The best thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is never any bad news...

...and therefore nothing bad can ever happen.

Politico editor asks, "what's wrong with releasing 5 terrorist leaders who were to dangerous to release in 2012 because they aren't ninjas."

Obama diverts attention away from the fact that his VA administration killed veterans to...

...his illegal dealing with terrorists for a soldier whose desertion resulted in the death of the soldiers sent to look for him.

//There was. His name was Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl, the only prisoner of war in the Afghan theater of operations. His release from Taliban custody on May 31 marks the end of a nearly five-year-old story for the soldiers of his unit, the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment. I served in the same battalion in Afghanistan and participated in the attempts to retrieve him throughout the summer of 2009. After we redeployed, every member of my brigade combat team received an order that we were not allowed to discuss what happened to Bergdahl for fear of endangering him. He is safe, and now it is time to speak the truth.

And that the truth is: Bergdahl was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down.

On the night prior to his capture, Bergdahl pulled guard duty at OP Mest, a small outpost about two hours south of the provincial capitol. The base resembled a wagon circle of armored vehicles with some razor wire strung around them. A guard tower sat high up on a nearby hill, but the outpost itself was no fortress. Besides the tower, the only hard structure that I saw in July 2009 was a plywood shed filled with bottled water. Soldiers either slept in poncho tents or inside their vehicles.

The next morning, Bergdahl failed to show for the morning roll call. The soldiers in 2nd Platoon, Blackfoot Company discovered his rifle, helmet, body armor and web gear in a neat stack. He had, however, taken his compass. His fellow soldiers later mentioned his stated desire to walk from Afghanistan to India.

The Daily Beast’s Christopher Dickey later wrote that "[w]hether Bergdahl…just walked away from his base or was lagging behind on a patrol at the time of his capture remains an open and fiercely debated question.” Not to me and the members of my unit. Make no mistake: Bergdahl did not "lag behind on a patrol,” as was cited in news reports at the time. There was no patrol that night. Bergdahl was relieved from guard duty, and instead of going to sleep, he fled the outpost on foot. He deserted. I’ve talked to members of Bergdahl’s platoon—including the last Americans to see him before his capture. I’ve reviewed the relevant documents. That’s what happened.//

I don't know that I mind an empty-headed father speaking Arabic as some kind of goodwill gesture...

...although it might have been nice to thank America and not the kidnappers...

...but how the hell does Bowe Bergdahl "lose" his ability to speak English in 5 years?




Plus, his army fellows say Bergdahl was a deserter.

And, of course, Obama broke the law by arranging a deal with hostage-takers.

The nice thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is never any bad news...

....and there are no scandals because the law never applies.

//It just so happens that the Obama administration seems to have broken a law by releasing five high-value Islamic terrorists in exchange for Bergdahl. Under the law, Congress was required to be notified before the release of any Gitmo detainees.

Law? What law? By now, six years into this drama straight out of James Madison’s worst nightmares, you should be used to Obama administration lawlessness. The law is a suggestion to this crowd, and usually a nuisance; something to be twisted and reinterpreted. When it stands in the way of progressive policies, it is something to be ignored. The singular theme of the Obama age is lawlessness.

You saw the full potential of this acid philosophy on display last week, when Obama griped about the Constitution — specifically Article One, Section Three. That’s the part that creates the Senate. That’s the part that respects the core American architecture, where states voluntarily create the federal government and maintain their unique role as sovereigns. States are equal sovereigns in the United States Senate, and each gets two senators — both Wyoming and Illinois. At least for now.//

It makes one wonder what the big fuss was about Iran-Contra.

Apparently, he's not reading the paper or watching TV.

This is from Obama's West Point speech:

//Instead, what we have is, as I say in the speech, this moment in which we are incredibly fortunate to have a strong economy that is getting stronger, no military peer that threatens us, no nation-state that anytime soon intends to go to war with us//

Strong economy?   According to his administration, the economy contracted during the last quarter.

Could you imagine Bush being permitted to say that the economy was strong when it was actually in decline?

Other than that the speech was panned.

A nice thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is never any bad news..

...More non-news.  

Let's talk about inequality and racism!

//Last month, when the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced that gross domestic product had grown at a lead-footed rate of 0.1 percent in the first quarter, economic analysts could focus on two pillars of hope. The first was that the winter weather was unusually awful, and first-quarter growth probably reflected that. And the second? This was a very preliminary number, and it seemed reasonable to think that it might be revised upward.

The operative word is "seemed." Now the BEA has provided its first revision, and things only get more dismal: The economy actually contracted in the first quarter instead of just lying down on the sofa and feeling all mopey and sad. Key areas of decline were exports, inventories and nonresidential fixed investment. In other words, whatever happened was happening on the business side.

This doesn't necessarily signal a slide into another recession, so don't rush out to change your money into gold certificates and canned goods. The lousy weather could easily have depressed all three categories, after all. The markets aren't freaking out; they were expecting this downward revision.

That said, as I wrote last month, this is a sign of an economy that is still very weak. It has been six years since the financial crisis. Federal government spending is still around 21 percent of GDP, up from 19 percent in 2007, and the Federal Reserve still has a very expansive monetary policy. Under those circumstances, a quarter of negative growth is pretty unsettling.

A nice thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is never any bad news...

...can you imagine the howls of outrage 2017 when there is a Republican in the White House and the media discovers this?

THE DISASTER OF OBAMANOMICS, IN TWO CHARTS

Apologists for the Obama administration sometimes argue that the nation’s declining rate of labor force participation is largely a function of baby boomers retiring from the labor force. Unfortunately, this is not the case. This chart, prepared by the Senate Budget Committee, pretty much says it all. An unprecedented number of men–one in six–between the ages of 25 and 54, what should be their prime earning years, are either unemployed or out of the work force entirely. One in eight, the highest proportion since record-keeping began in 1955, are out of the labor force:

Another 2.9 million men in the 25-54 age group haven’t given up–they are still in the labor force–but are currently unemployed. There are 61.1 million men in the U.S. between 25 and 54, and currently, 10.2 million of them are not working. At all. This is 2.7 million more non-working men than in 2007, before the recession and the Obama non-recovery began:

At some point, we will have a better government and better economic policies. But the damage done to a generation of American men (and women too, of course) will not easily be undone. Those who missed a chunk of what should have been their most productive years, or departed the labor force entirely, will suffer from Obamanomics for the rest of their lives. The damage being done by our current, inept economic policies is literally incalculable.

The nice thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is never any bad news.

Yesterday's treason is today's mistake...and really not even that.


When Bushies blew a CIA cover, it was 'treason'; now, it's a mistake

I mean, what does it matter????

The good thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is never any bad news.

Instapundit writes:

MORE ON THE WHITE HOUSE’S OUTING OF A CIA STATION CHIEF, AND The Washington Post’s Spin: “So… Bush never actually outed a CIA agent — Richard Armitage did — but that didn’t stop the Left from engaging in a two year witchhunt. But Obama can out CIA agents with impunity, I guess, no investigation required?”

Plus, the WaPo’s reliance on passive voice.

The Good thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is never any bad news....

...and definitely not when Obama "outs" an actual in the field CIA officer.

THE GANG THAT CAN’T SHOOT STRAIGHT: White House PR Move Mistakenly “Outs” CIA Station Chief In Afghanistan.

So this is a lot worse than the Plame thing, right, where Richard Armitage outed a non-covert desk jockey and somehow Scooter Libby was punished. Can we expect the same degree of press attention? Note how the Post invokes the Plame story in the carefully-worded-to-mislead second paragraph, even while giving the White House the soft treatment here.

From the comments:
What stunning incompetence!

For your stupid or dishonest reporter’s information, it was Richard Armitage, Colin Powell’s top deputy, who exposed Valerie Plame’s identity to the late journalist Robert Novak. Armitage and Powell kept his role secret while Cheney and Libby were being falsely accused of doing what your reporter falsely claims. The record is unambiguous on this point. Armitage now admits that he was the leaker.

Doesn’t fit the narrative. The reporter’s name is Greg Miller. Note how his description is worded to give a false impression, but allow a weasely response to critics: “The only other recent case came under significantly different circumstances, when former CIA operative Valerie Plame was exposed as officials of the George W. Bush administration sought to discredit her husband, a former ambassador and fierce critic of the decision to invade Iraq.//

What was that Plame thing all about....you know, the one with the movie and all.

The nice thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is no such thing as bad news.

Governmental lies and negligence resulting in the death of an American ambassador are boring.

Americans support investigation into Benghazi, but reporters oppose investigation.

Who are Americans to think they know what news is?

The nice thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is never any bad news.

Being deluged by stories about political scandals, unemployment, inflation, the high cost of health care, etc.is depressing and bad for the economy.

RESTON, VA – Yesterday, Judicial Watch released a new batch of IRS documents that showed “extensive pressure on the IRS by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) to shut down conservative leaning organizations.” According to an analysis from the Media Research Center, ABC, CBS, and NBC responded with exactly ZERO seconds of network news coverage. The released documents also revealed the IRS’s handling of the Tea Party applications was directed out of the agency’s DC headquarters, contrary to initial claims that blamed low-level officials in Cincinnati.

In the year since the scandal broke, numerous major developments have gone completely unreported by the Big Three. Examples include:

• On August 2, FoxNews.com reported that House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa had accused acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel of blocking the committee’s investigation. Network coverage: Zero.
• On September 4, CNN’s Drew Griffin reported that documents showed Lerner’s original story blaming low-level employees was a lie. Network coverage: Zero.
• On September 11, 2013 the Wall Street Journal exhibited how Lerner’s own e-mails implied a liberal political agenda at work. Network coverage: Zero.
• On September 18, 2013, a front-page analysis published by USA Today confirmed the targeting of conservatives. ZERO seconds of coverage.
• At the end of March 2014, the New York Times noted that the House committee was still being frustrated by non-cooperation from the IRS. Network coverage: Zero.
• And, an April 7, 2014 staff report by the House Oversight and Government Reform committee thoroughly demolished what remained of the notion that both sides had been targeted. Network coverage: Zero.
• Finally on May 7, 2014, The House of Representatives voted to hold disgraced IRS bureaucrat Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress. Total network coverage? 15 seconds on Good Morning America. Zero on CBS and NBC.

The nice thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is never any bad news...

...for Democrats.

When Republicans are sinking in the polls, no one in America can miss it. The liberal media won’t let them. But when Republicans are rising in the polls, mum's the word. It’s quite easy for the average voter to miss it. The average voter has no concept of it. This is not an isolated example from a single source. This is the rule within an industry that has abandoned all pretenses of professional ethics.

Try this one. On May 5, USA Today published the front-page headline "Poll shows biggest advantage for Republicans in 2 decades." The GOP advantage was only 47 percent to 43, but USA Today pointed out this is “the strongest tilt to Republican candidates at this point in a midterm year in at least two decades, including before partisan 'waves' in 1994 and 2010 that swept the GOP into power.” That’s not all. Sixty five percent of Americans "want the president elected in 2016 to pursue different policies and programs than the Obama administration."

The networks? Quiet as church mice. It sounds ridiculous, but no "news" reporter wants the country to know the direction the country is going in.

The nice thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is never any bad news!

Wasn't one of the purposes of Obamacare supposed to be that it would slow down healthcare spending?

Well, it's failed in that, also, but now, we are told, that's a good thing.

WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) - As the U.S. economy teetered on the brink of contraction in the first quarter, one thing stood out. Healthcare spending increased at its fastest pace in more than three decades.

That surge is attributed to the implementation of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Because of Obamacare, the nation narrowly avoided its first decline in output in three years.

"GDP growth would have ... been negative were it not for healthcare spending," said Harm Bandholz, chief economist at UniCredit Research in New York.

Healthcare spending increased at a 9.9 percent annual rate, the quickest since the third quarter of 1980, and it contributed 1.1 percentage points to GDP growth.//

So, if Obamacare wasn't a complete failure, then Obama's entire economic policy would be a complete failure.

*Sheesh*

Brit Hume characterizes the article as a joke.

The nice thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is never any bad news.

Waiting for the stories about how consumers are being facing higher food prices....

*Crickets*

Soaring food inflation hits beef, eggs, shrimp and pork prices.

Doesn't fit the narrative of "Hope and Change."

Welcome to the Soviet Union circa 1919

The Obama Administration was this close to instituting an affirmative action for news stories....

...and the media didn't care.

I’ve said it many times, and it’s worth saying again:

. . .we no longer need wonder why the mainstream media seems unconcerned about possible attacks on our first amendment rights to freedom of religion and the exercise thereof. They have already cheerfully, willfully surrendered the freedom of the press to the altar of the preferred narrative. People willing to dissolve their own freedoms so cheaply have no interest in anyone else’s freedom, either.

The biggest problem in our nation is not the Democrats, or the Republicans; it is not the Obama Administration, just as it wasn’t the Bush Administration, and it won’t be the Clinton or Warren Administrations. Our biggest problem is that the press has voluntarily surrendered its freedoms for the sake of idols and ideologies.

And they won’t have the clumsy GOP around much longer, to guard their weak flanks, as they did, this time.

The nice thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is never any bad news...

...such as a world in turmoil.

Under his watch the 70-year-old Pax Americana has fallen apart. Al-Qaeda has flourished. President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines caught the tone of rising concern when he warned, in an interview with the New York Times, that China was doing to Southeast Asia what Nazi Germany did to Central Europe in the late 1930s. “At what point do you say, ‘Enough is enough’? Well, the world has to say it — remember that the Sudetenland was given in an attempt to appease Hitler to prevent World War II.”

But you wouldn’t know it for the panegyrics still being sung by the mainstream media.  To read some papers you would think the world’s biggest problem was gay rights at the Sochi Olympics.//

The nice thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is never any bad news...

...such as a coordinated sniper attack on a power station.

The day after last year’s Boston Marathon tragedy, a team of well-coordinated snipers attacked a PG&E Corp’s Metcalf substation located near Silicon Valley in California. For 19 minutes, they fired strategically-placed shots that ended in 17 major transformers becoming non-functional. During that time they also cut underground cables in a vault of a local Internet service provider, wiping out the internet for many AT&T customers. Operating under the cover of night, the team of snipers slipped away without leaving anything but shell casings and position markers, one minute before police arrived on the scene.

Sounds like the story line of a Tom Clancy novel, but the largest-ever coordinated attack on the United State’s power grid happened last April, and got very little attention. Until recent revelations made public spotlight, the knowledge of this sniper attack has remained a secret, known only by a handful of Americans.

Jon Wellinghoff,  chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission during the time of these attacks, said that he considered this attack to be “the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred.” Hard to believe that an attack of such magnitude could have gone unreported for this long. Had it not been for the ingenuity of power station engineers thinking to reroute power around this station and increase outputs at other stations, the length of time people could have been powerless is anyone’s guess.  It took PG&E Corp 27 days to restore functionality of the damaged substation.

Did anyone hereabouts know about this?

The nice thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is no bad news...

...except on Fox News

Hot Air reports:

Not obligatory on our part, mind you, but apparently on Barack Obama’s part. Why he agreed to do an interview with Fox and Bill O’Reilly is anyone’s guess, because he clearly wasn’t there to answer questions. Instead, we got this strange dance where both men almost continually interrupted each other, and the President of the United States claiming that every problem in his administration could be blamed on Fox News.

Hey. if that’s true, why did Obama give Fox the interview? Apparently, Obama can’t fire anyone.

For instance, here’s part of the exchange about Benghazi, which was a terror attack despite the White House’s initial insistence that it was a demonstration that spun out of control:

O’REILLY:  – but I just want to say that they’re — your detractors believe that you did not tell the world it was a terror attack because your campaign didn’t want that out.

OBAMA:  Bill, think about…

O’REILLY:  That’s what they believe.

OBAMA:  – and they believe it because folks like you are telling them that.

O’REILLY:  No, I’m not telling them that.

The nice thing about having a Democrat in the White House is that there is never any bad news...

...even if it involves putting half the interview down the memory hole.

I'm sure editing for time and content goes on all the time, but this seems pretty egregious.