It's Not Easy Being Green

By Joe Eaton:
Limousines, the very symbol of wealth and excess, are usually the domain of corporate executives and the rich. But the number of limos owned by Uncle Sam increased by 73 percent during the first two years of the Obama administration, according to an analysis of records by iWatch News.

Most of the increase was recorded in Hillary Clinton’s State Department.

Obama administration officials said most of the increase reflects an enhanced effort to protect diplomats and other government officials in a dangerous world. But a watchdog group says the abundance of limos sends the wrong message in the midst of a budget crisis. The increase in limos comes to light on the heels of an executive order from President Obama last week that charges agencies to increase the fuel efficiency of their fleets.

According to General Services Administration data , the number of limousines in the federal fleet increased from 238 in fiscal 2008, the last year of the George W. Bush administration, to 412 in 2010. Much of the 73 percent increase—111 of the 174 additional limos—took place in fiscal 2009, more than eight months of which corresponded with Obama’s first year in office. However, some of those purchases could reflect requests made by the Bush administration during an appropriations process that would have begun in the spring of 2008.

The department said it defines a limo as a vehicle that carries a VIP or “other protectee,” rather than by the type of car, but said most of its limos are Cadillac DTSs, which cost the taxpayer more than $60,000 for a 2011 base model and support the additional weight of armoring. The department said it also purchased a limited number of 7-Series BMWs for ambassadors in countries where vehicles are right-hand drive.

LET THEN EAT CAKE

We Are The Cyclists

Hypocricy They Name Is U.S.

RT America TV anchor detained over dancing at Jefferson Memorial.
If you don't know, RT is Russia Television.

An anchor of satellite TV channel RT America's political show Adam VS The Man, Adam Kokesh was arrested on Saturday during the silent dancing flashmob at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, RT said in a statement on Sunday.

Kokesh, along with the other participants, was arrested after he had started silently dancing at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial protesting the U.S. District court's decision that imposes a ban on dancing within the memorial.

Hail Mr. Transparent

OK so I'm beating a dead horse-Barack Obama promised to have the most open and transparent administration of all time.  Perhaps we should call Mister Obama, Mr. Orwell.  It's seems that almost everything uttered out of the man is Newspeak.  Totally opposite of what he promises.

If he is not banning the Boston Herald reporter from the fundraiser in Boston he is locking reporters in closets.
President Obama also has a penchant for punishing whistleblowers.
One case is that of former NSA senior director Thomas Drake.
The Justice Department’s indictment narrows the frame around Drake’s actions, focussing almost exclusively on his handling of what it claims are five classified documents. But Drake sees his story as a larger tale of political reprisal, one that he fears the government will never allow him to air fully in court. “I’m a target,” he said. “I’ve got a bull’s-eye on my back.” He continued, “I did not tell secrets. I am facing prison for having raised an alarm, period. I went to a reporter with a few key things: fraud, waste, and abuse, and the fact that there were legal alternatives to the Bush Administration’s ‘dark side’ ”—in particular, warrantless domestic spying by the N.S.A.
The indictment portrays him not as a hero but as a treacherous man who violated “the government trust.” Drake said of the prosecutors, “They can say what they want. But the F.B.I. can find something on anyone.”

When President Barack Obama took office, in 2009, he championed the cause of government transparency, and spoke admiringly of whistle-blowers, whom he described as “often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government.” But the Obama Administration has pursued leak prosecutions with a surprising relentlessness. Including the Drake case, it has been using the Espionage Act to press criminal charges in five alleged instances of national-security leaks—more such prosecutions than have occurred in all previous Administrations combined. The Drake case is one of two that Obama’s Justice Department has carried over from the Bush years.
Gabriel Schoenfeld, a conservative political scientist at the Hudson Institute, who, in his book “Necessary Secrets” (2010), argues for more stringent protection of classified information, says, “Ironically, Obama has presided over the most draconian crackdown on leaks in our history—even more so than Nixon.”

I've Got Nothing To Hide

                                                              Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
From The New York Times.
For years, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, has extolled the virtue of transparency, and he built Facebook accordingly. The social network requires people to use their real identity in large part because Mr. Zuckerberg says he believes that people behave better — and society will be better — if they cannot cloak their words or actions in anonymity.

“Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity,” Mr. Zuckerberg has said.
Now, Facebook is being taken to task for trying to conceal its own identity as it sought to coax reporters and technology experts to write critical stories about the privacy implications of a search feature, Social Circle, from its rival, Google.

Companies in Silicon Valley and elsewhere routinely approach reporters and analysts with stories about the so-called misdeeds of their competitors. But journalism and public relations experts criticized Facebook for doing so anonymously and insisting that Burson-Marsteller not reveal its identity.

Corruption

From ARS Technica.

Remember when our Liar in Chief promised that the Obama government would not be a revolving door for lobbiests?  I do.
Here is the latest-
Meredith Attwell Baker, one of the two Republican Commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission, plans to step down—and right into a top lobbying job at Comcast-NBC.

The news, reported this afternoon by the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, and Politico, comes after the hugely controversial merger of Comcast and NBC earlier this year. At the time, Baker objected to FCC attempts to impose conditions on the deal and argued that the "complex and significant transaction" could "bring exciting benefits to consumers that outweigh potential harms."

Four months after approving the massive transaction, Attwell Baker will take a top DC lobbying job for the new Comcast-NBC entity, according to reports.

Is Saudi Arabia Next?

From Press TV.

Anti-government protesters in Qatif are calling for human rights reforms, freedom of expression and the release of political prisoners.

They are also calling for the immediate withdrawal of Saudi troops from neighboring Bahrain.

After dispersing the protesters by force, Saudi troops attacked several homes in the city and arrested many people. They also destroyed vehicles parked in the streets.

Saudi Arabia's east has been the scene of anti-government protests over the past months.

"As the list of Saudi political prisoners grows longer, the silence of the US and the EU becomes more deafening," Christoph Wilcke, a senior Middle East researcher at HRW, said in the statement.

A Saudi-based human rights group had earlier reported that Saudi authorities have arrested 100 protesters for taking part or organizing anti-government demonstrations.

Human Rights First Society (HRFS) also revealed that some of the detainees were subject to torture both physically and mentally.

Come on Herr Hillary isn't it time we dropped a few humanitarian love bombs on Saudi Arabia in order to protect the "freedom fighters".

You Can't Make This Stuff Up.

From Politico.
President Obama finally and quietly accepted his “transparency” award from the open government community this week — in a closed, undisclosed meeting at the White House on Monday.

The secret presentation happened almost two weeks after the White House inexplicably postponed the ceremony, which was expected to be open to the press pool.

Check Out The No Agenda Show

For those who still cling to the left-right paradigm please join me in the highly entertaining and informative news dissection of the No Agenda Show.

I Was For It Before I Was Against It.

Senator Biden was pretty specific when he warned then president Bush that he had better not invade Iran without first getting the Congress to declare war on them. He even trotted out the Constitution as the basis for this opinion.

Apparently Vice President Biden believes the Constitution only applies to Republican presidents.

I don't hear him objecting to Obama's authorization to drop bombs and fire hundreds of missiles into Libya.

If we can't impeach Obama for this userption then what will it take?

NO Moore, No Mas

Jabba the Hut explains the problem with U.S. economic system.

Don't Turn Your Back.

From The Huffington Post.

On Tuesday, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke on issues of free speech at George Washington University, 71-year-old former CIA analyst Ray McGovern was assaulted, dragged from the room and double handcuffed with metal cuffs causing profuse bleeding.





While the "Honorable" Mrs. Clinton was blathering on about the injustice of the Iran internet crackdown on protesters 71 year old Ray McGovern remained standing and turned his back to her in protest.  The result was he was assaulted and arrested and detained for no reason. 

Clinton complaining about heavy-handed government oppression.  Obama increasing the troop count in Afghanistan and authorizing death drones and accepting the Nobel Peace Prize.  What a bunch of hypocritical ass clowns.

Guess Hu"s Coming To Dinner?

Who was the center of attention at the recent state dinner at the White House?
That's correct-Hu.
No, I want to know what is the name of the guest of honor?
Hu- third base.

"Michelle and Barack Obama welcomed a mix of Hollywood A-listers, big business types and prominent Chinese-Americans to the White House as they threw a "quintessentially American" state dinner Wednesday for the president of China, complete with apple pie and ice cream, and jazz music for the entertainment."

"Celebrity star power arrived in the form of singer Barbra Streisand, her hubby-actor James Brolin and action film star Jackie Chan. Big business turned out in force, too, including Microsoft's Steven Ballmer and JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, among others. Among the big names: fashion's Vera Wang, Vogue's Anna Wintour, artist Maya Lin, Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan, and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to add some gravitas. Former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter made the cut, too."

One of the entertainment headliners was musician Herbie Hancock.
That's a shame, I assumed he had more class than that.
"I ain't gonna play in Sun City no-more." How far we've dropped.

I wonder if President Obama, 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner, even spent a moment contemplating the crude irony that the dinner's honoree Chinese President Hu Jintao is responsible for the 2010 Peace Prize winner spending the glorious night in prison for voicing his political descent? I also wonder if Ms. Streisand has a "Free Tibet" bumper sticker?

A System So Good We Want To Opt-Out

From The New York Post.

We all know that Sen. Ron Wyden is attempting to get a waiver from the onerous Obamacare that he helped promote, but here is a complete List as of now of those that have been granted.

The United Federation of Teachers -- one of President Obama's key political backers -- is the biggest beneficiary of a White House sweetheart deal that will exempt certain outfits from complying with new health-care rules, officials revealed yesterday.

The one-year waiver, approved last month by the Department of Health and Human Services, covers all 351,000 members of the UFT's welfare fund, which provides health care and other benefits.

"Big labor spent millions of dollars pushing ObamaCare, which they made sure was stuffed full of union giveaways," said Patrick Semmens, spokesman for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which represents businesses.

"So the fact that the largest waiver now belongs to New York teachers union bosses might be funny if the rest of America wasn't stuck complying with the bill's onerous mandates."

From The Greely Gazette.

What will happen when political correctness runs head long into national security?
We will soon find out.
"The Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, has expressed concern with the TSA over the regulations and recommended special procedures for dealing with Muslim women. The organization issued a travel advisory for Muslims over the procedure.

In the advisory CAIR advises all Muslims to contact them and file a complaint with the TSA if they experience any “disturbing incidents” with the new procedures and they feel they have been unfairly singled out for screening.

It goes on to make special recommendations for Muslim women wearing a hijab covering their face. The advisory says women are to inform the officer they are only to pat down the head and neck and says “They should not subject you to a full-body or partial body pat-down.” They also recommend that women should be permitted to pat themselves down and “have the officers perform a chemical swipe of your hands.”

Barack Obama’s Homeland Security Czar, Janet Napolitano, is considering changes to the procedures to address the issues raised by CAIR."

I Forget

From The Blaze.com:



These people seem to have selective memory.  They forget who was in control of the congress and senate for the last four years and the presidency for two years.  They forget who facilitated the housing bubble and bust and who spent us into the highest national debt in history.

Why The Newspapers Are Failing

The New York Times, in their effort to fuel the idea that the Tea Party members are somehow stupid or out of the ordinary, are attempting to smear the source of some of the Tea Party ideas.

They claim that the inspiration behind some of the Tea Party logic comes from "resurrected once-obscure texts by dead writers".  These dead writers include Frederic Bastiat and Friedrich Hayek.  They didn't mention much about George Washington, Ben Franklin, James Madison, John Adams or any of the others that were so instrumental in penning our constituion that the Tea Parties draw most heavily on.

How odd it is that they don't seem to have a problem following the economic philosophy of John Maynard Keynes who died in 1946.

Doing the job that Americans won't do.

From Michelle Malkin.com



California Sen. Barbara Boxer recruiting day labor non-English speakers to protest her opponent Carly Fiorina. 

True Hate Speech

While the left wing groups are lobbying congress to investigate right wing radio talk shows and cable TV for what they claim is "hate speech", no mention is made of crazy nut jobs such as syndicated radio host Mike Malloy who goes off on Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann calling her a whore and a crazy bitch. The hypocrisy is mind blowing.

The Truth Comes Out.

Obama went off teleprompter in Illinois while explaining his economic reform policies. He finally admitted that Americans have the right to earn as much money as they can if done honestly and provide a good product, there really is a limit to how much money you really need.




I wonder if this applies to AL GORE?


April 28, 2010|Lauren Beale, Los Angeles Times

Former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, have added a Montecito-area property to their real estate holdings, reports the Montecito Journal.

The couple spent $8,875,000 on an ocean-view villa on 1.5 acres with a swimming pool, spa and fountains, a real estate source familiar with the deal confirms. The Italian-style house has six fireplaces, five bedrooms and nine bathrooms.