Union activists illegally voting in Wisconsin

Original Post: Media Trackers

UNCOVERED: Three Out-of-State SEIU Activists Registered To Vote From Hotel

By Collin Roth

After discovering that Occupy Milwaukee protester and left-wing activist Austin Lee Thompson used a Glendale hotel to register and vote, Media Trackers has discovered that at least two more out-of-state activists employed by the SEIU registered to vote from the Glendale Residence Inn hotel for the April 5, 2011 spring election.

SEIU organizer Todd E. Stoner from Freehold, New Jersey, used same-day registration to cast a ballot in the April 5, 2011 spring election in Wisconsin. Stoner, like Thompson, still has an active voter registration in New Jersey. According to Stoner’s Wisconsin voter registration form, he simply listed “Residence Inn Marriott and N.J. ID” as his proof of residence. Stoner used another state’s ID as part of his proof of residence to vote in Wisconsin.

Clarence Haynes also registered to vote using the Residence Inn in Glendale. According to 2010 SEIU documents, Haynes was a “Senior Organizer in Training” in 2010. The area code on his cell phone is from the Tampa area and Haynes was previously registered as an SEIU officer in Palm Beach County. Haynes broke GAB protocol on his voter registration form by not listing a previous address and his proof of residence was a “military ID and Residence Inn paperwork.”

Austin Lee Thompson, Todd Stoner, and Clarence Haynes all travelled from different states to take part in the Madison protests and subsequent campaigns in Wisconsin. It is no coincidence that all three registered to vote at the same Residence Inn in Glendale, begging the question who was paying for the hotel rooms?

Circumstantial evidence points to the SEIU, to which all three have a connection. Stoner and Haynes are SEIU organizers and Thompson was employed by Wisconsin Jobs Now!, an organization created by the SEIU and Citizen Action Wisconsin.

How long have left-wing organizations and labor unions taken advantage of Wisconsin’s lax voting laws by registering out-of-state political activists at hotel addresses? The Milwaukee Police Department’s investigation of the 2004 General Election warned of a “new class of Wisconsin voter, the ’10-day resident,’” based on the 10 day residency requirement for voting.

Pursuing election integrity crimes must be a priority for Wisconsin law enforcement not just in word, but in deed. It is time for law enforcement, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, and Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to step up and investigate whether there is a pervasive use of hotel addresses for voter registration. How many professional activists used hotels around the state to register to vote in the Supreme Court race? or the Summer Recalls? How many will use these methods for the Walker recall?

Another compassionate liberal calls for the death of someone he disagrees with

Original Post: Digital Journal

Actor Orlando Jones defends tweet calling for Sarah Palin's death

Orlando Jones, best known for his stint at comedy show MADtv, recently tweeted for liberals to kill Sarah Palin and defended his statement, saying, "My tweet hit a nerve. That's good."

Several days ago, Jones wrote on his Twitter account: "Libyan Rebels kill Gaddafi, if American liberals want respect they better stop listening to Aretha & kill Sarah Palin(:"

He then faced a barrage of criticism on his Twitter feed and via his Facebook account. CNN reports Jones responded to a number of Twitter users, "including one that asked why the actor 'thinks it's funny to call for Sarah Palin to be murdered.' Jones replied to the query, 'I don't. I think it's funny that you are so upset about my inane tweet.'"

Jones, also known for being a 7-Up spokesperson in the late 1990s, defended his tweet, recently writing, "My tweet was farcical not funny or a call to action."

On his Facebook Page, Jones went further to fully explain his motive behind the inflammatory tweet: "Any anger directed at me and my right to free speech is an absolute waste of time. I am not a statesman. My comments reflect no political affiliation. It's just me being me, So...he just randomly calls for the death of random people he has no interest in? That's rather sociopathic. in a world that will never comfortably mix political correctness with artistic expression. For that, I offer no apologies, excuses or wisdom."

Palin or her representatives haven't responded to the tweet or its fallout yet. This story will be updated as news comes in.

President decides to ignore Congress and do whatever he wants...again

Original Post: Daily Caller

Obama says he’ll be taking ‘executive actions’ without Congress on ‘regular basis’ to ‘heal the economy’

President Barack Obama told an audience in Nevada on Monday that he will be regularly announcing “executive actions” his administration will take to “heal the economy” without the “dysfunctional” Congress.

“I’m here to say to all of you and to say to the people of Nevada and the people of Las Vegas, we can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will,” Obama said.

“I’ve told my administration to keep looking every single day for actions we can take without Congress, steps that can save consumers money, make government more efficient and responsive, and help heal the economy. And we’re going to be announcing these executive actions on a regular basis,” the president said.

Obama then explained the home mortgage refinancing plan that his administration announced on Monday.

“The barrier will be lifted that prohibits responsible homeowners from refinancing if their home values have fallen so low that what they owe on their mortgage is 25 percent higher than the current value of their home,” he said. “And this is critically important for a place like Las Vegas, where home values have fallen by more than 50 percent over the past five years.”

“If you’ve got a $250,000 mortgage at six percent interest rates, but the value of your home has fallen below $200,000, right now you can’t refinance,” Obama explained. “You’re ineligible. But that’s going to change. If you meet certain requirements, you will have the chance to refinance at lower rates, which could save you hundreds of dollars a month, and thousands of dollars a year on mortgage payments.”

Virginia Democratic Rep. Jim Moran told TheDC last Thursday that he would like to see the Obama administration refinance every home mortgage to three and a half to four percent without congressional approval.

“The banks aren’t doing it, but the federal government can borrow money at three-and-a-half percent today,” Moran said. “It would reset the economy, and I think it’s the one thing that would most quickly get this economy back on its feet.”

Moran’s recommendation foreshadowed the president’s statements on Monday.

“Where we don’t have to wait for Congress, we’re just going to go ahead and act on our own, and we’re going to keep on putting pressure on Congress to do the right thing for families all across the country,” Obama said.

“And I am confident that the American people want to see action,” he said. “We know what to do. Question is whether we’re going to have the political will to do it.”

Reporter threatened with credential removal for daring to question Joe Biden

Original Post: Daily Caller

Reporter who bugged Biden: ‘They’re suggesting that my credentials get yanked’ for ‘rape’ question

Vice President Joe Biden’s office has asked the U.S. Senate Press Gallery to investigate conservative journalist Jason Mattera’s tactics during a recent interview, a process that could result in his press credentials being revoked, The Daily Caller has learned.

Mattera, the editor of Human Events and a widely known video ambush interviewer, caught Biden by surprise after asking if he would pose together for a joint picture. While embracing the vice president for the photo, Mattera asked Biden if he “regret[s] using a rape reference to describe Republican opposition to the president’s bill.”

After pausing for a moment during which he appears shocked, Biden attempted to defend his comments.

“I didn’t use — no, no, no,” Biden told Mattera amid a crowd of onlookers on Capitol Hill. “What I said — let’s get it straight, guy, don’t screw around with me. Let’s get it straight.”

“I said rape was up three times in Flint, [Mich.],” Biden continued. “There are the numbers. Go look at the numbers. Murder’s up, rape is up and burglary’s up. That’s exactly what I said.”

Biden, it turns out, was incorrect. The Washington Post’s fact-checker blog gave him “four Pinocchios,” the worst possible rating it can give to politicians for incorrect statements. FactCheck.org also debunked Biden’s assertions. Those fact checkers used statistics different from the ones Biden was provided.

Biden apparently got his statistics from the City of Flint, and the city stands by its statistics according to Public Safety Director Chief Alvern Lock. In an October 20 statement, Lock said there are discrepancies between different law enforcement agencies’ statistics and crime definitions — something that he said should account for the inconsistencies. “The discrepancies with the FBI and other sources reveal the differences in how crimes can be counted and categorized, based on different criteria,” Lock said.

Even so, Mattera caught Biden playing politics with sketchy numbers. And now the Vice President’s staff is looking for a fight with Mattera instead of correcting the widespread misunderstandings Biden created.

Mattera told The Daily Caller that team Biden’s attempt to discredit him this week is just an effort to distract from how the Vice President’s incorrect. “They’re suggesting that my credentials get yanked and I be investigated for asking a completely legitimate question,” Mattera said in a phone interview. “The administration is just whining and complaining like little toddlers because they’ve gotten their wrists slapped now on multiple occasions for making the suggestion that Republicans are enabling rape and violent crimes because they won’t pass another stimulus package.”

“This is a thug administration in action,” Mattera added. “This is the Chicago way and they can bring it on. Bring it on. I’m a credentialed member of the media and I have a little something-something called the First Amendment on my side.”

According to The Hill newspaper, Biden aides are asking whether any Senate rules were broken during the exchange. The chairwoman of the Gallery’s standing committee of correspondents, a group of five journalists who oversee press accreditation on Capitol Hill, told the newspaper that the group is considering the issue and that it is under review.

“We’re aware of the concerns,” standing committee chairwoman Heather Rothman said, according to The Hill. “It’s being discussed. We’re aware this occurred and the vice president’s office [has made] contact.”

Rothman hasn’t returned TheDC’s requests for more details or information. Biden wouldn’t comment on the record. The Senate Press Gallery wouldn’t comment for The Hill’s story and hasn’t returned TheDC’s requests for comment.

Because none of those parties are answering any questions, it’s unclear what specific rules Biden’s office is alleging Mattera broke. Mattera said these allegations are nothing more than a deflection tactic.

“The Obama administration got caught in a major lie,” he said. “They’re now being called out on it and they’re going after the journalist who got the ball rolling. This is another attempt to destroy their opponents, instead of correcting their facts in their previous statements.”

Proving that Mattera’s “tactics” while interviewing Biden were unethical will be difficult. Mattera never misrepresented himself, was wearing his press credential badge the entire time, and told Biden’s staffers who he was and where he worked.

Mattera adds that it’s not abnormal for journalists to pose for photos with politicians, and that asking a tough question that would normally go unanswered is par for the course.

“Journalists have always used creative ways to get politicians to answer honestly,” Mattera said. “and that’s what I do. I look for ways to get politicians to give me candid answers. I don’t want the spin, I don’t them to go and consult with their messaging team and have the talking points – I get the gut reaction. And, here, Biden’s gut reaction was undignified for the Vice President of the United States.”

As of Tuesday morning, Mattera said no one from the Senate Press Gallery has contacted him about Biden’s allegations. He predicted that the agency will promptly dismiss the accusations against him.

“I’m not worried,” Mattera said. “They’re not going to give this any type of legitimacy.”

First Communists and Nazis now terrorists support Occupy Wall Street

Original Post: Daily Caller

Islamist group joins with Occupy Wall Street

The Occupy Wall Street organizers have invited support from Muslim groups, and on Friday, their camp in New York City’s Zuccotti Park played host to an Islamist group with ties to Islamist anti-Semites, radicals and terrorists.

The Islamic group held a small prayer service that featured roughly 30 men and 30 women. As required by Islamist rules, the women sat in the back and wore head coverings, as the prayer leader cried out “Allahu Akbar,” or “Allah is the Most Powerful of All.”

The group from the Council on American-Islamic Relations – New York was introduced by an Imam, Aiyub Abdul Baki of the Islamic Leadership Council, and by Linda Sarsour, a leader of the Arab-American Association of New York.

CAIR-NY is an affiliate of the D.C.-based Islamist group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Several of CAIR’s employees and former employees have been jailed and deported for terror-related offenses, and it has been criticized even by Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin for ties to Islamist terrorists.

Although widely publicized in the media, CAIR is regarded as a leadership group by only 12 percent of Muslims in America, according to an August 2 report by the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center. Muslim groups that separate politics from religion, such as the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, do not ally with progressive groups and get little media attention.

CAIR’s arrival will stoke fears of anti-Semitic views among the disparate protesters.

Last week, the Anti-Defamation League complained about a few anti-Semitic comments and protesters at the Wall Street protests. “While we believe that these expressions are not representative of the larger views of the OWS movement, it is still critical for organizers, participants and supporters of these rallies to condemn such bigoted statements clearly and forcefully,” national director Abraham Foxman said.

The Islamist group’s arrival is part of a larger trend in the progressive movement to ally left-wing groups with Islamist groups. The groups differ on issues such as rights for women, the legality of homosexuality and the right of people to quit Islam, but they share many common aims, such as larger government role in the economy and increased immigration.

At the prayer event, for example, members of the left-wing Workers World Party help up signs demanding “Stop Entrapment of Muslims.” That matches the demands by many Islamist groups for an end to police surveillance of suspected Islamic radicals in New York.

The arrival of the Islamist group followed outreach by the Wall Street protesters. On Sept. 25, organizer Matthew Bralow urged the group to contact leaders of the Muslim Day Parade. “That could really start to diversify our movement and build it!” Bralow said. His proposal was boosted by several other organizers, including two who had been urging the Zuccotti Park movement to protest the U.S. government’s anti-terror policies.

The protesters’ alliance mirrors the strategy adopted by Democratic Party of growing by incorporating often-fractious groups. But the progressive movement’s growing alliance with U.S. Islamist groups makes its unity-through-diversity coalition more unstable, and prone to splits and public opposition.

Sarsour, for example, helps run the Arab Muslim American Foundation which is a umbrella group for numerous Muslim groups, including American Muslims for Palestine. Many of these groups are focused on opposition to Israel, not the economic and government factors that have stalled the U.S. economic growth. In 2004, American-born Sarsour said some of her Arab friends living beside Israel have been jailed or pursued by the Israeli government for terror offenses, according to a report from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

The Muslim groups’ focus on Israel spurs opposition with American Jewish groups, such as the ADL. The AMP’s webpage, for example, features a recent criticism of the Anti-Defamation League. “The mullet-million-dollar agency has morphed into an organization intent on stifling any honest public discourse about illegal Israeli policies … by a variety of methods, including intimidation, censorship, spying on American citizens and smearing the reputation of individuals and organizations,” according to the AMP’s website.

Red, White and Angry : Communist, Nazi parties endorse ‘Occupy’ protests

Original Post: Daily Caller

By David Martosko



Protestors participating in the Occupy Wall Street protests march towards Wall Street Friday, Oct. 14, 2011, in New York. At least ten people were arrested during the march, which began after protestors heard the news that the owners of Zuccotti Park had withdrawn their request to have the park cleaned by the New York Police Department. (AP Photo/Andrew Burton)

In a move that may redefine the term “strange bedfellows,” the American Nazi Party issued an official endorsement of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement on Sunday afternoon. The announcement put the organization, a self-described “National Socialist” political party, in company with the Socialist Party USA, which explained its own support for the left-wing protesters in a nationwide conference call last Tuesday night, crediting organized labor with the protests’ strength and sophistication to date.

The American Nazi Party is the most politically sophisticated U.S. remnant — but by no means the only one — of white supremacist Adolph Hitler’s murderous 20th century movement. The party calls Hitler’s Mein Kampf “an ideological blueprint for healthy Aryan survival.”

In its statement on Sunday, the Westland, Mich.-based Nazi party wrote that the Occupy Wall Street protests are “TAYLOR [sic] MADE for National Socialists, as well as WN [White Nationalists] who are serious about DOING SOMETHING.”

“I urgently URGE all of you,” the statement’s unnamed author added, “to TAKE PART and JOIN IN when these protests hit your neck of the woods. Produce some flyers EXPLAINING the ‘JEW BANKER’ influence — DON’T wear anything marking you as an ‘evil racist’ — and GET OUT THERE and SPREAD the WORD!”

While Nazis seem unenthusiastic about visibly linking their flagship organization to the vocal protests that have popped up in dozens of U.S. cities, the same can’t be said of the Communist Party USA.

John Bachtell, an Illinois-based community organizer and Communist Party USA board member, addressed the “Occupy Chicago” protest on Saturday.

“I bring greetings and solidarity from the Communist Party,” Bachtell said to hoots and applause. “We are here, marching side-by-side. We’ll sleep here. We’ll be with this movement ’til the very – ’til we make all the changes that we know we have to make.”

Bachtell also organized the Tuesday evening conference call, with an online call to action that framed the Communist Party’s involvement as one part of a larger movement uniting the “Occupy” protesters with a “Week of Action for Jobs” organized by the AFL-CIO, and with congressional Democrats’ push to pass President Obama’s American Jobs Act.

“While there is a wide range of political and ideological trends,” he wrote, “there is a consensus against corporate greed, getting money out of politics, taxing the rich and putting people before profits.

“A big challenge for the CPUSA and left, progressive movements is to link these demonstrations with the labor led all-people’s coalition and help deepen understanding that the path to progress must be through electoral and political action including defeating Republican Tea Party reaction in 2012.”

Communist Party USA Secretary/Treasurer Roberta Wood moderated the conference call, which she announced halfway through had attracted 88 callers.

“’We are [the] 99 percent.’ What a beautiful idea. It re-draws the fault lines of society,” said Wood, a former executive board member of United Steel Workers Local 65 who has also been labor editor of the People’s Weekly World.

“We as communists are also part of that 99 percent. Our deep involvement in our communities and workplaces and unions and neighborhood organizations [will] strengthen a new national conversation that will no doubt impact the future of our country.”

Southern California Communist Party leader Arturo Cambron also addressed the call, praising “the growing of the occupying community.”

“We’ve been getting a lot of support from an unusual amount of very, very broad forces,” Cambron added. “The movement has gone [on] to get the endorsement of a lot of trade unions, including the Los Angeles Federation of Labor, which is I think one of the most powerful, most progressive labor organizations in the country.”

John Wojcik, labor editor for the People’s World, told the conference call that after a recent Occupy Chicago march, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka “was speaking to law students at the Chicago-Kent Law School just a few blocks away. And they heard him urge support for Occupy Wall Street, and offered them use of union halls [and] other resources. And he was using their language. He said we have an economy, a political process, that isn’t serving ‘the 99 percent.’”

Communist Party USA leader Jim Lane, calling in from Dallas, added that “the Texas AFL-CIO published contact information, urged participation everywhere, and sent their whole staff to the Austin action.” With its embrace of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Nazis’ path has become remarkably similar to that of organized U.S. communists, with its primary distinguishing feature being the white supremacists’ near-universal blame of Jews for what they see as the worst features of capitalism.

“The pro-white movementites should be JOINING this Occupy movement and supporting it!” read a statement published Thursday on the American Nazi Party-affiliated “White Honor” website.

“Even Adolf Hitler’s NSDAP had to vote with open communists on some issues to achieve their goals. WE need to utilize and support every movement of dissent against this evil American empire, regardless of which end of the political spectrum it originates from.”

The NSDAP was the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, rendered in English as the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.

On the same website, American Nazi Party chairman Rocky Suhayda wrote Thursday that it was “time to pull WN [White Nationalists’] heads out of their collective ass’s [sic], and JOIN IN the attack on Judeo-Capitalism.”

In a 2009 feature exploring why some white supremacists supported the newly inaugurated President Barack Obama, Esquire magazine noted that Suhayda’s claim to fame was “Being widely quoted bemoaning in the fact that so few Aryan-Americans had the cojones of the 9/11 hijackers: ‘If we were one-tenth as serious, we might start getting somewhere.’”

While the Occupy Wall Street movement has become a radical kitchen sink of left-wing social gripes focusing most of its rage on bankers and capitalism, anti-Semitic insinuations are now more common than when protests first began September 17 in New York City.

Speaking to Reason TV on October 12, Occupy Los Angeles protester Patricia McAllister said that “the Zionist Jews who are running these big banks and our Federal Reserve, which is not run by the federal government — they need to be run out of this country.”

McAllister introduced herself to the cameraman as an employee of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

As the “Occupy” protests gather steam, nearly all of their momentum is still provided by organizers on the far left end of America’s political spectrum. But the entry of real-life Nazis indicates an unprecedented broadening of a U.S. protest movement.

The American Nazi Party’s official Twitter account proclaimed on Saturday that “The Protests Are Going To Become Much More Frightening…. One can only hope.”

Occupy wall street protester shits on civil servant's car

Original Post: The Blaze

Have You Seen the Photo of the Wall Street Protester Defecating on a Cop Car?

The Daily Mail obtained this photo of an unidentified male who appears to be defecating on a New York City patrol car during the ongoing “Occupy Wall Street” protests.

The Daily Mail reported:

According to eye witnesses, when people ran to tell nearby police about the man defecating on the squad car they were ignored.

Standing downwind of the piles of rubbish, bankers walking past the man did a double take before hurrying away.

The shocking photo surfaced one day after Brookfield Office Properties — which owns the private Zuccotti Park where the protesters are camped out — railed against the protesters and said the park has reached unsanitary levels as a result of the cramped occupation, CBS reported.

According to the network, the property company cannot simply kick the demonstrators out because the park’s charter allows 24-hour public access.

“Normally the park is cleaned and inspected every week night,” they said in a statement. “Because the protestors refuse to cooperate…the park has not been cleaned since Friday, September 16th and as a result, sanitary conditions have reached unacceptable levels.”

White House tries to intimidate reporter

Original Post: Weekly Standard

CBS News Reporter Says White House Screamed, Swore at Her Over Fast and Furious

By MARK HEMINGWAY Single Page Print Larger Text Smaller Text Alerts

The Fast and Furious scandal, in which the Justice Department knowingly gave Mexican criminal gangs thousands of guns, just keeps escalating. The latest development centers around whether or not Attorney General Eric Holder lied to Congress about having knowledge of the controversial gun trafficking operation. Recently released documents say Holder was briefed about the operation long before he told the Judiciary Committee he was first aware of what was going on. (Holder now claims he misunderstood the question was being asked.) Then I would like him to tell us what question he was being asked, and why his answer is then acceptable

What's more, CBS News investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson -- who's been covering the scandal from the beginning -- says in an interview on the Laura Ingraham Show today that the White House and Justice Department have taken to screaming at her for reporting on the story. You can listen to the full interview below, but here are the key excerpts from Attkisson:

In between the yelling that I received from Justice Department yesterday, the spokeswoman--who would not put anything in writing, I was asking for her explanation so there would be clarity and no confusion later over what had been said, she wouldn't put anything in writing--so we talked on the phone and she said things such as the question Holder answered was different than the one he asked. But he phrased it, he said very explicitly, 'I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.'

Ingraham: So they were literally screaming at you? Attkisson: Yes. Well the DOJ woman was just yelling at me. The guy from the White House on Friday night literally screamed at me and cussed at me. [Laura: Who was the person? Who was the person at Justice screaming?] Eric Schultz. Oh, the person screaming was [DOJ spokeswoman] Tracy Schmaler, she was yelling not screaming. And the person who screamed at me was Eric Schultz at the White House."

Finally, Attkisson notes that the White House is claiming that a thorough investigation of the scandal is unwarranted:

[The White House and Justice Department] will tell you that I'm the only reporter--as they told me--that is not reasonable. They say the Washington Post is reasonable, the LA Times is reasonable, the New York Times is reasonable, I'm the only one who thinks this is a story, and they think I'm unfair and biased by pursuing it.

Here's the audio from the interview:

Neither our VP nor our President can count

You may remember this.
"It is wonderful to be back in Oregon," Obama said. "Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it." - Barack Obama

And this one.
“Look, John’s last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S,” the Democratic veep nominee said at a morning rally in Athens." - Vice President Joe Biden

Here we go again. Proving this administration can't count up to double digits. But the media will still claim that Sarah Palin is the dumb one for what someone lampooning her on SNL said.

Obama’s Three Words To Define The Future

Original Post: .Human Events

An interview with George Stephanopoulos. by John Hayward 10/04/2011

ABC News has posted a full transcript of President Obama’s October 3rd interview with George Stephanopoulos. It’s the one where he says Solyndra was “a good bet.” That incredible comment doesn’t sound any better in the context of the full interview.

Much of the interview is the same old tedious nonsense that has made Barack Obama one of the most boring speakers in public life. I wonder how many of his girlish pants-crease devotees thought he’d be ridiculed as a human-sized dose of Valium before his term was done. He just says the same things, over and over again, no matter how absurd or thoroughly debunked they’ve been. Evidently, he thinks repetition produces hypnotic effects.

Thus, we have yet more whining about what a tough job Obama consented to accept, when the American people persuaded him to take the Oval Office in 2008. Told by Stephanopoulos that many people “simply don’t think they’re better off than they were four years ago,” the President responds:

Well, I don't think they're better off than they were four years ago. They're not better off than they were before Lehman's collapse, before the financial crisis-- before this extraordinary recession we're going through. I think that-- what we've seen is that we've been able to make steady progress to stabilize the economy.

It’s not his fault, he just got here, and he’s ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work! What on Earth does the Lehman’s collapse have to do with passing a job-killing health care bill, imposing a job-killing moratorium on offshore drilling, sending the National Labor Relations Board to kill jobs in South Carolina, and handing billions to Obama cronies so they can produce 3500 “green jobs” at a cost of $4.8 million apiece?

Naturally, Obama follows this forget-my-record appeal with a fresh demand to pass his silly jobs bill, which currently cannot attract any Democrat sponsors in the House, thanks to their mortal terror of being associated with job-smashing tax increases. The man who skated through the entire debt-ceiling crisis without any concrete proposals takes to whining that he’s the only one with a plan, after Stephanopoulos tells him House GOP leader Eric Cantor thinks Obama’s “all or nothing approach” on his jobs bill is “unreasonable”:

Now if he's got other ideas, we're happy to look at those other ideas. But what-- what I think the American people cannot abide by is us doing nothing. We can't sit here and pretend that somehow-- you know, Washington just cutting spending, in and of itself, is going to be putting people back to work.

Well, heck, I can agree with the President there. Let’s not “pretend” that cutting spending will put people back to work. Let’s do it, right now, and see what happens. We’ll repeal the President’s job-killing health care disaster, defund job-devouring agencies like the EPA, pass some pro-growth tax cuts, and see how employment looks. That’s the one thing we never actually do: cut government spending. We’ve never tried it.

We know Obama’s policies are disastrous, but we’ve never tried the alternative of turning off the money and regulatory spigots in Washington, and giving economic liberty a chance to bloom. Everyone who suggests that simple approach is dismissed as unserious by default. Where’s Eric Cantor’s trillion dollar tax hike, $450 billion spending plan, and $200 billion infrastructure bank? He doesn’t have one? Why, he doesn’t have a “plan” at all!

As is his tiresome custom, Obama demanded more money for “infrastructure,” and appeared to catch himself during a clumsy attempt to refer back to his expensive photo-op at the Brent Spence Bridge in Ohio, which even the local papers were quick to point out would not be affected in any way by the President’s new “stimulus” bill:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: And, you know, for example, you talk to Republican governors, Republican mayors, and they'll tell you that the need for them to rebuild roads and bridges, including some-- you know, that-- I visited in-- in-- in Virginia, but also-- some that I've visited-- between Kentucky and Ohio, where-- both-- Mr. Boehner and Mr. McConnell hail from-- those are projects that need to happen anyway. Why not do them now at a time when we've got construction workers out of work, contractors-- are able to come in under budget, on time. This is the time to do it.

Thanks for reminding us that you blew a couple million dollars of taxpayer money, and snarled local traffic for hours, to pull a stupid political stunt at a bridge chosen entirely because two specific politicians hail from the states on either end of it, Mr. President. How do we get you to stop burning through our money again? Oh, that’s right, we vote you out of office next year.

Comedy gold was struck during this exchange, which would become an immortal moment in political history, casually referenced in popular entertainment years from now, if a Republican had said it:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We actually got a great question on Twitter about 2008. It's from Gale Glover, and he asks, "If hope and change define the 2008 campaign, what two words are going to make-- are going to define 2012?"

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I-- you know, I haven't quite boiled it down to a bumper sticker yet. But I think what'll-- define 2012 is-- you know, our vision for the future. That's three words. Four.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: It's five, actually.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: ...Vision for the future. Four. There is-- going to be a contest of values and-- and vision in 2012.

After stammering his way through an uncomfortable question about the undeniable divisiveness of his new class warfare re-election campaign, Barack the Mad resurfaced, with the kind of delusion that makes you wonder how far off the deep end a President can go before questions must be asked about his mental fitness for office:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: --the-- well, the-- you know, the way it's going to change is because the American people are gonna have the say about where we want to go, you know? They're going to have a decision to make. And they're going to say to themselves, "You know what? President Obama wanted to reduce the deficit by not only cutting spending, as he's already done, but also by making sure that-- the most fortunate in our society are paying their fair share. That we're closing corporate loopholes that small businesses don't get. The Republicans have said no to that." Well, that's a contrast in approaches. And-- you know, when you tick down which approach the American people generally prefer, they'll say mine.

Federal spending 2008: $2.9 trillion. Federal spending 2011: $3.8 trillion. How do you like those wonderful Obama “spending cuts?” And the public agrees with the Obama approach so much that they’ve given him rock-bottom approval ratings.

Surprisingly, Stephanopoulos asked Obama about the “Durbin tax,” the regressive tax Democrats slapped on the poor by using raw government power to distort the financial system on behalf of retail industry lobbyists. Obama disintegrated into the kind of incoherent stammering that characterizes most of his off-teleprompter speeches these days:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well-- what we did was we put a stop through-- The Financial Reform Act of them charging fees-- for credit cards.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And the banks are saying--

PRESIDENT OBAMA: And so-- Well-- what-- what the banks are saying is-- that "Rather than take a little bit less of a profit. Rather than paying multimillion dollar bonuses. Let's treat our customers right." And this is exactly why we need this consumer finance-- protection bureau that we set up that is ready to go.

When Stephanopoulos asked if these bank surcharges could be “stopped,” Obama displayed the stunning appreciation for American economic liberty that has made him such a remarkable leader:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, you can stop it because it-- if you-- if you say to the banks, "You don't have some inherent right just to-- you know, get a certain amount of profit. If your customers-- are being mistreated. That you have to treat them fairly and transparently." And-- and my hope is is that you're going to see a bunch of-- the banks, who say to themselves, "You know what? This is actually not good business practice."

Banks can make money. They can succeed, the old-fashioned way, by earning it. By lending to small businesses. By lending to consumers. By making sure that-- you know, we are building the economy together. But-- you know, without the kinds of protections that we're starting to see the Republicans try to roll back-- we're going to continue to have these kinds of problems. And this is exactly-- the sort of stuff that folks are frustrated by. This, by the way, is an example of the-- the contrasting visions that we have. If-- if-- if-- the Republican Party believes that we should do nothing to curb abuses on Wall Street and roll back regulations put in place to prevent the next big financial crisis, well, I've got a big difference with them. And I think the American people are going to be on my side on that. No, the Financial Reform Act had nothing to do with preventing banks from charging fees for credit cards or debit cards. It capped the fees banks can charge retailers, which is why many Americans suddenly found themselves paying surcharges for debit card usage and checking over the past few weeks.

Obama’s solution, of course, is bigger government. “You don’t have some inherent right to, you know, get a certain amount of profit?” He’s always been an absurd joke as a “constitutional scholar,” but now I’m starting to wonder if we’ve just been misinformed about which national Constitution he supposedly studied.

You’ll get the same answer out of his successors if we don’t repeal ObamaCare, and it destroys the private insurance industry. The only solution to that government-mandated disaster will be a huge increase in the size of government, as the health industry is nationalized. Obama’s right that Americans face a stark choice in 2012. Choosing Obama means choosing a death spiral of Big Government failure, followed by urgent demands to accept Titanic Government as our savior.

Anyone foolish enough to have believed Obama when he said he was opposed to gay marriage will be shocked to know his position is “evolving” into whatever will get him the most votes in 2012:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So you've said your position is evolving. You said you're struggling with it. What more do you need to know?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well-- you know-- I probably won't-- make news right now, George. But I-- I think that there's no doubt that-- as I see-- friends, families-- children of gay couples-- who are thriving-- you know, that-- that has an impact on how I think about these issues. It's also one of the reasons that I made the decision for us not to defend-- The Defense of Marriage Act, which-- I believe violated the Constitution. And, you know, is going to be-- decided in the courts probably-- in the next-- next few terms.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You think you'll change your mind before the election?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know-- I-- I'm-- I'm-- still working on it.

The President made the horse-laugh claim that he’s the “underdog” in the upcoming election, as if the incumbent President of the United States somehow has fewer electoral advantages than his as-yet-undetermined opponent. On the other hand, I wouldn’t envy anyone who has to run on the Obama record. The history he keeps insisting Americans should forget casts a long shadow.

Obama admitts he's a shitty president

Original Post: Yahoo

President Obama: America 'Not Better Off' Today than Four Years Ago

BY RUSSELL GOLDMAN

Calling himself an "underdog," President Obama today said the faltering economy is a drag on his presidency and seriously impairing his chances of winning again in 2012. Well, who's fault is that?.

"Absolutely," he said in response to a question from ABC News' George Stephanopoulos about whether the odds were against him come November 2012, given the economy. "I'm used to being the underdog. But at the end of the day people are going to ask -- who's got a vision?"

The American people, he conceded, are "not better off" than they were four years ago.

"The unemployment rate is way too high," he said of the 9 percent jobless rate, the highest in more than half a century.

Obama said his proposed American Jobs Act will put construction workers, teachers and veterans to work and give "more consumers more confidence."

Foreign affairs, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and social issues like gay marriage will all be fodder on the campaign trail, but with the first caucus and primaries less than 100 days away, no issue looms larger for 2012 than the economy and jobs.

The latest unemployment figures for the month of September will be released Friday, but the jobless rate is not expected to significantly improve. And next year, leading up to the fall elections, the unemployment rate is expected to climb to its highest level since 1940.

Obama's job approval rate is hovering at around 40 percent.

Obama would not handicap the 2012 election, but objected to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's comments that he divided people more than united them. Republicans, he said, have stood in the way of working with him time and again to fix the economy.

"At every step of way, I have tried to get the Republican Party to work with me on the biggest crisis of our lifetime. And each time we've gotten 'No,'" he said.

Obama called the 2012 race a "contest of values and vision" and a referendum on whether Americans believed the government should invest now in long-term improvements in education and infrastructure.

The president has tried, often unsuccessfully, to tread a line between bolstering the financial institutions that underpin the economy and protecting consumers and working people. He has been unable to push a tax hike for wealthy Americans through Congress and unwilling to call for greater regulation on Wall Street.

Responding to a question about Bank of America's recent decision to charge users a $5 fee for using a debit card, Obama said government should get involved and that he had worked to stop banks from charging hidden credit card fees.

Obama, who was praised this weekend in the gay community, said his position on gay marriage was "evolving," but refused to say whether he would support gay marriage by Election Day 2012.

"I'm still working on it," he said of whether he would move from supporting civil unions for same-sex couples to supporting gay marriage.

Days after ordering the killing of U.S. citizen and al Qaeda terror chief Anwar Al-Awlaki, President Obama said the terror network was weakened.

"Given the nature of our open society we're always open to the possibility of terror attack," he said. "But a big project with a lot of financing is very difficult for them now."

"They're still dangerous, they're still our No 1. enemy," Obama said.

The questions featured in Monday's online interview, the first under a new alliance between ABC News and Yahoo! News, were generated by Internet users. More than 40,000 questions, including one from Republican presidential contender former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, were submitted online.

Asked which sites he visits to get the news, Obama noted that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave him and iPad to surf the Web.

"You know I'm pretty eclectic," the president said. "I read a lot of news that I used to read in print, I read on the Web now. I go to ABCNews.com, of course, and also Yahoo! Typically, I read on the web what I read in hard copy."

Obama has American citizen assassinated

Original Post: CBS

Al Qaeda's Anwar al-Awlaki killed in Yemen

WASHINGTON - In a devastating double-blow to al Qaeda's most dangerous franchise, U.S. counterterrorism forces killed two American citizens who played key roles in inspiring attacks against the U.S., U.S. and Yemeni officials said Friday.

U.S-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, who edited the slick Jihadi Internet magazine, were killed in an air strike on their convoy in Yemen by a joint CIA-U.S. military operation, according to counterterrorism officials. Al-Awlaki was targeted in the killing, but Khan apparently was not targeted directly.

In remarks at Fort Myer, Va., President Obama called the death of the jihadist cleric a "major blow" to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and praised the United States' successful alliance with Yemen's security forces.

"This is further proof that al Qaeda and its affiliates will find no safe haven anywhere in the world," Mr. Obama said. "Working with Yemen and our other allies and partners, we will be determined, we will be deliberate, we will be relentless, we will be resolute in our commitment to destroy terrorist networks that aim to kill Americans, and to build a world in which people everywhere can live in greater peace, prosperity and security."

Seeking to justify the targeted killing of a U.S. citizen, Mr. Obama outlined al-Awlaki's involvement in planning and directing attempts to murder Americans.

"He directed the failed attempt to blow up an airplane on Christmas Day in 2009. He directed the failed attempt to blow up U.S. cargo planes in 2010," Mr. Obama said. "And he repeatedly called on individuals in the United States and around the globe to kill innocent men, women and children to advance a murderous agenda."

Yemeni intelligence pinpointed al-Awlaki's hideout in the town of Al Khasaf, a Yemeni official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence. "He was closely monitored ever since," by Yemeni intelligence on the ground, backed by U.S. satellite and drones from the sky, the official said.

His death will deal al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula a serious blow, says CBS News terrorism analyst Juan Zarate, particularly his work to draw young Muslims into the jihadi mindset.

"His role as a propagandist actually will be very difficult to fill," says Zarate.

After three weeks of tracking the targets, U.S. armed drones and fighter jets shadowed the al Qaeda convoy before armed drones launched their lethal strike early Friday. The strike killed four operatives in all, officials said. All U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

Al-Awlaki played a "significant operational role" in plotting and inspiring attacks on the United States, U.S. officials said Friday, as they disclosed detailed intelligence to justify the killing of a U.S. citizen. Khan, who was from North Carolina, wasn't considered operational but had published seven issues of Inspire Magazine, offering advice on how to make bombs and the use of weapons. The magazine was widely read.

Following the strike, a U.S. official outlined new details of al-Awlaki's involvement in anti-U.S. operations, including the attempted 2009 Christmas Day bombing of a U.S.-bound aircraft. The official said that al-Awlaki specifically directed the men accused of trying to bomb the Detroit-bound plane to detonate an explosive device over U.S. airspace to maximize casualties.

The official also said al-Awlaki had a direct role in supervising and directing a failed attempt to bring down two U.S. cargo aircraft by detonating explosives concealed inside two packages mailed to the U.S. The U.S. also believes Awlaki had sought to use poisons, including cyanide and ricin, to attack Westerners.

The U.S. and counterterrorism officials all spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence matters.

Al-Awlaki was killed by the same U.S. military unit that got Osama bin Laden. Al-Awlaki is the most prominent al Qaeda figure to be killed since bin Laden's death in May.

U.S. word of al-Awlaki's death came after the government of Yemen reported that he had been killed Friday about five miles from the town of Khashef, some 87 miles from the capital Sanaa.

The air strike was carried out more openly than the covert operation that sent Navy SEALs into bin Laden's Pakistani compound, U.S. officials said.

Counterterrorism cooperation between the United States and Yemen has improved in recent weeks, allowing better intelligence-gathering on al-Awlaki's movements, U.S. officials said. The ability to better track him was a key factor in the success of the strike, U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Al-Awlaki's death is the latest in a run of high-profile kills for Washington under Mr. Obama. But the killing raises questions that the death of other al Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden, did not.

Al-Awlaki is a U.S. citizen, born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, who had not been charged with any crime. Civil liberties groups have questioned the government's authority to kill an American without trial.

Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, condemned the drone attack on Awlaki, saying, "The targeted killing program violates both U.S. and international law.

"As we've seen today, this is a program under which American citizens far from any battlefield can be executed by their own government without judicial process, and on the basis of standards and evidence that are kept secret not just from the public but from the courts," Jaffer said. "The government's authority to use lethal force against its own citizens should be limited to circumstances in which the threat to life is concrete, specific and imminent. It is a mistake to invest the President - any President - with the unreviewable power to kill any American whom he deems to present a threat to the country."

Awlaki's father, Nasser al-Awlaki of Yemen, had sued Mr. Obama and other administration officials 13 months ago to try to stop them from targeting his son for death. The father, represented by the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights, argued that international law and the Constitution prevented the administration from assassinating his son unless he presented a specific imminent threat to life or physical safety and there were no other means to stop him.

But U.S. District Judge John Bates threw out the lawsuit in December, saying a judge does not have authority to review the president's military decisions and that Awlaki's father did not have the legal right to sue on behalf of his son. But Bates also seemed troubled by the facts of the case, which he wrote raised vital considerations of national security and for military and foreign affairs. For instance, the judge questioned why courts have authority to approve surveillance of Americans overseas but not their killing and whether the president could order an assassination of a citizen without "any form of judicial process whatsoever."

U.S. officials have said they believe al-Awlaki inspired the actions of Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the attack at Fort Hood, Texas.

In New York, the Pakistani-American man who pleaded guilty to the May 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt said he was "inspired" by al-Awlaki after making contact over the Internet.

Al-Awlaki also is believed to have had a hand in mail bombs addressed to Chicago-area synagogues, packages intercepted in Dubai and Europe in October 2010.

Al-Awlaki's death "will especially impact the group's ability to recruit, inspire and raise funds as al-Awlaki's influence and ability to connect to a broad demographic of potential supporters was unprecedented," said terrorist analyst Ben Venzke of the private intelligence monitoring firm, the IntelCenter.

But Venzke said the terror group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula will remain the most dangerous regional arm "both in its region and for the direct threat it poses to the U.S. following three recent failed attacks," with its leader Nasir al-Wahayshi still at large.

Al-Awlaki wrote an article in the latest issue of the terror group's magazine justifying attacking civilians in the West. It's titled "Targeting the Populations of Countries that Are at War with the Muslims."

Al-Awlaki served as imam at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va., a Washington suburb, for about a year in 2001.

The mosque's outreach director, Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, has said that mosque members never saw al-Awlaki espousing radical ideology while he was there and that he believes Awlaki's views changed after he left the U.S. I support the war on terror. I applauded president Obama for telling the Seals to take the shots on the Somali pirates. I was pleasantly surprised when he had Bin Laden shot on the battle field and gave him laud for that. I cannot support this action. I'm sorry (actually I'm not), but I cannot support the president ordering the assassination of an American citizen with out a trial. I'm terrified of a government that would do that. It's straight up totalitarian. Do I think he was guilty and deserved to be executed for that? Yes, but he deserves due process. I have no guarantee that the president won't just decide that I should be assassinated with out a trial and neither do you. That should chill you to the bone.