African Trip Could Have Been Even More Expensive; Obamas Scrap Safari Because Costs Of Snipers Needed “To Neutralize Cheetahs, Lions And Other Animals If They Became A Threat”. Update to this story. The description of the incredible waste on this one trip is sickening. 445 agents needed to defend Dear Leader for a one week trip? Protecting from cheetahs? Via Telegraph: The president and first lady will end a week-long, three-nation tour of Africa in Tanzania, but austerity measures at the Secret Service mean that they will not head into the wilderness, as was first planned. US tax-payers will pay between £40 million and £65 million for the trip, only Mr Obama’s second to the continent of his father’s birth since he became president, leaked documents showed. Their scheduled afternoon’s visit to a Tanzanian wildlife sanctuary was judged to be too expensive and difficult to arrange, The Washington Post reported. It was dropped in favor of a tour of Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, during the Obamas’ visit to South Africa before they fly to Tanzania. The safari “would have required the president’s special counter-assault team to carry sniper rifles with high-caliber rounds that could neutralize cheetahs, lions or other animals if they became a threat,” the newspaper said, citing a leaked Secret Service internal planning document. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/10120856/Barack-Obamas-African-safari-scrapped-over-sniper-costs.html
Obama’s Pick For CIA #2 Used To Oversee “Erotica Readings” In Bookstore It’s almost as if he deliberately picks those who would embarrass or not have the best interests of the United States in their minds. Via Breitbart: While Obama appointee Avril Haines will be the highest-ranked woman in the CIA to date, she may also be the Agency’s only Deputy Director who used to oversee “erotica readings” at a bookstore. According to the New York Post, when Haines was 24 years old, she dropped out of a graduate program in physics at John Hopkins University and opened a waterfront bookstore in Baltimore. The store “turned into the regular meeting place of a small group of erotica aficionados,” where Haines held a monthly erotica reading. Haines would set the mood for the readings. For example, in preparation for one session, “she placed red candles throughout her store,” then “got pulses racing” by reading the following: “In the topmost bed chamber of the house (the prince) found her. He had stepped over sleeping chambermaids and valets, and, breathing the dust and damp of the place, he finally stood in the door of her sanctuary. And approaching her, he gave a soft gasp as he touched her cheek, and her teeth through her parted lips, and then her tender rounded eyelids.” Haines has taken part in “virtually every senior-level meeting at the president’s National Security Council over the past two years.” She has never worked in the intelligence agency in which she will soon hold the No. 2 role
Celebrate Diversity! DOJ, State Department To Hold Back-To-Back “Gay Pride” Events… Such a ridiculous waste of our money. Via US News: The departments of Justice and State this week are holding back-to-back LGBT events in honor of gay pride month, and as the Supreme Court prepares to deliver two landmark decisions on same-sex marriage. On Tuesday, the Justice Department celebrated pride with speeches from Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., the first openly gay member of the Senate, singer-songwriter and gay and lesbian activist Melissa Etheridge, and Attorney General Eric Holder, all on the theme “A Year of Firsts,” according to DOJPride.com, the official site for LGBT Employees at the department. And on Wednesday, the State Department will follow suit with its own pride event in which Secretary John Kerry will deliver his first speech on LGBT policy and personnel issues. “This is an opportunity for Secretary Kerry to state his position and confirm his support for LGBT employees,” says Aaron Jensen, a spokesman for the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. “The thrust of his speech will be that he’s equally committed to the steps Secretary Clinton took on this.”
Report: Carney Has Dodged More Than 9,000 Questions… Quite the achievement, Jay. Via Washington Times: White House reporters sometimes poke fun at press secretary Jay Carney’s penchant for using the phrase “I appreciate the question” during briefings — especially when it’s clear he likely does not, in fact, “appreciate” a tough or awkward query. But a Yahoo! News analysis identifies “13 distinct strains” of how Mr. Carney evades reporter’s questions. More than 1,900 times since he held his first press briefing on Feb. 16, 2011, he gave some form of “I don’t have the answer — and there were at least 9,486 times where he’s dodged a question. The breakdown, according to Yahoo!, includes: I don’t have the answer (1905 times) I would refer you to someone else (1383 times) You already know the answer (1125 times) I’m not going to tell you (939 times) Not that I know of (927 times) I don’t want to (588 times) I’m not sure (549 times) I won’t speculate (525 times) No comment (429 times) I’ll get back to you (387 times) It’s a good question (381 times) See yesterday’s non-response (231 times) The president won’t tell me (117 times) The job of a White House press secretary is certainly not to give open, unfettered access of the inner workings of the White House to the press. In large part, it’s messaging. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/21/white-houses-jay-carney-dodges-questions-more-9000/
Shocker: Moonbats Blame Bush, Not Chicago Jesus For NSA Domestic Spying… Because blaming Obama is racist. Via Politico: President Barack Obama has given progressives plenty to be angry at him for lately: The liberal wish list he laid out at his second inaugural remains just that. Then came revelations of sweeping domestic surveillance programs that triggered flashbacks to the ultimate villains of the left, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Yet despite all of that, Democratic activists on hand here for the largest annual gathering of progressives cut the president a surprising amount of slack. Yes, they’re unhappy about Obama embracing Bush-era snooping. And they think he hasn’t done nearly enough on climate change or other issues they had high hopes for when they helped propel Obama past Hillary Clinton in 2008. But two dozen people interviewed by POLITICO at the Netroots Nation conference this week agreed, in broad strokes, that a broken Congress and leftover Bush-era policies deserve at least as much blame as the president. The National Security Agency controversy may be headline news — on Friday night, news broke that federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against NSA contractor Edward Snowden for allegedly leaking classified information — but it was barely mentioned in a series of speeches kicking off the conference. “When we’re talking about these things in regards to the president, we can’t leave out Congress,” said Gina Cooper, founder of Netroots Nation. “People are definitely looking toward the administration for answers … what they’re not hearing about is checks and balances.” Said Jonathan Dale, a 42-year-old Planned Parenthood activist from San Diego: “The NSA stuff that came out was disappointing but not surprising.” But “it’s a legacy from the Bush era.” His colleague, Rachel Dixon, 35, agreed: “I always kind of assumed that our emails weren’t private,” she said. The idea that Bush, not Obama, was responsible for putting these programs in place came up time and again. http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/obama-progressives-93176.html
This is getting incredibly overused. As I mentioned in another topic, Michael Douglas gets throat cancer and he blames Bush??? It seems to me that about 10 minutes after he took office Obama started issuing Executive Orders. These included on halting off shore drilling in some areas. (Helping him fufill one of his campaign promises to make the US "energy independent." He's undone a number of Bush policies because he wanted to. Some like Gitmo, he left after realizing his promise was stupid. The NSA domestic spying has been happening because he chose to allow it to remain. This blame Bush BS is getting so old that maybe one day some of his Obots will finally wake up......on second thought Nah, they're brain dead. One Bad Ass Mistake America
Nanny Bloomberg Sets His Sights On A New Target: Banning Sparklers… Pretty soon he will be calling them “assault sparklers.” Via Daily Caller: Citing national security concerns and the war on terror, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked New York Gov. Michael Cuomo to ban the sale of children’s fireworks. City officials worried that sparklers — handheld fireworks that emit colorful sparks and are often waved through the air by kids on the Fourth of July — could be used in terrorist attacks, according to The New York Post. “A recent attempt to harm innocent lives provides a frightening example of how legally purchased… Fireworks can cause dramatic harm and even kill,” said Joseph Garba, Bloomberg’s state legislative director, in a statement. Garba was referring to the case of the failed 2010 Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, who used a legally-purchased firecracker to trigger his car bomb. The ignition device failed, however, and the bombing was unsuccessful. Although firecrackers contain gunpowder, sparklers do not.
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Report: White House Delaying Obamacare’s Employer Mandate Until After 2014 Midterm Elections… How convenient. Via Bloomberg: Businesses won’t be penalized next year if they don’t provide workers health insurance after the Obama administration decided to delay a key requirement under its health-care law, two administration officials said. The decision will come in regulatory guidance to be issued later this week. It addresses vehement complaints from employer groups about the administrative burden of reporting requirements, though it may also affect coverage provided to some workers. The two officials, who asked not to be identified to discuss the move ahead of its announcement, said the administration decided to wait until 2015 before enforcing the employer mandate in order to simplify reporting requirements and give businesses more time to adapt their health-care coverage. The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes financial penalties on businesses with more than 50 employees that fail to provide health insurance that meets minimum standards and tests for affordability. The White House had been in discussions with business groups over complaints about the reporting requirements, and senior officials believe they can simplify the process, the officials said. President Barack Obama’s administration plans to invite employer groups to discuss ways of simplifying administrative burdens created by the mandate, they said.
Penises Are Evil: Libs Open Feminist Summer Camp… Sounds like a blast, sitting around a campfire listening to the Indigo Girls and complaining how women are objectified by male pigs. Via NRO: Feminist Camp — yes, you read that right — is the brainchild of Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner, coauthors of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future, and cofounders of Soapbox Inc., a “women’s rights” organization that, as its name might suggest, is light on cogitation and heavy on cowbell. Feminist Camp is “a transformative week of feminism in action” for undergraduate and graduate students, and recent alumni. Each day is organized around a particular theme: “Reproductive Justice,” “Sexual Power,” “Feminist Art,” “Philanthropy,” etc. Professors, staff, and professionals can take part in a three-day Feminist Intensive, developed, among other reasons, “to create a larger community of feminist teachers and scholars.” And in an effort to brainwash them young, Soapbox sponsored at the end of June the first Feminist Day Camp, a five-day feminist immersion for high school upperclassman. Interested parents might watch the price tag, though: The week cost participants $1,000, not including housing. Hey, it takes a lot of money to discover you’ve been a dupe of the patriarchal system. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/352696/womyns-wonderland-activists-sponsor-feminist-camp-ian-tuttle
The flaw in their master plan is that without penises they would not be sitting around the campfire talking about how evil penises are. :lol:
Our Secretary of State missed all of the changes in Egypt. He spent the 4th of July riding around in his yacht. Remind me again...why do we have a Secretary of State? Here's a story about that yacht going back to 2012... Oopsie, Seems Like The Senator From MA May Have Avoided A Bundle In MA “Docking Taxes” You didn’t know Nantucket was in Rhode Island, did you? Flashback July 2010 article from the Huffington Post: BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is docking his family’s new $7 million yacht in neighboring Rhode Island, allowing him to avoid paying roughly $500,000 in taxes to the cash-strapped Bay State. If the “Isabel” were kept at the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee’s summer vacation home on Nantucket, or in Boston Harbor near his city residence, he would be liable for $437,500 in one-time sales tax. He would also have to pay $70,000 in annual excise taxes. Rhode Island repealed those taxes in 1993. That has made the state something of a nautical tax haven. Kerry spokesman David Wade said Friday the boat is being kept at Newport Shipyard not to evade taxes, but “for long-term maintenance, upkeep and charter purposes.” Wade noted the vessel was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine and purchased in the state. It was built in New Zealand by Friendship Yachts. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/23/john-kerry-saves-500000-b_n_656985.html
Kerry Warns Egypt Against Taking Retribution Against Morsi Yes, from the back of his wife’s boat… Via Bloomberg: President Barack Obama met with his top national security advisers yesterday at the White House to discuss the ouster of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, with the fate of U.S. aid hanging in the balance. The Situation Room meeting of Obama and members of his National Security Council came as U.S. officials weigh how to respond to the Egyptian military’s overhaul of their elected government. The White House and most leaders in Congress have so far avoided using the word “coup,” a definition that could cost Egypt more than $1.5 billion in annual military and humanitarian aid under U.S. law. Administration officials including Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel placed calls to counterparts in Egypt to stress the “importance of a quick and responsible return of full authority to a democratically elected civilian government as soon as possible,” National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in an e-mailed statement. U.S. officials told Egyptian leaders they needed to have a “transparent political process that is inclusive of all parties and groups,” according to Meehan. Administration officials said Mursi and his supporters shouldn’t be arbitrarily arrested, according to Meehan’s statement. Kerry spoke with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr and opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, while Hagel called Defense Minister Abdelfatah al-Seesi, who announced July 3 that Mursi had been removed from power. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-05/kerry-warns-egypt-to-avoid-mursi-retribution-as-u-s-reviews-aid.html
The Daily Caller presents: The first annual High School Stupidity Awards Home - by Cardigan - July 7, 2013 - 22:00 America/New_York - 1 Comment The Daily Caller The dog days of summer are upon us. High school students across the country are enjoying their time off, which means that The Daily Caller can offer far fewer stories about stupid and otherwise outrageous occurrences on campus. The time is right, then, to celebrate the academic year that was. Here are the stupidest, most outrageous and most cringe-worthy high school moments of 2012-13. Overland High School (Aurora, Colo.): World’s greatest math teacher ever Carly McKinney (aka Carly Crunk Bear) is the 23-year-old high school math teacher from Aurora, Colorado who took to Twitter in January with half-nude photos of herself, chatter about getting heroically stoned and an admission that she was tweeting instead of working during school hours. She also tweeted to the world that she had marijuana in her car. The Crunk Bear did not face charges for her boasting. Sadly, however, she was ultimately fired for her hijinks. Chapin High School (Chapin, S.C.): Most bizarre flag-stomping to make some baffling point about symbolism South Carolina honors English teacher Scott Compton was fired because he threw an American flag on the floor and stomped on it in front of his students during three different class periods. “He proceeds to take down the American flag, and said, ‘This is a symbol, but it’s only a piece of cloth. It doesn’t mean anything,’ and then he throws it down on the floor and then stomps on it, repeatedly,” said the father of a student at Chapin High. Compton ultimately received a whopping $85,000 in a settlement with the Lexington-Richland 5 school district. P.S. 211 (New York, N.Y.): Most embarrassingly stupid sacking of a teacher A junior-high school Spanish teacher, Petrona Smith, filed a lawsuit alleging that she was fired from P.S. 211 in the Bronx in March 2012 because of a misunderstanding over the word “negro.” The 65-year-old, non-tenured teacher maintains that she was instructing her class about how to say the various basic colors in Spanish. The word “negro” naturally came up because “negro” is the Spanish word for “black.” A seventh-grade student in the class took offense at the term, however, believing the word to be a racial slur. But wait — it gets better. Smith, a native of the West Indies, is herself black. http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/06/the-daily-caller-presents-the-first-annual-high-school-stupidity-awards/
Obama Nominates Two Major Campaign Bundlers To Ambassadorships, Brings Total Number Of Top Fundraisers Rewarded With Diplomatic Positions To 18… Only shady when Republican presidents do it. Via CNS News: President Obama on Tuesday nominated two major campaign bundlers to two of the most prized ambassadorships available anywhere – London and Rome – part of a pattern that has seen him reward at least 18 top fundraisers with plum diplomatic positions since 2009. The White House said the post of ambassador to the United Kingdom will go, subject to confirmation, to Matthew Barzun, an Internet pioneer and investor who served as the Obama campaign finance chairman in 2008, as ambassador to Sweden from 2009-2011, and then again as finance chairman for the president’s 2012 campaign. The ambassadorship to Italy will go to John R. Phillips, a Washington lawyer who chairs the president’s commission that selects candidates to be White House fellows. Phillips is the husband of Linda Douglass, a former network journalist who served as communications director for the Obama White House’s Office of Health Reform. According to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, Barzun bundled at least $500,000 for the Obama campaign in 2008 and at least $500,000 again in 2012; Phillips bundled at least $500,000 for Obama in 2012 and between $200,000 and $500,000 in 2008. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/18-and-counting-plum-ambassador-posts-go-obama-campaign-bundlers
D.C. Passes Bill Allowing Men And Women Who Dress Up Like Other Sex To Change The Gender On Their Birth Certificates… So you can have a penis and be listed as a woman. All together now, celebrate diversity! (CNSNews.com) – On a voice vote on Wednesday, the D.C. Council unanimously approved a bill that will allow anatomical males and females who have undergone “gender transition” to get a new birth certificate listing the gender they choose. Mayor Vincent Gray, a Democrat, is expected to sign the bill, which will then face a 30-day period for congressional review. If Congress does not intervene, the law will go into effect following that review period. The JaParker Deoni Jones Birth Certificate Equality Amendment Act of 2013 – named for a transgender man who was stabbed to death in 2012 — amends the Vital Records Act of 1981 and directs that the D.C. Registrar “shall issue a new birth certificate that reflects the new gender designation of an individual born in the District of Columbia.” The bill requires from a parent, guardian, or legal representative “a statement, signed under penalty of law, by a health-care provider licensed in the District of Columbia who has treated or evaluated the individual stating that the individual has undergone surgical, hormonal, or other medically appropriate treatment for a gender transition.” The bill also ends the practice of marking birth certificates as “amended,” and states that a new birth certificate will be issued and the original birth certificate “sealed.”
Obama’s big mouth screwing up military sex assault cases Home - by Cardigan - July 14, 2013 - 18:00 America/New_York - 12 Comments RARE When President Obama proclaimed that those who commit sexual assault in the military should be “prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court-martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged,” it had an effect he did not intend: muddying legal cases across the country. In at least a dozen sexual assault cases since the president’s remarks at the White House in May, judges and defense lawyers have said that Mr. Obama’s words as commander in chief amounted to “unlawful command influence,” tainting trials as a result. Military law experts said that those cases were only the beginning and that the president’s remarks were certain to complicate almost all prosecutions for sexual assault. “Unlawful command influence” refers to actions of commanders that could be interpreted by jurors as an attempt to influence a court-martial, in effect ordering a specific outcome. Mr. Obama, as commander in chief of the armed forces, is considered the most powerful person to wield such influence. http://rare.us/story/obamas-big-mouth-screwing-up-military-sex-assault-cases/
Lincoln Memorial Vandalized With Green Paint, Jim Carrey Justifies Attack Via WaPo: The Lincoln Memorial was shut down Friday morning after vandals splashed light green paint on the statue of the nation’s 16th president and the marble floor around it, U.S. Park Police said. No words or symbols were painted or written on the memorial, police said. No damage was reported at the Mall’s other memorials and monuments. Police are reviewing surveillance footage from the popular tourist attraction on the west end of the Mall, but so far no information has been released about who may have been responsible for the vandalism or what may have motivated it.Carol Bradley Johnson, a spokeswoman for the National Mall and Memorial Parks division of the National Park Service, called the incident “heartbreaking.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/lincoln-memorial-vandalized-with-green-paint/2013/07/26/b48a3e32-f5da-11e2-a2f1-a7acf9bd5d3a_story.html