The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), highlights Holder’s role in the botched gun-tracking operation known as Fast and Furious, which was run under the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Republicans have been investigating who authorized and had knowledge of Fast and Furious, which oversaw the sale of thousands of weapons in the Southwest region to known and suspected straw buyers for Mexican drug cartels. The majority of the weapons were never tracked, and two of the guns were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.

“We call on you today to hold Attorney General Eric Holder accountable for Operation Fast and Furious — and urge you to ask for his immediate resignation,” the letter reads.

“In intentionally letting over 2,000 firearms ‘walk’ across the border into Mexico,” it continues, “the [ATF] — under the leadership of Attorney General Holder — carried out an operation that left a U.S. Border Patrol agent dead, broke federal law and attempted to build a case for gun control. Operation Fast and Furious has proved to be one of the most serious errors in judgment carried out in recent history by a federal agency.”

At first, Holder didn’t even admit that he knew about this operation, despite having received several operational memos from the field office conducting the operation. Instead, he claimed that he never saw the memos because they go to his underlings first, so they can make sure that he only sees the important stuff. Under tough questioning from the Senate Judiciary Committee, he “clarified” this claim to mean that he really meant that he heard about it when it started appearing in the press.

Its easy to see how Holder can claim ignorance of these things. He has constructed a circle of  “plausible deniability” around him by having the information sent to him filtered by underlings. This way, he can claim that he never heard about it because someone else decided it wasn’t important enough to pass on. Seems to me, that if a field office sends information to the Attorney General, it is because he thinks that the Attorney General needs to know about something. If Holder’s people are preventing him from being fully informed about the government agency he is in charge of, then they need to be held accountable along with Holder.

Of course, after the whole Black Panthers episode after the 2008 Election, it isn’t surprising to see Holder’s incompetence on display like this. Apparently, he’s more interested in “social justice” than real justice, which is troubling given that he is in charge of the Department of Justice.

The Middle East is afire with rebellion, Japan is imploding from an earthquake, and the battle of the budget is on in the United States, but none of this seems to be deterring President Obama from a heavy schedule of childish distractions.

The newly installed tandem of White House Chief of Staff William Daley and Senior Adviser David Plouffe were supposed to impart a new sense of discipline and purpose to the White House. Instead, they are permitting him to showcase himself as a poorly focused leader who has his priorities backward.

This morning, as Japan’s nuclear crisis enters a potentially catastrophic phase, we are told that Obama is videotaping his NCAA tournament picks and that we’ll be able to tune into ESPN Wednesday to find out who he likes.

Saturday, he made his 61st outing to the golf course as president, and got back to the White House with just enough time for a quick shower before heading out to party with Washington’s elite journalists at the annual Gridiron Dinner.

The following is the most apt visual depiction of our current President I could find:

Obama’s incompetence has caused this country a lot of problems, from the (lack of a) budget to our allies across the world. Two more years of his lack of leadership and fiscal irresponsibility practically guarantees that the economy will collapse and our standing around the world will be on a par with other third-world nations (after all, that is what he is making America into).

So, Democrats: How’s that “hope ‘n change” workin’ out for ya?

The administration also wants to a remarkably open-ended authority to transfer funds between accounts — a power that is sure to be resisted by the Appropriations Committee leadership.

As Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posts, this request is an attempt to avoid the checks and balances built into our system of government:

This is what’s known as “burying the lead” in journalism.  A Republican House will have the “power of the purse” to put an end to executive branch overreach — for instance, the efforts at the EPA to create carbon caps outside of Congressional authorization, the FCC’s attempts to regulate the Internet, and so on.  That power is a key part of the checks and balances in federal government, forcing agencies to account for themselves and their behavior to Congress, and putting limits on executive authority to issue orders for regulation without Congressional approval.

All-in-all, looks like its just another day at the Obama White House. Shredding the Constitution, turning a deaf ear to the American public, and in general not giving a fig about anyone but himself. Looks like Obama is right on schedule to make himself a one-term President (Thank God!).

A person, or by extension a nation, cannot simply chose to live in peace; if it were that easy there never would have been any wars in the history of the planet. The reason you cannot simply chose peace is because in order to live in peace, the people, and by extension nations, around you must allow you to live in peace, or at least to leave you alone. It doesn’t matter how much you love peace or how respectful you are of your neighbors, if they decide to fight you and then act on that decision you are no longer living peacefully.

Now, in the above situation there are many choices available to you, some of which could result in peace. You could decide to act to appease the aggressor; this would give you peace for a short time for a price. Also, you could convince the aggressor that if he were to disturb your peace, he would loose everything. This might prevent the aggressor from doing anything against you. You could also decide to go on the offensive and attack the aggressor, with the intent of defeating him. In this case, peace depends on victory; no victory — no peace. Finally, you could offer the aggressor your assistance in helping him overcome whatever it is that is driving him to fight, if that is possible.

Regardless of what choice is made, the result could be peace. On the other hand, the result could be violence and war, or something close to it. It all depends on how reasonable you and your neighbors are. Reasonable people could discuss issues and find a peaceful solution which is beneficial for everyone. However, as Alfred, Bruce Wayne’s butler in The Dark Knight said, “Some people just want to watch the world burn.” In other words, you don’t always have the ability to chose what you want; the choice is forced upon you by others.

In the Real World™, even the simplest concept is deceptively complex. Things like “hope” and “change” are, in and of themselves, simple concepts. Who could be against hope? If things are not going well, is it not time for a change? However, it is at this point that our old friend The Law of Unintended Consequences usually makes an appearance or two. Currently, the “change” which the current administration is implementing is wreaking havoc with the economy and the private sector. The National Debt has been tripled by the current administration in 18 months, and they are no where near done spending. Health care costs are about to increase for everyone while availability will be substantially reduced. The Cap-n-Tax© proposal making its way through Congress will bankrupt the private sector businesses which are the heart of the American economy.

Simple isn’t always simple. Sometimes, its a smoke-screen to hide other things.

Welcome to Obama’s World, comrade. Did you honestly think that just because men and women have been dying for over 200 years to protect your freedom and liberty that it was guaranteed?  Since the founding of this Republic, the American People have been warned over and over again; The biggest danger to your freedom and liberty comes from within, not from others. And so it begins…

Congressional Democrats have harassed, bribed, bought, and threatened enough of their own to pass ObamaCare. Over 55% of the American People said they didn’t want it, but Obama and the Democrats didn’t listen. After all, they are smarter than you and know better. You should just go back to your home, continue sending more and more taxes to Washington, and shut up. Who are you to question The One™?

Arrogance is an ugly thing, and it is currently residing in the White House. Obama has thrown the American People under the bus in favor of his socialist vision for America. The Main Stream Media (MSM), being his willing accomplice, will now crank out story after story heralding the passage of this bill as just as important as the Civil Rights Bill, while trying the make minority opinion on this bill in the country look bigger than it is.  Get ready to hear one sob-story after another, 24/7/365, each and every time The One™ speaks about this bill, which will be a lot. He still thinks that he can sell it to you, if only you were smart enough to understand.

The path to restore our freedoms, liberties, and country begins immediately. Attorneys General for several states will be filing suits to challenge the Constitutionality of this bill. If your state’s AG is filing a suit, support them however possible. If your state’s AG is not filing suit, contact them by phone, email, and letter and insist he join the fight. Don’t let up.

Next, you have to show up at the polls in November and get rid of every Democrat who voted yes on this bill. Each and every one. The only reason Obama could get away with this was because of his henchmen in the Congress. The best way to prevent Obama from doing any more damage to our country and Constitution is to deprive him of his ability to pass legislation.  If we stop this kind of  socialism from seeing the light-of-day in Congress, Obama can do little more than dream.

Finally, Obama must be removed from office in 2012. If we can remove the majority of Democrats from the Congress in November, Obama will be little more than a house-sitter for the last two years of his one and only term. There is no need to impeach him or investigate him or anything else; just let him sit there for two years. Let him travel the globe and continue apologizing for America’s past to his new European friends, showing off his Nobel Prize and giving inappropriate gifts to foreign dignitaries.  Oh, sure, he’ll make speeches and continue to talk down to us just as he’s done since he came on the scene, but so what? With no power in Congress he can’t do anything. Trust me, this will be enough.

The damage that Obama and the Democrats have done to this country and the Constitution is not irreversible; it can be corrected, but only if you take action. You will have to support the Constitutional challenges to ObamaCare. You will have to vote the current crop of Democrats out of office. You will have to remove Obama from the White House. Without you, none of this can happen and we’ll all see each other in the breadlines in the next few years. This is your chance to stand up for the America you grew up loving and being proud of. It’s your chance to defend your freedom and liberty from those who would destroy it in the name of  “progress.” Several hundred thousand members of the military have given their lives to ensure that you can act in these troubled times. Will you be able to look their survivors in the face and say that you did all you could to honor their sacrifice?

In case you were wondering, it is now clear that President Obama is not just tone deaf; he’s decided that he doesn’t care what the citizens of the United States think about his health care reform bill. So, like it or not, he is trying to get the Democrats in Congress to commit political suicide and use reconciliation (otherwise known as the “Nuclear Option”) to shove his multi-trillion dollar government takeover of the health care industry down the people’s throats.

On Tuesday, President Obama offered Republicans a small bipartisan olive branch. On Wednesday, he hit them with a partisan sledgehammer by vowing Democrats would ram his “new” health care plan (a revised version of the bill the Senate passed on Christmas Eve) through Congress using a budget tactic known as reconciliation that was never designed for passing legislation revamping one-sixth of the U.S. economy.

Once again, the Democrats’ arrogance will lead to their electoral defeat at the polls this November. They know the public is against this version of reform, and they don’t care because they think you’re just too stupid to know any better. They think if only Obama would weave his rhetorical magic on the people and explain his plan to them in a way that would allow them to actually understand how brilliant it is. What they don’t seem to grasp is that lacking a clear and understandable description of what they want to do is only half the problem. The other half is the fact that the actual legislation doesn’t even exist yet. Remember, Obama is an “idea” guy; he’s great at thinking up popular ideas. Actually constructing the legislative language to make the idea work is, apparently,  completely beyond his abilities. He leaves that to others under the guise of “getting other ideas.” It is a perfect example of his lack of any type of leadership ability. A leader would have made a reform proposal with actual details and strategies to accomplish the reform. Instead, he just handed it over to a group of people who can’t decide what to eat for lunch and said, “you do it!”

Now, it appears that Obama wants his reform passed by Congress before the Congressional Spring Break, in an effort to keep Democrats from having to face their constituants and explain why they refuse to represent them:

Democrats are racing the clock to pass health care reform ahead of a wave of Tea Party-driven town hall meetings planned for the spring recess — the kind of gatherings that nearly derailed the package last August.

But there’s a big difference this time around. Last summer, Democrats were encouraged to hold the town hall meetings, and they were blindsided by the backlash, which was recorded and promoted in countless YouTube clips. This time around, they have a good idea of what’s coming — and they’re lying low, in case work on health care carries over into the recess.

Watching Obama trying to get his seizure of the health care industry through Congress is like watching a six year old child try to do something he knows he shouldn’t. He tries to get it past the parents (the American People) with little or no explanation and before anyone knows what’s going on. He knows that if the parents catch on to what he’s doing, he’s done for. In this case, so are most of his friends.

This guy’s arrogance is appalling, and should be reason enough for his electoral defeat in 2012. With luck, a Republican-controlled Congress will be able to rollback any of the “reforms” he is able to get passed, and all of this will be just a bad dream.

One week after President Obama’s speech to Congress, opposition to his health care reform plan has reached a new high of 55%. The latest Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll shows that just 42% now support the plan, matching the low first reached in August.

Not only do a majority of ordinary citizens reject Obamacare, but 45% of practicing physicians say they will consider retiring if Obamacare passes:

Two of every three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under consideration in Washington, and hundreds of thousands would think about shutting down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted, a new IBD/TIPP Poll has found.

The poll contradicts the claims of not only the White House, but also doctors’ own lobby — the powerful American Medical Association — both of which suggest the medical profession is behind the proposed overhaul.

It also calls into question whether an overhaul is even doable; 72% of the doctors polled disagree with the administration’s claim that the government can cover 47 million more people with better-quality care at lower cost.

This is pretty bad news for the Obama Administration, but you wouldn’t know it by listening to them:

White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod had strong words for Americans who demonstrated at the Capitol in opposition of the president’s health care reform plans.

“My message to them is, they’re wrong,” Axelrod said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“I don’t believe that some of the angriest, most strident voices we saw during the summer were representative of the thousands of town hall meetings that went on around the country that came off peacefully, that were constructive, people voicing their points of view,” Axelrod said.

That is all the Obama Administration will give the millions of Americans who oppose the current reform plans being debated in Congress: dismissal. They don’t agree with The One© so they are simply dismissed like so much refuse. Basically, the Obama Administration is behaving like a three year old child sitting in his highchair, with his fingers in his ears, yelling, “LA! LA! LA! I DON’T HEAR YOU! LA! LA! LA!”

Remember, in this Administration, this is “bipartisanship” and “reaching out” to the other side.

So, what exactly do these millions of Americans object to in these proposals? Here is what I think:

1. They’re tired of being lied to. Obama continues to say that this reform will not raise the deficit by one cent, while the CBO and other organizations say that it will add trillions to the deficit over the next ten years. Obama says that the cost savings realized by his proposals will pay for the proposal entirely, and the economics experts practically die laughing.
2. Obama says that if you like your plan, you don’t have to change. What he doesn’t say is that economic reality will require small and medium size businesses, in order to stay competitive, to stop offering health care benefits once their employees can get it from the government. This will close the majority of insurance companies, reducing the choice available and forcing the majority of Americans into his government-run system.
3. Obama says that he’s not going to pull the plug on granny. Reality says that we have a doctor shortage right now, and if you throw another 40 million people into the system without adding a huge number of new doctors, care will be rationed by default. Reimbursements to health care providers will be reduced to lower costs, and that will prevent a great many people from becoming doctors, especially when it means being overworked for less money.

The present health care system is not perfect, not by a long shot. However, the proposals currently on the table from the Democrats are not serious alternatives to what is presently available. All these proposals do is bloat the health care bureaucracy, screw health care providers, and discourage drug companies from doing research and development on new drugs and treatments. How does any of that help anyone?

As for Sheila Jackson Lee, she doesn’t hold a candle to Bachmann on the looney scale.

I object. I mean, Lee is 100% certifiable. Just ask anyone who used to work for her (by 2002, she had gone through 85 aides). In this article by Sam Dealey from February, 2002, her wanton sense of entitlement is laid bare for all to see:

It’s about 200 paces from the awning of Jackson Lee’s Capitol Hill apartment to the marbled steps of the Cannon House Office Building, where her office is. Most people think the walk is a pleasant one. Red-brick townhouses give onto tree-lined streets; crossing guards ensure no one is run over. It’s the kind of neighborhood where you might expect to find the Republican party’s headquarters–and do. They’re right next door to Jackson Lee’s building. In a city that consistently ranks among the nation’s worst for commuting, Jackson Lee would seem to have it made.

But apparently it’s not convenient enough. Jackson Lee is routinely chauffeured the one short block to work–in a government car, by a member of her staff, at the taxpayers’ expense. And apparently in violation of House rules.

I guess we should be happy that at least she hasn’t killed anyone, like her fellow Democrat Ted “The Swimmer” Kennedy. What is it with Democrats and cars, anyway?

Take, for example, the morning of December 6, a balmy Thursday when the temperature in Washington would climb to 73 degrees. At 8:43, a blue Ford Contour with government plates–the car Jackson Lee’s office has leased–pulled up to her building. For the next 23 minutes, the aide impeded traffic on one of Capitol Hill’s busiest streets, pulling in and out of alleys and reserved parking spaces. Finally, at 9:06, Jackson Lee appeared.

The aide jumped from the car and hurried to help the congresswoman. First she opened the rear door so Jackson Lee could deposit a bag and sheaf of papers; then she opened the passenger door. But Jackson Lee took this opportunity to place a phone call, and the aide stood patiently by. After a minute or so of this, Jackson Lee determined she was ready to climb in. But something was wrong. An uncomfortable moment passed as the congresswoman and aide stared at each other. Of course! Jackson Lee’s coat and shawl were still on!

The aide sprang to remove the garments, and Jackson Lee gave an exasperated look. After Jackson Lee climbed in, the aide gently closed the door, scurried around the rear of the car to the driver’s seat, and they were off to the office, a block away. It was such a short trip, Jackson Lee didn’t even bother to fasten her seatbelt.

This isn’t even the worst of it. Look what she does to the airlines:

For years, Jackson Lee tormented the airline’s office in Washington that handles VIP booking. When Congress was in session, her staff would make several reservations early in the week for return flights to Houston. After the House finished its business that week, she would grab whichever flight was most convenient and scrap the others. But this kind of rule-bending put the carrier in a difficult position. Not only was Jackson Lee only paying coach fare (she was routinely bumped up to first class), but Continental was unable to sell the premier seats she didn’t use.

Talk about a sense of entitlement and abuse of power! Will no one stand up to her?

That outburst prompted a phone call to Jackson Lee from Rebecca Cox, vice president of Continental’s government affairs office in Washington and the wife of California Republican Chris Cox. The message? Straighten up and fly right, or don’t fly with us.

Finally, look how she treats her own staff:

A year earlier, at a March 2, 1998, reenactment of the march on Selma, an irate Jackson Lee called her scheduler in D.C. demanding to know why she hadn’t been given a ride to the event by the organizer, as a white colleague had been. According to the aide–who quit after just a month and a half on the job–Jackson Lee shrieked, “You don’t understand. I am a queen, and I demand to be treated like a queen.” [emphasis mine]

There you have it — the Queen of Congressional Loonies. Michele Bachmann is no prize, but she doesn’t come anywhere near Lee as far as craziness goes. Bachmann isn’t even in the same league.

Prove me wrong — I dare you!