Illinois Review

Obama’s Triple Crown of Scandals

By Teri O'Brien - 

There will be no Triple Crown winner, but we do have a troika of Obama scandals, all of which were in the news this week. This morning on CNN, a gleeful Jessica “Barack Just Smiled at Me!” Yellin, celebrated their latest poll, which shows that these messy questions about unethical, or even illegal, behavior by members of his administration has not diminished the endless love the American people have for the Dear Leader. She’d fit right in in North Korea.

Some, including the members of the House Ways and Means Committee, who held a hearing last week about the IRS’ targeting of Tea Party and conservative groups, are less enamored. Former Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, who recently decided to move his previously scheduled exit to his cushy retirement up by a couple of weeks, responded to requests to know who initiated this policy with shoulder-shrugging, bored evasiveness.

His demeanor said “Whatever. I don’t really care what happened. Let’s get this over with.” He couldn’t say. He didn’t know. He didn’t remember. Cue The Carpenters. This has only just begun. What do we know after this hearing? Some Republicans are opening talking “impeachment,” but is that really helpful? Is “scandal” really an agenda, especially when we learned last week that the House is close to a deal on “comprehensive immigration reform?” Short answer: no.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform: From Euphemisms and Buzzwords to Genuine Progress

By John F. Di Leo - 

There aren’t many things that this nation of immigrants agrees on, but there is one: that our immigration system is broken.  Not just mildly in need of correction, but terribly, destructively and counterproductively errant.

Americans are horrified that there are tens of millions of noncitizens in the United States, without permission, while others are horrified that those millions aren’t granted the same full legal status that citizens enjoy.

The severity of the problem is such that an effort is afoot for what its supporters call “comprehensive immigration reform,” and its supporters have the mainstream media so deep in their pocket that even the naive conservative firebrand Marco Rubio has been convinced to risk his political career in support of the current proposal. 

Whistleblowers' attorney Victoria Toensing talks Benghazi Coverup

By Teri O'Brien - 

During a week when Barack Obama had to state that rumors of his demise are greatly exaggerated, the reality is that rumors of al Qaeda’s demise, fueled by the One’s desire to perpetuate his pre-election mantra that “GM is alive and Osama bin Laden is dead,” are the thing that has been seriously, and dangerously exaggerated, as demonstrated by both Benghazi and Boston.

The Benghazi coverup is beginning to unravel.

In a terrific piece of reporting, Steve Hayes of the Weekly Standard confirms this weekend what we knew all along; specifically, “senior Obama administration officials knowingly misled the country about what had happened in the days following the assaults.”

Where’s my shocked face?

This coming Wednesday, three whistleblowers, all career State Department officials, will testify before Rep. Darryl Issa (R-CA) and his Oversight and Government Reform Committee. We are delighted that their attorney, the amazing Victoria Toensing, will be our guest Sunday.

Boston Bombers' Family received $100,000 in welfare

By Teri O'Brien - 

A couple of weeks ago on The Teri O'Brien Show, we, along with many of you, questioned the value of having people like the Tsarnaev family in this country. Other than murdering four people, and seriously injuring a couple hundred others, please remind me again, what exactly did these "hard-working immigrants" who we're always hearing add to the vitality of our economy actually contribute? It appears that the only one actually working was the American-born wife of the elder Tsarnaev brother. I guess under the insane Nancy Pelosi, Tom Vilsack, Steny Hoyer test, the rest of this sorry bunch helped stimulate our economy tremendously. How? By receiving welfare, of course!

From the Boston Herald, in a story by Chris Cassidy:

The Tsarnaev family, including the suspected terrorists and their parents, benefited from more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded assistance — a bonanza ranging from cash and food stamps to Section 8 housing from 2002 to 2012, the Herald has learned.

Luxurious dinners for the political glitterati, survival for the rest of us

By Teri O'Brien - 

Friday’s economic growth numbers continued the disappointing trend that many clichè repeating news readers have dubbed with the irritating phrase “the new normal,” with a pathetic 2.5%. While reporting on this rotten economy, the Lame Stream Media attempts to cover for Barack Obama and the destructive effects of his policies by blaming the sequester, a decline in government spending that amounts to a rounding error, and which, as they always conveniently neglect to mention, was Obama’s idea. 

While we serfs struggle in Obama’s economy, the political glitterati continue their endless whirl of celebrity-studded, luxurious parties, dinners and self-congratulatory celebrations, including last night’s White House Correspondence Dinner aka "the Nerd Prom," an annual Hollywood-Washington mashup that gets more embarrassing every year.  The One took the occasion to perform an alleged “comedy” routine, which has been greeted by the sycophantic stenographers in the press as delightfully self-deprecating, but which on closer examination is just more on the same finger in the eye to the bitter clingers.

Questions for Civil Libertarians about Dzokhar Tsarnaev

By Sam Pierce - 

Society, in general, appears to be circling the drain with ever increasing velocity. Given the state of society and the apparently overt attempts to expedite its collapse, this seems an appropriate time to question those bastions of freedom and superior intellect, the civil libertarians. Perhaps understanding the motivations of those who swing sledgehammers at the societal moorings will enable us to discover new ways to preserve it. At the very least, we may enjoy an epiphany and realize why the civil libertarian ideology should take priority over the preservation of society.

The succeeding questions are not presented in any meaningful order. I do hope civil libertarians will enlighten us (and by enlighten, I don't mean spewing legal interpretation or precedent).

Conventional Wisdom versus Sound Policy, from Boston to Mississippi

By John F. Di Leo -

The week of April 15, 2013 was a week of contrasts.  Monday was practically a high holy day for the American Left, the day known as Tax Day, when personal income tax forms have their formal deadline in the United States. 

The Democrats planned for an exciting and successful week of passing unconstitutional programs, as gun control and immigration amnesty bills were to be the business of the day in the United States Senate.

But then reality set in, and two very different kinds of terror rocked the nation.  First, a pair of Chechen muslim brothers set off horrific bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and then led law enforcement on a manhunt, finally killing the one on Thursday and capturing a second on Friday.  Then the news was announced that someone was mailing poisoned letters to politicians, including the President and at least one Senator.

Did Boston Bombers Blow Up Obama's 2nd Term Agenda?

By Teri O'Brien - 

As Obamacare continues to unravel, with one of its primary authors Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), who has apparently developed a stunning case of amnesia, predicting that it will be a “train wreck,” Barack Obama’s two new hobby horses, gun control and “comprehensive immigration reform” (read amnesty for millions of undocumented democrats) are suddenly less attractive after the terrorist attacks by the Tsarnaev brothers, two ethnic Chechnyan jihadists. Their spree of murder and mayhem has inspired many to ask “why exactly were these guys in the country? What exactly did they contribute?” Was it just to prove the truth of the adage “No good deed goes unpunished?”

After escaping their war-torn homeland, they got all the benefits of living America, including good educations and the opportunity to live in freedom. They repaid us by murdering four innocent people, and maiming hundreds of others. Now we must endure the insufferable, and way too predictable, charade of hearing the Lame Stream Media newsreaders and other liberals wring their hands, searching for a “motive.”

More Liberal Lies, Hypocrisy and Outright Stupidity from the Left

By Teri O'Brien -

Be it the budget, immigration, so-called “same sex marriage” or our 2nd amendment rights, we are surrounded by lies, hypocrisy and stupidity. We watch so you don’t have to, and we’ll unpack it all on today’s edition of The Teri O’Brien Show.

Today, the country waits breathlessly for an event that has been anticipated for months, and whose time has finally arrived. No, not the sixth season of “Mad Men,” which will premiere tonight on AMC. I refer, instead to the planned release of Barack Obama’s aka “Mr. Financial Responsibility” budget this coming Wednesday, two months late, no doubt repeating a pattern that the One learned as a coddled, affirmative-action assisted, mediocre student. If we were able to see any of Barry’s college writing, which we aren’t because that stuff is locked down tighter than the plot of tonight’s “Mad Men” episode, we’d no doubt see that these papers presented a vapid regurgitation of his Marxist professors clichè-ridden lectures, devoid of original ideas and designed so that he could just turn something in. This budget charade is similar. It’s not going anywhere, and he knows it. I hope you’re sitting down as I reveal a stunning truth. This budget is just more politics as usual from the Obama perpetual campaign.

Obama Administration's Stunning Admission on Border Security

By Teri O'Brien -

Last week the Lame Stream Media indulged two obsessions, one old, and one new. The former, their celebration of the anniversary of the tenth anniversary of the liberation of Iraq by demonizing Pres. George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and their new shiny hobby horse, the essential and immediate legalization of so-called same sex marriage, there was actual news that will affect you and your family. During a hearing in the House Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security made a stunning admission, one that went virtually unreported, even on so-called “conservative” news outlets like Fox News. Do you know about it? If not, listen and learn not only about another instance of incompetence, at best, or deliberate malfeasance, at worst when it comes to securing the border. We’ll discuss this shocking revelation with our guest Mark Kirkorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. We’ll also ask him about Sen. Rand Paul’s extremely disappointing statement earlier this week, an effective endorsement of open borders, and what about those Chinese baby factories in California? Is it time to put an end to birthright citizenship, and do we need a constitutional amendment to do it?

Former Congressman Joe Walsh today on the Teri O'Brien Show

By Teri O'Brien -

Say what you want about former Congressman Joe Walsh, but you can’t say that he pulls his punches. He will join us, and I’m sure that he won’t mince words as we talk about his new Freedom Movement, and his comments at Sunday’s townhall meeting. Once again, he’s in a center of a controversy of his own making, due to remarks he made at that event, in which he stated that Americans “have grown stupid,” and are “lazy,” and “easily manipulated.” Is he right? If so, what does he suggest that we do about it?

When a "Flip Flopper" is a Statesman

By Teri O'Brien -

Cue the “Dynasty” theme. Here comes another Bush, this time Jeb, heart throb of the RINO wing of the GOP, testing the waters for a presidential run in 2016 with--what else?--a book about--what else?--immigration. This week Jeb is being busted by democrats as a shameless panderer on that issue based on comments in his book on the “path to citizenship.” He was for it, before he was against it, they say. I hold no brief for former Florida governor Bush, but I can’t help but notice that the critique of his alleged “flip flop” sounds a lot like the position taken by one William Jefferson Clinton on the issue of so-called “same sex” marriage. Mr. Clinton, as you know, signed the Defense of Marriage Act, an enactment despised by the Left almost as much as they despise Dick Cheney.

Hyde Aside, Federal Tax Dollars Pay To Kill Babies

By Sam Pierce -

Well, so much for the refrain commonly employed by proponents of baby slaughter. The old droning (no, I do not mean President Barack "Born Alive, Let Them Die" Obama ordering the unmanned aerial elimination of Tea Party sympathizers) chorus of "Federal tax dollars do not pay for abortions" has been debunked.

Please do not misunderstand me. It is not like I believe the lie will die. It is a vital implement in the pro-baby-slaughter toolkit. Whether it is employed maliciously by those who profit from the abhorrent act or out of ignorance by those who are products of the education system, it will indeed continue to be used as a weapon against would be protectors of the most innocent.

Perhaps this is old news and everyone other than those in my little sphere of communication already knew that the use of taxpayer dollars for abortion was still happening despite the claims to the contrary. Perhaps those who make the dishonest claim are not intending to mislead at all. It could be that they believe that the exceptions are understood or implied when they spout the most-helpful-to-their-baby-killing-profit abridged description of the Hyde Amendment.

Larry Elder on Fathers, Jack Cashill on Hillary's Many Lies

By Teri O'Brien -

The Sage of South Central, Larry Elder, will be our guest to discuss his riveting new book, Dear Father, Dear Son…Two Lives, Eight Hours, which describes his horrific childhood with a brutal father who beat him and his brothers on a regular, albeit not always predictable, basis. How did growing up in this environment shape his future, especially his attitude about fathers and their absence? He has spoken eloquently about the epidemic of broken families in the black community, but what about American society in general? Don’t the recent high-profile mass killings committed by young men with untreated mental illness say that we have a serious social problem involving our boys and young men? We’ll also ask him about his decades long battle against the race baiters who have tried to enlist black Americans in a cult of victimhood, and the case of former Los Angeles cop Christopher Dorner, now accused of two murders, and author of a bizarre manifesto. The Lame Stream Media has scrubbed references to Mr. Dorner’s admiration for well-known media liberals like Chris Matthews and Piers Morgan, as well as his admiration for Barack Obama. Is he surprised?

Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America Reacts to Obama's Skeet Shooting Scam

By Teri O'Brien - 

With the Middle East in flames, al Qaeda on the march, and many unanswered questions about the murder of 4 Americans in Benghazi, liberal icon/practiced liar Hillary Rodham Clinton not only managed to avoid the inevitable vicious attacks from the vast right-wing conspiracy as she left office as Secretary of State. Her exit path was strewn with flowers, as even Republican senators slobbered all over her and praised her to the skies for the terrific job she has done. Apparently frequent flyer miles count for a lot, since many of us are having a hard time identifying any other achievement for the former New York senator and serial adultery victim.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration continues to entertain and disturb us with unintentional comedy, not only the pathetic performance of Sec. Of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel in his Senate hearing last week. They are also attempting to do anything to distract us from our limping economy. Sayeth the Dear Reader: Pay no attention to those anemic job numbers, Subjects. Behold what I am doing for the children with gun control and amnesty for illegals! 

Licensing Criminals, on the Road to the Polling Place

By John F. Di Leo -

Thoughts on the growing drive to issue drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens…

There is nothing inherently wrong with allowing noncitizens to legally drive in the United States.

The United Nations Convention on International Road Traffic, for example, has been providing a framework for issuing International Driving Permits to world travelers ever since 1949. Without one, we Americans could not rent cars in most foreign countries, and we would be restricted to passenger trains and taxicabs overseas.

The key to that permit, of course, is that it’s issued by the driver’s home country, his country of citizenship. We Americans get one here, before we go abroad, and that is as it should be. Australians get theirs before they leave Australia; Japanese get theirs before they leave Japan. Heck, most of them wouldn’t set out on the trip until this important step had been done. And so too should Mexicans get their international driver’s licenses, while at home, before they leave Mexico.

The subject at hand, in Springfield, Illinois at least, is whether the destination country can or should issue a driver’s license to non-citizens. There are good reasons to look into the issue, good reasons to address it, but no clear and easy solution to be found. And a number of potentially severe risks as well.

Islamists urge renaissance at Chicago weekend conference

CHICAGO - While Christians were celebrating the birth of their worldview's Savior Jesus Christ this week, nearby in Chicago's downtown Sheraton Hotel during a four-day conference, Islamists were encouraged to "believe, act and engage" to stir a renaissance of their faith.

The theme of the event is, “Toward a Renaissance: Believe, Act & Engage.” The “Arab Spring associated with the Islamic Awakening in many parts of the Muslim world” is given as an example of this “renaissance.” By “renaissance,” MAS-ICNA means the Islamist ideology. That is the message an expected audience of 9,500 will hear.

Who Wants a Tax Increase?

By Teri O'Brien -

Ever the demagogue, Barack Obama crisscrosses the country, continuing to campaign, despite winning last month’s presidential election. Polls show that 60% of Americans support raising taxes on “the rich,” and he’s determined to keep stoking the fires of class envy to maintain the political advantage that he sees awaiting him after we “plunge” off the “fiscal cliff.” By doing so, he’s hoping to start off his second term making it clear that that’s “not going to play that game that I will play,” the “game” being abiding by the Constitution and allowing Congress to control the debt ceiling. Predictably, here we have the breathtaking arrogance and lawlessness that he demonstrated in his first term, now on steroids. Yet, one prominent, even legendary, member of the Jurassic media says that if there is a recession, Barack Obama will own it. Who is he, and is he right?

Edgar and Topinka join call for illegals to obtain driver licenses

CHICAGO - Two well-known Illinois Republicans stood alongside Illinois Democrat leaders Monday, when they called for Illinois' immigration policy to loosen restraints currently barring driving privileges to people who have illegally entered American borders.

Former Governor Jim Edgar and State Comptroller Judy Baar-Topinka defied the Illinois Republican Party's policy platform on the issue at a press conference Monday hosted by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrants and Refugee Rights.

Moving Forward: Striking a Winning Pose

By Sam Pierce -

Now that the "most important election in our lifetime" has passed, it is the natural time to reflect on the outcome and hear the expert advice on what must be done if members of the Republican Party seek to delight in future electoral success. Now is the time to determine how to wake up on the morning after the next election and find ourselves on the winning side as opposed to clinging to those nuisances that hinder the possibilities for success at the ballot box. It is time to "evolve" and align with people, positions, and ideals that are the most popular. Now is not the time time to be concerned with being "right," especially at the expense of, to quote noted philosopher Charlie Sheen, "winning!"

I will not claim to have cornered the insight market as it pertains to the disastrous election of 2012. I cannot explain, with absolute certainty, the factors contributing to the tragedy of last Tuesday. We must, however, pay close attention to those who are blessed with political omniscience and disregard just how wrong they may have been in predicting electoral outcomes. We must look at what wins in modern America.