Obama gangland tactics at work.

White House pushing to gag stimulus critics
From Michelle Malkin.com
By Michelle Malkin
May 30, 2009

In keeping with his past campaign tactics to shut critics up through brute force, the White House appears to be taking steps to crack down on critics of the trillion-dollar porkulus law.

Is anyone surprised? Mark Tapscott at the Examiner reports:

A new White House policy on permissible lobbying on economic recovery and stimulus project has taken a decidedly anti-First Amendment turn. It’s a classic illustration of Big Government trying to control every aspect of a particular activity and in the process running up against civil liberty.

Check out this passage from a post on the White House blog by Norm Eisen, Special Counsel to the President on Ethics and Government Reform (emphasis added):

“First, we will expand the restriction on oral communications to cover all persons, not just federally registered lobbyists. For the first time, we will reach contacts not only by registered lobbyists but also by unregistered ones, as well as anyone else exerting influence on the process. We concluded this was necessary under the unique circumstances of the stimulus program.

Writes Tapscott:

The key passage is the reference to expanding regulation from registered lobbyists to “anyone else exerting influence on the process. We concluded this was necessary under the unique circumstances of the stimulus program.”

This is the Camel’s nose under the tent…

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The Stench of Scandal Nails Obama Nominee for Deputy EPA Administrator

from Cheat Seeking Missiles
Posted by: Laer
March 25, 2009

Jon Cannon, the prez’s nominee for deputy EPA administrator, is cannon fodder this afternoon, the latest scandal-plagued nominee to have to resign in shame even before confirmation. Here’s Cannon’s statement:

“Today I am voluntarily removing my name from consideration to be Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. It has come to my attention that America’s Clean Water Foundation, where I once served on the board of directors, has become the subject of scrutiny. While my service on the board of that now-dissolved organization is not the subject of the scrutiny, I believe the energy and environmental challenges facing our nation are too great to delay confirmation for this position, and I do not wish to present any distraction to the agency.”

Michelle Malkin dug into the Cannon/Clean Water Foundation deal and found sewer water, not clean water - the mishandling of $26 million in federal funds. The Foundation was either Geithner-like in its ineptness or just plain crooked, because EPA said it could not provide support for any of its general journal entries; included duplicate transactions in its accounting system; recorded labor charged to EPA grants incorrectly; could not support the recorded indirect costs; claimed unallowable pre-award costs (a really stupid move - anyone who’s bid on a government contract knows that’s verbotin!), and three other assorted crooked acts.

So to recap, Obama nominated as Dep. Dir. of EPA a guy from a group that scammed EPA. That would be about as dumb as appointing a Treasury Sec. who scammed the IRS. Hey, wait a minute …
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