What 'Gutsy Call'?: CIA Memo Reveals Admiral Controlled bin Laden Mission

Today, Time magazine got hold of a memo written by then-CIA head Leon Panetta after he received orders from Barack Obama’s team to greenlight the bin Laden mission. Here’s the text, which summarized the situation:

Received phone call from Tom Donilon who stated that the President made a decision with regard to AC1 [Abbottabad Compound 1]. The decision is to proceed with the assault.

The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45 am.

This, of course, was the famed “gutsy call.” Here’s what Tom Hanks narrated in Obama’s campaign film, “The Road We’ve Traveled”:

HANKS: Intelligence reports locating Osama Bin Laden were promising, but inconclusive, and there was internal debate as to what the President should do.

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: We sat down in the Situation Room, the entire national security apparatus was in that room, and the President turns to every principal in the room, every secretary, “What do you recommend I do?” And they say, “Well, forty-nine percent chance he’s there, fifty-one … it’s a close call, Mr. President.” As he walked out the room, it dawned on me, he’s all alone. This is his decision. If he was wrong, his Presidency was done. Over.

 http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/04/26/Get-bin-laden-memo-CYA

Obama’s a Cool President, and You’re a Broke Clod Living with Mommy

Obama appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s show this past week and did a slow jam with Fallon and his house band—a brilliant move by the Entertainer-in-Chief. I thought it was both funny and smart.
From a comedy perspective, it was well-written and well-performed by Obama, Fallon and The Roots. In terms of cleverness, it was shrewd in that the young people who watch Jimmy’s show probably don’t—or won’t—follow the manifold ways BHO has hammered the U.S. through his policies, and the majority of them love to laugh.
Ignorance + a Funny Bone = Ripe Pickings for the President.
 http://townhall.com/columnists/douggiles/2012/04/29/young_voters_obamas_a_cool_president_and_youre_a_broke_clod_living_with_mommy

Obama bypasses Congress, funds Palestinian Authority

President Barack Obama has signed a waiver to remove curbs on funding to the Palestinian Authority, declaring the aid to be “important to the security interests of the United States.”

A $192 million aid package was frozen by the US Congress after the Palestinians moved to gain statehood at the United Nations last September.

But in a memo sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, published by the White House, the president said it was appropriate to release funds to the authority, which administers the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In signing the waiver, Obama instructed Clinton to inform Congress of the move, on the grounds that “waiving such prohibition is important to the national security interests of the United States.”

Congress deliberately froze those funds, and not just because of the statehood demand through UNESCO.  Hamas, a terrorist organization, reconciled with Fatah and has rejoined the PA, which means we’re putting almost $200 million into the hands of a terrorist organization.  The language of the Palestinian Accountability Act could not be clearer: “[N]o funds available to any United States Government department or agency … may be obligated or expended with respect to providing funds to the Palestinian Authority.”  Obama literally waived that statutory language off yesterday afternoon.
 http://hotair.com/archives/2012/04/28/friday-night-news-dump-obama-bypasses-congress-funds-palestinian-authority/

Obama, Congress restore horse-slaughter industry

President Obama last month quietly signed into law a spending bill that restores the American horse-slaughter industry, just a few months after a government investigation said the ban on slaughtering was backfiring.
 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/30/obama-congress-restore-us-horse-slaughter-industry/?page=all

Obama-"its My Government"

WASHINGTON — One Saturday last fall, President Obama interrupted a White House strategy meeting to raise an issue not on the agenda. He declared, aides recalled, that the administration needed to more aggressively use executive power to govern in the face of Congressional obstructionism.
 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47138446/ns/politics-the_new_york_times/#.T5iSI9Xy98F

Obama Lawyers says - Carney: No misconduct by White House advance team in Colombia

The White House has determined its advance team was not engaged in "any inappropriate conduct" as part of the Colombia prostitution scandal, after launching an internal review out of "an abundance of caution." 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/23/security-clearances-suspended-for-military-personnel-tied-to-prostitution/#ixzz1t6Jxj7F3

Good news: U.S. agrees to provide military and financial support to Afghanistan through at least 2024

During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama falsely accused John McCain of calling for a ’100 year war’ in Iraq. With President Obama now on the verge of committing the U.S. to nearly a quarter century of military engagement of one form or another in Afghanistan, will we soon see the reemergence of throngs of protesters marching in the streets against ‘endless war’? Don’t bet on it. Via the Sydney Morning Herald:

President Obama's gone from hope and change to blame and shame

Oh, to be a fly on the wall as President Obama gathered his human props for yet another attempt to find a scapegoat for America’s problems. With the twin scandals of the General Services Administration and the Secret Service exploding all around him, Obama summoned Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Attorney General Eric Holder and others for an attack on phantom oil “speculators,” who, he insisted, are driving up prices at the pump.
Before they marched to the Rose Garden like tin soldiers, did his aides express reluctance about the “crackdown?” Were they embarrassed at being used in a naked political stunt?
Probably not.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/04/18/president-obama-gone-from-hope-and-change-to-blame-and-shame/#ixzz1sfdBUq6w

Pelosi: We have a clear agenda to amend the First Amendment

Eh, at least Nancy Pelosi isn’t trying to hide it that she wants to alter the First Amendment, that cherished declaration of the right to free speech:

“We have a clear agenda in this regard: [DISCLOSE], reform the system reducing the [role] of money in campaigns, and amend the Constitution to rid it of this ability for special interests to use secret, unlimited, huge amounts of money flowing to campaigns,” Pelosi said at her Thursday press briefing.
“I think one of the presenters [at a Democratic forum on amending the Constitution] yesterday said that the Supreme Court had unleashed a predator that was oozing slime into the political system, and that, indeed, is not an exaggeration,” said Pelosi. “Our Founders had an idea. It was called democracy. It said elections are determined by the people, the voice and the vote of the people, not by the bankrolls of the privileged few. This Supreme Court decision flies in the face of our Founders’ vision and we want to reverse it.”

more here

Weekly jobless claims above 380K for second week

As if the Obama administration didn’t have enough problems with economic indicators, the Department of Labor gave them another headache.  The upward spike two weeks ago in initial jobless claims doesn’t look like a fluke:

In the week ending April 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 386,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 388,000. The 4-week moving average was 374,750, an increase of 5,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 369,250.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6 percent for the week ending April 7, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 2.6 percent.
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 7 was 3,297,000, an increase of 26,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,271,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,317,750, a decrease of 21,500 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,339,250.

Officially, the number of initial weekly jobless claims fell last week by 2,000 — but to 386,000 claims, which is 6,000 above the level announced last week.  That number got revised this week, but the real story is in the 4-week rolling average.  Just three or four weeks ago, that number was in the 360K range.  Now it’s close to 375K, roughly the same level as last spring’s stagnant economic conditions.

more here

When Administrations Implode

Administration meltdowns are hardly novel. In almost every presidency there comes a moment when sheer chaos, whether self-induced or the result of an outside crisis, takes hold.

Vietnam had effectively destroyed Lyndon Johnson by 1967. Watergate unraveled the Richard Nixon administration, as the disgraced president resigned in the face of certain impeachment.Gerald Ford could not whip inflation and was not reelected. One-termer Jimmy Carter was undone by the Iranian hostage crisis and skyrocketing oil prices.

Your tax dollas paying for more vacations for Obamas

Obama in Colombia: I’m here ‘to scout out where to bring Michelle on vacation

If you were worried that First Lady Michelle Obama doesn’t spend enough time and taxpayer money on R&R, you’re not alone. The president, appearing on a panel at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, told those assembled:

Usually when I take these summit trips, part of my job is to scout out where I may want to bring Michelle back later for vacation. So we’ll make sure to come back sometime in the near future.

Book: Obama White House ‘Has a Real Woman Problem’

The Obama White House is a “hostile” environment for women even though they occupy many of the senior positions in the West Wing, according to a new book.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind interviewed more than 200 people, including President Obama, for "Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and The Education of A President," which will be released Sept. 20.

Could Unmarried Women Cost Obama Re-election In 2012?

Ellen Whelan-Wuest, 28, was one of a record number of unmarried women who voted in the presidential election in 2008. Working and campaigning extensively for the Obama campaign in New Hampshire, she remembers seeing a political fervor in people that she had never experienced before.
"It was like a lot of them were adults for the first time, and their candidate reflected everything they hoped for in the world," she told HuffPost from North Carolina, where she's working toward a degree in public policy. "But now, things haven't really moved forward. Some things have, but they don't really care about them as much. We're facing a totally different landscape now, and a lot of people are freaking out."
It is this emerging attitude that has experts wondering if Obama can re-engage with unmarried women -- one of the fastest rising demographics in America, according to census data -- and without whom, the Voter Participation Center concluded, he would have lost the presidency in 2008.
Considering that unmarried women represent 26 percent of the voting population, their support was significant. Though they have consistently supported Democratic candidates since 1992, peaking with Clinton at 62 percent in 1996 and then again for Kerry in 2004, they supported Obama by a steep 70-to-29 percent margin, while the majority of their married counterparts voted for McCain.
But in the past two years, support for the Democratic Party among this coveted group of unmarried female voters has been waning. Only 57 percent voted Democrat in the 2010 midterm elections, and according to a Greenberg Quinlan Rosner (GQR) poll, more than half of white, unmarried women voted Republican. In 2012, the numbers don't look promising for the Democrats.

Read more here:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/21/could-obama-lose-unmarrie_n_1024054.html

Kerry Healey: It's Obama Who's Out of Touch with Women

Kerry Healey, the woman who once served as Mitt Romney’s lieutenant governor in Massachusetts, tells Newsmax.TV that if anybody is out of touch with American women, “it seems to be the Obama administration.”

Weighing in on the first major battle of the 2012 general election campaign, Healey insisted on Thursday in an exclusive interview that Romney’s gubernatorial administration was a model for the country — half of his administration's jobs were filled by women.