Media fail: 'Regular' mom in SOTU speech former Democrat operative for Patty Murray

Ethel C. Fenig: Just an average, ordinary retooled homemaker...who happens to be a Democratic campaign staffer  . . . "Oh, and Rebekah's husband Ben, the sacrificing construction Husband of the Year worker who is now thriving and is part of Obama's "our story."  Well, definitely not my story and maybe not yours.  Unmentioned also as to why perhaps Ben Erler lost his job...he drinks a lot and has been cited quite often for DUI.  That is not recommended for continuing employment in construction jobs."

Examiner.com

So why would President Obama and his allies in the media keep this information from the public? And why would Obama feel the need to fool the country with such a ruse?

Barack Obama with Rebekah Erler.

"During Tuesday night's State of the Union speech, President Obama spoke of a struggling mother of two from Minneapolis who wrote him a touching letter describing her struggle as a middle-class person. Obama even said the story of her and her husband was “the reason I ran for this office.” But it turns out that Rebekah Erler, the woman who wrote that letter to Obama, is a former Democratic campaign operative who worked as a field organizer for Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and worked on Obama's 2008 campaign, Newsbusters reported Wednesday. Worse yet, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune failed to mention that in its glowing article.

Legal Insurrection:  . . "Remember Rebekah Erler, President Obama’s premiere “everywoman” success story from last night’s State of the Union address? The one whose family inspired the leader of the free world to stand up for the common man by…raising their taxes, or something?

"As it turns out, Rebekah isn’t just an inspiration. She’s an operative.

Consider Obama's character: 

•  Obama's health care plan promise named Politifact's 2013 'Lie of the Year'
• White House admits lying about Obama meeting Kenyan uncle
• Report says Obama knew Benghazi was a terror attack, lied about video
• Al Qaeda is 'On the Run'

• This site lists more My own personal choice is Obama's closing down all parks and monuments during the "government shutdown" with his instructions to make sure it hurt.  Petulant juvenile.

Snopes gives the above some balance

From October, 2015: Obama's Spite Fences.

The Tunnel Wall   "First remember: Park Rangers Ordered to ‘Make Life Difficult’ During Shutdown Those would be the National Park Service of Obama's Rangers and never forget that.

“It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation,” an angry Park Service ranger in Washington says of the harassment. “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”

"Blame whomever you will for this issue, but know that it was Obama who ordered these sites blocked!

"Police Remove Vietnam War Veterans at Memorial Wall   "After one group of veterans went around the barricade, "the park ranger told them the wall was closed," NBC's Mark Seagraves reported. "Later another group of vets showed up and moved the barricades. At that point, the memorial filled with vets and tourists. That's when police came and moved everyone out."
....
"It takes more manpower and costs the government more money to close down an outdoor wall than to let people walk past it and pay their respects.
The Obama administration has been very selective in devoting resources to shutting down memorials." This vindictive president and his administration.

"Iwo Jima Memorial Closed, Barricades Erected (Update: Vets Break Through) 
. . . 

Making Life Difficult   "The Democrats are claiming the Republicans are holding the nations "hostage." But is seems the mean- spirited hostility to the public is coming from the Obama administration."

Unclear and Present Danger? Obama’s Actions over WWII Memorial Tips His Handful of Sad Jokers   “ 'Public lands” DO NOT belong to the Federal Government, they belong to “the public.” As such, the Federal Government has NO authority to keep “the people” from access to land which belongs to “the people.” The government can only stop the upkeep and maintenance of the property. It CANNOT block public access to public lands, at least “constitutionally.' ”

DEVELOPING… National Park Service Blocks Roads To Keep Drivers From Viewing Mount Rushmore

Diana West @diana_west_ 

UNBELIEVABLE: NPS blocks lane to prevent viewers from stopping on the side of the road to view Mt Rushmore!
The National Park Service is run by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar who sits at the table with Barack Obama during cabinet meetings. Here is where the President can give him instructions on what to do with American's access to national parks and memorials, including telling him not to spend money on blocking visitor access. Or, being Obama, this is likely where he told Salazar to make things as difficult for Americans as possible.
Somehow I picture laughter around the cabinet table as Salazar told Obama he even put cones in the road so people cannot even stop to look at Mt. Rushmore. 
"Attaboy, Ken! I can't wait to blame this on the Republicans!"
How vindictive of this petulant, spiteful, juvenile president.

The Tunnel Dweller

When you mess with a petulant juvenile administration they will shut you down.

Humor me; Open the Google search box and type in the phrase "petulant juvenile" and see what comes up as of right now. One will be this post.

Thanks, TD

90 year old veterans storm the Barrycades  "However the World War ll veterans, many of whom arrive at the Memorial on Honor Flights, complimentary flights from across the country paid for by grateful citizens, ignored the Barrycades.  Having endured the horrors of freezing European winters while bombarded by German soldiers or survived the terrors of a Japanese prison camp in their youth, the now 90 year old plus veterans weren't about to surrender to a petty Commander in Chief."

How much does it cost to block all this off compared to just leaving it as is? Hell hath no fury like a petulant juvenile president scorned.

From the military blog, Blackfive:  World War II veterans knock down police barriers to attend WWII Memorial  "Due to the government shutdown, National Park Service police put up barriers preventing access. According to Leo Shane III, White House and Veterans Affairs reporter for Stars and Stripes, the veterans knocked over those barriers."

Blackfive links to this from another military blog,  Ace of Spades HQ:

Obama Administration Specifically Denied Exception to Permit Veterans to Attend WWII Memorial  "Before we go any further, let us note once again how contrived it is to shut down entryways to a wide open space out in the middle of a park.

"This is not a building, like a museum, that has doors and staffers and guides. This is f*****g scenery.

"And yet the erected artificial barriers to block people from walking through outdoor scenery."

 

The Obama administration spared no expense in seeing that we are inconvenienced by this shutdown that he will blame on Republicans.

Twitchy has more photos of the incident.

WWII, Korea, and Vietnam veterans weren’t stopped from visiting their war memorials.   The defense Carol Johnson, "the chief of public affairs for the National Mall and Memorial Parks at the National Park Service offered to recorder-wielding reporters and cranky bystanders — “We have to do what we need to do to protect the monuments” — didn’t go over so well."

 

"Questions fell thick and fast: “Protect from who?” “How much did it cost to rent the fences that you guys just put up?” “Who instructed you to do this?*” “When you say protect the monument, who do you — protect from whom?” “Open air! It’s an open-air monument!' ”

Emphasis added.

 

* A petulant juvenile, I'd guess. (I love saying that)

denverpost.com

Levin: 'I'll Bring Half a Million People' to WWII Memorial if You Lay 'One Damn Hand' on Veterans  " 'Enough is enough," Levin said, saying that he took this "very personally" because his grandfather fought in Iwo Jima and his great uncle fought in Guadalcanal and would be damned if "this community activist is going to shut down their memorial.' "

Gov’t shutdown spreads to beaches of Normandy

And just HOW does one close a cemetery?  Via Lucianne

 

From Canada Free Press; Stunt at WWII Memorial Shows More Evidence Obama is a Thug  "It is long past time for the American people to embrace the reality that Barack Obama is a Chicago street thug in a thousand dollar suit. He is ruthless, arrogant, imperious, and filled with disdain not only for those who oppose him but also for the ignorant voters who put him in office. Anyone who would deign to work for his administration has sworn allegiance to an ideology that is anathema to the Founders of this country and the Constitution they crafted." No disrespect toward this administration intended, of course.

Compare and contrast: A tale of two government shutdowns

Monica Showalter  "Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has been spotted quietly picking up trash at the National Mall and helping busloads of schoolchildren tour and understand the World War II monument in its vicinity, all in the wake of Friday's government shutdown led by Democrats in Congress.
"He's doing so without pay and as other employees are placed on furlough. The Daily Caller has the scoop:

“We’re not putting up barricades,” Zinke told The Daily Caller in an interview. “Absolutely not. We’re passing out brochures until we run out of brochures. I’ll be out here everyday.”

"That's an admirable response of a dedicated public servant and among Republicans, he's not the only one. Several Republicans in Congress, (along with one Democrat), are insisting on going without paychecks until this government shutdown, which deprives military troops in the field of pay, is resolved.

"How different this government shutdown is compared to the 2013 shutdown during the Obama years, when Obama officials, who were then in power, rammed it right into the public's face to make sure voters bore the brunt of the pain. They wanted the public to suffer. They shut national parks, placed barriers on the World War II monument, (the same one Zinke is leading tours on), refusing to allow old veterans who traveled a continent their chance to see the monument that their great heroism merited. 

"They did other disgusting things, such as forcibly (and at high cost) shut down private businesses on national park land, effectively expropriating their earnings, once again to drive the point home that the shutdown was bad and Republicans were to blame. They politicized the shutdown, too, keeping hot towels for themselves at their gym while fining joggers who ran through national parks. The Mall of course was shut down - except for an illegal alien rally. As I wrote here when I was an editorial writer at Investor's Business Daily:

This is not the first time the federal government has shut down because of conflict between a president and a Congress. But it is the first time its armed agents have been told from on high to make things as painful as possible for ordinary people, while their rulers and their pet causes are exempted.

"They held the public hostage in a bid to get them to blame the Republicans and advance their own political ends, lolling in their comforts.

"Republicans, by contrast, are now working together to alleviate the inconvenience to the public and minimize the pain to the most vulnerable. Democrats sought to step up the pain, commissar-style. Republicans are now seeking to soften it.

"As midterm elections approach, it calls attention to who really is fit to rule in the U.S. legislature. We see the shutdowns side by side and can legitimately ask, who really cares about the public?"

National Park Service Gone Wild; Fed-up Vacationers Fight Back

Rosslyn Smith  "Top of the World is a residential development around Lake in the Sky in Blount County, Tennessee.  It borders Smoky Mountain National Park.  Foothills Parkway, a national scenic parkway managed by the National Park Service, is the only major road  to the development.  There are school children in this development.  As part of the shutdown, Bambi's Brownshirts have barricaded Foothills Parkway, effectively stranding this community and its children.  
....
"Can you imagine the outrage among the media/government complex if this had happened under a Republican President or a Republican governor.  They'd be accused of being anti-public education and child endangerment."  Read More

National parks invaded by fearless family vacationers

"It turns out families on vacation are enjoying America’s national parks even without the government’s blessing. Families are throwing orange cones aside at Mount Rushmore, ignoring barricades at Zion National Park and taking grinning selfies next to signs in the Badlands announcing the National Park Service facility is closed. ...determined dads driving straight over traffic cones or throwing them aside to clear the way for the family vacations they’ve been planning long before a government shutdown was announced."

 

Defying government shutdown, national park visitors play ‘catch me if you can’  “We’ve gone from ‘this land is your land, this land is my land,’ to the government saying this land is its land,” writes University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds in an e-mail. “President Obama said that government is just a word for the things we do together. Apparently that includes kicking WWII veterans off their memorial.” 

UPDATE: How's this for pure arrogance? Obama demands Boehner stop the shutdown.

 

New York Times Publishes Disturbing Anonymous Editorial by Member of Trump Administration

Why did nobody in the Obama Administration speak out against that president's disrespect for this nation; against his nurturing anger against our police, and the spiteful closing down of open-air parks and memorials to make -as were Obama's instructions- the shutdown "hurt"?
Was no one in that administration shamed by Obama's bowing, apology tours, nor his embrace of racist anti-white, - American figures such as Farrakhan and Al Sharpton? 
I agree that President Trump seems to lack social graces in promoting his causes and I disliked him during the primaries. But now we have a president who demands respect on the international stage in areas where the courage of leadership is necessary.
If this president is handcuffed and cast away, we will also lose Nikki Haley, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, General Mattis and so many others who put the fecklessness of Obama to shame. I fear that to lose Trump is to turn this nation back to the Democrats.
As Charles Krauthammer once opined, "it's not that there is a new sheriff in town. It's that there is now a sheriff in town. The demagogues of the Democrat Party must not take control of this nation!  The Tunnel Dweller.

TV Week  "The New York Times today has published an op-ed essay titled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” by a writer the paper does not identify.

"In the piece the writer says: “Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.

“ 'In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the ‘enemy of the people,’ President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.”

"The author also writes that “many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

“ 'I would know. I am one of them.”

"The piece goes on to say: “The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful.

“ 'It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”

"In its introduction to the op-ed piece The Times writes: “The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers.”

"We urge you to click here to read the full op-ed piece."

McDonnell, Christie Wonder Why Obama Gets Away with It

Big Government  "Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, now facing 14 felony counts on corruption charges, offered up what may be called the "Obama defense" in his response: "If it were applied as the law of the land, then nearly every elected official, from President Obama on down, would have to be charged for providing tangible benefit to donors," he said. It won't fly with a judge, and makes no moral difference. But as an observation, he has a point."
....

....We are reminded today by testimony in the government's lawsuit against Standard and Poor's that the White House does the same thing all the time--in this case, apparently retaliating for a ratings downgrade.

Do not forget Obama's vindictive shutdown of national parks.

 

Governor Christie has nothing on Obama bully boys at payback time

Washington Examiner  "Closing down a bridge to punish a mayor for not endorsing Gov. Chris Christie for re-election was an unambiguous abuse of power by individuals on the governor’s staff and was rather petty to boot. This kind of bullying is hardly unique to New Jersey, though. It goes on at the federal level, too. In fact, the now-former Christie associates are amateurs compared to President Obama’s team of pin-striped tough guys.

"Consider the government shutdown last fall when the president authorized the needless closing of federal parks and museums in an attempt to smear Republicans. Obama’s team got so carried away that they even tried to close state-run parks in Wisconsin that weren’t dependent on federal funds. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker had to defy federal orders to keep them open."

Chronicles of liberal Demogoguery

Rep. Louise Slaughter Accuses GOP Freshmen of Coming to Washington to ‘Kill Women’  "Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) said today that the new Republicans elected to the House of Representatives last November came to Congress “to kill women.”"

CBS Goes to Statue of Liberty to Hype Shutdown's 'Ripple Effect'  "Nguyen began with the shutdown's possible effect on the visitors to the monument in New York Harbor and expanded out to what might be the negative effects at all of the national parks, along with the government-funded sights in Washington, DC:"

Videos: Dem Reps compete for title of Most Hyperbolic Demagogue of 2011  "Here’s non-voting DC Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton calling a shutdown the “functional equivalent of bombing innocent civilians”:" 

Lefty Facebook Page Embraces New Civility: ‘Let’s Dump Trash at Boehner’s House’  "Filed Under Moonbats"

The Democrats' Shameful Rhetoric   "Obama may think that calling the opposition "children" is a good way to remain above the fray, but this irresponsible ploy doesn't do the country any good. It's the same thing as calling the tea party "extremists," as Sen. Chuck Schumer did last week (or suggesting they were fascists as Nancy Pelosi was doing a year ago). Likewise, labeling your opponent the "Party of No" says nothing about your own party and its agenda."

 Maxine Waters on the Rodney King riots and the near-killing of Reginald Denny  "...she called it a rebellion – Waters excused the gang of black thugs who nearly murdered white truck driver Reginald Denny, saying, "The anger in my district is righteous. I'm just as angry as they are." She also dismissed those who looted Korean-owned stores by saying, "They were mothers who took this as an opportunity to take some milk, to take some bread, to take some shoes. They are not crooks."

George Soros; “the single most destructive leftist demagogue in the country.”  "...As it is, one of the wealthiest men in the world is using his billions to impose a radical agenda on America."

Here's one from the right: WaPo’s Ezra Klein Supports Killing Black Babies   "Don’t Worry, It’s Not Racist. He Just Wants Black Children To Die To Save Money."

Thomas Sowell discusses the issue here: Dangerous Demagoguery  "The time is long overdue for voters to demand specifics instead of rhetoric that turns their emotions on and their minds off."

Try this cartoon from Ted Rall:

Background for recognizing a demagogue: Learn the term "ad hominem"

More here from fallacyfiles:  "For instance, the charge of "ad hominem" is often raised during American political campaigns, but is seldom logically warranted. We vote for, elect, and are governed by politicians, not platforms; in fact, political platforms are primarily symbolic and seldom enacted. So, personal criticisms are logically relevant to deciding who to vote for. Of course, such criticisms may be logically relevant but factually mistaken, or wrong in some other non-logical way." Fallacy Files

If I may digress, here is a mildly related misuse of a term that gets my goat: "beg the question":
"Begging the question is a fallacious form of argument.
Therefore, to beg the question is to argue fallaciously." This term is too often used to mean "raises (or prompts) the question". 
 We've gone too far onto a tangent so we'll save "I could care less" for another time.

No Answers from Reid Why Private Parks Ordered Closed During Shutdown

Big Government  "However, Reid told Breitbart News he was unaware of the hundreds of privately funded parks, some of which are non-profits, that were shut down by order of the federal government as a result of the political conflict in Washington."

Harry Reid’s Bad Week
The Senate majority leader hasn’t looked like much of a leader at all.
"Ironically, given all his knocks on Boehner’s leadership, Reid’s behavior is unbecoming of a politician of his stature, Republicans argue, and is actively undermining the ability of the two sides to come to an agreement. They also doubt his non-negotiation strategy will improve his reputation at all.   Andrew Stiles

Move over, empty chair; New design for Obama Monument revealed  "While an empty chair was the perfect metaphor for President Obama’s first term in office, it doesn’t really capture what might be the greatest accomplishment of his second. Would it be too much to add an empty chair behind the Barrycade?"

 

Closing of monuments defines Obama legacy

Park Rangers Ordered to ‘Make Life Difficult’ During Shutdown   “ 'It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation,” an angry Park Service ranger in Washington says of the harassment. “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.' ”

Jacksonville N.C. Daily News  ... "In every government shutdown in past years, never have parks and monuments been closed. These areas have been and continue to be preserved for the people of this country. They are there for the enjoyment of nature’s wonders, and to honor of American heroes. By closing the Grand Canyon, he prevented anyone from going and looking at a big hole in the ground. The Lincoln Memorial is just a statue. There is no reason why people shouldn’t be able to look at it. On top of this, he closed down the World War II memorial and installed barricades to keep 80- and 90-year-old veterans from visiting a monument dedicated to them and their fallen brothers and sisters." ...