The White House must be worried about Texas Governor Rick Perry's entry into the presidential race because they've already sent their chief hatchet man, David Axelrod out to start bashing Perry. When this White House isn't blaming someone else for its troubles its out denigrating others and engaging in the politics of personal destruction. Anyway, here's a report on what "The Axe" had to say, via Breitbart and AFP:
US President Obama's top reelection strategist charged Friday that Republican White House hopeful and Texas Governor Rick Perry had "very little to do" with his state's economic success. "There's a specific reason that Texas has done so well, and that's because the oil industry has done so well in the last few years, and the military has grown because of the challenges that we have had overseas," said David Axelrod. "And so he's been the beneficiary of things that he had very little to do with," Axelrod told ABC television.
Remember this: Obama will spend A BILLION DOLLARS on what is likely to be one of the most negative campaigns ever launched by an incumbent president. Click here to read more.
At the White House the Obamas partied into the night last night with rappers and Hollywood stars while barely six in 10 work age Americans have jobs, food stamp use rises to all time highs and the stock market continues its dive. The party was closed to the media and not on the president's official schedule. Though it was held in the "nation's house" it was a strictly private event -- an event for the elites, the high-rollers and bankrollers the well-connected and the self-appointed glitterati. Among those there: Jay Z, Chris Rock, Herbie Hancock, Whoopi Goldberg, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former Chief of Staff, Stevie Wonder, Charles Barkley, Tom Hanks, Emmitt Smith, Hill Harper, Ledisi and politicos Reid, Pelosi, William Daley and Obama Chief Chum Valerie Jarrett. That last group surely proves that politics is show business for ugly people. Anyway, word is they were dancing barefoot in the Rose Garden as tables were pushed aside and guests made the property their own. Parteeeeee!
Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus today called on the Department of Justice to investigate whether or not President Barack Obama broke federal election laws by conducting illegal political fundraising activity in the White House. A fundraising video featuring the President appears to have been recorded in the Map Room which is not part of the White House residence, but rather “occupied in the discharge of official duties.” According to federal law, it is a crime for the President of the United States to solicit political contributions in a place of official government business. Chairman Priebus has asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for the Department of Justice to investigate the matter to determine if, in fact, federal laws were broken by President Obama. Below are excerpts from Chairman Priebus’ letter to Attorney General Holder:
"It is with grave concern that I write to request a Department of Justice investigation into an apparent crime committed by President Barack Obama. On or about June 27, 2011, Obama for America Campaign Manager Jim Messina sent an email message containing an announcement he said President Obama wanted to make personally. The message solicited funds for a raffle, of which the winner would have the opportunity to have dinner with President Obama and Vice-President Biden. “If you haven’t yet thrown your name in the hat for this thing,” Mr. Messina wrote, “I have a feeling this announcement might change that.” Embedded in Mr. Messina’s message was a video of President Obama, along with a link to a website through which donors could enter the raffle by making contributions to the President’s reelection campaign … "According to multiple individuals with knowledge of the White House’s rooms and layout, the video appears to have been recorded in the Map Room. According to news reports, however, the White House Counsel has indicated that the video was filmed somewhere in the residential portion of the White House … "As Chairman of the Republican National Committee, I have the responsibility to hold the President accountable for his reckless spending, for the unsustainable growth of government and the crushing debt he is leaving for future generations of Americans, and now, sadly, for his apparent criminal behavior. I never expected I would be in this regrettable position, but the President’s conduct and the White House staff’s stonewalling leave me no choice …"
Michelle Obama is about to head out for what is being billed as an official trip to Southern Africa with her daughters, their cousins, and her mom. This family excursion will take them to South Africa and Botswana. The White House says it's a continuation of Mrs. Obama's work to engage young people at home and abroad. First, Did you elect Michelle Obama as an international youth coordinator? And is this really vital to America at a time of such great economic peril?
The White House has its own Terminator. And no, it's not Arnold.
His name is Jesse Lee, and his job is to vigorously attack online critics of President Obama and his administration, squashing any negative stories that can hurt his re-election bid.
They call it "Rapid Response." It feels more like intimidation. Particularly as Mr. Lee's first post as a mouthpiece for the Obama administration is to TwitPic a picture of the Terminator robot.
From Info Wars:
In a bid to ‘squash negative stories’ about Barack Obama that appear on the Internet, the White House has hired a dedicated propagandist whose role will be to savage people who tell “lies” about the President, in a chilling reminder of how prosecutors threatened people with jail time during the 2008 campaign if they criticized Obama.
Can someone please tell me why First Lady Michelle Obama has scheduled a poetry evening for Wednesday at the White House featuring Chicago "poet" and rapper, Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., better known as “Common.” This man's "poetry" includes threats to shoot police and at least one passage calling for the “burn[ing]” of then-President George W. Bush. Why is somebody like this being invited to the White House? Why? Where has good judgment gone? This man's "poems" are laced with guttural profanities and appear to call for the outright killing of police officers Here is a sample of his rap-style poetry culled from video that has appeared on You Tube:
A Letter to the Law Dem boy wanna talk… [indistinguishable] Whatcha gon do if ya got one gun? I sing a song for the hero unsung with faces on the mural of the revolution No looking back cos’ in back is what’s done Tell the preacher, god got more than one son Tell the law, my Uzi weighs a ton I walk like a warrior, from them I won’t run On the streets, they try to beat us like a drum In Cincinnati, another brother hung A guinea won’t see the sun with his family stung They want us to hold justice but you handed me none The same they did to Kobe and Michael Jackson make them the main attraction Turn around and attack them Black gem in the rough You’re rugged enough Use your mind and nine-power, get the government touch Them boys chat-chat on how him pop gun I got the black strap to make the cops run They watching me, I’m watching them Them dick boys got a lock of cock in them My people on the block got a lot of pok* in them and when we roll together we be rocking them to sleep No time for that, because there’s things to be done Stay true to what I do so the youth dream come from project building Seeing a fiend being hung With that happening, why they messing with Saddam? Burn a Bush cos’ for peace he no push no button Killing over oil and grease no weapons of destruction How can we follow a leader when this a corrupt one The government’s a g-unit and they might buck young black people Black people In the urban area one I hold up a peace sign, but I carry a gun. Peace, ya’ll.”
The Hill reports that the GOP will make a major push to fully open the visitor records of the Obama White House. Republicans want to know who's been paying calls on the President -- especially among those who might have vested interest, like corporate bigwigs and lobbyists. Here's an excerpt:
House Republicans plan to probe the White House policy on disclosing its visitor records.
On Tuesday of next week, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee will hold a hearing titled “White House Transparency, Visitor Logs and Lobbyists.” The hearing comes after a report by the Center for Public Integrity detailing disclosure gaps in visitor records released by the White House.
“Have there been White House meetings with lobbyists and other interest groups about which information has not been released to the public?” the memo asks. “Have White House officials met with lobbyists and other interest groups outside of the White House in order to avoid generating records of such meetings?”
In a memo describing the hearing, staff for the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee cite the Center’s report about the visitor records. They also list a number of questions for the Obama administration on how its disclosure policy has come to function.
The Kennedys | Barry Pepper | Greg Kinnear | Katie Holmes | Tom Wilkinson | Movie Trailer | Review This is the series that the Kennedy family tried to stop. This is the one you don't want to miss. It begins Sunday, April 3 on the Reelz channel. Reelz is a free cable channel available on Comcast and other cable and satellite services. Don't miss The Kennedys.
It allows the Obama administration to keep these lobbyist meetings shielded from public view — and out of Secret Service logs kept on visitors to the White House and later released to the public.
“They’re doing it on the side. It’s better than nothing,” said immigration reform lobbyist Tamar Jacoby, who has attended meetings at the nearby Jackson Place complex and believes the undisclosed gatherings are better than none.
The White House scoffs at the notion of an ulterior motive for scheduling meetings in what are, after all, meeting rooms. But at least four lobbyists who’ve been to the conference rooms just off Lafayette Square tell POLITICO they had the distinct impression they were being shunted off to Jackson Place — and off the books — so their visits wouldn’t later be made public.
Obama’s administration has touted its release of White House visitors logs as a breakthrough in transparency, as the first White House team to reveal the comings and goings around the West Wing and the Old Executive Office Building.
The Jackson Place townhouses are a different story.
Read more by clicking here. You can also click the video below.
The Chicago Tribune is out with a major story on Valerie Jarrett and her growing influence at the White House. As other Obama cronies have come and gone, Jarrett remains a Chicago standby at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Jarett is a longtime Obama confidante but she lacks any significant Washington or governmental experience. Any gravitas that she claims to have at the vortex of the nation's power seems to be strictly of her own making. She just doesn't seem to have the chops to do the job. But that doesn't seem to matter because she's managed to ingratiate herself to both the President and First Lady. And new she's such fast friends with the First Family that she even vacations with them. Many say she's a surrogate mother to the President. The Obamas are her life. And excerpt from the Tribune story:
It was all in a recent day's work for Valerie Jarrett. She reassured Jewish leaders about White House strategy on Egypt, helped the First Lady sync her spring agenda with her husband's, ushered a former Fed chairman into the Oval Office, soothed Rev. Al Sharpton's concerns about education policy and took a stroll with President Obama across Lafayette Park to patch things up with some irritated CEOs. The schedule illustrates why no one else in the White House now has a range of responsibilities equal to Jarrett's. When Obama took office she was the least seen of his four senior advisors. Now chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and chief political strategist David Axelrod have returned to Chicago, and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has also departed. Jarrett, 54, remains, picking up new duties from each of them. Long the closest personal confidante of Barack and Michelle Obama, she is steadily becoming more visible at Obama's side.
Jarrett is said to be "very political" and she strikes such fear in the hearts White House insiders and outsiders alike that no one is willing to speak ill of her on the record. It's been said that if you work in the West Wing and she appears at your door, it probably means you've been fired. Click here to read more from the Chicago Tribune.
Vice-President and Mrs. Biden are spending the long holiday weekend sunning themselves in the Florida keys -- Key Largo, to be specific. The White House says Biden and his wife traveled to Key Largo on Thursday night. The couple is expected to remain in the Upper Keys through Monday. No public events are scheduled. Meanwhile, First Lady Michelle Obama (and the Obama daughters) are skiing in tony Vail, Colorado. Note: the President is "coaching Sasha's basketball team" in Washington even though Sasha is with her mother in Vail. There's some kinda Democrat logic amidst all this somewhere. I leave it to you to figure out.
White House reporter Keith Koffler has an update on Michelle Obama's whereabouts. The First Lady is once again traveling sans El Presidente:
First Lady Michelle Obama is on “a private family trip” in Colorado where she is skiing with daughters Sasha and Malia, according to an administration official. “The First Lady and several close friends are chaperoning their children on a ski trip,” the official told the press pool reporter who is following President Obama today. Reports coming out of Colorado say she arrived Friday night and is staying at the Sebastian Hotelon Vail Mountain. Rooms start at $605 per night for a room with two queen beds and head north of $2,000 for multi-bedroom suites.
Click here to read more at Koffler's White House Dossier.
A glamorous leading man with the common touch, a dedicated “Cold Warrior” who helped negotiate the most sweeping accords in history with the Soviet Union and a staunch proponent of smaller government, Ronald Reagan remains an enigma even to many of his closest advisers.
A fresh examination of the fascinating paradoxes surrounding the man, the myth and his legacy, Eugene Jarecki’s insightful documentary REAGAN follows the 40th president’s rise from small-town lifeguard to revered architect of the modern world. This textured study investigates how Reagan’s homespun political vision fueled a seismic career, one whose reverberations still shape American life. Following its Jan. 23 debut at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, REAGAN makes its HBO debut MONDAY, FEB. 7 (9:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT), during the week of his 100th birthday.
Balancing the conflicting versions presented by colleagues, historians, supporters and family, while combining archival footage, never-before-seen interviews and the words of Reagan himself, Jarecki assembles a rich portrait of a contradictory figure who spun his movie stardom into political gold and became the leader of the free world.
Tracing his subject from small-town boyhood to heady Hollywood days, Jarecki discovers a man whose offhand amiability masked a steely resolve. When his acting career faltered after World War II, Reagan reinvented himself, first as president of the Screen Actors Guild, then as a pitchman for products ranging from cigarettes to laundry soap. He eventually landed the role that would send him down another path, as official television and corporate spokesperson for General Electric. Reagan’s travel on behalf of the company to small towns around the nation provided him with a unique political education as he gave speeches and mingled with GE’s workers.
The one-time FDR enthusiast and supporter of the New Deal gradually abandoned his liberal roots for more conservative pastures.
By the 1960s, his transformation was complete. Standing beside archconservative Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican nominee for president, Reagan became a charismatic voice for conservatism in America. As the civil unrest of the era exploded nationwide, Reagan rode the conservative tide that he helped to create all the way to Sacramento and two terms as governor of California.
Reagan’s willingness to allow the National Guard to confront demonstrating students with tear gas and attack dogs earned him a reputation as a tough traditionalist. The support and admiration of the so-called “silent majority” buoyed his unsuccessful campaigns for the presidential nomination in 1968 and 1976, and in 1980, he topped the GOP field to run against and beat incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter.
Once in office, Reagan often proved more pragmatic than dogmatic.His charm and affability won the hearts of the American public, which overwhelmingly reelected him in 1984.
He denounced the U.S.S.R. as an “Evil Empire,” demanded that the Soviets “tear down the [Berlin] Wall” and authorized the ambitious Star Wars Initiative to keep America militarily dominant. But at the same time, Reagan was engaged in negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev that resulted in a sweeping agreement to reduce their nuclear arsenals.
Jarecki also explores how Reagan’s personal beliefs aligned with his public policies and finds that this stalwart symbol of conservative family values was also quietly open-minded on social issues.
Since Reagan left office in 1989, his name has become a mantra for Republican politicians seeking credibility, symbolizing a return to traditional values and a strong stand in the culture wars against liberal “elites.” But the truth, as Jarecki reveals, is far more complex.
Others featured in the documentary include former White House chief of staff James A. Baker; former White House senior advisor Pat Buchanan; former White House speechwriter Peter Robinson; Arthur Laffer, economist and architect of trickle-down economics; former CIA operative Frank Snepp; Ronald Reagan Legacy Project founder Grover Norquist; son Michael Reagan, who works to keep the legacy alive; Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Frances Fitzgerald (“Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War”); official biographer Edmund Morris; Annelise Anderson and Martin Anderson, co-authors of two best-selling books about Reagan; author Will Bunch (“Tear Down This Myth”); author Lou Cannon (“Reagan”); author Thomas Frank (“What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America”) and journalist Dan Rather.
Eugene Jarecki is an award-winning dramatic and documentary filmmaker and author. His 2006 film “Why We Fight” won multiple awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and a Peabody Award. Jarecki’s prior film, “The Trials of Henry Kissinger,” was released to critical acclaim in more than 130 U.S. cities, won the 2002 Amnesty International Award, was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and has been broadcast in more than 30 countries. In his most recent film, “Freakonomics,” Jarecki collaborated with other acclaimed documentarians to create an omnibus documentary based on the bestselling book of the same name by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
HBO Documentary Films presents a Charlotte Street Film in association with BBC Storyville; a film by Eugene Jarecki; produced by Eugene Jarecki and Kathleen Fournier; written and directed by Eugene Jarecki; editor, Simon Barker; music by Robert Miller; director of photography, Etienne Sauret. For HBO: senior producer, Lisa Heller; executive producer, Sheila Nevins. For BBC: executive producer, Nick Fraser.
Item: At exclusive Washington dinner party, senior Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett orders a military general to bring her more wine.
I'm a prima donna I can rule the world Don't care who's around me I can fool the world So hand's up Catch this feeling There's no stopping this Right now in this moment I can rule the world.*
According to a tipster who fed the story to The Daily Caller, White House prima donna Valerie Jarrett was seated at the head table Monday at a VERY exclusive dinner along with several other big-name politicians and a handful of high-ranking military types when she committed an inexcusable faux pas.. As an officer sporting several stars walked past, Jarrett signaled for his attention and said, “I’d like another glass of wine.” Garçon! We ask once again: When will the White House wake up and get rid of this sad collection of tasteless, clueless Chicago cronies? When?
As part of Your Interview With the President, one of our former students, Ed Boyd has posed an important question for President Obama. So now we're wondering: Will the President answer? Click here at 2:30 PM to find out if the President answers this question.
That big, expensive, elaborate, red-carpet State Dinner that the Obama's gave for the President of China continues to produce fallout. Now it seems that Chinese-born pianist Lang Lang may have dissed America as he tickled the ivories in the East Room. Here's a portion of a revealing report from the Wall Street Journal:
Mr. Lang was invited to perform along with a number of U.S. jazz musicians. . . . [After] Mr. Lang said it was a “great honor” to be playing, he proceeded to perform a solo piece, which he introduced as a “Chinese song called ‘My Motherland.’” As Chinese netizens have pointed out, “My Motherland” is the theme song for a famous anti-U.S. movie about the Korean War from 1956, titled “Battle on Shangganling Mountain.” The performance has set the Chinese web abuzz—and more than a few people are convinced it wasn’t an accident. Both the Sina and Sohu news portals reposted an article that they attributed to the Beijing Evening News, with the headline: “Lang Lang Played ‘My Motherland’ at White House, Flaunting National Power.” “Those American folks very much enjoyed it and were totally infatuated with the melody!!! The U.S. is truly stupid!!” wrote a user named You’re In My Memory on Sina’s micro-blogging site.
House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell won’t attend the black-tie event at the White House. That's the state dinner that President Obama will host for Chinese President Hu Jintao. Click here to read more about this development.
worD out of Washington is that White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is leaving his post. Gibbs is on the way out. Others will follow. In fact, the word inside the beltway is that a major White House shakeup may be underway. As we noted more than once, President Obama needs to show more than a few staffers the door. Indeed, the whole Chicago gang needs to be directed back to the windy city -- not just Emanual but ALL of them. But we hear that the Chicagoans who will be leaving may simply be replaced by other well-connected Chicagoans -- one of them named Daly. It is imperative that the President begin to rethink his whole approach to governing as he is facing an entirely new set of circumstances; a new reality in Washington. it,s time for genuinely new faces in then west wing and the whole 18 acres. Let's see if thT really happens. the next few days are likely to tell tnhe tale.
President Obama went to Ft. McNair today to indulge in one of his favorite pastimes: a pickup basketball game. But things didn't turn out as he expected. Someone's elbow banged into Obama's lip. And that resulted in a nasty cut. And that meant 12 stitches to Obama's lip. The Associated Press reports that the president was treated under local anesthesia in the doctor's office on the ground floor of the White House after he returned home. The doctors used more stitches than would ordinarily be necessary to make a tighter stitch and thus ensure a scar that would be less visible. We don't know who's elbow it was that banged into Obama's lip.We haven't been told. In fact, the White House waited three hours to report any of this. Back in the White House Obama watched the Christmas tree arrive through an upstairs window while he held what appeared to be an ice pack against his mouth. When reporters were able to spot the President in the window, the President quickly disappeared. Fortunately for Obama, immediate medical help is always available. A doctor or nurse is stationed at the White House 24 hours a day, every day. He didn't have to go to the emergency ward or anything like that. But let's face it: Obama's is 49 years old. He's a bit beyond the age for pickup basketball games. It's enough already. Earlier this month I told Obama to return to his office and get to work. The fun and games time is over. If only he had followed my advice.
In a memo describing the hearing, staff for the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee cite the Center’s report about the visitor records. They also list a number of questions for the Obama administration on how its disclosure policy has come to function.
