The Tea Party Rebel Alliance Remains Standing !

[…]  Cochran enjoyed the backing of a muscular array of corporate PACs and interest groups, and received an extraordinary injection of late money from his Senate comrades.

He took $27,000 in contributions from colleagues including Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Rob Portman of Ohio and John Boozman of Arkansas. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which deployed field staff to Mississippi ahead of the primary to bolster Cochran’s operation, gave him $45,400 on May 20.

[…]  Karl Rove and American Crossroads, the powerful GOP outside-spending group, said Wednesday morning that it would not spend money in the Cochran-McDaniel race. Though Crossroads was not involved in the Mississippi primary prior to this week, the definitive statement that the group will not engage deprives national Republicans of a possible funding stream for Cochran’s effort.

“Other than Alaska, we have completed our work on Senate primaries this cycle and are now focused on general elections. With the Chamber of Commerce, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) , and a local super PAC (Haley Barbour) already backing Cochran, this is not our fight,” Crossroads spokesman Paul Lindsay said in an email. (more…)

“The Fixer” (left) and “Skippy” (right) have screwed the pooch on this Bergdahl fiasco.

TV Pundits are stuck in a pre-Obama political paradigm of opinion delivery as they proclaim the White House “had to know” the controversial issues surrounding Bowe Bergdahl prior to using him as a prop to turn around the opinion and polling of a failing Obama presidency.

“They can’t be that niave” is another favorite.   “Surely they had to know this would (__fill_in_blank__)”… etc.

Um, well, actually yes, yes they are *THAT* disconnected.    Yes, they actually did anticipate the Bergdahl release creating a national euphoria of patriotism and celebration.

Yes, they actually saw this as being another big effen’ deal – only they thought it would be a positive one.  No, they did not see this coming.

Those who think otherwise either do not, or have not, followed this White House communications team well enough.  (Looking at you David Gergen)

(more…)

Either this article contains lazy/poor reporting, or the Sheriff changed his story again….

GEORGIA – The investigation into the botched drug raid that left a baby critically injured is growing to include state and federal authorities.

“As a parent, I can’t imagine the horrible nightmare that this family is enduring,” said U.S. Attorney Sally Yates on Tuesday. “Federal and state authorities are coordinating to get to the bottom of what happened.”

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced Tuesday that at the request of the district attorney it would investigate whether narcotics officers violated the law in executing a controversial “no-knock” search warrant last Wednesday.

Meanwhile civil rights advocates delivered a letter to Yates asking that federal authorities investigate whether the rights of 19-month-old Bounkham “Bou Bou” Phonesavanh and his family were violated in the highly aggressive search that yielded no drugs, no drug dealer and no weapons. It was unclear how active a role federal authorities would play.

(more…)

Progressives love to drag you down in the muck and begin a slugfest of obfuscation.   They are working diligently to attach the (Defense Authorization Act) ie “Congressional Notification Law”, to the right of the President to take action.

Don’t fall for it.    These are two entirely separate and distinct issues.

The law is specifically clear.   The President must notify congress.  Period.

There is nothing within the notification law which impedes his ability to act on a release itself.   They are two separate aspects.

The President has the authority to release GITMO detainees based on his own considerations.   However, he has the legal responsibility to notify congress 30 days prior to doing so. He did not.

(more…)

(Via CBS) Questions persisted, too, about the circumstances of Bergdahl’s 2009 capture. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel declined to comment on earlier reports that the sergeant had walked away from his unit, disillusioned with the war. Such matters “will be dealt with later,” Hagel said.

Hagel, visiting troops in Afghanistan, was met with silence when he told a group of them in a Bagram Air Field hangar:

“This is a happy day. We got one of our own back.”

It was unclear whether the absence of cheers and applause came from a reluctance to display emotion in front of the Pentagon chief or from any doubts among the troops about Bergdahl.  (link)

Apparently the left-wing Seattle Moonbats did not pause in their march for social justice to ask or evaluate SeaTac, a suburb of Seattle, where their $15 wage began earlier this year.    Here’s a brief snippet of some conversation with a SeaTac employee:

SURPRISE !  15 minutes south of Seattle, near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, employees are already seeing the negative effects of such a hike. A February report from the Seattle Times revealed:

At the Clarion Hotel off International Boulevard, a sit-down restaurant has been shuttered, though it might soon be replaced by a less-labor-intensive cafe…

Other businesses have adjusted in ways that run the gamut from putting more work in the hands of managers, to instituting a small “living-wage surcharge” for a daily parking space near the airport.

That’s not all. According to Assunta Ng, publisher of the Northwest Asian Weekly, some employees are feeling the pinch as employers cut benefits. She recalls a conversation she had with two hotel employees who have been affected by the wage hike: (more…)

*Update Below Fold* – Many are noting the inherent issues of the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap, and there are indeed many issues:  The non-consultation with congress; The ideology behind Robert Bergdahl;  The desertion from duty of then PFC Bowe Bergdahl;  The probability of the terrorists returning to attack Americans;   The various contradictions stemming from the White House, State Dept and Military; and perhaps more concerning the precedent now established for the U.S. actually negotiating with terrorists etc.

However, not withstanding -nor diminishing- all of those issues, another hits a deeper resonance.   If you give the benefit of all considerations and doubt to the administration, there’s one question they are neither being asked, nor have they reasonably stated.

Why make everything about the release, swap, exchange, so public ?

What was gained by such publicity in a weekend Rose Garden speech?  What policy was improved?  What military or foreign policy benefitted from telling the entire world what was happening, when it was happening, and how we did it?

It is entirely possible for the release to have assured and delivered without all of the publicity surrounding it.   Bowe Bergdahl’s release could have been done quietly, with press release and WH communication after the event.   Why was it considered a better course to put on such a public display?   What exactly was the benefit?

Some brave journalist should put those simple questions to the administration, and keep asking why ?   Then find out who made the decision. (more…)

(Via Right Scoop) The first and most obvious comment from Bowe Bergdahl’s father, Bob Bergdahl, was at the White House presser on Saturday. Walid Shoebat and company put this video together that shows us a couple of things.

First, what’s been said to be an Islamic greeting is in fact the most famous war cry of Islam called the “Bismillah” or the “Basmallah”. It sounds like this: “bismillah al-rahman al-rahim” which means in Arabic “in the name of Allah the most gracious, the most merciful.”

Walid Shoebat says this about it:

The “Basmallah” is the Islamic expression for victory and only indicates that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s father is a Muslim. …When one gives the basmallah, trims his mustache and elongates his beard, its the first sign of a convert to Islam.

Now watch the video they put together and notice Obama grins ear to ear when he hears the “Basmallah”:

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This is what happens when you have multiple agencies within the administration all working from politically flawed McDonough/Jarrett/Rhodes and communication room “talking points”.

The White House constructs a specific and complex narrative.   The message is then transmitted to State Dept.   The State Dept is then selling that narrative “detained while in combat“, even when the White House (Carney) backs away from it.

WATCH:

We saw the exact same thing happen with the Benghazi story.  As mentioned yesterday this is the exact consequence from using the political outlook of any event to shape your outward messaging.

When you are using politics, or more specifically political risk, as the common consideration to create your message – when the politics of the message turn against you it becomes necessary to shift positions.

The trouble stems with the communication lag between the political shifts toward each accompanying agency. When you shift position the others don’t yet know, that separation creates the double-speak and contradiction.

It only happens when you politicize your position. The more you use politics as the filter to determine your message, the worse, and more frequent, the visible contradiction(s) become.