Pigford: Good Intention To Gigantic Fraud

A black farmer in the rural south  USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service

When Andrew Breitbart's Big Journalism expressed concern about the class-action settlement called Pigford, he was ridiculed by the usual media suspects. That was last year. A few days ago, The New York Times verified that Breitbart had every right to be outraged at what has become an extraordinary fraud on taxpayers brought to us by our elected officials and their appointees in Washington. I won't belabor readers with my take on this one. All I ask is that my liberal readers read the NYT article before declaring Pigford just another target of unhinged conservatives. If liberals can't handle the news from their flagship source, here is a shorter version of the story from the editors of National Review Online.

If we keep spending money - taxpayer or Chinese loan - like this the country will not survive.

Putting The Finger On Media Bias

The photographs above were taken during the 2012 LGBT-pride reception held at the White House last week. Showing this kind of disrespectful public behavior has no place in the President's home or anywhere for that matter.

Here is how Dennis Prager begins his National Review Online article on this incident:

Imagine this:

A future Republican president invites tea-party leaders to the White House. Some of them have themselves photographed standing in front of a portrait of President Barack Obama with their middle fingers extended. They then posted these photos on Facebook with the caption “F**k Obama.” (Needless to say, the F-word was spelled out.)

Some questions:

1. How much coverage do you think the national press would give to this?
2. How would Democratic — and Republican — leaders react?
3. How would tea-party activists react?

The "real life" event got this result in the traditional media:

Not a word about it appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, or on NPR . . . . There was no coverage on ABC News, NBC News, or CBS News.

Read the rest of Prager's observations on media bias as well as his answers to the other two questions here. 

Very enlightening. It's no wonder new media formed to fill such an obvious information vacuum.


Photo: blog.phillymag.com

Don't Be Too Political When It Comes To The White House

Lech Walesa:

Electrician
Union leader
Nobel Prize winner
President of Poland
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
Did you know that the government of Poland wanted it's national hero, Lech Walesa, to receive the Medal of Freedom for the late Jan Karski at a White House ceremony on Tuesday?  The White House refused, saying he was "too political." For those who don't remember, Walesa and his Solidarity movement freed Poland from the grip of Soviet communism in 1989. At the same ceremony, Barack Obama hung the Medal of Freedom around the neck of Delores Huerta, a labor organizer and the honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Rory Cooper, writing for National Review Online, had this comment about the circumstances:

So socialist politics are acceptable, but not the politics of a man who stood up and fought socialism.

The likelihood is that President Obama didn’t want Walesa in the White House because Walesa has made critical remarks toward the president’s policies and in 2010 warned that the United States was slipping toward socialism. But rather than taking the mature and diplomatic path and respecting Walesa’s right to have a differing perspective, Obama chose to shun his lifetime of achievements.

Read the rest of Cooper's remarks here. What a sorry state of affairs.

Elizabeth Warren's Campaign Theme Song

OTR saw this video around 2:00AM this morning, but was too tired to follow through with posting. It's a clever production that says a great deal about where our culture was fifty years ago and where it is today.

The truth is painful enough. The hypocrisy may be fatal.

H/T to Instapundit at 2:00AM, Power Line at a much more reasonable hour.

Happiness In What Goes Around Comes Around

Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered with Fast and Furious weapons

Instapundit's Scott Johnson finds a "fantastic" CNN column about the Fast and Furious program by former National Security Agency head, Michael Hayden. With over one hundred congressmen already officially calling for Attorney General Eric Holder's resignation, more posts of this kind may hasten that event. OTR applauds CNN for what seems to be a recommitment to traditional journalism.

Could Growing Executive Authority Be A Problem?

When your support among a select groups of Americans drops 36% in two years, what's a politician to do? Of course, you exercise your executive authority when possible-as every wise executive does-to stop the bleeding. The Obama administration has done just that by implementing portions of the Dream Act that was defeated on the Hill. The action replaces wholesale deportation of "safe" illegal aliens with a case by case review and decision. This should please many in the Hispanic community. Read more about this story, in addition to some excellent comments, at this NRO link posted by Mark Kirkorian.

Interestingly, this decision is also a perfect fit for the "White House Friday afternoon bad news dump" and coincides with the President's departure for his Martha's Vineyard vacation. Convenient? Yes. But remember that this activity isn't new. It's been an increasingly common practice for decades.

Fiat Lux: "Saving" Chrysler For America

So, to recap, the Obama Energy Department is loaning a foreign car company $3.5 billion so it can pay the Treasury Department $7.6 billion even though American taxpayers spent $13 billion to save an American car company that is only worth $5 billion.

Oh, and Obama plans to make this "success" a centerpiece of his 2012 campaign.

You can't make up this stuff. It is an object lesson in what is happening to your children's future at the hands of a severely misguided government. OTR is only too happy to shed light on the darkness.

H/T Powerline

Uberweiner

Here is Frederick Nietzsche , Der Weiner, and Alec Baldwin all rolled into a smorgasbord of perspectives on possibilities and expectations.

H/T to Instapundit.

When Does Weiner's Nose Start Growing?

Looks like Congress's latest iteration of Pinocchio -that would be Anthony Weiner, D-NY, has himself in a big pickle. Today we have a new woman with 200 messages and photos, some of them too explicit for publication. Nevertheless, Big Government and Big Journalism plan on "releasing new photographs throughout the day."

OTR thinks this wretched, screaming moonbat's clock is winding down by the hour. Lots of potential NYC mayoral candidates will be happy to see him resign. His district is overwhelmed by solid democrat thinkers/voters, but at least they will have a chance to improve ethics in the House of Representatives.

H/T to Gateway Pundit.

Anthony's Weinergate

As expected, the mainstream media-ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, NYT, WaPo, et al- is ignoring an interesting story regarding Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and his Twitter account. The story involves a pornographic picture, a college girl, a high school girl, and accusations of hacking into Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Interestingly, Weiner has not called for an investigation into this potential federal crime though there is plenty of smoke emanating from the news and blog updates. There may be a flash over pending, but you would never know it from the media coverage.

OTR feels obligated to keep his readers informed. Catch up on the story here, here, here and here.

Stay turned friends. Weiner should thank God that this story broke over Memorial Day weekend, giving most Americans three days to forget what their congressmen are up to. Unfortunately for him, there is a Tuesday this week.

NAACP Ignores Progressive Lynching Of Clarence Thomas

Last Thursday, February 3, OTR commented on a late January event where "progressives" outside a conservative strategy conference in California called for, among other things, stringing up Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas. The justice is a conservative who happens to be black. The Daily Caller, a breaking news website in Washington, asked the NAACP for comment on the video tape of the offensive suggestions. Although the organization condemned the "discourse," a spokesman refused to comment on the video itself.

If readers had any doubts that the NAACP was firmly--and apparently happily--enslaved on the Democrat Party plantation, this position should erase them permanently. How very sad this is for a once-proud and effective organization.

For more backstory and commentary, here are links to related posts at Power Line and Pajamas Media.

For liberal readers who may question the motives of The Daily Caller, be aware that it has no ideological perspective. The Caller broke the story about the Republican National Committee staffer and a $2000 reimbursement for expenses at a Hollywood bondage club specializing in lesbian sex on stage. The Caller also published emails from the Journolist story.

Incompetent Obamunist Ambassador Consumes Herself

Expect this news to be ignored or buried on page 23 by the liberal, mainstream media.

Gotterdammerung, the twilight of the gods. My, my, how this reminds me of the last years of my public service employment, working for "aggressive, bullying, hostile, and intimidating" management. As a practitioner of the middle way, OTR knows that such management is doomed to self-destruction. Unfortunately, in a bureaucratic workplace, the destruction is a slow rot that always takes many competent victims down with it. In the same manner, recovery out of the ashes left by these sad tyrants is a long-term process.

Today, we read of Cynthia Stroum, a wealthy Obama contributor and money bundler from Seattle. For her loyalty, the Obama administration awarded her with the ambassadorship in Luxembourg. There's nothing unusual about this appointment. Historically, ambassadors have been loyal, influential, and generally wealthy supporters of the president. In fact, many ambassadors in the early days of the republic funded embassy operations and staffing with their own money. What is significant about Stroum's "reign"in the Luxembourg embassy is the speed in which she rendered the operation into a "state of dysfunction." Fox News has the story here. The Office of Inspector General's report, with a few redactions, is available here.

Stroum's indifference to rules, regulations, common etiquette and the trust of American taxpayers--Republicans have appointed their share of disappointments-- is symptomatic of this administration's poor to nonexistent vetting of its appointees. Makes one wonder if those in charge are merely careless or couldn't care less about their actions.

"Progressive" Hatred Sponsored By Common Cause

In favor of lynching Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife? How about deporting Justice Samuel Alito to Sicily? Up for revolution now, just like in Egypt?

Common Cause sponsored a rally in Rancho Mirage, California, on January 30 where supporters called for the above actions. OTR bets you never heard about this leftist hatred and violence on the nation's mainstream liberal media.

Jim Hoft's post at Gateway Pundit has the full story.

Renew! Renew!

One of OTR's favorite films--not close as a top lister, but still entertaining-- is Logan's Run. He couldn't help but post this satirical take on the film now that Democrats have written end-of life planning into a regulation after removing it from Obamacare legislation. Looks like required death planning is with us after all. Those who administer such planning will be called anything but a "death" panel.

















Democrat Congressman Earl Blumenauer (Oregon) is responsible for this concept, but he is encouraging his fellow Democrats to keep quiet about the regulation. You can read more about it here on Moonbattery. Rest assured you will not be hearing about it from ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, NYT, WaPo and other leftist media.

The Democrat Plantation

Moonbattery 's Van Helsing posted a fine history lesson--first-rate links too--on the American welfare state, an entity that could easily be called the Democrat plantation. It begins with an ominous warning delivered by Franklin Roosevelt, the welfare state founding father, about the destructive potential of sustained dependence on government aid. The story snakes through the presidencies of Johnson, Carter and Obama, and ends with the nation teetering on the abyss where fewer and fewer taxpayers support almost half the electorate. Stepping back from that edge and a descent into a slave rebellion on the part of the producers may be difficult, but it is essential if we want to sustain the republic as we know it.

Loony White House Leadership Reaches NASA

There was a time when NASA accomplishments focused on objectives in aeronautics and space. At the direction of Barack Obama and his new administrator at NASA, the mission has been changed to social engineering and the raising of self-esteem among Muslim nations. I don't know whether to call this incredible, loony, or both. You can read Paul Mirengoff's take on this matter here at Powerline and watch an amazing Al Jazeera interview with the new administrator, Charles Bolden, a former astronaut. To cut to the chase, just watch the video below.



Bolden seems like a genuine guy, a Naval Academy graduate with a distinguished career in the United States Marine Corps as well as at NASA where he flew four space shuttle missions . So sorry he had to enter this leadership role at the calling of such a wacky administration. Somehow, I think Bolden would be so much happier pursuing aeronautics and space instead of social work.

WSJ's Rabinowitz On The Alien In The White House

Dorothy Rabinowitz is a member of The Wall Street Journal editorial board. Her column today comes closest to capturing my growing feeling that the current occupant in the White Houses poses a dire threat to the republic. With the great national political traditions witnessed in the last half century, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think this would come to pass in my lifetime. At this point, common sense Americans are awakening to an economic and political reality they do not like. As the national mood cycles - as it always does - the Democrat Party will pay a dear price for this tawdry affair with the leftist fringe.

Source: Moonbattery post by Gregory of Yardale

Another Liberal Moment

We're ten years out from the 2000 presidential election. That's a long time for dysfunction and disease to invade any circumstance. That brings OTR to the pending separation of Tipper and Al Gore. No motive for this action has been expressed by the parties involved, thus, the answer remains an open question and subject to broad speculation. The Gores say they simply want to go their separate ways after forty years of marriage. Instead of leaving it at that, the risible liberal CBS News "journalist," Katie Couric, delivered the story mentioning only one potential cause: George Bush's Electoral College victory over Gore's popular vote win in that 2000 election. She based her finding on the word of Sally Quinn, another liberal operating - by marriage and otherwise - within the empire of Washington's elitist class.

All of this leaves OTR a bit exhausted for the Democratic Party. He wonders how much longer Bush Derangement Syndrome will remain at the core of the party's behavior. Like the hopeless alcoholic, the party's still hasn't hit bottom where the first signs of recovery can set in. Watch the delusion at work here.

For now, we are content to watch George W. Bush haunt the party at every step as we near November's election and a political reawakening for the Republic.

Late Friday Afternoon Holiday Weekend White House Bad News Dump

Friends, it's another bad news dump at the White House. It's a tried and true technique fondly used by every administration. This time it's the Sestak "they offered me a job to drop out of the campaign" story. OTR really doesn't know if this one has legs, but there's plenty of smoke in the air, especially after Obama's luncheon with Clinton yesterday. I wonder what they talked about? Of course, you have heard today's early news that Clinton made the offer to Sestak.

UPDATE: The word "cover up" is getting louder. Maybe Karl Rove had this nailed earlier in the day.

Tough week at the White House, I'd say. Between Setstak, the stock market sell off, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the 1200 unarmed National Guard troops on the U.S. - Mexico border for "drug interdiction," a long weekend seems more than overdue. Unfortunately, for the Hope and Change believers, these stories will not go away. This administration reminds me of standing in a room full of ping pong balls mounted on mouse traps about three seconds after someone tossed the first ball. In other words, there's a lot more chaos on the way.

How Obama Will Dupe Americans Into Accepting The Value Added Tax

My brother-in-law brought this essential column by George Will to my attention. It's a magnificent point by point description of how the Obama administration will use the entitlement crisis to sell the Value Added Tax (VAT) to gullible Americans.