Not only is Oleg Atbashian an exceptional writer, as evidenced by this award winning essay on modern progs, but he’s also the artist behind the custom Brietbart Banner that tops our website.   He has a great blog “The Peoples Cube” – and his brilliant way of reflecting humor within the serious discussion posts is, well, just brilliant.

To preach tolerance and be so intolerant? To grieve for terror victims and justify terrorism? To stand up for workers and destroy their jobs? To march for peace and defend the militants? To denounce corruption and vote for the corrupt? To espouse non-violence and commit violent acts? To speak of liberties and promote government dictate? To bolster feminism and deride successful women? To cheer gays and aid the gay-bashers in the Middle East? To champion minorities as a group and hold them down as individuals? To care about the children and condemn them to intellectual mutilation? To denounce guns and hire armed bodyguards? To support the troops and side with their murderers? To demand love and be full of hate?

The Book of Progressive Chauvinism – There is a reason why snobby elites on the Upper West Side of Manhattan generously donate to leftist causes and support leftist politicians. Snobs and radicals often act in accord because they are not opposites, as some believe, but rather spiritual cousins – equally despising “the bourgeois,” sharing a low view of humanity as herd animals, and sorting people not on their individual merits but by color, income, occupation, ethnicity, gender, and any other characteristic except the content of their minds.

Elitists share the presumption that people of the world cannot think for themselves and have no room in their souls for individual ambitions and achievements outside of what the government is giving them. Short of stating it explicitly, elitism implies that “the masses” are mindless, spiritless creatures without free will, always in need of the largesse of the state, and for their own good the state ought to nationalize the country’s resources in order to feed its subjects. (more…)

I was wondering when someone was going to pick up on this aspect of President Obama’s speech at National Defense University last Thursday.    POTUS was calling for “increased oversight” over drone use.   HIS drone use.

Glad to see the words and intent of the President did not escape at least one reporter, Brit Hume:

Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume thinks it is very peculiar for President Barack Obama to call for executive power to be scaled back.

Hume noted on Fox News Sunday that Obama had “made generous use of” drone strikes.

“There’s an odd quality to this whole thing, and it is almost like he’s saying, with regard to the drone policy, ‘We need something to stop me before I kill again,’” he explained. “We can see that in his support on an unrelated matter on the shield law for journalists. He’s carried out these oversteps in pursuing journalists who are doing their job, and now he says ‘we need a shield law,’ as if to say we need a law to protect them from us.”

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder personally signed off on the warrant that allowed the Justice Department to search Fox News reporter James Rosen’s personal email, NBC News’ Michael Isikoff reported Thursday.

The report places Holder at the center of one of the most controversial clashes between the press and the government in recent memory. The warrant he approved named Rosen as a “co-conspirator” in a leak investigation, causing many to warn that the Justice Department was potentially criminalizing journalism. The warrant also approved the tracking of Rosen’s movements in and out of the State Department, as well as his communications with his source, Stephen Kim. (more…)

First they came for Andrew Breitbart, and the legacy media did not care because they did not like Breitbart….  Then they came for Fox News, and the legacy media did not care because they do not like Fox;  Then they came for the Associated Press, and some inside the legacy media began to twitch……  Then they came for James Rosen…. and again, more twitching.  Now they come for CBS and Sharyl Attkisson…..  Soon the regime will have no-one left to expose their corruption.

WASHINGTON DC – CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson said on Tuesday that her personal and work computers have been “compromised” for over two years.

Attkisson told a local Philadelphia radio station that she has been working with investigators to discover the source of the activity.

“There has been an issue in my house and there has been an issue with my computers that’s gone on for quite a long time that we’re looking into,” she said. (more…)

WASHINGTON DC – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said embattled IRS official Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights and will be hauled back to appear before his panel again.

The California Republican said Lerner’s Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination was voided when she gave an opening statement this morning denying any wrongdoing and professing pride in her government service. (more…)

Roger L Simon @PJMedia has a column out which essentially predicts a new set of whistleblowers who will soon present to congress.

[…] According to the diplomats, what these whistleblowers will say will be at least as explosive as what we have already learned about the scandal, including details about what really transpired in Benghazi that are potentially devastating to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

The former diplomats inform PJM the new revelations concentrate in two areas — what Ambassador Chris Stevens was actually doing in Benghazi and the pressure put on General Carter Ham, then in command of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and therefore responsible for Libya, not to act to protect jeopardized U.S. personnel. (more…)

While you were sleeping, or otherwise distracted by the shiny things dispatched by Scandalpalooza,  the usurpation continues.

WASHINGTON DC – After three long weeks of hearings and debates, spectators burst out into screams and applause Tuesday night after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved an immigration bill that would be the biggest overhaul to the nation’s immigration laws in a generation.

The bill was produced by a bipartisan group of senators known as the Gang of Eight. With four of those members on the committee, the bill survived more than 200 proposed amendments over five lengthy hearings.

Left intact was the core of the bill, which will allow the nation’s 11 million unauthorized immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship, add significant investments in border security and fundamentally alter the legal immigration system of the future. (more…)

WASHINGTON – A top IRS official in the division that reviews nonprofit groups will invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions before a House committee investigating the agency’s improper screening of conservative nonprofit groups.

Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, won’t answer questions about what she knew about the improper screening – or why she didn’t reveal it to Congress, according to a letter from her defense lawyer, William W. Taylor 3rd.

Lerner was [is] scheduled to appear before the House Oversight committee Wednesday. (more…)

Spotted: @joshtpm @CapehartJ @ezraklein & other lefty columnists headed into the West Wing as a group. POTUS coffee? Carney meeting? Anyone?

— Ari Shapiro (@arishapiro) May 21, 2013

Predictions:

1. ISOLATE – Attach the word “birther” or “birtherism” or “extremist” to the people who are demanding White House transparency and investigation.

2. RIDICULE – Position all of the investigations as “attacks” against and targeting the President. This helps play the race card.

3. MARGINALIZE – Talk up the willingness of staffers to cooperate as a tool for diminishing the severity of the accusations/charges. Highlight supporters (unions) to the presidential agenda.

Hat Tip WeaselZippers:   Hmmmm?   Wonder what this could be ?