Back to Basics

Anthony Weiner’s announcement that he would, as expected, be running for mayor of New York City has generated some classic headlines, as well as a warning from the candidate himself:

Former congressman and newly announced New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (D) said in an interview Thursday morning with WNYC-FM that there could be women coming forward with more e-mails or photos from the inappropriate digital conversations that led to his resignation in 2011.

“It is what it is,” Weiner said. “People may decide they want to come forward and say, here’s another email that I got or another photo. I’m certainly not going to do that. So people may hear things that are true, they may hear things that are not true, but I’m going to try to keep being focused on issues that are important to New York City.”

Weiner acknowledged that his campaign will include “a lot of apologizing,” but says he hopes people will first give him a chance to make his case and then think about voting for him.

Candidates who are apologizing before the election enter the race at a disadvantage, but he certainly has no shortage of press coverage as a result. However, it doesn’t appear that Weiner is going to get the endorsement of Andrew Cuomo any time soon.

Here’s Weiner’s first mayoral bid video, which reveals a four-pronged campaign strategy: “More cops, lower rent, better schools and sorry if I tweeted you a picture of my willy”:

In 2008, candidate Obama made numerous promises that if elected president he would immediately close the prison at Guantanamo Bay:

Today, some five years later, Obama’s going to call (again) for steps that could culminate in the shuttering of the prison. Problem is, those steps involve sending some of the suspects back to one of the world’s foremost terrorism incubators:

President Obama will announce Thursday that the White House plans to lift the ban on sending detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Yemen, Fox News confirms, a move that could effectively resume efforts to close down the prison.

That effort, however, has been stymied because many countries don’t want the detainees or are unwilling or unable to guarantee that once transferred, detainees who may continue to be a threat will not be released.

There are currently about 166 prisoners at Guantanamo, and 86 have been approved for transfer as long as security restrictions are met.

Sending terror suspects to Yemen as long as security restrictions are met is like sending Michael Moore to McDonalds to lose weight as long as everybody promises not to let him near any food.

Flashback to March of last year:

(Reuters) – The proportion of militants released from detention at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay who subsequently were believed to have returned to the battlefield rose slightly over the last year, according to official figures released on Monday.

In a summary report, the office of the Director of National Intelligence said that 27.9 percent of the 599 former detainees released from Guantanamo were either confirmed or suspected of later engaging in militant activity.

The alternate title to this post could also be “Obama proposes speeding up Yemen/Gitmo revolving door.”

Last but not least, a new strategy to combat terrorism:

Nathan Wurtzel @NathanWurtzel

2013: Global warming is causing these severe tornadoes.

1975: Global cooling is causing these severe tornadoes:

More “settled science” from the 1970′s: “Prepare for the next ice age.”

Like I always say, no matter what happens, the “scare mongers for fun and profit” are right. There is no scenario that would disprove Al Gore’s sham. Shut up and pay up, deniers!

Here’s one of the more ridiculous exchanges from today’s congressional hearing in regards to why the former IRS commissioner would have visited the White House 118 times in two years:

Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly: There would be many reasons you might be at the White House. What would be some of the reasons you might be at the White House?

Former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman: Um, the Easter Egg Roll with my kids. Questions about the administrability of tax policy they were thinking of. Our budget. Us helping the Department of Education streamline application processes for financial aid.

Reason number one for why he visited the White House 118 times between 2010 and 2011 was the Easter Egg Roll? It’s almost like he’s daring everyone to dig deeper.

Keep an eye on the woman behind Shulman’s left shoulder after he says “Easter Egg Roll” — I don’t think she’s buying it:

In fairness to Shulman, the IRS had been tipped off that the Easter Bunny at the roll might lean right.

During the same hearing, Massachusetts Dem. Stephen Lynch ripped Shulman and the inconsistency in his testimony to shreds. Michelle documented one of the finer moments:

Lois Lerner, who was in charge of the unit that targeted conservative groups, took the 5th. Well, took the 5th only after making an opening statement, which could cause her some problems.

This is “what difference does it make” v2.0:

WALLACE: With due respect, you didn’t answer my question. What did the president do that night?

PFEIFFER: He was kept — he was in constant touch that night with his national security team and kept up-to-date as events were happening.

WALLACE: You say the national security team, but he didn’t talk to the Secretary of State, except for the one time when the first attack was over. He didn’t’ talk to the Secretary of Defense. He didn’t talk to the Chairman of the Joints Chiefs. Who was he talking to?

PFEIFFER: He was talking to his national security staff, his National Security Council, the people who keep him up-to-date about these things as they happen.

WALLACE: Was he in the Situation Room?

PFEIFFER: He was kept up-to-date throughout the day.

WALLACE: Do you not know if he was in the Situation Room?

PFEIFFER: I don’t know. I don’t remember what room the president was in on that night. That’s a largely irrelevant fact.

Maybe Obama was in the living room learning what happened on the news just like the rest of America. That seems to be the pattern.

Pfeiffer said questions about where Obama was and what he was doing during and after the attack are offensive. The White House didn’t seem to think Obama’s exact location was irrelevant during the Bin Laden raid.

Team Obama will dodge the “where was Obama in the hours and days after the Benghazi attack” question forever. The day after the attack he was in Las Vegas raising money. The day after that Obama was in Colorado raising money and looking forward to another opportunity to… you guessed it — raise money:

A couple of weeks ago, as his Department of Justice was seizing Associated Press phone records, President Obama hailed “World Press Freedom Day”:

We pay special tribute to those journalists who have sacrificed their lives, freedom or personal well-being in pursuit of truth and justice.

Ironic, because those who risk sacrificing their freedom in the pursuit of truth are reporters covering the Obama administration. Here’s just the latest:

The Justice Department spied extensively on Fox News reporter James Rosen in 2010, collecting his telephone records, tracking his movements in and out of the State Department and seizing two days of Rosen’s personal emails, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

In a chilling move sure to rile defenders of civil liberties, an FBI agent also accused Rosen of breaking anti-espionage law with behavior that — as described in the agent’s own affidavit — falls well inside the bounds of traditional news reporting.

Fox News is now claiming that the Obama Justice Department targeted two of their reporters and one producer.

As John Nolte pointed out over at Breitbart, the things the government is accusing Rosen of doing happen almost every day in the world of journalism in a free nation — and the Obama administration wants to criminalize it while sending a “horse head in the bed” style message to every other reporter in the country.

In 2009 the Obama administration pretty much declared war on Fox News, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this story runs a lot wider and deeper and isn’t even isolated to alleged leak investigations.

Never thought I’d see the day that Greasy Axelrod advocated for shrinking the federal monstrosity, but if it’s too much for He Who Knows and Sees All to keep track of, Axe is right — time to cut its size:

The government is simply too big for President Obama to keep track of all the wrongdoing taking place on his watch, his former senior adviser, David Axelrod, told MSNBC. “Part of being president is there’s so much beneath you that you can’t know because the government is so vast,” he explained.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhd6XLbbtIY

Come on, liberals, jump on board the “smaller government” bandwagon. Do it for the future of America. Or, if that’s not important enough of a consideration, do it for Obama.

*****
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” Barack Obama, February 2008

“I’m hearing about this stuff from the news.” Barack Obama, May 2013

Tip: If you ever apply for medical treatment under the Affordable Care Act because you were burned by hot tea at a party, be very careful how you phrase it or you might end up in the waiting room for a looong time.

From ABC News:

The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

Ingram’s gig was apparently a very rewarding experience:

Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS executive in charge of the tax exempt division in 2010 when it began targeting conservative Tea Party, evangelical and pro-Israel groups for harassment, got more than $100,000 in bonuses between 2009 and 2012.

That was in addition to the $175,000-ish annual salary. There are no details as yet about what precisely what Ingram did to merit large bonuses in the past few years, but somebody might be able to answer that question:

Bonuses as large as those awarded to Ingram typically require presidential approval, according to federal personnel regulations.

And now she’s one of the people in charge of coming up with the seating chart for the upcoming Obamacare train wreck.

The House is now holding a hearing about the IRS targeting of conservative groups. Watch live online here.

A sampling of questions the IRS asked conservatives groups seeking tax exempt status is here. I think it’s a joke, but these days it’s hard to tell the difference.

At yesterday’s congressional hearing, Attorney General Eric Holder said “I don’t know” at least 20 times, thereby breaking a record I set on a quiz day back in high school algebra class.

Holder, and President Obama for that matter, are so concerned with ensuring fair and impartial investigations that they have selflessly decided to recuse their temporal lobes until the dust settles.

Click the pic to roll an impressive “I don’t know” compilation on the Aloof-O-Tron:

There are, however, things that Holder does know for sure — such as if he plans to appoint a special counsel to investigate Benghazi.

Here’s the least surprising item from today’s Obama news conference — one that started fashionably late and featured the Marine Corps coming to the rescue:

The US Attorney General is the only person who can appoint special counsels. Obama really knew what he was doing when he nominated Eric Holder — but don’t forget to save some major blame for the Dem controlled Senate for confirming this guy:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFZJSvgtI88

Even if Holder did decide to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Benghazi, what are the chances he’d choose somebody who would actually investigate? He’d probably appoint Hillary. In reality, the only thing Eric Holder needs in order to initiate a criminal investigation is a mirror.