Hypocrisy Alert! If “Assault Weapons” are Bad…WHY does Department of Homeland Security want to BUY 7,000 of them For “Personal Defense”?

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Meaning of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors”

by Jon Roland, Constitution Society

The question of impeachment turns on the meaning of the phrase in the Constitution at Art. II Sec. 4, “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors”. I have carefully researched the origin of the phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors” and its meaning to the Framers, and found that the key to understanding it is the word “high”. It does not mean “more serious”. It refers to those punishable offenses that only apply to high persons, that is, to public officials, those who, because of their official status, are under special obligations that ordinary persons are not under, and which could not be meaningfully applied or justly punished if committed by ordinary persons.

Under the English common law tradition, crimes were defined through a legacy of court proceedings and decisions that punished offenses not because they were prohibited by statutes, but because they offended the sense of justice of the people and the court. Whether an offense could qualify as punishable depended largely on the obligations of the offender, and the obligations of a person holding a high position meant that some actions, or inactions, could be punishable if he did them, even though they would not be if done by an ordinary person.

Offenses of this kind survive today in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It recognizes as punishable offenses such things as refusal to obey orders, abuse of authority, dereliction of duty, moral turpitude, and conduct unbecoming. These would not be offenses if committed by a civilian with no official position, but they are offenses which bear on the subject’s fitness for the duties he holds, which he is bound by oath or affirmation to perform.

Perjury is usually defined as “lying under oath”. That is not quite right. The original meaning was “violation of one’s oath (or affirmation)”.

The word “perjury” is usually defined today as “lying under oath about a material matter”, but that is not its original or complete meaning, which is “violation of an oath”. We can see this by consulting the original Latin from which the term comes. From An Elementary Latin Dictionary, by Charlton T. Lewis (1895), Note that the letter “j” is the letter “i” in Latin.

periurium, i, n,, a false oath, perjury.

periurus, adj., oath-breaking, false to vows, perjured. iuro, avi, atus, are, to swear, take an oath.

iurator, oris, m., a swearer.

iuratus, adj., sworn under oath, bound by an oath.

ius, iuris, that which is binding, right, justice, duty.

per, … IV. Of means or manner, through, by, by means of, … under pretense of, by the pretext of, ….

By Art. II Sec. 1 Cl. 8, the president must swear: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” He is bound by this oath in all matters until he leaves office. No additional oath is needed to bind him to tell the truth in anything he says, as telling the truth is pursuant to all matters except perhaps those relating to national security. Any public statement is perjury if it is a lie, and not necessary to deceive an enemy.

When a person takes an oath (or affirmation) before giving testimony, he is assuming the role of an official, that of “witness under oath”, for the duration of his testimony. That official position entails a special obligation to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and in that capacity, one is punishable in a way he would not be as an ordinary person not under oath. Therefore, perjury is a high crime.

An official such as the president does not need to take a special oath to become subject to the penalties of perjury. He took an oath, by Art. II Sec. 1 Cl. 8, to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States” and to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” to the best of his ability. While he holds that office, he is always under oath, and lying at any time constitutes perjury if it is not justified for national security.

LINK

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IF ‘ASSAULT WEAPONS’ ARE BAD…WHY DOES DHS WANT TO BUY 7,000 OF THEM FOR ‘PERSONAL DEFENSE’?

January 26, 2013

By  Jason Howerton

The Department of Homeland Security is seeking to acquire 7,000 5.56x45mm NATO “personal defense weapons” (PDW) — also known as “assault weapons” when owned by civilians. The solicitation, originally posted on June 7, 2012, comes to light as the Obama administration is calling for a ban on semi-automatic rifles and high capacity magazines.

Citing a General Service Administration (GSA) request for proposal (RFP), Steve McGough of RadioViceOnline.com reports that DHS is asking for the 7,000 “select-fire” firearms because they are “suitable for personal defense use in close quarters.” The term select-fire means the weapon can be both semi-automatic and automatic. Civilians are prohibited from obtaining these kinds of weapons.

The RFP describes the firearm as “Personal Defense Weapon (PDW) – 5.56x45mm NATO, select-fire firearm suitable for personal defense use in close quarters and/or when maximum concealment is required.” Additionally, DHS is asking for 30 round magazines that “have a capacity to hold thirty (30) 5.56x45mm NATO rounds.”

Republican New York state Sen. Greg Ball also issued a press release this week bringing attention to the weapons purchase request.

Calls made to DHS seeking information regarding whether or not the RFP was accepted and fulfilled were not immediately returned on Saturday.

Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Thursday introduced legislation that would enact a so-called “assault weapons” ban. The bill would ban more than 150 firearms and limit magazines to 10 rounds. There is no expiration date on Feinstein’s bill.

Get all the details on the bill, including a list of firearms that would be banned, here.

More here………...

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Of equal importance:

Read at links below:

The following was posted on December 26, 2012 <<<NOTE THE DATE

Valerie Jarrett in Charge of DHS? The Jarrett/Napolitano Plans for America. Crisis on Horizon. Bill Ayers STILL an Influence.

Excerpt:

They, I mean Jarrett and Obama as well as a few others in government, are working to create a perfect storm too. This is being timed to coincide with new gun laws.

DH: New federal gun laws?

RB: Yes. Count on the criminalization to possess just about every gun you can think of. Not only restrictions, but actual criminalization of possessing a banned firearm. I heard this directly from the highest of my sources. Plans were made in the 90s but were withheld. Now, it’s a new day, a new time, and they are riding the wave of emotion from Sandy Hook, which, by the way as tragic as it was, well, it stinks to high heaven. I mean there are many things wrong there, and first reports are fast disappearing. The narrative is being changed. Look, there is something wrong with Sandy Hook, but if you write it, you’ll be called a kook or worse.

[...]

DH: So…

RB: So what I’m telling you is that DHS, the TSA and certain, but not all, law enforcement agencies are going to be elbow deep in riot control in response to an economic incident. At the same time or close to it, gun confiscation will start. It will start on a voluntary basis using federal registration forms, then an amnesty, then the kicking-in of doors start.

Before or at the same time, you know all the talk of lists, you know, the red and blue lists that everyone made fun of? Well they exist, although I don’t know about their colors. But there are lists of political dissidents maintained by DHS. Names are coordinated with the executive branch, but you know what? They did not start with Obama. They’ve been around in one form or another for years. The difference though is that today, they are much more organized. And I’ll tell you that the vocal opponents of the politics of the global elite, the bankers, and the opponents of anything standing in their way, well, they are on the top of the list of people to be handled.

DH: Handled?

RB: As the situations worsen, some might be given a chance to stop their vocal opposition. Some will, others won’t. I suppose they are on different lists. Others won’t have that chance. By that time, though, it will be chaos and people will be in full defensive mode. They will be hungry, real hunger like we’ve never experienced before. They will use our hunger as leverage. They will use medical care as leverage.

DH: Will this happen all at once?

RB: They hope to make it happen at the same time. Big cities first, with sections being set apart from the rest of the country. Then the rural areas. There are two different plans for geographical considerations. But it will all come together.

DH: Wait, this sounds way, way over the top. Are you telling me… [Interrupts]

RB: [Over talk/Unintelligible] …know who was selected or elected twice now. You know who his associates are. And you are saying this is way over the top? Don’t forget what Ayers said – you talked to Larry Grathwohl. This guy is a revolutionary. He does not want to transform our country in the traditional sense. He will destroy it. And he’s not working alone. He’s not working for himself, either. He has his handlers. So don’t think this is going to be a walk in the park, with some type of attempt to rescue the country. Cloward-Piven. Alinsky. Marx. All rolled into one. And he won’t need the rest of his four years to do it.

DH: I need you to be clear. Let’s go back again, I mean, to those who speak out about what’s happening………..

Keep reading here……..

 

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Why Did The DHS, ICE Just Order 450 MILLION Rounds Of .40 Caliber Ammunition? WHO gave the Order To Do So? Obama? Holder? Napolitano? 

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First it Was DHS ordering Large Amounts of Ammo; Now The USDA And US Fish And Wildlife Order Massive Amounts Of Ammo

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RUSSIAN NEWS OUTLET PRAVDA PRINTS SURPRISING OPINION COLUMN WARNING USA: ‘NEVER GIVE UP YOUR GUNS’

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FORMER ‘BRAIN DEAD LIBERAL’ FILMMAKER PENS SCATHING COLUMN ON GUN CONTROL: ‘A POLITICAL APPEAL TO THE IGNORANT’

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Valerie Jarret – “After We Win This Election, It’s Our Turn. Payback Time.” (WSI)

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Why Was Obama’s “Brain” Valerie Jarrett So Happy to Hire Communist Van Jones? Was it Fate? Is She Obama’s Handler?

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Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett: Brought Together by Fickle Fate, or Something More?

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MEDIA SETS GUN CONTROL NARRATIVE, SHUTS DOWN MENTAL HEALTH DEBATE

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Valerie Jarrett: Obama’s not done campaigning

January 21, 2013<<Note date

Last week, Obama for America converted to a nonprofit organization, a formal indication that Obama won’t be putting his legendary organizing game to bed any time soon.

We’ve already seen this strategy at work during the fiscal cliff when so-called middle-class voters were invited to attend a press conference, cheering and hooting in support of the president even though a fiscal cliff deal had not yet been struck.

The president employed the tactic again at his press conference announcing his gun control intentions, filling the room with children who had written to the president after the Newtown elementary school shooting.

“If we have the people behind us, then there are no limits to what we can do,” Jarrett said.

With this change, we’re likely to see even more rally-like pressers and campaign events in support of the president’s policy agenda.

“[You’re going to] see the president travelling around the country more, we’re going to have many more opportunities at the White House to bring people in to inform them and communicate and engage with them about our agenda. And if we have that, then we’re confident they can have a very robust second-term agenda.”

LINK

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WHO is running this country? Valerie Jarrett or Obama?

Did Obama make the movement……..or did the movement make Obama?

Think about that.

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President Barack Obama attended a $25,000-a-Couple Fundraiser in Austin Hosted by Former Dell Executive who once Boasted of his “Ruthless” Outsourcing Tactics

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HOW can Obama attack Romney with a straight face knowing the history about his own donors?

Is Obama lying or spinning and distorting the truth to fit the his agenda?

From Washington Free Beacon:

OBAMA’S ‘RUTHLESS’ OUTSOURCER-SUPPORTER

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff -

July 19, 2012

President Barack Obama attended a $25,000-a-couple fundraiser in Austin on Tuesday, hosted by an executive who once boasted of his “ruthless” outsourcing tactics, according to Buzzfeed.

Obama attended a fundraiser hosted by Tom Meredith, a former Dell executive who once oversaw outsourcing at his own company — and said he would be “ruthless” about cutting costs.

In 2001, while serving as senior vice president of Dell Computer Corp, Meredith defended plans to lay off between 3,000 and 4,000 employees — largely in Texas — while sparing about 4,000 jobs in Asia Pacific. When that strategy was reported by the tech press at the time Meredith defended the move.

“We will be ruthless in how we address our cost structure,” Meredith said, a comment that drew wide attention at the time.

Obama has harshly criticized Romney for investing in companies that shipped jobs overseas, and said just Wednesday that he wants “to be a pioneer in in-sourcing.”

Those “ruthless” cuts did not curb Meredith’s lavish lifestyle. The fundraiser took place at his 12,100-square-foot penthouse apartment in the Four Seasons Hotel, according to the Boston Herald.

SOURCE

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Oops!… Obama’s Top Bundler Jonathan Lavine Was In Charge of Bain During GST Steel Layoffs

Excerpt:

The Obama campaign blamed Governor Mitt Romney for the demise of GST Steel company in a video they released in May. The plant closed in 2001. Mitt left Bain in 1999.

For some reason the Obama camp forgot to mention this…
Obama’s top bundler Jonathan Lavine was in charge of Bain during the GST layoffs.

And, Jonathan Lavine is not your average Obama Bain donor. Lavine is one of Barack Obama’s top bundlers.

ABC reported:

While Democrats assail presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital business practices, Republicans note that President Obama has not been bashful about accepting cash from Bain executives or other high-profile figures in the corporate buyout business…

…One of Obama’s top campaign financiers – Jonathan Lavine – is also managing director at Bain, bundling between $100,000 and $200,000 in contributions for the 2012 Obama Victory Fund, according to estimates released by the Obama campaign. The president has also relied on other leading figures in the private equity sector as hosts for high-dollar fundraisers and as members of his Jobs Council.

Maybe someday the liberal media will report on this.

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While David Axelrod (Obama Campaign Manager) Spins and Distorts: Attack Romney on Sending jobs Overseas. Who is the “Jobs Outsourcing King”? Romney?…Nope…It’s Obama

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Democrats Attack Offshore Accounts. Democrats Need to Look Within Themselves. Look in the Mirror Dems…..

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Hypocrite Alert! Debbie Wasserman Schultz Claims She is “Middle Class” America. Really?

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ABOUT JOBS:

Want to know where all the House-passed jobs bills are? Stuck in the Senate. Is Harry Reid Enabling Obama’s Power Grab?

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Are Sen. Harry Reid’s Lips Tired From Puckering? Reid Uses Procedural Maneuver to Block Vote on Obama’s Jobs Bill. Yet Obama CLAIMS Republicans are the Obstructionists?

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Harry Reid Won’t Bring the House-Passed 30+ Jobs Bills to Senate Floor, but Will Go Full Boogie to Get Bill to Protect Unions on Floor without Discussion

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Obama Administration Undermining Work Requirements for Welfare Recipients. Utopian Slavery Through Infantilizing Americans via Progressivism.

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President Obama’s jobs panel missing in action

By JOSH GERSTEIN | 7/18/12

Excerpted:

At this point, the hiatus — which reached the half-year mark Tuesday — might be less awkward than an official meeting, given the hornet’s nest of issues that could sting Obama and the council members if the private-sector panel gets together.

Then, there’s the fact that some members of the commission have conspicuously declined to endorse him. And that Obama has conspicuously declined to endorse some of their recommendations. And that some of what Obama won’t endorse has been warmly embraced by Republicans, including likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

To cap it all off, several of the companies whose CEOs serve on the panel are involved to some extent in outsourcing — a fact that could undercut the ferocious attack Obama and his campaign are mounting on Romney over his alleged ties to the practice.

One former administration official said the current political atmosphere could be prompting the CEOs and other business leaders to lie low.

“The thing is supposed to be bipartisan, so a lot of times they don’t want to get into things that could be used by either side in the election,” said the former aide, who asked not to be named. “The businesspeople, for the most part, don’t want to get into the middle of political fighting.”

Read more here…..

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“The nature of the encroachment upon American constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer; it eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners, and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less steady, spirited and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity and frugality become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole of society.”

~~John Adams

LINK

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“It is precisely this clinging to victimhood as a means of demonstrating one’s virtue and advancing one’s well-being that has led us into a society in which welfare and quotas are “civil rights,” government handouts are “entitlements,” and payment to girls having babies out of wedlock are “compassionate,” while hard-working, ambitious people are “greedy,” punishment of crime is “oppression,” and an independent thinker who stands for courage and self-reliance is dismissed as an “Uncle Tom.”

~~J. Tucker Alford

LINK

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“You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot build character and courage by taking away men’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”

~~William Boetcker

LINK

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“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy,always followed by a dictatorship.”

― Alexis de Tocqueville

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Hypocrisy at its BEST: DNC Convention In Charlotte To Feature Million-Dollar Tickets, Luxury Suits And Concierge Services For The Party’s One-Percenters…

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Via Weasel Zippers:

DNC Convention In Charlotte To Feature Million-Dollar Tickets, Luxury Suites And Concierge Services For The Party’s One-Percenters…

In other words, Obama’s class warfare shtick is a crock of sh*t aimed at the uninformed masses.

Via Free Beacon:

The organizers of the upcoming Democratic National Convention are doing everything possible to get around the same financial restrictions they once promoted in a concerted effort to make sure that America’s wealthiest individuals, corporations, and lobbyists contribute their “fair share” to the convention.

Host committee spokeswoman Suzi Emmerling, formerly of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, insisted that convention leaders were not attempting to sidestep the fundraising restrictions. Kerrigan, she said, had simply been “educating Beltway types about the new rules.”

“All of this is brand new,” Emmerling tells the Washington Free Beacon. “A convention has never been funded this way before, so there are a lot of false assumptions about what we’re doing.” [...]

Democratic National Convention Committee CEO Steve Kerrigan recently convened a meeting with lobbyists and other Beltway power brokers at the Jefferson Hotel in Washington D.C. Democratic sources told Bloomberg that Kerrigan, a former national political director for Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), touted an expensive array of convention “packages” that were aimed at attracting ultra-wealthy donors.

One of the options is the $1 million “Presidential” level, which includes a “premier uptown hotel room” and “concierge services,” as well as the $500,000 “Gold Rush” package.

Keep reading…

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Can we guess WHO might be partaking of the DNC elite treatment?

Michael Moore

Barabara Streisand

Matt Damon

Oprah Winfrey

Arianna Huffington

George Soros or Matthew Valchon representing “Open Society”

Bill and Hillary Clinton

Nancy Pelosi

Harry Reid

Richard Trumka

Will the DNC  ”comp” Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and John Podesta?

…….ALL while they bloviate about the “poor” and “Fairness” for Americans in the middle class!

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The Great Debate — Sen. Obama vs. President Obama

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From CNSNews:

Posted by the Weasel Meister himself: LINK

July 27, 2011

Six minutes of assploding hypocrisy, as ZIP would say.

“Professional Politicians vs. the Public at Large”

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Obama on Recession: ‘Less Money Coming In,’ So We Had to ‘Spend Even More’

Tuesday, July 26, 2011 
By Nicholas Ballasy

(CNSNews.com) – When speaking to the nation in a primetime television address on Monday, President Barack Obama said that because less money was “coming in” during the recession, the federal government had to “spend even more.”

“The deficit was on track to top $1 trillion the year I took office,” said Obama.  “To make matters worse, the recession meant that there was less money coming in, and it required us to spend even more — on tax cuts for middle-class families to spur the economy; on unemployment insurance; on aid to states so we could prevent more teachers and firefighters and police officers from being laid off.  These emergency steps also added to the deficit.”

Obama then went on to make his argument for a “balanced approach,” with tax increases as part of a deal to increase to debt limit.

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), known as the economic stimulus, was passed by the Democrat-led Congress in February 2009 and has cost the taxpayers $821 billion.

The CBO projects that the federal budget deficit will reach $1.5 trillion by the end of the fiscal year 2011. The current national debt limit is  $14.29 trillion.

Official debt figures from the U.S. Treasury show that the 111th Democrat-led Congress added $3.22 trillion to the national debt.

Following the president’s remarks, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called for a reduction in federal spending and no tax increases as part a deal to increase the debt limit.

“The solution to this crisis is not complicated: if you’re spending more money than you’re taking in, you need to spend less of it,” said Boehner.

“There is no symptom of big government more menacing than our debt,” he said. “Break its grip, and we begin to liberate our economy and our future.”

Continue reading here……..

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Obama Hypocrisy in Plain View: At Least Marie Antoinette Would Let Us Have Cake

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September 15, 2010

By Dr. Frederick Meekins

During his campaign for the presidency, Barack Obama lamented the tendency of Americans to eat what we want, drive SUV’s, and keep our homes climate controlled at 70 degrees. Some will observe that I have already published a number of columns regarding the aforementioned sentiment.

And I will continue to do so for as long as the Obama’s hypocritically admonish to the minutest detail how we are to live lives of sacrificial austerity for the sake of the COMMUNITY while they themselves wallow in opulent luxury.

According to NBCBayarea.com, the President attended a fundraiser in California primarily for the benefit of Senator Barbara Boxer. Despite likely expending more in fossil fuels to reach his destination than the average suburbanite does puttering around town in a Ford Explorer or Jeep Cherokee, the opulence did not stop there.

When most regular Americans have a get together, they usually have cheese whiz and maybe Dominoes Pizza if they really feel like splurging. Such provisions, however, aren’t quite good enough for those that not only think they are better than the rest of us but that it is their place to run our own lives as well.

According to NBCBayArea.com those paying over $17,000 per person to attend the fundraiser held at the Getty Mansion ingested quail eggs and caviar, salmon, avocado on tortilla chips, and Kobe beef short ribs with potatoes. For desert, those gathered had buckwheat crepes with roasted cherries and almond ice cream. If one is what one eats, wouldn’t that now make Obama “buckwheat” with one granted linguistic amnesty from being denounced as racist since one would simply be making a dietary observation.

As the type that expect to be praised and heralded for all that they do, the Obamas’s didn’t start a vegetable garden at the White House as a way to relax by poking around in the dirt at the end of the day. Rather, to the First Lady especially, the very bounty of the Good Lord’s earth is to be co-opted for the purposes of scolding the American people as to our ways deemed errant in the eyes of contemporary world Bolshevism.

One of the obvious reasons behind the garden is to rub the noses of the American parents in the nutritional insufficiencies of what they decide to feed their children. For example, should the social conditioning proposed by Frau Obama fully take hold, feeding your kids short ribs and ice cream all in the same meal will probably be grounds for a visit from social services should the neighbors catch wind of it.

The symbolism of the White House garden, however, goes beyond the centrality of nutrition to healthy living. The Obamas not only want to tell us what to eat but also from where to eat.

More…..

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Read more at blue links below:

Obama’s Lavish Lifestyle: Kobe Beef ($100/pound)and Champagne, now A Lavish Luau

The Obama “Royal” Parties: Taxpayers on the HOOK. Americans Suffer While The White House Pahh-Tees

Michelle Obama’s Luxury Spanish Vacation (**Confirmed**) and “Four Legged” Perks

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HAD ENOUGH YET AMERICA?

NOVEMBER 2, 2010 is coming

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TRUTH……HONOR……RESTORE.

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Hypocrisy at its Best: Where were Obama and Dodd in 2005 with Congress trying to Regulate Financial Markets?

 

Once again let’s review this video about Fannie and Freddie BEFORE the 2008 elections.

***Pay special attention from 6:00 to 7:12 of video….

 

 

 

Then add this:

Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis.

At a 2004 hearing see Democrat after Democrat covering up and attacking the regulations to protect Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (their Cash Cows) that are now destroying our economy because the Democrats let them cheat.

AND THIS:

And THIS:

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Finally LOOK at the amounts of money given to Obama, McCain, etc. from Goldman Sachs and other Commercial banks.

***Pay attention from 3:30 to 4:30 of this video!***

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But NOW the great liberators of Congress and our President are PUSHING FOR FINANCIAL Reform and regulation of Wall Street……

YET…….

Treasury removes cap for Fannie and Freddie aid

December 24, 2009

NEW YORK — The government has handed its ATM card to beleaguered mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Treasury Department said Thursday it removed the $400 billion financial cap on the money it will provide to keep the companies afloat. Already, taxpayers have shelled out $111 billion to the pair, and a senior Treasury official said losses are not expected to exceed the government’s estimate this summer of $170 billion over 10 years. Treasury Department officials said it will now use a flexible formula to ensure the two agencies can stand behind the billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities they sell to investors. Under the formula, financial support would increase according to how much each firm loses in a quarter. The cap in place at the end of 2012 would apply thereafter. By making the change before year-end, Treasury sidestepped the need for an OK from a bailout-weary Congress. While most analysts say the companies are unlikely to use the full $400 billion, Treasury officials said they decided to lift the caps to eliminate any uncertainty among investors about the government’s commitments. But the timing of the announcement on a traditionally slow news day raised eyebrows. “The companies are nowhere close to using the $400 billion they had before, so why do this now?” said Bert Ely, a banking consultant in Alexandria, Va. “It’s possible we may see some horrendous numbers for the fourth quarter and, thus 2009, and Treasury wants to calm the markets.” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide vital liquidity to the mortgage industry by purchasing home loans from lenders and selling them to investors. Together, they own or guarantee almost 31 million home loans worth about $5.5 trillion, or about half of all mortgages. Without government aid, the firms would have gone broke, leaving millions of people unable to get a mortgage. The biggest headwind facing the housing recovery has been the rise in foreclosures as unemployment remains high. The two companies, facing mounting losses from mortgage defaults, were taken over by the government in September 2008 under the authority of a law Congress passed in the summer of 2008. So far the government has provided $60 billion to Fannie Mae and $51 billion to Freddie Mac. The assistance is being provided in exchange for preferred stock paying a 10 percent dividend. The Bush administration first pledged up to $100 billion in support for each company, an amount that was doubled to $200 billion for each by the Obama administration in February. Treasury officials will provide an updated estimate for Fannie and Freddie losses in February when President Barack Obama sends his 2011 budget to Congress. Though the administration has yet to disclose its long-term plans for the two companies, they are unlikely to return to their former power and influence. The news followed an announcement Thursday that the CEOs of Fannie and Freddie could get paid as much as $6 million for 2009, despite the companies’ dismal performances this year. Fannie’s CEO, Michael Williams, and Freddie CEO Charles “Ed” Haldeman Jr. each will receive $900,000 in salary, $3.1 million in deferred payments next year and another $2 million if they meet certain performance goals, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The pay packages were approved by the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie.

Excerpted; Continue reading……..

Hypocrisy?

YOU DECIDE.

Obama “Stacking the Deck” in Debt Reduction Commission? Besides Andy Stern, Others to Examine

 

Besides giving the SEIU (Andy Stern) a seat at the table, let’s look at other picks for the Obama National Debt Reduction Commission.

From Business Week:

 LINK

Cote, Rivlin Said Among Picks for Deficit Commission

February 26, 2010

By Hans Nichols and Roger Runningen

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) — Honeywell International Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Cote and former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alice Rivlin will be named today by President Barack Obama to a commission on cutting the federal deficit, an administration official said.

The president also is picking Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, and former Young & Rubicam Brands CEO Ann Fudge for the panel, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity before the official announcement.

Obama last week named former Democratic White House official Erskine Bowles and former Wyoming Republican Senator Alan Simpson as co-chairmen of the commission. The White House appointees will be joined by 12 other panel members chosen by Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate.

The 18-member National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility was created by Obama to come up with recommendations for steps to reduce the federal deficit, which is forecast to hit a record $1.6 trillion this year. The budget shortfall may be an issue in November elections that will determine control of Congress.

The commission may recommend tax increases, spending cuts or a combination of both to reduce U.S. deficits in the next five years to about 3 percent of the economy from an estimated 10.6 percent now. Under current projections, the budget will show a deficit of $752 billion, accounting for 3.9 percent of the economy, in 2015.

“Everything’s on the table, that’s how this thing’s going to work,” Obama said Feb. 18 after signing the order to create the commission.

Senate Appointees

Democratic Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Max Baucus of Montana were named to the panel Feb. 23 by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. Republicans and House Democrats haven’t yet named their members.

Obama signed an executive order creating the panel after lawmakers from both parties said a special commission would be needed to tackle the problem of the budget deficit. The president’s order can’t force Congress to vote on the recommendations, though Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have promised to bring the commission’s proposals up for votes.

While the panel may release some details of its conclusions before the November congressional elections, the full report won’t be made public until Dec. 1. Still, it gives lawmakers and the administration an answer to voter anxiety about efforts to revive the U.S. economy and while tackling shortfalls in the budget.

Commission Members

Cote, 57, a graduate of the University of New Hampshire in Durham, has been chairman and CEO of Honeywell since 2002. He was named by administration officials as one of four CEOs who Obama most admires, and he was one of 17 executives who dined with Obama and other administration officials at the White House Feb. 23.

Rivlin, 78, a former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, currently serves as a senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington and is a visiting professor at Georgetown University. The founding director of the Congressional Budget Office, Rivlin graduated from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and received her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Stern, Fudge

Stern, 59, is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and has served as president of the 2.2 million- member SEIU since 1996.

Fudge, 58, was CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands from 2003 to 2006 and served on the boards of the Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. She graduated from Simmons College in Boston and the Harvard Business School. She was a member of Obama’s campaign finance committee and donated more than $36,000 to Democrats in 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

 

Excerpted; read full article HERE.

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ADD THIS:

 

Tata, David Cote to co-chair Indo-US CEO Forum

November 21, 2009

WASHINGTON: Tata Group Chairman Mr Ratan Tata and Honeywell Chairman Mr David Cote would co-chair the reconstituted Indo-US CEO Forum, which would meet on the margins of the Indo-US Summit here next week.

The Indian CEOs would be accompanying the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, next week as part of the official delegation.

The Prime Minister and the US President, Mr Barack Obama, would be meeting the reconstituted CEOs Forum to get a private sector perspective on how to expand economic cooperation between the two nations.

 

“Our hope is that the Forum will inform the choices of Government leaders, as it has in the past, and thereby enhance our joint competitiveness and ingenuity,’’ the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Mr William J. Burns, said.

There are six new faces from Indian side — Bharti Group’s Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, SBI Chairman Mr O.P. Bhatt, Mr Venu Srinivasan of TVS Motors, Mr S. Gopalarishnan of Infosys, Ms Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank, and Ms Preetha Reddy from Apollo Hospitals.

Excerpted; read entire article HERE.

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And THIS:

Alice Rivlin: “Now Is An Excellent Time To Fix Social Security And Medicare”

By Pete Davis

January 29, 2009

At lunch today, former CBO Director, OMB Director, and Fed Vice Chair Alice Rivlin spoke to a packed house at the National Economists Club in Washington, D.C.  A podcast of her remarks will be posted within the next few days.

Her most striking remarks were how forcefully she warned that we should undertake long-term deficit reduction measures now.  Without them we will face rising interest rates before the economy has enough time to recover as foreign purchasers of U.S. Treasury debt balk at buying a lot more of it.  She boldly asserted “Now is an excellent time to fix Social Security and Medicare.”  She referred to how we fixed Social Security in 1983 as a model: extend the retirement age and index lower benefit growth for those under age 50 and raise the tax rate.  She added that we could save a lot of Medicare spending before we tackle health care reform by requiring competitive bidding on durable medical equipment and by allowing the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to negotiate lower pharmaceutical prices.

Regarding the stimulus bill, she said stimulus of that size was necessary, but she had concerns about how well some of that money was going to be spent.  When asked how stimulative it would be, she defended its stimulative effects, particularly those amounts going directly to individuals through Food Stamps and tax cuts and to the states through the increase in the federal Medicaid match.

Focusing on the causes of the housing bubble and the subsequent crash of our financial markets and of the economy, Rivlin detailed numerous causes: too easy monetary policy; regulators failing to maintain credit standards; living beyond our means; and speculative fever.

Alan Greenspan got some harsh criticism from Rivlin for failing to heed Fed Governor Ned Gramlich’s urging to rally regulators against lax home lending standards of state regulated banks.  However, in his defense, she explained it wasn’t so obvious, except in retrospect, that interest rates were too low for too long following the 2001 recession.  Even the Fed’s economic models fail when the current period differs too much from that of the historical data used to estimate the model.  It’s hard to include factors like the breakdown of credit creation by non-banks.

One social commentary from Rivlin deserves note.  She charged that America’s top business leaders have lost touch with reality.  “I know.  I serve on corporate boards with some of them.  They don’t live in the same world we do.”  By the time they realize they’ve made serious errors, it’s too late, and everyone bears the consequences.

Rivlin predicted we will need a new revenue source to cope with our long-run deficit problem, a value-added tax.  I’m biased on this subject.  I formulated House Ways and Means Chair Al Ullman’s VAT proposal in 1979. 

There’s no way to protect the poor and the elderly from such a tax, and it could become quite a money machine for a lot of government spending I would prefer to avoid. 

Rivlin has promoted a VAT for a long time because it is a more efficient tax and because it would harmonize our trade with the rest of the world, almost all of which has a VAT.

Link

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My end notes:

 

Cote has connections to the TATA group.  TATA at Obama’s State Dinner.

 

Andy Stern there to represent the UNIONS……Will Andy Stern negotiate an exemption for the UNIONS from any additional taxes until 2018; like he is promoting in the current healthcare bill?

 

Rivlin and Fudge are FOR a VAT tax.  Will we see legislation in the near future to try to pass a VAT tax on Americans?

VAT tax; Value Added Tax

A value-added tax (VAT) is a fee that is assessed against businesses by a government at various points in the production of goods or services—usually any time a product is resold or value is added to it. For tax purposes, value is added whenever the value of a product increases as a result of the application of a company’s factors of production, such as labor and equipment. VAT must be paid by every company that handles a product during its transition from raw materials to finished goods. For example, tax is charged when a manufacturer sells to a wholesaler and again when a wholesaler sells to a retailer.

With VAT, the taxable amount is based on the value added at each stage of the process of producing goods and bringing them to market. As an example, say that a company that makes socks buys cotton yarn for $1,000; adds $500 to its value in terms of labor, depreciation of knitting machines, and profits; then sells the completed socks for $1,500. VAT would be calculated as a percentage of the $500 value added by turning cotton yarn into socks. Of course, the sock company would also get credit for the amount of VAT it paid on the purchase of inputs, like cotton yarn.

In general, the total VAT accrued during the production of goods is reflected in the price of items sold to final consumers, because each reseller along the way usually passes along its VAT costs. In this way, VAT is somewhat similar to a national sales tax, and the two forms of taxation are often compared by governments. Experts claim that VAT entails higher administrative costs but is easier to enforce than a national sales tax.

http://www.answers.com/topic/value-added-tax

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Obama: “Will NOT raise taxes on the middle class”…………….ALL Americans will be TAXED if a VAT tax is passed.

Hypocrisy anyone?

Obama Spewing Hypocrisy At Its Finest: Speech to African Parliament

 

These are words spoken by Obama today to the African Parliament:

“No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or if police can be bought off by drug traffickers,” he said in a speech to Parliament.

“No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the Port Authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery.

“That is not democracy, that is tyranny, even if occasionally you sprinkle an election in there,” he said, “and now is the time for that style of governance to end.”

 

My end note:

Isn’t this exactly what Obama is doing to America?

“No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves”:  The Stimulus Bill is basically a pay-off to the Unions and the activists for getting out the vote for him.  Only approximately 1/10 of the Stimulus has been “rewarded”; some of which will go to ACORN.

“No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top”:  Most small businesses in the United States fall into the category of $250,00 and above.  Small businesses will fail with the tax burden imposed under Obama.

“No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery”.

Change the word brutality to intimidation.

ACORN

UNION activists: Change to Win

NPA

USAction

True Majority

 

 

Change the word bribery to tacit collusion.

Obama’s Carbon credits….pay to keep your business alive.  The Carbon Climate Exchange is in……..Chicago.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to cut costs in California; including federal subsidy of SEIU Union workers.  Andy Stern runs to Obama.  Obama chastizes the Governor for the move.

California now bankrupt.  Are the SEIU workers getting IOU’s?

The “shovel ready jobs”: Will they go ONLY to Union workers? The Unions helped Obama to the Presidency.

 

Hypocrisy?

You decide.