Who'da thunk it??

Well, the House of Representatives finds Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.  But when it comes to actually prosecuting Holder, well....that's a different story.  From Fox News:

The Justice Department moved Friday to shield Attorney General Eric Holder from prosecution after the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress.

The contempt vote technically opened the door for the House to call on the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia to bring the case before a grand jury. But because U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen works for Holder and because President Obama has already asserted executive privilege over the documents in question, some expected Holder's Justice Department to balk.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole confirmed in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner that the department in fact would not pursue prosecution. The attorney general's withholding of documents pertaining to Operation Fast and Furious, he wrote, "does not constitute a crime."

"Therefore the department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the attorney general," Cole wrote, in the letter obtained by Fox News.

Yeah, let's go ahead and prosecute the boss.  All of which means that the calls for a special prosecutor were so important.  And, of course, so ignored by Obama.

Al Sharpton and Holder

Yes, this is parody.  But damned good parody, because it actually sounds like what Revered Al might say.  It's best read aloud - add in your own Sharpton dialect for maximum effect.  It's a bit long, so be sure to follow the jump by clicking the "Read More".  From The Daily Rash, via I Own the World.


Al Sharpton Grills Attorney General Eric Holder on MSNBC

WASHINGTON – Last night on MSNBC, news anchor Reverend Al Sharpton grilled Attorney General Eric Holder on everything from Fast and Furious to racism. Following is a transcript of that interview:

AL SHARPTON:  Welcome Mr. Secretary General of Defense. It’s a pleasure to sponsor you on my show.
ERIC HOLDER:  Thank you. It’s a pleasure being here.
AL SHARPTON:  I’m going to start off the show by saying two words and I want to get your response.
ERIC HOLDER: Sure.
AL SHARPTON:  Racism.
ERIC HOLDER:  (Looks confused)
AL SHARPTON:  Now, what does your judicated mind think when you hear those words?
ERIC HOLDER:  Uh, that we still have work to do fighting for civil rights?
AL SHARPTON:  Don’t those words define the biased white interlopers who’ve chosen to scrapegoat you, a premature African American man of power?
ERIC HOLDER:  Uh, yes, I am aware that my skin color may play a roll in the ceaseless attacks from the right side of the aisle.
AL SHARPTON:  Not just that Secretary Holder, but isn’t it true that President Obama is provocated from the aisle by the same Jim Crow fronts that would be clarified as abomable in a more just world?
ERIC HOLDER:  As you know Reverend Sharpton, I think the United States is a nation of cowards when it comes to race.
AL SHARPTON:  Not only cowards Secretary General, but isn’t the nation also a composite heap of partisan divide that threatens the very fabric of African American detrimentation?
ERIC HOLDER:  Well, uh, we do still have a lot of work to do.
AL SHARPTON:  And that leads me to my next question, General. With the issues of the Fast and Frisky gun profanities, isn’t it in the best interest of the country that the president intercept on your behalf to restrain matters of secrets in the attorney client prophecy?
ERIC HOLDER:  Uh, there is no question that certain information pertaining to Fast and Furious is privileged and should not be made public until after the election.

Two from Ramirez

Michael Ramirez has long been a favorite of mine.  His cartoon from yesterday:

And one more, found over at I Own the World:

Unfortunately, it's all true.  Obama wants to erase that border and thinks government is the answer to everything.

The Day American Died

Those of us above a certain age can remember Don McLean's "American Pie".  Recorded in 1971, it describes the 1959 plane crash that killed Bubby Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper as "The Day the Music Died".  Today was the day America died.

No, not that the country died like the Soviet Union.  Or the Holy Roman Empire.  Or so many other ruling institutions.  What died was America as a concept, as a vision for mankind.  America was not so much a matter of geography but of spirit and intent.  It was the bastion of liberty and the home to dreams and ideals.  That America died today.

The Supreme Court of the United States declared today that there is no limit to what the federal government can do, so long as it wraps itself in the taxing power of the Constitution.  We now can only rely on the restraint of elected politicians in Congress, which is a false and foolhardy reliance.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the government is supreme over the individual.  That the interests of the state are superior to the interests of the individuals.  That government doesn't receive its powers from the consent of the governed, but rather by the decree of itself.

America died.

Environmentalism

I think I have found a reason why I might have to become an environmentalist.  Save the planet!!

Hey...it's Obama that drove me to drink!!

Stolen from The Feral Irishman.

Damager in Chief

Paul Mirengoff at Powerline has a insightful piece on Obama's pandering to the Hispanic vote.  One takeaway:

The overriding damage is to our system of government and to respect for the law. In the topsy-turvy world created by Obama’s pandering, the president abdicates his responsibility to enforce the law, leaving states holding the bag. And when states that try to fill the breach, Obama not only punishes them as entities – by ending all meaningful federal cooperation – but also encourages attacks on state law enforcement personnel as individuals.

All of this because Obama needs the votes of Hispanics.

and

What additional benefits and exemptions from obligations would future Obamas confer on Hispanics if they become an even larger portion of the electorate? What new lawless decrees would future demagogues in the Obama tradition issue to satisfy this politically powerful underclass?

The answers should be sufficiently frightening to cause Republicans (and Democrats with a decent regard for our traditions and our system of government) to vow never to grant illegal aliens a path to citizenship.

The Democratic party ceased to be a party to represent the interests of American citizens.  What it has become is an ad-hoc amalgamation of special interests and voting blocs, with the goal of getting enough groups to make up 51% of the electorate.

Sad that it has come to this.

Outsourcer in Chief

One of the campaign mantras of the Obama campaign is that Romney is a "serial outsourcer".  Turns out that a proven outsourcer lives at 1600 Pennsylvania:

The Obama campaign spent nearly $4,700 on telemarketing services from a Canadian telemarketing company called Pacific East between March and June, a Washington Free Beacon study of federal election filings shows.

Pacific East is not the only foreign telemarketing firm raking in cash from the president’s reelection campaign. Obama paid a call center in Manila, Philippines $78,314.10 for telemarketing services between the start of the campaign and March

Scratch a Democrat, find a hypocrite.  Too bad the MSM won't bother to report this.

Thanks to the Washington Free Beacon for the story.

Just another day at the office

From Keith Koffler at White House Dossier comes this schedule for The One's day.

Obama Schedule || Tuesday, June 26, 2012

9:05 am || Departs Boston
11:15 am || Arrives Atlanta
1:25 pm || Delivers remarks at a fundraiser; Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel
2:10 pm || Appears at a fundraiser; Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel
3:35 pm || Departs Atlanta
5:10 pm || Arrives Miami
5:45 pm || Attends a fundraiser; private residence
8:30 pm || Delivers remarks at a fundraiser; The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater
9:45 pm || Departs Miami
12:10 am || Arrives Washington
All times Eastern

Koffler reported that Obama had already been to over 100 fundraisers already this year.  And another four on this day.  Would someone please tell our president that there's a country to run?  On the other hand, if he's out on the road, there's less chance for him to screw something up again.

Turning the Arizona decision around

Found this graphic at I Own the World.

We all know how well that would work.

Kimberlin update

Lee Stranahan  reports:

Another conservative blogger has become the victim of a "swatting," where a false report of a murder sends the police, armed and ready, to a victim's home. The victim this time was blogger Aaron Walker, who had just this morning won a legal victory against convicted felon and leftist activist Brett Kimberlin.

May the full force of the law come down on those who are perpetrating these swattings.

Racist!!

Dana Loesch reports at Breitbart:

At a recent Obama rally in Ohio, prospective attendees were told to brandish their photo IDs if they expected admittance to the rally. No word yet on whether Attorney General Eric Holder plans to file suit against the Obama campaign for infringing upon Ohioans' right of peaceful assembly by way of a racist photo ID rule.

Where's Eric Holder?  Oh, yes, now I remember.  He's in the Justice Department building - where you have to show your photo ID to enter.

Little Debbie

From the Florida-based blog Shark Tank:

Back in April, the Shark Tank floated the likelihood that Democratic National Committee Chairwoman (DNC) Debbie Wasserman Schultz was perhaps on her way out as DNC Chairwoman. We now have learned that Wasserman Schultz will not be back as DNC Chairwoman after the November elections.

According to our source within the Democratic Party, who is also a close associate of Wasserman Schultz, the arrangements have already been made for her to leave DNC  regardless if President Obama wins re-election or not.

This same source believes that Wasserman Schultz will be forced to resign behind closed doors and then stage an press event in which she tells Americans that her job as the DNC chair was a temporary one and that she is moving on with her congressional career.

Too bad.  DWS is always good for a "throw the shoe at the TV" moment. Unfortunately, the Democrats might actually pick a chairman for the DNC who knows what to do.

Fundraising

John Hinderaker posts at Powerline about the status of fundraising in the 2012 election.  One of his observations:

Democrats are odd: they think it is a fine thing when unions extract dues from members against their will and use that money to advocate for liberal ideas with which many union members disagree. On the other hand, they think it is dirty pool when conservatives spend their own money to advocate the ideas that they believe in.

There's more in the story on the absurd conclusions of the Democrat fundraisers.  Read it.

Today's Bumper Sticker

Found at the Feral Irishman.

Afterburner on fire

I've been a big fan of Bill Whittle ever since his days at Eject, Eject, Eject!  This episode of Afterburner finds Bill giving Fast and Furious the one-two, and then a couple of more KO blows.



Whittle is, in my opinion, one of the best communicators in the new media, as well as in the conservative
sphere.  He knows how to talk, how to get his message across, and how to relate to his audience.  And here, he's as persuasive, and pissed off, as I've ever seen him.

Combine Fast & Furious with a complacent media and you have all the reasons in the world to be enraged.

Share this with your friends.  And buy a beer for Whittle if you see him.

Headline of the Day

Stolen from I Own the World.

I have long wondered....how many of these types of headlines are intentionally funny and how many are just the product of not thinking??

In any case, I had a good chuckle.

Congressional video of the day

Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina has the hands-down winner, definitely for today and maybe in the all-time top 10.  After hearing the Democrats try to stall and delay, Gowdy lays it all out on why the contempt citation must go forward.  And then he later responds to the well-worn claim that "Republicans did it too".



Can you picture him as a replacement for Lindsay Graham?  I can.

Thanks to The Right Scoop for the video.

The South End of a horse facing north

Neil Cavuto, who has MS, takes the critics of Ann Romney to the woodshed for criticizing her horseback riding.  Take that Larry O'Donnell.




Well done Neil.  Along with Santelli, it seems financial commentators can get their dander up.

Fast and Furious Flashbacks

From The Right Scoop comes this video of a 2009 White House press conference.  Listen carefully.



Paging Woodward and Bernstein?  And from October 2011:



Thanks to The Last Refuge for the video links, and for this closing thought:

How can President Obama possibly assert executive privilege over internal deliberations he has previously claimed didn’t exist?

Good question.

The Obama Presidency

Summed up in just one word.

Via The Looking Spoon.

The College Years

From Theo Spark

Houston, you have a problem

And her name is Sheila Jackson Lee.  Where does the Democratic Party find these people.   In a previous post, the OC said that Fauxcahontas would likely end up blaming Bush for her Cherokee problems.  SJL has beat her to it....Fast and Furious is all George Bush's fault.



H/T to The Gateway Pundit.

Warren and the VRWC

John Nolte at Breitbart has the latest on Liawatha.

Somewhere lurking out there is a Right-Wing Extremist who, decades ago, foresaw the possibility that Elizabeth Warren would be a rising Democrat star – their only hope to unseat a Republican and hold on to the majority in the U.S. Senate. The plot was a dastardly one, and this Right-Wing Extremist executed it perfectly. In the dead of night, he would sneak into Little Lizzie's room and whisper over and over in her delicate ear: You're Cherokee. You're Cherokee. You’re Cherokee.

and

In a bizarre statement released by the Warren Camp yesterday, rather than come clean about her heritage or even agree to meet with Cherokee activists who have requested a meeting with her, Warren lashed out and blamed a solitary "right-wing extremist" for all her woes:

The people of Massachusetts are concerned about their jobs, the future for their kids, and the security of their retirement. Scott Brown would rather talk about anything else. The out-of-state group in question is being promoted and supported by a right wing extremist who is on the record supporting and contributing money to Scott Brown. It is past time we moved on to the important issues facing middle class families in Massachusetts – even if Scott Brown won’t.

You see, it's those nasty right-wingers.  It's all their fault.

Pretty soon, it's going to all be George Bush's fault.

The bow parade

The latest in a series of Obama bows:

Saudi Arabia, China, Japan and now Mexico.  Obama still has a lot of the world to bow to before November.

An interesting thought

Posed by Victor Davis Hanson over at The Corner:

Would that the Obama administration had cared as much about protecting the security secrets involving the Predator drone program, the bin Laden raid, the operations on the Afghan border and in Yemen, and the cyberwar against Iran as it is does about protecting the unknowns of Fast and Furious.

Guns and F&F

Joe the Plumber Wurzelbacher has this new campaign video:




Go back to the 1:24 mark and hear Holder say: "We need to do this every day of the week, and just really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way."  That's right, the Attorney General saying we need to brainwash citizens.

Regardless of whether or not you think Fast and Furious was a backhanded attempt to influence gun control legislation, those words are chilling.

Hat tip to I Own the World.

Translating Holder

Paul Mirengoff reports on the Fast and Furious executive privilege claim:

In requesting that Obama assert executive privilege, Holder said he is “very concerned that the compelled production to Congress of internal Executive Branch documents generated in the course of the deliberative process concerning its response to congressional oversight would have significant and damaging consequences.” This, he added, “would raise substantial separation of powers concerns and potentially create an imbalance in the relationship” between Congress and the White House.”

 Let's translate folks.

"Would have significant and damaging consequences" means "If the truth comes out, Obama loses and I go to jail".

"Create an imbalance in the relationship between Congress and the White House.” means that Obama won't be able to just do what he wants, irrespective of what the Constitution says.

Obama and Holder have upped the stakes.  Unfortunately for them, they hold the losing hand.  That is, as long as Issa and Boehner don't fold.  Issa won't, but I'm only 50-50 on Boehner.

Who is Barack Obama?

The folks at Breitbart have made vetting of Obama a priority for this year.  But they aren't alone. Paul Mirengoff at Powerline has a story about a 2007 piece in the New York Times.  In it, he quotes from The Times which wrote:

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 23 — The peers who elected Barack Obama as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review say he was a natural leader, an impressive student, a nice guy. But in the 1990 Revue — the graduating editors’ gleeful parody of their elite publication — they said quite a bit more.

“I was born in Oslo, Norway, the son of a Volvo factory worker and part-time ice fisherman,” a mock self-tribute begins. “My mother was a backup singer for Abba. They were good folks.” In Chicago, “I discovered I was black, and I have remained so ever since.”

After his election, the Faux-bama says, he united warring students into “a happy, cohesive folk,” while “empowering all the folks out there in America who didn’t know about me by giving a series of articulate and startlingly mature interviews to all the folks in the media.”

He was a phony then, a phony now.  Read both the Poweline and NYT stories at the links above.

You've got enough

Western societies have enough.  We don't need anything more.  And we need to do more to help others, not ourselves.  That's what a high level UN official thinks:

Environmental concerns have caused one high-ranking UN official to declare that “the West” does not need more cars, televisions, and other consumer luxuries.

United Nations Development Programme head Helen Clark told AFP in an interview: “So the issue is how to get human development that will see it continue to rise for the world’s poorest people and people in developing countries. Because frankly human development in the West – we don’t need more cars, more TV, whatever. Our needs are by and large satisfied, although the recession has put a lot of strains on that.”

Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand, also stressed the responsibility of richer countries to reduce their environmental footprint: "There is, in my opinion, a very heavy responsibility on the countries of the north to look at how they sustain their living standards with a much lower environmental footprint."

So, according to her, I have enough.  I don't need any more "luxuries".  Because she and her cohorts know better.

Why do I have a sneaky suspicion that she and the rest of her cronies at the UN haven't restricted their own consumption?

Thanks to CNS News for the story.

Executive Privilege

For me, but not for thee.

Sherman, fire up the Wayback machine and let's listen to The One as he talks about executive privilege and Congress.



Hypocrite.  But then, what's new for the administration.

More details in another post.  Thanks to Drudge for the pointer.