The silence of the Obamas: America’s royal family’s newest vacation

By Judson Phillips
Barack Obama is celebrating the increase in America’s debt ceiling by spending more money on himself and his family. Fresh from a lecture to America on income equality, the Obamas are off on vacations that would make billionaires jealous.
The mainstream media have been almost silent on yet another opulent Obama vacation. Actually two Obama vacations: Barack Obama headed off to California for a three day golf vacation, while Michelle headed to Aspen, the winter playground of the rich and famous. Michelle, who sometimes thinks she is a queen, not a first lady, flew with her children — at taxpayer expense — to Aspen, Colorado.
The rich and famous were seriously inconvenienced for an hour while Aspen’s airport was shut down so that she could arrive without impediment on her government jet.
It must be tough being the Obamas. Just a month ago, they were off on a two week golf vacation to Hawaii. There have been myriad other vacations. They go to Martha’s Vineyard. She goes to Spain with her girl friends. She takes the children on an African adventure. He golfs and golfs and golfs.
The hypocrisy could not be more stunning.

The Income Equitists' Annual February Getaway

By Jeannie DeAngelis
...Economic malaise or not, by most standards, this Obama vacation thing has gotten way out of hand.

Who gets to go to Hawaii at Christmas, Martha's Vineyard in the summer and Colorado in February, and then round out the tri-annual excursion schedule with trips to various locales around the globe? Sometimes, in June and October, Michelle uses private time with Sasha and Malia as an excuse to drag along 'close friends' to Spain or to visit Africa to fill up on oodles of fried fat cakes.

If an old Hollywood movie were to depict the Obama lifestyle, Barry and Shelley would be Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Shall We Dance. Meanwhile, like Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, a huge swathe of Americans shuffle around in a dustbowl of despair.

Adding to the outrageous nature of the president and first lady taking luxury vacations while the rest of the nation languishes in a state of unrelenting financial, social, and emotional misery is the fact that the real costs of the Obama jaunts are virtually impossible to document.

Tom Fitton, President of watchdog group Judicial Watch, claims "The Obama administration has simply stopped voluntarily producing information about the costs of the travel... They are in cover up mode."

And well they should be!

...Either way, Fitton is convinced "The Obamas are abusing the perks of public office," and that "Taxpayers shouldn't be footing the bill for their luxury travel."
With all due respect,Mr. Judicial Watch sounds rather judgmental. Isn't Tom aware that as far as Michelle and Barry are concerned, every vacation is a "working vacation?"

That's right, despite every second of everyday that they spend frittering away taxpayer money; no one is more concerned about income inequality in America than Barack and Michelle Obama.

Obama: CA Central Valley drought due to climate change

By Ed Morrissey
.... Barack Obama came to California’s Central Valley to declare that global warming is what has made the drought so difficult for farmers there:
Actually, the problem for Central Valley farmers is that their water got taken from them by a federal judge, who put a baitfish ahead of human beings. Central Valley’s water-management system was designed to deal with droughts that last as long as five years, but the reservoirs that held its lifeblood got emptied into the ocean to rescue the Delta smelt. It began five years ago, and as Investors Business Daily reports, the locals remember it better than Obama does:
The one thing that will mitigate droughts in California — a permanent feature of the state — is to restore the water flow from California’s water-heavy north to farmers in the central and south. That’s just what House Bill 3964, which passed by a 229-191 vote last week, does.
But Obama’s plan is not to get that worthy bill through the Senate (where Democrats are holding it up) but to shovel pork to environmental activists and their victims, insultingly offering out-of-work farmers a “summer meal plan” in his package.

...Environmental special interests managed to dismantle the system by diverting water meant for farms to pet projects, such as saving delta smelt, a baitfish. That move forced the flushing of 3 million acre-feet of water originally slated for the Central Valley into the ocean over the past five years.

In fact, Obama threatened to veto a bill that would have resolved this situation almost exactly two years ago. Instead, Obama insisted that the environmentalists needed to keep channeling water away from this rich agricultural resource and from the farmers who had worked it for generations, thanks to their own engineering genius at defeating droughts, to pour that water into the Pacific Ocean instead.
This isn’t global warming. It’s what happens when you stop irrigating land by purposefully taking water away. That buck stops at the podium Obama used to blame Gaia and carbon for his own sins of commission and omission.

By Bridget Johnson
....The administration announced a series of actions anchored in the departments of Agriculture and Interior intended to combat the longstanding economic effects of the drought in the nation’s breadbasket, including $5 million in additional assistance to California through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program that “helps farmers and ranchers implement conservation practices that conserve scarce water resources, reduce wind erosion on drought-impacted fields and improve livestock access to water” and $5 million in targeted Emergency Watershed Protection Program assistance to the most drought-impacted areas of California “to protect vulnerable soils.”
The White House also announced that $60 million has been made available through the USDA’s Emergency Food Assistance Program to food banks in California and 600 summer meal sites would be established in drought stricken areas. The USDA is “making $3 million in grants available to help rural communities that are experiencing a significant decline in the quality or quantity of drinking water due to the drought obtain or maintain water sources of sufficient quantity and quality.”
...The most notable part of his proposals is $1 billion he’ll be calling for in his overdue budget for a Climate Resilience Fund.
“In addition to responding to the immediate drought in California, the President believes that we must do more to help communities across the country become more resilient to the effects of climate change. Recent events have reinforced our knowledge that our communities and economy remain vulnerable to extreme weather and natural hazards,” the White House said. The funds would go toward research, local measures to mitigate climate change risk, and “breakthrough technologies and resilient infrastructure that will make us more resilient in the face of changing climate.”

There Oughta Be a Law(yer)

By Clarice Feldman
...It didn't get sufficient play, but the very week of this latest outrageous overreaching, the most important court in the U.S. apart from the Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, finally lowered the boom on executive legislating. Tim Carney of the Washington Examiner drew attention to this welcome development.
The issue in the case was the IRS' expansion of its authority requiring tax preparers "to be licensed, pay fees and undergo federally approved training every year." The regulations were written by former H & R block CEO Mark Ernest (an ethical problem under the law), and were not authorized by the relevant federal law, which only allows the IRS to regulate those who "represent" people before the Treasury.
The Court, in a unanimous decision, smacked down this overreaching, in what I hope will be a harbinger for other matters in which the Executive branch has taken upon itself legislative prerogatives. Per Carney:

The court ruled that the IRS has no authority to regulate tax preparers: "[N]othing in the statute's text or the legislative record contemplates that vast expansion of the IRS's authority," the court wrote.
The Obama administration's argument was absurd, and the unanimous opinion was appropriately blistering: "In light of the text, history, structure, and context of the statute," Judge Brett Kavanaugh wrote, "it becomes apparent that the IRS never before adopted its current interpretation for a reason: It is incorrect."
But this is what the Obama administration does. Frustrated that Republicans control the House and can filibuster in the Senate, Obama has tried to become a superlegislator. Obama has -- illegally -- delayed the employer mandate twice, discarded the income-verification requirement for exchange subsidies, extended subsidies to state-run exchanges and allowed employer subsidies for congressional staff. And that's just on Obamacare.
Maybe the circuit court ruling on the tax-prep rules will remind Obama he's not a lawmaker anymore.

....However this is resolved, it is worth noting that Columbia Law School graduate Eric Holder and Harvard Law School graduate Barack Obama together have demonstrated the most outrageous disregard for the rule of law in American history. What's going on here, that graduates of two of the country's most prestigious law schools do not respect or even attempt to follow centuries of settled law and tradition, the very things that have kept us from devolving into the autocracies and banana republics of so many other nations?

American Cancer

By D L Hammack

...One definition of cancer describes it as "a fast-spreading bad phenomenon: usually something negative that develops or spreads quickly and usually destructively." Unchecked, cancer can and will devastate the body and grow exponentially without treatment or removal. What we are witnessing with the daily actions of the president's "pen" are nothing more than the spread of the disease. With each unchecked, unconstitutional action you are given a front row seat to watch it grow in its reach and destruction. Sure, some are voicing their concern over the pain in our gut, but won't go so far as to determine how to get rid of the disease. It started out with DOMA, when the president stated that his justice department would no longer defend this law. Then came the DREAM act, and now we have 28 unconstitutional changes to the PPACA health care law. That is exactly how cancer starts out: Slowly at first and then when the disease realizes that its presence has gone unnoticed, it spreads out to the next cell (law) and the next and so on. Before you know it, the body no longer recognizes the difference between the bad cells and the good ones. This president has recognized that, for whatever reason, his unlawful acts are not being challenged. The media, years ago, used to be the "sunshine disinfectant" by keeping our leaders in check. They were the MRI that would expose the cancer to the public. Now they blindly dismiss the growth as nothing more than a figment of our imagination. We're all hypochondriacs now! This cancer now spreads and grows bolder each and every day.
Most of us who pay attention recognize that something is seriously wrong at this juncture in our history. There are far too many "scandals" and usurpations of power to simply dismiss as "something other presidents have done." Far too many have retreated in their outspoken criticism of this administration, for fear of reprisal from the arms of government. My wife has actually begged me to abstain from penning my words for fear of retaliation.

Think the Koch Brothers Are Among the Top 10 All-Time Political Donors? Sorry, You Are Wrong. Very Wrong.

By Oliver Darcy
The Koch brothers, notorious for donating large sums of money to right-leaning political causes, might not be as influential as some may think.
Opensecrets.org recently compiled a list of the top “all-time donors” from 1989 to 2014 and the infamous duo not only fail to take the top slot, but even place in the top 10.
In fact, according to the data, Koch Industries places 59 on the list with $18 million in donations, 90-percent of which went to Republicans.
So who takes the top spot? An organization called “ActBlue” which bills itself as a PAC “allowing individuals and groups to channel their progressive dollars to candidates and movements of their choosing.”
That group has donated more than 97 million to political causes, with over 99-percent going to Democrats.
The Washington Examiner has more:

So who occupies the 58 spots ahead of the Evil Koch Bros? Six of the top 10 are … wait for it … unions. They gave more than $278 million, with most of it going to Democrats.
These are familiar names: AFSCME ($60.6 million), NEA ($53.5 million), IBEW ($44.4 million), UAW ($41.6 million), Carpenters & Joiners ($39.2 million) and SEIU ($38.3 million).
In other words, the six biggest union donors in American politics gave 15 times more to mostly Democrats than the Evil Koch Bros.

ConstitutionSays 'All Men' Are Created Equal? NYT, NBC Got it Wrong, Too

By Michael W Chapman

In her ruling yesterday that Virginia’s ban against gay marriage was unconstitutional, U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen confused language from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, an error that was quoted in a New York Times story but not corrected by the “newspaper of record," and also was repeated by NBC News and not corrected.

In the first paragraph of her Feb. 13 ruling for the Eastern District of Virginia, Judge Allen wrote, “Our Constitution declares that ‘all men’ are created equal. Surely this means all of us.” (See edva-ssm-opinion.pdf)

However, the Constitution does not say that; in fact, the words “all men” do not appear as a phrase in the Constitution at all.

The second paragraph in the Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

In his Feb. 14 story for the New York Times, reporter Erick Eckholm wrote: “A federal judge on Thursday evening declared that Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, in the strongest legal reversal yet of restrictive marriage amendments that exist throughout the South."

The Times continued, '''Our Constitution declares that 'all men' are created equal,''' wrote Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen of United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in Norfolk. ‘Surely this means all of us.’”

The New York Times article did not correct the judge’s misquotation or explain from where the phrase “all men are created equal” originated.

In a report late on Feb. 13, NBC News reporter Miranda Leitsinger also quoted Judge Allen's statement -- "Our Constitution declares that 'all men' are created equal" -- without correction.

Where are the Adherents to the Constitutional Oath?

By Jen Kuznicki

If the President of the United States can change a law without consulting Congress, what makes him different than a King?

Article I Section 1 of the United States Constitution, of which this President swore to uphold, on a Bible containing the Word of God, grants the powers to Congress, which in Section 2 describes the House and Section 3, the Senate. Big deal, eh? Who cares that Sections 4 and 5 have to do with elections and rules, because if we have a King, it doesn't matter.

If that is all true, then why in Article I Section 6 do we bother to pay the House members or the Senate?

And I'm still waiting for an answer on why the law Obama keeps unlawfully changing is still a law, since it did not originate in the House of Representatives, as all revenue raising bills are to do as described in Article I Section 7.

Or are we just skipping the first 7 sections and going right for the meaty, "Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes" and to borrow money and make laws and so on as found in Article I Section 8.

Woe to the current leadership of Congress and present occupant of the White House, for they are certainly not giving the people much confidence in their actions, and are punishing us for their lack of courage and clarity of thought, but especially because they swore on the Bible they would defend that Constitution and protect us from enemies foreign and domestic.

Not only that, but they work in slow motion when the people who are actually defending the Constitution are targeted by the administration, I mean, where is the leadership, and why do the citizens even have to say something? They are supposed to uphold the Constitution for us!

President Barack Hussein Obama has refused to enforce laws, and has promised to continue to do so. He has enacted new law by his own word, he has sued certain States and declared the Congress in session when it was not, and unconstitutionally appointed officials overriding Congress. To offend so cavalierly the sense of justice to the American people is a direct act of High Crimes and Misdemeanors mentioned in Article II Section 4, and if impeachment will not be pursued by this Congress, perhaps the next will consider it.

But since I, and many have very little faith that Congress will do what is necessary to uphold the Constitution, there is always an Article V Convention of States, for which one State so far duly applied, and many others are considering.

Is Our Commander, Covert Or Criminal?

By Kevin McCullough
On January 1 an agreement between the United States and our most hostile enemy went into effect. This agreement was secretly negotiated at secret meetings by a secret Presidential trip, and a secretive Secretary of State.
This super secret agreement we were told would bring peace in our time.
We were told that it would hold Iran accountable, and cause them to roll back, or at least halt current uranium enrichment necessary for nuclear weapons.
We were told that the world would be safer because this agreement came about. And we were told it represented the national security interests of the United States of America.
We were told this by the administration's mouthpieces, and even the President himself.
The only problem however is that there is now no way for "We The People" to know if our employee, one Barack Hussein Obama, is telling the truth.
And in our representative republic there is no way for our representatives--even ones legally empowered to watch foreign affairs and national security specifically--to be able to know.
Why?
Because the President has the text of the agreement--an agreement we are told is unclassified--being squirrelled away--and is off limits.
... President Obama agrees to something while working on our behalf without so much as consulting those who represent us? Afterwards he expects the powers in Congress that sheriff foreign affairs to enforce an agreement that he is not allowing them to see?
And when does the President "allow" Congress anything? He's not a dictator and this isn't a police state is it? (You know aside from the wide spread spying on the press and the people and then turning around to take revenge out on its perceived threats domestically.)
We-The-People should be the one to get to know the basic details of what the Iranian agreement entails. At a very minimum our bipartisan members on the House subcommittee on Foreign Affairs overseeing all dealings with the Middle East and Northern Africa should be allowed to peruse it.
Not doing so merely means that the President is hiding something.
So is it covert? Or criminal?
Whatever that answer is for us we just gave--the leading exporter of terror on the planet--billion's of dollars. And every suicide bomber they fund going forward will have President Obama's super secret agreement to thank.
Meanwhile in Tehran... they just laugh.

Iranian Oil Exports Soar as Sanctions Collapse

Iran to get ‘well more than $20 billion’ in sanctions relief

By Adam Kredo
Iranian oil exports soared in January, hitting new highs just months after the United States consented to billions of dollars in economic sanctions relief under the interim nuclear deal.
Exports of Iranian crude oil jumped to 1.32 million barrels, up from December’s high of 1.06 million barrels, according to data from the International Energy Agency.
The spike in exports—mainly to Japan, China, and India—has helped Iran’s once-ailing economy stabilize and decrease inflation.
Iranian oil exports have steadily risen since negotiations with the West restored confidence in Tehran’s economy. The increase runs counter to a promise by the Obama administration that “Iran’s oil exports will remain steady at their current level of around 1 million barrels per day.”
The significant rise in oil exports has led some experts to accuse the Obama administration of misleading the public about the amount of sanctions relief provided under the interim nuclear deal.
While the White House said Iran would receive no more than $7 billion in relief, these experts say that the rise in oil exports and other economic spikes will give Iran “well more than $20 billion.”
“These numbers … cast doubt on the accuracy of the administration’s estimates for sanctions relief,” former Ambassador Mark Wallace, CEO of the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, said in a statement. “The $6 or $7 billion estimate does not take into account the tens of billions of dollars Iran will reap from increased oil sales.”
“It is becoming more and more evident that the Geneva deal provided Iran with disproportionate sanctions relief, in exchange for far less significant concessions regarding its nuclear program,” Wallace said.

PK'S NOTE: And from the media. Shocked face.

Crickets from White House as Venezuelans Risk All to Throw Out the Chavistas

By Bridget Johnson
Florida lawmakers are trying to turn the Obama administration’s attention toward two weeks of escalating deadly protests in Venezuela, where protesters frustrated with the socialist government have taken to the streets to demand a better country.
The late Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian experiment, continued by his handpicked successor Nicolas Maduro, has resulted in an economy in tatters, sky-high crime, and massive government corruption.
Maduro has put the world on “alert” that he’s “facing a developing coup plan against the democracy and the government that I preside over, orchestrated by a small group of irresponsible leaders, violent, full of hatred and personal ambitions.” Protesters have demanded he resign.
“So we are deeply concerned by rising tensions, by the violence surrounding these February 12^th protests, and by the issuance of a warrant for the arrest of opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. We join the Secretary General of the OAS in condemning the violence and calling on authorities to investigate and bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of peaceful protestors. We also call on the Venezuelan government to release the 19 detained protestors and urge all parties to work to restore calm and refrain from violence,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said at Friday’s press briefing.
In addition to three protesters killed and dozens wounded, the government ordered all cable providers to stop carrying Colombian news channel NTN24 because it was broadcasting the protests live.
“Let me see what I have on that. Well, certainly, as we do everywhere, we support press freedoms, citizens’ rights to freedom of expression. Obviously, this includes press freedom. We – I haven’t seen the thing about the Colombian TV station,” Harf said. “We do understand that some newspapers are having difficulty securing newsprint, ink, and other supplies to publish, and that some have reduced their pages to conserve newsprint or to stop publishing completely. Obviously, we believe the government should take actions to fix the solution, that it’s not okay, that press freedom is a cornerstone of what we think is important both in Venezuela but also around the world.”
That’s the only response that’s come out of the Obama administration.

Feds to Spend $3 Million for ‘Greater Understanding’ Between United States and Russia

Projects facilitate ‘closer ties’ between Russian and American summer camps

By Elizabeth Harrington
The federal government will spend up to $3 million to build “greater understanding” between Russians and Americans by facilitating projects such as summer camp counselor exchanges.
The State Department announced on Tuesday it would award approximately 30 grants worth up to $100,000 each for its “US-Russia Peer-to-Peer Dialogue Program,” which seeks to enhance “greater interaction and understanding between our two societies.”
The funding will go towards exchange programs, web-chats, seminars, interactive training, and classroom activities. The government said topics can focus on “any theme,” suggesting higher education, cultural exchange, journalism, environment, or civil society.
Projects that received funding last year included a camp counselor exchange, a project to “protect salmon,” and a “cool school lab” that sought to establish “long-term collaboration between biology teachers in both countries.”
The program seemingly originated out of the Obama administration’s “reset” with Russia.
..The program is also funding a documentary project on “disability-related issues” made by Russian and American filmmaking teams, and a “Green Building U.S.-Russian Peer-to-Peer Dialogue.”
“The project will encourage ongoing dialogue between US and Russian professionals on the topic of green building and sustainable construction,” a description of the grant said. “This dialogue will encourage the exchange of knowledge, best practices and experience in the design, construction, operation and maintenance, and financing of healthy and high performing places, resulting in the creation of direct personal relationships between U.S. and Russian citizens and companies.”