Harry Reid’s War on Conservative Speech

Lisa De Pasquale / Townhall Columnist

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has mentioned Charles and David Koch over 134 times from the floor of the Senate. Last week Sen. Reid announced that he would bring a constitutional amendment to the Senate floor that would allow Congress to set even more limits on political donations. Make no mistake, this isn’t a call to get “special interest money” out of politics. It is a directive from the most powerful man in the Senate to punish two private citizens for their beliefs and success.

In an interview with BuzzFeed, Senator Reid said, “The Koch Brothers, I’m not walking away from them. I’m going to be on their tail for the whole campaign because if they think Romney was watched closely by me, that’s nothing compared to what it’s going to be like with the Koch Brothers.”

In his call for the amendment on Thursday, Senator Reid made the false claim that this would “level the playing field” and “make campaigns fair.” But what is “fair”?

Is it fair that unions and liberal donors like George Soros and Tom Steyer aren’t singled out as, Reid called the Kochs, the greatest threats to America because they donate to political causes?

Is it fair for a government official to call people “un-American” because of their political beliefs?

Is it fair that Reid uses his attacks on the Kochs to raise money for his own cause?

Is it fair that the party that controls the executive branch and half of the legislative branch are proposing a constitutional amendment to limit the speech of their political enemies?

Americans shouldn’t be targeted and punished by Reid’s definition of what is “fair.”

We now know that Democrats’ targeting of individuals who engage and donate to conservative causes are not isolated incidents. This week it was revealed that the IRS targeting of tea party groups and organizations came from its Washington D.C. headquarters and is wide-spread. From The Foundry:

In an email July 6, 2010, IRS official Holly Paz asks agency lawyer Steven Grodnitzky “to let Cindy and Sharon know how we have been handling tea party applications in the last few months.” Judicial Watch identifies those named as Cindy Thomas, then director of an IRS office in Cincinnati, and Sharon Camarillo, then a senior manager in the Los Angeles office.

The Washington Times also reported that 10 percent of tea party organization donors have been audited by the IRS.

Despite assurances to the contrary, the IRS didn’t destroy all of the donor lists scooped up in its tea party targeting — and a check of those lists reveals that the tax agency audited 10 percent of those donors, much higher than the audit rate for average Americans, House Republicans revealed Wednesday.

By Sen. Reid’s own admission, his number one goal is to end the funding and expansion of conservative ideas in America. His call to “level the playing field” is a farce. He uses his attacks on conservatives from the Senate floor and vows to silence them as a way to fundraise for himself. Reid not only wants to end the funding of conservative ideas, but amend the Constitution that gives us the right to free speech and political activity without retribution from the government.

That, Senator Reid, is un-American.

Michelle Obama's Control-Freak Lunch Program 

Michelle Malkin / Townhall Columnist

Look out, everyone: The nation's school lunch lady, Michelle Obama, is mad. With her federal nutrition program under fire across the country and now on Capitol Hill, Mrs. Obama put out a "forceful" call to arms this week to "health activists," according to The Washington Post.

She's cracking the whip. Her orders are clear: There must be no escape. The East Wing and its sycophants zealously oppose any effort to alter, delay or waive top-down school meal rules. Big Lunch must be guarded at all costs.

Progressives blame kid-hating Republicans and greedy businesses for the revolt against Mrs. Obama's failed policies. But the truth is right around the corner in your students' cafeterias. Districts are losing money. Discarded food is piling high. Kids are going off-campus to fill their tummies or just going hungry.
 
According to the School Nutrition Association, almost half of school meal programs reported declines in revenue in the 2012-13 school year, and 90 percent said food costs were up. Local nutrition directors are demanding more flexibility and freedom. Look no further than school districts in Los Angeles and Chicago.

As I noted in 2011, the L.A. Unified School District pronounced the first lady's federally subsidized initiative a "flop" and a "disaster." Principals reported "massive waste, with unopened milk cartons and uneaten entrees being thrown away." The problem has only worsened. The Los Angeles Times reported last month that the city's students throw out "at least $100,000 worth of food a day -- and probably far more," which "amounts to $18 million a year."

Draconian federal rules dictate calorie counts, whole-grain requirements, the number of items that children must put on their trays, and even the color of the fruits and vegetables they must choose. Asked for a solution, LAUSD Food Service Director David Binkle told the Times bluntly: "We can stop forcing children to take food they don't like and throw in the garbage."

Or you can do what Arlington Heights District 214 in Michelle Obama's home state of Illinois just did: Vote yourselves out of the unsavory one-size-fits-all mandate. Last week, the state's second largest school district decided to quit the national school lunch program altogether. Officials pointed out that absurd federal guidelines prevented them from offering hard-boiled eggs, hummus, pretzels, some brands of yogurt, and nonfat milk in containers larger than 12 ounces.

The district will deliberately forgo $900,000 in federal aid and instead rely on its own nutritionist to devise healthy choices that students actually want. One local parent summed it up well: "(T)he government can't control everything."

As more schools look to withdraw, you can bet on the White House to ramp up the Republican-bashing rhetoric. Mrs. Obama's advocates have already taken to social media to complain about Big Business special interests. But let's remember: Mrs. Obama has been working the food circuit since 2005, when the wife of newly elected Sen. Barack Obama was named to the corporate board of directors of Wal-Mart processed foods supplier TreeHouse Foods Inc. -- collecting $45,000 in 2005, $51,200 in 2006, and 7,500 TreeHouse stock options worth more than $72,000 for each year.

Fact: The first lady has been the most insatiable crony at the center of the Fed Foods racket. Her nonprofit Partnership for a Healthier America has reported assets of $4.5 million from secret donors.

It's not just mean conservatives pointing out her Big Business ties. The left-wing documentary "Fed Up" made the same point before being edited under pressure. Hello, Chicago Way.

Mrs. Obama's allies also have accused opponents of wanting to repeal "science-based" standards. But the first lady herself was caught spreading false claims that her program was responsible for reducing childhood obesity, when the decline began a decade ago.

And as I've reported previously, deep-pocketed Big Labor's push to expand public union payrolls with thousands more food service workers is also driving Mrs. Obama's agenda.

Waste, failure, lies and special interest ties. If federal food policy were really about the children, the East Wing would be embracing change. But this is not about protecting the kids. It's about protecting Michelle Obama. Her thin-skinned response to criticism is telling:

Hell hath no fury like a Nanny State control freak scorned.

Democrats scuttle key pro-Israel legislation in bid to appease Obama on Iran

Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

  

“Menendez called off the vote in order to prevent Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) from introducing an amendment that would grant Congress a final say on any deal the Obama administration strikes with Iran regarding its contested nuclear program.” Because we all know that Barack Obama and John Kerry can be fully trusted to make agreements that protect our national security and national interests, right?

“Dems Kill Key Pro-Israel bill to Appease White House on Iran,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, May 20, 2014:

The fallout from a rushed, late night decision by a leading Democrat to scuttle key pro-Israel legislation in a bid to appease the Obama administration threatens to complicate efforts by Democrats to hold on to the Senate, according to sources on Capitol Hill and in the pro-Israel community.

Senate Democrats led by Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) pulled from the foreign relations committee’s agenda Monday evening a major piece of pro-Israel legislation known as the U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Act, which would have bolstered defense and intelligence ties between the two nations.

Menendez called off the vote in order to prevent Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) from introducing an amendment that would grant Congress a final say on any deal the Obama administration strikes with Iran regarding its contested nuclear program, according to congressional aides.

Sixty-nine percent of likely voters support congressional oversight on a nuclear deal, according to a poll released by the Israel Project.

Corker’s measure is opposed by the White House, which seeks to bypass Congress in order to push through a controversial deal with Iran that would fully lift economic sanctions in exchange for nuclear concessions.

Corker’s Iran oversight measure would have put Senate Democrats in a tricky political position, forcing them to choose between the White House and the pro-Israel community just months before critical mid-term elections.

Senior officials in the pro-Israel community warned that Menendez’s efforts to insulate his fellow Democrats from taking a politically inconvenient vote will be remembered come November.

“How many more times is this president going to force Senate Democrats to walk the plank for his failed policies?” asked one official with a Washington, D.C.-based pro-Israel group who requested anonymity.

“They already have to defend Obamacare on domestic policy. They already have to defend Benghazi. And now he’s asking them to run interference on appeasing Iran,” said the official. “How many seats do the Democrats have to lose before the president stops punishing them for his terrible judgment?”

The U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Act has been a major legislative item for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the nation’s leading pro-Israel group, which has top members in town this week lobbying congressional offices on the bill.

While AIPAC told the Washington Free Beacon yesterday that it supports Corker’s measure. The group declined multiple times to comment on Menendez’s move to pull the entire piece of legislation.

It is unclear what the group’s strategy will be now that its key legislative item has been put on ice.

“If the [Corker] amendment were offered, AIPAC would certainly not oppose it and has told other members in leadership in the [Senate Foreign Relations Committee] that it would support the amendment if offered,” one insider familiar with AIPAC’s position told the Free Beacon on Monday, hours before Menendez officially pulled the bill.

As Menendez fights to keep the Corker measure from coming to a vote, he and Sen. Mark Kirk’s (R., Ill.) stalled bill to level greater sanctions on Iran continues to garner Senate support.

The bill—which fell apart after the White House launched a massive bid to kill the legislation—attracted 60 co-sponsors, a key threshold of support, when Sen. John Walsh (D., Mont.) signed on in late April.

Senate insiders said the ongoing Democratic support for a bill that is effectively dead sends a strong signal that there is growing unease over the Obama administration’s strategy on Iran….

“A lot more terror attacks coming our way”: former NSA chief

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs

 We reap what Obama sows.

Obama has worked furiously to dismantle the Bush-era counter-terror programs and national security initiatives, turning our intel agencies over to Muslim Brotherhood operatives while targeting patriots, counter-jihad voices and tea partiers.

When it crumbles, it will be devastating.

The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America

‘A lot more terror attacks coming our way:’ former NSA chief,” By Adame Edelman, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS 

Sunday, May 18, 2014, 5:39 PM

Gen. Keith Alexander, the former head of the spy agency, warned in an interview with The New Yorker of a ‘growing’ number of potential attacks on the U.S. 

A former top U.S. security official fears the nation could be attacked again by terrorists.

Gen. Keith Alexander, who retired in March as director of the National Security Agency after eight years on the job, said the probability of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil is increasing.

“The number of attacks that are coming, the probability, it’s growing,” Alexander said in a New Yorker magazine interview published over the weekend. “What I saw at N.S.A. is that there is a lot more coming our way.”

“We’re at greater risk,” Alexander said. “Look at the way Al Qaeda networks. From Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb, and now in Syria, the al-Nusra front.”

“Look at the number of jihadists going into Syria and what they want to do. When put all that together, you can say those are distant countries, but a lot of these groups are looking to attack the United States. I take that threat very seriously”, Alexander added, stressing the need to use controversial spying tactics to help combat terrorism.

Alexander claimed that such tactics — including the agency’s bulk-metadata collection program (which many lawmakers have claimed is unconstitutional) — have contributed to the disruption to at least 54 terrorist plots.

The program, along with another NSA strategy called “reasonable articulable suspicion,” may have even prevented the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Alexander said.

“We know we didn’t stop 9/11. People were trying, but they didn’t have the tools,” he said. “This tool, we believed, would help them.

The post “A lot more terror attacks coming our way”: former NSA chief appeared first on Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs.

RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS

Today, Wednesday, May 21st at 2pm EST on RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS, Craig Andresen and I, Diane Sori, welcome 'America’s Constitutional Sheriff', RICHARD MACK, who will discuss the Bundy Ranch People’s Victory, militias, the 2nd Amendment, and our Constitutional rights. 

Then stick around for our other special guest…DR. JIM GARROW…the 45-year CIA agent who exposed the Obama regime's litmus test for the military…as in THOSE WHO WILL NOT FIRE ON AMERICAN CITIZENS NEED NOT APPLY. And we will discuss with DR. GARROW the cyber attacks by the U.S. Government against RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS with his very interesting takes on that.

It’s going to be FULL and EXCITING SHOW YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS!!!
 
RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS…Today, WEDNESDAY, MAY 21ST FROM 2-4PM EST on CPR Worldwide Media!!! http://cprworldwidemedia.com/

Op-ed: 

And the cover-ups, delays, and subterfuge begin yet again
By: Diane Sori

“I will tell you, I am disturbed by statements out of the White House that say that the president heard about this in the news,”  

- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor when hearing about the injustices done against our veterans

And so the responses from both sides of the aisle are starting to come in and all seem to zero in on the fact that in NO way could Barack HUSSEIN Obama have heard about the ongoing VA scandal for the first time on TV. Who does this lying, military defaming, veteran hating man think he's fooling as he knew damn well about the problems over five years ago when in 2008, VA officials themselves told him and his transition team that the wait times being reported for its facilities were NOT to be trusted.

“This is not only a data integrity issue in which [Veterans Health Administration] reports unreliable performance data; it affects quality of care by delaying - and potentially denying - deserving veterans timely care,” were the exact words said by VA officials.

NOT to be trusted...denying veterans timely care...the VAs very own words and yet Barack HUSSEIN Obama both turned his back on and ignored the plight of those who wore the uniform of our country.

In fact, out of his own mouth, Obama said in 2008 that the "True test of our patriotism is how we treat our returning veterans" thus proving that his lackadaisical attitude towards our veterans as the scope of the scandal unfolds to be that he has NO patriotism for them...that he has NO patriotism for our beloved America...and that he could care less about those who shed their blood...who give their lives...to keep us all safe and free at home.

And a Commander-in-Chief who cares NOTHING for those under his command who have bravely served our country...be they currently fighting in harm's way or now being veterans...should be immediately removed from his position of said command as if he cannot honor, respect, and fight for those who fight for us, then how can they ever respect him...they can't and that's the whole point.

And when you have a president whose designated mouthpiece...in this case the infamous ever lying Jay Carney...still refers to this most grievous of scandals as mere "alleged misconduct" you just know that what's in the best interest of our veterans is NOT in the best interest of this president or his administration.

So like every other scandal on this administrations watch, the Obama much overused excuse that "I heard it on the news" when this news first broke on cable television, will just NOT cut it anymore. The time has come...in fact it's way overdue... for this man...the Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces (God how I hate saying that)...to take responsibility for the nightmare now unfolding at the VA...a nightmare resulting in over 100 deaths to date.

100 veteran's deaths on American soil mean NOTHING to this man but kidnapped muslim girls in a foreign country has him up in arms calling for action...something is so very wrong with this picture.

And saying he's “mad as hell” over the 'supposed' allegations, and that he “has confidence” in VA Secretary Eric Shinseki also means NOTHING for this man could NOT even say the words himself but had to have Carney spew them for him.

And thankfully some on the other side of the aisle are coming out...sort of...against the treatment of our veterans. Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House, at least called the VA scandal a “cover up” that was “outrageous” and “unacceptable.” But even with that there's a caveat with those words as he added that he is “prepared to wait” for Rob Nabors... Obama's choice selected to investigate the problem...to report back after conducting his own investigation before he recommends “any further action.”

So according to Democrats it's okay that our vets continue to get sub-par care...if they even get care...until an Obama mouthpiece 'officially' says there's a problem.

And it's sad to say but the time frame for this abomination to be fully addressed could drag on as long as the Benghazi investigation has dragged on for the bureaucratic red tape that must be trudged through...the circling of the wagons around Obama...always seems to take priority over doing what's right...especially when truths exposed might upset the Obama applecart.

So while the VA Inspector General drags out the investigation into whistle blower allegations that staff at the VA Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, manipulated wait time records for patients seeking care...manipulated them to make it seem like they were complying with set VA standards and guidelines including that patients receive care within two to four weeks...the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs approved a subpoena to garner emails and other written documents from 27 officials, including Shinseki himself, that address the destruction or disappearance of an alternate and/or interim wait list at said Phoenix facility.

But this is but one facility in but one state...there are now similar allegations surfacing about VA facilities in 17 other states making this a scandal of unseen proportions as the very lives of our veterans are on the line while nary a word in person is said...NOT even a teleprompted word...from the man too busy fundamentally transforming our beloved America that he doesn't have time to help or care about those who serve and did serve under his command.

And that my friends is a crime that must be addressed now...NO ifs, ands, or buts...