President Obama is hoping to capitalize on his controversial decision to appoint Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Less than 12 hours after making the announcement, Obama’s campaign sent a fundraising email seeking up to $2,500 from supporters.

The purported “recess” appointment enraged conservatives because the Senate isn’t even in recess. Senators never passed a resolution to adjourn, meaning it is officially still in session.

That didn’t dissuade Obama, however. Now the president is seeking to use the publicity to raise money for his re-election campaign.

“We can’t afford to continue allowing Wall Street to write its own rules. But today’s action by the President is already coming under partisan attack, which we expect to intensify in the days to come,” wrote James Kvaal, national policy director at Obama for America, in Wednesday night’s email.

The fundraising pitch was disguised as a petition to supporters. Only when recipients click on the link to “stand with President Obama and Richard Cordray” and sign the petition are they taken to a fundraising page with a form to donate up to $2,500 to Obama.

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Has the Obama White House stolen a few pages from the Clintons’ well-worn campaign fundraising playbook?

According to last week’s  New York Times, recent secret meetings with Wall Street executives inside the Obama White House are more than raising eyebrows:

A few weeks before announcing his re-election campaign, President Obama convened two dozen Wall Street executives, many of them longtime donors, in the White House’s Blue Room.…

The event, organized by the Democratic National Committee, kicked off an aggressive push by Mr. Obama to win back the allegiance of one of his most vital sources of campaign cash — in part by trying to convince Wall Street that his policies, far from undercutting the investor class, have helped bring banks and financial markets back to health.

Of course the Obama White House response was predictable: “Nothing to see here.” Politico reported White House Press spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One, “What needs to be made clear is, contrary to suggestions otherwise, this was not a fundraiser.”

Really? Nothing wrong with the meeting? Then why was there no mention of it on the President’s public schedule?

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When I hear this famous Texas saying, I immediately think of President Obama and how he feels about Texas.  All talk.  No action.  Then again, the action of denying Texas federal disaster aid for wildfires raging over million acres speaks volumes.

Last month, President Obama spoke with a Dallas reporter about the federal budget and denied politics were in play against Texas when shuttles were awarded to other states.  Our President says he loves Texas, despite losing by approximately 10 points in the last presidential election and even professes “You better believe I’m not going not going to write off Texas … we’re going to compete” when discussing his reelection campaign for 2012.

So, riddle me this: Why was Texas’ federal disaster aid declaration request denied?

Wildfires have raged since November 2010 with over 2.3 million acres charred igniting 9,000+ wildfires across our great state. Two people have been killed and hundreds of homes burned to the ground. Texas families are losing their homes and their businesses and yet federal disaster aid is denied that could help citizens obtain low-interest loans and tax breaks to help with rebuilding.

Yes, everything is bigger in Texas and we are loud and proud on how we can take care of our own, but let’s put things in perspective. The Texas Forest Service says this of the current wildfire situation:

• Red flag warnings have been issued across much of West Texas today with critical fire weather conditions predicted.
• Texas Forest Service responded to two (2) large fires yesterday.
• We are currently working on seven (7) major fires that span 586,624 acres.
• 207 of the 254 Texas counties are reporting burn bans.

That’s 81% of Texas under a burn ban.

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Like any good environmental science graduate, I take the bus to work. This morning, our driver dumped us out two miles before my usual stop. “The President,” he said, pointing to the police roadblock ahead.

As I contemplated the irony of having to walk the rest of the way while President Obama, fundraising cash in hand, took off in his fossil-fuel-powered helicopter, I remembered something he said yesterday.

Speaking in Nevada about the rising cost of gasoline, Obama put in a plug for the administration’s favorite flop, GM’s Chevy Volt: “I’ve been in one of these Chevy Volts. This is a nice car. It drives well.”

As I trudged along the sidewalk, it occurred to me that the President had probably fibbed. He had certainly “been in” the Chevy Volt, but he hadn’t ever driven one enough to know how it actually handles.

When he tried the Chevy Volt last summer, he drove it “10 feet, and probably not above 2 mph,” according to the Associated Press at the time.

So, yes–I suppose the Volt “drives well,” or at least as well as any other vehicle stuck in traffic while the President leaves a giant carbon footprint behind.

In light of the long-overdue ruling by the Supreme Court to throw out the free-speech-killing and unconstitutional McCain-Feingold finance law (was there ever a more destructive, corrupting influence on elections ever?), it is a good time to revisit the active complaint to the Federal Elections Commission over Barack Obama’s campaign finances.

Back when Obama was running for President, I broke a number of campaign donation stories that should have blown the race wide open. The Obama campaign committed the most egregious violations of election contribution laws, and they were dismissed with a wave of the hand. Millions came in from foreign countries — which is illegal: the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) “prohibits any foreign national from contributing, donating or spending funds in connection with any federal, state, or local election in the United States, either directly or indirectly.”

I broke the jaw-dropping story about how tens of thousands of dollars came in to the Obama campaign from a Hamas-controlled camp in Gaza. Al-Jazeera actually ran video of Obama phone banks in Gaza. One large contributor to the Obama campaign was Monir Edwan, who was listed on FEC documents as contributing to Obama from the city of Rafah in the state “GA.” If you were reading quickly, you might have thought it was just a contribution from Georgia. But there is no city of Rafah in the Peach State. Monir Edwan sent money to Obama from Rafah, Gaza.

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