Administration Ignores Law, Delays Exposing New Regulations

Heritage  ..."A variety of major rules have been parked in prolonged “review” by the White House, while the regulatory agenda required by statute has failed to materialize—twice. This flouting of the law is disturbing enough, but it’s made worse by the mounting regulatory uncertainty that has ensued."
....
"A variety of major rules have been parked in prolonged “review” by the White House, while the regulatory agenda required by statute has failed to materialize—twice. This flouting of the law is disturbing enough, but it’s made worse by the mounting regulatory uncertainty that has ensued.
"President Obama has ignored both the April 2012 and October 2012 agenda deadlines. The last agenda from the Administration, with 2,676 regulations, was published in fall 2011. The President’s neglect of the law contradicts his promise of an “unprecedented level of openness in government transparency.” "

Want to see some of the regulations that impact the economy?  Check these out:

•A Department of Transportation rule to require a rear-view camera and video display for all new cars and trucks, at an estimated cost of up to $2.7 billion.


•Revisions to the so-called Boiler MACT rules that impose stricter limits on industrial and commercial boilers and incinerators. The EPA pegged the cost of its original proposal at $9.5 billion, but independent analysts estimated the cost to be as much as $20 billion.

•Energy conservation standards for walk-in coolers and freezers as well as commercial refrigeration, which would apply to virtually all equipment used in retail food stores. This is estimated by the Department of Energy to increase manufacturing costs by $500 million over four years.

•Department of Labor restrictions on worker exposure to crystalline silica (fine particles of sand common to mining, manufacturing and construction). One analysis submitted to OIRA by engineering and economic consultants estimated compliance costs would be $5.5 billion annually, the loss of 17,000 “person-years” of employment, and $3.1 billion of economic output each year.

I dread the economic damage a "Secretary of Business" would do. On the surface, combining nine or so different departments into one has much to commend it if it were established by a conservative who understood business and economics. But today's socialist Democrats are the last people I'd want to see having absolute authority over the free market and decisions made by businesses. I have much more trust in the abilities of Mitt Romney and here is what he has to say on this subject:

Romney blasts Obama's 'secretary of business' plan as just another layer of government  "Republican running mate Paul Ryan, in Greeley, Colo., also mocked Obama on Thursday for the proposal. He said the country already has a secretary of business. "It's called the secretary of commerce," he said."

Stay classy, Democrats

Election Day Riots  "Let’s be clear about what the calls for violence on social media are, they are a call to action for anarchists and domestic terrorists. While most of the tweets are from urban blacks that are incensed that a black president might be tossed aside in favor of a white president (their words, not mine), the call to violence will be heard by hundreds of thousands of individuals looking for an opportunity to wreak havoc on society and government.

"If President Obama loses the election, it is almost guaranteed that riots will occur; the only variables are how large the riots will be, how well law enforcement is prepared to deal with the riots, and which groups will use the riots as a distraction to inflict additional terror."

And this is just over a World Series game!

New Michael Moore Ad Is Loaded With Obscenities: Uses Senior Citizens To Threaten Romney  "Michael Moore has once again resorted to innuendo, obscenities and unproven allegations in his latest attempt to discredit the candidacy of Mitt Romney. Moore is the creative ‘genius’ behind the MoveOn.Org sponsored commercial that accuses the opposition of planning massive voter fraud to steal the election from President Obama. The commercial features a group of senior citizens who voice obscenity laced violent threats against the Republican candidate."

....

"One might wonder if Attorney General Holder or Michael Moore have the slightest idea that making a commercial in which a person says : “I want the Republican Party to know if your voter suppression throughout this beautiful country enables Romney to oust Barack Obama, we will burn this motherf***er down” probably constitutes a felony for making a threat of violence against a candidate for the office of President of the United States." Emphasis added.

Here is the ad. We could have linked to the bleeped version, but want you to experience the full force in this ad as Moore meant for us all to. Just be advised. TD

  Dunham First Time Ad Look Oscar Worthy   "I'll watch Lena Dunham's "first time voting/first time sex" ad for Obama 50 times before I'll re-watch Michael Moore's nauseating effort to keep himself and MoveOn.org relevant. Moore manages to exploit the 80-and-over crowd while offending just about everyone else in one of the worst political ads ever made. I wish I could bleach my eyes and unhear this ad." 

Piers Morgan Chats Up Moore, Ignores Filmmaker's Vulgar Anti-Romney Ad  "CNN's Piers Morgan got Michael Moore for an extended chat Wednesday night, and yet the low-rated talker didn't mention the vulgar, nasty ad Moore produced recently using seniors to attack Mitt Romney."

Obama's perfect storm

http://comicallyincorrect.com/

Even in Israel, they've heard of Obama

Jerusalem Post 

Cartoon by Menachem Jerenberg , who says of himself, "I am a Jew from Beit Shemesh, Israel. I am Zionist on both my parents' sides. My father's Jewish, my mother's Jewish. I'm Jewish."

Gov Chris Christie and Obama having some make-up intimacy

Nov, 2011; Christie to Obama: ‘What the hell are we paying you for? "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had harsh words for President Barack Obama’s leadership abilities on Monday, following the failure of the super committee to come to a budget agreement.
“I was angry this weekend listening to the spin coming out of the administration about the failure of the super committee and that ‘the president knew it was doomed for failure so he didn’t get involved,’” the Republican governor said. “Well, then what the hell are we paying you for? ‘It’s doomed for failure so I’m not getting involved?’ What have you been doing, exactly?”

Sep 22 2012; Christie slams Obama for 'feeble' leadership   " "He doesn’t know how to lead. He can’t bring people together. He can’t develop relationships that are trusting. He can’t bang heads together when necessary," Christie said. "He has failed the litmus test for the presidency, which is to lead our country in a way that brings people together." "

Gov. Christie gives Mitt a Halloween trick, not a treat  "Here is some advice for the Governor: take a lesson from New York Mayor Bloomberg. He wanted to focus on the recovery and rescue of New York as his top priority and did not meet with the President. It seems more and more that Christie is all about Christie, he has no concern for anyone else, and the word loyalty does not seem to be a part of his vocabulary.

NRO; Chris Christie: Apolitical and Loving It "Christie allies tell National Review Online that the rising conservative angst is unwarranted. He’s still a Romney supporter, and he has been in touch with Romney over the past few days. But with his state in crisis, he is, for the most part, apolitical and loving it."

Has Chris Christie swung the election for Obama?

"On CNN that night Christie explained why he had changed his tune about Obama’s ability to lead. “When the president does things that deserve praise, I will give him praise,” he told Piers Morgan. “And when the president does things that deserve scorn, I’ll give him scorn.” On Wednesday, Christie welcomed Obama to the Jersey Shore and their personal rapport and body language betrayed two men who understand each other and, importantly, respect and like each other."

Remember when our "journalists" told us during the Bush years that it was their job to be critical and skeptical of the administration?

Despite Media Blackout, Obama Sits at 51% Disapproval On Libya "Unfortunately for the CorruptMedia, though, New Media now has a voice and the ability to mount an offensive in the form of a counter-narrative that has real impact. Nowhere is this more apparent than in a CBS/New York Times poll released yesterday that shows voters disapprove of Obama's handling of Libya by a 51-38% margin."

Liberal Media Are Accessories to Benghazi Cover-up  "For the sixth night in a row, ABC World News, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News refused to give one single second of coverage to a Fox News report that the Obama Administration denied help to those attacked and killed by terrorists at the US consulate in Benghazi on September 11. According to a Media Research Center analysis, ABC, CBS, and NBC have failed to cover this devastating story - not to confirm it, not to knock it down, and never mind do their own investigation. The story broke last Friday, long before Hurricane Sandy swamped the news cycle. Further, neither The Washington Post nor The New York Times has committed a single inch of their newspapers to a news story about this report."

'Sandy Stole the Election': Left, Media Prepare to Delegitimize Romney Victory

"....Now, the left and the mainstream media are busily spinning another narrative to get them through the years ahead in the event that Mitt Romney unseats President Barack Obama next week: Superstorm Sandy stole the election"

Leno: 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell Is Back - It's Obama's New Policy For Questions About Libya'

The Uncool President; Voters who feel they were had in 2008 have had enough.

Victor Davis Hanson  "In place of his previous “no red states or blue states” healing rhetoric, Obama has sown all sorts of needless divisions in hopes of cobbling together a thin us-versus-them coalition, as independents flee. The 99 percent claim oppression by the 1 percent. Young single female professionals are supposedly at war with Republican Neanderthals. Beleaguered gays apparently must fight the bigotry of the homophobic right wing. Greens should go on the offensive against conservative polluters who are okay with dirty air and water. Latinos must “punish our enemies” at the polls, and Attorney General Eric Holder’s “my people” are to be set against “a nation of cowards.” With all the advantages of incumbency and an obsequious media, why is Barack Obama reduced to stooping to save his campaign?"
Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author of the recently released The End of Sparta. You can reach him by e-mailing author@victorhanson.com. © 2012 Tribune Media Services

5 Serious Questions On Smoking Gun Benghazi Cable That Deserve Answers

RiehlWorldView; 5 Serious Questions On Smoking Gun Benghazi Cable That Deserve Answers
"James Carafano at The Heritage Foundation asks 5 fundamental and serious questions about the Benghazi cable that was ignored by the Obama Administration."....

1. Why was the cable kept secret for so long?
2. How could anyone rule out a terrorist attack?
3. Why didn’t the Administration provide any interim findings of their investigation into the Benghazi attack?
4. Why wasn’t a coordinated rapid response force ready to go?
5. How long do we have to wait to get answers to obvious questions?

Boom! House Committee to White House: Show Proof You Ordered Military to Secure Benghazi Compound  "But, despite his words, there is no proof that the White House ever ordered the military to secure the consulate. The US military did not deploy any assets to secure U.S. personnel in Benghazi during the seven hours the consulate and the annex were under attack. 
"On Wednesday, the House Armed Services Committee sent a letter to the White House to demand proof that the military was ever called up to secure the Benghazi consulate."

Leaked security documents reveal the Obama Administration hired a top al-Qaeda brother to run security at the US embassy in Tripoli.  
"As for Belhaj’s bonafides as an Al-Qaeda ally, consider the words of the notorious Ayman al-Zawahiri. In a report published one day prior to the date on the memo above, ABC News quoted the Al-Qaeda leader as saying the following – in 2007 – about the man the NTC put in control of Tripoli in 2011:

“Dear brothers… the amir of the mujahideen, the patient and steadfast Abu-Abdallah al-Sadiq (Belhaj); and the rest of the captives of the fighting Islamic group in Libya, here is good news for you,” Zawahiri said in a video, using Belhaj’s nom de guerre. “Your brothers are continuing your march after you… escalating their confrontation with the enemies of Islam: Gadhafi and his masters, the crusaders of Washington.”

The School Staffing Surge: Decades of Employment Growth in America’s Public Schools

I know a number of teachers in public schools and find it interesting how many of them want to get out of the classroom and into school administration. TD

Friedman Foundation  "...teachers’ numbers increased 252 percent while administrators and other staff experienced growth of 702 percent, more than seven times the increase in students."
"In a recent Heritage Foundation Backgrounder, Lindsey Burke (2012) reports that since 1970, the number of students in American public schools increased by 8 percent while the number of teachers increased 60 percent and the number of non-teaching personnel increased 138 percent."

....
"There is no evidence in the aggregate that the increase in public school staffing caused student achievement to improve. In a shocking finding, economist and Nobel laureate James Heckman and his co-author, Paul LaFontaine, found that public high school graduation rates peaked around 1970. Thus, as staffing was rising dramatically in public schools, graduation rates were not."  Via Heritage.


When politicians speak of more money going into education, how much of it goes into a bloated bureaucracy? If any conservative speaks of cuts in this bloat, you can be sure they will be attacked by the left and the teachers unions (but I repeat myself).

Yeah, yeah, the President looks presidential over the storm. But let's keep focused on his 3 am moment with Benghazi

My eyes were opened a bit last night on how so many can support Obama in light of all his failures. A family member said he feared the reelection of Obama, but nothing more was said on the subject- we were having a party for the kids- until later when  Benghazi was mentioned. His wife asked what was the story on Libya, that they knew nothing because they did not watch news. Yet they knew they did not want Obama in office.
How many Obama supporters are just like that; that all those cheering, smiling people behind Obama at his rallies know nothing about what is being said of any of his failures as president? Couple that with the fact that most news sources have carried little on the subject of the Libyan embassy attack and you have the perfect storm-if you will- of ignorance.
The still unanswered question for me is why those who do know of the disasters caused by the Democrats since 2008 still support this president and my only guess is what I see as the leftist incubator in which these people have been formed . That and the anti-conservative views papers impose on their staffs tend to reinforce those very philosophies.  TD

Townhall; White House Silent as Benghazi Questions Mount
"We'll see if and how that plays out. In any case, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey is appalled by the White House's lack of competence and transparency on Benghazi:"...

Obama’s Foreign Policy Delusion "Contrary to President Obama’s statement on 60 Minutes that “over the long term we are more likely to get a Middle East and North Africa that is more peaceful, more prosperous and more aligned with…our interests,” hatred of America has increased over the last four years even as our influence has diminished, and the region is heading toward more violence and more assaults on human rights."

Ann Coulter; Romney is what the country needs now

Ann Coulter;

"If Obamacare if not stopped, it will permanently change the political culture of this country. There will be no going back. America will become a less productive, less wealthy nation. What wealth remains will have to be plowed into Obamacare — to the delight only of the tens of thousands of government bureaucrats administering it.

"There won’t be one moment marking the end of America. Everything will just gradually get worse, like trains and the tax code, until a bustling, prosperous nation is as distant a memory as pleasurable train travel and one-page tax returns."  More...

CBS/NYT Poll: Americans Disapprove Of Way Obama Handling Benghazi Attacks By 51%-38% Margin…

Weasel Zippers  "Should be way higher, but the MSM has circled the wagons around their guy."

WZ links us to this column by Jennifer Rubin:
Obama’s Libya stonewalling isn’t working   "Quite apart from what Obama did or didn’t do once the attack was underway, there are still many open questions, as Paul Wolfowitz reels off:"

- The persistent misleading comments about the motives of the attackers.
- The failure to do more in advance to respond to the evidence — including pleas by Ambassador Stevens himself — to provide better security for US facilities in Benghazi or for the Embassy in Tripoli.
- The low priority given to AFRICOM — which had hardly any forces assigned to it — despite growing evidence since the start of the Arab uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya almost two years ago that the governments in those countries (particularly in Libya) were incapable of providing adequate security.

- The failure, after Qaddafi’s fall, to begin quickly training, equipping, and organizing capable Libyan forces so that the new Libyan government — which is evidently pro-American — could exercise better control over security. (To be fair, we were also slow previously in building up Afghan and Iraqi security forces, but why make the same mistake a third time?)
- The strategy of “leading from behind” during the Libyan uprising, which left the training and equipping of the Libyan opposition to governments that do not share our views about which groups should be armed — and even gave priority to Islamist militias over others.

- The current repetition of that same mistake in Syria, creating a situation where Islamist groups appear to be the ones which are best armed.  More...