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Volume 3 www.obamabidenwatch.org Issue 7 July 2011 www.citizensunited.org “Business As Usual” Barack "It's no different than what happened under eight years of dozens of infamous “White House coffees” in the George Bush and eight years of Bill Clinton" White House Map Room with big donors to his – Obama White House official campaign and the Democrat Party. The central questions surrounding these coffees were whether If you were a Democrat President who campaigned or not President Clinton was essentially holding on changing the way Washington works and hold- fundraising events inside the White House and ing your administration to a higher standard, would whether Clinton-Gore officials and the DNC were using the White House as a political tool to help the campaign.

The disclosure of these “White House coffees” led to what became wide-ranging, overlapping Justice Department and Congressional investigations that lasted for years in which dozens were charged with various campaign finance crimes. While no one was ultimately prosecuted for the shenanigans directly related to the coffees, it took years of bad press, millions in legal fees, hundreds of subpoenas and th Barack Obama gives lofty speeches, but they are mere platitudes nothing 5 amendment assertions, and endless congres- more. Source: WhiteHouse.gov sional hearings and depositions to figure out. you tape campaign fundraising videos in the White Mr. Obama’s lawyers and advisers must have re- House Map Room of all places, even if it is per- minded him about the scandal that emanated from haps technically legal? the White House Map Room following the 1996 elections (the same year he was first elected to the Of course you wouldn’t. But then why is President Illinois State Senate). It’s curious that Mr. Obama, Obama doing exactly that? while weighing his 2008 campaign promises along This is not the first time a Democrat President has with potential political and legal fallout, would give gotten into hot water for using the White House the go ahead to do this, regardless. Map Room for political purposes. During his 1996 re-election campaign, President Bill Clinton held Ask again, why in the world would President

“Business as Usual” One explanation is that the President may have concluded that, at the Barack end of the day, his friends in the mainstream media would never hold Pg. 1 him accountable and that he could get away with it because, hey, after all, he’s Barack Obama. Space—The American Frontier Another conclusion he may have come to, as hinted by the White Pg. 3-4

House staff quote above, is that this is business as usual, every Presi- Jobs, Jobs, Jobs dent is allowed to use the White House for his political advantage, so Pg. 5 why not him? Oh, how the hopeful have fallen. 30 months into his presidency and Barack “Big Change” Obama is all about his re-election Walk the Walk, and raising money the most convenient way possible, consequences be Mr. President damned. It’s business as usual. In fact, it’s downright Clintonian! Pg. 6 And perhaps most damaging, it’s a promise broken. Citizens United Presents Pg. 7

Final Thoughts Pg. 8 ______

Published By Citizens United

Editor David N. Bossie

Managing Editor J.T. Mastranadi

Contributors Barack Obama shaking hands with Speaker Boehner. Source: WhiteHouse.gov Chris Berg Jeff Marschner It is yet to be seen how this hardly-new allegation plays out. House Alexa Moutevelis Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa is asking questions and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has called for a Department of Justice Publication Design investigation, but don’t hold your breath. The media is reporting on Kirk Risinger these actions, but isn’t digging. Once again, it looks like we’ll have to Lars Carstensen count on the court of public opinion to rule the day by rejecting

© Citizens United ~ 1006 Pennsylvania Ave SE ~ Washington D.C. 20003 Page 3 Space – The American Frontier Unfortunately, the President’s gratitude will not provide jobs to the 9,000 Floridians left unem- On July 8, 2011 the space shuttle Atlantis flew into ployed. As CBS News has reported, this is a loss the heavens for the last time. Millions of Ameri- of over $600 million in wages that will no longer cans watched in awe, as man took flight into space. be earned or spent in Florida. It’s not just those This iconic scene, one that has been quintessen- directly employed by NASA that will be impacted - tially American since the earliest days of the space - contractors, restaurants, t-shirt vendors all stand race is the end of an era. to suffer.

President Obama saluted the shuttle and its crew: Shutting down the space shuttle program will also make it harder to attract top talent to our space “Behind Atlantis and her crew of brave astronauts programs in the future. One former NASA em- stand thousands of dedicated workers who have ployee, speaking in the Washington Post, warned that poured their hearts and souls into America’s Space “given the lengthy hiatus in the U.S. ability to Shuttle program over the past three decades. To launch astronauts into space, NASA and its con- them and all of NASA’s incredible workforce, I tractor partners may run into difficulty attracting want to express my sincere gratitude. You helped and retaining the best and brightest engineering our country lead the space age, and you continue to and science talent. Many current employees with inspire us each day.” critical corporate memory are also likely to depart or retire, making it more difficult for NASA to build on past human spaceflight successes.”

The current state of Amer- ica’s manned space program stands as a sad com- mentary on the state of our nation. Where once we were filled with hope and optimism as we reached for the stars, today we are shutting down this vital program, ceding the heavens to the Chinese and Russians. There is more at stake than just the jobs of the hard working men and women who staffed the shuttle program, we stand to lose our leading position in space, as well as endan- Space shuttle Atlantis is seen over the Bahamas prior to a perfect docking with the International Space Sta- tion. Source: NASA.gov ger our national security.

© Citizens United ~ 1006 Pennsylvania Ave SE ~ Washington D.C. 20003 Page 4 Senator Marco Rubio underscores the national se- will lose the number one position that this country curity component of the space race: invested a lot of money in the 60’s and 70’s to be exceptional Americans, and we’re going to lose that “There’s a national security component to the space American exceptionalism if we allow politics to get program, there’s all kinds of economic and com- in and muck it up. We’ll be second, the Chinese are mercial applications developed in space, so I think going to get back to the moon before we could, and the impact of it will be felt across the country, in- if we’re not careful, the Russians will get to Mars cluding in Texas and other parts of the country before we do.” where there are contractors. ... Right now, we don’t have anything to replace the shuttle, and that’s why Dr. Aldrin issued a bold challenge: “Why can’t these folks are hurting.” Americans land on Mars permanently? They land on Mars and become settlers – permanent, and we Rubio also notes that the loss of the space shuttle know how to do that, and we can do that, and lead program makes us more reliant on Russia: the world as American exceptional leaders.” It’s

“From now on, we have to pay the Russians $50 million-an- astronaut to send Americans to the space station. And we have no plans to have anything in place to replace the shuttle any time before 2016. For Washing- ton, it should be ashamed it took so long to deal with this, and that something’s not in place. But it’s important for America moving forward, because China, India, are invest- ing heavily in their space programs. We cannot afford as Americans to lose space su- premacy.” NASA astronaut Ron Garan, carries the pump module, which was the focus of one of the Citizens United explored how primary chores accomplished on a six and a half hour spacewalk. Source: NASA.gov man’s journey into space was em- blematic of our American exceptionalism. In our now up to the private sector to achieve this. film City Upon A Hill, Dr. Buzz Aldrin recounted his journey to the moon. He also addressed the im- We must trust that the private sector will succeed portance of our space program and the dire conse- where President Obama has failed. Let’s return to quences should we neglect it: the moon, let’s chart a course upward and onward, space must remain the American frontier. “Our program has become too politicized and we

© Citizens United ~ 1006 Pennsylvania Ave SE ~ Washington D.C. 20003 Page 5 Jobs, Jobs, Jobs that our $14 trillion national debt continues to sky- rocket. In 800 days, our debt has increased by $3.2 With the monthly unemployment rate rising to 9.2 trillion, we’ve paid $439 billion in interest on that percent last month, the economic outlook is very debt, and the government has spent $7.3 trillion. bleak for America. Our economy has had over How can the federal government be successful in 400,000 first time unemployment filers each week balancing the books and paying down the debt for fifteen weeks now. These numbers are simply without a budget? unacceptable and President Obama’s failed policies As debt ceiling negotiations continue, Republicans and irresponsible priorities are to blame.

Where are the jobs President Obama promised back in January 2009? Back then, the Obama Ad- ministration predicted that the jobless rate would not surpass 8 percent if the stimulus bill passed. Of course, the stimulus bill did pass, and we haven’t seen unemployment below 8 percent since. The failed stimulus has done nothing to put the economy on the right path towards prosperity - in fact, it cost the American taxpayer $278,000 per job created. The Obama stimulus plan was nothing but a lesson in how to waste almost a trillion dollars in Empire State Building worker. Source: National Archives. taxpayer funds. (Read Citizens United’s exclusive report on where the stimulus money went.) Americans are struggling and need real leadership must hold the line on not allowing any tax in- in Washington. President Obama and the Democ- creases. With another horrible jobs report, the rats in Congress led us into the economic abyss American people need a larger tax burden like they that we are in now. In 2009, they had a chance to need another trillion dollars added to our debt. deliver “hope” and “change” by reaching a biparti- President Obama seems lost in dealing with our san consensus on how to fix the economy. Instead economic crisis because he is so fixated on pushing they chose the partisan path – the path their special the same old liberal ideas that just feed the status interests wanted and the path that has led to hard quo and make it worse. More government control times that will be felt “for a long time to come,” and spending are no prescription for an economic according to Obama’s own Treasury Secretary recovery. The arrogance of the Obama Administra- Timothy Geithner. tion saying that Americans do not care about the Aside from the unemployment rate, the only other unemployment rate just shows that their heads are economic number that has gone up since the in the sand. The only people in the entire nation stimulus passed is our national debt. July 8th who don’t seem to care about the high jobless rate marked the 800th day since Democrats in Washing- are the ones sitting in the White House. ton last passed a budget and it is no coincidence

© Citizens United ~ 1006 Pennsylvania Ave SE ~ Washington D.C. 20003 Page 6 Walk the Walk, Mr. President they’re also seeing a flood of attack ads run by shadowy groups with harmless-sounding names,” like Priorities USA perhaps! During the 2008 election campaign, then-Senator Barack Obama knocked fellow candidate John Ed- Citizens United was a great victory for free speech wards for benefiting from the same outside spend- and certainly President Obama and his Democrat ing groups he criticized: friends will take even more advantage of it in the 2012 cycle, as is their right. It is just hypocritical “So you can’t say yesterday you don’t believe in them, and that when President Obama and Democrats in today you have three quarters of a million dollars being Congress were facing historic defeats in the 2010 spent on you. You can’t just talk the talk. The easiest elections, they claimed the decision would end our thing in the world is to talk about change during election Democratic way of life. Now that they see an op- time.

Obama calling on John Edwards to not just talk the talk in 2007. Our ad calls out the hy- pocrisy.

Priorities USA, a super PAC headed by Bill Burton portunity to utilize it for the 2012 race, Citizens - former Deputy Press Secretary at the Obama United will suddenly become as American as apple White House - launched a television ad campaign pie. attacking Republicans recently. Citizens United launched a web ad calling President President Obama made it a daily habit to bash the Obama a hypocrite because he has not called on Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court decision last Priorities USA to take down its television ad as he year. From his weekly radio addresses to speeches told John Edwards to do in 2007. President on the stump, President Obama seemed obsessed Obama needs to walk the walk. Please share this with casting sinister aspersions on the decision. In important ad with your friends. one instance he ominously said, “But this summer,

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© Citizens United ~ 1006 Pennsylvania Ave SE ~ Washington D.C. 20003 Page 8 FINAL THOUGHT FROM CITIZENS UNITED PRESIDENT -Mercy Otis Warren, along DAVID N. BOSSIE with her husband and Sam- uel Adams, helped form the Committees of Correspon- Dear Friend, dence, becoming an influen- tial author advocating for This past Independence Day marked the 235th Independence. birthday of the United States of America. The 4th of July is a day to celebrate our country’s heritage -Molly Pitcher courageously and the ideals upon which it was founded, as well as took up the duty of loading her husband’s cannon to resolve ourselves to keep the spirit of life, liberty, when he fell on the battlefield, earning an appoint- and the pursuit of happiness alive for ourselves and ment as a noncommissioned officer by General our future generations. Recently, we have seen a George Washington himself. reawakening of conservative women in this country who have stepped up in this -Martha Washington went to live with her husband role. But this is not a new phe- on the front lines in battlefield nomenon. Women have been a encampments, including at Valley driving force in America’s rise to Forge, supporting the cause and prominence from the Founding boosting troop morale. of our nation. -Lydia Darrah risked her life to The very first tea party to be organized by women pass information behind British enemy lines, help- was the Edenton Tea Party – in 1774. Today’s Tea ing to turn the tide of the American Revolution. Party movement is led by many of the stars of our film Fire from the Heartland, Congresswoman Mi- While the battle for Independence is no longer rag- chelle Bachmann, Deneen Borelli, Sonnie Johnson, ing, the fire in the American heartland continues to Dana Loesch, Michelle Malkin, Jenny Beth Martin, burn bright in the hearts of conservative women. Michelle Moore, and Jamie Radtke, all of whom have taken an active role in the Tea Party ral- From the Founding Mothers of our great Republic, lies. Much like the “Ladys of Edenton,” these to Clare Boothe Luce and Phyllis Schlafly, to today’s women are standing up to an intrusive government “Mama Grizzlies” like Sarah Palin and Michele that has overstepped its bounds. Bachmann, women are the backbone of our nation, passing our ideals and traditions on from one gen- The cast of Fire from the Heartland inherited this eration to another. Learn more about this legacy of grand tradition from fearless female patriots who passion, courage, and grit by watching Fire from the fought for our Independence from Great Britain: Heartland.

- Abigail Adams provided essential counsel to her husband as he served in the Continental Congresses Sincerely, which shaped our founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence. David N. Bossie