Free Republic

The White House has told Congress it will reject calls for many of President Obama's policy czars to testify before Congress - a decision senators said goes against the president's promises of transparency and openness and treads on Congress' constitutional mandate to investigate the administration's actions. Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, said White House counsel Greg Craig told her in a meeting Wednesday that they will not make available any of the czars who work in the White House and don't have to go through Senate confirmation. -SNIP-The debate goes to the heart of weighty constitutional issues about separation...

Remarks by First Lady Michelle Obama to the International Olympics CommitteeMRS. OBAMA: President Rogge, ladies and gentlemen, Mesdames et Messieurs of the International Olympic Committee: I am honored to be here. I was born and raised on Chicago's South Side, not far from where the Games would open and close. Ours was a neighborhood of working families -- families with modest homes and strong values. Sports were what brought our community together. They strengthen our ties to one another. Growing up, when I played games with the kids in my neighborhood, we picked sides based not on who you were,...

"A local TV station that reported on Chicagoans NOT wanting the Olympics has been told NOT to run the report again, insiders tell the DRUDGE REPORT! The Chicago Olympic Committee told FOX Chicago that its broadcast "would harm Chicago's chances" to be awarded the games."

This is a victory for Glenn Beck, for conservatives, and for America. But this means that the Obama administration has yet one more reason to play dirty. Their bag of tricks is nowhere near empty, and we need to keep the pressure on. Until now Rush Limbaugh has been public enemy #1. That is why the White House went after him as the "head of the Republican Party".

...Steve Kest, executive director of ACORN, was there. As well as an up and coming rabble rouser, George Goel of the National People's Action Network...Goel was the first to speak. He called for challenging people on the streets. "We need to put feet on the ground,"...When it was ACORN Executive Director Kest's turn to speak, he also said that more militant actions are going to occur. He went even more radical than Goel...

- Roger’s Rules - http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerkimball - Get out of the way? Not likely.Posted By Roger Kimball On August 9, 2009 @ 5:28 am So, the President of the United States wants critics of his plans to socialize American health care to “get out of the way.” [1] His operatives urge you to turn in your friends and neighbors if they say “something fishy” about [2] the administration. Confronted with spreading grassroots outrage, President Obama instructs his supporters “to punch back twice as hard [3].” Kenneth Gladney, the 38-year-old black conservative who was hospitalized by union goons [4], can testify that...

President Obama's decision to unleash his operatives at the DNC,  surrogates like Barbara Boxer, and his staff like Linda Douglas to slander and attempt to intimidate opponents of Obamacare not only has badly backfired, it has opened another front the president now finds himself fighting on:  Does he intend to be the new Nixon, rather than the new FDR? Like Nixon, will he unleash a political operation that spirals out of control and ends his presidency? More than a million people have signed a petition to stop Obamacare, and the president and his Chicago-rules enforcers have serially insulted each one of them and every...

Also Thursday, the AFL-CIO announced plans to mobilize labor activists to attend town hall meetings in 50 congressional districts this month to counter the conservative protesters. White House aides David Axelrod and Jim Messina traveled to the Capitol for their presentation to Democratic senators. Senators saw videos of disruptions at events held by House members, and were told to organize their events more carefully as well as work with labor unions and other friendly groups to generate enthusiasm. They also were urged to use these events to stress insurance reforms such as a limit on out-of-pocket expenses for those covered...

Much of Obama still remains a mystery to me. Yes, he is a far-left radical who is a thug from the Chicago Political Machine. Yes, he wants to remake America in his own image. Yes, he is an egotistical maniac who wants nothing but adoration from throngs of followers. Yet I keep vacillating back and forth on whether or not Obama is a shrewed politician bent on remaking America, whatever the political cost (including his re-election), a puppet of others, or simply a dumb idealist. Whatever the case may be, he and his machine are not happy with the protests...

Like the cavalry, organized labor reportedly plans on swooping in to the rescue of beleaguered lawmakers who are getting shouted down by conservative activists at town-hall meetings during discussions of health-care overhaul legislation. The Huffington Post's Sam Stein reports that the AFL-CIO is calling on its troops to counter the anti-health care reform hecklers. An excerpt: The nation's largest federation of labor organizations has promised to directly engage with boisterous conservative protesters at Democratic town halls during the August recess. In a memo sent out on Thursday, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney outlined the blueprint for how the union conglomerate would...

Hey, no top-down direction here in President Obama’s latest mass e-mailing to his minions. Only thing missing is advice on how to dress like “real” grass-roots activists and instructions on how to snitch on friends and neighbors saying “fishy” things about socialized medicine. Astroturf powers, unite! from President Barack Obama info@barackobama.com reply-to info@barackobama.com date Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 10:21 AM subject This is the moment mailed-by bounce.bluestatedigital.com This is the moment our movement was built for. -snip- read the rest at Michelle Malkin

It really is like we're in the twilight zone. For eight years we all heard about Bushitler and his big brother tactics to keep the opposition quiet but now we have Democrat's calling for the photographing and interrogations of all those opposed to socialism at the town hall meetings: Let's have the media name names, publish photographs, and do interviews of those responsible for approving, even organizing these techniues. And let's find an investigative journalist - are there many left - to prove these so-called grassroots shouters are, or are not, being paid. Even more classic: The "shout downs" organized...

[NOTE: Comments in italics by The Jawa Report, photos and other snark in bold by grey_whiskers...] There’s been a lot of media coverage about organized mobs intimidating lawmakers, disrupting town halls, and silencing real discussion about the need for real health insurance reform. As opposed to Democratic Underground bragging about disrupting Town hall Meetings on President Bush's Social Security Reform. The truth is, it’s a sham. These “grassroots protests” are being organized and largely paid for by Washington special interests and insurance companies (they decline to name any, because there aren't any -ed.) who are desperate to block reform. They’re...

Message from the President: "This is the moment our movement was built for." By Christopher Hass - Aug 5th, 2009 at 3:15 pm EDT Also listed in: Organizing for Health Care Blog Comments | Mail to a Friend | Report Objectionable Content Today, President Obama sent out a message to supporters asking them to get involved in the fight for health insurance reform this month: This is the moment our movement was built for. For one month, the fight for health insurance reform leaves the backrooms of Washington, D.C., and returns to communities across America. Throughout August, members of Congress...

Wednesday, August 5, 2009 2:45 PM By: William Collier and Ralph Benko Article Font Size A little censorship, anyone? How about turning citizens into informants? The White House Web site has this very intriguing little new note: There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or...

There's been a lot of media coverage about organized mobs intimidating lawmakers, disrupting town halls, and silencing real discussion about the need for real health insurance reform. The truth is, it's a sham. These "grassroots protests" are being organized and largely paid for by Washington special interests and insurance companies who are desperate to block reform. They're trying to use lies and fear to break the President and his agenda for change. Health insurance reform is about our lives, our jobs, and our families -- we can't let distortions and intimidation get in the way. We need to expose these...

WASHINGTON. D.C. – Following reports that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has been orchestrating an effort to intimidate members of Congress and Governors who raise legitimate concerns regarding the effectiveness of the stimulus, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent a letter to Emanuel saying “While this type of scare tactic may work In Chicago, it will not work to intimidate me or other Members of the United States Congress.” “I and others have dared to bring these facts to the attention of President Obama, the Congress and the American people,” Issa...

Once again the vendetta by the Obama administration against a tough sheriff in Arizona, Joe Arpaio, who comes down hard on illegal immigrants, is being exposed. The law enforcement official of Maricopa County, as usual, is fighting back.

Just having the appearance of someone who might possibly vote for an opponent of Barack Obama could land them on the President's enemies list where proxies do the dirty work. Political appointees in the Justice Department killed a six-month investigation by career DOJ lawyers into the most blatant voter intimidation case in 40 years. Last November, jack-booted, uniformed, baton-wielding thugs from the New Black Panther Party calling themselves "security" obstructed a Philadelphia polling location and behaved in an intimidating manner toward white voters. Days after dismissing charges against the menacing thugs, the Justice Department moved in the opposite direction by...

Before its portfolio of bad loans helped trigger the current housing crisis, mortgage giant Freddie Mac was the focus of a major accounting scandal that led to a management shake-up, huge fines and scalding condemnation of passive directors by a top federal regulator. One of those allegedly asleep-at-the-switch board members was Chicago's Rahm Emanuel—now chief of staff to President Barack Obama—who made at least $320,000 for a 14-month stint at Freddie Mac that required little effort.