Updates on Obama’s illegal IG firing
Filed under: Culture of Corruption, Our Dear Leader, Politics
As I noted before, our Dear Leader has removed a federal inspector general for daring to investigate the head of AmeriCorps, a political appointee of BHO. IG Gerald Walpin had found millions of dollars wasted or misspent, and as his job required, reported it. BHO responded by firing a competent government employee for actually doing his job.
John Elwood has more on the matter over at the Volokh Conspiracy.
The allegations of a politically motivated firing are getting all the attention, but being a Law Nerd, I wanted to focus briefly on, well, some of the nerdier aspects of the imbroglio. Some commentators have pointed to the bare statement of reasons in President Obama’s letter as (1) an indication that he is hiding something, as though he could not give good reasons for the firing; and (2) questioned whether that spare statement of reasons complied with the terms of the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008, which Senator Obama cosponsored.
During the brief time B. Hussein Obama was a senator, and actually showed up to work, he cosponsored a bill stating that a President could not fire an IG without valid cause. Which is pretty much exactly what he is doing now, in violation of the law he helped create.
Michelle Malkin has more on the amount of devalued American dollars that are being dumped in to AmeriCorps, and another on how this is just corrupt Chicago politics as usual.
Update: Ace notes that “Key Democratic Ally Claire McCaskill Admits Obama “Didn’t Follow Law” on Firing AmericaCorps IG.” Ace goes on to point out that McCaskill really isn’t bothered by our Dear Leader’s illegal actions, as long as he comes up with some flimsy fiction to cover his ass legally. Did you really expect any democrat to to hold B. Hussein Obama accountable for breaking the law he co-sponsored?
Update: Ms. Malkin is continuing to dig into this story. She points out that IG Walpin uncovered “the wasteful Teaching Fellows Program, run by the Research Foundation of the City University of New York, which is AmeriCorps’s largest and most expensive program.” The charges the corrupt Obama administration are bringing against inspector general Gerald Walpin are vapid and flimsy in the extreme. The only thing That IG Walpin was “confused” about was assuming that BHO administration wasn’t corrupt.
Update: IG Walpin speaks out on BHO’s lame excuse.
“That’s a total lie,” Walpin said of the latter charge. And he said the accusation that he was dazed and confused at one meeting out of many was not only false, but poor rationale for his ouster.
“It appears to suggest that I was removed because I was disabled — based on one occasion out of hundreds,” he said.
“I would never say President Obama doesn’t have the capacity to continue to serve because of his (statement) that there are 56 states,” Walpin said, adding that the same holds for Vice President Biden and his “many express confusions that have been highlighted by the media.” Obama mistakenly said once on the campaign trail that he had traveled to 57 states.
Walpin concluded that his firing stems from bad blood between him and the board, as well as with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson — an Obama supporter whom he had investigated for alleged misuse of federal funds. He said his performance at the May meeting drew criticism because he issued two reports critical of the board. In one, he criticized the settlement reached in the Johnson case; in the other, he criticized the use of millions of dollars for a program at the City University of New York.
“The board at that meeting was clearly angry at my temerity,” he said.
Yup, that’s the bottom line here. Team Lightbringer is firing a government employee for actually doing his job. This is what you can expect for anyone who dares questions the reign of Barack I, MSM-proclaimed God Emperor of America.
Update: More details from John at Powerline.
Glenn Beck’s new Book
Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine
An Open Letter to our Dear Leader
Lou Pritchett is a former vice president of Procter & Gamble whose career at that company spanned 36 years before his retirement in 1989, and he is the author of the 1995 business book, Stop Paddling & Start Rocking the Boat.
Mr. Pritchett confirmed that he was indeed the author of the much-circulated “open letter.” “I did write the ‘you scare me’ letter. I sent it to the NY Times but they never acknowledged or published it. However, it hit the internet and according to the ‘experts’ has had over 500,000 hits.
Here is the text of the letter.
Dear President Obama:
You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.
You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.
You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.
You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.
You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.
You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don’t understand it at its core.
You scare me because you lack humility and ‘class’, always blaming others.
You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.
You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the ‘blame America’ crowd and deliver this message abroad.
You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.
You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.
You scare me because you prefer ‘wind mills’ to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.
You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.
You scare me because you have begun to use ‘extortion’ tactics against certain banks and corporations.
You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.
You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.
You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.
You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.
You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O’Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.
You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.
Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.
BHO fires an IG for daring to investigate one of his political appointees
The current head of of AmeriCorps is Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. An Obama supporter and former NBA basketball star appointed to the position by our Dear Leader.
Gateway Pundit notes that Obama signed legislation in April to vastly increase the size of Americorps from 70,000 to 250,000. in March the Senate voted to allow ACORN funding in this same bill.
How is that money being spent? Well, IG Gerald Walpin discovered that “millions of dollars in AmeriCorps funds that were wasted or misspent”, accord to the AP, and that Kevin Johnson was using AmeriCorps funds to have students work on “political activities, run personal errands for Johnson and even wash his car.”
The claim is that “Mr. Walpin’s allegations were meritless and clearly motivated by matters beyond an honest assessment of our program.” AmeriCorps does have repay over $400,000 it received in donations though. Whoops.
Byron York correctly identifies the bottom line in this matter.
The AmeriCorps IG accuses prominent Obama supporter of misusing AmeriCorps grant money. Prominent Obama supporter has to pay back more than $400,000 of that grant money. Obama fires AmeriCorps IG.
It’s that simple. A clear case of political corruption by a loyal supporter of our Dear Leader, and Obama responds by firing the government employee doing their job by reporting the corruption. This is what passes for “transparency” in the reign of democrat Barack Hussein Obama.
Update: Michelle Malkin has more, including the ACORN & Michelle Obama connections.
Holocaust Museum killer was a Socialist (i.e. leftist)
Well folks, the elderly anti-Semite who open fire at the Washington, D.C. Holocaust Museum and killed a security guard is an admitted Socialist (i.e. a leftist) who in addition to hating Jews (like our Dear Leader’s spiritual advisor, the Rev. Wright), he hated NeoCons, he hated Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly, he hated the conservative Weekly Standard magazine, and like liberal poster propagandist Michael Moore, he hated corporations and thought that the Islamofascist terror attacks on 9/11/2001 were “an inside job.”
Here is the kicker, despite these known facts about the leftist behavior of James von Brunn, who is likely a registered democrat to boot, the far left, including the talking heads at MSNBC are going to claim that this guy is a “right winger” despite the clear truth of the matter. Not that the truth ever mattered to the far left anyway.
Obama’s spirital advisor of 20 years blames the Jews
Ok, when I heard that an elderly anti-Semitic bigot who blames the US for 9/11 just shot up the Holocaust Museum, Rev. Wright did spring to mind. (wait for it…)
Well, Rev. Wright, who is a anti-Semite of long standing, who blames the US Government for the 9/11/2001 attacks and believes that the US Government created AIDS to kill black people, has been in the News lately. He has been quoted in the Daily Press as saying “Them Jews aren’t going to let him talk to me.” The him he is referring to is none other than our Dear Leader, who attended Wright’s racist and anti-Semitic church for twenty years.
BHO does not trust US Military Officers
Graduating Midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis will not be allowed to wear their swords, which are part of the official dress uniform, in presence of our Dear Leader.
According to the Washington Times, nothing resembling a weapon is to be allowed in the presence of the one described by a hard core leftist as “our great and divine leader.”
Let’s get this one straight, these are graduating Midship from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, who are about to become active duty officers of the U.S. Navy, swearing an oath to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution and Barack Hussein Obama is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States of America. Yet these young men and women, who are about to put their lives on the line to implement our Dear Leader‘s foreign policy can not wear a sheathed ceremony sword in the same room as the President of the United States of America, who will be guarded by multiple Secret Service agents carrying semi-automatic handguns, fully automatic SMGs, and quite probably a few more weapons more modern and dangerous than a meter long length of steel that may or may not even have a decent edge on it.
Just which one of our Dear Leader’s handlers decided on this bit of policy that can be described as absurd, paranoid and insulting in the extreme to the men and women of United States military?
Sadly, I can’t say I’m surprised by this action, it does fit the mindset of our Dear Leader and his leftist policies.
NewsBusted! 6/09/09
Monday Book Pick – Liberal Fascism
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Change by Jonah Goldberg
Recently released in paperback, the well researched book explains the history you should know.
As Dr. Pournelle pointed out:
Goldberg’s book is an anomaly: serious students of political science shouldn’t find anything here they didn’t already know. Alas, I had to say “shouldn’t”, because a very great number of people who consider themselves serious students of political science will be shocked and astonished to discover that Fascism, Progressivism, and modern American Liberalism have many intellectual roots in common. Roosevelt’s New Deal incorporated many elements of Italian Fascism, and in fact before the mid-30’s many Western statesmen had admiring things to say about Fascism and about Il Duce Mussolini who made the trains run on time and brought prosperity — or its illusion — to Italy. Goldberg documents all this as well as the Jacobin roots of both Fascism and Progressivism. The notion that human life can be improved by central planning and tinkering with the legal and economic system is the common thread to them all.
democrat William “Cold Cash” Jefferson going to trial
You remember William “Cold Cash” Jefferson, the Louisiana democrat congressman whom the FBI found $90,000, in cash, in his freezer. This is after a an informant told the FBI that he had given Jefferson $100,000, in cash, as a bribe. That was four years ago. Jefferson kept his office, with the support of Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the congressional democrat “leadership”, until he was finally voted out of office by the good people of Louisiana.
According the New Orleans Metro News, “Cold Cash” Jefferson is finally going to face trial, “facing 16 federal bribery and public corruption charges.” If convicted, the former democrat congressman could face up to 20 years in prison.