderland.  The ALG report reveals how "Groshen and her husband are listed in the Kinderland Directory 2011-2012, which indicates that they sent children to the camp during the 1990s and 2000s."

Obama's Lauded Appointees Have Failed to Measure Up.  Like almost everything written and said about President Obama and his new administration as they stood poised to take office in 2009, the intellectual, governmental and political skills of his Cabinet and executive team were overinflated and fawned over by a news media caught in the national swoon.  "The team he has announced so far is more impressive than any other in recent memory," wrote New York Times columnist David Brooks.

Critics: Bureau of Labor Statistics nominee linked to left-wing groups.  The president's nominee to run the highly visible Bureau of Labor Statistics is on track to win Senate approval despite her ties to decidedly left-wing political groups, her critics say.  Erica Groshen's left-wing ties include her 1998 co-authorship of an article urging an end to small businesses' exemption from expensive federal regulations, and her husband's 2011 donation to the far-left Working Families Party.

Meet the Radical DOJ Lawyer Forcing Florida to Keep Foreigners on the Voter Rolls.  Yesterday [5/31/2012], Eric Holder's Voting Section ordered Florida to stop purging foreigners from the voter rolls.  Two weeks ago, Florida found 53,000 dead voters registered to vote.  Florida has also found non-citizens on the voter rolls and Secretary of State Ken Detzner has started the process of removing them.  Not so fast, says Eric Holder's DOJ.  In a letter to Detzner, the DOJ says to stop removing foreigners from the rolls.  The Voting Section makes a dubious argument under Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act, a law the Obama administration has refused to enforce because of ideological opposition.  The letter notes that Elise Shore is the attorney behind the letter.

The Chicago Way.  Every president comes to Washington with a coterie of outside advisers, friends, and fixers they've picked up during the course of a career.  Eventually one or more of them becomes controversial.  Richard Nixon had Bebe Rebozo.  Jimmy Carter had his brother Billy and Bert Lance.  Ronald Reagan had Mike Deaver.  Bill Clinton had many trailing after him — they became the menagerie implicated in Whitewater and Monicagate.  But Barack Obama's inner circle has almost completely escaped close scrutiny since he became president.  That may be about to change, and the rich cast of characters making up Team Obama merits further attention.

Seven Of The Most Disturbing Quotes From Members Of The Obama Administration.  Birds of a feather flock together and so when we see Barack Obama stacking his cabinet with radicals, it tells us a lot about his mentality.  Of course, the fact that his entire term in office has been nothing but a slow motion evisceration of the American dream should tell you a lot about how he thinks, too — but a little more evidence is always welcome.

Where Are the Rolling Heads from NOAA?  [Scroll down]  A special master appointed by the IG found that [Larry] Yacobian had been treated unfairly.  The government returned $400,000 to Mr. Yacobian, and the Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke, apologized personally.  But nobody has ever been punished.  Why?  Because the NOAA outrages are based on cronyism and fully condoned by our current brand of Big Government.  Dr. Jane Lubchenco, the person who decides on reward or punishment at NOAA, is an environmental superstar and Obama's favorite eco-zealot.  Dr. Lubchenco, with the cognizance and support of the president, has filled the upper management of NOAA with like-minded eco-zealots.  They are knowingly and purposefully shrinking the fishing fleet, driving hardworking Americans out of business and out of work to consolidate the industry.

Obama administration hires former Planned Parenthood spokesman.  The Obama administration has hired Planned Parenthood's former spokesman to work in the Department of Health and Human Services' press shop — angering anti-abortion groups, who pointed to the decision as evidence of the administration's bias.  The federal health department tapped Tait Sye, former media relations director at Planned Parenthood, to be the new deputy assistant secretary for public affairs.

Obama's Pick for World Bank Hates Capitalism.  [Dartmouth College President Jim Yong] Kim's expertise is in health policy, so little is known about his views on economic development, the World Bank's primary purpose.  What is on the public record, however, is deeply troubling.  A case in point is a collection of studies that Kim co-edited in 2000, Dying for Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of the Poor.  The grim title accurately reflects the book's radical central premise, namely that capitalism and economic growth is bad for the poor across the world.

Bill Ayers Apostle Appointed White House Education Initiative Director.  Jose Rico has been named the new director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, a key position that could help close the achievement gap between white and minority students.  But if his history is any indication, his influence may do more harm than good.  Perhaps most troubling is Rico's connection to unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and communist radical Mike Klonsky through the Chicago-based "Small Schools Workshop."

Obama's Problematic New Nominee for Top Medicare/Medicaid Post.  Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) chief Donald Berwick will step down on December 2, three weeks before his recess appointment expires on December 31.  Fortunately, Dr. Berwick left a voluminous paper trail, leaving little doubt about his affinity for socialized medicine.  His controversial views on "redistributional" healthcare and rationing prompted 42 senators to vehemently oppose his nomination last spring.  Not wishing to have another fight on his hands, President Obama has nominated Berwick's second-in-command, Marilyn Tavenner, to head the agency.

The Power of Samantha Power.  Samantha Power's opinions eclipsed the views of her nominal boss, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and those of Obama's Defense Secretary (who, at least, had to pass confirmation by the Senate, unlike Power).  Her influence is long-lasting and deep.  She also probably played a role in nominating Mary Robinson to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, despite a checkered record involving international efforts towards our ally, Israel.

Obama Picks a Progressive Lawyer for Top Economist.  On January 11, President Obama chose Gene Sperling to replace Lawrence Summers as his Director of the National Economic Council. ... When the book about President Obama's presidency is written, it will be noted that he did not have the discernment to distinguish competent from incompetent advisors.

President Obama appoints Roberta Achtenberg to serve on U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.  Today the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, lauded President Obama's appointment of Roberta Achtenberg to serve on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.  Achtenberg was the first openly gay or lesbian person to be confirmed to a government position by the Senate.

Is the Fix In at Justice?  Announce bad news on a Friday afternoon, the rule in official Washington goes.  Attorney General Eric Holder seems to have a new corollary:  Make bad appointments over holiday breaks.  It works.  Holder's announcement on Christmas Eve that he was appointing Robin Ashton as the new head of the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) went virtually unnoticed in the press, other than a highly complimentary article in the Washington Post.

Obama Brings on the B-Team.  "The appointment of the obscene corporate hack William Daley should put to rest any and all illusions people have on the Obama administration," wrote progressive political consultant Joe Costello to his listserv of likeminded progressives within hours of the announcement that the JP Morgan executive would be replacing Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff.

Chief of staff pick just another cog in the Daley machine.  As President Barack Obama knighted Chicago's William Daley as his new chief of staff — and kept the Daley machine in control of the executive branch of our federal government — I couldn't help thinking of the good old days.

Newest member of Obama's National Economic Council is an ardent supporter of cap and trade.  On Monday [1/3/2011], the Obama administration announced it had hired an environmental economist from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to join the National Economic Council.  Replacing member Joe Aldy, Nat Keohane, a long-time advocate of cap and trade, will now be advising President Obama on the economics of energy and environmental issues.  With Keohane's addition, it now looks like the Obama administration is preparing to go to battle against congressional Republicans who balk at the prospect of any environmental legislation.  But Keohane's hire also represents something else — the continuation of Obama placing global warming alarmists in positions to have major influence on environmental policy.

Just Another Radical Obama Appointee.  Just what we need — another new Obama appointee with a controversial past and radical inclinations.  Several weeks ago, the president announced his intention to make three appointments to the National Council on the Humanities.  One of them is Cathy Davidson, an English professor at Duke University. ... With her lack of ability to discern real scholarship from superficial nonsense and her radical tendencies, it is hard to imagine somebody who will perform the position's duties less responsibly than Davidson.

The Editor asks...
Why does the National Council on the Humanities exist?  What part of the Constitution authorizes it?

Rep. King:  Obama recess appointment at Justice Dept. 'absolutely shocking'.  Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the incoming chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, has angrily denounced President Obama's recess appointment of James Cole as deputy attorney general.  King called Cole's appointment "absolutely shocking" and said it might be one of the worst appointments Obama will make during his presidency.

TSA's John Pistole.  As Americans continue to watch in utter amazement as the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration demonstrates its continued inability to identify and target likely hostile travelers and, therefore, subjects 100% of travelers to intrusive screening, we all are wondering Why?  The answer is actually straightforward:  TSA Director John Pistole.

Acting U.S. Solicitor General Represented Osama Bin Laden's Driver.  Neal Katyal, who became the acting U.S. solicitor general when Elena Kagan was nominated to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, previously served as the legal counsel of record for the man who worked as Osama bin Laden's driver from February 1996 through November 2001.  Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who underwent training at an al Qaeda camp, was charged with transporting weapons to al Qaeda operatives.

The Neomarxist who is helping to influence Obama's media policy.  "Only government can implement policies and subsidies to provide an institutional framework for quality journalism."  Does that statement give you chills?  How about this one: ... "In the end, there is no real answer but to remove brick-by-brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles."  These are the sentiments of Robert McChesney, a self-professed neomarxist media scholar and the founder of the lobbying group and think tank Free Press.

Political Activism at the National Cancer Institute:  On May 17th, President Obama announced that he would nominate Harold Varmus, MD, as the next director of the National Cancer Institute. ... In 2009 Dr. Varmus was serving on the advisory board of an organization called the "Campaign to Defend the Constitution."  Interesting.  This group was started in 2005 by the Tides Foundation, well known for funding various progressive groups.  The Campaign to Defend the Constitution, also called DefCon, was established to support the constitutional separation of church and state and to oppose what it perceived as the growing influence of the religious right.

Dennis Blair's Replacement:  How about No One?  Now that Dennis Blair has officially resigned from his post, Obama officials are scrambling to find a new director of national intelligence (DNI).  But why bother?  Unnecessary bureaucracy has a venomous effect on the national security establishment, whether it's infantry or intelligence.  The director of national intelligence, which has ballooned to a 1500-man supporting office, was a top down solution to a bottom up problem.

Obama Draws Fire for Appointing SEIU's Stern to Deficit Panel.  President Obama's decision to appoint his close political ally, union leader Andrew Stern, to the newly created National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has set off a firestorm of criticism from business and conservative groups who charge he is a political radical who should be investigated for failure to register as a lobbyist.

You Can't Make It Up.  The White House has announced that Mari Del Carmen Aponte will be nominated by the President to become the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador.  Aponte is a former director of the radical Mexican organization La Raza and of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education fund.

The continuing battle over Obama's radicals.  Barack Obama is fighting a lot of political wars these days. ... They're all serious and time consuming.  But the war that has become unexpectedly intense in recent days isn't about any particular policy.  It's the war over personnel — the president's choices to fill important but not necessarily high-profile jobs in his administration.

A Reading From Ezekiel.  You'd think the central planners at the White House would go outside their small group of relatives for some top-notch expertise when they're trying to revamp something as big and complex as one-sixth of the American economy.  When Bill Clinton sought to radically overhaul American health care, he made the mistake of putting Hillary in charge.  This time around, Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, is on the Obama team as a special advisor on health policy...

Obama Administration Defiantly Defends Another Radical Appointee.  I continue to be amazed at the naiveté of people who keep giving President Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt concerning his radical appointments, saying his administration isn't doing its job in vetting the appointees.  When will they wake up to the reality that Obama is deliberately picking people, such as Kevin Jennings, who share his radical values?

The Audacity of Conceit.  It is a common mistake of intellectuals to confuse IQ with common sense and verbal fluency with leadership qualities. ... Nobody would deny that the members of Obama's circle of economic advisors are indeed academically adept, well-spoken men and women.  But have any of them ever run a lemonade stand, much less a bona fide business?  Have they ever met a payroll? ... So what do they bring to the administration other than long resumes and fearsome reputations as intellectual polemicists?  All these brilliant academics have been brought on board for the sole purpose of lending an intellectual veneer to Obama's political schemes and validate his power grab.

Obama Security Breech (sic):  The Obama Administration is worried that yet another senior appointee has run into potential ethics issues one week into his new job.  According to one White House source, the Obama Administration asked its newly appointed chief technology officer to take a leave until the Department of Justice could provide the administration with additional information surrounding an FBI raid at the officer's former workplace, the Washington, D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer.

Fourth Nominee Withdraws From Treasury's Roster.  H. Rodgin Cohen, chairman of the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, has withdrawn his name from consideration for deputy Treasury secretary, becoming the fourth pick for a prominent Treasury Department post to pull out in recent weeks.

Obama's secret telecom advisor pushing his company's interest.  A telecommunications company has confirmed for this columnist that its vice president for policy — who is also an Obama donor and a former lobbyist — is advising Barack Obama's transition team on telecom policy.  Obama's transition team, which has failed to disclose this executive's involvement, happens to have proposed a significant change in telecom policy that will profit that very company, called Clearwire.

Past Controversies Hang Over Obama's Cabinet Picks.  [Gov. Bill] Richardson's nomination could be haunted by two incidents.  First, he offered [Monica] Lewinsky a job at the United Nations in what prosecutors called an attempt to buy her silence on behalf of President Bill Clinton, according to FOX News' Washington Deputy Managing Editor Bill Sammon's book, "Meet the Next President."  Richardson also could face a Capitol grilling for accusations he faced from both Democratic and Republican senators for failing to properly safeguard nuclear secrets after he left his U.N. post to become energy secretary.

Gay man backed for Navy secretary.  Some top retired military leaders and some Democrats in Congress are backing William White, chief operating officer of the Intrepid Museum Foundation, to be the next secretary of the Navy — a move that would put the first openly gay person at the top of one of the services.

Vilsack got Ag. Dept. farm subsidies.  President-elect Obama has pledged to cut farm subsidies and embrace renewable fuels — two initiatives that hit close to the wallet of his newly unveiled pick for agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack.  From 2000 to 2006, Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, and his wife collected $42,782 in subsidies from the department he was tapped Wednesday to oversee.

Clinton scandal figure on Justice team.  President-elect Barack Obama tapped a major campaign bundler and a former U.S. attorney who got caught up in Bill Clinton's 2001 pardons scandal to serve on the 14-member Justice Department review team announced Friday [11/14/2008].

Too Many Skeletons In My Cabinet.  In an effort to weed out riffraff, Obama has come up with a bizarre job application — a seven-page, 63-question document so invasive that it must have been cooked up by the president-elect's lawyers.  Or his proctologist. ... I'm afraid No. 61 ends my governmental fantasy:  "Have you had any association with any person, group or business venture that could be used — even unfairly — to impugn or attack your character and qualifications for government service?"  How about PETA?  Defense lawyers?  The entire Democratic Party?

Ex-ACLU lawyer settles into government role.  Tim Edgar, lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, never imagined he'd be Tim Edgar, lawyer for the director of national intelligence. Many in the intelligence establishment certainly never thought that Edgar, one of their community's fiercest critics, would be a co-worker.

Key Questions for Lisa Jackson, Nominee for EPA Administrator.  The Clean Air Act and other environmental statutes the agency is charged with implementing have significant economic impacts, especially on things like energy costs and employment in the manufacturing sector.  In the past, the agency has taken actions that were unnecessarily costly, and more of the same in the months and years ahead could jeopardize any economic recovery.

Obama's legal extremists:  Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy will try to rush though hearings on two Department of Justice appointees today before the public or the Senate can fully consider their records and positions.  That may be by design.  The two appointees have far-left records.

Strike Three!  One could take the withdrawal of so many cabinet nominees as a sign of the Obama administration's high standards — except that the cabinet already contains at least two members with documented tax problems:  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.  And Rep. Hilda Solis seems on track for confirmation as secretary of labor despite her husband's having failed to pay off tax liens as much as 16 years old until last week.

Payback time...
Palin foe gets administration job.  Alaska State Sen. Kim Elton, one of the leading officials to pursue an investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin during the heat of the presidential campaign, has taken a high-level job in the Interior Department.

Sour Grapes Over The Radical Obama Threw Under The Bus.  Obama was expected to appoint Thomas Saenz as his top civil-rights cop at the Justice Department, where he would have had power to investigate issues related to illegal immigration, such as voting rights, redistricting, worker documentation and police conduct.  But then, at the last minute, the president deselected him in the face of vocal opposition to Saenz's extremist work for an illegal alien group, whose co-founder has made racist remarks against whites.

Obama's Car Team Looks like an Edsel.  America has a former New York Times journalist, Steven Rattner, as our auto czar, a man with zero auto industry expertise.  And it shows.  To be completely fair to Rattner, he did leave journalism for investment banking, and went on to run a private investment firm, but he has no actual experience in the auto industry.  Even worse his firm is now mired in a pay-to-play scandal.

An Anti-Business President.  Democratic presidents are not famous for appointing businessmen, merchants, or entrepreneurs to their cabinet or senior White House staff.  These are people who have started or run private businesses, created jobs, met payrolls, and made profits.  Thus they might be sensitive to how government can help or hurt business enterprises, especially during an economic downturn.  The number of such people appointed by Obama:  zero.  Members of his cabinet and White House staff come predominantly from government, academia, think tanks, and the law.

Deadly Doctors.  The health bills coming out of Congress would put the decisions about your care in the hands of presidential appointees.  They'd decide what plans cover, how much leeway your doctor will have and what seniors get under Medicare.  Yet at least two of President Obama's top health advisers should never be trusted with that power.

Six Months of B.O.  It would be different if Obama had actually hired a capable hand or two to help around the White House.  You would think that by accident he might have made at least one good hiring decision.  Remember when they called the staff assembled by JFK "the best and brightest"?  The Obama squad is the least and the slightest.  While simpering Tim Geithner at Treasury makes Eddie Haskell look forthcoming and sincere, Vice President Joe Biden continues to make Dan Quayle look like Stephen Hawking.

Conservatives hunt for the next Van Jones.  Emboldened by the ouster of presidential adviser Van Jones, conservative and business groups are launching fresh challenges aimed at derailing President Obama's nominees.  The latest of these targets is David Michaels, Mr. Obama's pick to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), who as an academic published a book attacking corporate executives for the tactics they used to fight class-action lawsuits.

Sex scandal double standard.  Since taking office, the Obama administration has been hammered by repeated breakdowns in its vetting process.  Appointees who don't pay taxes.  An appointee who signed on to accusations that the previous administration was complicit in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.  And now an appointee who thinks sex between an adult and a 15-year-old is no big deal.

The Weatherman Who Helped Author Obama's Legislation.  Despite being profiled early on in Glenn Beck's czar series, Jeff Jones — who helped author the ObamaCare bill — has received far less scrutiny than Van Jones and some others.  By now, though the barrage of radicalism may have inoculated you to the fact that a member of Obama's team is best-known for his mug shots, Jeff Jones does indeed warrant the country's attention.

Scott Gration — President Obama's Special Envoy to the Sudan.  His diplomatic policy is, quite literally the following:  "We've got to think about giving out cookies," said Gration who was appointed in March, "Kids, countries — they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement." ... While President Obama's handpicked "Special Envoy" was tempting genocidal Muslim radicals with "cookies" and "gold stars," marauding bands of guerrillas in the Sudan crucified seven Christians.

Obama Adviser Loves Sharia.  Dalia Mogahed, Barack Obama's adviser on Muslim affairs, appeared on British television last week, where she said:  "Sharia is not well understood and Islam as a faith is not well understood." How have we misunderstood Islamic law?  We have associated it with "maximum criminal punishments" and "laws that... to many people seem unequal to women."

America's Mobocracy.  A minor facet of the Obama administration itself is the Chicago "gangster government" character of his White House staff and his cabinet and departmental appointees.  Not all of his appointees are from Chicago.  They just have that odor about them, of professional political parasites who have scurried in and out of sight and up and down the totem pole of Washington politics over the years as their chosen career choices, to a soul advancing or pimping for collectivism, most of them never having worked a productive day in their lives.

They're ALL Communists.  How many of Obama's advisors have to be exposed as communists and Marxists before some of the duller-witted among us admit not only that there is a pattern here, but that it is deliberate, and reflects the leanings of the White House?  Connect the dots, people.  It's not that Jones, Dunn, Sunstein et al were not properly vetted; it's that they were.  It's not that Obama wasn't familiar enough with their viewpoints; it's that he was.  These people were not chosen despite their views; they were chosen precisely because their views coincide with Obama's own.

Obama health 'czar' worked at legally troubled health firms.  Nancy-Ann DeParle, one of President Obama's chief advocates for the health care reform bill wending its way through Congress, earned more than $6.6 million as a paid director for health care firms, some of which were targeted in government investigations or whistleblower lawsuits on suspicions of billing fraud and other legal problems.

New White House Counsel Was Defender of ACORN.  The incoming White House counsel will carry a reputation for hardball tactics into his new job.  As President Barack Obama's election attorney, Robert Bauer staunchly defended ACORN against political attacks, sought investigations of political opponents and pressed TV and radio stations to stop running ads critical of the Democratic nominee.

Obama's Latest Appointment:  A Reflection of his Radical Past.  [Scroll down]  So we know that Barack Obama came not only from the world of rough and tumble Chicago politics, which Fred Siegel has written about both for The Weekly Standard and National Review many times during the campaign, but also from the world of radical black nationalism exemplified by Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the church he ran and which Obama attended regularly.  This past, I think, explains Obama's propensity to keep appointing rather low-level officials who can operate under the radar and who come from a similar radical or left-wing past.

Another 'visionary' with no practical experience.  Medicare and Medicaid are to be headed by a new Obama appointee, and I smell trouble.

Obama's Army Nominee Let Classified Info Leak.  President Obama's second nominee to be Army General Counsel headed the legal department at a major newspaper when it published stories that compromised the nation's top-secret counterterrorism programs, questioning his ability to protect sensitive national security information if he's confirmed.

NY Times still pays Obama's nominee to Army post.  President Obama's nominee for U.S. Army general counsel, who pledges to investigate anyone leaking military secrets to the media, will receive at least $1 million in deferred compensation from the New York Times Co. even as he works for the government, records show.



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Updated March 29, 2024.

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