The Pajama Boy White House

What exactly has birthed the Pajama Boy aristocracy — our overclass of pretentious, inexperienced, and smug 30-something masters of the universe?
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White House: GOP Congress Must Approve TPP “Obamatrade” Soon

Following a signing ceremony on February 4 in New Zealand, the Obama administration is calling on the GOP-controlled Congress to hurry up and approve the massive "free-trade" regime known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Despite fierce opposition and the ongoing presidential primaries, Obama's Trade Representative, Michael Froman, said he was confident that Republican lawmakers would comply with the White House's demand in the months ahead, warning of "economic consequences" if Congress did not make haste.
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How Tom Steyer, the White House, and a Scandal-Plagued Operative Paved the Way for EPA Regulations

The White House, statehouses, and nonprofits backed by the billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer worked behind the scenes to create a state-level advocacy network to support controversial new Environmental Protection Agency regulations, newly released emails reveal.

Involved in the strategy was a top aide to John Kitzhaber, the former Democratic governor of Oregon, according to emails obtained by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute. Kitzhaber resigned this year in the midst of a scandal involving his fiancée.


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Outrageous: White House Blames Republicans for Steinle Murder

As noted in PJ Media, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest had the gall to blame Republicans for the random killing of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle in sanctuary city San Francisco last week at the hands of Francisco Sanchez, an illegal immigrant with a rap sheet of seven felonies who had been deported five times.


Questioned about this immigration-policy failure, Earnest attempted to deflect responsibility by insisting that Republican opposition to comprehensive immigration reform has hamstrung the administration's funding for border security:


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Spike It! When the Media Kill a Story for Political Reasons

What happens when the news media catch the White House in a demonstrable lie? That depends entirely on whether they like the administration. If they loathe the administration, it’s front-page news. If they like it, they spike the story. As Momma used to remind us, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.  What a great motto for reporters.


That is exactly what the national media have done to an important story about the White House’s intimate working relationship with MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, who helped craft the Affordable Care Act.


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WSJ: Gruber worked far more closely with White House than previously acknowledged

Gruber’s baaaaaa-aaaaack, and badder than ever. The Wall Street Journal’s Stephanie Armour got 20,000 pages of e-mail from the House Oversight Committee that MIT professor Jonathan Gruber exchanged with the White House on ObamaCare, making it clear that he played a far more integral role in its development than the Obama administration acknowledged after videos emerged of Gruber contradicting their position on King v Burwell. The e-mails cover 14 months and demonstrate intense involvement from the beginning of Barack Obama’s presidency to the passage of the Affordable Care Act:


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WH: ‘Common Sense’ That Iran Will Use Money From Lifted Sanctions to Boost Economy, Not Fund Terror

White House press secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged Tuesday that the U.S. cannot proscribe how Iran chooses to spend the money it will get as sanctions are eased under a proposed nuclear deal.


But he said it was “common sense” to expect that the regime would use it to improve the ailing economy, rather than to step up funding for terrorism or destabilizing activities in the region.
Earnest said what had brought the Iranians to the negotiating table in the first place was a desire to ease the effects of sanctions imposed by the international community over the nuclear standoff.


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Politico Hypes 'Gender-Neutral' Bathrooms at the White House

Sarah Wheaton touted the new "gender-neutral" bathroom at the White House as "the latest in a series of symbolic steps the Obama administration has taken to work the priorities of the LGBT community into its broader themes of inclusiveness and tolerance" in a Thursday item on Politico.com. Wheaton played up how "the newly designated restroom is an example of how the administration has been advancing the discussion by raising the profile of transgender issues, an area of debate that is especially hotly contested right now."  The correspondent's article, "Latest White House feature: Gender-neutral restroom," read more like an Obama administration press release than a press report.

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White House Office of Administration drops transparency regulation on freedom of information day

The White House Office of Administration on Monday announced it's deleting regulations subjecting it to the Freedom of Information Act seven years after a federal judge ruled the office doesn't have to comply with the law.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled in June 2008 the Office of Administration was not subject to FOIA regulations because it doesn't employ "the type of substantial independent authority that the D.C. Circuit has found sufficient to make an (executive office of the president) component an agency under the FOIA."  The Office of Administration provides administrative support and business services to the president's executive office.

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Another Network Ex-Reporter Explains How News Is in the Tank for Gov’t

In January of 2014, award-winning investigative journalist for NBC News Lisa Meyers announced she was leaving the network after thirty-three years—supposedly to work on her golf game.  However, an interview this week with the Des Moines Register gave credence to the speculation that she left because network news no longer wanted to upset the White House and other politicians. Read more at MRC TV Read More......

National Archives Tried to Hide Email About Living in Fear of White House

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) tried to hide an email about its fear of upsetting the White House from Freedom of Information Act requests by the Associated Press, the AP reported Friday.Associated Press president Gary Pruitt reported in an op-ed on government transparency that, during the course of an AP investigation into Michelle Obama’s dresses, NARA used a privacy exemption to redact a line in an email that was actually about the agency’s fear of the White House:As the president said, the United States should not withhold or censor government files merely because they might be embarrassing.

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Revealed: 2,500 new documents in IRS / W.H. harassment cases

In a shocking revelation, the Treasury Inspector General has identified some 2,500 documents that “potentially” show taxpayer information held by the Internal Revenue Service being shared with President Obama’s White House.

The discovery was revealed to the group Cause of Action, which has sued for access to any of the documents. It charges that the IRS and White House have harassed taxpayers.

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Krauthammer: ‘Mainstream Media’ Won’t Be Interested in Benghazi ‘Cover-up of a Cover-up’

Commentator Charles Krauthammer challenged the mainstream media to report on documents released this week directly tying then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s Benghazi talking points to instructions in an email from a White House official. ✧ The mainstream media are going to say, ‘Oh, it’s so complicated,’ and they’re not going to look into this and without it it’s going to be quite a struggle,” Krauthammer said last night on Fox’s “Special Report.” ✧ He was referring to emails obtained through a lawsuit by Judicial Watch that reveal senior White House official Ben Rhodes instructed that Rice blame an “Internet video”—not a policy failure—for the terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that left the U.S. ambassador and three others dead.

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White House looks to regulate cow flatulence as part of climate agenda

As part of its plan to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the Obama administration is targeting the dairy industry to reduce methane emissions in their operations.

This comes despite falling methane emission levels across the economy since 1990.

Read more at the Daily Caller

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Alleged McConnell Bugger Visited White House

WASHINGTON — The head of a group accused of illegally taping private meetings of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's campaign visited the White House days before the group's Twitter account began actively attacking the Kentucky Republican, according to White House visitors logs.

White House logs and the Twitter feed of Shawn Reilly, one of two men at the heart of the McConnell wiretapping scandal, show he met with White House officials on Dec. 5, just days before his organization Progress Kentucky began a messaging blitzkrieg against the Republican leader.

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Bush shows humor and class at White House unveiling of portraits

CBS News reported, "Former President George W. Bush brought a light-hearted tone to the unveiling of his official White House portrait on Thursday, winning over an audience of friends, family and former colleagues with jokes, "  while The Washington Examiner focused first on Obama's poor  choice of venue to take a 'jab' at Bush before reporting on the lighter side.

Personally, I appreciate President Bush's humor and that he chooses to take the high road. --bc

Portraits below the fold.

The portraits of President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush were painted by John Howard Sanden, who received the first John Singer Sargent Medal for Lifetime Achievement from the American Society of Portrait Artists in 1994 (per CBS News).

The portrait of Mr. Bush shows the former president standing in the center of the Oval Office with his right hand resting on an armchair that was made for the White House in 1818. Over his right shoulder hangs a 1929 western painting, A Charge to Keep, by William H. D. Koerner. Mr. Bush used the same title for his 1999 memoir (per CBS News).

The portrait of Laura Bush shows the former first lady in the White House Green Room, which she helped refurbish in 2007 (per CBS News).

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White House Christmas tree selected

The 2-year old Obama/anti-Christmas/Holiday Tree email is circulating again.

The official White House Christmas tree has been selected and it's coming from Northeast Wisconsin. White House staff visited a tree farm owned by Tom and Sue Schroeder in Neshkoro Monday morning. The couple owns Schroeder's Forevergreens. ✧ White House Grounds Superintendent Dale Haney, responsible for selecting the Christmas tree(s) for the White House, referred to the tree as, "...the focal point for Christmas for the White House." Read more at Urban Legends/KXAN.com...

And, after public outcry, the good news is that the Obama Administration decided to delay its Christmas tree tax while the Department of Agriculture reconsiders its order. But what's troubling is that, had this story not come to light, and had Americans not spoken out, yet another tax -- another mandate from the federal government -- would have been imposed on industry and the American people without their knowledge. Read More......

Obama's ID card for the Internet

WASHINGTON TIMES/Editorial, 1/13/2011 (Hat tip: AFA Action Alert) - The Washington Times is warning that the White House cybersecurity adviser and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke are drawing up "ObamaNet," President Obama's mandate for what amounts to a national ID card for the Internet. Read more at the Washington Times... Read More......

Reagan's 1981 Christmas Address

President Ronald Reagan, Christmas Address, 12/23/1981

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Hoyer balks at March 18 White House healthcare deadline

THE HILL 3/9/2010 - “None of us has mentioned the 18th other than Mr. Gibbs,” Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday at his weekly meeting with reporters, referring to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. ∴ Going further, Hoyer refused to commit to House passage of either healthcare or the 2010 budget prior to the Easter recess, which is scheduled to begin on Saturday, March 27. Read more at The Hill... Read More......