Posted on 08/15/2013 11:05:36 AM PDT by Kaslin
WASHINGTON -- It is called the Taranto Principle, having been named after he who coined the principle, the inimitable James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal. According to the Taranto Principle, the left-wing media, in their fawning treatment of left-wing politicians, only encourage the pols' worst instincts: encouraging Jean-Francois Kerry's sophomoric wind-surfing during his presidential race or Howard Dean's blood-curdling scream upon losing the Iowa caucuses. And then there is President Barack Obama. At his press conference the other day, he finally commented on the traitor Edward Snowden. Obama said, "You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Edward." OK, OK -- I made that up, but who doubts that he is capable of such excesses? Barack Obama might say anything, and the left-wing press will generously indulge him, thus encouraging him to ever-greater pratfalls.
I thought of the Taranto Principle while reading Fred Barnes's commentary the other day on the governor's race in Virginia. Barnes says, "Negative campaigning is common in American elections, but Democrats in this year's high-stakes race for governor of Virginia have taken things to the next level." The Democrats accuse the Republican candidate Ken Cuccinelli of saying things that he has manifestly never said. They accuse him of writing it all down in a book, but when fact checkers checked the book the Democrats' charges dissolved in a haze of lies.
I am not surprised. The Democratic candidate for governor is none other than my old friend Terry McAuliffe. At least I think he is a friend. He calls me "Bob" and I call him "Terry" in a warm correspondence that is as evasive on his part as the campaign Democrats are now waging against Cuccinelli. They cite Cuccinelli's book, "The Last Line of Defense," as saying things that he clearly has not said. Terry did exactly that with me, citing scurrilities in my magazine, The American Spectator, that did not appear there. Terry is a bold-faced liar, and apparently those who compose his ads in the Democratic Party are, too. Why do they go to such extremes? I suggest the Taranto Principle. They are encouraged by their boosters in the media.
In his "memoir," "What A Party!," Terry writes, among other howlers, that The American Spectator, "cooked up the nonsense they put out against Clinton [Bill not Hillary], alleging that he'd ordered the murder of political opponents ... " I wrote Terry, asking where in the magazine I might find such allegations -- no response. A month later I encountered him joshing it up in the green room of MSNBC with a comely makeup artist, and politely asked him yet again where I might find such shocking charges in a magazine, which, by the way, I edit. He promised to get back to me but did not until I wrote him another letter of encouragement. That commenced a long and somewhat intimate correspondence, in which he congratulated himself on his literary skills, mentioned his Irish heritage, lectured me on the proper construction of a paragraph and even of a sentence, but never offered a scintilla of proof for his charges against the magazine. For the curious I published the whole amusing exchange in the December 2007/January 2008 issue of The American Spectator.
Cuccinelli is having the same experience with McAuliffe. He has authorized a TV ad accusing Cuccinelli of questioning in his recent book "whether Medicare and Social Security should exist." The ad cites pages 62 and 63, and, of course, the ad lies. Fact checkers found that on those two pages Cuccinelli merely mentioned that these programs created dependency on government. The fact checkers went on to note that Cuccinelli wrote on pages 237 and 238 that "I'm not questioning here the existence of these programs nor the wisdom of how much is spent on them." Says Fred Barnes, "The ad was wrong."
McAuliffe has not apologized. Nor did he pull the ad. Rather he continued to run it, even though it was proven false. Now Terry is an amusing fellow, but he ought not to be governor of the great state of Virginia. What would Thomas Jefferson say? What would George Washington say? Those ads should have been cancelled. Terry should apologize ... to Cuccinelli and to me.
Given the level of Terry McAuliffe, perhaps the question to ask is “What would Brian Boitano do ?” Because the whoppers there are about equal to Fast Terry’s whoppers. .
The sad thing is that Fast Terry will probably win. I hate it but My Old Dominion fellow voters have let me down big time in our senate and gubernatorial (Save the last one) elections in recent years. Not to mention, going for Obama twice!
When the average Dem voter has an IQ of 81 and maybe a 9th grade education, which of them will check any book for fact?
Do you really need to ask?
The democrats winning streak in recent elections really has me questioning the validity of our elections. Especially re-electing the train wreck president. The democrats have been rigging the vote for a long time and the republicans sit on their asses and let them steal seats.
Terry McCaullife will probably win but if we had fair and honest voting he probalby wouldn’t stand a chance.
The saddest part is that Socialist Security and Medicare should not exist. They are outside the constitutionally-enumerated powers.
And anyone who wants to can quote me on that.
Or they can quote the father of the U.S. Constitution:
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”
— James Madison
The fact that a lying dogpile like Terry McAuliffe could even be running a competitive campaign for governor in a formerly red state like Virginia tells you just how far the sheeple of this once great republic have fallen.
I blame everything on the press. We have always had idiots voting and idiots & crooks running for office. If we had a MSM with integrity who would investigate everything, letting the chips fall where they may, we would not be in this mess.
Instead we have an arm of the socialist dem party who has the ear of the low-information voting public. Sickening.
Truer words were never spoken. The media has destroyed this country, politicians could never have done that kind of damage if the truth was published. They only report liberal/communist trash and absolutely fail to report on the truth. And since they are our only window to the world, we can't even call them on it because nobody hears us.
Truer words were never spoken. The media has destroyed this country, politicians could never have done that kind of damage if the truth was published. They only report liberal/communist trash and absolutely fail to report on the truth. And since they are our only window to the world, we can't even call them on it because nobody hears us.
“If Katherine Harris, Jeb Bush, Jim Baker, and the Supreme Court hadn’t tampered with the results, Al Gore would be President, George Bush would be back in Austin, and John Ashcroft would be home reading Southern Partisan Magazine!!!!!”
-Terry McAwful, whist frothing at the mouth, circa 2001.
If Al Gore had won his home state......
His real home was DC and won it going away.
The SEC is investigating the green car company founded by Va gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe over concerns that it allegedly guaranteed returns for its investors.The SEC has subpoenaed bank records of GreenTech’s funding arm, the McLean-based financing company Gulf Coast Funds Management, LLC.
Documents attached to a July 31 letter from Sen. Charles E. Grassley also raise more questions on the extent of the interaction between officials at the two companies and Alejandro Mayorkas, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in DHS.
DHS is investigating whether Mr. Mayorkas assisted in approving an investor visa application submitted by Gulf Coast, even after the application was denied and an appeal was rejected.
Mr. Mayorkas, Obama’s pick to be the next No. 2 at DHS, testified last week that the extent of his interaction with Mr. McAuliffe was one meeting in which he heard his complaints about investor visas being held up.
Mr. Grassley said it went further than that.“Contrary to the impression left by your answer, documents indicate that both before and after that meeting, you actually engaged in nearly a dozen contacts with Gulf Coast Funds Management between 2010 and 2013, including direct communications with Gulf Coast’s attorneys,” the Iowa Republican wrote to Mr. Mayorkas. “That one meeting with Mr. McAuliffe was clearly not the extent of your interaction on that matter.”
Officials at the two companies and did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday. A spokesman for the McAuliffe campaign noted that Mr. McAuliffe left GreenTech in 2012 and that he has no knowledge of any investigation. News of the SEC investigation was first reported Friday by The Wash/Post.
The documents include forwarded e-mails from Mr. McAuliffe to Douglas Smith, an official in DHS’s office of the Private Sector, that were forwarded to Mr. Mayorkas and an e-mail from Mr. Mayorkas himself saying that face-to-face meetings for particular cases are not appropriate.”As the Director of this Agency, I do not adjudicate cases and am not the proper audience for a telephone call or a meeting about a particular case,” he wrote to Gulf Coast’s general counsel earlier this year. “I will forward your e-mail to the appropriate individual in the Agency.”
USCIS handles cases involved in the EB-5 program, where foreign investors put up between $500,000 and $1 million for American companies in exchange for legal status.
Govt attorneys wrote that such a meeting would violate the Administrative Procedures Act. “I think it also raises an impartiality issue if we entertain pre-decisional meetings of this sort with particular applicants and petitioners,” USCIS’s Ethics Officer wrote. “It is not a concern to have meetings with particular industries, trade groups, bar associations, etc., on systemic issues that are not case specific, so long as we are willing to meet with all.”
Gulf Coast is run by Anthony Rodham, the brother of former Secy of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and is the finance arm of GreenTech Automotive Inc. Mr. McAuliffe founded GreenTech in 2009 and quietly stepped down as chairman in Dec — a fact only revealed in April in response to an inquiry from a Politico reporter.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/2/sec-investigating-company-co-founded-terry-mcaulif/
© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
A firm funding the car company founded by Va gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe has claimed on its website for months that its MyCar electric vehicle had been approved by the Defense Dept “for U.S. military installations worldwide” — but govt officials say they have no record of such an approval.
The Washington Times searched a database of companies and contractors with business before the federal govt and found no mentions of GreenTech Automotive or its MyCar two-seat vehicle. Govt officials, too, found no evidence that GreenTech had been approved by the Defense Dept to be a listed supplier for military installations.
Gulf Coast Funds Management LLC (run by Hillary Clinton's brother Anthony Rodham) helps secure foreign investments in exchange for visas for GreenTech — its only listed client — had been making the claim on its website since earlier this year but quietly removed it last week after an inquiry from The Times.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/4/with-no-record-of-defense-department-approval-mcau/#ixzz2bIPNeVtX
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter (Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com
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NOTE Hillary's brother runs Gulf Coast Funds Mgmt---the finance arm of McAuliffe' GreenTech company. Which raises the question of how the tentacles reach into the vast financial empire of the Clintons.....and its troubled family foundation.
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As President, Bill Clinton made policies that raised hundreds of billions (if not trillions) of dollars for his obscenely-rich donor/pals.
His North American Free Trade initiative made it easy for, and even encouraged, corporations to outsource jobs and then import their products back into the U.S...... The repeal of Glass-Steagall on his watch sent Wall Street into the money-making frenzy that led to the Great Recession/Depression of 2008......and subsequent taxpayer bailouts. Obscene gifts of corporate welfare, at the expense of America's middle and working classes.
The Clintons' got lotsa rich friends who owe them big time---who would have no trouble coughing up mucho monies for Anthony Rodham and McAuliffe.
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L/E needs to examine McAuliffe, Rodham and Clinton's bank accounts
<><> Joint bank accounts might be used to facilitate the transfer of govt funds. Gulf Coast and GreenTech monies may pay for personal and private expenses, credit cards, real estate sunsidies and vehicle purchases.
<><> To cover their tracks, fake invoices might be created to show that money deposited into accounts was being used for legitimate investment purposes.
The scheme might be advanced by issuing phony statements of payments from financial sources that actually covered the transfer of funds for Gulf Coast and GreenTech insiders own use.
<><> L/E is directed to get ahold of: (1) copies of Gulf Coast and GreenTech checks, (2) wire transfers, (3) account statements, (4) invoices, (5) bills, (6) delivery tickets, (7) correspondence including e-mail, contracts, loan agreements, and, (8) any other books or records. L/E should also explore (a) monies paid to brokers, sub-brokers, (b) family members, (c) mortgage brokers, (d) financial managers, and, (e) real estate agents, brokers, and developers.
<><> L/E should scrutinize Gulf Coast and GreenTech bank accounts for suspicious activites: (A) large deposits, (B) funds transferred from one account into another, (C) frequent requests for withdrawals.
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