Bastards get mad when we call them Nazi's; maybe they shouldn't ACT like them... 2 posts from American Thinker... even after watching 8 years of the left and the state-run media savaging George Bush I can't even imagine what it would be like if this first post was about Bush instead of Obama. Remember Haliburton? I ask again, where is the outrage from the usual outragers:

Passing the Smell Test
Michael Lisle

Earlier this week, AT's Rick Moran highlighted the Obama Administration's decision to invest $2 billion to finance offshore drilling in Brazil. Many good questions there, including the pertinent question of why offshore drilling is okay for Brazil, but not for the U.S.

Since the initial story broke late last week, Bloomberg has reported that billionaire Democratic donor George Soros acquired over $800 million in Petrobas stock during the second quarter of  2008, ultimately selling 22 million common shares and acquiring 5.8 million preferred (read "dividend paying") shares recently.



Ed Morrissey at Hot Air asks all of the salient questions, including this one:

Is it a coincidence that Obama backer George Soros repositioned himself in Petrobras to get dividends just a few days before Obama committed $2 billion in loans and guarantees for Petrobras' (sic) offshore operations?   Hmmmmmmmmmm.

I don't have a smoking gun, but I do have the good sense to recognize when something doesn't pass the smell test. It might well be happenstance that Soros' "repositioning" was completely unrelated to the decision to invest American dollars in Petrobas, but there are too many dots that have at least a tenuous connection to assume that it's a completely innocent coincidence.

Unfortunately, this is just the latest in a long string of issues emanating from the White House that cause Americans to question the integrity and good sense of the Campaigner in Chief's administration. Consider what we've learned in just the past several days.

Senior adviser David Axelrod is still owed $2 million by the advertising firm he ran until leaving after Obama's election. This firm, now run by Axelrod's son, is a key player in the healthcare reform advertising effort.

The administration, which Obama promised would be the most bipartisan ever, has floated a trial balloon to gauge reaction to achieving healthcare reform with only Democrat votes. This came after significant backtracking on the so-called "public option" deemed essential by the far left.

Many Americans are still furious about being spammed by Axelrod with a message about healthcare reform, and the dirty tactics of those opposed to the president's plan. Many are also still incensed about the fact that the White House set up a snitch email account and actively encouraged Americans to report any "disinformation" they heard from others regarding healthcare reform.

The list could go on (the Beer Summit and police "acting stupidly," the push for cap-and-trade, and many more), but the point is made: In less than eight months, the Obama administration already has a well-established track record that stands in opposition to the promises of transparency and the highest ethics. I don't think it stems from ignorance, but instead from Obama's trademark hubris. He knows the smell test exists; he simply thinks he is smart and clever enough to beat it, or, if he's caught, to contort his way out of the consequences.

In over their heads, trying to flood the system by pushing huge reform after huge reform through the system in the best Alinsky style, and severely underestimating the American public's ability to connect dots, Obama et al. have burned through copious amounts of political capital and public goodwill by trying to beat the smell test instead of working with it.

House Dems go after insurers for opposing Obamacare
Rick Moran

Welcome to government of the thugs, by the thugs, and for the thugs.



In retribution for daring to oppose Obamacare, health insurance companies are being targeted by Democrats for excessive compensation to employees and lavish spending on conferences and getaways.

The Chief Inquisitor? Henry Waxman, of course. Here's the story from Fox News:

   

Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. [editor: top 5 Washington asshole], and Bart Stupak, D-Mich. [editor: another Michigan moron], sent a letter warning health insurers that the House Energy and Commerce Committee is "examining executive compensation and other business practices of the health industry."

Waxman, chairman of the committee, and Stupak, chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee did not inform their Republican counterparts of their plans.

Health insurers have until Sept. 4 to provide Congress a detailed list of every employee who made over a $1 million dollars a year between 2003 and 2008. Democrats also want documents about conferences and any events held off company property as well as the types of transportation, lodging, food, entertainment and even gifts exchanged.

Raising the intimidation stakes: the Waxman letter offers insurers no explanation of what is being investigated or why.

Industry insiders fear the beginning of reprisals for anyone daring to dissent from the Obama agenda. One said it feels like a reprisal audit by the IRS.

With raucous health care town halls unfolding nationwide during the August congressional recess and polls showing increased opposition to a government-run insurance program or "public option," neither Waxman nor Stupak nor their staffs would comment on this story. But it's no secret that Democrats blame anti-reform ads on the private health insurance industry and its supporters.

Health insurance companies have received no federal bail out money so the question of what gives Waxman the right to be investigating how much private companies pay their employees, or how much they spend on business conferences to Hawaii or Vegas falls under the heading of none of the government's damned business.

If shareholders want to fire executives for making too much that is their right. If these same shareholders want to fire managers for going on golf excursions at company expense under the guise of a business conference, they are well within their rights to do so.

If Waxman wants to make this the business of Congress, perhaps we should start looking at Congressional junkets, gifts, campaign monies being used to pay wives and relatives exorbitant salaries, and a host of other practices that should be illegal but are not.

But that just wouldn't do. Instead, we have Democrats wanting to intimidate people to keep them from opposing their agenda.

Why not just send some legbreakers over to the executive offices of these companies and have them work the managers over a little? It would certainly save us the kind of hypocritical bellyaching we are likely to get about businessmen making too much money from Waxman and the other Democratic thugs who are running the show on Capitol Hill.

Don't write back and try to justify this. This is bullshit and you Obama supporters KNOW it... or you should...