Posted on 04/21/2011 3:51:30 AM PDT by Shane
From the man who said he would bring a gun to a knife fight, the latest ploy to cut his opponents off at their knees. This one is not based on arguments or facts, but on sheer abuse of the powers he has as President.
Kenneth Vogel writes in Politico that President Obama is "considering a number of measures to compel disclosure of the kind of anonymous campaign contributions that helped finance millions of dollars of attack ads against Democrats during the 2010 elections."
These measures appear broad in scope:
The White House last week began circulating a draft executive order that would require companies seeking government contracts to disclose contributions -- including those that otherwise would have been secret -- to groups that air political ads attacking or supporting candidates.
The proposed order follows several actions by regulatory agencies that have a similar intent of making corporate and individual donations more transparent.
Last month the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a decree that could result in shareholders having more say in corporate election spending. Democratic appointees to the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Election Commission are pushing measures that could make public currently anonymous contributions to outside groups.
Administration critics, including the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are seizing on the White House's draft executive order, in particular, as evidence of an attempt to use executive power to punish or silence political adversaries, while rewarding supporters.
Calling the draft executive order "an affront to the separation of powers ... (and) to free speech," chamber spokeswoman Blair Latoff said it "lays the groundwork for a political litmus test for companies that wish to do business with the federal government" and is "less about disclosure than intimidation."
One White House ally, Craig Holman, applauds these plans since the 2010 election brought too many Republicans into Congress to hold out hope that these "reforms" could happen through legislation. So President Obama intends to use brute force to take these measures that would chill free speech and the campaign efforts of his critics. Apparently, a great deal can be achieved administratively through a regulatory approach and by executive order. A draft of the executive order requires disclosures of contributions made by companies' executives and board members to support candidates and third-party groups (such as the very effective American Crossroads and Americans for Prosperity groups).
Tellingly, the draft order would not apply to Democratic-allied groups that receive grants from the federal government (such as Planned Parenthood) or to unions, which bankroll so many Democratic campaigns and which have trumpeted that their spending power helped elect Barack Obama and makes them the king of the (Capitol) hill. Unions are among the biggest campaign spenders in America and they give their money to Democrats. "We're the big dog," said Larry Scanlon, the head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees).
Similar efforts to compel disclosure are being made through the Securities and Exchange Commission, the FCC and through the Federal Election Commission.
While the nation reels from a faltering economy with the lowest labor force participation rate in decades, with a deficit and debt crisis that may merit a S & P downgrade of the U.S. credit rating, with a geopolitical earthquake in the Middle East, Barack Obama finds time to figure out ways to hurt his political opponents (or his "enemies" as he would characterize them).
Public disclosure of campaign contributions can lead to boycotts of companies whose executives give to political campaigns (as happened when Target came under fire for its campaign contributions, when boycotts targeted campaign contributors to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker; similar efforts to punish people for their political views litter the political landscape).
Barack Obama wants to chill political speech to further his chances to win reelection. He made clear his views towards the law as decided by the Supreme Court when he crassly lambasted them last year during the State of the Union address for supporting the First Amendment in their Citizens United decision (a law he basically wants to undercut by using the powers of the Presidency in a particularly underhanded way).
Barack Obama , when he ran his campaign for state senator, had his opponents thrown off the ballots by challenging the signatures on their petitions to run. He cleared the ballot of all opponents.
He does not play fair -- and never has. That is his modus operandi. He learned everything he needed to know about politics in Cook County and he has brought its mores to Washington.
Change, yes, change; but in a wrong direction and in a way that the media would scorn had a Republican tried to derail opposition by these tactics.
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Naw...there will be pseudo-elections elections...
THis guy has got to go. We can’t afford two more years, I barely recognize my country now. This isn’t a leader, this is a dictator...
You said:
The Obama is going to rig the next election and make a mockery out of the process.
The other day I got stuck in a traffic stop. VP Biden’s motorcade was coming through to the airport. I was like car 3 behind the police car waiting 20 minutes or so...
I live near the airport and have almost always been excited to see the super secret choppers etc. circling and security etc. and would smile if I got to see the motorcade.
This time...I got choked up with grief and could just think of:
the evil man behind the smokey glass destroying our lives...
laughing as he was leaving town...
maybe even toasting himself as he drove by all these peasants stopped to allow his passing.
That reaction has deeply bothered me for the past few days. The resentment wasn’t at being stopped or the ostentatious limousine with flags flying speeding by me. Like I said, I have always taken some pride and happiness in these minor Presidential inconveniences.
It felt more like I was watching a dictator pass and that empty, very empty feeling...
Fixed it for ya! :)
Tyranny is here.
Unfortunately there are plenty of Liberal cowboys who would herd us back into the pack, and if we bucked and kicked and tried to get away, we’d be shot and buried without so much as a funeral.
When the first amendment is stifled the second will come into it’s original intent...hope the commies have good aim....’cause if they don’t there is going to be a lot less of the critters exchanging air.
I see it differently. When he was campaigning, he was the Golden Boy, The Greatest, Hope of America according to the media. Then the liberals began to see that he was a do-nothing so they started to motivate him by criticizing him. It was their way of saying “We put you here and you owe us”. I think he just can’t handle it. Even the Black Panthers have criticized him. He thought the Presidency would be just like his celebrity days when he was running.
He’s in over his head and he knows it. That’s a bad feeling.
“Unfortunately there are plenty of Liberal cowboys who would herd us back into the pack, and if we bucked and kicked and tried to get away, we’d be shot and buried without so much as a funeral.’
You must raise a different kind of liberal where you live. Everytime I make a hint toward violence against my liberals they wet their pants and start crying for mommy.
Am with you, if no 2012 election and R2 is into action. The lefties will be shocked to find out damn few in the military, except TFN nobama voters, will back the kenyan against the citizens reclaiming America.
Oh don’t get me wrong, FRiend. They’re not the ones doing the shooting. They have hired hands to do that work (think: SEIU). Far be it for them to sully their well-manicured hands with the blood of the Free.
And when they “herd,” they don’t use whips and dogs. They use words and feelings. “Aww, c’mon little sheep. Let’s get back into the herd with the rest of the flock. They need you for support.”
*barf*
Define “respectable”
Barbour, Pawlenty, Daniels...and yes, Palin, she has grit
One of the governors...
RomneyCare. Enough said. Huckleberry - don’t care for him
” They have hired hands to do that work (think: SEIU).”
Nope. Doesn’t work around here. A bunch of fat SEIU cows tried to disrupt a tea party. Within 5 minutes the union cows had locked themselves in a building and were crying for the cops to rescue them. The cops, laughing their butts off, escorted the cows away from the mean tea party people.
Union thug tactics may be tolerated in heavy unionized states like Wisconsin. In other states, union thuggery is handled differently.
I can’t say I don’t see it that way too, but from the perspective that they put him in office...
and now they realize that they were duped.
My impression is they can criticize all they want, but the Regime is going to do whatever they want ...anyway.
That is very dangerous...and the dictator and his minions don’t care. They don’t care because Americans have been cowed to the point that we won’t respond and even if we do...we’ll be ignored.
And as more of his base realizes they don’t matter, will be ignored more by the Regime than by any previous President...that is a very dangerous place to be. The only direction at that point is violence.
And unlike our founding...we all have vastly different goals. We want to rally back to the Constitution and they want to rally round ...?
And, yet, Obama had the largest anonymous campaign donations via debit cards. <"http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/no_20081024_9865.php">. "The FEC Web site also offers a database of 13,176 unverified or overseas donors to the Obama campaign that includes 141 anonymous donors, but the FEC does not have records on any of the Obama campaign's sub-$200 donors." There were BUNDLES of foreign donations made; the majority unchecked as to whether they were actually from US citizens abroad.
The campaign was also debiting Obama supporters without their consent. <"http://open.salon.com/blog/geezerchick/2010/01/25/obama_campaign_debit_card_swipes">. "I also called the main Obama campaign number. There a woman assured me that the Obama campaign doesn't keep records of people's credit and debit cards. I told her they must have them in the computer somewhere -- how else could they have made two unauthorized charges? She finally said that if they keep these records she has no access to them. She had heard there was a problem, but it's all fixed now."
"No, it's not. So long as my debit card is recorded in that database, there is a possibility that it can happen again. This time it was $10. Who knows what it might be next time."
I watched the helicopter cavalcade ferrying el presidente up and down the length of the san francisco peninsula yesterday. Jeepers. We're paying for him to campaign! No one is running against him - he's the incumbent - what the heck is the point?
Ditto.
I have a feeling CW II is getting close, and it ain't going to be pretty.
Brown-eye had no record of incarcerating corrupt colleagues once elected. Madame President-in-waiting Sarah Palin is famous for it, but one among the dozens of other morally-commited, arch-conservative, brightly-shining feathers in her cap.
Know whereof you speak before hitting the keyboard; you'll run much less risk of sounding blisteringly ignorant.
;-\
a bit unsettling.
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