Posted on 08/17/2012 9:37:50 AM PDT by NCjim
Inserting himself into the biographies of past presidents on the White House website apparently wasn’t enough for President Obama. His State Department is now editing its descriptions of foreign countries into yet another taxpayer-subsidized campaign commercial for the Obama Administration.
The State Department has recently ended its long-running series of Background Notes, which were analytical, objective histories of other countries. In their place, new “Fact Sheets” now tout Obama’s policies and actions toward each nation. No more historical context, no recounting of complex and long-standing issues in the country. Just cut to the chase—that is, the time when the current Administration came to power.
Heritage’s Jim Roberts, one of the editors of Heritage’s Index of Economic Freedom, was struck by the disproportionate change in emphasis while doing some research recently. Roberts, who worked at the State Department from 1982 to 2007 and used to write these country profiles, said he had never seen edits like these under either previous Republican or Democratic Administrations.
Roberts noted that “They seem to be not ‘fact sheets’ but brag sheets,” adding that the edits appear to treat countries more favorably when the Obama Administration agrees with their leaders.
Roberts is in the process of examining the differences between the historical Background Notes and the new, Obama-centric Fact Sheets. He reveals:
Compare the nearly 1,200-word “Fact Sheet” published this week by the U.S. embassy in Brazil with the last Background Note on Brazil written during the George W. Bush Administration.
The 4,100-word Bush document, chock full of facts and figures helpful in analyzing the country and its importance to the U.S., never once mentions the name of any U.S. President. The 300-word section on U.S.–Brazil relations takes up about 7 percent of the document.
Conversely, fully 70 percent (830 words) of the Brazil Fact Sheet, which is focused exclusively on U.S. relations with Brazil, discusses President Obama either directly by name (twice!) or in the context of the plethora of programs his Administration has launched with Brazil, including a shared “commitment to combat discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, or lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) status; to advance gender equality; a bilateral instrument that targets racism; support for HIV/AIDS prevention, promotion of clean energy technologies in Brazil, and mitigation of climate change.”
Thus far, Roberts has not found a comprehensive explanation for the debut of the Fact Sheets. The State Department’s website simply says, “As of May 2012, Background Notes are no longer being updated or produced. They are in the process of being replaced by Fact Sheets that focus on U.S. relations with each country.”
Since President Obama took office, the budget of the State Department has increased from $38.7 billion to $50.2 billion, and thousands have been added to the payroll. Finding that these taxpayer-funded resources are being used to eliminate neutral publications that were highly useful to researchers—only to replace them with lopsided “facts” akin to a campaign commercial—is something the American people deserve to know.
This follows an Administration trend that goes back to 2009. In March of that year, the Administration was caught editing President George W. Bush’s biography to soften his listed accomplishments, and it quickly reversed course. Just a few months ago, it was discovered that White House staff had edited the biographies of many past presidents on whitehouse.gov to include a bullet point or two inserting President Obama into each historical narrative. These remain on the site, including a fabrication they inserted about President Ronald Reagan’s tax policy to make it seem similar to Obama’s.
American officeholders are supposed to take great pains to separate their campaigns from their official duties. Using taxpayer resources to blatantly promote the president’s positions on foreign policy—and even editing the historical record—is an egregious abuse of power.
I’m sure he listed all the money he has given to each country.....right. Like $500 Million to Hamas, billions to Egypt, millions to China to help with their infrastructure (which we had to borrow and pay interest on). $10 Billion, I think, to Brazil to assist with their oil production (if which Soros probably got a good portion of).
The Clinton administration did this sort of thing as well.
The Clinton administration launched the first White House webpage and used terms of Bush and Reagan to revise the historical record, as Clinton took credit for a booming economy (that began before he took office) and slurred their policies.
Additionally, the Post Office’s “20th century” stamps were Democrat tilted and even included possible subjects as the “Clinton economy”. Not all of the topics were even voted in by the public, some were selected by a panel.
There are other examples of Clinton’s people mucking about and politicking on the public dime.
book mark
discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, or lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) status
It’s getting to where every time I read that phrase I want to go discriminate against one of those groups just to show I can. It’s like it is all these people care about, even when it is virtually, if not literally, non-existent.
He must ask for the resignations of ALL justice dept lawyers just like Clinton did.
He MUST clean house over at State, to get rid of all the traitors and Muslims.
If finding Obama ineligible would negate everything Obama did, then GO FOR IT. Wipe his administration from history.
Now, now, people The Ministry of Truth is just doing its job.
You seem to be unaware of “The Obama Rule” that Obama applies to himself.
Obama Rule (to self): “The more times that I verbalize the reality that I want, the more that reality will become fact.”
Discussion:
Many critics of Obama confuse what Obama says in public to be in fact lies. Some even mis-interpret the Obama Rule to be as follows: “The more times that Obama repeats one of his lies, the more Obama convinces himself that his lie is the truth.”
While technically correct in the broader Obama transparency sense, it has led some to simplify The Obama Rule to this: “The more Obama lies, the more he believes that he isn’t lying.”
I hope that this has helped you better understand the most complex elected lier in all of American History.
Remember, without lies Obama would be just another ex-Foreign Student who never got an “A” in any of his University Classes.
Obama’s actions in inserting his name into so many official documents brings to mind the way the black rappers write songs about themselves and how they compulsively insert their own names into their songs.
In short, this is ghetto behavior and I’m not surprised to see Obama acting that way.
I agree with your sentiment, but would put a small amount of money down that it doesn't happen.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.