Andrew Malcolm - Investors.com

Cloudy with a 100% chance of scandals: Obama ducks and weaves

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:00:00 GMT

Another awkward day in the unraveling presidency of Barack Hussein Obama.

Beset by a trio of profound scandals, the Democrat had planned for Thursday's public message to focus on foreign affairs through a joint news conference with Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, a NATO ally and fellow conspirator to oust the Syrian regime.

Unfortunately, Obama's advance staff was apparently too busy preparing his next campaign stops to check the Washington weather forecast. It set up the news conference outdoors in the Rose Garden. Wouldn't you know given POTUS' recent luck, it began raining.

Obama did the only thing he would think of: No, he wasn't smart enough to come in out of the rain.

The commander-in-chief ordered two U.S. Marines to bring umbrellas and hold them over the leaders' heads while standing at attention. So, as the two politicians droned on, including translation, the professionals in their dress uniforms got drenched. As did the attending crowd.

Service regulations expressly forbid male Marines from ever carrying an umbrella in uniform. But nothing should ever stop the Real Good Talker from talking at a photo op. Just as oppressive heat and a fainting audience didn't slow his mouth last summer.

At one point Thursday Obama reached over to show the highly-trained Marine corporal how the president wanted the umbrella positioned to keep his face open to cameras.

Speaking of speaking, here's an interesting little revelation from Obama. About the IRS intimidating and harassing conservative political groups, he was asked a straight-forward question:

"Can you assure the American people that nobody in the White House knew about the agency's actions before your Counsel's Office found out on April 22nd?"

Here's the relevant part of Obama's long reply:

"I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the IG report before the IG report had been leaked through the press."

Do you see what Obama did there? He dodged the real question about anyone in his White House knowing of the years-long illegal IRS operations. And he carefully (and revealingly) chose to answer a much more limited, irrelevant and unasked question about his knowledge of the inspector general's report.

This is parsing worthy of the last Democrat attempting to duck scandalous admissions in the White House.

In other Obama administration dirt, remember............

Obama's crisis mis-management: What not to do

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:06:00 GMT

Washington, the former swamp steeped now in ambition, acrimony and duplicity, is quite experienced in handling scandals. They erupt regularly like bipartisan blisters; think of Solyndra and Fast & Furious for two contemporary examples.

If handled correctly -- take responsibility, be sincere, proactive, contrite and get all the bad stuff out there quickly in one tidy, eminently forgettable package -- scandals can heal and leave barely a scar. We described here the initial Benghazi probe as a classic example.

On the other hand, take Barack Obama. Please.

His recent behavior and that of his administration in this ongoing bad news blizzard will be case studies for future generations of communications strategists on how not to address crises.

Obama's never faced much adversity in life. His rhetorical skills carried him. He won a U.S. Senate seat as a Democrat facing Republican Alan Keyes, for pete's sake.

Due to the complicity and/or laziness of the D.C. media, the Democrat's not paid anywhere near a proper price for the countless screw-ups during his 1,577 days in office. An impressive run of luck that seems now to be self-destructing like those 30-second assignment tapes in 'Mission Impossible.'

Obama thought he'd addressed the 9/11 Benghazi deadliness by misleading, distracting, stonewalling and stringing it out over many months to lose steam. But because it involved four American deaths and touched a core national belief about leaving our people unprotected and unrescued, the Benghazi scandal smoldered on.

It burst into full flame again last week after shocking House Oversight hearings with State Dept. whistle-blowers and exposure of lies about the editing of those infamously phony TV talking points of Susan Rice.

Then on Friday came a peremptory apology from the Internal Revenue Service for what was initially described as the political acts of a few rogue agents against conservative groups. Of course, the illegal intimidation and harassment of Obama opponents ran far deeper, far higher and far longer than portrayed.

Worse for Obama, the idea of an agency touching the life of virtually every American using tax laws to suppress presidential opponents plays right into the developing fears of many about the high-living King Barack I.

Then, came revelations of FBI national security fishing expeditions into the phone calls of 100 journalists, a high-handed move that finally pushed the Capitol media into fraternal unity and questioning of Obama. He'll try to answer more questions today.

How did Obama mishandle this trio of tribulation? Let us count the ways: Leading from behind, he let it fester over the............

Obama vows to assign his top Benghazi investigators to the IRS probe

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:42:00 GMT

Our more than 157,000 combined followers on Twitter (click here for that) and on Facebook (then click here to subscribe to that) know that on weekday afternoons we regularly share a selection of that evening's late-night jokes before broadcast.

Usually, we publish a collection of these jokes at the start of each week. Last week several of the shows were in re-runs.

Letterman: Barbara Walters announced her retirement on 'The View.' She was smiling. Had a little cake. Seemed to know where she was.

Fallon: Joe Biden met with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and gave her advice on avoiding war with North Korea. In other words, we're going to war with North Korea.

Leno: A CNN reporter was robbed right in downtown Atlanta. But because it was on CNN, there were no witnesses.

Fallon: Obama told Ohio State grads they need to make the world a better place. Awkward! Students yelled back, "That's your responsibility?" You're the president!"

Fallon: E! network's Twitter account was hacked, tweeting fake stories about real celebrities. Instead of what E! normally does, which is tweet real stories about fake celebrities.

Fallon: The 2016 Democrat presidential primary could be between Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. Biden calls her a worthy opponent, while Hillary calls him "practice."

Conan: A company is coming out with a beer drone to deliver beer to crowd members at music festivals. In a related story, everyone is now fine with drones.

Fallon: President Obama is saying a number of the nation's economic sectors are doing better. Pressed for details, Obama said, "Uh, the 'Iron Man' Sequel sector?"

Fallon: Whole Foods is apologizing for switching the labels on some salads, which caused vegans to accidentally eat chicken. So if you're a vegan who mistakenly ate one of the salads, that's why it was so delicious.

Conan: A recent survey found the first thing a man notices about a woman is her hair. The survey was conducted by The Institute of Lies.

Conan: In a recent poll, Red Lobster was voted one of the top 10 places that cheaters like to take their dates. Which explains Red Lobster's new slogan "A Shameful Act Calls for a Shameful Meal."

Conan: PETA is upset at Chris Christie for killing............

What we know Obama doesn't know grows daily

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:04:00 GMT

A key tenet of Barack Obama's grand design to radically transform the country he did not grow up in is to corrode Americans' confidence in their revered institutions. The Supreme Court. Private enterprise. The national capitol complex. Big business (except for its political donations to him). Congress. Especially Congress, even when it does his bidding.

If Americans come to doubt what they used to believe in, it will be easier for Obama to drive home his own brand of solutions.

Check this from his commencement address in Ohio last week:

"Now, if we're being honest with ourselves, as you've studied and worked and served to become good citizens, the fact is that all too often the institutions that give structure to our society have, at times, betrayed your trust."

He didn't mean Chicago Democrats who haven't kept their political promises. Here's another line from that revealing speech:

"I think it's fair to say our democracy isn't working as well as we know it can. It could do better....Unfortunately, you've grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems; some of these same voices also doing their best to gum up the works."

Well, in recent days this suggested line of thinking has turned around and bit Obama on his own South Side. Let's recap:

We have the lethal Benghazi scandal when Obama's administration was totally unprepared for 9/11 attacks, the president went missing all night, no rescue was even attempted, Obama and pack repeatedly blamed an obscure anti-Islam video for two weeks despite knowing it was terrorism from minute one, they demoted career diplomats who asked questions. And have strung out congressional inquiries in hopes of fading interest in the smoldering scandal.

We have the IRS apologizing on a Friday, hoping to defuse a Tuesday investigative report into its attempted intimidation and successful harassment of a wide variety of conservative groups for years. Just a few over-eager, low-level number crunchers, you understand. Except, wait. Gee, it actually involved supervisors and execs lying to Congress.

That's all against the law, of course. But the agency apologized. So, will the IRS now accept taxpayer apologies in lieu of back taxes?

Obama rushed to point out the IRS is an independent agency, which it isn't. He called the tactics outrageous "if" the reports were true, which the Treasury agency had already admitted.

Then, Tuesday came word the FBI, in an alleged............

And you thought the Sun just sat there burning

Sun, 12 May 2013 13:00:00 GMT

Former journalist, former representative, former senator, former vice president, former husband, former cable channel owner, former inventor and former environmentalist barker Al Gore has obviously given up the global warming game.

It's amazing what a few hundred million petro-dollars will accomplish. And that fortune saves the 65-year-old from life as a late-night TV spokesman for reverse mortgages.

Speaking of hot air, it's amazing what our old Sun does too. (Stunning video coming below.) We so take for granted its rise every morning, even though it isn't rising at all. The Earth is revolving while itself moving through space at about 67,000 miles an hour.

Our Sun has reached middle age as stars go, about four billion years old. It's grown about 6% in that time and -- oh, look, Albert was sort of right about one thing -- increased its surface temperature about 300 degrees. You probably didn't notice.

In another 4.5 or 5 billion years, our Sun will have used up all its hydrogen fuel and started a very long, very nasty decay process that involves cataclysmic things like collapsing and expanding in size out to envelope its three closest planets--Mercury, Venus and -- oh-oh -- Earth. You probably want to have your mortgage paid off by then to avoid a bad Credit Score in Eternity.

Scientists know all this because, thanks to a generation of space telescopes like Hubble, we can watch the slow-motion decay of other distant suns, even though they may well actually have disappeared by the time the light of their decay story reaches Earth.

But NASA is also studying our own star. The Solar Dynamics Observatory was launched three years ago. Even though it's circling the Earth at nearly 7,000 miles an hour and the Earth itself is moving through space about 46 miles every minute, the observatory can stay focused on the Sun.

It snaps a "photo" of the Sun every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths.

This new NASA video includes images at the wavelength of 171 angstroms. (I don't either, except that's extreme ultraviolet.) The sun particles you see are a little more than one million degrees Fahrenheit.

The four-view of the Sun near the video's end includes additional wavelengths.

A couple of things to watch for in the fast-moving video: At 1:11:02............

GOP: Giving workers the right to choose comp time

Sat, 11 May 2013 13:22:00 GMT

Rep Martha Roby gives the Republican Party Weekly Remarks

Hello, everyone, I'm Martha Roby. I'm proud to represent Alabama's Second Congressional District, where my husband Riley and I live and raise our two children, Margaret and George.

Allow me to take this opportunity to wish a Happy Mother's Day to my mom, and to all the moms out there.

It is such a blessing to be a mother. Raising children is an immeasurable joy, but as all moms know, it comes with unique challenges. And it can be especially tough for moms who work outside the home.

Talk to just about any mom or dad and they'll tell you they wish they had more time. They wish they had just one more hour in the day to make life work. Moms and dads need to find time to take their child to the doctor, attend a PTA meeting or make it to the tee ball game.

Think about those caring for elderly parents or military families where one of the parents is about to deploy.

While we may not be able to legislate another hour into the day, we can help working Americans better balance life's demands by offering more flexibility for time away from work.

This week the House passed my bill, the Working Families Flexibility Act, which will remove an outdated and unnecessary restriction on private sector employees accruing comp time, or paid time off, in exchange for overtime.

This bill provides options for working moms and dads who need more time to take care of family responsibilities. It also demonstrates how applying conservative principles can help working Americans in their everyday lives.

What this bill doesn't do is change the 40-hour work week or how overtime pay is calculated. The same protections that have been a part of labor law for decades remain, and we've added additional protections against coercion or unfair treatment. This bill also doesn't add government regulation to the workplace - we have enough red tape as is.

A more flexible workplace isn't a new concept. In fact, many employees in the public sector enjoy this benefit right now. That's because in 1985 Congress passed a law allowing local and state governments to offer their employees the option of comp time.

So, why should the rules be different for employees in the private sector? Why should government workers have more freedom in the workplace than everybody else? And why is Washington restricting employers from offering certain benefits that government itself is free to offer?

Our message to the American people is this: we want to get Washington out of the way of how you use your time. I am proud to champion the Working Families Flexibility Act on behalf of working moms and dads throughout the country.

I join my fellow House Republicans in urging the Democratic-run Senate to take up this bill and pass it soon. And I urge the president to listen to the working parents of our country and promise them he'll sign this bill into law when it reaches his desk. Let's come together to empower Americans with more freedom and more flexibility with their time.

There are big challenges facing this country. Though we've seen some improvement, slow economic growth and job creation is in danger of becoming a new normal.

This bill won't solve the debt crisis, or fix the president's health care law, or simplify the tax code. But the fact that we can't solve the big, overarching problems overnight shouldn't stop us from doing what we can right now to help make life a little easier for working moms and dads.

The Working Families Flexibility Act does that by helping Americans better balance the demands of family and work.

Thank you, and may God bless our mothers, and God bless the United States of America. ####

Obama claims ignorance of 4 muzzled Benghazi whistle-blowers

The Benghazi mystery: Where was Obama as 4 Americans perished?

Americans respond to the Obamas' exercise pitch: 'You take the hike'

Obama: Our economy is 'poised for progress'

Sat, 11 May 2013 13:00:00 GMT

President Obama's weekly remarks

Hi, everybody. Our top priority as a nation is reigniting the true engine of our economic growth -- a rising, thriving middle class. And few things define what it is to be middle class in America more than owning your own cornerstone of the American Dream: a home.

Today, seven years after the real estate bubble burst, triggering the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and costing millions of responsible Americans their jobs and their homes, our housing market is healing. Sales are up. Foreclosures are down. Construction is expanding. And thanks to rising home prices over the past year, 1.7 million more families have been able to come up for air, because they're no longer underwater on their mortgages.

From the day I took office, I've made it a priority to help responsible homeowners and prevent the kind of recklessness that helped cause this crisis in the first place.

My housing plan has already helped more than two million people refinance their mortgages, and they're saving an average of $3,000 per year.

My new consumer watchdog agency is moving forward on protections like a simpler, shorter mortgage form that will help to keep hard-working families from getting ripped off.

But we've got more work to do. We've got more responsible homeowners to help -- folks who have never missed a mortgage payment, but aren't allowed to refinance; working families who have done everything right, but still owe more on their homes than they're worth.

Last week, I nominated a man named Mel Watt to take on these challenges as the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Mel's represented the people of North Carolina in Congress for 20 years, and in that time, he helped lead efforts to put in place rules of the road that protect consumers from dishonest mortgage lenders, and give responsible Americans the chance to own their own home. He's the right person for the job, and that's why Congress should do its job, and confirm him without delay.

And they shouldn't stop there. As I said before, more than two million Americans have already refinanced at today's low rates, but we can do a lot better than that. I've called on Congress to give every responsible homeowner the chance to refinance, and with it, the opportunity to save $3,000 a year. That's like a $3,000 tax cut. And if you're one of the millions of Americans who could take advantage of that, you should ask your representative in Congress why they won't act on it.

Our economy and our housing market are poised for progress -- but we could do so much more if we work together. More good jobs. Greater security for middle-class families. A sense that your hard work is rewarded. That's what I'm fighting for -- and that's what I'm going to keep fighting for as long as I hold this office. Thank you. And have a great weekend. ####

Obama claims ignorance of 4 muzzled Benghazi whistle-blowers

The Benghazi mystery: Where was Obama as 4 Americans perished?

Americans respond to the Obamas' exercise pitch: 'You take the hike'