…The simplest explanation…is that President Barack Obama doesn’t want to put his personal stature and credibility on the line to support something like Charlie Hebdo. Since those awful attacks, we’ve witnessed a lot of allegedly intellectual leftists offer versions of “the attacks were terrible, but —” and then explaining why Hebdo was offensive, hate speech, and unnecessary provocation, foolish, etc., and imply that the magazine isn’t really worth defending and that the world would be a better place if these immature, impudent cartoonists would stop making fun of one of the world’s great religions.
There’s very little evidence to suggest that Obama disagrees with this progressive intellectual reaction, that while satire of Islam is theoretically legal, the consequences of enraging Muslims is too much trouble and risk to be worthwhile.
“Obama’s absence from Paris smashes America’s reputation as the world’s physical and philosophical anchor for freedom.”
— Tom Rogan
We saw this in the response to Hebdo before, and the infamous YouTube video that the administration cited as a scapegoat for the Benghazi attacks. To a lot of progressives, while depicting Muhammad or mocking Islam shouldn’t be banned,
it should be discouraged, and a presidential appearance at that rally and march would be too close to an official endorsement of the magazine and its contents…
Byron York dismisses the White House’s falsehoods and explores the intentional decision to be absent:
The White House reaction to the attacks in France, going back to the first reports of shots fired at Charlie Hebdo, has been noticeably subdued. Obama had scheduled last week as a time to roll out some upcoming State of the Union proposals in trips to Michigan, Arizona and Tennessee.
When world events intruded, the president stubbornly stuck to his schedule, mentioning France only briefly before introducing his plan for free tuition at community colleges.
Then came the unity march. No, it was not essential that Obama himself attend. But there’s no doubt he should have sent Vice President Joe Biden — why is there a VP, if not to go to big foreign events? — or at least Secretary of State John Kerry.
“We are aware that a French magazine published cartoons featuring a figure resembling the prophet Muhammad, and obviously we have questions about the judgment of publishing something like this.”
Carney told reporters during a midday press briefing at the White House.
“We know these images will be deeply offensive to many and have the potential be be inflammatory.”
Carney said in a prepared statement.
The French government reacted to the expected threats by temporarily shutting down embassies and schools in 20 countries with significant Muslim populations.
The White House’s criticism of a French magazine’s editorial choices comes as a wave of Islamist attacks threatened to upset the president’s election campaign, during which has has claimed that his policies have reduced conflict with Islamic countries.
The administration’s new criticism of the famous French magazine Charlie Hebdo follows the administration’s Sept. 14 effort to persuade Google to take down a short and cheap satirical video on YouTube that also angered Islamists.
Competing leaders in the fractious Islamic political movement — which now dominates the governments of Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and nearly all Arab countries — say criticism of their claimed prophet, Muhammad, is blasphemous and deserving of the death penalty. Read the rest of this entry »
Jake Tapper reports: In a 2011 conversation about the Affordable Care Act, MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, one of the architects of the law more commonly known as Obamacare, talked about how the bill would get rid of all tax credits for employer-based health insurance through “mislabeling” what the tax is and who it would hit.
“What that means is the tax that starts out hitting only 8% of the insurance plans essentially amounts over the next 20 years essentially getting rid of the exclusion for employer sponsored plans. This was the only political way we were ever going to take on one of the worst public policies in America.”
In recent days, the past comments of Gruber — who in a 2010 speech noted that he “helped write the federal bill” and “was a paid consultant to the Obama administration to help develop the technical details as well” — have been given renewed attention.
In previously posted but only recently noticed speeches, Gruber discusses how those pushing the bill took part in an “exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter,” taking advantage of voters’ “stupidity” to create a law that would ultimately be good for them.
The issue at hand in this sixth video is known as the “Cadillac tax,” which was represented as a tax on employers’ expensive health insurance plans…(read more)
“Economists have called for 40 years to get rid of the regressive, inefficient and expensive tax subsidy provided for employer provider health insurance.”
Gruber said at the Pioneer Institute for public policy research in Boston.
“It turns out politically it’s really hard to get rid of. And the only way we could get rid of it was first by mislabeling it, calling it a tax on insurance plans rather than a tax on people when we all know it’s a tax on people who hold those insurance plans.”
The second way was have the tax kick in “late, starting in 2018. But by starting it late, we were able to tie the cap for Cadillac Tax to CPI, not medical inflation,” Gruber said. CPI is the consumer price index, which is lower than medical inflation.
Gruber explains that by drafting the bill this way, they were able to pass something that would initially only impact some employer plans though it would eventually hit almost every employer plan….(read more)
Former White House press secretary Jay Carney told CNN that Gruber’s remarks in general were “very harmful politically to the president.” Read the rest of this entry »
Former Obama press secretary Jay Carney’s start as a CNN pundit got a little rougher than expected this evening — he tried to tangle with John McCain about Middle East policy.
After Carney had offered a favorable take on his former boss’s speech, Senator McCain took issue with Carney’s claim that the moderate Syrian opposition, which the president tonight proposed to arm, is stronger and more easily identifiable than it had been over the past couple years, during which time McCain had called for arming moderate rebel groups but President Obama had refused.
No serious expert on the matter thinks the moderate rebels are stronger now than they were earlier in the war, McCain pointed out. Read the rest of this entry »
“We will make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted”
— Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Father of SEAL killed in Benghazi
Court documents filed by the U.S. Justice Department in the criminal case against Benghazi attack suspect Ahmed Abu Khatallah provide unprecedented details about the evolution of the assault and further shatter the Obama administration’s initial claim that it sprouted from protests over an anti-Islam film.
The narrative that the video played a role continues to live on, with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying recently that some of the attackers may indeed have been influenced by the online video.
But the Justice Department’s court filings make clear that at least those spearheading the attack were part of a “conspiracy,” one that involved several members of the Ansar al-Sharia “Islamic extremist militia.”
A government motion filed Tuesday seeking Khatallah’s detention provides some of the greatest detail to date on the suspect’s alleged role.
The motion says that in the days preceding the attack, the defendant “voiced concern and opposition to the presence of an American facility in Benghazi.” According to the motion, a group of 20 or more “armed men,” including militia members, assembled outside the U.S. compound at 9:45 p.m. the night of Sept. 11, 2012, and “aggressively breached” the gate.
They carried rifles, handguns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
After breaching the gate, they stole a U.S. vehicle, “forcibly entered” buildings and stole U.S. property.
“During this initial attack, buildings within the Mission were set on fire,” the court document says, noting that the fires “ultimately led to the deaths” of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and Information Management Officer Sean Smith. Read the rest of this entry »
The current VA scandal involving secret waiting lists that led to preventable veteran deaths at the Phoenix VA Medical Center claimed the scalp of Obama-appointed former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who resigned at the end of last month. Former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that President Obama only found about the VA wait-list scandal from watching the news.
But the Obama administration knew that an internal VA investigation into secret “paper” waiting lists was conducted in 2010 under Shinseki. Read the rest of this entry »
“With all the debacles, calamities, failures, mistakes and plain old bad policies associated with this administration and the Democrats generally, it’s easy to get lured off-topic… Republicans should not take the bait…”
In terms of impact on the 2014 elections, Obama certainly seems to be doing his part for the Republicans. And as the old axiom goes, never interfere when the opposition is in the process of destroying themselves. Read the rest of this entry »
Memo to George E. Condon: if the president is ‘exhausted’, imagine how the rest of us feel?
For NationalJournal.com, George E. Condon Jr. writes: Day 1,956 of his presidency was not too kind to President Obama. Having to announce within a four-hour span that he had lost both an embattled Cabinet secretary and his chief spokesman, Obama looked Friday like a man gamely trying to get a stalled administration back on track.
“Only three of Obama’s original 16 Cabinet officers remain—Eric Holder at Justice, Tom Vilsack at Agriculture, and Arne Duncan at Education.”
He entered the week still stuck with low approval ratings and facing fierce criticism of his policies both at home and abroad. On Wednesday, he tried to chart a new course internationally with a West Point speech setting out a new foreign policy. On Thursday, he dealt with widespread criticism of the speech.
On Friday, he tried to dig himself out of a troubling Veterans Administration scandal by jettisoning VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, a man he thought was being unfairly blamed for the problems. Then he accepted the resignation of press secretary Jay Carney, the longtime public face of his White House. Read the rest of this entry »
On Thursday, NSA released the email they said Snowden appeared to be referring to, which the agency says is the only communication from Snowden it could find raising any concerns. It was dated April 8, 2013, three months after Snowden first reached out to journalists anonymously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Edward Snowden says he repeatedly raised constitutional concerns about National Security Agency surveillance internally, but an NSA search turned up a single email in which Snowden gently asks for “clarification” on a technical legal question about training materials, agency officials said Thursday.
Snowden, a former NSA systems administrator whose leaks have exposed some of the agency’s most sensitive spying operations, called himself a patriot in an interview this week with NBC News‘ Brian Williams. He said he felt he had no choice but to expose what he considered illegal NSA surveillance by leaking secret details to journalists.
NSA officials have said he gained access to some 1.7 million classified documents, though it’s not clear how many he removed from the Hawaii facility where he worked as a contractor.
Asked by Williams whether he first raised his qualms with his bosses, he said, “I reported that there were real problems with the way the NSA was interpreting its legal authorities.” Read the rest of this entry »
In an edited video clip, President Obama and White House Press SecretaryJay Carney are shown across the latest three scandals — the IRS targeting conservatives, the AP phone records collection, and now the VA secret waiting lists — saying they first heard about them through the media just like everybody else. Read the rest of this entry »
White House spokesman Jay Carney, pressed by reporters for reaction from President Obama to the burgeoning VA scandal, said his boss is “mad as hell” — but as Memorial Day approaches, the questions about his public silence are getting louder, even as fresh allegations surface about VA workers “gaming” the system at the expense of veterans’ care.
“I’m sure you’ll hear from him at some point on this issue soon”
–White House Press Secretary Jay Carney
The president has said little about the controversy since reports surfaced a month ago about patients dying while waiting for care at a Phoenix VA facility. He dispatched his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, to discuss the issue on a Sunday show this past weekend — the most in-depth comments so far came from embattled VA Secretary Eric Shinseki during his congressional testimony last week.
Carney said Tuesday that White House Deputy Chief of StaffRob Nabors, who is assisting in an internal review, is visiting the Phoenix center as part of that process. Asked if the president would comment soon, Carney said he had no update on Obama’s schedule.
A day earlier, Carney was pressed on why Obama has not addressed the public. Carney suggested an address of some kind is being planned but did not elaborate. Read the rest of this entry »
For Brietbart.com, Ben Shaprio writes: On Wednesday, an email emerged from White House in which national security aide Ben Rhodes instructed UN Ambassador Susan Rice – copying President Obama’s entire political team at the White House – that her goal on the Sunday shows following the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi should be to “underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy.”
That email demonstrates that the White House lied when it said it did not skew for political reasons the talking points provided to Rice; Rice then appeared on the Sunday shows and claimed that a YouTube video lay at the root of the terrorist attacks. Although White House press secretary Jay Carney suggested that the White House talking points merely reflected the best available information provided by the CIA, that was clearly untrue; CIA deputy director Michael Morell testified last month that when Rice “talked about the video, my reaction was, that’s not something the analysts have attributed this attack to.
But that’s hardly the only lie from this White House surrounding Benghazi. Here, then, are the top six top lies told by the White House with regard to the terrorist attacks that ended in the murder of four Americans, including Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.
The Obama Administration Did All It Could To Protect American Personnel in Benghazi. Thursday on Capitol Hill, retired Air Force Brigadier General Robert Lovell, who was Deputy Director for Intelligence and Knowledge Development Directorate for AFRICOM during Benghazi, testified:
There are accounts of time, space and capability discussions of the question, could we have gotten there in time to make a difference. Well, the discussion is not in the “could or could not” in relation to time, space and capability—the point is we should have tried. As another saying goes: “Always move to the sound of the guns.” It is with a sense of duty as a retired General officer that I respectfully submit these thoughts and perspectives.
Lovell further testified that the State Department submitted no request for military force to the best of his knowledge. In 2013, Deputy Ambassador Gregory Hicks stated that Special Operations Command Africa commander Lt. Col. Gibson were going to board a C-130 to head to Benghazi “when [Col. Gibson] got a phone call from SOCAFRICA which said, ‘you can’t go now, you don’t have the authority to go now.’ And so they missed the flight…”
That’s a far cry from the consistent claim from the Obama administration that everything that could have been done was done on that night. Read the rest of this entry »
DEBRA HEINE: After a second day of tough questioning in the White House briefing room, #JayCarney is trending on Twitter -and not in a good way. Doubling down on yesterday’s lie that the Susan Rice talking points memo was not about Benghazi, he went after Fox News – accusing them of spreading conspiracy theories…(read more)
The Arizona senator wants to see Rhodes and others involved subpoenaed under a congressional select committee. “We have never heard from many of the key players that were involved in that, including Ben Rhodes, who we now see used to be a spokesperson for the NSC [National Security Council], obviously was the political hack for the Obama reelect.”
The goal of the appearances, said Rhodes, is “to convey that the United States is doing everything that we can to protect our people and facilities abroad; [and] to underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, not a broader failure of policy.”
…The email is black-and-white evidence of deception and spin by top White House officials, who have denied since shortly after the 2012 attack that they tried to portray it as an out-of-control protest. In fact, the Cairo demonstration — which was not blocked by the Obama-supported Muslim Brotherhood government of Egypt — was organized to demand the release of a jihadi locked up in a U.S. jail…
Emails sent by senior White House adviser Ben Rhodes to other top administration officials reveal an effort to insulate President Barack Obama from the attacks that killed four Americans.
Rhodes sent this email to top White House officials such as David Plouffe and Jay Carney just a day before National Security Adviser Susan Rice made her infamous Sunday news show appearances to discuss the attack.
The “goal,” according to these emails, was “to underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure or policy.”
Rice came under fierce criticism following her appearances on television after she adhered to these talking points and blamed the attack on a little-watched Internet video.
The newly released internal White House e-mails show that Rice’s orders came from top Obama administration communications officials.
“[W]e’ve made our views on this video crystal clear. The United States government had nothing to do with it,” Rhodes wrote in the email, which was released on Tuesday by the advocacy group Judicial Watch…
The e-mail revelations and the Obama administration’s lies
For National Review Online, Andrew C. McCarthy writes: Here is the main point: The rioting at the American embassy in Cairo was not about the anti-Muslim video. As argued here repeatedly (see here and here), the Obama administration’s “Blame the Video” story was a fraudulent explanation for the September 11, 2012, rioting in Cairo every bit as much as it was a fraudulent explanation for the massacre in Benghazi several hours later.
We’ll come back to that because, once you grasp this well-hidden fact, the Obama administration’s derelictions of duty in connection with Benghazi become much easier to see. But let’s begin with Jay Carney’s performance in Wednesday’s exchange with the White House press corps, a new low in insulting the intelligence of the American people.
Mr. Carney was grilled about just-released e-mails that corroborate what many of us have been arguing all along: “Blame the Video” was an Obama-administration–crafted lie, through and through. It was intended, in the stretch run of the 2012 campaign, to obscure the facts that (a) the president’s foreign policy of empowering Islamic supremacists contributed directly and materially to the Benghazi massacre; (b) the president’s reckless stationing of American government personnel in Benghazi and his shocking failure to provide sufficient protection for them were driven by a political-campaign imperative to portray the Obama Libya policy as a success — and, again, they invited the jihadist violence that killed our ambassador and three other Americans; and (c) far from being “decimated,” as the president repeatedly claimed during the campaign (and continued to claim even after the September 11 violence in Egypt and Libya), al-Qaeda and its alliedjihadists remained a driving force of anti-American violence in Muslim countries — indeed, they had been strengthened by the president’s pro-Islamist policies. Read the rest of this entry »
For Hot Air, Ed Morrissey writes: Yesterday, Ted Cruz had his first authored bill get signed into law, but the freshman Senator from Texas probably didn’t too excited by the victory. Despite unanimous support in both chambers of Congress for the new law, President Barack Obama sounded less than enthusiastic about enforcing the bill he signed yesterday that would block the proposed Iranian envoy to the UN from receiving an entry visa to the US:
It’s the oddest of legislative couples: President Obama and one of his biggest critics, Ted Cruz.
Obama on Friday signed a Cruz-backed bill aimed at blocking Iran’s appointed ambassador to the United Nations because of evidence linking him to the 1979 takeover of the American embassy in Tehran.
Technically, the law bars individuals from entering the U.S. as U.N. ambassadors if they are “found to have been engaged in espionage or terrorist activity directed against the United States or its allies.”
In reality, the bill targets a specific Iranian individual: Hamid Aboutalebi, who has been refused a visa by the administration.
They protest male/female imbalances everywhere except in their own workplace.
Go, Michelle, go, you go girl!
At MichelleMalkin.com, and our favorite hangout NRO,Michelle Malkin writes: I have created a new species designation for female Democrats who play hypocritical gender politics on behalf of Barack Obama. They’re genderhawks.
You remember the term “chickenhawk,” don’t you? During the Bush years, anti-war activists and journalists hurled the ad hominem epithet at anyone who supported military action against our enemies but hadn’t personally served.
I say let’s give ‘em a dose of their own tactical medicine.
Genderhawks are feminist chickenhawks. They demand “equal pay” for women, practice militant identity politics based on chromosomes, and purport to wage an all-out government war on gender inequity. Yet, they personally refuse to hold themselves and their lousy male bosses accountable for their own gender-based failures and delinquencies. Read the rest of this entry »
Council of Economic Advisers member Betsey Stevenson, accompanied by White House press secretary Jay Carney, speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House, March 12, 2014. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
The Washington Examiner’s Ashe Schow reports: A White House adviser had to walk back the oft-repeated myth that women make 77 cents on the dollar that men make after being questioned about the figure during a conference call Monday.
While detailing executive actions President Obama plans to take Tuesday regarding equal pay for women, Betsey Stevenson, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said very defiantly that despite women contributing 44 percent of their household incomes, they continue to make less than men. Obama has declared Tuesday “Equal Pay Day” to highlight his administration’s focus on that issue.
CBS: WH ‘Roughed Up By Its Own Pay Equity Rhetoric’
“The White House is getting, as you indicated Norah, roughed up by its own pay equity rhetoric,” reported Major Garrett. “In an analysis of White House salaries, which nobody here disputes, shows that the median income of female staffers is 88 percent of that of male staffers.”
“Now the study also showed that men and women with the same White House jobs earn exactly the same salary. Now the White House said its gender pay gap is tied to job experience, education, and hours worked among other factors. This matters because those explanations, according to the Labor Department, explain a good deal of the gender pay gap nationally…(read more)
“They’re stuck at 77 cents on the dollar, and that gender wage gap is seen very persistently across the income distribution, within occupations, across occupations, and we see it when men and women are working side by side doing identical work.”
In the coming days look for a spike in words and phrases like “surge”, “signature legislation,” “domestic policy achievement”.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – David Morgan writes: The federal website for U.S. consumers to enroll in private health insurance under Obamacare ran into problems twice on Monday because of a surge of people trying to access the site hours before a midnight deadline to sign up for coverage.
Technical issues that barred access to HealthCare.gov for several hours throughout the day underscored the frantic last-minute pace of an enrollment process that could determine the ultimate success or failure of the healthcare law that represents President Barack Obama’s domestic policy achievement.
More than 6 million people had signed up for private health coverage through the new Obamacare insurance markets by last week, surpassing a target set after a disastrous October rollout called the enrollment process into question. With daily volumes continuing to surge, analysts believe the final tally could approach or even exceed an original goal of 7 million.
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Chris Stigall talked to former CBS News Reporter Sharyl Attkisson this morning on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about the trouble reporters have to deal with while covering politicians and the government, as well as the current state of investigative reporting.
“Nobody was interested in the stories. It didn’t seem to matter what the topic was. There’s sort of a problem all over, I talk to my colleagues in different mediums. There’s just a lot of pressure. Investigative reporting gets a lot of backlash. They don’t quite know how to deal with it. Why not just put on stories that don’t draw that kind of response?”
— Sharyl Attkisson
Responding to comments regarding a Phoenix television reporter yesterday who initially claimed that the White House pre-screens questions from reporters, Attkisson said, “I wouldn’t surprised if sometimes there is that level of cooperation with some questions. If I need something answered from the White House and they won’t tell me, I’ll call our White House Correspondent. They’re friendlier with the White House Correspondents in general. So the White House Correspondent may ask Jay Carney or one of his folks about an issue and they will be told ‘ask that at the briefing and we’ll answer it.’ They want to answer it in front of everybody. They do know it’s coming and they’ll call on you. There’s that kind of coordination sometimes. I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s sometimes more coordination. I don’t think it’s everybody on every briefing, every day. I’m pretty sure it’s not. But I think people would be surprised at the level of cooperation reporters have in general with politicians.”
NY Daily News‘Leslie Larson reports: A local reporter not ready for the big leagues is backtracking from claims the White House prescreens media questions.
Catherine Anaya, from Phoenix’s KPHO-TV, says she was mistaken for saying members of the White House Press Corps submit questions to press secretary Jay Carney before the daily televised press briefing.
She shared her “off the cuff and unscripted” observation Wednesday night during a segment on the CBS affiliate about her day at the White House. Anaya was one of six local reporters invited to discuss the minimum wage and Obamacare with the President for a four minute interview. Read the rest of this entry »
Catherine Anaya, from Phoenix’s KPHO-TV, says she was mistaken for saying members of the White House Press Corps submit questions to press secretary Jay Carney before the daily televised press briefing. Read more: nydailynews.com
The Weekly Standard reports: A CBS reporter from Arizona reveals that President Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, receives questions from the press in advance of his daily press briefing. In fact, she says, the reporters often receive the answers in advance of the briefing, too.
“…unless it’s something breaking, the questions that the reporters actually ask — the correspondents — they are provided to him in advance. So then he knows what he’s going to be answering and sometimes those correspondents and reporters also have those answers printed in front of them, because of course it helps when they’re producing their reports for later on. So that was very interesting.”
“We have collective responsibility for each other’s welfare, individual opportunity for reward, and very real consequences for inaction. As a society we can’t afford to neglect our sacred duty to our fellow citizens.”
In a move that stunned even president Obama’s most ardent supporters, and shocked the president’s most vocal critics, the White House announced a new program: offering cash prizes for young people who sign up for Obamacare, and death by lethal injection for those who don’t.
In what is being viewed as sign of the administration’s frustration, stung by disappointing numbers of healthy young enrollees, and irritated by ongoing Republican opposition, president Obama is said to have acted alone, in this historically-unprecidented move, not even telling his closest aides he was crafting the new mandate. White House senior staff were notified early this morning, and by afternoon, were authorizing new initiatives, and issuing press releases.
“Using extra-constitutional power to kill American citizens with drones is one thing, but this is preposterous, even for Obama.”
— Charles Krauthammer
“Preparations are obviously being made to insure financial arrangements for the guarantee of cash prizes. But more importantly, an effort to enlist medical professionals, medical supplies and prison staff, for the lethal injections. It’s a nightmare to try to line this up on short notice,” said an administration insider who declined to be identified.
“This program is too expensive, and potentially reduces the pool of healthy young enrollees…this is just another ill-conceived, improvised attempt to save his ‘signature legislation’.”
— Senator McCain
Critics didn’t hesitate to voice their disapproval. “This program is too expensive, and potentially reduces the pool of health young enrollees,” said senator McCain, and added “the president is desperate, this is just another ill-conceived, improvised attempt to save his signature legislation.”
“When it comes time to enact the penalty, faced with the grim reality of killing millions of innocent young people, I predict we’ll see a repeat of the familiar pattern. Delay, after delay, after delay. Timed to coincide with election cycles.”
— Congressman Paul Ryan
Congressman Paul Ryan agreed. “Here’s what will happen. The administration will front-load the benefits, authorizing prize money to be distributed. but when it comes time to enact the penalty, faxed with the grim reality of killing millions of innocent young people, we’ll see a repeat of the familiar pattern. Delay, after delay, after delay. Timed to coincide with election cycles.”
“Contrary to what talk talk show personalities and Republican critics are saying, protecting the president’s ego, or insuring his legacy as a successful two-term president is the furthest thing from our minds. And frankly, we find the suggestion offensive.”
— White House Press Secretary Jay Carney
President Obama composing changes to the Affordable Care Act on his smartphone, between meetings.
National Review editor Jonah Goldberg was in Washington D.C. when the press release was issued. We asked him to comment. He dismissed the press release. “I’d check your sources if I were you.” Lighting a cigar as he exited the Capitol building, Goldberg smiled and said, “I have no comment.”
Dr. Charles Krauthammer was characteristically blunt. “If true, these so-called executions will affect primarily lower income minorities,” adding “Picking winners and losers, making it up as he goes along, not considering the social impact of large-scale executions, this is unreal, it’s the Hunger Games. Using extra-constitutional power to kill American citizens with drones is one thing, but this is preposterous, even for Obama.”
“My only objection to the lethal injection, is that it’s is too humane. Not complying with Obamacare should automatically come with a penalty that delivers immediate, excruciating pain. Followed by a lingering, agonizing death. Unless he’s in a blue state…”
— Senator Al Franken, Minnesota
The White House defended its decision, citing the importance of the president’s commitment to the promise of access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans. “We’re not messing around”, president Obama said, in a brief statement. “The time to enroll is now.”
“The opportunity to enjoy an unexpected bonus, prizes valued up to as much as $250,000, is hard to ignore, for many young Americans,” a White House spokesman said, adding “For many, it will help pay off college loans, or provide additional security. For others, a chance to buy an Xbox, or take a vacation. Or take class in painting, or pottery, or buy a new car. It’s an exciting program, one that we’re proud to offer.”
(Associated Press)
At a highly-charged press conference today White House press secretaryJay Carney was frequently on the defensive. Reporters were on their feet, challenging the Administration’s “increasingly autocratic behavior, lack of respect for the rule of law, and morbid fixation on propping up a failing policy, even authorizing the federal government to kill young people who refuse to comply” said one reporter.
For Israel National News, Elad Benari reports: The United States believes there is no need for the Palestinian Authority to recognize Israel as a Jewish state as part of a peace agreement, State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday.
“…we do not see a need that both sides recognize this position as part of the final agreement.”
— State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki
Psaki, who spoke to the PA-based Arabic-language Al-Quds newspaper, said, “The American position is clear, Israel is a Jewish state. However, we do not see a need that both sides recognize this position as part of the final agreement.”
“the Arab states will never recognize a Jewish state…there is no way.”
— PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been adamant on the PA recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, explaining that the Arabs’ refusal to recognize Israel stands at the heart of the conflict.
And from The Associated Press: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said there is “no way” he will recognize Israel as a Jewish state and accept a Palestinian capital in just a portion of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, rebuffing what Palestinians fear will be key elements of a U.S. peace proposal.
At least 13 killed in Ukraine protests: Violent clashes between hard-line protesters and police erupted Tuesday in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, after more than a week of relative calm, leaving at least 13 people dead and many more wounded.
Anne Gearan writes: The United States condemned an explosion of street violence in Ukraine that killed at least 15 people Tuesday and said the government bears primary responsibility for restoring calm.
Vice President Biden called Ukrainian PresidentViktor Yanukovich to express what the White House termed “grave concern,” and called on the embattled leader to pull back government forces after a day of chaotic street clashes and immediately resume political discussions with opponents.
Biden “made clear that the United States condemns violence by any side, but that the government bears special responsibility to de-escalate the situation,” a White House statement said.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the Obama administration is “appalled” by the violent crackdown on anti-government protesters in the Ukrainian capital.
Washington announced no specific new action, but U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt threatened both sides with sanctions.
“We believe Ukraine’s crisis can still be solved via dialogue, but those on both sides who fuel violence will open themselves to sanctions,” Pyatt said on Twitter, in both English and Russian. Read the rest of this entry »
Federal offices will be closed Thursday in the Washington, D.C., area as the region braces for the worst of a winter blast that has already brought misery to stranded motorists in North Carolina and hundreds of thousands of people without power across the South.
The White House renewed its attack on Senate and Congressional Republicans, blaming Ted Cruz for masterminding weather disruptions as a scientific stunt aimed at crippling the Federal Government.
By late afternoon some Raleigh motorists were abandoning their cars on the highway. | AP Photo
At a White House press conference this morning, Jay Carney blasted President Obama’s Republican opponents:
“Senator Cruz’s secret organization of scientists, meteorologists, campaign donors, and a powerful cabal of evangelical wizards, once again, have conspired to freeze the nation, in order to hurt the American people, and deny millions of innocent people access to essential government services. “
A winter storm warning for the Washington area is in effect until 3 p.m. Thursday. The National Weather Service was predicting as much as 8 inches of snow across the area, most heavily along the Interstate 95 corridor.
Snow will mix with rain and sleet Thursday morning before turning to rain and sleet in the afternoon, the weather service said. Dustings of snow were falling across the area by Wednesday evening. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority will open its 86 rail stations as normal on Thursday morning. The agency said it will try to run trains every six to 10 minutes on all five lines, but warned that closures might happen if the weather worsens.
Ed Driscoll writes: It’s no coincidence that the left seems rather Orwellian at times; after all, Ingsoc in1984 was Orwell’s 1949 warning regarding what English Socialism could metastasize into a generation down the line. Why not American socialism?
One of the left’s current (and frequently Orwellian) buzzwords is “sustainability.” Lately, based on recent headlines, the left seems to reaching peak Orwell. Is such a condition sustainable? There seem to be an enormous amount of euphemisms, doublethink and moral evasions in the headlines these days. Here’s a just a taste:
That is the upshot of last week’s remarkable exchange over ObamaCare. It began when the head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that the interplay of taxes and subsidies in the law “creates a disincentive for people to work.” The report predicted the mix would lead to fewer hours worked, costing the equivalent of nearly 2.5 million jobs.
White House Press SecretaryJay Carney would have an easier sell if he hadn’t just grown himself a beatnik beard. I bet Carney’s got rolling papers in his pocket. I just know it. He’s holding. For sure.
Andrew Johnson writes: President Obama’s recent comments about marijuana didn’t quite call for the legalization of recreational use, the White House clarified. In a recent interview with The New Yorker, the president made comments that some interpreted as a policy shift on the issue.
Snowden should have known the Washington rule: Abuse power, and you’ll be protected by those with power. Expose abuse, and you’re on your own.
Steve Chapman writes: If you’re part of the U.S. national security apparatus and you torture someone to death during an interrogation, you can rest easy. Two administrations have furnished get-out-of-jail-free cards absolving you of responsibility for your crime.
But if you’re part of that same U.S. national security apparatus and divulge to the American people information about government activities that are unauthorized, illegal, and quite possibly unconstitutional, you should expect no such mercy.
Commit crimes on behalf of the government? OK. Reveal secret abuses committed by the government? You must be joking. No one has been prosecuted for the dozens of detainees tortured to death by American military and intelligence personnel — but Edward Snowden faces certain indictment if he dares to return to American soil.
Nearly 40 news outlets sent a letter to the White House in November complaining about what they see as an unprecedented lack of access for photographers. At the White House press briefing Thursday journalists angrily confronted press secretary Jay Carney over the issue.
Obama’s Soviet-style Media Control. Photo by Official State-Approved Photographer Pete Souza/The White House
Major media organizations protest against being shut out of president’s events in favor of official photographer
Jon Swaine writes: Barack Obama’s White House has been accused of producing Soviet-style propaganda by press photographers who are furious at being denied access to the US president.
Mr Obama’s aides routinely block independent photographers from capturing him at work, before distributing flattering pictures shot by Pete Souza, his official photographer.
During a tense meeting at the White House, the practice was described by Doug Mills, a veteran photographer for The New York Times, as “just like TASS,” the Soviet Union state news agency.
Sorry, Mr. President, but official pictures won’t do
Karen Peterson reports: A photojournalist’s job is to document the news the way it really looks, not the way somebody wants it to look. Even when that somebody is the president.
During his presidency, Barack Obama has time and again closed the door to photojournalists trying to take pictures of him performing official duties. Instead, he’s had his own photographer take the pictures, which the White House distributes to the media. You can bet only flattering photos make it through.
That’s a break from the practice of previous administrations, which allowed greater access. It’s concerning to the nation’s largest press organizations and concerning to us at The News Tribune.
Last week, the American Society of News Editors and 37 other organizations signed a letter delivered to Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, protesting the lack of access. The letter listed seven news events handled this way from July 2013 to October 2013, including the president’s meetings with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, and with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Ed Rogers writes: Incredibly, we learned that the Obamacare open enrollment period for 2015 will be pushed back one month from the original start date of Oct. 15, 2014. This means that people will not be able to see what their insurance rates for 2015 will be before Nov. 15, 2014. Hmm, what’s happening in that one month that could possibly make this odd delay make sense? Oh yeah, America is holding national elections on Nov. 4, 2014.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney confirmed the latest change to the law in Friday’s press conference, trying to spin the changes to Obamacare as a way “to give insurers more time to evaluate the first year” of the Obamacare exchanges. Really? Thirty days is “more time” for insurance companies?
This is beyond arrogant. This maneuver shows utter contempt and disdain for the intellect and capacity of voters to see this move for what it is: a blatantly political calculation on the part of President Obama. What the Democrats see on the political horizon must be absolutely horrific if they think this can be done without infuriating voters more than they already have been. Read the rest of this entry »
The gymnastics required to pretend that Obamacare is not responsible for the changes contained within Obamacare eventually prove too tough for anybody
Charles C. W. Cooke writes: When, on October 21, Barack Obama stepped sanguinely up onto the Rose Garden podium and steadied himself to address the nation, few Americans expected to see bravado. Despite his topic being the calamitous rollout of his signature law, however, bravado is precisely what they got.
The president, it was quickly observed, appeared not to have noticed that his plan wasn’t working. Instead, he resembled an unflappable salesman, insisting indignantly that his product was good, enthusiastically repeating the telephone number for his sales team, and knocking his competitors for the inferiority of their offerings. Given the scale of the disaster at hand, his pose was something of a shock.
Widespread criticism of the president’s tone did little to diminish his spirits, and before long Valerie Jarrett had put out a trial balloon, imprudently claiming that “nothing in Obamacare forces people out of their health plans” because “no change is required unless insurance companies change existing plans.” We were in it for the long haul.
We’re just inviting you to take a timeout into the rhythmic ambiance of our breakfast, brunch and/or coffee selections. We are happy whenever you stop by.
this evening — he tried to tangle with John McCain about Middle East policy.
After Carney had offered a favorable take on his former boss’s speech, Senator McCain took issue with Carney’s claim that the moderate 
at 
It’s the oddest of legislative couples: President Obama and one of his biggest critics, Ted Cruz.
A career-enhancing diplomatic statement for 
Prime Minister 
Vice President Biden called Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich to express what the White House termed “grave concern,” and called on the embattled leader to pull back government forces after a day of chaotic street clashes and immediately resume political discussions with opponents.
White House press secretary 
A winter storm warning for the Washington area is in effect until 3 p.m. Thursday. The National Weather Service 
pundit from another planet 