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
Ship of Fools: Obama's
Intimates and Advisors. [Scroll down] Holder was also instrumental in the "stealth pardons" of two
Weather Underground terrorists, Susan Rosenberg and Linda Evans (both closely associated with President Obama's terrorist
friends, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn). Rosenberg and Evans had been serving decades-long sentences for bombings
targeting American government facilities. Again Holder helped circumvent the pardon process and evade objections
from prosecutors regarding the terrorists' jail terms.
Barack Obama close to naming
Eric Holder as first black attorney general. Although his appointment would underline to the black community
the transformative message of Mr Obama's own election, it would also amplify murmured concerns that promises to reform
Washington are being watered-down. Mr Holder, 57, was the deputy Attorney-General under Bill Clinton and embroiled
in the bitter controversy surrounding the pardon of Democrat donor Marc Rich after giving a "neutral, leaning towards
favourable" opinion of letting one of the FBI's "most wanted" go free on the former president's last day in office.
Eric
Holder: Crook, Liar, Attorney General. I watched as much as I could tolerate of the
confirmation hearing for Eric Holder to be Attorney General in the Obama Administration. He claimed that
his participation in the last minute pardon of Marc Rich was "a mistake" and that he had "learned from it, and
would be a better Attorney General because of it." The nature of his mistake was that he "did not know"
the details of Marc Rich's crimes and situation. Let's examine those claims.
Unpardonable:
Holder's Marc Rich Shuffle. Eric Holder's intercession on behalf of fugitive Marc Rich is so
inexplicable that he has always viewed ignorance as his best defense. It's as though Holder believes
that a deputy attorney general looks better for having remained studiously unaware of critical facts in a
criminal case before throwing his weight around. But that's Holder's story, and he's sticking to it:
even if it turns out not to be true.
Don't Confirm Holder. If the issue
weren't so serious for our nation, the irony would be delicious. Eric Holder, President Obama's choice
for Attorney General is justly criticized for many things. But the fact that he recommended that
President Clinton pardon and release from prison unrepentant FALN terrorists while at nearly the same time
advocating that law-abiding gun owners be imprisoned if their registration papers are not in order reveals
a hard core left wing agenda.
Eric Holder Approves of Bookstore and Library Searches... Where's the
Outrage? For years we've seen news agencies and opinionists rail against the expanded power of
the FBI to search such records. But, now with Obama's AG announcing in his confirmation hearing that he
agrees that the FBI should have this power, all anti-Bush administration voices are silent on the matter that
had them so exercised for 6 years.
Holder not questioned about Waco Branch Davidian siege. U.S.
Attorney General-designate Eric Holder was prepared to be bombarded during his Senate confirmation hearings Thursday
with a host of questions about a variety of topics, including his role as acting attorney general during a special
investigation into the 1993 Branch Davidian debacle. While he fielded questions about waterboarding terrorist
suspects and the 2001 pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, Senate Judiciary Committee members didn't get around
to asking about the Branch Davidian investigation.
Let The Witness Answer First.
Eric Holder seems certain to be nominated for Attorney General. Republican Senators are saying there will be
"tough" hearings during which they will "grill" Holder on his role in the Marc Rich affair, although it is not clear
there will be a serious effort to derail his nomination. I'd suggest that before Senators declare themselves
committed or not committed to giving him a pass, they get some clear answers from Holder. The questions are
numerous. Here are just a few.
Holder is Disqualified
by Mark Rich Pardon. Soon after Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, the former president and I had a
brief telephone conversation. I had been downright heated about the pardon, a lot angrier than I had
ever been about Monica Lewinsky. Clinton implied that I had things historically backward. Long
after the Rich pardon had been forgotten, he said, the Lewinsky scandal would remain a vivid memory. That day is
yet to come. The Rich pardon is back. The vehicle for this lingering echo from the year 2001 is the choice of
Eric Holder as Barack Obama's attorney general.
GOP
probes Holder's role in Elian Gonzalez case. Senate Republicans have requested information about
Attorney General nominee Eric Holder's role in the Elian Gonzalez controversy as part of a broad probe into
his tenure with the Clinton administration and potential ties to presidential scandals during that era.
A Pardon to
Remember. When President Bill Clinton pardoned a billionaire fugitive from justice on
his last day in office, even usually loyal Democrats were dismayed. Representative Henry Waxman
of California called it "bad precedent" and "an end run around the judicial process." He said it
appeared to set a double standard for the wealthy and powerful. The billionaire was Marc Rich, a
commodities trader, and his pardon is a subject of discussion again because Eric Holder, Mr. Clinton's
deputy attorney general at the time and a key figure in the clemency process, is reported to be Barack
Obama's choice for attorney general.
Will
Holder's Role in Lewinsky Probe Get Scrutiny? Transition aides, and much Washington speculation, have
focused on [Eric] Holder's brief part in Clinton's controversial last-minute pardon of fugitive tycoon Marc Rich as
a potential snare in confirmation hearings. But the behind-the-scenes role Holder played in the Monica Lewinsky
probe — a 10-month Justice Department ordeal — offers a much fuller record to scrutinize. And
like everything else with that polarizing scandal, Holder's shifting positions at the time are likely
to be judged differently depending on one's view of Clinton and Starr.
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.
Why Make Holder Attorney General? During the
1970s and 1980s, Marc Rich made billions of dollars by trading with enemies of the United States, including selling weapons
to the Iranian regime of Ayatollah Khomeni and helping Russian mafia figures launder money from smuggling drugs and material
for nuclear weapons. He fled the United States and renounced his citizenship in order to avoid paying at least
$48 million in income taxes in what U.S. attorneys called "the largest tax-evasion scheme ever prosecuted." He
spent years on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list and even his own lawyer, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, called him a traitor.
In 2001, Eric Holder, Barack Obama's apparent choice to be the next Attorney General of the United States, helped arrange
a Bill Clinton pardon for this career criminal.
Specter
seeks to slow down Holder confirmation. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the ranking member of the
Judiciary Committee, wants to slow down the process of confirming Eric Holder attorney general, citing
lingering concerns about the nominee's role in the 2001 pardon of Marc Rich.
Confirming Fears:
[Eric Holder] is convinced justice in America needs to be "established" rather than enforced; he's excited about hate
crimes and enthusiastic about the constitutionally dubious Violence Against Women Act; he's a supporter of affirmative
action and a practitioner of the statistical voodoo that makes it possible to burden police departments with accusations
of racial profiling and the states with charges of racially skewed death-penalty enforcement; he's more likely to be
animated by a touchy-feely Reno-esque agenda than traditional enforcement against crimes; he's in favor of ending the
detentions of enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay and favors income redistribution to address the supposed root causes
of crime.
Holder
testimony on pardon questioned. Attorney General-designate Eric H. Holder Jr. told Congress
under oath that he had "only a passing familiarity" with the criminal case against billionaire Marc Rich
before President Clinton pardoned the fugitive financier in 2001 — testimony that is now raising
concerns among lawmakers reviewing Mr. Holder's nomination.
Questions Holder Needs To Answer.
President-elect Obama's choice for attorney general — displays a liberal ideology which often
conflicts with the Constitution, the war on terror, and common sense. ... The Attorney General is the chief
law enforcement officer of the United States. Before Holder's nomination is voted on by the committee,
he should answer searching inquiries that may reveal his unfitness for that post.
Holder defends Clinton's pardons for
FALN members. Eric Holder Jr. says President Bill Clinton acted reasonably when he commuted the
sentences of 16 Puerto Rican nationalists. The prisoners belonged to a group, the F-A-L-N, that carried
out murders, robberies and bombings. Holder said Thursday [1/15/2009] that those released from prison
did not carry out the violent acts, a statement that has been disputed by former FBI officials.
Terrorists killed my dad.
President-elect Barack Obama has nominated a man to be his attorney general who was closely involved in former President
Clinton's decision as he was leaving office to pardon 16 FALN members convicted on conspiracy and weapons charges.
Though no one was ever charged specifically with the Fraunces Tavern bombing, the FALN proudly claimed responsibility for
it amid more than 100 others. Its attacks killed six people and wounded scores of others.
Politicizing
Justice. How can we trust your leadership when ... you just constantly change the story,
seemingly to fit your needs to wiggle out of being caught, frankly, telling mistruths?" Remember
Sen. Chuck Schumer's skewering of Alberto Gonzales? Watching the bobs, weaves, and outright denials
of attorney-general nominee Eric Holder as he struggles to explain his inexplicable conduct in the Marc Rich
pardon scandal, one can't help but remember.
Incoming
Attorney General Hostile to Civil Liberties. Eric Holder, Obama's nominee for attorney general,
is hostile to civil liberties. He has previously expressed veiled support for using the misnamed
"Fairness Doctrine" to squelch "conservative critiques" and "conservative media," such as Fox News (which
Holder believes is anything but "Fair and Balanced," contrary to its slogan). The "Fairness Doctrine" is
designed to shut down conservative Talk Radio.
Did
someone mention the Fairness Doctrine?
Holder confirmed as
attorney general. Eric Holder was just confirmed by the Senate, making him the next attorney
general and the first African-American to be the nation's top law enforcement official. The vote was
75 in favor to 21 against.
Racism, Eric Holder,
my Son and Me. Enough is enough. I have had thirty plus years of enough. I have had
enough of being called a "racist." I will not sit here and be called a racist and a coward by a
self-serving, race-baiting politician like Eric Holder.
Give
Up the Racist Narrative. Dear Attorney General Holder, ... As our attorney general, you should
be teaching the citizenry that, as a legal matter, racial discrimination was outlawed decades ago.
Obviously, creating laws does not in and of itself stop crimes; yet that is true of all crimes. Instead,
you seem to join your fellow elites, including the president, in teaching the country that racism not only
still exists but is a fundamental and flourishing problem throughout America.
Eric Holder
is no healer. If anyone was cowardly about frank conversations on race, it was Obama and
his supporters in the news media. ... They're the ones who kept Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton in a
storage closet for more than a year. They're the ones who spun themselves dizzy insisting that
the lunatic rants of Obama's minister Jeremiah Wright only made Obama look nobler. Obama was
the man who declared he couldn't disassociate himself from Wright and then did exactly that a few
weeks later when Wright's fanaticism had become apparent to all. And his administration is
now lecturing us on "cowardice"?
Holder scolded. Sen.
Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, gave a tongue-lashing to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. at a
June 17 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Mr. Holder deserved it. In less than five months
on the job, Mr. Holder already has called into question the integrity and independence of the Department of
Justice. Mr. Sessions — who broke with a majority of his Senate Republican colleagues on
Feb. 2 by voting in favor of Mr. Holder's appointment to the job — detailed a disturbing list
of the attorney general's transgressions.
Enforce the hate crime laws we have now, Mr. Holder. U.S. Attorney
General Eric Holder ... wins, hands down, the 2009 award for the "Most Despicable Display of Using a Genuine Tragedy To
Advance Your Personal Political Agenda." ... Where did President Obama GET this guy? ... Exactly two days after Holder's
congressional testimony, a group of 30-50 black youths attacked a white Akron, Ohio family. Holder has uttered not
a mumble about this being a hate crime. This is the same guy who took the entire country to task or our "cowardice"
in not discussing issues of race.
Eric Holder's Justice
Department. [It is] surprising that in the first seven months of the Obama administration, a series
of hyper-partisan decisions, questionable appointments, and the inexplicable dismissal of a high-profile voter
intimidation case against the New Black Panther party have once again fanned suspicions that the Justice Department
is a pawn in partisan political battles. Both in Congress and among a number of current and former Justice
Department employees is a growing concern that the Obama administration is politicizing the department in ways the
Bush team never imagined.
Where's the
Outrage? Given the apparent political motivations behind so many of the recent decisions at the
Department of Justice (DOJ) — from the dismissal of the voter-intimidation case against the New
Black Panther Party to the re-investigation of CIA interrogators after DOJ prosecutors had already reviewed
the matter and decided there was no reason for further criminal prosecution — the latest news about
the dropping of the investigation against New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, Obama's former nominee to be
commerce secretary, raises a lot of questions.
President
Obama should fire Attorney General Eric Holder. Among the president's cabinet appointments, the
Attorney General is unique. ... The Attorney General's charge is upholding the rule of law — the glue
that holds together a self-governing people. In the latest skirmish in the Democratic Party's war
on the CIA, Attorney General Eric Holder has failed to uphold this fundamental public trust.
Civil Rights Commission
Demands Voter Intimidation Answers. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights sent a letter in August to Attorney
General Eric Holder, issuing a stinging rebuke to the Obama administration's Department of Justice (DOJ). A footnote
in the letter criticized the DOJ's dismissal of a Philadelphia voter intimidation case against a group called the New Black
Panther Party for Self-Defense (NBP). The footnote called the DOJ's voluntary dismissal of the case "even more
corrosive to the rule of law than the dismissal without comment."
Susan Rice
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.
Greg Craig
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.
Arne Duncan
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.
Leon Panetta
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.
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
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.)
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.
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 seekingÑand usually findingÑways 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.
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
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?
Hilda Solis
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.
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.
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.
Kathleen Sebelius
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.
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.
Steven Chu
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.
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.
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
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.
"It takes an honest,
upright, innocent man to resign at midnight on a holiday weekend when the boss
is on vacation."
— Lucianne
John P. Holdren
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.
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.
David Axelrod
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Anita Dunn
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 strategy: Say something outrageous, and if there are any
objections, follow up with, "Can't you take a joke?"
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."
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.
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.
Others / Everybody
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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