Courage To See

From Jack Tapper ABC News:

Andrew Romanoff, the former speaker of the Colorado house of representatives, issued a statement Wednesday evening claiming that the White House raised the possibility that he might be offered an administration job if he opted to not challenge incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.

Romanoff also released what he said was an e-mail from White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina outlining three possible jobs — deputy assistant administrator for Latin America and Caribbean for the U.S. Agency for International Development; director of the Office of Democracy and Governance at USAID; and director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency – he could have if he didn’t run.

Romanoff did not accept any of the offers, and currently is challenging Bennet, who has the endorsement of President Obama.

The White House did not comment. The statement comes as the White House attempts to distance itself from the controversy stemming from attempts – also unsuccessful – to convince Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., to not challenge Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., in the Pennsylvania primary. Sestak ultimately defeated Specter.

What you hadn’t heard about this quid pro quo deal to drop out of the Senate race in exchange for a White House job offer?  Funny this was originally reported on back in September 2009 by the Denver Post.

There appears to be a new era of “transparency” in the White House, actually a re-definition of standard English.  Transparency now means this administration is allowed to display through words one sentiment in the public arena and do something quiet different behind the scenes.  There are now two cases by the White House which on appearance violate federal law Romanoff and Sestak.  ahe recent statement release from the White House on the Sestek offer opens more questions for additional inquiry then it answered. IF and again this is a big IF, there was no shady dealings involved in these circumstances then why did the White House wait months to answer questions regarding the facts surrounding the job offer with Sestak?

Time and again parts of the lamestream media are commenting on how situations as these are standard operating procedures in politics, if true and I have no reason to doubt them the public should be outraged and demand a full independent investigation.  We have a pResident who championed how he would do things different if elected pResident, little did we know that he was talking about bringing overt partisanship, backroom deals and the corruption which plagues Chicago to Washington.

For weeks I feel as though we have entered an alternative universe, nightly the news speaks to the grave environmental impact of the Gulf oil rig explosion.  Common people speak of fear as they watch  toxic crude oil invade their state, they worry that the lack of quick and immediate federal response  will create catastrophic damage to the ecosystem they love and  they express concern  for their livelihoods so tied in to the Gulf and then they wonder when will the scope of this massive disaster truly be known.

My heart aches for the people of Louisiana and the devastation this disaster  has placed in their lives. Yesterday I watched the following You Tube clip as Louisianan Representative Charlie Melancom stressed to a House committee the devastation that has struck his beloved state.  My eyes teared, as I this humble servant of the people become overcome with emotion, to the point of not finishing his prepared comments.  Please take the time to watch this American, while the heartfelt emotion may feel uncomfortable it is important to understand the extent of the horror.

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Anyone with two functioning brain cells can sense the cover-up being played out in Washington over the Sestak bribe.  After months of delay, the White House yesterday used a standard “dump” day to release their “investigation” of Representative Sestek’s claim he was offered a job in the White House to drop out of the Senate race.  This move by the White House was designed to clear the field for the White House supported (Benedict) Arlen Specter to run unopposed in the Pennsylvania Democrat primary. The White House’s report which barely filled a page and half leaves many questions unanswered and presents additional questions as to the operational schema of the Administration.

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From BreitBart:

WASHINGTON (AP) – Responding to the massive BP oil spill, Congress is getting ready to quadruple—to 32 cents a barrel—a tax on oil used to help finance cleanups. The increase would raise nearly $11 billion over the next decade. The tax is levied on oil produced in the U.S. or imported from foreign countries. The revenue goes to a fund managed by the Coast Guard to help pay to clean up spills in waterways, such as the Gulf of Mexico.

The tax increase is part of a larger bill that has grown into a nearly $200 billion grab bag of unfinished business that lawmakers hope to complete before Memorial Day. The key provisions are a one-year extension of about 50 popular tax breaks that expired at the end of last year, and expanded unemployment benefits, including subsidies for health insurance, through the end of the year.

The House could vote on the bill as early as Tuesday. Senate leaders hope to complete work on it before Congress goes on a weeklong break next week.

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From the NY Times:

President Obama denied “categorically” on Wednesday any political involvement or advance knowledge of the federal case against Goldman Sachs, saying he learned about the civil fraud suit from television.

The accusations lodged against the Wall Street giant came right as the White House was pressing forward in its drive to pass new regulations on financial firms. The timing, and the party-line 3 to 2 vote by the Securities and Exchange Commission approving the lawsuit, have stoked suspicions of political manipulation.

Yet Obama’s political machine, Organizing for America (OFA), just before the S.E.C. announcement bought the Google keywords of SEC and Goldman Sachs.  In making this purchase whenever someone searches Google for either of these words a paid ad link for OFA appears on the top of the page.  It appears beyond coincidence that of all the words, companies and government agencies available for purchase they would make the purchase of these two words.  Okay, it’s a long shot that Obama didn’t know about the SEC investigation, but apparently someone in his political organization was aware of pending charges.

Financial expert, Terry Savage, from the Chicago Sun-Times on Monday wrote an interesting article on the SEC and Goldman Sachs, breaking down the charges, the entire article can be read here.

Near the end of the article Ms. Savage states:

In the meantime, they have given fuel to the fire that demands increasing regulation over Wall Street activities. Never mind that government regulators had the laws, and the power, yet still completely failed to uncover scams ranging from Madoff to the current Goldman conflict of interest.

So the laws are already in place to prevent the alleged misdeeds of Goldman Sachs, but like in the Madoff case, they failed in performing their due diligence and uncovering potential wrong doings.  Instead of investigating where the current law and system failed, Congress wants to jump on the bandwagon of convoluted populace thought that “those big, bad, mean companies need to be shot down.”

But the real loss is to the future of America, which needs the free enterprise system to provide growth and opportunity, as well as pay down our existing debts. Every over-regulated economy in history has failed — from the U.S.S.R. to Cuba — to provide for its citizens, despite the good intentions of government planners.

And for what it is worth..  NO Obama is NOT going to give back the almost one million dollars Goldman Sachs gave his campaign. 

Where is pResident Obama? His first duty, indeed his top responsibility as commander-in chief, is to safeguard the United States against threats leveled by the extremists of the world.. aka terrorists.  Obama would rather gallivant across the country preforming at town hall meetings, championing health care legislation.  Ahh Mr. pResident, that legislation passed, so could you perhaps start governing and quit campaigning?  Why am I sure the pResident is displaying extreme detachment from his duties as commander-in-chief?  The most telling is Defense Secretary Gates recently leaked and reported on in the NY Times a memo which states:

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability, according to government officials familiar with the document.

Iran’s focus and desperation to acquire nuclear weapons to, “wipe Israel from the map,” could potentially create an Armageddon scenario, with Israel defending herself the only logical response.  Do not think for one second that Israel will go quietly into the night, nor should they.  A nuclear armed Iran is an extreme danger to the entire world and could facilitate a nuclear war in the entire Middle East, which would inevitability change the course of civilization.   You think the volcano in Iceland is playing havoc with world travel, just think of the implications of a full nuclear war in the Mid East.

Talks with Iran and the attempt by the administration to rally countries around sanctions have all but dissolved, except in the mind of the pResident.  As a country we need a President who understands that there is evil in the world and that evil hates us as a nation, solely because of the freedoms we embrace… in essence the people we are.

The  perpetual campaign behavior of the pResident needs to be stowed in his basement on the southside of Chicago.  We, as a nation, need a commander-in chief who governs from a position of strength, who leads and is unapologetic to the world.

We, as a nation are still waiting…

This clip moves rather fast, you may need to stop it along the way to fully comprehend what the author is saying…

Now how only Charles  Krauthammer can make the point…

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The founding fathers displayed great wisdom in creating our republic.  They knew, from first hand experience, how absolute control corrupts and enslaves a population, depriving the citizenry of freedom.  They established a system of checks and balances to assure that our representative government would not be overtly powerful in any of the three branches of government.  One can only wonder, what they would have thought of the following chart and how the administration is  using all means available to circumvent the Constitutional protections granted to the people.

I happened across an excellent piece written by Phil Kerpen which explains the Obama chart precisely…

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