Media Malpractice

---

Clark Whelton at City Journal:

Death by Media

Revelations concerning Benghazi, the IRS, and government probing of the Associated Press make it increasingly clear that Barack Obama was led astray by his friends in the media. They intended no harm to the president, needless to say. But by withholding the criticism that prods public officials into doing a better job, by choosing not to print negative stories and commentaries about the Obama administration, the press corps tempted the president and his staff with visions of invincibility. The pro-Obama news crew—with a boost from the Nobel Peace Prize committee—confirmed the president’s exalted view of himself. They are in part responsible for encouraging Obama to think that he could tamper with the truth about Benghazi and get away with it.

Through two presidential campaigns and Obama’s first term, mainstream editors, editorial writers, and journalists served as de facto auxiliaries for the White House press office. Certain that they were serving a noble cause, they soft-pedaled bad news about the economy and ignored or played down the president’s gaffes. Aided by one-liners from late-night talk-show hosts, they attacked and ridiculed Fox News or any reporter, radio commentator, writer, or blogger not riding Obama’s bandwagon. They hounded and harassed Sarah Palin—author Joe McGinnis even moved next door to her home—determined to destroy someone they perceived as a threat to Obama’s power. They rode shotgun as Obamacare made its way through Congress. And they led the chorus of derision that greeted early reports of political corruption inside the IRS.

Last September, when Mitt Romney raised questions about Benghazi, the mainstream media accused the Republican presidential challenger of “politicizing” the issue. Taking their leads from Democratic press releases, they kept the spotlight on Romney’s supposed missteps, giving the Obama administration time to camouflage a murderous terror attack as a spontaneous riot. And with each alibi they provided, with each news story they slanted to assist Obama at the polls, they deprived the president of the honest feedback that public officials may not want but desperately need. A biased press corps steadily pushed the president closer to the precipice where he now precariously stands.

In the morning, those who have engaged in whorish behavior—or in this case, those rewarded with invitations to insider Washington parties and access to private e-mail lists—are somehow astonished by a lack of respect. Members of the media, including Associated Press reporters, after favoring and flattering Obama for years, were stunned to discover that Obama’s Department of Justice was treating them like tarts and had targeted the AP with secret subpoenas.

The end of the affair is always painful and poignant. Unaccustomed to sunlight, fleeing suspicions of malfeasance and outright criminality, the Obama administration is pleading guilty to incompetence and ignorance. Benghazi? Hey, who knew the Libyans to whom we had been secretly running guns would turn them on us? We didn’t want to make things worse by calling the cops. Besides, we knew the media would let the story die. The IRS? Shock. Outrage. Never heard of the place.

An independent press is a compass, a vital part of the American system of checks and balances. It can provide the ship of state with mid-course corrections. But a compass that swings any way the helmsman wants is worse than useless. It points the way to disaster.

---

When I first started working retail security the district manager told me his theory. He said about 15% of people are pathologically honest. They won’t steal no matter what. These are the people that turn in cash they find on the ground and walk back into the store to return money when they realize they were given too much change.

Then there are another 15% who are the exact opposite. They are basically a crime waiting to happen. You can try to catch them and do things to make it hard for them to get away with it, but you can’t stop them.

That leaves about 70% of the people. They are basically honest but might give into temptation if you make it too easy for them. So you watch them. And you let them know you’re watching. Because if they know someone’s watching they will stay honest.

We have nothing to fear from a press that is overzealous when it comes to investigating those who hold power. The danger comes from a press that abdicates its responsibility and becomes a cheerleading squad for the administration.

---

---

Worse Than Watergate?

---

Michael G. Franc:

‘Enemies List,’ Updated

[...]

Many have compared the recent scandals to past presidential trespasses, such as Richard Nixon’s wiretapping of political “enemies” or Lyndon Johnson’s having the IRS audit them to silence or otherwise intimidate them. Those analogies are important, but mostly because understanding them properly teaches us what is new, and potentially more alarming, about the current IRS scandal.

[...]

The enemies list à la Obama, which targets entire classes of people or organizations, is more dangerous to a free and open society because it paves the way for more systemic and widespread abuses by government. It is spawned by an insidious philosophy that discounts the intrinsic value and uniqueness of individuals. Group traits such as ideology, religious beliefs, occupation, military status, and even gun ownership trump individual qualities and come to define the citizen in the eyes of the increasingly intrusive government.

And there is a pattern here. Today’s IRS scandal reminds us of the embarrassing revelations that emerged in April 2009, shortly after Mr. Obama assumed office. The Department of Homeland Security had sent a confused report on “rightwing extremism” to sheriffs and police departments nationwide. According to the report, the “extremists” under scrutiny included not only those who belonged to overtly racist groups but also, as the Washington Times reported, “groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority” as well as “groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”

Similarly, the new revelations indicate that IRS officials targeted tea-party and other conservative outfits solely because they fit the profile of being “political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government” or “educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.” Golly!

The identity politics practiced by these agencies challenges the very essence of our Founding. The understanding of liberty that prevailed at the Constitutional Convention began with an acceptance of the “inalienable rights” we possess as individuals. These rights inhere in us as human beings and predate the creation of any government. Our liberty is not apportioned to us according to the whims of government officials. Government, rather, exists to defend the liberties we already possess.

The nature of that liberty, moreover, presumes that we are free to plot our life’s trajectory, define our dreams as we choose, and act accordingly. We are not bound by predestination as defined by our race, gender, family lineage, occupation, wealth or poverty, world view, or any other criterion deemed important by the government.

---

I remember Watergate, and I am sure most of you do as well. It was one of the major formative events of my political identity and beliefs. But Watergate wasn’t a single event, it was a process that connected a series of events.

More than anything Watergate was about the abuse of power. I believe in the rule of law, and the abuse of power is incompatible with that belief. It’s bad enough when a badge-heavy cop violates people’s rights, but is several magnitudes worse when the law-breaking starts at the top.

Until recently my biggest fear with the Obama presidency was incompetence. I feared that more than corruption because we have survived corrupt presidents many times in the past, but most of them were competent crooks.

Recently I have come to fear something else much more than Obama’s corrupt incompetence. No previous administration has been so eager to use the power of the state against political opponents. That’s the definition of authoritarianism.

It really can happen here.

---

---

Denial is a River in Prog World

---

The Hill:

White House: ‘No knowledge’ of AP phone record seizure

The White House on Monday distanced President Obama from the Department of Justice’s seizure of Associated Press telephone records.

“Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.

---

Previous presidents have claimed amnesia on occasion, but I can’t recall another administration that so frequently professed ignorance about the activities of the various departments within the Executive Branch. Not only does the president rely on the news media to make him aware of scandals, but his department heads are equally ignorant of what goes on in their departments. It’s the “Know Nothing” administration.

---

Atlantic Wire:

Obama Tells Harvey Weinstein, Justin Timberlake to Blame Rush Limbaugh

President Obama told donors like Jessica Biel, Justin Timberlake (who was wearing hipster glasses), and Tommy Hilfiger that Washington gridlock is pretty much Rush Limbaugh’s fault on Monday evening at a fundraiser at Harvey Weinstein’s house in New York’s Greenwich Village. Obama admitted that his theory — that after the 2012 election, the Republican “fever” would break, and they’d decide to co-sign some of his agenda — was wrong. “My thinking was when we beat them in 2012 that might break the fever, and it’s not quite broken yet,” Obama said, according to the White House pool report. This is because of a certain corpulent radio host. “I genuinely believe there are Republicans out there who would like to work with us but they’re fearful of their base and they’re concerned about what Rush Limbaugh might say about them. And as a consequence we get the kind of gridlock that makes people cynical about government.”

---

Multiple scandals in Washington DC, Obama claims he knows nothing about any of them, but he’s in New York City fundraising and blaming it all on Rush Limbaugh. If that is what Obama truly believes then he really is ignorant.

---

Politico:

Carl Bernstein: IRS targeting not Watergate

Journalist Carl Bernstein said President Barack Obama is no Richard Nixon on Monday, and he would know.

“It’s terrible,” Bernstein said of the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “Outrageous. Heads ought to roll. Simple as that. … From what we know so far, some high-up heads.”

But Bernstein said that conservatives who are eager to equate the IRS scandal to Watergate should hold their horses.

While the Nixon-era IRS investigated his political enemies and subjected them to audits, it did so at the direction of the president and his aides. No evidence has emerged linking Obama or the White House to the IRS scandal.

“In the Nixon White House, we heard the president of the United States on tape saying ‘Use the IRS to get back on our enemies,” said Bernstein, whose reporting helped lead to Nixon’s eventual resignation. “We know a lot about President Obama, and I think the idea that he would want the IRS used for retribution — we have no evidence of any such thing.”

---

Obama wouldn’t do a nasty thing like that, would he? This is circular logic – we have an abuse of Executive Branch power but since there is no smoking gun directly linking it to Obama there is no reason to investigate and see if a link exists. That’s like saying that cops should only investigate crimes that were already solved.

I would truthfully be surprised if a smoking gun existed in this case. One of the lessons of Watergate was “plausible deniability”. There won’t be any memos or tapes, and the guys who carry out orders never speak directly to the head cheese.

We are supposed to believe that numerous low-level IRS employees across the country took it upon themselves to inappropriately focus on conservative groups. When their higher-up found out they told them to stop but they just used different criteria to reach the same result. Somehow it continued for two years but the White House was totally unaware. To date, nobody has been fired or disciplined.

Maybe Carl Bernstein should write another book and call it “All The President’s Low-Level Employees”.

---

---

Impeachment Is Not Gonna Happen

---

The Hill:

Huckabee: Obama will be ousted over Benghazi

Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said on his radio show Monday that President Obama “will not fill out his full term” because he was complicit in a “cover-up” surrounding the attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Libya.

“I believe that before it’s all over, this president will not fill out his full term,” Huckabee said. “I know that puts me on a limb, but this is not minor.”

“When a president lies to the American people and is part of a cover-up, he cannot continue to govern,” he added. “And as the facts come out, I think we’re going to see something startling. And before it’s over, I don’t think this president will finish his term unless somehow they can delay it in Congress past the next three and a half years.”

[...]

Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, said the only way Obama would not get impeached was if Democrats made gains in both chambers of Congress.

“If they’re able to get control of the House and maintain the Senate, this will not happen because they won’t let it happen,” he said. “And they won’t let it happen not because they’re protecting just the president, they’re trying to protect their entire political party. If they try to protect the president and their party, and do so at the expense of the truth, their president and their party will go down. Now, here’s what I’m going to suggest will happen — as the information and facts begin to come out, it will become so obvious that there was a concerted and very, very deliberate attempt to mislead this country and its people, to lie to Congress, as well as to you.”

---

Let’s be absolutely clear – impeachment is not gonna happen. Stop dreaming. Okay, technically it could happen, but just like with Bill Clinton he’ll never get convicted.

In an almost perfect world Barack Obama and a few members of his administration would have already resigned in shame. (In a perfect world there would have been no scandal in the first place.) If the media had done their jobs Mitt Romney would have just ended his unofficial first term honeymoon.

I have said from the beginning there are two issues here – the fuck-up and the cover-up. So far I have seen no evidence that the fuck-up was anything but incompetence. To be fair, the incompetence belongs mostly to someone other than Obama himself. One or more of his current and/or former underlings is primarily responsible for the fuck-up that cost four American lives.

Sadly we don’t impeach people for incompetence. Even if we did, that’s not the reason Obama won’t be impeached.

Obama is jointly and severally liable for the cover-up. Not just because each conspirator is guilty of the entire conspiracy, but because he is the chief conspirator – he directed and authorized the cover-up. For that he should be impeached – but he won’t be.

It’s the math and the media the protects him. The math is simple. Article II of the United States Constitution states that “The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

The House of Representatives in controlled by the Republicans and they could potentially pass articles of impeachment by a simple majority vote, just like they did with Bill Clinton. But the trial for impeachment would take place in the Senate, and the Democrats control that side of Congress. There is simply no way that two-thirds of the current Senate would vote to convict Barack Obama.

Especially not with the media defending him. The media initially ignored Watergate, then they smelled blood and helped drive Nixon from office. The media went crazy with the Lewinsky scandal, but that wasn’t enough to oust Bill Clinton because his popularity remained high despite the lurid revelations.

In this case the media is committed to protecting Barack Obama. They are already complicit in the cover-up. Without their help Mitt Romney would be president.

Any Benghazi investigation will stop short of the Oval office just like the investigations into the Bush Administration because one or more of his henchmen (and/or henchwomen) will be sacrificed to protect him. There will be no smoking gun directly linking Obama to the cover-up.

That’s not the way it ought to be, but that’s the way it is. And no, I am not happy about it.

---

The Forgotten Four

---

The Most Powerful WATB In The World

---

Seriously:

Obama laments entrenched power at Ohio State commencement

President Barack Obama is the most powerful man in the world, but he still laments that there is so much still out of his control.

Obama told Ohio State University graduates Sunday that it will be their responsibility to make the world a better place, because forces aligned against them still hold substantial power. The dour commencement address touched on Obama’s familiar we’re-all-together theme and included shots at his regular bogeymen: Wall Street, an obstinate Congress and, of course, the press.

“As you’ve studied and worked and served to become good citizens, the fact is that all too often the institutions that give structure to our society have, at times, betrayed your trust,” Obama said. “In the run-up to the financial crisis, too many on Wall Street forgot that their obligations don’t end with what’s happening with their shares. In entertainment and in the media, ratings and shock value often trumped news and storytelling. In Washington – well, this is a joyous occasion, so let me put it charitably: I think it’s fair to say our democracy isn’t working as well as we know it can. It could do better. And so those of us fortunate enough to serve in these institutions owe it to you to do better, every single day.”

And while Obama said he’s “not going to get partisan,” he included reminders that it’s not his fault Washington focuses on the desires of the rich over the needs of the poor and middle class, that even modest gun control reforms failed in the Senate and that his quest for a grand bargain is perpetually delayed by “small things.”

“The founders trusted us with this awesome authority. We should trust ourselves with it, too,” Obama said. “Because when we don’t, when we turn away and get discouraged and cynical and abdicate that authority, we grant our silent consent to someone who’ll gladly claim it. That’s how we end up with lobbyists who set the agenda; and policies detached from what middle-class families face every day; the well-connected who publicly demand that Washington stay out of their business – and then whisper in government’s ear for special treatment that you don’t get. That’s how a small minority of lawmakers get cover to defeat something the vast majority of their constituents want. That’s how our political system gets consumed by small things when we are a people called to do great things, like rebuild a middle class, and reverse the rise of inequality, and repair the deteriorating climate that threatens everything we plan to leave for our kids and grandkids.”

---

I’m thinking this Obama guy should run for President. If he was in charge, things would be different.

---

---

The Law of Gravity is Inexorable and Implacable

---

The Hammer of Kraut:

Obama: The Fall

Fate is fickle, power cyclical, and nothing is new under the sun. Especially in Washington, where after every election the losing party is sagely instructed to confess sin, rend garments and rethink its principles lest it go the way of the Whigs. And where the victor is hailed as the new Caesar, facing an open road to domination.

And where Barack Obama, already naturally inclined to believe his own loftiness, graciously accepted the kingly crown and proceeded to ride his reelection success to a crushing victory over the GOP at the fiscal cliff, leaving a humiliated John Boehner & Co. with nothing but naked tax hikes.

Thus emboldened, Obama turned his inaugural and State of the Union addresses into a left-wing dream factory, from his declaration of war on global warming (on a planet where temperatures are the same as 16 years ago and in a country whose CO2 emissions are at a 20-year low) to the invention of new entitlements — e.g., universal preschool for 5-year-olds— for a country already drowning in debt.

To realize his dreams, Obama sought to fracture and neutralize the congressional GOP as a prelude to reclaiming the House in 2014. This would enable him to fully enact his agenda in the final two years of his presidency, usually a time of lame-duck paralysis. Hail the Obama juggernaut.

Well, that story — excuse me, narrative — lasted exactly six months. The Big Mo is gone.

It began with the sequester. Obama never believed the Republicans would call his bluff and let it go into effect. They did.

Taken by surprise, Obama cried wolf, predicting the end of everything we hold dear if the sequester was not stopped. It wasn’t. Nothing happened.

Highly embarrassed, and determined to indeed make (bad) things happen, the White House refused Republican offers to give it more discretion in making cuts. Bureaucrats were instructed to inflict maximum pain from minimal cuts, as revealed by one memo from the Agriculture Department demanding agency cuts that the public would feel.

Things began with the near-comical cancellation of White House tours and ended with not-so-comical airline delays. Obama thought furious passengers would blame the GOP. But isn’t the executive branch in charge of these agencies? Who thinks that a government spending $3.6 trillion a year can’t cut 2 percent without furloughing air-traffic controllers?

Looking not just incompetent at managing budgets but cynical for deliberately injuring the public welfare, the administration relented. Congress quickly passed a bill giving Obama reallocation authority to restore air traffic control. Having previously threatened to veto any such bill, Obama caved. He signed.

Not exactly Appomattox, but coming immediately after Obama’s spectacular defeat on gun control, it marked an administration that had lost its “juice,” to paraphrase a charming question at the president’s Tuesday news conference.

For Obama, gun control was a political disaster. He invested capital. He went on a multi-city tour. He paraded grieving relatives. And got nothing. An assault-weapons ban — a similar measure had passed the Congress 20 years ago — lost 60 to 40 in a Senate where Democrats control 55 seats. Obama failed even to get mere background checks.

All this while appearing passive, if not helpless, on the world stage. On Syria, Obama is nervously trying to erase the WMD red line he had so publicly established. On Benghazi, he stonewalled accusations that State Department officials wishing to testify are being blocked.

---

Nice poetry, but it’s really not correct to say that Obama has suffered a “fall” since the election. The truth is he wasn’t riding high last year either. Obama is the first incumbent POTUS to win reelection with fewer votes and a smaller margin than his original election.

Obama won reelection by spending $1 BILLION to demonize Mitt Romney as an out-of-touch weirdo Mormon capitalist fat cat. Even then he needed a lot of help from the media too. Despite what the Vile Progs seem to believe, Obama’s only real political skill is in demonizing his opponents.

Obama’s only significant legislative victories took place when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. He’s been a lame duck since November 2010 when the GOP tsunami swept into the House of Representatives.

Historically, second terms are not very productive for POTUSes (POTUSi?). Most of them see their poll ratings decline. Next year is mid-term election year and Obamacare will be fully operational by then. I am going to predict that if some kind of immigration reform is passed it will turn out to be less popular in reality than it is in theory. (The messy details of amnesty will be a sticking point for many people.)

Republicans in Congress have more to fear from primary challenges from the Tea Party than they do from Democrats in the general election. As soon at the mid-term election finishes the 2016 primary campaigns to replace Obama will officially begin (if they haven’t already). That will be a two-party primary fight and no one is a lock for their party’s nomination.

Obama will still be President. He will still be able to wield his veto pen and he will still control the bully pulpit. He will still have a lot of control over government policy as the Chief Executive.

But he is a lame duck, and the Law of Gravity is inexorable and implacable.

Quack, quack, quack.

---

TOTUS’ Former Speechwriter Is Now A “Journalist”

---

Jon “Titty-groper” Favreau now works for the Daily Beast:

Leading From Below

…Much has been written over the last few weeks about the limits of presidential power. Some smart observers have pointed out that these limits are not new; that historically they have had less to do with the personalities of our leaders than the structure of our democracy. The founders, reluctant to entrust any executive with the kind of authority that was so abused by the king they revolted against, created a separation of powers between co-equal branches of government.

But how boring is that? The more exciting story to tell is how Lyndon Johnson charmed and strong-armed his way to massive legislative victories. Much less interesting is the fact that most of those victories occurred while his party held record majorities in Congress. By the end of his second term, following the loss of 47 House seats and three Senate seats, one aide joked that Johnson couldn’t even get a Mother’s Day resolution passed.

Today, a minority of senators can kill bipartisan legislation that is supported by a majority of their colleagues. And they frequently do. In the House, the speaker alone can kill bipartisan legislation that is supported by a majority of his colleagues. And he frequently does. Following some of this country’s worst mass shootings, a Republican senator and a Democratic senator with A ratings from the National Rifle Association authored a gun safety bill requiring criminal background checks that was supported by 90 percent of the American people. If I were a reporter, I’d be more interested in what was wrong with the Congress that refused to pass that bill than the man at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue who relentlessly campaigned for it at more than a dozen events around the country.

But that’s just me. This Congress has so profoundly disappointed the American people that I suppose the real news would be if they ever did anything that even remotely reflected popular will. At this point, getting angry with Congress for failing to legislate seems as useful as yelling at a puppy for peeing on the floor: neither of them knows any better.

This president has played plenty of hardball and softball with members of Congress. I was there when he cut deals and cajoled his way to a health-care victory that 100 years’ worth of Democratic and Republican presidents had sought and failed to achieve. I saw him do the same with the recovery act, and student-loan reform, and Wall Street reform, and “don’t ask, don’t tell”—a legislative legacy that, whether you agree with it or not, already stands tall against any other president’s in recent memory.

I’ve also seen what happens to Republicans who dare to even contemplate cooperation with the White House. When Congressman Scott Rigell of Virginia accepted the president’s invitation to join him at an event highlighting the shipyard jobs that sequestration would destroy in his district, the two men had a warm and constructive conversation aboard Air Force One. The president talked about his willingness to pursue entitlement reform. Rigell said he was open to closing tax loopholes for the wealthy. In return, he was threatened with a primary challenge by his local Tea Party, attacked by Grover Norquist as a “cheap date,” and flooded with nasty calls and emails from conservative activists.

If you’re a Republican in Congress, what’s more likely to sway your vote—a trip on Air Force One and a personal plea from Barack Obama, or the threat of a Tea Party challenge that’s taken down so many of your colleagues in recent elections?

---

Gee, it sure is nice to see that the guy who used to write speeches for Obama to read to us is now able to put aside his political leanings and write objective and balanced essays, isn’t it?

I don’t know about you but I want my congressional representatives to be responsive to the people who elected him/her rather than swoon over a free plane ride (at taxpayer expense) or even a fancy White House dinner (at taxpayer expense).

What makes the Tea Party so effective is that they can produce votes. And most places aren’t like Chicago – you can’t just stuff a few ballot boxes, you have to bring real live voters to the polls.

That’s democracy.

BTW – Obamacare was jammed through without any Republican votes.

---

What Goes Around, Comes Around

POUTUS

---

Newsbusters:

Chuck Todd: Obama ‘Hates’ ‘Internet Media and Social Media’

NBC’s Chuck Todd told an inconvenient truth about Barack Obama on Sunday’s Meet the Press.

CHUCK TODD: What I wonder how many people realized at the end [of Saturday's White House Correspondents' Dinner] when he did his, you know, there’s always this part at the end where they get serious for a minute. And it’s usually the part where presidents say, “You know, I think the press has a good job to do and I understand what they have to do.” He didn’t say that. He wasn’t very complimentary of the press. You know, we all can do better.

It did seem, I thought his pot shots joke wise and then the serious stuff about the internet, the rise of the internet media and social media and all that stuff – he hates it. Okay? He hates this part of the media. He really thinks that the sort of the buzzification – this isn’t just about Buzzfeed or Politico and all this stuff – he thinks that sort of coverage of political media has hurt political discourse. He hates it. And I think he was trying to make that clear last night.

Todd was likely quite correct, but chose not to disclose why Obama hates new media. It’s because most of it isn’t in the tank for this President and can’t be controlled by him.

That’s obviously not true of folks such as Todd and his colleagues in the old media who echo the current White House resident’s talking points, mercilessly attack his opponents, and cover for his missteps.

It’s therefore no wonder the President hates “the rise of the internet media and social media,” and although Todd is very active on Twitter, one thinks he also hates this rise because it’s making him and his colleagues less relevant.

---

There are a lot of ways to say it:

“What goes around, comes around.”

“Live by the sword, die by the sword.”

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

“Karma’s a bitch.”

But they all mean the same thing.

Not that many years ago a guy name Dubya was POTUS and the media were his lapdogs. People on the left weren’t happy with the media chokehold on information and the blogosphere was born. Left Blogistan was a place you could go for stories the major media wouldn’t touch.

Then this media whiz came along and saw the potential to manipulate this new “social media”. That guy is David Axelrod. He packaged up an empty suit with a blank resume and with a $100 million in seed money from Wall Street he turned a nobody into The Lightbringer.

Now the media are lapdogs for The Lightbringer and the right blogosphere (aka: Wingnuttia) is the place to go for stories the major (Lamestream) media won’t touch. And the biggest story they won’t touch?

The clothes have no emperor.

---

---

Barack Hubris Obama

---

Just when you think you could not be more disgusted with him, he goes and proves you wrong:

Obama’s hubris problem

Tuesday morning, a peculiar announcement trickled out of the White House press office: President Barack Obama would be holding a moment of silence for the victims of the Boston bombings. At the White House. By himself. No press or other intruders allowed.

That Obama assumed Americans would want an iconic photo of him privately mourning the victims of the bombings was emblematic of a kind of hubris that has enveloped the president and his White House as the president commences his second term.

---

I am really glad my anti-depressants finally arrived. Now if I can only keep from vomiting.

---

L-O-S-E-R

POUTUS

---

Pathetico:

Gun control: Obama’s biggest loss

Never before had President Barack Obama put the moral force and political muscle of his presidency behind an issue quite this big — and lost quite this badly.

The president, shaken to the core by the massacre of 26 innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary School, broke his own informal “Obama Rule” — of never leaning into an issue without a clear path to victory — first by pushing for a massive gun control package no one expected to pass, and then sticking through it even as he retrenched to a relatively modest bipartisan bill mandating national background checks on gun purchases.

It was a bitter defeat for a president accustomed to winning, a second-term downer that may — or may not — foreshadow the slow decline suffered by so many of his predecessors. Obama seems to have the public behind him, but it illustrated his less-than-Johnsonian powers of personal persuasion, the possible shortcomings of his decision to wait a month after the killings to present a plan and above all the limits of his go-to “outside” strategy of taking his case directly to the American people.

More than anything, it was an emotional blow to Obama, who was as irritated at the four members of his own party as he was at the 90 percent of Republicans who defeated the bill.

---

If Obama really thought he was gonna win this one then he is guilty of hubris. The votes just weren’t there. And even if they managed to pass something in the Senate, there was no way it would pass the House.

The problem for Obama and the librul media is they live in an echo chamber. Gun control is one of those issues where people’s opinions are pretty well settled. Gun control is popular in some blue urban areas, but it remains toxic everywhere else. Obama and the librul media come from blue urban areas.

It’s like when an alcoholic says “Everybody I know drinks”. He’s telling the truth, because everybody he knows hangs out in bars with him. They’re all alcoholics too.

The sad fact is Obama never did have very good political skills. Even worse, he thinks his political skills are exceptionally good. He has been able to win elections by attacking his opponents rather than selling himself. He narrowly won reelection by spending a BILLION DOLLARS demonizing Mitt Romney.

But all his legislative victories were based on party-line votes. He emerged from the election without a mandate, and he is now a lame duck. Historically, second terms are not when presidents enact significant legislation. Obama shot his wad with the Stimulus and Obamacare. He has no threats or rewards to offer anymore.

Did he really believe he could give a few speeches and use the media to shame or bully the GOP into caving on an issue that would be political suicide for them? I honestly hope he wasn’t that stupid.

---

---

President Crankypants Throws A Hissy Fit

POUTUS and his human props

---

Daily Mail Online:

Furious Obama blasts Senators for blocking background checks as last hope for gun control proposal fails 54-46

The U.S. Senate has voted a bipartisan plan to expand background checks for gun buyers, rejecting the last viable gun control proposal put forward by President Barack Obama after the Newtown school massacre.

The measure failed by a vote of 54-46, six Senators short of the 60-vote hurdle needed for passage.

A furious President Barack Obama blasted the Senate shortly after the vote. He called the failures to pass a bill that ’90 percent of Americans support’ shameful.

Families of Sandy Hook Elementary School victims, who had pushed for tougher gun laws, looked on as the Senate voted down the deal and stood with the Obama during his impassioned Rose Garden speech.

‘A majority of senators voted yes to protecting more of our citizens with smarter background checks, but because of a continued distortion of Senate rules, a minority of senators was able to block it from happening,’ Obama fumed.

---

I’ve seen hissy fits before. I’ve even pitched a few over the years. But I don’t recall ever seeing a POTUS pout in public like that before. I’ve heard about presidential temper tantrums before, but I never got to see one.

Somebody needs his binky and a cigarette.

---

---

TFH Tuesday Open Thread

---

Is there a single left-wing advocacy group that hasn’t flushed their credibility down the toilet because of Obama?

Check this one out:

---

Dogs Always Whine When They Get Left Behind

---

WaPo:

President Obama enjoys guys’ weekend, golfs with Tiger Woods

President Obama on Sunday displayed the freedom that comes with not having another election ahead of him, golfing with Tiger Woods in an enclave of privilege here along Florida’s blustery Atlantic coast.

Since his reelection in November, Obama has been talking about the perils facing America’s middle class, highlighted in his State of the Union address last week. On Friday he visited a public high school in his hometown of Chicago, where he spoke in personal terms about the need to reduce gun violence and create jobs in the country’s troubled urban areas.

The contrast to where he arrived only hours later – and where he will remain through Monday’s federal holiday – could not be more stark. He disappeared late Friday evening behind the gates of the Floridian, a lush golf and residential compound off limits to the public. Neither the public outside those gates, nor the media, has seen him since.

And by adding Woods, the greatest player of his generation, whose fame might only be matched by the notoriety attached to his precipitous adultery-fueled fall from grace three years ago, Obama made clear that he’ll live with criticism over the gap between the harsh realities he is seeking to address in public life and the glamour of his private follies.

The Floridian is owned by Houston businessman and Obama donor Jim Crane, a near-scratch golfer who also owns the Houston Astros baseball team. Crane held a fundraiser for Obama last March in an upscale shopping and dining complex attached to Minute Maid Park, the Astros home field.

---

That’s a pretty amazing article for the Washington Post to print about Obama. I wonder what’s up?

The traveling White House press corps has been given no access to Obama on this outing, a guys’ weekend of golf and a cool winter sun. First lady Michelle Obama and the couple’s daughters, Sasha and Malia, took their annual ski vacation in Aspen, Colo., during the long Presidents’ Day weekend.

For much of this outing, the small contingent of the White House press corps accompanying Obama has lobbied with little success for more information about where precisely on the Floridian grounds the president is staying, who he is staying with, and how much contact he has with other people on the grounds.

A photo of Obama on the course with someone as famous as Woods is commonly a moment the “traveling pool” of about a dozen journalists is allowed to witness. White House officials declined to allow that Sunday.

For the long weekend, the pool has been permitted just inside the Floridian gates, where reporters have used as their “filing center” a mirror-ceilinged party bus, the kind used for shouldn’t-be-driving evenings of bacchanalia like bachelor parties.

Because the president’s motorcade has not left the compound, White House officials have explained, there is no reason for the pool to track the president’s activities or to know who he is spending time with on a personal vacation.

That is an argument often respected by the White House press corps, except this time Obama is not staying in a private home but on the grounds of a complex accessible by those who belong to the club and others. The press corps is staying at a Holiday Inn Express roughly eight miles away.

---

Okay, now it makes sense.

Dogs always whine when they get left behind. Sometimes they get mad and chew up your slippers or gnaw on the furniture to get even. But when you come home they are excited to see you and jump right in your lap.

They are literally showing Obama who’s the boss.

---

The Greatest Story Never Told

---

Okay, I’m exaggerating a little bit:

Conservative Dr. Ben Carson speech upstages Obama at prayer breakfast

Move over President Obama. Conservatives are not talking so much about the president’s address at Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast, but rather remarks from Dr. Benjamin Carson, a black pediatric neurosurgeon with Johns Hopkins Hospital who took over the stage for 25 riveting minutes.

Mr. Carson spoke of his disdain for political correctness, calling it a “dangerous” and “horrible thing” that has led to such ridiculous fears as wishing people Merry Christmas, according to The Blaze.

He also talked about the moral decay of American, and cautioned of a Rome-like fate, and — in front of Mr. Obama, who sat just feet from the podium — confronted the issue of America’s debt and current fiscal policy.

“Our deficit is a big problem,” Mr. Carson said, according to The Blaze. “Think about it — and our national debt — $16 and a half trillion dollars.” And here’s one of his most daring lines, as reported by The Blaze: “What about our taxation system — so complex there is no one that can possibly comply with every jot and tittle. When I pick up my Bible, you know what I see? I see the fairest individual in the universe — God — and he’s given us a system. It’s called tithe.”

Conservatives are applauding.

---

I am not endorsing the contents of Dr. Carson’s speech. What I found amusing is the total lack of attention it has received from the mainstream media and left blogosphere. I guess they couldn’t figure out how to call him a racist.

Full Disclosure: I got a kick out of Obama’s obvious discomfort too.

---

Bonus footage:

---

---

NO, NO, NO, A thousand times NO!

---

What the fuck if is wrong with this these people? Does fame make you stupid?

Chris Rock: The President of the United States is our boss, our Dad

During a press conference with the mayor’s against gun control, actor Chris Rock said he was there to support President Obama’s plan for gun control.

“The President of the United States is – you know – our boss, but he’s also you know, the President and the First Lady are like the mom and the dad of the country and when your dad says something you listen – if you don’t it kind of bites you in the ass later on,” Rock said.

As a comedian, Rock was famous for trashing President George W. Bush in his comedy sketches including this one where he mocks the president for being the worst fu**ing president of all time.

---

President Obama is not our boss. He is our employee. There was a period of my life when first Jimmy Carter and then Ronald Reagan were my bosses. That’s because I joined the army and they were my commanders-in-chief. But all that ended a long time ago.

Nor is the president my father, dad, step-dad or father figure. He’s fucking younger than me! He’s not the “Father of Our Country” either. That title belongs to George Washington.

Obama is not our king. We do not bow or kneel before him. As civilians we do not salute him. But the rules of polite behavior (aka “manners”) decree that we should be formally polite to him, just as we would be to anyone else. That means addressing him by his title (“Mr. President”) and rising to our feet politely when he enters, leaves or addresses us personally – just as we would treat a judge. But unlike a judge, it is not a crime to be intentionally rude to the president.

The president can urge us to action but normally he cannot compel us to obey. He is “first among equals” because every man and woman in the country is considered a sovereign citizen.

The sad and scary part is that Chris Rock knows all that.

1/20/16

---

Calling Bullshit On Obama

---

Via Hot Air:

Today Americans for Prosperity, a nationwide organization of citizen leaders with over 2 million activists and 34 state chapters, released a new video poking fun at the president for his new non-profit, tax exempt group.

“Sadly most of us have gotten used to politicians saying one thing and doing the opposite – but sometimes even jaded cynics like myself encounter a level of hypocrisy so overt, it’s impossible to ignore. That moment happened this month when Team Obama reorganized as a 501-C4 called Organizing for Action.

“While I certainly don’t begrudge Obama for making use of such an organization and taking donations from whoever he wishes, the hypocrisy of doing so is jaw-dropping given the President practically made a part-time job out of bashing groups like Americans for Prosperity and others for… being organized as a 501-C4. The entire Left and many in the media got in on the action, even coining scary sounding monikers like ‘dark money’ to further the Obama rhetoric.

“The cognitive dissonance required to now fully embrace this structure gives me a headache just thinking about it. But then again, I’m a conservative and I like things to make sense.”

---

Obama The Hypocrite isn’t news to us, but I believe in calling bullshit whenever and wherever it appears. It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it.

---

President Momjeans Is A Fake Quarterback Too!

---

Breitbart:

President Obama throws a football!

In his ongoing quest to convince the American people that he is a regular guy — just like us! — President Obama has now released a photo of himself getting ready to throw a football. The caption: “Game day.”

Obama’s Super Bowl enthusiasm comes days after he suggested that his fictional son (not Trayvon, the other one) would not play football. If Obama throws this football like he throws a baseball, this pass will travel approximately 3.7 yards. Talk about a lame duck.

---

The harder he tries, the funnier it gets.

---

---

No! She’s Evil! EVIL!

---

Gotham Bird Cage Liner:

The president lavished praise on Mrs. Clinton for her discipline, stamina and talent. And they put a glossy shine on history by brushing off the tough primary attacks five years ago as the product of trying to find differences where, they now say, there actually were not that many.

“Despite our hard-fought primary, we had such agreement on what needed to be done for our country,” Mrs. Clinton said.

“Made for tough debates, by the way,” Mr. Obama added, “because we could never figure out what we were different on.”

“Yeah, we worked at that pretty hard,” she said.

---

That’s funny, because we didn’t have any problem figuring out where the candidates were different. Neither did the Obots. (No! She’s evil! EVIL!) There is a perfectly good reason why there was no significant difference between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on policy. That’s because he copied hers.

The real differences between the two candidates were in two other areas – experience and character.

She had both and he had neither.

---

Look At Me!

---

Obama names 8 citizens to highlight his successes

President Barack Obama is featuring eight Americans as “citizen co-chairs” of his inauguration, a new role created to highlight his first-term accomplishments with examples of lives that have either been improved by his actions or inspired his presidency.

The honorees announced Thursday include a woman with a brain tumor who no longer is denied health care for a pre-existing condition; an autoworker who got her job back after the General Motors bailout; and a gay pilot-in-training kicked out of the Air Force before the president repealed the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

---

So Obama picks 8 people to honor himself. Saddest case is the guy who lost all four limbs from a land mine explosion in Afghanistan and was “inspired” when Obama personally pinned a purple heart on him. Those of you with any memory cells left will recall that Obama opposed the lawsuit to strike down DADT and finally agreed to repeal it when the lawsuit was successful.

It’s gonna be a long four years.

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. – Ecclesiastes 1:2

---

---

Obama’s Binders Are Full Of Men

The Boyz Club

---

Let us hearken back to those long ago days of autumn when Mitt Romney committed a major gaffe:

Mitt Romney showed up Tuesday night talking about “binders full of women” being brought to him when he was governor. Sounds kind of kinky and certainly not something you want to be touting.

The phrase was part of Romney’s answer to a question from an audience member at the second presidential debate about how he would “rectify the inequalities in the workplace.” Referring to when he took over as Massachusetts governor, he said, “I had the chance to pull together a Cabinet, and all the applicants seemed to be men,” he said. “I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks?’ and they brought us whole binders full of women.”

The “binders” moment went viral immediately on Twitter, spawning @RomneysBinders and @womaninabinder Twitter handles. As of Wednesday morning, almost 300,000 people had supported a Facebook page about what a politically dumb statement it was. Romney may soon say it was “inelegant” phrasing or he didn’t finish his statement or some other excuse, but the comment shows why voters, especially women, don’t trust him and don’t believe he has their back.

---

The media and internets went wild. Feminists in high dudgeon took turns explaining how insensitive and offensive the comment was. The general consensus on the left was that it was further proof of a GOP War on Women (GOPWOW).

Good thing for you wimmens that Romney lost, right?

Yesterday’s NY Fishwrap:

Obama’s Remade Inner Circle Has an All-Male Look, So Far

In an Oval Office meeting on Dec. 29, 11 of President Obama’s top advisers stood before him discussing the heated fiscal negotiations. The 10 visible in a White House photo are men.

In the days since, Mr. Obama has put together a national security team dominated by men, with Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts nominated to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton as the secretary of state, Chuck Hagel chosen to be the defense secretary and John O. Brennan nominated as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Given the leading contenders for other top jobs, including chief of staff and Treasury secretary, Mr. Obama’s inner circle will continue to be dominated by men well into his second term.

[...]

The White House itself employs almost exactly the same number of men and women, and administration officials said they hoped to even out the ratio across the government and help ensure that future Democratic administrations have a diverse and deep bench of candidates for high-level jobs.

But Mr. Obama’s recent nominations raised concern that women were being underrepresented at the highest level of government and would be passed over for top positions.

---

Boy, nobody could have predicted that!

Obama was the candidate who called women reporters “Sweetie” and “Hon”. Obama was the candidate who paid his female staffers less than women. Obama was the candidate whose campaign weaponized misogyny. And now Obama’s White House has turned out to be the He-Man Woman Haters Club.

But wait! There’s more! The Times can’t let Obama go undefended:

Interviews with current and former members of the administration, both men and women, suggested that there was no single reason for the gender discrepancy in administration appointments, and several repeatedly spoke of the administration’s internal commitment to diversity and gender equity.

But several said that the “pipeline” of candidates appeared to be one problem. They said it seemed that more men than women were put forward or put their names forward for jobs. In part, that might be a result of the persistence of historical discrepancies: men have traditionally dominated government fields like finance, security and defense.

---

Sounds like a good place for some affirmative action!

Last but not least, the classic gender discrimination defense:

She noted that women with young families, more so than men with young families, tended to drop out of jobs that demanded long hours — a trend also noted by administration officials. Perhaps as evidence of that skew, there were about 57 percent more male appointees than female appointees at the assistant or deputy assistant level.

---

Statistics can be deceiving, but not in this case. Obama has shown a persistent pattern of discriminating against women. Oh, sure, he hires women. But he pays them less than men and promotes them less than men. Women in his administration tend to end up in subordinate positions or find their authority undermined.

Hillary was an exception but she didn’t end up as Secretary of State because Obama wanted her running foreign policy. That was the deal they made in exchange for her and Bill’s support. If he didn’t need her to get elected she wouldn’t even have been appointed as dog catcher.

I spent the past four years feeling sorry for all the people who were duped into voting for Obama. But I’m not feeling sorry for them any more. If you were stupid enough to vote for him you deserve what you get. The same thing goes for anyone who threw their vote away on somebody other than Mitt Romney.

You had your chance. You blew it. Now you own it.

---