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Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Friday urged congressional leaders to raise the debt limit and insisted that the White House is not going to negotiate over the increase because lawmakers have "no choice." "We will not negotiate over the debt limit," Lew wrote. "The creditworthiness of the United States is non-negotiable. The question of whether the country must pay obligations it has already incurred is not open to debate." Lew said that while President Obama is willing to discuss plans to reduce the nation's deficit with Congress, those talks must be kept separate from any effort to raise the nation's...

The House Ways and Means Committee holds the first Congressional hearing on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) subjecting applicants for tax-exempt status to higher levels of scrutiny based on political leanings. Witnesses include Acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller who resigned on Wednesday and the Treasury Department’s Inspector General Russell George for Tax Administration. Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) said the IRS' targeting of "American taxpayers based on politics is both astounding and appalling." He stated that the Committee will "get to the bottom of this practice and ensure it never takes place again.” In announcing the hearing, Ranking Member Sander...

RUSH: This Obama comparison to Nixon, you hear it now and then. In fact, it was asked about at the press conference this afternoon with the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason said, "How do you feel about comparisons by some of your critics of this week's scandals to those that happened under the Nixon administration?" OBAMA: I'll let you guys engage in those comparisons, and you can go ahead and read the history, I think, and -- and draw your own conclusions. My concern is making sure that if there's a problem in...

Always, always, when I think things can’t get any loonier, they do. On May 5, President Obama gave the commencement speech at Ohio State University and actually said the following (emphasis added):

Ramzan Kadyrov's sparring match – ostensibly good-natured 'criticism' of the minister's job performance – is seen by some as reflective of the darker undertones of Kadyrov's hard rule.

Speaking on April 22, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the Boston Marathon bombing forces us to change our interpretation of the constitution. He cited the left's success to date in eroding the 2nd Amendment as giving him confidence such re-interpretation is possible.Bloomberg focused on how reinterpretation will allow us to trade more of our privacy for "a level of security greater than [we] did back in the olden days." This means more surveillance measures on buildings and cross streets, or, as Bloomberg put it, "more cameras and that kind of stuff."...

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday the country’s interpretation of the Constitution will “have to change” to allow for greater security to stave off future attacks.

Joe Biden says the president of the United States is preparing to take "executive actions" to deal with guns. BuzzFeed reports: Vice President Biden told White House allies in the gun control fight Thursday that President Obama will be announcing new executive actions on gun violence in the days after the Senate voted down a gun violence bill. On a conference call with "stakeholders," Biden told gun control advocates that the fight is not over and that eventual action on gun control will come. Press were not invited to the conference call; a participant provided BuzzFeed with access. "Look I...

Obama’s actions throughout his “presidency,” and the active support of Democrats, have made it crystal clear that he and the party hate free Americans. Everything they have colluded on has been aimed at harming We, the People, as free citizens of a capitalist, constitutional republic. From the daily attempts to shred the Constitution, to the total fraud of ObamaCare and the use of it to attack Christians, to the looting of the treasury and redistribution of our money to Big Banks and Big Unions, to the raising of already out-of-control taxes, to the destruction of our energy industries and much,...

Comments described as 'potential major warning' of Obama's intent A forensic profiler who worked on the disappearance of Natalie Holloway and the double-murder case against O.J. Simpson says he is becoming alarmed by some of the references President Obama is using. Andrew G. Hodges, M.D., who wrote “The Obama Confession: Secret Fear, Secret Fury,” previously said Obama’s statement “I am not a dictator” actually meant, “I am the dictator president.”

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized on Monday a levy imposed by the European Union on bank deposits in Cyprus as unfair and setting a dangerous precedent. "While assessing the proposed additional levy on bank accounts in Cyprus, Putin said that such a decision, should it be made, would be unfair, unprofessional and dangerous," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists. Russian citizens account for the majority of the billions of euros held in Cypriot banks by foreign depositors, and Russian banks are heavily exposed to the island as a favored offshore centre for big business. The levy, imposed...

Comments described as 'potential major warning' of Obama's intent A forensic profiler who worked on the disappearance of Natalie Holloway and the double-murder case against O.J. Simpson says he is becoming alarmed by some of the references President Obama is using. Andrew G. Hodges, M.D., who wrote “The Obama Confession: Secret Fear, Secret Fury,” previously said Obama’s statement “I am not a dictator” actually meant, “I am the dictator president.” Hodges also concluded Obama unconsciously confessed to stealing the 2012 election. On Hodges’ website, Steven A. Egger, associate professor of criminology at the University of Houston, Clear Lake, has written...

Hugo Chavez net worth: Hugo Chavez was a Venezuelan politician who had a net worth of $1 billion at the time of his death on March 5th 2013. Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias was born in was born July 28, 1954 in Sanbaneta, Venezuela. When he died, Chavez had been the President of Venezuela since February 2, 1999. At age 17, Chavez enrolled in the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences, graduating in 1975 as a sub-lieutenant with a degree in Military Arts & Sciences. Upon completing his studies, Chavez entered active military service as a member of a counter insurgency battalion...

Some in anguish, some in fear, Venezuelans raced for home on Tuesday after the government announced the death of President Hugo Chavez, the firebrand socialist who led the nation for 14 years. Vice President Nicolas Maduro's voice broke and tears ran down his face as he appeared on national television to announce that Chavez died at 4:25 p.m. local time (3:55 p.m EST; 1755 GMT) "after battling hard against an illness over nearly two years."

The sight of First Daughter Malia Obama at a dinner this weekend with her friends prompted one spy to describe the meal as a “young girl’s social power club gathering.” On Saturday night, President Obama’s elder daughter, 14, was spotted at giant Chelsea restaurant Buddakan with eight of her friends, including a daughter of New York Giants chairman Steve Tisch. According to witnesses, the girls were chaperoned by four parents and five security guards who dined at the table directly next to them. “This place is so hip” while they dined on rock shrimp, edamame dumplings, short ribs, lobster fried...

A 22-carat dictator: Robert Mugabe has gold coins minted to celebrate his 89th birthday in poverty-stricken Zimbabwe • Four-tier cake made in his honour at Zimbabwe's state house party • Opposition accuses his party supporters of killing 12-year-old boy Zimbabwe is one of the poorest country's on Earth, but clearly despot Robert Mugabe doesn't seem to care on his 89th birthday. The president celebrated it by immortalising himself in freshly minted gold coins and held a lavish party with a giant cake. Guests, including his wife, first lady Grace, tucked into the four-tier treat made in his honour at the...

Beam me up, Yoda: Obama flubs 'Star Trek' term By DARLENE SUPERVILLE WASHINGTON (AP) — He's not a dictator and won't entertain the idea of a "Jedi mind-meld" with opponents. There's no "secret formula or special sauce" he can slip foes to make them see things his way. And not to worry, he says, the situation may look dire but won't be an "apocalypse." So who was the guy in a suit and tie who showed up Friday in the White House briefing room, mixing metaphors and references to "Star Wars" and "Star Trek"? "I am not a dictator. I'm...

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-ive-become-more-humble_704715.html Obama: I've 'Become More Humble' 2:08 PM, Feb 26, 2013 • By DANIEL HALPER President Barack Obama admitted today in a Virginia speech that he's "become more humble": "But in order for us to make that happen I'm going to need you. You know, the one thing about being president is, after four years, you get pretty humble. You'd think maybe you wouldn't but actually you become more humble--you realize what you don't know," said Obama.

He continued, "So, ultimately, if Mitch McConnell or John Boehner say that we need to go to catch a plane, I can't have Secret Service block the door way, right?" The comment was in response to a reporter's question.

More at Reaganite Republican...

Per Fox, Obama knows he will not get gun control through Congress so he is preparing to order federal agencies to require private citizens to obey his gun control measures as a prerequisite for the public to do business with the government.

Ted Nugent, the 64 year old rock star and NRA board member, unloaded his opinion on current gun control measures, our elected leaders and gun free zones to the team at Guns.com while at the SHOT show. The SHOT show, being held this year in Las Vegas, is the nation’s largest shooting industry trade show with 60,000 attendees. Nugent is a gun rights quote machine. “If you want another Concord Bridge, I’ve got some buddies” “Anyone who questions the most basic fundamental right of self-defense is a dangerous, freedom threatening, scary person that we must beat down” On gun free...

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system. 2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system. 3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system. 4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks. 5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full...

Group with enormous influence on White House issues specific plans A progressive group with enormous influence on White House policy has issued specific recommendations to the Obama administration on how to push sweeping gun control, including suggestions for executive orders. The Center for American Progress released an 11-page proposal, reviewed by WND, calling for a full ban on the sale of assault weapons and magazines with a capacity for more than 10 bullets. CAP suggests legislation to require licensing and transfer restrictions on new and existing assault rifles. The CAP paper, delivered to the White House last week, recommends that...

Perhaps the only truth to come out of the White House Commie's mouth today was when he appeared proud of the label put around his neck by conservatives that he is "A Big-Spending Socialist"

Hollywood leftist Sean Penn’s support of the belligerent socialist leader of Venezuela is well-known. Around this time last December a Venezuelan-raised actress called him out as a “communist a**hole” at an airport for his stance, but Penn has steadfastly supported the man who called President Bush “the devil” at the United Nations headquarters in 2006 and accused the United States of giving him cancer. Saying journalists who refer to Chavez as a “dictator” should be jailed (which should tell you a little something about how he understands freedom), Penn claimed in 2010: “Who do you know here who’s gone through...

For months, federal agencies and the White House have sidetracked dozens of major regulations that cover everything from power plant pollution to workplace safety to a crackdown on Wall Street. The rules had been largely put on hold during the presidential campaign as the White House sought to quiet Republican charges that President Barack Obama was an overzealous regulator who is killing U.S. jobs. But since the election, the Obama administration has quietly reopened the regulations pipeline. In recent weeks, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rules to update water quality guidelines for beaches and other recreational waters and deal...

An Egyptian panel rushed through a draft constitution seen as undermining basic freedoms on Friday, resulting in mass protests in Cairo. AFP reported that tens of thousands of protesters rallied as the opposition piled pressure on President Mohammed Morsi. "Down with the constitutional assembly," vast crowds armed with megaphones chanted as they filed into Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak in early 2011. Banners condemned "dictatorial Morsi" while protesters shouted "down with the rule of the Guide," a reference to the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, through whose ranks Morsi rose before becoming president....

"Joe Biden was in Costco and he wanted to buy some of this stuff, but I told him he had too much work to do. I wasn't going to have him building roller coasters all day long. Now, of course, Santa delivers everywhere. I've been keeping my own naughty and nice list for Washington, so you should keep your eye on who gets some K'NEX this year. There are going to be some members of Congress who get them, and some who don't," President Obama said Friday at a rally where he pushed Congress to avoid the fiscal cliff.

President Obama's fleeting mention of the need for stronger gun controls at a presidential debate last month was hardly the kind of forceful political statement needed to address the scourge of gun violence in this country. Even his tepid remark was considered by the nation's gun owners as a threat to take away their firearms. In what amounts to a buyers' panic, they are again ramping up gun and ammunition sales as they did four years ago, convinced that Mr. Obama intends a gun-control crackdown. Yet in his first term, Mr. Obama did nothing to cross the gun lobby, and...

Karl Marx was asked once how he could justify advocating a political system of slavery for the individual, which is what socialism is. He replied that, socialism is not slavery; it is a "new kind of freedom." As all perceptive students of history know, the intellectuals of Europe bought into such Alice in Wonderland sophistry and plunged into the twentieth century nightmare of collectivist tyranny. But unfortunately so did American intellectuals about 30 years later when the Progressives of Woodrow Wilson's era established the Creature from Jekyl Island to usher in centralized government banking and the progressive income tax to...

Comments about TCM movie "Gabriel Over the White House" missed the real core issue: totalitarian dictatorship. William Randolph] Hearst believed that the country needed a dictator, but he wasn't sure FDR knew how to fill the role.

In a diary posted Thursday at the left wing Daily Kos, Michael Alton Gottlieb called for Obama to rule the country as a "benevolent" dictator. "The American Presidency is a de facto dictatorship," he wrote. According to Gottlieb, the president "has unprecedented power of Fiat" and "literally has the power of life and death over every citizen in the nation." So, in Gottlieb's view, the president should use that power for "good." Echoing Michael Moore, Gottlieb says Obama should "lock up the bankers," without giving any reason why. Apparently, the fact that they work in a bank is reason enough...

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and his state of health is so precarious that he has trouble feeding, speaking and recognizing people, said a Venezuelan physician who assured El Nuevo Herald that he has access to firsthand sources and information. “He suffered an embolic stroke and recognizes absolutely no one,” said José Marquina, a respected doctor who in the past has claimed to have direct information about the illness affecting President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. “The people with a condition of this nature have difficulty eating and, of course, they end up with total deficit in...

Is Obama our own Idi Amin? America's Last King of Scotland? His desperation is a cause for concern... (continued)

MEXICO CITY -- The appearance of a life-size statue of Azerbaijan's "founder of the nation" on Mexico City's elegant Reforma Avenue, not far from Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln and Mexico's national heroes, is raising eyebrows and protests. ..."It's like a personality cult, transferred to Mexico," said writer and activist Homero Aridjis, who described the style as "social realism from the Soviet era.' "It's as if they brought a dictator from Mars, "Aridjis said. "Are we going to be a center for monuments to dead dictators? Who's next? Hitler? Stalin?"

Saddam lookalike attacked by gang who tried to kidnap him and force him to impersonate the dictator in porn film An Egyptian Saddam Hussein lookalike claims an Iraqi gang tried to kidnap him and force him to make a pornographic film impersonating the late dictator. Mohamed Bishr, who comes from Alexandria, said the group hoped to sell their video as exclusive erotic footage of the former leader. He claims the gang beat him severely when he refused to go along with the plan, despite being offered $333,000 (£205,000). The devout Muslim says the gang made threatening phone calls saying they...

(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration’s new ambassador to Azerbaijan raised eyebrows this week with a gesture interpreted by some as paying homage to the country’s late dictator – a one-time KGB general installed by military coup who oversaw an autocratic regime before handing power to his son. “The new U.S. envoy to Azerbaijan, Richard Morningstar, has honored memory of national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev,” the Azeri news site News.Az reported. “The newly appointed ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the United States in Azerbaijan visited the monument to great leader in the park in front of the Heydar Aliyev’s Palace....

Energy: Oil is rising sharply from two disasters in the Caribbean region — one, a fierce storm, and the other a massive blast at the world's second-largest refinery in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. Only one was perfectly preventable. When the strongman cracked the whip on Venezuela's oil industry in 2003, firing 20,000 experienced oil managers from state-owned Petroleo de Venezuela (PDVSA) to break a strike he admitted he had provoked, he insisted that merit didn't matter anymore, only political loyalty. "There will be no more meritocracy," he told his cheering red-shirts. That philosophy has been laid out in all its glory...

When chess grand champion and Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov showed up Friday at the sentencing of Russian punk band Pussy Riot, he didn’t expect to spend the next five hours in the custody of the Moscow police, recovering from a severe beating. Now, he says, after being punched in the genitals, thrown in a van and beaten by several police, Kasparov says the police have accused him of biting one of them—an allegation he denies. “They act like animals and they accuse me of biting them,” Kasparov told the Daily Beast in his first interview since being arrested. “Can...

Venezuela is training a "guerrilla army" aiming to be a million strong by 2013 to fight off a possible US invasion, an opposition lawmaker said Sunday. "Plan Sucre" -- apparently crafted with input from close ally and fellow US foe Cuba -- covers the legal, logistical and other angles necessary to "transform a professional army into a guerrilla army," Representative Maria Corina Machado told El Universal newspaper. The former presidential candidate said she had obtained a copy of the plan, printed by an institution affiliated with the national army. "The strategic objective is to build a new Bolivarian military doctrine"...

Update:The House passed the legislation Tuesday night by a vote of 261-116. The bill now goes to President Obama’s desk for his signature.The House of Representatives is set to consider legislation Tuesday that would exempt certain presidential appointees from having to be confirmed by the Senate. But a number of conservative groups are arguing that the “Presidential Efficiency and Streamlining Act” amounts to Congress neutering itself and giving the executive branch unprecedented power. Presidential appointees that would no longer require Senate confirmation under the legislation include the treasurer of the United States and the deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation...

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) on Thursday asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to reverse the administration’s new immigration policy or threatened to file a lawsuit to overturn it in court. Napolitano was making her first appearance on Capitol Hill since the White House announced its policy changes, which will be carried out under her department. Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Napolitano vigorously defended the policy, which allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to exercise its prosecutorial discretion for certain illegal immigrants under 30 years of age who wish to defer their deportation from the country. “Representative, I will...

We're being prepared for a national emergency. Then there's taking control. I personally think that what Obama is doing goes way beyond being prepared. North Carolina governor Beverly Perdue ...suggested that perhaps elections should be suspended for two years by canceling, until the economy recovers, the 2012 elections. After that remark got the reception it deserved, SNIP Former White House director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag, who, on September 14, 2011, in a The New Republic article entitled "Too Much of a Good Thing: Why we need less democracy," said that we are that we are...

Exclusive: Joseph Farah notes practical similarities between BHO, Italian dictator Liberals won’t like this column. But they should read it. Because they keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Maybe they’ll learn something. Liberals and “progressives” loved Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator, who achieved power as a socialist and delivered on his promise in the form of fascism. His political maneuvering proved an inspiration to a younger German protégé by the name of Adolf Hitler – who allied with Mussolini in a bid to conquer all of Europe and much of the rest of the world. Today, liberals...

A couple weeks ago, the Blaze alerted you to the fact that the Army Reserves was conducting a training with armored vehicles on the residential streets and highways in St. Louis, Mo. Local news stations reported the story to residents saying they shouldn’t be alarmed should they see this training taking place. Army specialists from Fort Meade were brought to train the 354th MP company in St. Louis on what one of the local reporters called “driver’s ed” for the military. Some, like Brandon Smith from Alt-Market in a guest post to the online publication Zero Hedge, wondered why this...

Power: Given the president's end-runs around Congress, his shredding of the Constitution and his assault on the authority of the courts, a second term free of electoral restraints may be a frightening prospect. Judge Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News commentator, raised the question on Neil Cavuto's "Your World" show Wednesday. And while it seems fanciful in light of the safeguards built into our democracy and its institutions, it recognizes the threat posed by the president's policies and actions if left unchecked. "I think the president is dangerously close to totalitarianism," Napolitano opined. "A few months ago he was saying, 'The...

The Obama RecordThe Obama Record: The chief executive who swore to faithfully execute the nation's laws picks those he'll ignore and makes up others through regulation and executive order. He sees no need for a Congress or Constitution. Maybe it's because Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts stumbled a bit in leading President Obama through the oath of office that the president doesn't feel bound by it. But through the awkwardness these words were heard: "I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to...

Days before President Obama proclaimed a new Justice Department edict concerning the deportation of young illegal immigrants, both the New York Times and Time magazine ran huge stories on Hispanics in America. According to Fox News Watch panelists Saturday, this was no coincidence (video follows with transcript and commentary): JON SCOTT, HOST: And then under the heading of coincidence or manipulation, we have this. Time magazine ran its cover story called “We Are Americans, Only We Are Just Not Legal.” The New York Times on Sunday ran a story on frustrated Hispanic, the frustrated Hispanic electorate, and then on Friday...