Counterterrorism Czar: If you disagree with us, you're helping al Qaeda

No seriously, he actually said that. Here's Barack Obama's counterterrorism czar John Brennan writing in USA Today:

"Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda. Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill. They will, however, be dismantled and destroyed, by our military, our intelligence services and our law enforcement community. And the notion that America’s counterterrorism professionals and America’s system of justice are unable to handle these murderous miscreants is absurd."

This administration sure is tough and thick-skinned. Imagine people offering up criticism of Obama after a Nigerian with a smoking bomb in his underoos sneaked past our entire national security apparatus even after his father had warned the embassy of his radicalism. Liberals scream pretty loudly whenever anyone questions their patriotism. This is the exact same thing.

Obama gives science czar power to classify information

While most of America was preparing for the New Year's celebrations, Barack Obama was unveiling a new executive order that retooled how the government classifies information. Thanks to Obama, the "Director [of the] Office of Science and Technology Policy" will now have the power to classify documents. That's John Holdren, the science czar, climate change alarmist (he is the president's senior advisor on climate change), and eugenics fan.

Not only can Holdren issue classification orders, he can assign them the status of "Top Secret". This is usually reserved for information which, if published, could do grave harm to America's national security. "Top Secret" is the highest level of classification in the United States government. It's a power usually reserved for the president, his chief of staff, and high-level cabinet secretaries. But in an unprecedented move, Obama handed this potent authority to his science czar.

Other czars, including Homeland Security Czar John Brennan and Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, also have classification powers. But this makes sense, seeing as both regularly deal with security and crime policy. In contrast, Vice President Joe Biden doesn't have the ability to classify information. The Secretaries of Commerce, Agriculture, and Transportation can only classify at the "Secret" level, one step below the "Top Secret" category. Now Holdren is more powerful than all of them.

So what exactly is the Obama Administration preparing to hide? Could it be more sketchy data on the climate? Is this a cover-up to protect the draconian, business-killing aims of the Green religion's zealots?

Only in Barack Obama's world does a science czar deserve the unfettered ability to hide information from the public. We need to know why.