Friday Afternoon Roundup - The B.O. Obama Takes on Water

The rats are hopping off the decks of the B.H. Obama or being shoved off to lighten the ship's load. Purges like this usually happen before or after a second term, not before a midterm election.

Bush's first Chief of Staff, Andrew Card served for five years. Rice, Bush's first National Security Adviser, held down the post for four years. But here the latest go to is National Security Adviser James L. Jones, once the top man on foreign policy, who seems to have fallen victim to the compulsive infighting among Obama associates.

As I have written in the past, Obama's Czars and raft of new positions has created chaos and an unclear chain of command. Obama's own unwillingness to take charge, has turned the administration into a snake pit where people with important titles vie against each other, to see who's the top dog. And James L. Jones is clearly not the top dog. Not anymore.

Jones is being replaced by Thomas Donilon. A lot of people will focus on Donilon's time as a registered lobbyist for Fannie Mae or his ties to Penny Pritzker, but none of this relates much to his actual duties.

Thomas Donilon is really Biden's man. He's worked for Biden in the past. His brother works for him. His wife is Biden's Chief of Staff. If Donilon was any deeper in with Biden, he'd be married to him. Which means it's good odds that Biden helped push out Jones. Biden's supposed reason for being in his present job is his foreign policy expertise. Putting in Donilon let him have an oar in the water, now his oar just got a little bigger.

What does this mean for the rest of us, it's hard to say. James L. Jones had clear Saudi ties. Donilon less so. But Donilon also seems to have been doing a lot of the day to day heavy lifting, rather than his boss. Which means not much may change. Donilon is a workload guy and willing to do most things for his bosses. He was tangentially involved in one the Clinton Administration's file search scandals, when his staff assistant was caught raiding Bush Administration personnel files and passing around the contents. But there was no proven personal involvement by Donilon himself.

Donilon has plenty of experience on the political side of things, which is what is going to lead here. He's more of a politician than a foreign policy wonk. That gives him more in common with Rahm Emanuel, than with Jones. But he's also good at managing the bureaucracy, which Jones wasn't. What this translates into, is Biden having him much more of a voice on foreign policy, and foreign policy being led by politics first.

When it comes to Israel, not all that much will change, except that the Anti-Israel policy will be more pragmatic, that is pressuring Israel to surrender to terrorists for political reasons, rather than out of hate or conflicts of interest. And we've already seen that shift happen before Jones actually left. Donilon won't be anti-Israel for the reasons that an Obama or a James L. Jones was, but because Israel stands in the way of making Obama look good.

What is interesting though about people like Donilon or Rouse walking into the big jobs, is that these are the older hands, the people you expected to hold down jobs like this if Hillary Clinton or Biden had won. These are old line types who used to be commonplace, but got second shift in the Obama Administration. And now things are evening out again, and the radicals are losing.

This may be a temporary measure to restore Democratic party confidence in the Obama Administration, not by the shouty Netroots, but by the rank and file, who think this whole thing has gone off the rails. The presence of people like Donilon and Rouse is reassuring, suggesting that the party really hasn't changed that much.

Unless you have status, you're not likely to see or hear much about Donilon, but he will be having a major impact on the decisions that get made, and he's likely to hang on to the inside track, because he knows how the system works.

The only real takeaway here is that Soros's money could only buy so much. His organizations helped ram through Obama and are still covering his ass. They illegally bulled him through the primaries. But the old boys network in the Democratic party is squeezing them out. Because as much money as Soros has, the government and the Democratic party are a little too big to completely dominate. And now that Obama is cracking up, and his foreign and domestic policies championed by the radicals have gone up in smoke, there's more appeal for steady hands, over radical academics and activists.

As bad as the Obama Administration is, the crackup would have been far worse without Ex-Clintonites like Rahm Emanuel, who had some understanding of real life, and knew that you couldn't just run America like a Marxist dictatorship.

Over to Rick Sanchez, the non-story of the year. Sanchez's prominence at CNN, like the Parker-Spitzer mess, testified mainly to CNN's sinking ship.

Sanchez was a loudmouthed idiot. But when he attacked Jon Stewart, he made the mistake not of attacking "Jews" as in commonly reported, but of attacking someone more liberal than him. And this is always a suicidal maneuver within liberal circles.

Had Sanchez been a trendy liberal comedian and Jon Stewart been a CNN talking head (it's not as hard to imagine as people think), then Sanchez's remarks would have gotten laughs and approving nods. Because it's not about race of religion, it's about liberalism.

Moving on there's Judge George Caram Steeh ridiculous decision in defense of the Unconstitutional ObamaCare Mandate

"The health care market is unlike other markets. No one can guarantee his or her health, or ensure that he or she will never participate in the health care market. Indeed, the opposite is nearly always true. The question is how participants in the health care market pay for medical expenses – through insurance, or through an attempt to pay out of pocket with a backstop of uncompensated care funded by third parties."

Steeh is playing games here. Everyone must also participate in the "food market". Does that mean the government has a right to charge people a set price for food, and then allocate how much food they get? Venezuela is headed that way. And some of Obama's people admire Chavez.

Using the same argument, what happens if someone runs out of money and can't buy food. Then the government will have to provide food through food stamps.

The same goes for the "housing market". Everyone also has to participate in the housing market, whether as renters or owners. The alternative is that they will end up on the street. And then the government will be forced to provide them with housing in a homeless shelter.

Using Obama and Steeh's logic, you can charge people a set amount to participate in food and housing programs. The only counterargument to make, is that food is a regular and ongoing expense. But housing isn't. And there are groups that argue, housing is a human right. Why not force everyone to pay money into a housing fund, and then allocate government housing, to everyone who might at some point be at risk of participating in the housing market.

This phenomenon of cost- shifting is what makes the health care market unique. Far from “inactivity,” by choosing to forgo insurance plaintiffs are making an economic decision to try to pay for health care services later, out of pocket, rather than now through the purchase of insurance,collectively shifting billions of dollars, $43 billion in 2008, onto other market participants….

So now people can be compelled to pay money now, for services that they don't need now.

But what about all the people who refuse to buy homes now. Eventually they will have to buy homes. But for now they're shifting the burden of property taxes and mortgages onto people who are buying homes.

The plaintiffs have not opted out of the health care services market because, as living, breathing beings, who do not oppose medical services on religious grounds, they cannot opt out of this market. As inseparable and integral members of the health care services market, plaintiffs have made a choice regarding the method of payment for the services they expect to receive. The government makes the apropos analogy of paying by credit card rather than by check. How participants in the health care services market pay for such services has a documented impact on interstate commerce.

And somehow congress is now allowed to mandate people to pay for services they do not want, because they're likely to make use of such services in the future. This means congress has unlimited power to force people to buy into any widely used product or service on their terms, buying food as "participating in a food market" and contend that congress can pass laws forcing people to pay into a food card now.

Fun facts about Caram Steeh. He's a Clinton appointee. A former President of the Arab American Bar Association. And he's got a soft spot for terrorists... from Debbie Schlussel.

How do you tell Islamic terrorists that we mean business? Well, I have several ideas I’ve put forth over the years, since well before 9/11.

But allowing a pro-terrorist group that has been defrauding Medicaid and openly support Hezbollah and HAMAS to sponsor and host a swearing in ceremony of new U.S. citizens is not one of the ways. In fact, that’s one of the ways to keep the Muslims around the world laughing at our stupidity.

But that’s exactly what happened yesterday, when U.S. Judge George Caram Steeh–a Lebanese judge who went easy on Hezbollah arms smugglers (and even dropped all charges against one of them, for no reason whatsoever)–swore in 500 immigrants as new U.S. citizens in Dearbornistan, yesterday. Most of them–surprise!–were Arab Muslims

...

The event was sponsored jointly by the Department of Homeland Sharia, er . . . “Security” and ACCESS-the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services. As I’ve repeatedly noted, ACCESS openly supports Hezbollah and HAMAS (its President and lawyer says he contributed money to Hezbollah), was raided for helping provide Medicaid to pregnant Muslim illegal aliens (here to get U.S. citizenship and birth certificates for their kids or to sell on the open market), openly advocates for illegal aliens, and spent thousands of dollars in our tax money to train Al-Qaeda terrorists.

Judge Carem Steeth showed up in the news recently too...

A federal judge has ruled in favor of a public university that removed a Christian student from its graduate program in school counseling over her belief that homosexuality is morally wrong. Monday's ruling, according to Julea Ward's attorneys, could result in Christian students across the country being expelled from public university for similar views.

“It’s a very dangerous precedent,” Jeremy Tedesco, legal counsel for the conservative Alliance Defense Fund, told FOX News Radio. “The ruling doesn’t say that explicitly, but that’s what is going to happen.”

U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh dismissed Ward’s lawsuit against Eastern Michigan University. She was removed from the school’s counseling program last year because she refused to counsel homosexual clients.

Oh my. What would Hezbollah think.

On that note, at NewsReal, Lisa Graas reminds us that Islamists have also targeted the Notre Dame Mosque, without any resulting outrage.

Considering that the leftist media immediately jumped into a mad rush to defend the right of Muslims to build a mosque at Ground Zero, one would think that Islamic threats against the Catholic Cathedral at Notre Dame would be making headlines.

What threat could the Cathedral of Notre Dame possibly pose to Islamists? Where is the mad rush defending the right of Catholics to worship in peace? Why no outrage from so-called “moderate Muslims“? Why no statement from Catholic leaders on Islamic targeting of Catholics?

The answer is that under Islamic law, no non-Muslim building can stand taller than a mosque.

Boker Tov Boulder takes a look at the antics of Nick Rahall,

Rahall has always betrayed Arab Christians with his non-stop support of both the PLO and Hezbollah for DECADES! I vividly remember Rahall expressing solidarity with Arafat back in 1982 and his voting record in Congress has always been pro-terror and anti-Israel. Not only has he been a non-stop enemy of Israel in congress, but like the obnoxious Helen Thomas, he has even abandoned the pitiful remnants of a Lebanese Christian Community swallowed up by Hezbollah.

Echoes of Judge Steeth there. And Rahall is wallowing in a whole new scandal now, which BTB also covers.

Tanya Rahall, sister of Rep. Nick Rahall, allegedly threatened to make sure the “doors on Capitol Hill will be closed” to a lobbying firm that fired her, according to a civil lawsuit filed against her and another lobbyist.

Tanya Rahall “made threats that her brother, Congressman Nick Rahall of West Virginia, would exercise his power and influence on Capitol Hill to harm the businesses and reputations of RJI and its personnel,” according to a lawsuit filed by RJI Government Strategies, a D.C.-based lobbying firm where Tanya Rahall worked for nine months from 2008 to 2009.

But rather than reporting on the story of this abuse of power by Rahall and his sister, the AP is instead running a wire story by Lawrence Messina which slimes opponents of Rahall as racists, for pointing out Rahall's close ties to Obama.

The absolutely ridiculous thing about Lawrence Messina's AP smear is that the ad features unedited footage of Nick Rahall talking about how much he supports Obama.



Somehow an ad featuring Rahall speaking in his own words is racist. Clearly Nick Rahall is racist then.

And when someone throws rocks at your car windows, you had better not drive at him. You had better let him and his friends keep throwing stones at you. Otherwise you must be a racist.

Via Barking Moonbat

Dramatic images have emerged of the moment an Israeli motorist drove straight into a young Palestinian boy in East Jerusalem today.

The child had been part of a group throwing stones at Israeli cars following news the country’s military had killed two Hamas militants in the West Bank city of Hebron earlier on Friday.

Militants being a fancy way of saying "terrorist". But clearly the driver should have let his path be blocked off and let the stones smash through his windows. And if he had any family in car... well that's just too bad.

Aww isn't attempted murder cute.

Finally a little reminder from Cold Fury of just how unoriginal tyranny is

But no need to worry, we're good...

With growing scrutiny of the role of tax-exempt groups in political campaigns, Congressional Republicans are pushing back against Democrats by warning about the possible misuse of the Internal Revenue Service to audit conservative groups.

Leading Republicans are suggesting that a senior official in the Obama administration may have improperly accessed the tax records of Koch Industries, an oil company whose owners are major conservative donors.

And the Republicans are also upset about an I.R.S. review requested by Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who leads the Finance Committee, into the political activities of tax-exempt groups. Such a review threatens to "chill the legitimate exercise of First Amendment rights," wrote two Republican senators, Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Jon Kyl of Arizona, in a letter sent to the I.R.S. on Wednesday.

It's not like the IRS has a special unit for investigating groups that oppose the Obama Administration. Oh wait... it kinda does.

But not to worry. Obama has a solution. He has a solution for everything. Including the Israel problem...



Into the sea. Under the sea. Hussain. Hussein. It's all the same.