We learn via the WSJ that President Obama has a “hit” list. Shades of Tricky Dick! Really? This would be scary stuff if we didn’t have investigative reporters and the MSM to alert the public. Oh wait…

Presidential “Hit List.” Just the phrase should send a chill up your spine. The President of the United States has a “hit list” of people, private citizens, who have the effrontery to contribute to the campaign of his opponent. He has made their names public. He has a website that is smearing them. The frakkin POTUS!

Barack Obama, the obamacrats and the obamamedia would like you to believe that everyone that doesn’t like, support  or trust him, feels that way because of the color of his skin. We are frightened or confused because he doesn’t “look” like us. Because of course most of us have never seen a black man before. Seriously? Dems really need to climb out of the 60′s. Read the rest

Just a quick note about the 60 Minutes interview with the former head of the CIA’s clandestine service, Mr. Jose Rodriguez. I have known Jose since the Contra Wars in 1986. He is not a friend, but we worked the same area and issues back in the day. I served on the Central American Task Force for a short stint before becoming the Honduran analyst in the Central American Branch.

What he said on 60 Minutes about water boarding and its efficacy is a goddamn, self-serving lie. He is a disgrace to the intelligence service and all that it is supposed to stand for. The only person who has testified under oath about water boarding and what was gleaned from interrogations that did not require torture is Ali Soufan. Here’s a challenge–let’s put everyone under oath and ask them about what really went on. I have $5000 Jose that says you don’t have the balls to do so in a court of law.

I will be writing more on this, but watching his nauseous bullshit is infuriating. Read the rest

For the non-sport inclined among us, “SPIKING” the ball does not mean you secretly pour vodka or gin into it. Nope. It is something that some football players, particularly players labeled “hotdogs,” do when they score a touchdown, heave the ball into the ground and then engage in some sort of weird, celebratory dance. Such a display tends to be unseemly.

SO . . . . speaking of unseemly, did you see Barack Obama and his team try and fail with their “SPIKE THE BALL” moment on the anniversary of Bin Laden’s death? How do these guys get a reputation for being so smart when they repeatedly do such dumb things. Like? Accusing Mitt Romney of being soft on terrorism and not having the stones to kill Bin Laden. OOPS!

It was bad enough that the Obama team trotted out Bill Clinton to level the charge. Frankly, what an appalling act of chutzpah from Clinton. While I applaud will Bill for helping rein in government spending and growth during his tenure, he was passive aggressive on the issue of terrorism and certainly failed to turn the dogs loose in going after Bin Laden. This really was a low moment and further “stains” the reputation of Clinton. I thought he was smarter than this politically.

Sometimes when players, who are not accustomed to scoring, try to spike the ball it turns into a disaster. Here’s an example: Read the rest

This may be the Obama campaign, all of it, repeated from now until November 6.

A presidency fixed on a murder by gunshot.

Ironic? Dubious? Does it means that Mitt Romney or George Bush or any Republican would not have launched a operation against Bin Laden?

Is this the foreign policy campaign of POTUS Obama? The man who shot Liberty Valance, Seals Scenario? Read the rest

Breaking News, April 30, 12:30 p.m.: EPA official Al Armendariz has resigned for talking publicly about his team’s “crucifixion” of oil and gas companies in “the oil-rich South and Southwest region.” Armendariz insisted his staff only attacked guilty companies. However, Armendariz’s example required the murder of five random men regardless of guilt. Further, his resignation doesn’t solve the problem — his crucifixion strategy surely needed prior approval of his superiors and cooperation of his underlings.

This video was posted by Larry Johnson on April 26.

This week is a sad moment for America. We have ceded our lead and presence in space. I watched the space shuttle on its funeral journey aboard a 747 at Dulles earlier this week. Now the U.S. begs and buys seats as mere passengers aboard Russian space craft some at NASA and in the government not so long ago derided dismissively.

We end the week with the Russians in space and China planning on making claims on the moon. Our moon.

Read the rest

The annual incest competition in Washington, DC–aka the Washington Correspondents Dinner–went off last night without President Obama killing the number two guy in al Qaeda, Ayman Zwahiri. However, there was some killing, at least the verbal variety, by Jimmy Kimmel. I am presuming most of you neither watched nor were invited to the affair. So here you go:

I think Kimmel did a great job. He punched everyone. Read the rest

So much for the meme that Mitt Romney’s wealth makes his lifestyle so different from ours. Or that his “traditional marriage” is just that — not actually so, given that Mitt willingly does jobs that most wives would be expected to do.

Yes, Mitt Romney really hand-washes his own shirts in a hotel bathroom sink (not easy to do, I can attest, even though I am a woman, heh). Then he irons each sleeve, button hole, seam, and collar — hard to do without regular practice, which he surely has. More Mitt attributes, revealed by his campaign staff to show his “soft side,” tell me that he is not an out-of-touch, awkward elite that the media reflexively describe. “The Unzipping of Mitt Romney: an Effort to Show His Softer Side,” at The Daily Beast, is about “humanizing” Romney because “no candidate could need it more.” Woah.

Howard Kurtz’s “Unzipping” begins with a description of a long friendship so startling to the Beast‘s Kurtz that he goes on and on about it for several paragraphs: “The story about a 35-year friendship between Mitt Romney and Benjamin Netanyahu was striking for reasons that had nothing to do with international diplomacy.”

it was interesting to learn that the future presidential candidate and future prime minister met in 1976 when both worked for the Boston Consulting Group. But the real head-snapper … Read the rest

CIA Director Leon Panetta’s memorandum for the record, which I first mentioned in my terrorism post yesterday, deserves a post of its own. It is stunning. Here it is again:

Received phone call from Tom Donilon who stated that the President made a decision with regard to AC1 [Abbottabad Compound 1]. The decision is to proceed with the assault.

The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45 am.

So much for the incredibly brave Commander-in-Chief meme. The only one with balls in this story was Bill McRaven. Read the rest

* Bumped Up *

Let’s start with the desperation of Barack Obama and his team. They are out early with an ad that takes Governor Romney completely out of context and asserts that only Barky had the stones to order the hit on Osama:

Talk about chutzpah. The fact is that Obama’s hand was forced by then CIA Director Panetta. Friends on the inside told me at the time, as I reported a year ago, that the Obama White House was asked in January 2011 for permission to carry out the hit on Osama Bin Laden and was denied. Valerie Jarrett, per my source, was the one whispering in Obama’s ear that this was “too risky.” It was only towards the end of March, when Panetta, with the backing of Hillary and Gates, threatened to inform the Hill that the CIA had reliable info on the whereabouts of Bin Laden that Obama caved and gave the green light. So much for a profile in courage.

I don’t fault Obama for trying to milk political mileage out of this decision. You can bet your last dollar that Bush or any other President facing a tough re-election battle would do the same.

However, the claims about Romney in this video are misleading and taken out of context: Read the rest

Maggie Haberman of Politico offered a comprehensive article speculating — and speculating is the operative word — on a Cuomo/Clinton showdown for the Democratic nomination in 2016. There is an almost surreal quality to the number of stories focused on Hillary Clinton throwing her hat into the ring. She has said in no uncertain terms that she is done with politics, yet we refuse to believe her. What gives?

Partly, this is the pundit class stirring the ashes, trying to capitalize on Hillary Clinton’s phenomenal popularity at the moment. Since the majority of them have always trashed her, they are now covering their behinds by offering favorable coverage, since the gentleman for whom they function as a de facto PR firm is not doing all that well — and she is. Perhaps they also wish to bask in the reflected glow of her recent unintentional media victory courtesy the Tumlbr guys, Adam Smith and Stacy Lambe, whose brilliant pictorials advertised our Secretary of State as the epitome of badass cool. Here’s my personal favorite:

Read the rest

Bumped Up: It’s Fox’s top story, and even CNN is covering the video‘s astonishing, revelatory message, saying it “has the White House in retreat.”) – added by BH.

How goddamn clueless can the Obama robots be? This is truly stunning and this asshole should be fired immediately. Thanks to several of you (Helen and Harp to mention two) who pointed this out:

When you treat key sectors of your economy as enemies that must be destroyed, don’t be shocked when they stop investing. Read the rest

Update: Anyone see any legal action yet against any of the incitements to violence and death threats? [more at bottom]

It is beyond shocking to see a lynch mob occurring right in front of us, demonstrating the inhumanity and uncivilized behavior of people animals. Personally, I’m disgusted at what I am witnessing, at the poor corporate citizenship demonstrated by Twitter, and at the impotent response of federal, state, and local law enforcement. (And people wonder why many of us ‘cling to our guns’ and demand respect for the Second Amendment right to bear arms.)

If there was ever an educational moment for Obama, this is it.

Read the rest

The double dip is here, the stats just have not caught up yet. First note the news out of the UK, they are already there:

First-quarter gross domestic product data showed the size of the UK economy shrank 0.2 per cent, the second successive quarter of contraction, taking it within the generally accepted technical definition of recession. It marked the second time the economy contracted for two consecutive quarters since the financial crisis in 2008, coming as the first double-dip recession since the 1970s.

But the economic woes are not confined just to the UK. Here in the United States durable goods orders fell thru the floor:

New orders for manufactured durable goods in March decreased $8.8 billion or 4.2 percent to $202.6 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This decrease, down two of the last three months, followed a 1.9 percent February increase. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 1.1 percent. Excluding defense, new orders decreased 4.6 percent. Transportation equipment, also down two of the last three months, had the largest decrease, $7.1 billion or 12.5 percent to $49.7 billion. This was due to nondefense aircraft and parts, which decreased $7.7 billion.

I guarantee you that the White House and David Axlerod are not celebrating these numbers. But wait, there is more: Read the rest

Mitt will go after the president in tonight's speech -- after Newt speaks.

Do you bet the pundits yearn for some drama? Any drama? That even the vice presidential “contest” isn’t particularly exciting or newsy? That the veep-stakes scarcely fill one segment of a cable news show? That knowing it’ll be three months before Romney reveals his choice is not filling everyone with dread?

A “presumptuous” Romney — that’s what Newt Gingrich is calling him — will speak early tonight, from a state he’s already won, but he won’t name himself the Republican nominee (“Romney to shift to Obama and target economy in New Hampshire primary night speech,” ABC News). Read the rest