This Potemkin President

Obama's hidden past 

The Beltway elite mock critics who say the president's hiding his radical past from voters. They say there's nothing there, move along. But if there's nothing to hide, why is so much hidden?And if the White House isn't worried about the public seeing another side of President Obama, why is it trying to reinforce the image of him as a post-racial, pro-American moderate with a slick new Hollywood-produced 17-minute documentary?

Breitbart: HOW SAUL ALINSKY TAUGHT BARACK OBAMA EVERYTHING HE KNOWS ABOUT CIVIC UPHEAVAL   "For example, from “Rules for Radicals,” consider Alinsky’s words of wisdom for emerging community organizers:

[You must help]  the people in the community…feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and chance the future. [An] organizer must shake up the prevailing patterns of their lives—agitate, create disenchantment and discontent with the current values, to produce, if not a passion for change, at least a passive, affirmative, non-challenging climate. [You must] fan the embers of hopelessness into a flame of fight.

Do these words sound to you like any of a thousand Obama speeches and rally comments?

The Obama teleprompter: 10 best jokes 

"President Barack Obama’s teleprompter, also known as TOTUS, is perhaps one of Obama’s closest companions — always present at presidential events, speeches and campaign stops. The president’s fondness for the device has been the subject of plenty of jokes – just this week, Rick Santorum went as far as to say “it should be illegal to read off a teleprompter.”

Here’s POLITICO’s look back at some memorable jabs about Obama’s TOTUS:"...

Young Obama at Harvard: ‘Transform’ ‘Mean-Spirited’ America 

"But note his attitude toward his own professors at the very liberal university. He mind-reads them as racists without ever offering a shred of evidence that they were.

"The “mean-spirited” line would work its way from Harvard to the national conversation when Michelle Obama told the New Yorker in 2008 that she believes America is a “downright mean” nation. And on the eve of his election, Barack Obama promised/threatened to carry out that “fundamental transformation” of America that first surfaces in the 1990 interview. His consistency in rhetoric and ideology over the years is remarkable."

http://terrellaftermath.com/ 

Racial-Quota Fallout / How Derrick Bell became Derrick Bell

Derrick Bell

Thomas Sowell "Derrick Bell’s options were to be a nobody, living in the shadow of more accomplished legal scholars — or to go off on some wild tangent of his own, and appeal to a radical racial constituency on campus and beyond.

His writings showed clearly that the latter was the path he chose. His previous writings had been those of a sensible man saying sensible things about civil-rights issues that he understood from his years of experience as an attorney. But now he wrote all sorts of incoherent speculations and pronouncements, the main drift of which was that white people were the cause of black people’s problems.

Bell even said that he took it as his mission to say things to annoy white people. Perhaps he thought that was better than being insignificant in his academic setting. But it was in fact far worse, because the real damage was to impressionable young blacks who took him seriously, including one who went on to become president of the United States.

Murder, Incorporated: Bruce Springsteen Goes All-In with #OWS

PJ Media "You expect rock stars to be liberal, even stridently leftist. Like movie stars, they don’t experience reality the way you and I do because they are hedged off from it behind phalanxes of security guards and ridiculous income levels. And their heedless naivety is, in a way, part of their childlike Peter Pan charm; they never outgrow their angry-high-schooler phase because in most cases they went directly from high school to show business.

"Take Bruce Springsteen, who has been a professional musician since his late teens and has never held any other meaningful job. Springsteen sees himself as a liberal tribune of the working class in the mold of John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie, and his humble working-man shtick is appealing enough. His increasingly politically pointed songs aren’t his best work, but he has every right to perform them, though they threaten to cost him fans who don’t necessarily go to a rock concert in pursuit of nakedly partisan and somewhat droning appeals.

"What he should not do is what he does on his latest album, which is to advocate violent revolution, class-and-politics-based bloodshed, and the murder of bankers and perhaps other capitalists."

....

"No conservative or Republican entertainer could escape outrage and condemnation after issuing such a naked appeal to kill anyone by whom they feel victimized, and Springsteen should know that shooting bankers isn’t the solution to the failed promise of the Obama presidency."

2009:  Bruce Springsteen is named other man in Monmouth County divorce case 

Moroccan girl commits suicide after being forced to marry her rapist

AL ARABIYA NEWS  "Traumatized by the painful experience of rape, Amina decided to end her life by consuming rat poison in the house of her husband’s family, according to the Moroccan daily al-Massae.   

Mustafa Fallaq, the rapist/
husband, of Amina al-Filali. 

"According to the newspaper, this type of forced marriage is rooted in local rural traditions to safeguard the honor of girls who are raped. 
"Moroccan penal code exempts a rapist from punishment if he agrees to marry his victim. 
"“When the judge said they will marry, I did not agree, but I could not challenge the law. I wanted that man (the rapist) to go to prison,” Lahsan al-Filali, Amina’s father, told the 2M.
"“At first I did not agree to this marriage, but when the court of family affairs called me and pressured me, I agreed,” he added.
"Feminists have long demanded an amendment to this article. "

Liberal intolerance, by the numbers

Thomas Lifson "At last we have statistical evidence that liberals are less tolerant of views that disagree with theirs than are conservatives.  Andrew Malcolm of Investor's Business Daily points us to the data, found in a Pew Center for the Internet and American Life Project study."
....
"The delightful title of the piece sums it all up: "Online, liberals far less tolerant than normal people" "
 ....

"There are a lot of people whose self-concept as a good person is validated by their advocacy of what they think of as enlightened and compassionate liberalism. If politics makes them a good person, it frees up their consciences when dealing with others in real life. Very convenient.

"But if an annoying conservative (me) challenges the morality of the very policies that make them moral persons, they suffer painful cognitive dissonance."

The Daily Princetonian: Liberals are more intolerant than conservatives "In closing, I can’t say for sure that conservatives are more tolerant on average than liberals. That certainly has been my experience. What is certain is that liberals hold themselves out as being more tolerant, while pharisaically denying a minority in their midst the ability to express dissenting viewpoints without fear of reprisal. This fact is deeply troubling. In the name of tolerance, I think we should look within and see if this is really the kind of liberal democracy we want". 

http://wtfpoliticalcartoons.tumblr.com/page/2 

Three Ways To Cope with the Coming Plague of Obama Bumper Stickers

 Belladonna Rogers  "It’s only March and already the Obama 2012 bumper stickers are everywhere. The parking lots are filled with them.  They’re irksome, especially when combined on the same bumper, with the 2008 version. It appears that the driver has learned exactly nothing in the past four years.

"Is there anything I can do that will avoid direct confrontation, won’t get me in trouble with the law, but that will satisfy my urge to communicate my disagreement with the Obama-supporting owners of these cars?"

....I have three suggestions:

Here's the first one:  "You type two sentences and print out as many as you like. Keep them in your car at all times. Here’s a little inspiration:

Dear Friend:

Some unknown socialist put an Obama bumper sticker on your car. I’m letting you know so that you can remove it before it causes you any further embarrassment.

"That’s it.  Simple, friendly, concerned, considerate. What’s not to like?"

Or, you can buy an assortment of bumper stickers such as these below:
 And these.  And these. And these.

Finally, you can vent your spleen in a longer form such as this one:

Dear Fellow Citizen:

I note with stunned incredulity that the rear bumper of your vehicle is festooned with both an Obama 2008 and an Obama 2012 one.  This is troubling indeed.  It suggests to your fellow citizens that you’ve spent the last three years in the sort of place Vice President Cheney was said to have inhabited during the George W. Bush years: a secure, undisclosed location — but unlike Mr. Cheney, however, without access to news from the outside world.  

If, on the other hand, you’ve been living openly and freely, I must inquire whether you’ve noticed the lack of respect for the U.S. Constitution by the president and the Department of Justice, with “Attorney General” Eric Holder’s refusal to prosecute such blatant law-breakers as the New Black Panther Party and ACORN?  Does the phrase “Fast and Furious” mean nothing to you?

Have you noted without dismay the president’s hare-brained, anti-capitalist and un-American belief that those who work hard and have actually dared to earn a handsome income be penalized and have their hard-won wealth “re-distributed” to others?

Have you not watched in horror as the unemployment rate has soared perilously close to 9% among your fellow citizens?

Are you not outraged by every single element of ObamaCare and the fact that a growing number of physicians in fields such as cardiology are considering becoming “life coaches” to their patients because the tests they routinely order to monitor their health will be over-ridden by computerized regulations, and, indeed, forbidden entirely by green eye-shaded federal government employees who’ve never seen the inside of a medical school classroom? Or by social engineers or clueless politicians such as Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and “Human Services”?

Are you not horrified that your country is now more than $14 trillion in debt?  Does this not concern you if you have children or grandchildren, or even if you don’t?

Can you honestly say that none of these outrages causes you to reconsider your original, ill-founded enthusiasm for Barack Obama?

If you’re as pro-Obama in 2012 as you were in 2008, you can be only one of two things: (1) a Democratic loyalist who gives not a moment’s thought to the actual positions and hazardous consequences of voting like a lemming, or (2) a blinkered, clueless cave-dweller cut off from all news of the United States and the world for the past four years.  If that’s the case, I urge you to read news analysis on PJM.com during that period to see exactly what you’ve missed.

Just how much drek can you allow yourself to ignore?

Finally, I suggest you buy yourself a giant sized GOO GONE, a liquid that comes in a spray can.  Apply it to your bumper stickers. Scrape with all your might until you’ve succeeded in removing that embarrassing pair from your rear bumper.  Once they’re gone, you can drive with your head held high because, at long last, you’ll have come face to face with the harsh, cold breath of reality and will have understood the perilous error of your ways.

Sincerely,

A concerned fellow citizen

"There you have them: three distinct approaches, any one of which should help cope with some of the frustration you feel, and may even shed a little light of reality on your state’s Obama-besotted residents.

"When the unremitting uniformity of their political views gets you down, return to this webpage and feast your eyes on the artistic creations ... brought to you by our distinguished colleagues at MAD magazine, one of the most reliably great magazines of the 20th and 21st centuries, the obvious fountainhead of The Onion:"

I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag of.....Barack Obama

Katie Pavlich, Townhall  "Apparently these days it is okay to put the face of the president on the American flag instead of the 50 stars meant to represent 50 states, but don't you dare say under God during the Pledge of Allegience(sp). The Lake County Democratic Party in Florida has been flying two "American" flags over its headquarters building, one of them the stars and stripes, the other stripes and Barack. (RACIST!) Luckily, after complaints were launched against the Obama faced flag by local veterans groups, it was taken down." 
....
"After a short time spent ‘researching’, Hurlbert relented and took down the flag while the veterans looked on.  She did not accept the POW/MIA flag offered as a replacement." 

MyFoxOrlando: Obama flag at Democratic headquarters a 'disgrace' 

""While we are pleased the flag in question has since been removed from public display, the reported fact that it had flown for months without protest is a clear indication that we have much work to do in educating the public of the importance of protecting our flag," Agg wrote in an email.

"The final insult to veterans? The flag is made in China."

Sick and Tired of the Middle East

Victor Davis Hanson "Americans -- left, right, Democrats and Republicans -- are all sick of thankless nation-building in the Middle East. Yet democratization was not our first choice, but rather a last resort after prior failures." 
...."Let us review the various American policy options for the Middle East over the last few decades. Military assistance or punitive intervention without follow-up mostly failed. The verdict on far more costly nation-building is still out. Trying to help popular insurgents topple unpopular dictators does not guarantee anything better. Propping up dictators with military aid is both odious and counterproductive. Keeping clear of maniacal regimes leads to either nuclear acquisition or genocide -- or 16 acres of rubble in Manhattan.

"What have we learned? Tribalism, oil and Islamic fundamentalism are a bad mix that leave Americans sick and tired of the Middle East -- both when they get in it and when they try to stay out of it."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/03/13/97318 

Ann Coulter: The Vagina Diatribes; then on Palin and a brokered convention

Ann Coulter  " From Murphy Brown to the Jersey Girls, Cindy Sheehan, Joe Wilson and the New School's Jean Rohe, these fantasists inject themselves into a boiling-hot public debate and then claim victim status when anyone criticizes them."
...."Pursuing a typical path to liberal heroics, Fluke was an utter nobody whom the Democrats substituted in a last-minute witness-switch to testify about contraception -- as if her haircut isn't birth control enough -- at a hearing on "religious liberty."

"Despite her credentials as a heretofore unheard-of "birth control activist," the Oversight and Government Reform Committee declined to accept this 11th-hour witness on the grounds that Fluke did not have appropriate credentials for any congressional hearing, much less one on religious liberty.

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/michaelramirez/2012/03/07/97105 

"That was the Republicans' first foray into "silencing" Fluke's "voice.""

...."Thus, Fluke became a liberal hero even braver than an actress standing up for abortion rights in front of a Bill Maher audience.

"President Obama called Fluke and told her that her parents should be proud of her and to make sure she was OK. Hillary Clinton said conservatives were trying to control women. Bill Clinton called her to see if she had any plans for the weekend."

...".I don't care what liberals believe. Just please stop telling me they're courageous for saying exactly what every non-Fox media outlet in America is dying to hear, or I'll throw up harder than Rick Santorum did when he read John F. Kennedy's speech."

http://conservativedailynews.com/2012/03/war-on-women/ 

More Coulter: Beware of political celebrities in the GOP "We need to be wary, then, of people who might possibly be in it solely for themselves." 

A common-sense way to check Obama's regulation mania

Examiner Editorial "Take federal regulation. In his State of the Union address, President Obama claimed he's "approved fewer regulations in the first three years of my presidency than my Republican predecessor did in his." Obama was literally telling the truth. Since being sworn into office, Obama and his Cabinet appointees have approved 10,215 new regulations. President George W. Bush had approved 10,674 at the same point in his tenure. But there is much more to the story than the numbers. What Obama neglected to mention is that his regulations cost much more to implement." 

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/nate-beelers-toons 

 "...."during the first three years of the Obama Administration, 106 new major federal regulations added more than $46 billion per year in new costs for Americans. This is almost four times the number -- and more than five times the cost -- of the major regulations issued by George W. Bush during his first three years." Major new regulations are those having compliance costs of at least $100 million. Those with lower costs aren't included in the 106." 


Red Tape Rising: Obama-Era Regulation at the Three-Year Mark  "Hundreds more regulations are winding through the rulemaking pipeline as a consequence of the Dodd–Frank financial-regulation law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s global warming crusade, threatening to further weaken an anemic economy and job creation. Congress must increase scrutiny of regulations—existing and new. Reforms should include requiring congressional approval of major rules and mandatory sunset clauses for major regulations." 
Hat tip to the California Chronicle

An Obama 2008 video that is too good not to share

Hot Air  "As long as we’re partying like it’s November 2008, though, let’s once again take a nostalgic look at this Obama ad attacking George W. Bush on gas prices:"

"There are plenty more where that came from. Now that Obama can’t run on the economy or gas prices, what does he have left?  If it’s only Sarah Palin, Obama’s looking pretty desperate. "

Hat tip to Red State.com which posted:  "Via Hot Air comes this rather-embarrassing 2008 Obama campaign video that’s simply too good – and by ‘good’ I mean ‘humiliating to the Obama administration’ – not to share. Here you go:"....

"Hear that? When elected, Barack Obama promised to do something about those awful THREE DOLLAR AND FIFTY CENT A GALLON gas prices! Because of all those awful OIL COMPANIES! Wasn’t that nice of him?" 

Morning Bell: Obama’s New Regulations Cost Billions

Heritage "If you fly across the country, it’s easy to see signs of America’s ingenuity and productivity — skyscrapers in New York City, steel mills in Pennsylvania, factories in Chicago, farmland in the Great Plains, and the glittering technology of Silicon Valley. But what you can’t see, though it’s very real, is the invisible web of red tape crawling forth from Washington, crisscrossing the landscape, strangling job creators, tying down entrepreneurs, and tangling America’s engine of innovation in a mess of regulations. Under the Obama Administration, those endless miles of government-imposed directives has kept getting longer, as The Heritage Foundation reveals in a new study released today."
....
 "On top of the thousands of regulations the Obama Administration has already implemented — costing America billions of dollars — more are on the way, promising to continue to drag down the economy and hamper job growth. Congress can and should take action to get this regulatory burden under control so that Americans can be free to get the country’s economic engine moving at full throttle once again."

Obama still drowning business in ocean of rules 

"This runs counter to what we’ve heard from the president’s apologists. Over the past several months, they’ve been bragging about his rule-making record. As the president himself said during his most recent State of the Union address: “I’ve approved fewer regulations in the first three years of my presidency than my Republican predecessor did in his.” 

"But a new report from the Heritage Foundation, “Red Tape Rising,” shows just the opposite is true. This administration has been on a rule-making tear."