Obama 2012: Stealing Bush's Legacy

Pamela Geller  "For years before he became President and then on the campaign trail in 2008, Obama railed against and denounced the very policies and procedures that ultimately led to the Bin Laden kill. The capture and kill of Osama bin Laden was ten years in the making. And during those years, Barack Obama excoriated George W. Bush for "enhanced interrogation techniques" and waterboarding three (!) top jihad killers. Thousands of lives were saved, but Obama cared more about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's sore nose. Now he is taking credit for those very things? Whiplash. How about the SEALS who took out Bin Laden? Do they deserve any credit?
"Much is made of the fact that Obama okayed the kill. Do you mean to tell me he could have said no?"

NBC's Williams In Awe of Obama's 'Even Keel' During Bin Laden Killing 
"Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough replied: "As a big fan of Costco, I can confirm that we did eat Costco that night. Frankly, throughout the day." "

Bin Laden Documents Show Obama Strategy a Farce "That the Obama administration continues its ill-considered plan to “engage” the Taliban when it has zero positive to show for its efforts and against all evidence that its strategy is actively harming U.S. servicemen and the U.S. position in Afghanistan and undercutting the desired outcomes in Afghanistan, is nothing short of policy malpractice."


USS COLE COMMANDER SLAMS OBAMA AD  "“This whole thing of even putting out that ad, to me is just disgusting because you are politicizing a national security decision,” Lippold said during an interview with The Daily Caller on the one-year anniversary of bin Laden’s killing.

"“Any president that was put in that position would have probably made the difficult choice,” he said. “I don’t care what political stripe they are, they would have done it.”"

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."