Posted on Monday, November 04, 2013 - 10:48 pm:

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It may be little more than a blip on Washington’s radar screen, but President Obama’s decision to be a no-show at an upcoming ceremony to mark the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address has touched off a firestorm in Pennsylvania.

Local newspapers Thursday excoriated the president, a noted admirer of the 16th president, for skipping the historic occasion.

A journalist at Harrisburg’s Patriot News said Mr. Obama doesn’t have “the stones” to attend; York’s Daily Record newspaper called the decision “unacceptable” and said “Mr. Obama’s retreat from Gettysburg will linger long and bitter.”

The Gettysburg Times reported that local officials in and around the town have spent months preparing — in vain — for a potential visit from Mr. Obama, who twice carried Pennsylvania in the presidential election (by 11 percentage points in 2008 and five in 2012).

Instead, the White House will send Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to the Nov. 19 event, which will be held at the Soldiers' National Cemetery.

She will be joined as keynote speaker by renowned historian James McPherson.

The Gettysburg National Military Park seemed disappointed with the choice of Ms. Jewell rather than the president.

“President Obama will not attend and the Secretary of the Interior will represent the administration,” the park pointed out in the second sentence of its release.

White House press secretary Jay Carney wouldn’t give an explanation Thursday for why Mr. Obama declined the request.

“I think that is an enormously significant event in our history, and I think Americans will take the appropriate time to consider the speech that was delivered there. I would simply say that I have no updates on the president’s schedule,” Mr. Carney said. “I think all Americans will share and marvel in the remembrance of that important date in our history.”

Twenty-four presidents have visited Gettysburg since the summer of 1863, when the town gained its notoriety after the bloody three-day battle that turned the tide of the Civil War.

President Kennedy was invited to speak at the 1963 ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the speech, but opted to travel to Dallas instead, where he was fatally shot a few days later.

Although Kennedy’s presence 50 years ago would have been significant, a visit by Mr. Obama would carry extra weight for several reasons.

Numerous Pennsylvania publications have pointed out how important it would be to have Mr. Obama, the nation’s first black commander in chief, speak in Gettysburg and remind Americans how far the nation has come since the dark days of the Civil War.

For Mr. Obama personally, the invitation seemingly would have been too good to pass up.

It would have offered the president an opportunity to give a triumphant speech celebrating American values — the type of speech that rallied voters during his presidential run — and would have allowed Mr. Obama to pay personal tribute to fellow Illinoisan Abraham Lincoln.

Mr. Obama speaks often about his admiration for the 16th president. He even used the Lincoln Bible for both of his inauguration ceremonies, in 2009 and early this year.

By rejecting the invitation, the president has personally offended some in the Keystone State.

Writing for the Patriot News, journalist Donald Gilliland called Mr. Obama’s decision “nothing less than a profile in cowardice.”

“In the end, Barack Obama simply didn’t have the stones. It’s sad. And telling. History will note that Lincoln’s legacy did not live up to the challenge,” he wrote.

In an editorial, the York Daily Record said the president clearly “is uninterested or unwilling” to visit and called that “deeply disappointing.”

“Symbolism matters,” the paper wrote Thursday. “President Obama could have used this occasion to offer words of healing and reconciliation — as his Illinois forefather once did. Instead, he is sending us a little-known Cabinet member to do the job of a president, of a statesman, of an orator. Unacceptable. President Obama’s retreat from Gettysburg will linger long and bitter. We beg him to reconsider.”

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Posted on Tuesday, November 05, 2013 - 10:53 am:

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excerpt:
Obamacare has always been nothing less than the linchpin in Obama's bigger dream to fundamentally change America into a nation he could like instead of resent – a socialist utopia rather than the land of the free, of the brave and of equal opportunity.

Those on the left who stubbornly insist on continuing to support Obama and his destruction of America need to re-evaluate him. Is your appetite for denial unbounded?

Those on the right who insist on continuing to pull their punches instead of calling it like it is will also eventually have America's blood on their hands.

We all had better wake up. There's only so much bitterness and covetousness a nation's leaders can arouse in its people before they reduce it to permanent mediocrity.

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Posted on Tuesday, November 05, 2013 - 10:57 pm:

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Exclusive: Libertarian PAC Admits 'We Probably Wouldn't Have Spent $11,000 on Sarvis' Without Democratic Donor

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News on Tuesday, Wes Benedict, co-founder and President of the Libertarian Booster PAC that spent $11,454 to circulate petitions necessary to get Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Robert Sarvis on the ballot in Virginia said " [w]e probably wouldn’t have spent the $11,000 on Sarvis if we had not received the $150,000 from him [major Democratic donor Joseph Liemandt].”

...On Tuesday The Blaze reported that Liemandt provided the majority of the financing for Benedict's Libertarian Booster PAC, which spent $11,454 needed to get Sarvis on the ballot as the Libertarian candidate for governor in Virginia. Liemandt's $150,000 donation was more than half of the $229,000 raised by the Libertarian Booster PAC in 2013.

...Sarvis is widely regarded as the spoiler in the race between Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe and Republican candidate Ken Cuccinelli, drawing support away from Cuccinelli and increasing McAuliffe's chances of victory in today's election.

Liemandt has donated generously to Democratic organizations and candidates at the federal level, including $83,800 to various Barack Obama 2012 re-election committees, and $62,400 to the Democratic National Committee.

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Posted on Tuesday, November 05, 2013 - 11:13 pm:

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Revealed: Obama Campaign Bundler Helping Fund Libertarian in Tight Va. Gubernatorial Race
Nov. 5, 2013

...Austin, Texas, software billionaire Joe Liemandt is the Libertarian Booster PAC’s major benefactor. He’s also a top bundler for President Barack Obama. This revelation comes as Virginia voters head to the polls Tuesday in an election where some observers say the third-party gubernatorial candidate could be a spoiler for Republican Ken Cuccinelli.

...In March 2012, ABC News reported Liemandt was among three dozen of the Obama campaign’s largest bundlers invited to a state dinner honoring British Prime Minister David Cameron. ABC News reported the invited bundlers, who also included Vogue editor Anna Wintour and Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, were responsible for at least $10.7 million of the $250 million the campaign had collected to that point.

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Posted on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 09:05 am:

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...In complete, albeit temporary synergy, the progressive media will reinforce this GOP message (in the *DROOLING extreme) because they too have a vested interest in seeing Governor Chris Christie rise to be the chosen GOP candidate in the same vein as they selected Governor Mitt Romney.

[*if you want a funny exercise: record all of the dreamy, swoony and complimentary things the media will say about Chris Christie over the next 48 hours. Save them, and then compare them to what happens mid-summer 2016 - from the exact same people]

The media do not want a bold contrast. Bold contrasts are dangerous to progressive advancement. Bold contrasts are scary. Bold contrasts represent “risk”. Remember who they called “maverick” in 2007. No, the progressive media will position to have a candidate who is ideologically closer to oppose their chosen Hillary.

Chris Christie fits that billing perfectly. White banker, pro-amnesty, pro-Islam, pro-big government, pro-big business, pro-bailouts, anti-state’s rights, Pro-FEMA, Pro-expanding Medicaid, Pro-Obamacare;… the perfectly squishy middle-man to replace perfectly squishy Mitt Romney, who replaced perfectly squishy John McCain, who replaced.. well, you get the picture.

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Posted on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 09:51 am:

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10 Takeaways from Election Day 2013
By Joel B. Pollak ~ Nov 6, 2013

Election Day 2013 is finally behind us. The media are happy that the left seems to have won on all fronts: a Tea Party favorite was defeated in Virginia, a radical socialist will be mayor of New York City, and the Republicans' big winner was a noted "conservative," i.e. one in quotation marks. But the real takeaways are a little deeper, and leave political debate more or less where it was, with Democrats burdened by a failing president and Republicans riddled with factional divisions. Here are some of my own observations.

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Posted on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 10:46 am:

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Paul_regan said:
Honestly, I tend to agree with some of the basic ideals of the Tea Party

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