Obama SCOTUS Pick Cited Benghazi Video Lie as Fact in JW Court Hearing.

Obama SCOTUS Pick Cited Benghazi Video Lie as Fact in JW Court Hearing. HT: JudicialWatch.

Long after it was established that the Obama administration lied about an anti-Muslim internet video sparking the riot that killed the U.S. ambassador in Libya, the president’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, cited the tale as fact in a federal court hearing involving Judicial Watch. Here is an official transcript of the proceeding.

The amateur YouTube video had absolutely nothing to do with the slaughter.

Nevertheless, the federal appellate judge Obama recently picked to sit on the Supreme Court repeated this falsehood during an official court proceeding.

On that day in Washington, D.C., in a packed courtroom before Garland and judges Harry Edwards and Judith Rogers, JW was appealing the administration’s claim that releasing dozens of bin Laden postmortem photos would hurt national security.

A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official had already testified that some images show the burial and bin Laden’s corpse being prepared for the event at sea.

It’s difficult to imagine how this could possibly hurt national security. JW also argued that withholding the images undermines the president’s transparency claims, which his administration is notorious for violating. Read the full story here.

Watchdog reveals evidence was destroyed during probe of IRS targeting.

Watchdog reveals evidence was destroyed during probe of IRS targeting. (Fox).

WASHINGTON – The lead government watchdog for the IRS revealed Thursday that computer evidence was erased during the investigation into the agency's targeting scandal, months after the IRS was told to preserve documents.

J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, testified to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that IRS employees erased computer backup tapes shortly after officials discovered thousands of emails related to the tax agency's Tea Party scandal had been lost.

As many as 24,000 emails were lost because 422 backup tapes were "magnetically erased" around March 4, 2014.

George said his office found no direct evidence the tapes were destroyed to hide information from Congress or law enforcement. But the destruction nevertheless defied a preservation order, and is sure to raise suspicions over motive.

"We have been misled. There has been evidence that has been destroyed," committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said Thursday.

A source familiar with the matter told Fox News the evidence was destroyed 10 months after a preservation order for the emails; seven months after a subpoena; and one month after IRS officials realized there were potential problems locating certain emails.

Fox News is told the destruction of evidence also occurred about three weeks before IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified to Congress that they would provide documents to Congress. Read the full story here.

The 'most transparent admin Evah'...has hardly appointed any watchdogs surveying them

The 'most transparent admin Evah'...has hardly appointed any watchdogs surveying them. (DS).

It has been 2,292 days since the Department of Interior has had a permanent inspector general in place to serve as a watchdog over the agency. But the Interior Department is not alone; the inspector general position is vacant in seven other agencies as well.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, held a hearing recently to address “why this White House, who claimed to wanting to be the most transparent administration in history, has taken so long to fill so many positions of inspectors general.”

Some 33 federal agencies are required by law to have presidentially appointed inspectors general to identify wasteful practices and general government misconduct.

But, according to the Project on Governmental Oversight, the Obama administration has left these positions open for, on average, 613 days, which is hundreds of days longer than even President Clinton, who was second with 453 days.


Johnson said having acting inspectors general in these roles is not the same as those who confirmed by the Senate.

“They are not truly independent, as they can be removed by the agency at any time; they are only temporary and do not drive office policy, and they are at greater risk of compromising their work to appease the agency or the president.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs has been operating with a temporary inspector general since December 2013. The Department of Interior has been without a permanent inspector general for more than six years.

But there is another problem with the acting inspectors general: They are not supposed to serve in that capacity for more than 210 days. But seven of the eight people current serving in those roles will have been in for more than a year by the end of this month. Hmmmm.....'All the President's men'

Persian Gulf leaders no longer trust 'Gentlemen's agreement' want Obama to put it in writing

Persian Gulf leaders no longer trust 'Gentlemen's agreement' want Obama to put it in writing. (Wapo).

Persian Gulf leaders, set to convene at a Camp David summit this week, are pressing President Obama to strengthen the U.S. security relationship with the region and expand military assurances to address their growing concerns about Iran, U.S. and regional officials said.

Senior officials from several gulf nations said they understand that a mutual defense alliance, similar to NATO, is not possible. At the very least, however, they want a firmer and more specific U.S. promise to protect them from external threats.

“In the past we have survived with a gentlemen’s agreement with the United States about security,” said Yousef al-Otaiba, ambassador to Washington for the United Arab Emirates, one of the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries participating in the summit. “Today, we need something in writing. We need something institutionalized.”

Other officials were less specific. “I don’t have a problem with written or non-written,” Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, said Monday. “Our faith in America’s word is total.” Hmmmm.........Trusting Hussein Obama?......Not too much. Read the full story here.

Video - CIA Advisor: "25 Year Depression is About to Strike America"

Video - CIA Advisor: "25 Year Depression is About to Strike America"

 We've got another whistleblower in the CIA. But this time, it's not the kind of report you might expect from the spy agency. Jim Rickards used to serve as.....Hmmm......17 TRILLION IN DEBT won't disappear.

Israel Cuts 'White Elephant' F-35 Purchase from 31 to 14 Jets.

Israel Cuts 'White Elephant' F-35 Purchase from 31 to 14 Jets. (INN).

Intelligence Minister says other jets have much better maneuverability, weapons carrying capabilities.

The Ministerial Committee of Acquisitions decided Sunday to approve the purchase of 14 US-made F-35 stealth jets, instead of the 31 jets that the Defense Ministry and IDF wanted to buy. Israel will reserve the option tobuy additional F-35 jets at a later date.

The 14 jets are in addition to the 19 jets Israel has already committed to buying.

Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) showed other ministers a presentation that cast doubt on the plane's true value, in comparison with other models of fighter jets in which Israeli technology can be fitted, which have better maneuverability and which have a far better capacity for carrying weapons than the stealth F-35.

"Since the plane is not yet operational in the US,” added Steinitz, “I suggested that we make do with the purchase of less than half the amount, and wait with decisions on purchasing additional jets, as several other countries – like Australia, Italy, Canada and Holland – have done.”

The favorable decision by a majority of the ministers, Steinitz noted, proves that the government does not have to be a rubber stamp of the defense establishment and can make decisions democratically.

The decision is seen by some pundits as a blow to Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon (Likud), who announced the deal following a visit to the US this year. Hmmm....the 'Good news' is that Turkey will end up with them :)

Related: The U.S.'s F- 35 (White Elephant) Stealth Fighter Is Too Heavy and Slow, So the Pentagon Made Its Performance Tests Easier.

Executive Pen at the Ready: Imperial Obama “Will Not Limit Himself” to What Congress Does.

Executive Pen at the Ready: Imperial Obama “Will Not Limit Himself” to What Congress Does. HT: Heritage.By Amy Paine.

President Obama reminded Congress and the American people yesterday that he’ll use his executive power in any way he can think of.
“We are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need,” President Obama said Tuesday. “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone.”
ABC News’s blog called these “weapons of legislative warfare,” while Politico dubbed it “2014’s pen-and-phone strategy.”
Press Secretary Jay Carney said the President is just giving the people what they want.
“He will not limit himself and certainly doesn’t think the American people would want him to limit himself just to what he could do legislatively through Congress,” Carney said yesterday.

The President has come a long way from his stance in 2011, when he told an audience, “The idea of doing things on my own is very tempting, I promise you, not just on immigration reform. But that’s not how our system works. That’s not how our democracy functions.”

And yet, despite the fresh threat of Obama’s executive pen, this isn’t a new strategy for the Administration. The Administration hasn’t needed Congress to enact new regulations on the Internet, businesses, energy production, and religious institutions. It has used its power to give struggling labor unions a new edge. It has granted amnesty to illegal immigrants. And it has rewritten welfare law to gut out the work requirements.
In short, Obama’s redefined the presidency.

“Whether it is ignoring our nation’s immigration laws, making unconstitutional recess appointments, waiving work requirements in welfare reform laws, or waiving clear provisions of Obamacare, President Obama has shown no qualms about taking unilateral actions that bypass Congress and ignore important separation of powers principles that are an essential safeguard of our liberty,” said Heritage’s John Malcolm, director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.

“While a President certainly has the right to enter executive orders that provide guidance to executive branch agencies and officers, he cannot do so when it contravenes duly enacted, valid laws,” Malcolm told The Foundry. “We live, after all, in a democracy, not a monarchy.”

Hmmm......Turkish professor of political science:
 Absolute power corrupts absolutely. 
Is this true for every country?
Yes, this is true for every country.........America has an ,Imperial President' problem


The post Executive Pen at the Ready: Imperial Obama “Will Not Limit Himself” to What Congress Does appeared first on The Foundry: Conservative Policy News from The Heritage Foundation.

Pres Obama: NSA Not Spying at Home

Pres Obama: NSA Not Spying at Home.(The Washington Post.).

In a press conference Friday, President Obama said “I have confidence the NSA is not engaging in domestic surveillance or snooping around.”

Obama said he believes the NSA’s goals and public trust can be reconciled after Edward Snowden’s revelations and a legal ruling against the NSA last week. Obama was also asked if 2013 was the worst year of his presidency. “That’s not how I think about it,” he answered. Read the full story at The Washington Post.

Judicial Watch Sues Obama Department of Health and Human Services to Obtain Early “Obamacare” Enrollment Records.

Judicial Watch Sues Obama Department of Health and Human Services to Obtain Early “Obamacare” Enrollment Records.HT: JudicialWatch.

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that on November 25, 2013, it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to obtain government records related to enrollment in the controversial Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act – also known as Obamacare (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (No. 1:13-cv-01855)).

The Healthcare.gov website, officially launched on the Tuesday, October 1, immediately encountered substantial problems typical of those reported by the Chicago Tribune:The lawsuit was filed after HHS failed to respond to an October 7 Judicial Watch FOIA request seeking the following information: Any and all records concerning, regarding, or related to the number of individuals that purchased health insurance through healthcare.gov between October 1, 2013, and October 4, 2013.

Consumers seeking more information on their new options under the Affordable Care Act were met with long delays, error messages and a largely non-working federal insurance exchange and call center Tuesday morning.

Pressed for an explanation in a conference call with reporters that afternoon, Marilyn Tavenner, head of the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, refused to disclose the number of people who had purchased insurance through the site saying, “We have just decided not to release that yet.”
As the Obama administration finally began releasing its version of the enrollee numbers in November, a controversy ensued over the accuracy of the HHS figures. In an article entitled, “Who Counts as an Obamacare Enrollee – the Administration Settles on a Definition,” the Washington Post revealed that the Obama administration had abandoned the conventional definition of a health plan enrollee, apparently in an attempt to inflate its figures.

Significantly, the HHS figures did not break down enrollment numbers by age. The administration had announced that its goal is to sign up 2.7 million people between the ages of 18 and 35, in an apparent attempt to help offset the risk of insurance pools consisting primarily of older, more sickly people, who traditionally drive up health care coverage costs. According to the website, Governing.com, “Officials said demographic information will be included in future releases but didn’t specify when.”

“To be blunt, we think the Obama administration is telling more lies about these Obamacare enrollment numbers.  And sure enough, the administration refuses to turn over one document to us about these basic numbers about the healthcare.gov website,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The fact that we have to now go to federal court to get simple answers about how many people signed up for Obamacare shows that this administration has utter contempt for the people’s right to know.”

Obamacare Website Costs Top $1 Billion.

Obamacare Website Costs Top $1 Billion.HT: ZeroHedge.

Although the GAO has made clear the limitations of its data, its $394 million tally for work through March 31 has been widely cited as the price tag for the entire launch of the "Affordable" Care Act. 

However, as Bloomberg's Peter Gosselin finds, looking at the full range of ACA-related contracts for just 10 firms, more than $1 billion worth of contract awards. Perhaps even more mind-blowing is that more than one third of the funds going to the top contractors working on the federal exchanges were awarded in the last six months - even as it was clear the project was failing.

As Bloomberg's Peter Gosselin notes,

In a typical IT project, spending ramps up to a peak, then trails off during the final phase.

This was not the case for the Obamacare websites,

The torrent of late spending — almost $352 million of $1 billion in awards to the top 10 contractors — indicates the magnitude of the work still to be done as opening day approached, and helps explain the information technology problems that have dogged the exchange system since its launch.

So, the government throws more taxpayer money at it...

In aggregate, the 10 firms won a third of their health law-related contract dollars in the six months ended Sept. 30.
Besides showing the rush to issue contract awards in the months leading up to the opening of exchanges, the BGOV analysis also revealed that the implementation of the health law is costing substantially more than generally is portrayed.
Although the GAO made clear that its study focused solely on the costs of implementing the federal exchanges and the data services hub, its $394 million tally for work through March 31 has been widely cited as the price tag for the entire launch of the law. But in looking at the full range of ACA-related contracts for just 10 firms, the BGOV analysis found more than $1 billion worth of contract awards.

And still they admit things are not going well...

White House reporter: Obama administration 'most hostile' to journalists in US history.

White House reporter: Obama administration 'most hostile' to journalists in US history.(RT).

Former CNN correspondent Bob Franken was sitting down over the weekend with reporters at MSNBC when he was asked to weigh in on the current standoff between the White House and some of the biggest names in news when he made headline-grabbing remarks about this administration’s treatment of the press.

Allegations have been made lately by the likes of the Associated Press, Reuters and others that the White House has been excluding independent photographers from official functions with increasing regularity as of late, instead relying on a lone administration staffer to shoot images of US President Barack Obama for selected distribution among the press. In a recent letter sent by editors at the AP, Reuters, CNN, ABC, NBC and others, the organizations wrote “officials in this administration are blocking the public from having an independent view of important functions of the Executive Branch of government,” and McClatchy newspapers and USA Today both went as far as to vow to boycott official images provided by the White House in protest.

On Saturday, however, perhaps the harshest critique yet of this administration’s policy with regards to the press surfaced, courtesy of Franken, a longtime White House reporter who has covered the Washington beat since the 1980s.

“Well, let's use the ‘P’ word here,” Franken told MNBC Live host TJ Holmes. “This is propaganda when it comes from the White House: government covering the government. “

“It’s not what you’re supposed to do in the United States of America,” added Franken, “But we have an administration, every president gets to the point where he dislikes the press. It’s that simple. And every administration tries to manipulate the press. But this is the most hostile to the media that has been in United States history.”

When asked by Holmes to elaborate further, Franken specifically called out the Obama White House for the recent issues they’ve had with regards to official photography. According to Franken, the administration’s actions equate exactly to “shutting out the press,” an argument hinted at in the recent letter signed by the likes of the AP and others.

Shortly after, though, Franken called into question other media snafus spawned by this administration in order to qualify the Obama presidency as the most hostile ever to journalists.

“But the reason I say most hostile,” continued Franken, “is because of the Justice Department moves that they've made against the press. Obviously they have a contempt for the journalistic process. Those of us who are in journalism, of course, believe that it is vital if you're going to have informed electorate as opposed to one that’s been propagandized.”

Indeed, the latest episode pitting the White House against the nation’s media establishment is not the only one to scar the administration, not even in the last year. In May it was revealed that the Department of Justice was conducting surveillance targeting AP journalists, and soon after it was made public that Fox News reporter James Rosen was being monitored as well.

For 2013, Reporters Without Borders ranked the US as number 32 on the list of countries with the most press freedoms, and in October the Center to Protect Journalists published a 29-page scathing report scolding the Obama administration for its harsh treatment of the press, as well as the whistleblowers who have exposed newsworthy evidence only to be in turn prosecuted for espionage.


Franken, the cousin of Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota), was one of the main Washington correspondents at CNN for years before leaving during the second George W. Bush administration.

"FLEXIBILITY" - Presidential post: Putin’s response to Obama letter to be ‘mailed’ soon.

"FLEXIBILITY" - Presidential post: Putin’s response to Obama letter to be ‘mailed’ soon.(RT).The exact content of the personal message from Obama to Putin remains secret, but Russia’s Kommersant daily has learnt the main topics of the letter.

The central idea of the letter delivered to Moscow by the National Security Advisor in the Obama Administration, Thomas Donilon, on April 15 is that the two great states should not waste time on insignificant quarrels and concentrate on global issues. That is why the letter does not even mention such troubling matters as the Magnitsky List, Russia’s so-called Foreign Agents law and the matters of Russian citizens jailed in the US on controversial accusations.

Instead, Washington proposes that Moscow focuses on managing strategic issues and the Obama administration is full of determination to reach a number of breakthrough agreements this year.

Reportedly, Obama proposes to sign a mutual legally binding agreement that would make American and Russian missile defenses transparent to each other to ensure that the countries are not planning aggressive moves against each other.

According to Interfax, Obama can sign such agreement without approval from Congress, but that would make the document highly time-sensitive: it would be valid as long as Barack Obama remains in office – and not a minute longer.

The American president also proposed further denuclearization of the US and Russia, following the Measures to Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms treaty signed on 8 April, 2010, by Obama and then-President Dmitry Medvedev.

Obama’s letter also contains some sort of proposals aimed at strengthening economic ties between Washington and Moscow. The Obama administration proposed to establish a new consultation body on a ‘US vice-president – Russian PM’ level to achieve this economic objective, Kommersant reported.

The daily’s sources in the Kremlin shared that the answer is halfway through and there are no obstacles that might interfere with completing the reply by May 20, when Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev is expected to hand over Putin’s answer to the US president.

Whether or not the exchange of personal letters between the two presidents becomes lost in the labyrinth of mutual distrust between the two countries remains to be seen.

The first round of negotiations is set to take place in June at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland.

In the meantime, on May 15, President Vladimir Putin chaired a council of country’s military top brass. The meeting has been specifically dedicated to development of home-grown missile defense systems and penetration of missile defenses of potential adversaries.Read the full story here.

The U.S.'s F- 35 (White Elephant) Stealth Fighter Is Too Heavy and Slow, So the Pentagon Made Its Performance Tests Easier.

The U.S.'s F- 35 (White Elephant) Stealth Fighter Is Too Heavy and Slow, So the Pentagon Made Its Performance Tests Easier.(Motherboard- Vice).The Pentagon's pursuit of the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter jet has been a heartbreaking one. If you're a tax payer, the program's estimated $1 trillion price tag probably breaks your heart a little bit. If you're an aviation enthusiast, the constant whittling away of the do-it-all aircraft's features, which in many cases actually amounts to adding weight and taking away maneuverability, must hurt a little bit, too.
If you're just an everyday American, though, you should be downright shattered that after a decade and a fortune spent, the F-35 will actually be more vulnerable than the aircraft it's replacing. At this point, the Pentagon is literally rewriting its rulebook so that the dumbed-down super jet will pass muster.
The Defense Department's annual weapons testing report reveals that the military actually adjusted the performance specifications for the consistently-underperforming line of F-35 fighter jets. In other words, they couldn't get the jets to do what they were supposed to do, so they just changed what they were supposed to do.
"The program announced an intention to change performance specifications for the F-35A, reducing turn performance from 5.3 to 4.6 sustained g’s and extending the time for acceleration from 0.8 Mach to 1.2 Mach by eight seconds," reads the report drafted under J. Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation. (The F-35A is the standard model, so to speak, that the Air Force will use. The line also includes the F-35B, the Harrier-like vertical landing version built for the Marines, and the F-35C, a Navy version that's optimized for aircraft carrier takeoffs and landings.)Hmmm.....As everything else with the Obama 'admin' lets lower the bar.Read the full story here

Hmmmm: Obama Campaign Allowing IP Proxies for Donors.

Hmmmm: Obama Campaign Allowing IP Proxies for Donors.HT: TheJawaReport.
Quite frankly, four years ago the Obama campaign had a lot of illegal foreign donations and it didn't affect the outcome of the election one iota, so why waste our time on it?
However, this time it's getting interesting.
John E. has this about the weak security that Obama uses to match donor information from redirects which are mostly foreign, and Doug Ross now sees evidence in the websites html that Obama's people are intentionally allowing proxy IP's to be used by their donors.
That last bit? That's more than a little fishy.

Hmmm......Website "Obama.com" Redirects Visitors To Obama's Official Donation Page, Despite 68% of Its Visitors Being Overseas And Presumably Ineligible to Donate To An American CampaignRead the full story here

Video - "The Silence of the unemployed"