Hillary Clinton Surrogates Threaten the Competition

Former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm (D-MI) spoke on behalf of inchoate candidate Hillary Clinton on Meet the Press.  Granholm's defense of Hillary's record included an oblique threat against prospective Democrat candidate Governor Martin O'Malley (D-MD)

Granholm may not have been the best surrogate for Mrs. Clinton considering her record governing the Great Lake state.

But Granholm's technique is characteristic of Hillary's presidential politicking. 

Just like the 2008 campaign, Hillary Clinton is relying upon the inevitability argument for the nomination and the White House.  Thus no one should stand in the way of the inevitable coronation, lest they be labeled "sexist". 

The HRC Super Volunteers emailed a New York Times reporter warning the press not to use thirteen terms which are deemed "coded sexism" when applied to the former First Lady/Senator/Secretary of State.   These forbidden words include:  "polarizing," "calculating," "disingenuous," "insincere," "ambitious," "inevitable," "entitled," "over-confident," "secretive,"  and "out of touch."  

Many of these adjectives could easily be applied to many politicians.  But somehow when referring to HRC they become coded sexism. Even a female panel on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews is skeptical that all of the banned words were coded sexism.

How convenient.  Limit the lexicon of the press when referring to the chosen candidate, limit access of reporters covering the campaign and pull credentials of pesky press which are willing to publish "inconvenient truths". 

It is not happenstance that Clinton surrogates sent the cyber dead horse head to Amy Chozick.  Chozick was the journalist who had the temerity to report that the Clinton Global Initiative sent monitors to follow credentialed journalists into the bathroom as well as limiting access to real participant. 

Barack Obama on DHS Funding

  

 During the lame duck session of the 112th Congress, House Republicans fully funded FY 2015 budget, with the exception of Department of Homeland Security, in which a short term continuing resolution was applied to allow for a rider which would not Congressionally fund President Obama's Executive Action on illegal immigration.

 In the new 113th Congress, Senate Democrats refused to allow cloture to debate the DHS bill, lest the funding bill pass on majority terms.  The Obama White House and lackeys in the Lamestream Media and Senate Democrats are striving to frame Republicans for being obstructionists for not rubber stamping Mr. Obama's extra-constitutional effective amnesty. 

 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has suggested bifurcating the Executive Amnesty issue from DHS funding.  But this legislative legerdemain was acceptable to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) only if House Speaker John Boehner acceded to Obama's will.  So far, Speaker Boehner holds the attitude that Senate Democrats ought to "get off their asses" and vote on the House bill. 

The GOP opponents seek to claim that Republicans will endanger the nation due to not funding DHS's $38 Billion budget. Alas, 80% of DHS's 240,000 employees are essential workers, who are required to report to work without a guaranteed pay check (even though all workers have routinely been paid after a budget standoff).  So security should not be an issue, even though the Obama Administration has been hyping the Boko Haram and al Shabob threat on the Mall of America and other Jewish owned shopping centers (but this has nothing to do with certain religions). 

So now the Obama Administration's tact has shifted to hardball politics.  During a townhall meeting telecast on MSNBC and Telemundo, President Obama dared the Republicans to pass the House bill, which would merit another Obama veto.   

  

 May the majorities in Congress stick to their principles and not quickly fold to a passive aggressive bully chief executive.  No matter what, the Lamestream Media is ready to repudiate Republicans. But the shutdown is so targeted that the public won't shed tears over the World War II monument being shut down as during the Flying Flip shutdown of October 2013.

h/t: Bruce Plante

A Hub of Strange Activity Around the Boston Bombing

One of the nicknames for the city of Boston is “The Hub” as Bostonians consider themselves living in “The Hub of the Universe”.   Alas, after the Boston Marathon Bombing, it has become the hub of strange activity.   The race of government investigators to find those responsible for exploding two IED bombs that currently have killed three people and severely injured at least 150 has been conducted over a strange path indeed.

On the one hand, it is wise to remember in breaking news stories that initial reports are often wrong and the fog of war can obscure the truth.  Yet on the other hand, the Fort Hood shootings and the Benghazi bungle has shown how the Obama Administration will consciously publicize false stories, obstruct the truth and deny responsibility when it comes to linking the White House to foreign inspired terrorism during President Obama’s watch. 

Initial reports indicated that along with the two bombs that exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, officials reported that there were five undetonated bombs scattered throughout the marathon route.  Officials later denied that report.  Additionally, Boston Police were tipped off to look for a Yellow Penske Truck with unidentified drivers but dark skinned wearing black clothes which attempted to deliver medical supplies earlier in the day but had been turned back.  Police later dismissed that tip.

In its quest for information about the Boston Bombings, the media focused on one of the two hospitals treating terror victims which had a significant cordon of security.  Reports centered around a young Saudi man as a “person of interest” who was being treated for burns on the hand.  These injuries were different from other blast injuries which involved lacerations to the lower extremities.  

There were reports that the “person of interest” was cooperating with authorities.  The police conducted a search in Revere, Massachusetts (where several of the 9/11 bombers lived) and several bags of evidence were taken.  

There was some controversy about labeling the individual as a “person of interest”.  Commentators with police background noted that once a person is categorized as a suspect, it tips off others who are involved and begins to institute legal protections for the suspect which can kill cooperation and inhibit a quickly moving investigative dragnet.  Since the Saudi person of interest comes from a prominent Saudi family, the tortured lexicon in not calling him a suspect may be to avoid embarrassment to these international elites, the Saudi government or an embarrassment to the Obama Administration. 

Yesterday was a strange day in the Lamestream Media.  Major news organizations like CNN and Fox News were reporting at 1:30 EDT from tips from high placed police sources that a suspect in the Boston Bombings was going to be arrested.  CNN’s John King reportage revealed that it was a “dark skinned man, but he did lingustical gymnastics so as not to report that he was foreign or a Muslim.  



The media expected a 1 PM FBI briefing on the impending arrest that was delayed five times then cancelled.  It is strange that two prominent media sources were burned with this explosive information. 

But putting these strange events in the Hub can best be understood by breaking the Bostonian conceit that it is the Hub of the Universe.  Events our nation's Capital, the  District of Calamity (sic) may have severely impacted the Boston Bombing investigations.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry had a photo op scheduled with a Saudi counterpart.  At the last minute, the meeting became a closed door meeting and the photo op was explained away as a scheduling mistake.  It is strange that Foggy Bottom would have set up a photo op for a scheduling mistake. 

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama had an unscheduled meeting with the Saudi Ambassador.  It was a “walk by” meeting, so as not to have it on the White House schedule.  The procedure is for a lower level Executive Branch official to have a meeting with an open office door and the Chief Executive walks by and notices someone and then has a closed door meeting.

What makes these instances of Executive Branch minutia relevant is how the story changed in Boston.  Sudden, there was no suspect that was going to be arrested.  In fact, the Saudi who had been a person of interest was suddenly slated to be deported.  





This repatriation to the Saudi Arabia for  20-year-old Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi was being framed as being close to his family.  But  Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi comes from a prominent Saudi family which may be supporters of Wahabbism (the sect of Sunni Islam that inspires Al Qaeda).  So the young Saudi with powder mark burns on his hands would be an embarrassment to the Saudi Kingdom and might cause a diplomatic fissure with the United States. Such a white glove treatment for suspicious Saudis is not unprecedented as President Bush let bin Laden family members flee America immediately after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001 

A hospitalized Abdul Rhaman Ali Albabi [photo: Okaz]

When Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi was considered a person of interest, an event file was created.  According to ICE, the reason is under section 212 3B — “Security and related grounds” — “Terrorist activities”.   Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi ‘s visa had been revoked and he had submitted to voluntary departure.  But before these public papers were classified and he was quietly shuffled off to Saudi, The Blaze exposed the situation and officials are reconsidering their strategy.   But the Saudi newspaper Okaz reports that the Saudi consulate has been assured that all Saudis have been cleared, including Alharabi and Nura Kahlid Saleh al-Ajaji

The Lamestream Media has been openly rooting for the Boston Marathon Bombings to be attributable to a White Male or the Tea Party.  Soon after the dust settled on the terror attacks, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and MSNBC’s Chris Matthews allowed speculation that  the violence is linked to the right wing since it was Tax Day and Patriots Day.  Salon had a headline that “Let’s Hope the Boston Bomber Is a White American” because it would set back the cause of liberalism for amnesty and gun control.   

So if the reports  about the linkage with the Saudis and dark skinned males are accurate, it does not fit the narrative which the Obama Administration would approve.  The Fort Hood shootings in  November, 2009 where 13 people were killed and by US Army Major (and self proclaimed Soldier of Islam) Abdul Malik Hassan who shouted “Allahu Ackbar” (God is Great) during the attack was simply an instance of workplace violence since terror only happens during President George W. Bush’s Administration.  This convenient conceit keeps those killed and injured from being given Purple Hearts or qualifying for combat benefits.   And the attack the US Benghazi Consulate on September 11, 2012 was due to a YouTube video because the Obama Administration had Al Qaeda on the run in the run up to re-electing President Obama.

Although officials are publically poo-pooing leads about the other undetonated bombs and the rogue Yellow truck lead, those do fit into a pattern typical of Palestinian terrorism. Walid Shoebat, a former Palestinian terrorist turned Evangelical Christian, suggests that Boston Bombing had the hallmarks of a knockout terror attack.  It uses IEDs to inflict maximum human suffering. The staggered explosions to stampede, terrorize and injure the innocent when killing first responders.  And the turned away Penske truck with medical supplies mimics  Hamas tactics to target first responders and use ambulances as tactics of terror. 

Before jumping to conclusions, it would be wise for the facts to shake out.  Unfortunately, experience has taught that the Obama Administration and the compliant Lamestream Media are happy to shun inconvenient truths.  And the hub of strange activity around the Boston Bombing has done nothing to dispel this perspective. 

Strange days indeed.