The Rich Get Richer: Obama-Style Crony Capitalism

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Photo Credit: Brendan SmialowskiFor most Americans, Friday was not a very good day. Sequestration kicked in amid a drumbeat of reports about the pocketbook hits that we would take and the illegal immigrants released because of the cuts, the Commerce Department announced that personal income took its biggest hit in 20 years, and the Performance of Manufacturing Index reported a drop. Oh, and earlier in the week, fourth-quarter GDP growth was revised to a paltry 0.1 percent. Unemployment has remained up, the ranks of the poor have swelled, existing small businesses are staggering, and few new ones are being created.

But, for the privileged few at the high-end of President Obama’s coalition, things look far less bleak. The stock market yawned at sequestration and then rose. The S&P is near a five-year high and is up by 10 percent over the past 12 months.

How concerned is Obama by the bad news and the sequester cuts that on Friday he termed “dumb,” “unnecessary,” “arbitrary,” and “inexcusable”? Not very, one would think, since his own 2012 budget forecast projected the very cuts in discretionary spending that the president now abjures, and described them in glowing terms. As Columbia’s Jeffrey Sachs recently pointed out. “the level of spending for fiscal year 2013 under the sequestration will be nearly the same as Mr. Obama called for in the draft budget presented in mid-2012.” Indeed, the White House budget forecast boasted that it would “bring domestic discretionary spending to its lowest level as a share of the economy since the Eisenhower administration.”

For some reason, none of this feels like government by or for the people, and it isn’t. Rather, it seems as though “crony capitalism” is the watchword for this administration. Strip away Obama’s showmanship and scolding, and the president has done just fine in protecting the interests of the top 1 percent, especially among those who were his contributors and the right kind of 1 percenters.

Take green energy, the holy grail of the high end of the president’s base. Solyndra, the now-bankrupt manufacturer of solar panels, received more than half a billion dollars in government-guaranteed loans. One of the company’s key backers was billionaire George Kaiser, a 2008 Obama fundraiser—small world.

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Robert Reich Accuses Tea Party Of ‘Plot To Undermine’ U.S. Government

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Photo Credit: Getty Images In a column posted Friday at Salon.com, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich accused the Tea Party of engaging in a plot to “undermine the government of the United States, to destroy much of its capacity to do the public’s business, and to sow distrust among the population,” Breitbart.com reported Saturday.

According to Reich, sequestration is “only the start.”

“What they set out to do was not simply change Washington but eviscerate the U.S. government — ‘drown it in the bathtub,’ in the words of their guru Grover Norquist – slashing Social Security and Medicare, ending worker protections we’ve had since the 1930s, eroding civil rights and voting rights, terminating programs that have helped the poor for generations, and making it impossible for the government to invest in our future,” he added.

Joel B. Pollack reminded readers that sequestration was Obama’s idea — something he said Reich downplayed. Pollack then asked if, in Reich’s view, Obama is “some kind of Manchurian Tea Party candidate designed to demonstrate the failure of liberalism?”

Pollack also observed that it was Obama who tried to stir up fear and anger among the American people with dire predictions of gloom and doom. “And,” Pollack added, “perhaps Reich should be reminded that it was Democrats who consciously chose a strategy of fear in selling Obamacare to the public.”

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Bizarre Sex Games In Today’s Army Training

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Photo Credit: WND(Warning: The following report contains details of a sexually graphic nature that may offend some readers.)

It’s a case of soldiers gone wild: An eyewitness tells WND a U.S. Army installation in Hawaii held a Valentine’s Day official “training” event in which male and female soldiers were offered prizes in a race to put condoms on sex toys.

WND confirmed a presentation on sexually transmitted diseases had taken place at the Schofield Barracks in Oahu, Hawaii, on Feb. 14. The source, who asked to remain nameless due to the nature of the source’s job – told WND the training event began with a presentation on substance abuse and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

“Once the slideshow was complete, the instructors asked for four volunteers,” the source said. ”From those who raised their hands, they selected two male and two female soldiers. The instructors split them into two groups with a male and female in each and had them walk up on stage.

“Two small tables covered with blankets had been on the stage throughout the presentation. The soldiers were told to remove the blankets from the tables. They did, exposing erect male penis devices lit-up and sitting on each table.”

The source said many of the hundreds of soldiers and Defense Department civilians and contractors present “immediately appeared uneasy by what was transpiring.” According to the eyewitness, the age group of the audience ranged from late teens to early 70s, with a median age of around 30. Half of the attendees were reportedly women.

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Conservatives Pushing Boehner, Cantor To Defund ObamaCare In Continuing Resolution

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Photo Credit: breitbartConservative House Republicans are circulating a letter calling on House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to defund Obamacare in the upcoming continuing resolution that funds the government. Oklahoma Republican Rep. Jim Bridenstine, a freshman, and Kansas Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp are leading the charge.

“The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (‘ObamaCare’) remains broadly unpopular across America,” the letter to Boehner and Cantor reads. “More and more Americans are now feeling its impact–from job losses and part-time downgrades, to insurance policy changes and violations of religious liberties, to state budget strains from Medicaid expansions. And Americans don’t like these impacts. Most Americans still believe that healthcare should be controlled by patients and doctors, not by the government.”

In the letter, the conservatives note that while they plan to “re-start efforts to repeal ObamaCare in its entirety this year, next year and until we are successful,” that “in the meantime, there is more we can do in Congress.”

The upcoming continuing resolution, which funds the government, is one such place. House Republicans have the power, should they choose to use it, to shut down Obamacare through the appropriations process–the power of the purse laid out in the United States Constitution.

It is unclear if Boehner and Cantor will defund Obamacare this time around. Over the past couple years, they have passed continuing resolutions that actually fund Obamacare. Spokespeople for both Boehner and Cantor have not returned requests for comment from Breitbart News on this matter.

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Scientists Say Baby Born With HIV Apparently Cured

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Photo Credit: APA baby born with the virus that causes AIDS appears to have been cured, scientists announced Sunday, describing the case of a child from Mississippi who’s now 2½ and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection.

There’s no guarantee the child will remain healthy, although sophisticated testing uncovered just traces of the virus’ genetic material still lingering. If so, it would mark only the world’s second reported cure.

Specialists say Sunday’s announcement, at a major AIDS meeting in Atlanta, offers promising clues for efforts to eliminate HIV infection in children, especially in AIDS-plagued African countries where too many babies are born with the virus.

“You could call this about as close to a cure, if not a cure, that we’ve seen,” Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, who is familiar with the findings, told The Associated Press.

A doctor gave this baby faster and stronger treatment than is usual, starting a three-drug infusion within 30 hours of birth. That was before tests confirmed the infant was infected and not just at risk from a mother whose HIV wasn’t diagnosed until she was in labor. “I just felt like this baby was at higher-than-normal risk, and deserved our best shot,” Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatric HIV specialist at the University of Mississippi, said in an interview.

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‘B—h,’ ‘C–t’: Reporters Open Up About Obscenities And Abuse From Obama Spokespeople

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Photo Credit: Weaselzippers)Bob Woodward’s alleged “threat” from the White House has touched off a storm of conservative support for the Washington Post editor, and has forced the Obama administration onto the defense. It also may have opened up a floodgate of information — information that suggests that, even if Woodward himself was not threatened or abused, other less venerable reporters have faced such treatment.

The New York Post reports:

This administration is more skilled and disciplined than any other in controlling the narrative, using social media to circumnavigate the press. On the flip side, our YouTube culture means even the slightest gaffe can be devastating, and so you have an army of aides and staffers helicoptering over reporters.

Finally, this week, reporters are pushing back. Even Jonathan Alter — who frequently appears on the Obama-friendly MSNBC — came forward to say he, too, had been treated horribly by the administration for writing something they didn’t like.

“There is a kind of threatening tone that, from time to time — not all the time — comes out of these guys,” Alter said this week. During the 2008 campaign swing through Berlin, Alter said that future White House press secretary Robert Gibbs disinvited him from a dinner between Obama and the press corps over it.[…]

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‘Know Your Place’: Elite Media Target Herman Cain (+video)

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Photo Credit: breitbartThere is no greater danger to the left (and therefore the media) than minorities who “forget their place” and join the Republican Party. Each time this occurs, it represents a two-part existential threat. First, these apostates undermine the cherished media narrative that portrays Republicans as intolerant of anyone who isn’t white or male. Second, those who think for themselves might give others ideas. And so, in order to terrify others into “knowing their place,” the media targets “runners” for personal destruction.

In order to destroy apostates, the left and the media are merciless and oftentimes willing to cater to the worst kind of racial stereotype. Some twenty years ago, during his confirmation hearing, the left and media attempted to paint Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as a not-very-bright sexual predator. Recently, Hispanic Republican Senator Ted Cruz was attacked for being too “uppity.”

Now it’s Herman Cain’s turn.

Born into relative poverty in 1945 (his mother was a domestic worker, his father a chauffeur), Herman Cain is a Stage IV cancer survivor and self-made millionaire who served as Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Omaha Branch, and as the CEO of the National Restaurant Association. Cain has written a syndicated column, hosted a successful talk radio show, and ran for president twice.

Yet, for some odd reason, this resume just isn’t good enough for the media. Ever since Fox News announced the hiring of Cain as a regular contributor, the elite media has coordinated a mocking, demeaning, “othering” attack right out of the playbook wielded against Clarence Thomas:

[A] high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the [elite media] rather than hung from a tree.

Watch video of Howard Kurtz and his Daily Download partner, Lauren Ashburn, pack at least an hour of Mean Girling into only 75 seconds here:

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Empire Strikes Back: Report Confirms China Assaulting Home Churches

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Photo Credit: WNDChina’s crackdown against its thriving home-church movement is surging, only a few months after it was reported the communist nation’s attacks on Christians had subsided, according to a new report from the Chinese-focused human rights group China Aid.

China Aid said its research shows a 42 percent increase in persecution over the past 12 months.

China Aid founder Bob Fu, who says the Chinese government is wary of organized groups, confirmed, “Experts say the Communist Party in China has long felt threatened by any movement that galvanizes a large sector of the population, fearing it could wield political clout.”

Now, he said, “The nation has become more systematically hostile to worshipers.” China Aid spokesman Mark Shan told WND the government appears to intend to do what is necessary.

“There is a major effort now to wipe out the house churches by any means. The government will shut down the church,” Shan said. “Or, they will force the house church members to join an official church.” Those official groups, recognized and allowed by the government, also are influenced by the government, critics have explained.

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Bloomberg Booed At Annual St. Patrick’s Parade In Storm-Ravaged Rockaways

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Photo Credit: Michael HicksMayor Bloomberg was booed yesterday as he walked in the annual St. Patrick’s Parade in the hurricane-ravaged Rockaways.

The jeers grew so loud toward the end of the Queens parade that mayoral candidate and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn appeared to break away from the mayor to march separately.

A spokesman for Quinn later said she always intended to walk separately from the mayor. Locals didn’t spare their ire over the area’s slow recovery, hoisting signs reading, “Mr. Mayor, we need jetties” and “Listen to the Rockaways.”

“We’ve been dying down here, up to our ears in muck trying to rebuild, get back to a regular life,” one heckler told The Post.

“For the politicians to come down here and try to take our celebration and make it their thing . . . it’s disgusting.” At the end of the route, Bloomberg thanked the Sanitation Department, cops and firefighters who worked to restore the neighborhood after the storm.

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Video: Sperling Says GOP Will Cave On Taxes After Seeing ‘Pain’ Caused By Sequester

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Photo Credit: KAZVorpalA senior White House official says congressional Republicans who see the damage caused by billions in automatic spending cuts will eventually agree to raise taxes.

Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council and assistant to the president for economic policy, said that Republicans will eventually “choose bipartisan compromise over an ideological position,” on Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

“As this pain starts to gradually spread to communities” hit by $85 billion in cuts “more Republican colleagues who are concerned about this harm to their constituents will choose bipartisan compromise on revenue raising tax reform with serious entitlement reform,” said Sperling.

“They’ll choose this bipartisan compromise over what is an ideological position that every single penny of deficit reduction going forward must be on the middle class or seniors or children, and that there can’t be one penny that comes from closing loopholes or tax expenditures,” he added.

The automatic across-the-board cuts took effect on Friday after congressional leaders and President Obama were unable to broker a last-minute replacement deal. Democrats are calling for new tax revenues in any deal to replace the sequester, while Republicans insist that only other targeted cuts and entitlement reforms be included.

Watch video here:

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