Doesn't the President of the US always call the 249th pick in the NFL draft?

By Silvio Canto Jr
By now, you may know that Michael Sam was picked 249th in the NFL draft and kissed his partner.
Michael also got a phone call from President Obama!
Frankly, I don't care about Michael's sexual orientation. He is unlikely to play in the NFL team but let's not jump to conclusions. I remember reading that Bart Starr and Johnny Unitas were late draft picks and they turned out OK. So let me wish Michael success with the Rams!
My concern is that President Obama has chosen to politicize a player selection in the NFL draft.
t's one thing for the President of the US to call the #1 pick and wish him well. That's OK with me!
It's like that phone call that presidents used to make to the dressing room of the winning team after the World Series or Super Bowl.
Who remembers Rick Dempsey of the Orioles talking to President Reagan about the Russians after being named MVP of the 1983 World Series? That was one funny phone call!
President Obama calling Michael Sam is not tradition or respect for anything. It is President Obama playing politics and using the NFL draft to change the conversation.
Sorry but I don't like it! We need presidential leadership not more pandering!

Where was Obama during Benghazi? Ask the White House diarist

By Marc A Thiessen
What was President Obama doing during the eight hours that the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, was under attack? Amazingly, we still do not know 20 months later.
But there is an easy way to find out — just ask the White House diarist.
When trying to keep track of the president’s time, most observers look at “WAVE records” (the White House visitors log listing everyone who enters the White House complex) and the “President’s Public Schedule” (which selectively lists the president’s public activities). But there is another document that meticulously records all the president’s activities, public and private, every second of every day. It is called the “President’s Daily Diary.”
Just outside the Oval Office is a room called the Outer Oval, where the president’s secretary and personal aide sit and through which all visitors coming to see the president pass. Staff members in the Outer Oval keep track of the president’s location at all times. They carefully record the names of all individuals who walk into the Oval Office — when they entered, how long they stayed, what the topic of discussion was. They keep a record of all calls made and received by the president, including the topic, participants and duration. They even record the president’s bathroom breaks (they write “evacuating” into the log).
This and other data on the presidents’ whereabouts are collected by a career National Archives employee whose title is White House diarist. This individual preserves them as a minute-by-minute historical record of the presidency for future use by presidential scholars.
What this means is that there exists a minute-by-minute record of where the president was and what he was doing for all eight hours of the Benghazi attack.
So how is it that the White House has failed to give a full account of the president’s whereabouts during that eight-hour period? The White House knows precisely where he was and what he was doing, yet it is refusing to share that information with Congress and the American people. This is unacceptable. Imagine if 20 months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the George W. Bush White House had still refused to account for where the president was or what he was doing that day. There would be outrage and constant demands from the press, Congress and other investigators demanding to know the answer to a simple factual question: Where was the president?
The new congressional select committee on Benghazi should subpoena the “President’s Daily Diary” and call the White House diarist to testify before the committee. There is precedent for doing so. In 1998, the grand jury investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair questioned White House diarist Ellen McCathran. Moreover, the “President’s Daily Diary” is not a classified document. It eventually becomes a publicly available record. There is no reason to withhold it from Congress.

The week ahead in economics: Inflation and Fannie and Freddie

By Joseph Lawler

....This week could bring signs of the rising inflation Yellen is looking for and expecting. On Thursday morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the CPI for March, and economists expect an uptick in inflation. On Wednesday, the BLS will also report on the Producer Price Index, a measure of inflation based on prices received by producers.
This week could be an important one in determining the fate of the bailed-out government mortgage businesses Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Senate Banking Committee was supposed to vote in late April to approve a bipartisan bill that would have replaced the two companies with a system of private capital for mortgage-backed securities, backed by an explicit government guarantee.
That vote was postponed to allow more time to win support from Democrats on the committee. Chairman Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and ranking member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, insisted that they had enough votes to advance the measure, but wanted greater support from the committee.
Last week, however, Bloomberg reported that six Democrats on the committee said that they wouldn't vote for the measure. Those Democrats included Chuck Schumer of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated he wouldn't bring the measure up for a vote in the Senate without strong support from Democrats.
The next two weeks, before the Senate goes on break, could prove crucial for the fate of housing finance reform. Already, analysts say there is little chance of an overhaul becoming law before the election. But the Johnson-Crapo measure was set to become the template for reform if passed in the Senate, but even that possibility would become doubtful if it loses momentum to simply pass the committee.
The Peter G. Peterson Institute will hold its fiscal summit Wednesday in Washington, featuring big political names including Bill Clinton and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, as well as current legislators such as Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
On Thursday, Yellen is scheduled to give an address about small businesses and the economy at the Chamber of Commerce in Washington.
On Friday, the Census Bureau will report on new housing starts for April. Starts are expected to pick up from 946,000 in March to 980,000.

With energy efficiency bill doomed to fail, Senate will pivot to tax cuts

By Susan Ferrechio

With the House out of session this week, the Senate will grab the spotlight in Congress with votes on two key agenda items: energy and tax cuts.
Lawmakers will vote Monday on whether to end debate on an energy-efficiency bill that has been the subject of intense partisan bickering this month.
The bill is authored by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
The measure would help increase the use of energy-efficient technology in homes and businesses and would create jobs, proponents say.
....With no deal in sight, the bill is likely to fail on Monday, leaving lawmakers to debate a tax cut bill that is far more popular.
At a cost of $85 billion, the bill would extend by two years or longer more than 50 tax cut measures for businesses and individuals that expired at the end of last year.
For individuals, they include deduction of mortgage interest premiums, college tuition, charitable contributions and employer-subsidized mass transit costs.
Corporate tax credits in the bill include the popular research and experimentation tax credit and tax breaks for racehorse owners and rum producers.

Daily Beast Contributor: Amb. Chris Stevens was not “Murdered” in Benghazi

By Michael Schaus
Some people on the left have a moral and mental flexibility that would put Lilia Stepanova’s actual flexibility to shame. (Did you just google that name? Kinda cool, huh?) Eleanor Clift, columnist at the Daily Beast, is still blaming some obscure YouTube video for the terrorist attack on America’s consulate in Benghazi. But, that’s not the audacious comments that have sparked outrage.
Clift, in her clinically psychopathic ways (seriously… Google the definition – I’m not making this up) declared that the American Ambassador, Chris Stevens, was not murdered… He “died of smoke inhalation”. This is like saying the people who died in Chicago last week weren’t really murdered. They were merely incapacitated by the introduction of high-velocity 9mm objects into certain life-sustaining organs.
Words matter, Eleanor. Ambassador Chris Stevens was murdered. And your grasp of common decency seems precarious at best. Hillary Clinton might have suggested that the circumstances leading to Steven’s death don’t really matter, but you have reached a new level of heartless politicking.
I mean, is this really the best defense the left can muster for Barack Obama’s abysmal failure to secure our foreign diplomats in dangerous corners of the world? We’re really going to squabble over whether or not Stevens was “murdered” because he died of smoke inhalation during a terrorist attack aimed at killing him?… I guess those terrorists get a “pass”, because their incendiary tactics beat them to their objective.

ICE data: 36,000 illegals with criminal convictions, including homicide, were released during deportation proceedings

A preemptive strike on DHS from the Center for Immigration Studies, designed to make Obama’s upcoming “relaxation” of U.S. deportation procedures as politically painful as possible. He’s desperate to pander to his base, which is impatient after waiting more than five years for amnesty and has now convinced itself based on cooked numbers that he’s some sort of crazed border hawk. That’s where the “relaxation” comes in — and that’s the beauty of CIS’s otherwise grim data, which shows just how relaxed the system already is. Maybe O will consider it a blessing in disguise, though. What true amnesty fan wouldn’t be happy to learn that illegals with a total of 15,000+ DUI convictions between them were free last year to get back behind the wheel on American roads?
Note that these 36,000 offenders are separate from the 68,000 illegals with criminal records who were also released last year and whom CIS reported on back in March. The latter group consists of people whom ICE “encountered” (often in jails) but didn’t seek to remove; the former group is composed of people they did try to remove with formal deportation proceedings but who were released on bond or via some other mechanism while the proceedings played out. How many of them didn’t show up to their next hearing? Good question. We don’t know because ICE hasn’t said.

The document reveals that the 36,007 convicted criminal aliens freed from ICE custody in many instances had multiple convictions. Among them, the 36,007 had nearly 88,000 convictions, including:
193 homicide convictions (including one willful killing of a public official with gun)
426 sexual assault convictions
303 kidnapping convictions
1,075 aggravated assault convictions
1,160 stolen vehicle convictions
9,187 dangerous drug convictions
16,070 drunk or drugged driving convictions
303 flight escape convictions…
Separate information obtained by the Center for Immigration Studies reveals that the vast majority of these releases were discretionary, or even contrary to the requirements of various provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Only a small share of these criminal aliens (fewer than 3,000) were released in accordance with a 2001 Supreme Court decision, Zadvydas v. Davis, which prevents ICE from indefinitely detaining certain aliens whose countries will not accept them back. (See “Reining in Zadvydas v. Davis”.) Another small number may have been offered parole or legal status, either in exchange for their cooperation with ICE or another law enforcement agency in connection with a criminal prosecution, or because of another compelling public interest.

The combined number of convictions for “domestic violence” and “sex offenses” was north of 2,000. And CIS notes that Obama’s 2012 executive amnesty for DREAMers may have enabled some of it, since it’s known that some illegals have claimed they qualify for relief under it and were released before their claim was even checked out. How many? That’s another number that ICE won’t give us.
If you want a taste of just how perilous the big deportation “relaxation” is for the White House, read this BuzzFeed piece from last week about Chuck Schumer — yes, that Chuck Schumer — encouraging the White House to take its time in issuing the order. That’s not because Schumer cares particularly that illegals with more than 220 convictions for kidnappings between them were released during deportation proceedings last year; it’s because he’s afraid that softening up deportation even further right now might be the final straw politically for the House GOP and cause them to abandon amnesty for the rest of the year. Schumer wants the White House to lie low and give Boehner until August (i.e. after the GOP primaries are over) to try to make something happen. If the House is still deadlocked then, Obama can go ahead and issue his order on deportations. Can’t wait to see what numbers CIS is planning to publish that month.

Obama Admin Approves $20 Billion for New Presidential Helicopters

By Awr Hawkins
On May 7 Obama's Department of Defense (DOD) approved "what will likely top $20 billion" for a new presidential helicopter fleet.
The new helicopters will replace the current Marine One fleet.
According to the Daily Mail, the $20 billion total for the new fleet makes them "the most expensive helicopters ever built." To put the cost into perspective, each helicopter will cost the DOD the same price as "an Air Force One 747 jet."
Sirkosky Aircraft Corporation won the new contract, as they were also the only company to bid for the job. The DOD said "other aircraft manufacturers" were not "interested."
The effort to replace the presidential fleet was first pushed early in Obama's presidency, but was shelved after meeting strong opposition. At that time Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said: "Your helicopter is now going to cost as much as Air Force One. I don't think there's any more graphic demonstration of how good ideas have cost taxpayers an enormous amount of money."

Politico: $474,000,000 Spent on 4 Busted Obamacare Exchanges

By Wynton Hall
On Sunday, Politico reported that Oregon, Nevada, Maryland, and Massachusetts have thus far spent $474,000,000 in taxpayer dollars on busted Obamacare exchanges.
"Nearly half a billion dollars in federal money has been spent developing four state Obamacare exchanges that are now in shambles – and the final price tag for salvaging them may go sharply higher," reported Jennifer Haberkorn and Kyle Cheney.
Politico's figures include only the amounts each state has spent thus far, not the total taxpayer dollars granted by the federal government.

Tim Geithner: Obama White House Told Me to Lie
By Matthew Burke
Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says in his new memoir, released today, that the Obama White House instructed him to lie on Sunday talk shows about the economy.
As an example, Geithner referred specifically to a conversation he had earlier with White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer, in which Pfeiffer told him to twist the truth
“I remember during one Roosevelt Room prep session before I appeared on the Sunday shows, I objected when Dan Pfeiffer wanted me to say Social Security didn’t contribute to the deficit. It wasn’t a main driver of our future deficits, but it did contribute,” Geitner said.
“Pfeiffer said the line was a ‘dog whistle’ to the left, a phrase I had never heard before. He had to explain that the phrase was code to the Democratic base, signaling that we intended to protect Social Security.”
Geithner’s revelation shouldn’t exactly be considered a huge surprise....
...Geithner writes in his memoir, called Stress Test, that during a discussion on spending cuts, Pfeiffer argued that “we couldn’t afford to alienate our base and split a weakened Democratic Party in pursuit of an imaginary compromise with Republicans who didn’t want to compromise.”

I Checked My Privilege, And It’s Doing Just Fine

By Kurt Schlichter
Liberals have a new word for what normal people call “success.” They call it “privilege,” as if a happy, prosperous life is the result of some magic process related to where your great-great-great-grandfather came from.
It’s the latest leftist argument tactic, which means it is a tactic designed to prevent any argument and to beat you into rhetorical submission. Conservatives, don’t play their game.
It’s easy to see that this notion that accomplishment comes not from hard work but from some mysterious force, operating out there in the ether, is essential to liberal thought. To excuse the dole-devouring layabouts who form so much of the Democrat voting base, it is critical that they undermine the achievements of those who support themselves. We can’t have the American people thinking that hard work leads to success; people might start asking why liberal constituencies don’t just work harder instead of demanding more money from those who actually produce something.
...Their poisonous notion of privilege is really just another way for liberals to pick winners and losers based not upon who has won or lost in the real world, but upon who is useful and not useful to the progressive project at any given moment.
...For too long we conservatives have played nicely, being good sports about being slandered and returning respect when offered contempt. It didn’t work. It’s time to try something new. And that something new is not taking guff from some 20 year-old gender studies major with a stupid tribal tatt, a sense of entitlement and a big mouth.
What they say is privilege is what we say is a reward for doing more with our lives than waiting for Uncle Sucker to refill our EBT cards. “Privilege” is a result of not being a human sloth, of not doing drugs, of not having kids we can’t afford them, and of not living our lives as a practical exercise in chaos theory.
Check my privilege? I just did, and it’s doing great. If you want some privilege too, maybe you ought to get your sorry behind a job.

Pope Francis should stick to doctrine, stay away from economic 'redistribution'

By John Moody
Pope Francis has spent a year on the Throne of Peter. In that time, his modest style and high-minded ideals have ignited a new optimism and fervor among Roman Catholics, including those who left because of disagreements with some of its teachings.
Francis has gone out of his way to voice support for the world’s poorest citizens, rightly noting that their plight is too often ignored or brushed aside. Until this week, his statements have called for voluntary action by wealthier countries and individuals as the right way to relieve economic inequality. He appealed to our better selves, and in so doing, made us all ask if we could be kinder and more generous. The answer, of course, is yes.
On Friday, however, Francis chose a meeting with – of all people -- officials of the United Nations to endorse what he called “the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state, as well as indispensable cooperation between the private sector and civil society.”
By appearing to sanction what amounts to forced redistribution, Francis grievously exceeded his authority and became what amounts to a robe-wearing politician. He also exposed his Church, one of the wealthiest institutions in the world, to inevitable charges of hypocrisy. And he put himself in a position of having to back up his frothy talk with ruinous action.

All of a sudden, Hillary's not feeling the love from Democrats

By Thomas Lifson

It’s almost as if Democrats are starting to realize that Benghazi is going to take down their formerly presumptive 2016 nominee.

Ben Wolfgang, Washington Times:

Progressive darling Sen. Elizabeth Warren repeated her Shermanesque pledge Sunday and vowed not to run for president in 2016, but she declined to endorse her party’s clear frontrunner, Hillary Clinton.

Rick Moran, AT:

It looks like Vice President Joe Biden is dead serious about running for president in 2016. During a closed door speech before wealthy Democrats in South Carolina, Biden took a shot at the Clinton administration's economic policies in what was described as an "Elizabeth Warren-type" address. (snip)

Biden, a potential 2016 candidate, said the unraveling of middle-class financial security began in "the later years of the Clinton administration," not under George W. Bush, CNN reported Saturday.

On CNN panel yesterday, there was this interesting comparison on Biden’s remarks (via Noah Rothman, Mediaite):

“This is sort of the case that then Senator Barack Obama made against Hillary Clinton back in ’08,”The Atlantic’s Molly Ball said.

We all remember how that worked out.

While I do not discount Hillary’s lust for power, the plain fact is that she is not an attractive candidate. She has none of the charm of her husband, and has accomplished nothing positive in her Senatorial or State Department careers. Benghazi is an open sore, and it could well get badly infected.

Rep. Rogers: Foreign policy more than 'hashtags and selfies'

By Rick Moran

On "Face the Nation," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers loaded up both barrels and let the Obama administration have it.

Politico:

“You can’t base your policy based on what’s trending on Twitter,” the Michigan Republican said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” "It has to be more than hashtags and selfies.”

Rogers said that the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria by the Islamist group Boko Haram was part of a larger problem that's spreading across the Middle East and Africa.

The kidnapping prompted a global response, particularly on social media, where Twitter users organized around the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. Even first lady Michelle Obama joined in, tweeting a photo of herself holding the hashtag on a piece of paper.

There is a “new ecosystem of terrorism" that runs from Nigeria to northern Africa to AQAP in Yemen to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Rogers said.

“This is a huge and growing problem that’s been relatively ignored. I just got back from Chad. Chad has been screaming for help from the United States for two years. On one front, Boko Haram, on the north, they have Al Qaeda, and on the southeast, they have Al Shabbad.”

“Can we help with the girls? I think we can and we should and we must,” Rogers said. But “we also have to worry about the women of Afghanistan — some 11 million. We’re getting ready to walk away from them. In Syria, we have 12 million women who are under siege.”

“This is going to continue to happen unless we have a robust, holistic approach to what is radicalism and extremism popping up all over,” he said.

The administration has wasted an enormous amount of time and effort in trying to achieve a quixotic "settlement" between Israel and the Palestinians. Meanwhile, AQ and its affiliates are running wild in Africa - and have been for years. The problem is that the Obama administration refuses to treat terrorism as a radical Muslim problem, and instead, sees terrorism as a poverty/social welfare problem. Build schools, give out food, dig water wells, and terrorism will go away.

We all know that's not going to happen. Where we're doing it right is in Yemen where our special operators are working closely with the military to attack and degrade AQ in its hiding places in the south.

But our efforts in Pakistan are faltering due to political problems with the Pakistan government, and Afghanistan is being treated as a lost cause. Rogers advice is spot on, but don't expect the administration to approach the terrorism question any differently in the future.