Who's missing in that NBC bin Laden/ Obama campaign infomercial?

Politico  "Gates, who does appear prominently in that photo, "was asked and declined" to appear in the NBC program, a source close to the former defense secretary said Thursday. "You'll learn more of his thoughts about the raid (many of his views are well-documented) and all the subsequent talk of it in his book, which he is hard at work on now," said the source, who asked not to be named."
....Gates declining to appear could be traceable to the irritation he expressed publicly last May about what he indicated was the White House's failure to abide by a pledge to limit disclosures about the operation.

"Frankly, a week ago Sunday, in the Situation Room, we all agreed that we would not release any operational details from the effort to take out bin Laden,” Gates said then, as POLITICO's Jennifer Epstein and Chuck Hoskinson reported. “That all fell apart on Monday — the next day."

http://www.cagle.com/2011/05/conservative-cartoonists-slam-osama-killing-president/

Oh, by the way: Obama’s Afghanistan Visit Timed Conveniently for Campaign Impact

"This week, the President marked the death of Osama bin Laden with a self-congratulatory campaign ad. If Lincoln had spent the entire Gettysburg Address talking about himself, it wouldn’t have been quite that crass. Now, the President zips to Afghanistan—coincidentally on the anniversary of the Seal Team Six raid."

American Glob: Obama’s Political Fate Could Be SEALed  "An increasing number of reports suggest the US Navy SEALs are unhappy about Barack Obama’s use of the Osama Bin Laden raid for his own political gain. Who could blame them?

"The fact that the ever left leaning BUZZFEED is taking the story seriously speaks volumes. According to their report, more SEALs are planning to come forward…

Turning the Bin Laden raid into a story about Obama’s ego would break one of the biggest arrows in his electoral quiver. And needless to say, the optics of SEALs criticizing O for making the OBL raid all about him are … not so good for the White House. Are they worse, though, than Obama having to defend eight-plus percent unemployment? He’d much rather have an argument with conservatives over the OBL raid than the economy since every minute spent talking about Bin Laden is (a) a reminder that O did in fact give the order to liquidate the bastard, however shoddy his behavior might have been afterward, and (b) a minute not spent talking about the thoroughgoing crappiness of, oh, pretty much every other part of his record.

Members of Congress Work to Rein In Overcriminalization in America

Heritage  "What do a legendary guitar maker and a lobster importer have in common? Both are alleged to have run afoul of the Lacey Act, one of the most egregious, overcriminalized statutes on the books. Now some Members of Congress are working to inject some much-needed fairness into the justice system."
Why can't Obama treat this law the way he does the DOMA and various immigration laws; simply refuse to enforce them?
...."The result, predictably, has been miscarriage of justice. Federal agents raided the Tennessee manufacturing plant of Gibson Guitar for an alleged violation of the Lacey Act due to the import of certain wood from India. Months after the raid, the U.S. government still holds more than $1 million in seized property but has yet to file charges against the company."
....Abner Schoenwetter spent five-plus years in prison for “heinous” crimes like importing lobsters into the U.S. that, under a void Honduran law, were too small to be taken and should have been packed in boxes rather than in clear plastic bags.

RNC campaign parodies Obama '08 sticker

The Washington Times  "The Republican National Committee is getting ahead of President Obama's official campaign kickoff in Ohio and Virginia on Saturday with a media blitz labeling his re-election drive the "Hype & Blame" tour." "

White House Dossier: RNC: From Hope and Change to Hype and Blame  "The new messaging drive suggests the Republicans are going to try to go beyond reacting to various Obama salvos and attempt to drive the conversation while putting the White House on the defensive."

Gutsy Call!

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Rumsfeld: It Was Not A "Tough Decision" To Kill Bin Laden  " "I think after spending that amount of time, that number of years and that much money -- we increased the special operations forces by about 50 percent. We increased their budget. We increased their equipment. And they develop these skill sets and improve the intelligence capability of our country," Rumsfeld told FOX News' Greta van Susteren. "And finally, when all that comes together, to not make that decision, it seemed to me, would just be dumbfounding. I can't imagine any president not making that decision. That's not to say it wasn't a huge accomplishment. It was." "  Blackfive gives Obama a hat tip for not stopping the operation.

http://www.nationalreview.com/#

New Veterans Ad Shreds Obama For Taking Credit For Bin Laden Killing…

Many thanks for this to Weasel Zippers

Cut from the same mold is this video tribute at Blackfive. Go to the link because I can't figure how to imbed it. TD


Meanwhile from earlier is this:  Longtime Admirer Brian Williams Rewarded With Obama-Promoting 'Exclusive'  "It’s no surprise that Obama turned to Brian Williams to help trumpet his message, as the face of NBC News has fawned over Barack Obama since the start of the 2008 presidential campaign. A review finds the NBC anchor has typically loaded up his interviews of Obama with politically-convenient softballs and few tough questions:"
....
"Going into the last six months of the crucial 2012 general election, the Democratic President will have the luxury of being interviewed by journalists who openly admire him and may have even wept at his inauguration. So much for fairness."

Taxmageddon cometh

Ripped this off from Lars Larson. Catch his website or join him on Facebook

While I'm in his site, I just think I'll hijack this one as well:

70 years ago: the Battle of the Coral Sea

Navy History  "On 3 May a small Japanese naval force carried out a landing at Tulagi, on the northern side of the Coral Sea, where they quickly established a seaplane base to provide reconnaissance deeper into Allied waters. Leaving Lexington behind and detaching Neosho to join her, Rear Admiral Fletcher took Yorktown off to interfere with the landings. On the morning of the 4th, his planes hit the invasion force. Though results were modest, to some extent due to humid air fogging the dive bombers' sights, the destroyer Kikuzuki was fatally damaged and a few other ships and seaplanes were sunk"


The Battle of the Coral Sea: Summary

Battle of the Coral Sea "What followed was the first true carrier vs. carrier battle, where neither task force actually came within sight of each other, and the issue was decided entirely by aircraft.

"The results of the affair was probably a tactical victory for the Japanese, as they managed to sink the heavy carrier Lexington, heavily damage the Yorktown, and sink a destroyer and an oiler. For their part, the Americans managed to achieve their first substantial warship kill against the Japanese Navy by sinking the light carrier Shoho. They also severely damaged the Shokaku. From a strategic perspective, though, the Americans scored an important, multi-dimensional victory."....More

Obama’s Crucifixion of “Big Oil”

Heritage Foundry  "If it ever was a secret, it’s not a secret any longer: The Obama Administration is on a vindictive campaign to injure America’s oil and gas industry. The proof materialized last week when video of an Environmental Protection Agency official revealed the White House’s vicious attitude toward the very industries that supply the American people a reliable, affordable energy source. Yesterday, that official fell on his sword and resigned to spare the president any further embarrassment from the truth he disclosed."

...."When President Obama lashes out at “Big Oil,” guess who’s going to pay the price? You. First, raising taxes on any company means that the costs will be passed on to consumers. If you’re tired of paying high gas prices, you would pay even more if the president levies new costs on the industry that is supplying your fuel."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/

Everything you need to know about Occupy in one photo

Michelle Malkin  "It’s May Day. I’m occupying my job, how about you?

"The Occupiers are out wreaking havoc, breaking windows, cursing at cops, and telling everyone else not to work. 

"In other words: Just another day at the office. I mean encampment. Or streets. Or parents’ basement. Or whatever.

"Twitter follower and cartoonist John Richards sent me this pic he drew that tells you everything you need to know (and I’ve been reporting) about the Occupy tools and their backers:"

Neal Boortz: Occutard protest  "And since the OccuTards are just so easy to make fun of, take a look at some of these brilliant signs they came up with yesterday.  These kids are now nothing but useful idiot captives of the socialist, progressive and union movements."

That, after all, is why they’re called “useful idiots.”

Occupy Wall Street May Day 'Relaunch' a Monumental Fizzle
"San Francisco was also the scene of mindless violence  as a couple of dozen black clad anarchists trashed about 30 businesses in the Mission district. The violence mystified the small business owners:"...

UPDATE! WINNING! Breitbart.com Story Results In Occupy Arrest  Breitbart story and video follows this one.

Early Wednesday morning Breitbart News posted a video of an Occupy protester in LA smashing a drum into the head of a female LAPD officer. At the time the video had fewer than 25 views. Within hours the video began to spread around the web on blogs and social media sites. Just over 24 hours later it has been viewed more than 200,000 times.Yesterday afternoon, KTLA reported that a suspect in the attack had been detained and was being questioned. This morning, the LAPD announced the arrest of Brian Mendoza age 23. Sources say Mendoza is “6 feet tall and weighs 280 pounds.” By contrast, the officer he attacked is said to be 5’1″ and just over 100 pounds. The incident:

OCCUPY BULLY SLAMS FEMALE COP IN BACK OF HEAD

What a cheap shot.

#Occupyfail: The Totalitarian Temptation ..." He picked up a piece of paper and read aloud: “Here’s what she said [conservatives] think:

. . . climate change is a Trojan horse designed to abolish capitalism and replace it with some kind of eco-socialism. As conference speaker Larry Bell succinctly puts it in his new book Climate of Corruption, climate change “has little to do with the state of the environment and much to do with shackling capitalism and transforming the American way of life in the interests of global wealth redistribution.”

 "The assembled Occupiers laughed nervously, and some nodded. “Yes!” smiled the speaker. "“The Right gets it. They spread misinformation about the science, as they know that it means the end of how we’ve been living. And they’ll do anything to keep the system as it is.” "

Victor Davis Hanson: Sitting Out Obama

National Review Online  "We recently saw lots of sit-down strikes and demonstrations — the various efforts in Wisconsin, the Occupy movements, and student efforts to oppose tuition hikes. None of them mattered much or changed anything. There is a sit-down strike, however, that has paralyzed the country and has been largely ignored by the media."

.

http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/04/the-rich-and-their-jobs/

...."The Mexican economy is growing more rapidly than is ours. Why did not massive annual $1 trillion–plus deficits spark a recovery, as government claimed an ever larger percentage of GDP, and new public-works projects were heralded by the administration?

Much of the answer is found in the collective psyche of those Americans who traditionally hire, purchase, or invest capital. An economy is simply the aggregate of millions of private agendas, of people sensing and reacting to a commonly perceived landscape. Yet since January 2009, that landscape has been bleak and foreboding."

The path to bin Laden’s death didn’t start with Obama

The Washington Post  "As we mark the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death, President Obama deserves creditfor making the right choice on taking out Public Enemy No. 1.

"But his administration never would have had the opportunity to do the right thing had it not been for some extraordinary work during the George W. Bush administration. Much of that work has been denigrated by Obama as unproductive and contrary to American principles."

....The truth is that getting bin Laden was the top counterterrorism objective for U.S. intelligence since well before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. This administration built on work pain­stakingly pursued for many years before Obama was elected — and without this work, Obama administration officials never would have been in a position to authorize the strike on Abbottabad, Pakistan, that resulted in bin Laden’s overdue death."

Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. is a 31-year veteran of the CIA and the author of “Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives.”  And as such he is perhaps one of those that the Obama Administration had early on marked for criminal prosecution because of their efforts.

From Nov, 2011: 'If This Had Completely Gone South, He Was in a Position to Disavow'

President Obama’s role, too, was largely inflated.
He was out playing golf only 20 minutes before the raid began.
“If this had completely gone south, he was in a position to disavow,” Pfarrer claimed.

"Just imagine how quickly he'd have thrown these guys under the bus. Instead he goes around using bin Laden's death as a campaign tool."

UPDATED: Obama's campaign trip to Afghanistan

Obama's Midnight Ramble to Kabul  "Perhaps the most notable aspect of President Obama's sneak visit to Afghanistan was its transparency. Every aspect of the trip indicates it was a campaign function, building the Obama brand.
"The timing was blatant.  The anniversary of Osama kill for starters. But the entire Kabul visit was held at crazy hours of the early morning. Transparently, it was timed for a prime time speech to the nation with a suitably patriotic military backdrop and setting. Cheers from the assembled troops. No spontaneous interaction with the troops, of course. Too risky."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/05/01/98827

UK Mail: Obama's midnight dash to Kabul shows that he dare not visit the place in daylight  "Mr Obama tried to make a virtue out of absurdity, referring to a “new light” breaking on the horizon for Afghanistan, even as he gestured to the “pre-dawn darkness” in which he was speaking, but even Mr Obama oratorical skills couldn’t disguise the  tail-between-the-legs ‘optics’ of the event. It was terrible."

Narcissist-In-Chief Gives A Shout-Out To Himself During Speech To Troops In Afghanistan… " Nobody loves Barack Obama more than Barack Obama."

Boortz: Prezbo campaigns in Afghanistan  "Our only hope is that American voters are smart enough to see through this charade.  But I have a sinking feeling that they may not.  After all, they did put this guy into office in the first place.  The signs were all there that he was a Marxist; you just had to work to put together the pieces.  Clearly this is where the ObamaMedia failed.  They failed to vet Obama the first time around and now they will clamor to defend him because his failure also reflects on them."

Obama hedges bets with 'crass' speech at Bagram Air Base  " “In 2008, he campaigned on Afghanistan being the war we should focus on,” Inhofe said. “However, under his leadership, support for the war in Afghanistan is at an all time low because he has refused to articulate the value and importance of the work our troops are doing there.  Unfortunately, this President has allowed Washington and campaign politics to dictate his strategy in Afghanistan rather than the conditions on the ground.  We saw this when he failed to provide the troops the commanders needed during the surge, and again when he brought troops home during the height of fighting season.” " Blackfive has more.

Lillpop: Obama Spikes “bin Laden” Football AGAIN! Navy Seals Not Amused!
"Let the record show that the brave American heroes who did the heavy lifting in the OBL killing HAVE explained it all."
"The SEALS' message: Knock it off, Mr. President!"
(Emphasis in the original).


Mother Jones defends Obama  "This actually is a telling expose of just how far in the tank O's apologista corps in the media branch of his campaign are. Not only is dissent from the articulated message of martial glory and battlefield accomplishment verboten, but it is classified as a lie by these self-appointed commissars in the the Ministry of Truth."