The man of Bain vs. the Bane

http://www.worldmag.com/editorialcartoons/

Victor Davis Hanson: Presidential Narcissism  "The logic of the narcissistic mind in matters of the war on terror works out something like this:"....
...."In other words, I worry that Vladimir Putin, the Iranian theocrats, the North Korean apparat, the Chinese central committee, the Muslim Brotherhood, and all the others who detest the United States have sized up Barack Obama. For 40 months they have acknowledged that his postracial image and his youthful charisma, as David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs rightly insisted, threw them for a loop — for a while. And that “for a while” is now ending, replaced with a new belief abroad that the more Obama talks about himself and his team, and the more emphatic he becomes with his “Make no mistake about it” and “Let me be perfectly clear” vacuities, the more he can at first safely be ignored, and then, quite soon, safely be taken advantage of.

"The problem with a narcissistic president is not just that he sees the world as all about himself, but that the world soon sees that it is not about him at all."

Eric Holder: A Political Attorney General?

The American Center for Law and Justice  "Now, there's growing criticism that Attorney General Eric Holder is playing politics, especially when it comes to determining which cases to prosecute, and which to ignore."
Charles Krauthammer calls Holder "a political hack".

"This from the Daily Caller:  "Holder has thus far failed to comply with all 22 categories of the subpoena that requires him to provide Congress with documents relating to Fast and Furious. On 13 of the categories, Holder has provided no documents. On the other nine subpoena categories, Holder is still far from compliant." "

Activists to Conduct Prayer Vigil In Support of Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani

CDN  "Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has been sentenced to death in Iran for his refusal to renounce his Christian faith and embrace Islam. He has now been in prison for 950 days.
"The event will also be carried live on the computer via ustream.tv. Members of Pastor Nadarkhani’s church will be watching in Iran via www.ustream.tv/channel/reabhloid.

"Participants will call for the free nations of the world to keep the pressure on Iran to embrace human rights and religious freedom and demand that Pastor Nadarkhani be immediately released and continue to pray for the Nadarkhani family and the church in Iran."

Youcef Nadarkhani Pens Letter to Supporters, Expresses Perseverance, Faith in God

"In the letter, Nadarkhani speaks of his current condition, his dedication and sincerity to God, his thoughts about his persecution, and shares his reaction to Florida Pastor Terry Jones's burning of Qurans in protest of his imprisonment."

Historians may like this site: Fort Moultrie

This web page was just linked to on Facebook at the American Civil War Roundtable, a site for UK citizens whose interest is in that part of American History. Unfortunately the site has been a bit, well, defiled by some of us Yanks who enjoy visiting the site and leaving our verbal droppings. I did leave an invitation some time back: that if the Brits ever care to come back and try burning Washington again, some of us Yanks will make them sandwiches and tea. One responded that they had tasted our Yankee tea and would take coffee instead.

Anyway, the site is below the background link from NPS. TD

NPS: Fort Moultrie " Between 1809 and 1860 Fort Moultrie changed little. The parapet was altered and the armament modernized, but the big improvement in Charleston's defenses during this period was the construction of Fort Sumter at the entrance of the harbor. The forts ringing Charleston Harbor - Moultrie, Sumter, Johnson, and Castle Pinckney - were meant to complement each other, but ironically received their baptism of fire as opponents."

Battlefields in Motion

"At the command “Take implements,” the chief of piece would clamber up onto the central tongue of the chassis and remove the gun’s vent-cover, distribute the dangling pouches, and level the barrel. The cannoneers would meanwhile seize their handspikes and bars, and assume positions so as to begin pushing the weapon back into its loading-position. At the command “From battery, heave,” each pair of cannoneers would insert iron bars into specially-bored holes on either side of the wheels, and slowly lever the gun backwards, up the slight barbette-carriage incline away from the wall. When the muzzle had retreated about a yard past the parapet’s top edge, an order would be given to “Halt,” and chocks would be quickly wedged on the rails in front of the rollers, so as to hold the piece in place."

Obama campaign working to counter new voter ID laws

The Washington Post  "President Obama’s reelection campaign launched a national drive Friday to counter new restrictive voter-access laws, which advisers said threaten his electoral chances in November.

"Organizers will fan out in key swing states this weekend to teach volunteers and voters how to navigate a series of laws passed by Republican-controlled state legislatures imposing stricter identification requirements, limiting early voting and making it harder to organize voter-registration drives."  Via Lucianne

Bing images

Van Jones: Yeah, we enviros took a dive for Obama during the Gulf oil spill

Hot Air  Says he:

I’m critical of myself, first, and the environmentalists. When the oil spill had happened in the spring of 2010, there was another moment to say, ‘Hold on a second, let’s relook at energy policy in America. Should we be subsidizing companies who are risking our health immediately and in the long-term?’” We didn’t do it. You’ve never seen the environmental movement more quiet during an oil spill. I guarantee you, if John McCain had been President, with that oil spill, or George Bush had been President with that oil spill, I’d have been out there with a sign protesting. I didn’t, because of who the President was. 

"Uh-huh.  The timing of this isn’t very good for Obama, but it’s not as if Jones will abandon Obama, or the rest of his enviro allies, either.  This sounds more like a mild warning shot from Jones to get Obama focused once again on hammering oil companies and traditional energy producers on behalf of so-called “green tech” subsidies.  Since the first name that gets associated with those efforts is “Solyndra,” Jones had better be prepared for even more disappointment in the future. "

Great New Romney Ad – DAY ONE

American Glob   This is a very effective and positive ad.  I can hardly wait for day two.

Weasel Zippers Pic of the Day…Marxists will love it!

The Chinese are still convinced Obama is the second coming of Mao (picture taken today in Beijing).

"T-shirts showing an image of a revolutionary styled US President Barack Obama at a stall in Beijing on May 16, 2012. A slew of bleak economic data has raised fears China’s economy is cooling faster than previously thought, but analysts say Beijing has only limited ways of preventing a politically damaging slowdown. (Getty Images)"

http://diversitylane.wordpress.com/

 Mike Adams: For the Love of Marx   "There are more Marxists teaching in Sociology Departments in America than living in the former Soviet Union. These sociologists hold themselves out as scientists despite the fact that they fail consistently in their efforts to predict the future. In fact, most of them lack the competence to accurately predict the past. Among the least competent and most intellectually dishonest is Gary L. Faulkner, Professor Emeritus from the University of North Carolina.

"Faulkner recently claimed that Marx predicted the events we are seeing in the Occupy Wall Street movement. He also claimed that events from the 20th Century bolster the credibility of Marx as both an economist and political prophet. He further castigates Republicans for their refusal to embrace Marxism. Faulkner states, “There is something really ironic about Republican’s hatred of Marxism. Years ago Marx predicted capitalism would collapse. The reason - workers would rebel.”

"And they did. They rebelled in China, Russia, North Korea, Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Vietnam. Their rebellion produced Marxist governments. And the governments killed millions. The numbers of murders are striking:"....

Mike Adams is a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and author ofFeminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts "Womyn" On Campus.

Exploring the reports on Obama's purported Kenyan birth

I haven't wanted to give much support to the "birther" crowd so far, partly because there were so many specious urban legends coming from those sources but mainly because I don't subscribe to it. But we must acknowledge that consequences resulting from discovering any president's possible foreign birth would be enormous. 
Would the Constitution's requirement that our president be natural-born become somehow negated by precedent? How could we ever return to that standard once it was broken? Consider the rioting and violence - egged on by race pimps and leftists -in the streets after say, Obama was declared ineligible. Would he serve out his term, but all legislation he had signed  during it be declared null and void? 
These questions come up once more as we see the new wave of stories regarding Obama's birth that originate from sources not previously heard from. More significantly, the stories are coming from those who had not previously been part of the "birther" movement.
TW doesn't usually jump on newly-broken stories, but prefers to see what reactions and commentary ensues. So let's do that now.  TD


The story began with this Breitbart release:  THE VETTING - EXCLUSIVE - OBAMA'S LITERARY AGENT IN 1991 BOOKLET: 'BORN IN KENYA AND RAISED IN INDONESIA AND HAWAII'

"Andrew Breitbart was never a "Birther," and Breitbart News is a site that has never advocated the narrative of "Birtherism." In fact, Andrew believed, as we do, that President Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961. (Emphasis added)

"Yet Andrew also believed that the complicit mainstream media had refused to examine President Obama's ideological past, or the carefully crafted persona he and his advisers had constructed for him.

"It is for that reason that we launched "The Vetting," an ongoing series in which we explore the ideological background of President Obama (and other presidential candidates)--not to re-litigate 2008, but because ideas and actions have consequences.

"It is also in that spirit that we discovered, and now present, the booklet described below--one that includes a marketing pitch for a forthcoming book by a then-young, otherwise unknown former president of the Harvard Law Review. 

"It is evidence--not of the President's foreign origin, but that Barack Obama's public persona has perhaps been presented differently at different times."    

This link also leads us to several others including this interview with author Ed Klein who wrote the new book “The Amateur.” It covers everything from the allegations that the Obama inner circle attempted to pay off Reverend Jeremiah Wright to reports about widespread corruption that exists within the administration.

Thomas Lifson: The Media Cofferdam Around Obama's Biography is Leaking
"Mainstream media bigwigs write books, have literary agents, and are very familiar with the process by which promotional materials are put together. They know Obama gave his agent this information.  The point isn't that Obama was born in Kenya, the point is that he made up stuff about his background and peddled the lie for career advantage. Just like Elizabeth Warren."
...."The American people are in the process of re-evaluating Barack Obama in preparation for November. The image sold to them in 2008 was a phony, and most of them realize it.  If the mainstream media think they can keep the cofferdam intact, they are mistaken."  More here.

Neal Boortz: Obama born in .. Kenya?  "Anyone who listens to my show knows that I do not subscribe to the Birther theory -- that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. But this latest discovery by Breitbart is rather curious, to say the least … curious enough to warrant its own thread, and you can bet your buns we’ll be talking about it when I return. As Breitbart notes, this story speaks to the ObamaMedia’s lack of rigor in seeking out details of Obama’s life and past."


UK Telegraph: How did the mainstream media miss this?  "Whatever you think of Breitbart.com’s punishing vetting process, it has exposed just how little work the mainstream media did in investigating candidate Obama back in 2008. "

iOwnTheWorld.com:

Obama Birther Rumor Debunked As Literary Agent Clarifies Mistake ; HuffPo quotes the agent:  "However, the woman who wrote Obama's biography in the pamphlet said Thursday that she had misidentified Obama's place of birth.

"This was nothing more than a fact-checking error by me -- an agency assistant at the time...

iOTW isn't buying that routine; "How is this debunked? Because the woman simply says she made a “fact-checking error”? ...."Debunked? Hardly.  "Press this woman. Get some answers. Huff Po is desperately trying to sweep this under the carpet. If Breitbart doesn’t continue with this I have to question why they would even publish it in the first place."

Jack Cashill: The Hand of Clinton in Obama revelations?   "Obama had almost no chance of winning in November even before this revelation.  Watch for the Hillary bandwagon to gather steam.  She can be beaten in November, but it will not be easy." Via Lucianne

Rush asks: Wouldn't Obama Rather Talk About Where He was Born Than the Economy?

Roger L Simon: The Mystery of the Kenyan Birth  "But whatever he did, the question remains. Why did they put “Born in Kenya” in his bio and leave it there until 2007? The latter part of that question can of course be ascribed to normal human sloth, but the first part — there’s the rub.

"Here are the explanations I can think of:"

• Obama told them.
• It was in some early draft of Obama’s abandoned book (Journeys in Black and White) he submitted to them.
• Obama wrote it in his book proposal to them.
• Obama told them in a query letter.
• Obama answered one of those biographical forms.
• … Well, I’m running out because they all amount to the same thing.

From Powerline  Quoting a Facebook post:

Can Dystel and Goedrich show us the correction appeal letter they got from Obama about the Kenya birth in over 10 years of using this bio? Or any other incident from any other publisher or agent that is similar to this “error?”I really don’t care where Obama was born. The continued degeneration of the press in passing on hilarious nonsense as fact is a lot more serious problem. Give Dystel & Goederich the Rose Mary Woods Memorial Award for the Most Absurd Lie to Protect a President of the Year.

Obama Cites His Poor Kenyan Family Members As Reason Why “Economic Growth Can’t Just Be For The Lucky Few”…

Bing images, right.

Mexican Jihad

Raymond Ibrahim   "As the United States considers the Islamic jihadi threats confronting it from all sides, it would do well to focus on its southern neighbor, Mexico, which has been targeted by Islamists and jihadists, who, through a number of tactics — from engaging in da'wa, converting Mexicans to Islam, to smuggling and the drug cartel, simple extortion, kidnappings and enslavement — have been subverting Mexico in order to empower Islam and sabotage the US."
..."In using subversive elements for da'wa, Muslims might comfortably use false arguments to turn Mexicans against their northern neighbors. For instance, they often argue that Islam is a religion of "racial equality," whereas Christianity is the "white man's" religion, imposed on their ancestors by racist whites who sought to keep them "impoverished" beyond the border. Islamist strategies in Mexico amount to trying to win the unbelievers over to their side, whether through conversion or just cooperation. For those who refuse to cooperate, they are infidels to be used in any way that seems appropriate."

Presidential failure: Obama's (and everybody else's) budgets voted down

Overwhelming Rejection of Obama Budget a ‘Gimmick,’ White House Says "Already, Obama’s $3.6 trillion tax and spending plan for fiscal year 2013was defeated in the House by a vote of 414-0 on March 28. Last year, the Senate defeated Obama’s fiscal year 2012 plan by a vote of 97-0."

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

Senate Democrats reject House GOP budget plan  "The end results were preordained: sweeping rejection of Obama's budget and a near party-line vote to block the main alternative, the blueprint of Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., that passed the House in March. The tallies on the Ryan budget and a tougher version offered by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., defeated on a 57-42 vote, were probably inflated since the votes weren't on the actual budgets themselves but rather on a motion to simply take them up for debate."

Senate rejects Obama budget in 99-0 vote  "McConnell said Obama's budget was "bad for jobs because it includes the biggest tax hike in history, it’s bad for seniors because it lets Medicare and Social Security become insolvent and it’s bad for our economy because it fails to address the nation’s $15 trillion debt.”

"But the GOP push was blunted a bit when the House Republican budget from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) faced Republican defections in a 41-58 vote. "

"Obama not serious"   "Mitt Romney's policy director, Lanhee Chen, responds: "President Obama is so unserious about the budget challenges facing our nation that his budget proposal has now been voted down unanimously in not only the House, but also the Democrat-controlled Senate. With more than five hundred members of Congress opposing his budget – and not a single one willing to support it – this President’s failures of leadership and fiscal responsibility are obvious to everyone. President Obama is clearly in over his head and incapable of leading the country."

Obama by the numbers

Same-sex marriage: Empathy or right?

Charles Krauthammer  "Problem is: It’s a howling contradiction to leave up to the states an issue Obama now says is a right. And beyond being intellectually untenable, Obama’s embrace of the more hard-line “rights” argument compels him logically to see believers in traditional marriage as purveyors of bigotry. Not a good place for a president to be in an evenly divided national debate that requires both sides to offer each other a modicum of respect.

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/05/15/99242

...."No wonder that Obama has been trying to get away from the issue as quickly as possible. It’s not just the New York Times poll showing his new position to be a net loser. It’s that he is too intelligent not to realize he’s embraced a logical contradiction."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/05/11/99209
...."Moreover, there is the problem of the obvious cynicism of his conversion. Two-thirds of Americans see his “evolution” as a matter not of principle but of politics. In fact, the change is not at all an evolution — a teleological term cleverly chosen to suggest movement toward a higher state of being — given that Obama came out for gay marriage 16 years ago. And then flip-flopped."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/05/16/99247

...."Notwithstanding a comically fawning press, Obama knows he has boxed himself in. His “rights” argument compels him to nationalize same-sex marriage and sharpen hostility toward proponents of traditional marriage — a place he is loath to go."