And if it was a Republican president?

(TheDC) — New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel told The Daily Caller that “gridlock” in Congress has made it “necessary” for President Barack Obama to unilaterally implement mortgage refinancing and student loan programs without congressional authorization.

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He might be the only person in America who believes this.

Via Newsbusters:

SCHULTZ: Lindsey Graham says President Obama has made dangerous decisions. Listen to this one —

GRAHAM: In the last year he’s made some very poor, dangerous foreign policy decisions at the strategic level. Israel has been thrown under the bus by this president. His. . .

SCHULTZ: Ho, ho, ho, no, not true! Mr. Netanyahu is very satisfied with the way President Obama has operated with the Israelis. Play it again —

GRAHAM: (same remarks as previously quoted, followed by this): His standing in the state of Israel is very low. The Iranians don’t fear us at all, they’re trying to attack us here at home. So I would argue that Iraq and Afghanistan’s being run out of Chicago. . .

SCHULTZ: Really? Well I’m glad they are being run out of Chicago, because when Iraq and Afghanistan were being run out of Washington it cost us thousands of lives and trillions of dollars and gutted our infrastructure, thanks to your crowd, Sen. Graham.

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HT: Jack

Like, “I wonder what kind of animal lives in there?”

(Politico) — In the November issue of Marie Claire, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz sat down for a Q &A with the glossy mag and talked about motherhood, her battle against breast cancer, her signature curls and how she’s developed “the skin of an alligator.”

“It’s really tough to hurt my feelings at this point,” said Wasserman Schultz on the insults that have been tossed her way. When the writer brought up former congressman Mark Foley calling the rep “a Chihuahua in high heels,” the congresswoman and head of the DNC answered, “Oh, I heard about that. Consider the source: Last time I checked, he had to resign in disgrace.”. . .

The New York Times recently wrote about the rep’s blonde curls, but she told Marie Claire that she wasn’t surprised at all. “Are you kidding?” she said laughing. “When you have this hair, you don’t think people comment on it all the time?” Calling her locks her “trademark,” she said, “My hair is an asset. As a politician, it helps me get noticed. It helps me get talked about.”

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Lee making the full court press for OWS, this is the second time we’ve heard from her today.

(Politico) — In the wake of violence at Occupy Oakland this week, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said Friday it was time for people to “make some noise” by joining the movement and she praised President Barack Obama for understanding the message of the demonstrators.

“I think people should join because we need to make some noise, the public needs to make more noise,” the congresswoman representing downtown Oakland told POLITICO.

Lee said Obama understood the concerns of the protesters.

“When you listen to his speeches, I think he really understands the message, the purpose and the goals of the movement,” said Lee. “He has said over and over again that the one percent in this country has to understand that they need to be fair in paying more taxes.”

The congresswoman’s comments on the “Occupy” movement make her among the most supportive of any politicians in Washington, D.C.

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Stunning overreach of power.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pushing a campaign to act without Congress, President Barack Obama will announce on Friday two more executive actions on the economy, both of them small steps intended to give a boost to businesses.

The moves cap a week in which Obama has sought to employ the power of his office as he struggles to make headway on his jobs bill on Capitol Hill.

Obama is directing government agencies to shorten the time it takes for federal research to turn into commercial products in the marketplace. The goal is to help startup companies and small businesses create jobs and expand their operations more quickly.

On the other front, Obama is calling for creation of a centralized online site, to be known as BusinessUSA, for companies to easily find information on federal services. The site is to be up and running within 90 days and will be designed with input from U.S. businesses.

Obama is announcing both steps in presidential memos to be released Friday morning, according to administration officials.

On a larger scale, the president himself announced two other executive actions this week, one offering help for homeowners seeking to refinance at lower mortgage rates and the other allowing college students to simplify and lower their student loan payments. The White House also issued a challenge to community health centers in a bid to help get veterans jobs.

The Soros-funded group MoveOn.org sent out this email last night to support their new hero:

Dear MoveOn member,

On Tuesday, police in Oakland aggressively used “nonlethal” rounds to disperse peaceful protesters from Occupy Oakland. Their violent overreaction seriously injured Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen, leaving him hospitalized with a fractured skull.

Iraq Veterans Against the War, of which Scott is a member, has asked everyone to share the image below to show support. Click here to share this photo to make sure every American knows about this tragedy.

We need as many folks as possible to know about this awful incident so that mayors and police departments around the nation think twice about using force to remove Occupy protesters.

IVAW has also called for vigils for Scott tonight at local Occupy sites at 7 p.m. local time. You can find out if the Occupy near you is participating by going to http://www.occupytogether.org/. Or, just head down to your local occupation to stand in solidarity with IVAW and Scott this evening.

Scott Elsen is the founder of Marine-bashing website IHateTheMarineCorps.com

Via Verum Serum:

It has been widely reported that Olsen is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. But apparently his opposition to the U.S. military and the Marine Corps in which he served runs a little deeper.

The site is no longer live, but Olsen was the founder of IHateTheMarineCorps.com, a private user forum apparently dedicated to bashing the Marine Corps.

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Shameless fear mongering.

Via Keith Koffler:

In a chilling appraisal of President Obama’s Republican opposition, First Lady Michelle Obama Thursday suggested a Republican victory in the 2012 presidential election would result in curbs on freedom of speech and religion.

Speaking at a fundraiser at a private residence in Tampa, Mrs. Obama noted the power of the president to appoint members of the Supreme Court. She clearly indicated that a Republican would select justices who would attack basic First Amendment rights, saying, “that’s what’s at stake” in the election.

From the White House transcript:

Let’s not forget about what it meant when my husband appointed those two brilliant Supreme Court justices — (applause) — and for the first time in history, our daughters — and our sons — watched three women take their seats on our nation’s highest court. (Applause.) But more importantly, let’s not forget the impact those decisions will have on our lives for decades to come — on our privacy and security, on whether we can speak freely, worship openly, and love whomever we choose. That is what’s at stake here. (Applause.)

Mrs. Obama’s contention that Republican justices would curtail people’s abilities to “love whomever we choose” appears to suggest Republicans would go beyond opposition to gay marriage and move to limit gay relationships.

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These people are delusional.

(AP/CBS) PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Anti-Wall Street protesters around the U.S. who are vowing to stand their ground against the police and politicians are also digging in against a different kind of adversary: cold weather.

With the temperature dropping, they are stockpiling donated coats, blankets and scarves, trying to secure cots and military-grade tents, and getting survival tips from the homeless people who have joined their encampments.

“Everyone’s been calling it our Valley Forge moment,” said Michael McCarthy, a former Navy medic in Providence. “Everybody thought that George Washington couldn’t possibly survive in the Northeast.” Valley Forge in Pennsylvania was the site of the Continental Army’s winter camp during the Revolutionary War.

More than a month and a half into the movement, Occupy Wall Street activists from New York to Colorado have pledged to tough out the snow, sleet and cold as they protest economic inequality and what they call corporate greed.

Thugs.

(Fox NY) — A protester, angered by the presence of a news crew inside Zuccotti Park Friday morning, threatened to stab Fox 5 News reporter John Huddy.

What has been an otherwise violence-free period during his six weeks covering the Occupy Wall Street movement, took a turn for John Huddy. He explained what happened during Good Day New York:

“This is somebody I’ve come across several times for the last few days. He threatened to stab me in the throat with a pen. He ripped the mic out of my hand,” said Huddy.

HT: Ed M.

(click image for video)

More of that new tone.

Via RCP:

“Paul Ryan is a very insidious person. But one thing I think people need to know is that he is the darling of the elite, the establishment in Washington, D.C. My colleague Ari Berman wrote a cover story for The Nation last week called ‘How the Austerity Class Rules Washington.’

And if that doesn’t work, pummel them into submission.

(Daily Caller) — The president is facing a very tough re-election campaign, first lady Michelle Obama told audiences at three Florida fundraisers on Thursday.

“This is going to require each of you to grab somebody by the shoulders and make them understand what’s at stake; how their self-interest is directly tied. . . It’s up to each of you to work like you’ve never worked before,” Mrs. Obama told an afternoon crowd of 200 people at the waterfront Tampa home of property developer Joel Cantor.

She used the same mix of threats and promises at a lunchtime fundraiser in Jacksonville. “This is not a joke. The choices are clear. We need you fired up and ready to go, working hard every minute of the day,” she said at the end of her stump speech. “We don’t have time to joke around. You got to shake people up. You got to get them ready to roll. We can do this.”

The first lady’s alarmist tone is certainly justified by the polls, which show her husband trailing in swing states, low in national surveys, disadvantaged by the national mood and nearly out of time to spur an election-saving economic recovery.

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Via Newsbusters:

On Wednesday, liberal talk radio host Randi Rhodes found nothing wrong with Occupy Oakland protesters throwing rocks and bottles at police (and even Mother Jones confirms that). She seemed to ignore reality entirely, asking “If you conservatives are so against class warfare, why are the cops using warfare tactics against peaceful demonstrators?”

Some may have been peaceful, but the police didn’t fight back because the protesters were all “peaceful.” But Rhodes was on a roll: “Why warfare? Why rubber bullets or any kind of bullets? Why tear gas or any kind of gas? What is the justification for throwing these, uh, concussion bombs at women — and children? I don’t get it!”

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Just like the Tea Party?

So dumb it almost defies logic.

(Columbus Dispatch) — As Democrats work to place Ohio’s Republican-backed elections law on hold through a referendum, they’re arguing that the measure is akin to poll taxes, grandfather clauses and other footnotes from America’s Jim Crow past.

But does the same argument apply to Senate Bill 5, the GOP-sponsored limits on collective bargaining for public employees that is currently subject to a referendum as state Issue 2 on the November ballot?

Democratic, labor and African-American leaders say yes.

We Are Ohio, the organized labor coalition seeking to repeal Senate Bill 5, is airing a radio ad that says “Gov. John Kasich and the Columbus politicians have passed two laws to take us back to the days of Jim Crow.”

The ad, airing in six urban markets, including Columbus, then mentions both the elections law — House Bill 194 — and Senate Bill 5, and encourages listeners to sign a petition to place the elections law on the 2012 ballot and to vote to repeal Ohio’s new collective bargaining laws in November.

“It’s harsh wording, but it’s not necessarily inaccurate,” said professor Horace Newsum, chairman of the African-American and African studies department at Ohio State University. “It’s hard to swallow when you hear Jim Crow, but what the ad is really saying is, don’t take us backwards to a moment in history none of us are proud of.”

Yes, paper airplanes.

(Politico) — Occupy Wall Street protesters will march to five banks in Manhattan on Friday and deliver thousands of letters to the companies — in the form of a “mass paper airplane throwing.”

According to the plans for the march detailed on the movement’s website, at 1 p.m., protesters will meet at Bryant Park in midtown and march to the headquarters of Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase.

Thousands of letters that were submitted to occupytheboardroom.org will be folded into paper airplanes, and at some of the banks, protesters will execute a “mass paper airplane throwing event,” after which the planes will be collected in a large mailbag and left in the lobbies of the banks.

At another stop in their march, demonstrators will deliver a “singing telegram” to the company’s CEOs by singing in unison the text of one of the letters. When the singing is over, protesters will once again try to leave letters in the lobby of the banks.

The march will end at the headquarters of JP Morgan and Chase, where protesters will hold a letter-reading activity, with JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon as the intended target.

The plans come days after violence broke out in the Occupy movement in Oakland, Calif., when police swept through an encampment with tear gas and over 80 people were said to have been arrested, according to reports.

Also claims the Oakland police “terrified” her when they were forced to confront rampaging Occupiers.

(The Hill) — Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) on Friday said the Oakland police overreacted to Occupy Wall Street protesters earlier this week and condemned the police tactics.

Lee, who represents Oakland, said she was “terrified” on Tuesday when police used tear gas on a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters camped in front of Oakland’s City Hall. Police reportedly fired a series of rounds of teargas on a group of protesters who refused to leave.

“These are peaceful protesters who have a right to petition their government,” Lee said. “The reaction was not appropriate.”

Lee also defended the leaderless resistance movement, which started in New York City’s Financial District late last month and has spread from there.

“I from day one have fully supported the Occupy movement. I think it’s about time that people hit the streets and raise the concerns of the 99 percent,” Lee said.

“This is a movement of people. I don’t believe right now it needs leadership. I don’t believe it even needs an agenda,” she added. “This is a movement that is building.”

God bless the CIA.

(LWJ) —The US killed two senior al Qaeda leaders, including a member of the terror group’s executive council, in Predator strikes in North Waziristan in mid-October

The al Qaeda operatives were identified by The Washington Post as Abu Miqdad al Masri and Abd al Rahman al Yemeni. Both operatives were described as “veterans tied to the group’s senior leadership and actively involved in planning operations overseas,” while al Masri was “a former associate of Osama bin Laden.”

A US intelligence official who tracks al Qaeda’s network told The Long War Journal that al Masri was “a member of al Qaeda’s Shura Majlis,” or the executive leadership council.

Al Qaeda has not announced the death of either leader, nor has the terror group released an official martyrdom statement.

The strikes that killed al Masri and al Yemeni took place between Oct. 13 and Oct. 15. The US launched two strikes in the village of Danda Darpa Khel in the Miramshah area of North Waziristan and another strike in South Waziristan.

I think most of us would agree, ungodly is an understatement.

(Politico) — It is a sunny day at the White House with bright light streaming through the gauzy curtains that cover the patio doors and many windows of Bill Daley’s corner office in the West Wing. And so I try to find some underlying gloom.

Daley, the White House chief of staff, will twice in the course of our hourlong interview refer to the first three years of Barack Obama’s administration as “ungodly” and once as “brutal.”

So do you think, I ask, that President Obama would be satisfied saying, “We did a good job, we did good stuff,” and if he’s a one-term president, “That’s the verdict of history”?

“Nope, no, absolutely not!” Daley begins, shaking his head and then growing more outraged at the thought of a single term entering the president’s mind. “I think he’d be angry! Pissed! Unhappy! Frustrated! No, if somebody said yes to that, that would be crazy.”

But the polls stink.

“Considering the debacle that he came in with, the tough choices he’s made and how there have been few, if any breaks, he says it himself all the time,” Daley says. “He doesn’t know why he’s as high as 44 percent.”

That is due to many factors, Daley says, and he starts reeling them off: trying to stimulate the economy; trying to save the auto industry; trying to increase the debt ceiling; passing health care legislation; fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; and dealing with Syria, North Korea, Egypt and Iran. To name a few.

“It’s been a brutal three years,” he says. “It’s been a very, very difficult three years, an incredible three years. And we are doing all this under the overhang of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. F—k! It wasn’t like all this was happening in good times.”

“SHIT IS FUCKED UP AND BULLSHIT” . . . . classy.

Occupy Wall Street supporters march calling for universal healthcare in New York, October 26, 2011. Physicians, nurses, community groups and supporters of healthcare marched to call for an end of corporate greed in the health insurance industry. (AFP PHOTO/Emmanuel Dunand)

You know it’s blatant when even the NYT is forced to acknowledge it’s an issue.

WASHINGTON (NY Times) — Despite a pledge not to take money from lobbyists,President Obama has relied on prominent supporters who are active in the lobbying industry to raise millions of dollars for his re-election bid.

At least 15 of Mr. Obama’s “bundlers” — supporters who contribute their own money to his campaign and solicit it from others — are involved in lobbying for Washington consulting shops or private companies. They have raised more than $5 million so far for the campaign.

Because the bundlers are not registered as lobbyists with the Senate, the Obama campaign has managed to avoid running afoul of its self-imposed ban on taking money from lobbyists.

But registered or not, the bundlers are in many ways indistinguishable from people who fit the technical definition of a lobbyist. They glide easily through the corridors of power in Washington, with a number of them hosting Mr. Obama at fund-raisers while also visiting the White House on policy matters and official business.

As both a candidate and as president, Mr. Obama has vowed to curb what he calls the corrupting influence of lobbyists, barring them not only from contributing to his campaign but also from holding jobs in his administration. While lobbyists grouse about the rules, ethics watchdogs credit the changes with raising ethical standards in Washington.

But the prevalence of major Obama fund-raisers who also work in the lobbying arena threatens to undercut the president’s ethics push, raising questions about whether the campaign’s policies square with its on-the-ground practices, some of those same watchdogs say.

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