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Obama Essentially Declares an End to the Global War on Terror

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Photo Credit: APSome call it wishful thinking, but President Barack Obama has all but declared an end to the global war on terror.

Obama is not claiming final victory over extremists who still seek to kill Americans and other Westerners. Instead, he is refocusing the long struggle against terrorism that lies ahead, steering the United States away from what he calls an equally frightening threat — a country in a state of perpetual war. In doing so, Obama recasts the image of the terrorists themselves, from enemy warriors to cowardly thugs and resets the relationship between the U.S. and Islam.

His speech Thursday was designed to move America’s mindset away from a war footing and refine and recalibrate his own counterterrorism strategy. Obama asserted that al-Qaida is “on the path to defeat,” reducing the scale of terrorism to pre-Sept. 11 levels. That means that with the Afghanistan war winding down, Obama is unlikely to commit troops in large numbers to any conflict — in Syria or other countries struggling with instability in the uncertain aftermath of the Arab Spring — unless, as his critics fear, he tragically has underestimated al-Qaida’s staying power.

“Wishing the defeat of terrorists does not make it so,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry, a Texas Republican who is vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Speech to ‘Kiss and Make Up’ with His Base

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What do you do when your base is angry about Guantanamo? I guess that you promise to close it again. You also blame Congress for not giving you the money to do it. The problem is that it was a Congress controlled by Democrats that did not provide the funding.

What about drones? You promise that we will “drone” more carefully from now on. Let’s hope that the terrorists will cooperate by keeping children away from them.

What about tapping reporters phones? You say that it was about national security and because that “darn Congress” didn’t pass the media shield law.

By the way, does anyone remember President Obama persuading members of Congress to pass the media shield law? I don’t!

Overall, I rate this as a speech trying to win back the left. I did not hear much more than that. My guess is that it will be largely forgotten when the next IRS official comes to Congress and says “I don’t know.”

Read more from this story HERE.

In Arrogant Move, Obama Promotes Aide Who Redacted Benghazi Talking Points

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Photo Credit: APBy Susan Crabtree. In a bold move that demonstrates his commitment to an inner circle of close advisers — even those caught up in controversies, President Obama plans to nominate Victoria Nuland to assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs, the White House said Thursday.

Ms. Nuland is the State Department spokeswoman who, emails revealed last week, expressed deep concerns about the implications of early versions of the “talking points” being prepared for the attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya. at one point asking that references to al Qaeda and previous CIA warnings about threats in Libya be deleted from the document. She said members of Congress might use them to criticize the State Department for not providing beefed-up security at Benghazi, where U.S. Amb. J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

She also memorably argued that her “building leadership” still had issues with the talking points even after some changes, a reference some Republicans believe could implicate then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or other senior leaders. Read more from this story HERE.

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McCain, Graham laud nominee behind Benghazi talking-point edits

By Alexis Levinson. Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham were vocal critics of the administration’s messaging after the Benghazi attacks, but on Friday, they issued a laudatory statement about Victoria Nuland — the woman behind a number of the changes to the talking points — and her nomination to be assistant secretary of state for Europe.

“Ambassador Victoria Nuland has a long and distinguished record of service to our nation in both Republican and Democrat administrations. She is knowledgeable and well-versed on the major foreign policy issues as well as respected by foreign policy experts in both parties. We look forward to her upcoming confirmation hearings in the United States Senate,” the two senators said in a joint statement. Read more from this story HERE.

ACLU: ‘Never Before has the Government Argued that Newsgathering is Illegal’

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Photo Credit: APWhile Attorney General Eric Holder is taking heat for his department’s seizure of reporter records, the U.S. attorney who is personally overseeing those investigations is himself starting to face complaints that he’s gone too far in pursuing leaks.

Ronald Machen Jr., the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, was nominated by President Obama in 2009 and now runs the biggest federal prosecutor office in the country. His hundreds of attorneys handle everything from gang violence to corruption.

But in recent years, leak investigations have become a hallmark of his portfolio. And his dogged pursuit of the squeaky wheels in government has led him into the tenuous — and some say unprecedented — territory of lumping in leakers with journalists.

“What’s astonishing here is that never before has the government argued that newsgathering — in this case, asking a source to provide sensitive information — is itself illegal,” Gabe Rottman, legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, told FoxNews.com.

Machen was an early and frequent campaign donor to Obama during the 2008 election, giving close to the maximum amount allowed by law. He gave $2,300 in the general election and nearly as much during the primary.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Breaks with Tradition, Fails to Return Marine’s Salute (+video)

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Photo Credit: GOP The Daily DosePresident Obama, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, broke with the tradition of returning the salute of the U.S. Marine outside Marine One Friday morning.

Perhaps Obama suddenly realized, or perhaps someone onboard the helicopter said something to him, because Obama promptly walked back down the steps to go shake hands with the Marine.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Meets In Oval Office With Illegal Aliens

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Photo Credit: Official White House Photo/Pete SouzaPresident Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met in the Oval Office on Tuesday with three people who are in the country in violation of U.S. immigration laws but who have received “deferred action” allowing them to stay in the country under the terms of a “memorandum” issued unilaterally last year by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

While conceding that she had no legal authority to change the “immigration status” of illegal aliens or provide them with a “pathway to citizenship,” Napolitano instructed the top officials at Customs and Border Protection, Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to use what she called “prosecutorial discretion” in not enforcing the immigration laws against certain classes of immigration lawbreakers.

These included illegal aliens who arrived in the United States before their sixteenth birthday, had graduated from high school or served in the military, had not been convicted of “significant” or “multiple” misdemeanors, and had not yet turned thirty.

Before Napolitano issued this unilateral order allowing the illegal aliens to remain in the country in violation of the law, President Obama’s allies in Congress had failed to secure passage of the Dream Act, which would have allowed such persons to became legal residents in the United States.

In all, Obama and Biden met on Tuesday with eight people who are advocating immigration reform, according to White House readout of the meeting. The White House readout listed three of those as having received “deferred action.” Most others were legally in the United States with relatives who were illegal aliens.

Read more from this story HERE.

Protesters Interrupt Obama Counterterrorism Speech (+video)

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Photo Credit: ReutersThe woman who heckled President Barack Obama during his speech at the National Defense University on Thursday gained access to the closed event by saying she was a member of the press, the university said.

Medea Benjamin, the leader of the human rights activist group Code Pink, stood and shouted several times as the president gave his national security speech focused on drone use and closing down the Guantanamo detention center.

Officials at the university, located at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., later said Benjamin was able to get into the invite-only speech by saying she was with the news media. It was unclear which media outlet she told them she was with.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Committee Wants to Hear From Anyone Targeted by the IRS

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Photo Credit: kenteegardinClaims of political targeting by the Internal Revenue Service are flooding into the House Ways and Means Committee, bolstered by evidence that includes secretly recorded conversations with IRS officials.

Ways and Means has created a website inviting Americans who believe they were targeted to share their stories, and among the information being forwarded to committee investigators are surreptitious recordings of interviews with the IRS. The recordings and other evidence are coming from conservatives who believe they were subjected to tax audits because of their political activism, or from members of conservative groups who believe their organizations’ requests for tax-exempt status was subjected to extra scrutiny.

Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, a member of Ways and Means, confirmed to The Washington Examiner on Thursday that the evidence being sent to the committee includes secret recordings with IRS officials. This information comports with legal sources who have clients who believe they were targeted by the IRS because they are politically active conservatives who opposed President Obama’s re-election.

Read more from this story HERE.

Jay Leno Jokes Target President Obama’s Problems (+video)

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Photo Credit: Screenshot On the late night talk show circuit lately, President Barack Obama has been on the receiving end of a barrage of jokes from “The Tonight Show” host Jay Leno, who has spent the past week opening his nightly monologue with a series of jokes at the White House’s expense.

In reaction to news of a prostitution ring being run out of a retirement home. “Boy, that Obamacare is amazing! It just provides everything!”

On a new IRS commissioner: “They’re called ‘acting commissioner’ because you have to act like the scandal doesn’t involve the White House.”

On comparisons to Nixon: “At least he’s not being compared to President Carter.”

On the Miami Heat beating Obama’s beloved Chicago Bulls: “You now what that means? LeBron James is going to get audited by the IRS.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s DOJ’s Orwellian Workplace Guidance on LGBT: “Silence Will Be Interpreted as Disapproval”

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Photo Credit: National Assembly For Wales / Cynulliad CymruThe only thing this Obama White House seems to generate is scandal. Well, here’s yet another to add to the growing list. In addition to the Benghazi cover-up, IRS targeting of political dissenters and the illegal seizure of media phone records, whistleblowers within DOJ have contacted Liberty Counsel to express grave concerns over this administration’s latest attack on freedom.

Our sources have provided Liberty Counsel an internal DOJ document titled: “LGBT Inclusion at Work: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Managers.” It was emailed to DOJ managers in advance of the left’s so-called “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month.”

The document is chilling. It’s riddled with directives that grossly violate – prima facie -employees’ First Amendment liberties:

* “DON’T judge or remain silent. Silence will be interpreted as disapproval.”

* “DO assume that LGBT employees and their allies are listening to what you’re saying (whether in a meeting or around the proverbial water cooler) and will read what you’re writing (whether in a casual email or in a formal document), and make sure the language you use is inclusive and respectful.”

* DO “Attend LGBT events sponsored by DOJ Pride and/or the Department, and invite (but don’t require) others to join you.”

* DO “Display a symbol in your office (DOJ Pride sticker, copy of this brochure, etc.) indicating that it is a ‘safe space.'”

* “DO use inclusive words like ‘partner,’ ‘significant other’ or ‘spouse’ rather than gender-specific terms like ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ (for example, in invitations to office parties or when asking a new employee about his/her home life).”

* “DO use a transgender person’s chosen name and the pronoun that is consistent with the person’s self-identified gender.”

Read more from this store HERE.