Obama Watch What in the world is he up to now?
There will be 'change', I'm pretty Sure it will be for worse, Back on Nov. 9, 2008, just five days after the election, Rahm Emanuel, who is now the White House chief of staff, explained the Obama administration's governing philosophy: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before." After the first 100 days, it's what one would expect based on his background, his ideology, and his idealogical mentors. Socialist, control driven economics, hatred of the unborn, reigning in of freedoms of expression, intolerance for constitiutional rights, all packaged in a disarming and soothing and sophist rhetoric. Norman Matton Thomas (November 20, 1884 - December 19, 1968) was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1911. As a candidate for President of the U. S., Norman Thomas said, in a 1944 epoch speech: "The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of "liberalism", they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." He went on to say: "I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our platform."
By Simon Walters Last updated at 3:14 AM on 06th September 2009Whitehall said US President Obama and Hillary Clinton's reaction to Abdelbaset Al Megrahi's release was 'disingenuous' Downing Street has hit back at Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for attacking the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber. President Obama and the US Secretary of State fuelled a fierce American backlash against Britain, claiming Abdelbaset Al Megrahi should have been forced to serve out his jail sentence in Scotland – but a senior Whitehall aide said their reaction was ‘disingenuous’. [More]
British officials claim Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton were kept informed at all stages of discussions concerning Megrahi’s return.
OBAMA IN RUDE DENIAL IT'S ALL A GOP PLOT
The White House political and legislative operations were said to be livid with the announcement by several large U.S. companies that they were taking multi-million or as much as a billion dollar charges because of the new health-care law, the issue was front-and-center with key lawmakers. By last Friday, AT&T, Caterpillar, Deere & Co., and AK Steel Holding Corp. had all announced that they were taking the one-time charges on their first-quarter balance sheets. More companies were expected to make similar announcements this week. [More]
June 27, 2008 by Procrustes About a week ago, Evelyn Pringle, the author of the Operation Board Games, Curtain Time for Barack Obama, and Pringle Cliff Notes series of articles, received word from web sites that carried her articles that they had been contacted by Iraqi-British billionaire businessman Nadhmi Auchi’s attorney, Alasdair Pepper, with threats to sue. Her emailed response follows after the jump. [More]
April 27, 2009 Andrew Walden (Hawaii Free Press) Why is there so little media investigation of the financing behind Barack Obama’s early political sponsor—and now convicted felon—Tony Rezko? The dual US-Syrian citizen Rezko--who assisted Obama in the purchase of his Chicago mansion--was heavily funded by loans from Iraqi-British ex-Baathist billionaire Nadhmi Auchi. According to testimony at Rezko’s trial, Obama met Auchi at an April 3, 2004 event at Rezko’s home during Obama’s 2004 US Senate campaign. The Times of London reports discovering, “state documents in Illinois recording that Fintrade Services, a Panamanian company, lent money to Mr. Obama’s fundraiser in May 2005.” Fintrade directors, according to The Times “include Ibtisam Auchi, the name of Mr. Auchi’s wife”. Media bias is an easy—and intellectually lazy--explanation. Journalists digging into stories involving Auchi often find themselves peppered with threats of libel litigation from a London law firm known as Carter-Ruck. Hawai'i Free Press has received several such letters. In a free society, one might expect reporters confident of the accuracy of their reporting to shrug off such threats. But Auchi’s attorneys are operating under the laws of an increasingly un-free society—England. Auchi’s litigation threats have chased eight articles from the internet sites of the UK Guardian, Observer and New Statesman. Sweden-based website Wikileaks has posted the eight articles but writes: - “The censorship of The New Statesman's political editor, Martin Bright, who was co-author for some of the Guardian and Observer articles, is particularly galling. In April Mr. Bright warned New Statesman readers about the censorship of the Guardian and Observer in an article on the Index on Censorship's annual Freedom of Expression Awards (one of which was won by Wikileaks). Then, in a bow to Kafka's The Trial, Mr. Bright's warning was in its turn censored by legal threats from Auchi.”
Wikileaks itself is now under legal attack by Auchi’s lawyers. [More]
I read second hand,because it's too painful to watch him speak. I have a low tolerance for BS. This is from a Canadian, who doesn't have as much on the line as we US Citizens. Getting to the punchline:
"But I watched the speech itself — given the kind of live mass coverage that commencement speeches seldom receive — with a kind of admiring horror. In a few short minutes of sophistical artistry, Obama had changed the issue from whether we should allow the killing of babies, to whether we should tolerate the sort of people who are against such things. And then, by declaring that we should, indeed, tolerate such people, he harvested the general applause. " [The full article at Ottawa Citizen]
By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Local Opinion Editor
03/10/10 1:19 PM EST The Obama administration’s six-month delay in approving new offshore drilling leases in federal waters will become a new three-year ban, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar quietly told reporters last Friday. Which means that no new oil and gas leases will be approved during President Obama’s term even though two –thirds of the American public supports such activity, according to a December 2009 Rasmussen poll. [More]
The image speaks for itself. 
Congressmen pry loose evidence of president's illegal cronyism
SEAL team deployment stalled 36 hours, hampered by limited rules of engagement WASHINGTON – While Barack Obama is basking in praise for his "decisive" handling of the Somali pirate attack on a merchant ship in the India Ocean, reliable military sources close to the scene are painting a much different picture of the incident – accusing the president of employing restrictive rules of engagement that actually hampered the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips and extended the drama at sea for days. [MORE]
By ERICA WERNER | Monday, April 13, 2009  WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's health secretary nominee got nearly three times as much political money from a controversial abortion doctor as she told senators.
The Health and Human Services Department said Monday that the omission was an oversight that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius would correct. In a response to questions from the Senate Finance Committee made public last week, Sebelius wrote that she received $12,450 between 1994-2001 from Dr. George Tiller, one of the nation's few late-term abortion providers. But in addition to those campaign donations, records reviewed by The Associated Press show that Tiller gave at least $23,000 more from 2000-2002 to a political action committee Sebelius established while insurance commissioner to raise money for fellow Democrats. Sebelius did not tell senators about that additional money, although Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., asked specifically about any Tiller donations to her PAC. [More]
 The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in "rightwing extremist activity," saying the economic recession, the election of America's first black president and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias.
A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines "rightwing extremism in the United States" as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority. "It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration," the warning says. [More]
What was your biggest mistake? From NBC's Mark Murray
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Clinton: health-care reform and believing Bush's claims that Iraq had WMD
Obama: not fighting hard enough against the congressional effort to keep Terri Schiavo's feeding tube in
Roberts agrees to read Obama docs, consider WND's 330,000 signers
Posted: March 14, 2009 4:45 pm Eastern by Drew Zahn © 2009 WorldNetDaily
U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts
A California attorney lobbying the U.S. Supreme Court for a review of Barack Obama's qualifications to be president confronted the chief justice yesterday with legal briefs and a WND petition bearing names of over 325,000 people asking the court to rule on whether or not the sitting president fulfills the Constitution's "natural-born citizen" clause.
According to Orly Taitz, the attorney who confronted Chief Justice John Roberts at a lecture at the University of Idaho, the judge promised before the gathered crowd that he would, indeed, read and review the briefs and petition.
"I addressed him in front of 800 people in the audience," Taitz told WND, "including university officials, the president of the Idaho State Bar and the chief justice of the Supreme Court
of Idaho, and in front of all them, [Roberts] promised to read my papers."
Roberts was lecturing on Abraham Lincoln to approximately 1,200 attendees of the annual Bellwood Memorial Lecture Series at the Moscow, Idaho, university. Roberts has been chief justice of the Supreme Court since his nomination by President George W. Bush and subsequent confirmation in 2005.
Earlier in the week, Taitz confronted Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who told her the issue of Obama's eligibility, which has been raised before the Supreme Court at least four times but has yet to be given a single hearing, still lacked the votes of the required four justices in conference before it would be officially heard. [MORE]
Obama Will Approve Federal Funding for Embryo-Killing Stem Cell Research Obama to Sign Order Reversing Restrictions on Stem Cell Research
Friday, March 06, 2009
By Ben Feller, Associated Press & Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press
Washington - President Barack Obama is expected to sign an executive order on Monday reversing restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The long-expected move is likely to stir up not only the promise of scientific breakthrough but also the controversy over where government crosses a moral line. Obama will hold an event at the White House to announce the move, a senior administration official said Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the policy had not yet been publicly announced. [MORE]
But isn't that exactly what McCain said? And didn't Obama give McCain hell for it? The only thing that's changed since then is things have gotten worse.
In the dead of night on December 17, 2009, President Barack Hussein Obama placed the United States of America under the authority of the international police organization known as INTERPOL, granting the organization full immunity to operate within the United States. According to Threatswatch: Last Thursday, December 17, 2009, The White House released an Executive Order "Amending Executive Order 12425." It grants INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization) a new level of full diplomatic immunity afforded to foreign embassies and select other "International Organizations" as set forth in the United States International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945. By removing language from President Reagan's 1983 Executive Order 12425, this international law enforcement body now operates - now operates - on American soil beyond the reach of our own top law enforcement arm, the FBI, and is immune from Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
[More]
Surprise. Surprise. President Barack Obama has done a nationwide search and appointed the Chairman of the Troopergate investigation as Director of Alaskan Affairs at the Interior Department. Is this a case of political payback for a smear job well done on Governor Sarah Palin??? Yes! On March 2, 2009 State Senator Kim Elton, who was the Chairman of the Legislative Council investigating Troopergate, resigned to take an appointment at the Interior Department. Maybe it is Elton who should be investigated for misuse of the Legislative Council. Elton is a long-time friend of Pete Rouse, who was Senator Obama’s chief of staff and campaign advisor. (Rouse currently serves in the White House as a Senior Advisor.) According to CNN reports after Governor Sarah Palin was selected for the GOP ticket, the Obama campaign contacted the PSEA Union that represented Trooper Wooten and filed the phony complaint against her. [MORE]
B.H. Obama Saves Jobs! 
A liberal explains the political calculus. The typical argument for ObamaCare is that it will offer better medical care for everyone and cost less to do it, but occasionally a supporter lets the mask slip and reveals the real political motivation. So let's give credit to John Cassidy, part of the left-wing stable at the New Yorker, who wrote last week on its Web site that "it's important to be clear about what the reform amounts to." Mr. Cassidy is more honest than the politicians whose dishonesty he supports. "The U.S. government is making a costly and open-ended commitment," he writes. "Let's not pretend that it isn't a big deal, or that it will be self-financing, or that it will work out exactly as planned. It won't. What is really unfolding, I suspect, is the scenario that many conservatives feared. The Obama Administration . . . is creating a new entitlement program, which, once established, will be virtually impossible to rescind." [More]
US Treasury secretary attacks oil, gas tax breaks By Tom Doggett WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - U.S. oil and natural gas producing companies should not receive federal subsidies in the form of tax breaks because their businesses contribute to global warming, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress on Wednesday. It was one of the sharpest attacks yet on the oil and gas industry by a top Obama administration official, reinforcing the White House stance that new U.S. energy policy will focus on promoting renewable energy sources like wind and solar power and rely less on traditional fossil fuels like oil as America tackles climate change. "We don't believe it makes sense to significantly subsidize the production and use of sources of energy (like oil and gas) that are dramatically going to add to our climate change (problem). We don't think that's good economic policy and we think changing those incentives is good for the country," Geithner told the Senate Finance Committee at a hearing on the White House's proposed budget for the 2010 spending year.
President B. Hussein Obama's CabinetCommerce SecretaryDecember 3, 2008 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama announced New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as his pick for secretary of commerce on Wednesday, calling him a "leading economic diplomat for America." Jan 5, 2009 WASHINGTON (CBS) Democratic presidential hopeful Sen.Barack Obama smiles as New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson stands next him at Memorial Coliseum on March 21, 2008, in Portland, Ore. Richardson gave Obama his endorsement for President. The Cabinet that President-elect Barack Obama picked on a fast track has an unexpected opening, with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Obama's choice for commerce secretary, withdrawing under pressure of a federal investigation into how his political donors landed a lucrative transportation contract. Richardson insisted he would be cleared in a grand jury probe. But he and Obama said the investigation would have likely disrupted a timely nomination to a top economic post. "I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process," Richardson said in a statement. "Given the gravity of the economic situation the nation is facing, I could not in good conscience ask the president-elect and his administration to delay for one day the important work that needs to be done."
 2009 November 5 - by Calvin Freiburger When I first heard liberals howling about supposed anti-Obama messages in ABC’s new sci-fi drama “V,” I rolled my eyes. The story of Earth falling for the false promises of sinister aliens may sound like the Barack Obama Hope-&-Change Tour 2008, but it’s hardly a new theme for the science-fiction genre—not only did “The Twilight Zone” famously tackle it way back when, but “V” itself is actually a direct remake of a TV miniseries that first aired in 1983. Any resemblance between the 44 th President and two-faced space lizards had to be coincidental…at least, that’s what I thought before Sean Hannity aired clips from the new show. [More...]
Obama not ruling out prosecution of Bush officials for crimes in office US President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday he was not ruling out possible prosecution for abuses committed under the George Bush administration, saying no one "is above the law". "We're still evaluating how we're going to approach the whole issue of interrogations, detentions, and so forth," Obama said in an interview aired Sunday on ABC's This Week program when asked about alleged abuses under Bush. "Obviously we're going to be looking at past practices and I don't believe that anybody is above the law," Obama said. But Obama, who takes office on January 20, added that he wanted his administration to focus on tackling problems moving forward, rather than reviewing policies under his predecessor. "My instinct is for us to focus on how do we make sure that moving forward we are doing the right thing," he said. "That doesn't mean that if somebody has blatantly broken the law, that they are above the law. But my orientation's going to be to move forward." Human rights and civil liberties groups have called for senior Bush administration officials to be prosecuted for a series of alleged abuses, from mishandling the conflict in Iraq to the illegal detention and torture of terrorist suspects and domestic spying. In the interview, Obama criticized Vice President Dick Cheney for his public defense of "extraordinary" interrogation methods used against top terrorism suspects, including simulated drowning known as waterboarding. "Vice President Cheney, I think, continues to defend what he calls extraordinary measures or procedures when it comes to interrogations and from my view waterboarding is torture," Obama said.
POLITICO.COM Ellen Moran, executive director of EMILY’s List, was named White House communications director by President-elect Obama on Saturday. (Great! Left wing partisan abortion advocacy in the white house.)
(CNSNews.com) – Eric Holder, the long-time Washington lawyer chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to be the next attorney general, was a central figure in the controversy surrounding the clemency petitions of 16 convicted terrorists during the Clinton administration. [MORE]
AP. WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama promised the voters change but has started his Cabinet selection process by naming several Washington insiders to top posts. [more]
The relationship between the Democratic Party’s Presidential candidate Barack Obama and Bill Ayers, the founder and leader of the now defunct terrorist organization Weather Underground, is deeper and closer than currently understood, according to an individual who has had a senior role in the Obama candidacy that has included direct contact with the candidate. The Weather Underground was responsible for a series of bombings during the 1970s that caused extensive property damage. Three of the Underground’s own members died when a bomb exploded accidentally in a New York town house in 1970. Among the dead was Ayers’ girl friend at the time, Diana Oughton. ...
Friday, 27 Feb 2009 | 4:39 PM ET Posted By: Larry KudlowLet me be very clear on the economics of President Obama’s State of the Union speech and his budget.  He is declaring war on investors, entrepreneurs, small businesses, large corporations, and private-equity and venture-capital funds. That is the meaning of his anti-growth tax-hike proposals, which make absolutely no sense at all — either for this recession or from the standpoint of expanding our economy’s long-run potential to grow. Raising the marginal tax rate on successful earners, capital, dividends, and all the private funds is a function of Obama’s left-wing social vision, and a repudiation of his economic-recovery statements. Ditto for his sweeping government-planning-and-spending program, which will wind up raising federal outlays as a share of GDP to at least 30 percent, if not more, over the next 10 years. [MORE]
By Bill Gertz INSIDE THE RING President Obama recently shifted authority for approving sales to China of missile and space technology from the White House to the Commerce Department -- a move critics say will loosen export controls and potentially benefit Chinese missile development. The president issued a little-noticed "presidential determination" Sept. 29 that delegated authority for determining whether missile and space exports should be approved for China to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. ... Henry Sokolski, director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, said restoring Commerce Department control over the sensitive exp[o]rts is a "step backward." "It's as though Commerce's mishandling of missile-tech transfers to China in the 1990s never happened," said Mr. Sokolski, a former Pentagon proliferation specialist. "But it did. As a result, we are now facing much more accurate, reliable missiles from China." Mr. Sokolski said he expects the U.S. government under the new policy to again boost Chinese military modernization through "whatever renewed 'benign' missile technology" is approved. "It was foolish for us to do this in the 1990s and is even more dangerous for us to do now," he said. [More...]
By Steve Holland - Analysis Fri Feb 27, 2009 2:18am ISTWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bill Clinton declared more than a decade ago "the era of big government is over." With his new budget, President Barack Obama has brought it back. Obama's $3.55 trillion budget proposal represents a gamble that Americans are ready for the sort of change they embraced by electing him in November, including a tax increase on Americans making more than $250,000 a year. He proposes expansion of spending on the U.S. healthcare system, on greater energy independence and on education, hoping Americans weary of paying for a raft of expensive bailouts for banks and the car industry will go along. "What I won't do is sacrifice investments that will make America stronger, more competitive and more prosperous in the 21st century -- investments that have been neglected for too long," Obama said in rolling out his plan on Thursday. The tax increase on Americans making more than $250,000 will help pay for a healthcare overhaul that has yet to be formulated. Some experts worry this provision will have the unintended consequence of adding to the tax burden of small businesses, causing them to lay off workers or stop hiring. "The taxing aspect of this is worse than Robin Hood," said economist Peter Morici, a University of Maryland professor. "He's resurrecting class warfare for political gain." [MORE]
America Serves - version 1
"When you choose to serve -- whether it's your nation, your community or simply your neighborhood -- you are connected to that fundamental American ideal that we want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. That's why it's called the American dream." The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.
(CNN) -- President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, a stunning decision that comes just eight months into his presidency.  Less than nine months into his presidency, Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it honored Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." The president had not been mentioned as among front-runners for the prize, and the roomful of reporters gasped when Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Nobel committee, uttered Obama's name. The president, who was awakened to be told he had won, said he was humbled to be selected, according to an administration official. The Nobel committee recognized Obama's efforts to solve complex global problems including working toward a world free of nuclear weapons. [More] Ed. Note: It's reported that the reporters in the room gasped. This is quite a surprise. This will unnecessarily constrain President Obama in some of the very tough decisions he will have to make vis a vis Iran. This is clear from some of the comments from the selection committee.
After some scrutiny, Version 2: America Serves "When you choose to serve -- whether it's your nation, your community or simply your neighborhood -- you are connected to that fundamental American ideal that we want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. That's why it's called the American dream." The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start. http://change.gov/americaserves
Administration Military Cuts Will Seriously Weaken the United States © gps333@charter.net
The destruction of the US economy – planned or unplanned – coupled with The Obama Administration’s clear hatred of the military – means the end of most, if not all, new military platforms. When one adds the gigantic Stimulus Bill -- $ 1.2 trillion, including interest, plus TARP ($700 billion) plus another estimated $ 2 trillion for more “stimulus” by the end of 2009, combined with a 10% cut this year in military spending “to start” (in the words of Barney Frank), plus the news that Obama is stopping the production of the F-22, we are looking at an end to all new platform programs. As noted previously on this site, the P-8 was always an increasingly long shot to replace the aging P-3 that has been flown to death since 1991 in supporting ground forces. The DDG-1000, which was to have had at least 30 ships in class, had already been dropped to two hulls. LCS was to have demonstrated the efficacy of new systems such as electric drives, rail guns, and long-range naval rifles using Extended Range Munitions. Both were already seriously over budget. The F-22 is reportedly being stopped by Executive Order. The P-8 – once to be 155 aircraft, then dropped to 108, then dropped again – has current funding for five airframes, two of which are to be used for ground stress testing. The Littoral Combat Ship – once to be 55 hulls, has produced one finished ship and a second in production. The LCS – to have been the littoral warfare combatant for the 21st century – is toast. I suspect it will be stopped at six hulls and will end-up like the Cyclone-class (PC-1) gunboats, a good idea that lost funding and political support. President Obama’s assertion that it is better to talk nicely to people who are planning to kill us rather than defending against them puts a perhaps insupportable burden on those that want new platforms for the nation’s defense. The F-35 – just getting off the ground -- literally – may be saved in part through the interest and funding help from foreign government customers, although this is far from certain. It is certainly the most likely new tactical aircraft to survive in Obama’s kinder, gentler military. [MORE]
Stanley Kurtz: During his first campaign for the Illinois state senate in 1995-96, Barack Obama was a member of, and was endorsed by, the far-left New Party. Obama’s New Party ties give the lie to his claim to be a post-partisan, post-ideological pragmatist. Particularly in Chicago, the New Party functioned as the electoral arm of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). So despite repeated attempts to distance himself from ACORN, Obama’s New Party ties raise disturbing questions about his links to those proudly militant leftists. The media’s near-total silence on this critical element of Obama’s past is deeply irresponsible. more...
Obama's Connection to Sirhan Sirhan by Daniel Pipes
Sun, 2 Nov 2008 From the perspective of a Middle East & Islam specialist, the just-concluding U.S. presidential election is extraordinary for the outsized role of one's subject area. Consider some of the topics:
Ensign receives handwritten confirmation This doesn't happen often enough. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance. Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it "Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold." The note was a follow-up to Ensign's questioning at the markup. Ed. Note: There would br $3,800 fee for families as posted previously. This isn't a $3,800 fee for public health insurance, It's a fee for not having insurance. No this is not fiction. Would the American public please wake up.
| Frank Morring, Jr. morring@aviationweek.com Feb 25, 2009 |  The fiscal 2010 NASA budget outline to be released by the Obama Administration Feb. 26 adds almost $700 million to the out-year figure proposed in the fiscal 2009 budget request submitted by former President Bush, and sticks with the goal of returning humans to the moon by 2020. The $18.7 billion that Obama will request for NASA - up from $18.026 billion for fiscal 2010 in the last Bush budget request - does not include the $1 billion NASA will receive in the $787 billion stimulus package that President Barack Obama signed Feb. 16. Aviation Week has learned that in addition to the human-lunar return, Obama wants to continue robotic exploration with probes to Mars and other Solar System destinations, as well as a space telescope to probe deeper into the universe. He will request increases in Earth Science, in keeping with his call Feb. 24 for action on global warming. And he will ask for additional funds for the NextGen satellite-based air traffic control modernization effort within NASA's aeronautics request. In addition to those newly requested funds, under the stimulus package the space agency will receive $400 million for back-to-the-moon exploration work; $400 million for science directed at climate-change space missions and the supercomputing capability needed for climate modeling; $150 million for aeronautics, including NextGen, and $50 million for repairs to hurricane damage suffered in 2008. Photo: NASA |
Stanley Kurtz on Senator Stealth
... After hearing about Barack Obama’s ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Fr. Michael Pfleger, and the militant activists of ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), it should be clear to everyone that his extremist roots run deep. But the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has yet another connection with the world of far-Left radicalism. Obama has long been linked — through foundation grants, shared political activism, collaboration on legislation and tactics, and mutual praise and support — with the Chicago-based Gamaliel Foundation, one of the least known yet most influential national umbrella groups for church-based “community organizers.” The same separatist, anti-American theology of liberation that was so boldly and bitterly proclaimed by Obama’s pastor is shared, if more quietly, by Obama’s Gamaliel colleagues. The operative word here is “quietly.” Gamaliel specializes in ideological stealth, and Obama, a master student of Gamaliel strategy, shows disturbing signs of being a sub rosa radical himself. Obama’s legislative tactics, as well as his persistent professions of non-ideological pragmatism, appear to be inspired by his radical mentors’ most sophisticated tactics. Not only has Obama studied, taught, and apparently absorbed stealth techniques from radical groups like Gamaliel and ACORN, but in his position as a board member of Chicago’s supposedly nonpartisan Woods Fund, he quietly funneled money to his radical allies — at the very moment he most needed their support to boost his political career. It’s high time for these shadowy, perhaps improper, ties to receive a dose of sunlight....
Read the full article here
In 1932, automobile production shriveled by 90%.President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form. He has repeatedly raised the specter of another Great Depression. First, he did so to win votes in the November election. He has done so again recently to sway congressional votes for his stimulus package.
 In his remarks, every gloomy statistic on the economy becomes a harbinger of doom. As he tells it, today's economy is the worst since the Great Depression. Without his Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he says, the economy will fall back into that abyss and may never recover.
This fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics. [MORE]
Sep 8, 5:20 PM (ET) By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR  | (AP) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speak to...
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans would be fined up to $3,800 for failing to buy health insurance under a plan that circulated in Congress on Tuesday as President Barack Obama met Democratic leaders to search for ways to salvage his health care overhaul. [MORE] Editor note: This is insane! This mandated insurance must not pass. They are justifying this by saying that auto insurance is mandated, but these are completely different issues. You are not forced to buy auto insurance if you don't operate a car. This is a mandate and fine based on the fact we live and breath. Living and breathing has just become a liability. Mandated auto insurance makes sense because the economic principle of externality kicks in. Externality is an economic principle. It's defined as the negative effect of activities on others not directly involved in the activity. You can reasonably damage life or limb or property with a car. Only a liberal would see living and breathing as an externality.
by Charles Krauthammer - Friday, September 4, 2009
What happened to President Obama? His wax wings having melted, he is the man who fell to earth. What happened to bring his popularity down further than that of any new president in polling history save Gerald Ford (post-Nixon pardon)?
The conventional wisdom is that Obama made a tactical mistake by farming out his agenda to Congress and allowing himself to be pulled left by the doctrinaire liberals of the Democratic congressional leadership. But the idea of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi pulling Obama left is quite ridiculous. Where do you think he came from, this friend of Chávista ex-terrorist William Ayers, of PLO apologist Rashid Khalidi, of racialist inciter Jeremiah Wright? [More] Ed. Note: The real shocker for me is this is from the Washington Post!
Did Barack "Spread the Wealth" Obama Just Blow the Election? October 16, 2008 11:37 AM ET | James Pethokoukis | Permanent Link | Print No. Really. You're kidding me. Barack Obama actually told that Joe the Plumber guy that he wants to "spread the wealth around." What, did Obama just get done reading the Wikipedia entry on Huey "Share the Wealth" Long or something? Was he somehow channeling that left-wing populist from the Depression? Talk about playing into the most extreme stereotype of your party, that it is infested with socialists... Excerpt from US News and World Report
Under Obama nothing is certain but death panels and taxes. By Mark Steyn
The other day, wending my way from Woodsville, N.H., 40 miles south to Plymouth, I came across several “stimulus” projects — every few miles, and heralded by a two-tone sign, a hitherto rare sight on Granite State highways. The orange strip at the top said “PUTTING AMERICA BACK TO WORK” with a silhouette of a man with a shovel, and the green part underneath informed you that what you were about to see was a “PROJECT FUNDED BY THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT.” There then followed a few yards of desolate, abandoned, scarified pavement, followed by an “END OF ROAD WORKS” sign, until the next “stimulus” project a couple of bends down a quiet rural blacktop.
I don’t know why one of the least fiscally debauched states in the Union needs funds from “the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” to repair random stretches of highway, especially stretches that were perfectly fine until someone came along to dig them up in order to access “stimulus” funding. I would have asked one of those men with a shovel, as depicted on the sign, but there were none to be found. Usually in New Hampshire, they dig up the road, and re-grade or repave it, while the flagmen stand guard until it’s all done. But here a certain federal torpor seemed to hang in the eerie silence. [More]
From Michael Sneed at the Chicago Sun Times - Could Obama be indicted soon? [Michael] "Sneed hears rumbles political fund-raiser/fixer Tony Rezko, who is now singing sweetly to the feds from his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, has been talking about his "dealings" with a Chicago bank, which has political connections. Stay tuned."
 Maybe President Obama is busy dealing with the stimulus package from the warmth of The White House, but it would appear his diss of hundreds of thousands of people without power (and heat) may not only show hypocrisy when it comes to his criticism of George W. Bush and the Katrina aftermath, but contempt for the people of the mid-South. They seemingly don't need him, so he doesn't need to bother with them. Gov. Steve Beshear is raising his state's death toll to 24 in a storm that caked several states in ice last week. Beshear says in a letter to President Barack Obama released Monday that 10 of the deaths were from carbon monoxide poisoning and at least nine others from hypothermia. So while Obama enjoys the Hawaiian heat of the White House, people are dying of carbon monoxide poisoning, trying to keep warm with charcoal briquettes. Not smart, but desperate people do desperate things. As for the political and media spin from this Obama/FEMA debacle, what would we expect…? [MORE]
By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., August 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Although President Obama and liberal Congressional Democrats have denounced claims that the health care reform establishes "death panels," it does not help reassure the American public that the nation's foremost pro-euthanasia group is actively pushing "end-of-life counseling" as a centerpiece of health-care reforms. Compassion & Choices, a rebranding of the former Hemlock Society, aggressively lobbies to legalize euthanasia as a "human right" by means of legislation and the judicial system. But the group has revealed that it is a major player behind incorporating a measure (sec. 1233) of the "American Affordable Choices Act of 2009" (HR 3200) that would pay doctors and medical professionals to offer "end-of-life" consultations every five years with elderly patients or those suffering from chronic or terminal illnesses. "As Congress debates health insurance reform, Compassion & Choices is leading the charge to make end-of-life choice a centerpiece of any program that emerges," the euthanasia society declares on its website. "We are working hard to reach our goal to make end-of-life choice a centerpiece of national health insurance reform." [More]
Posted 3:35 pm, August 18, 2009 by Ed Morrissey  This should be good news for the Drill Here, Drill Now contingent, right? The Obama administration has committed $2 billion in loans to exploit offshore oil resources in hopes of extracting a major new source of petroleum. Despite the White House pursuit of a cap-and-trade scheme to limit the use of fossil fuels, the new field could help bring lower energy prices, and their support of this exploration of American resources shows their flexibility on energy policy.
Wait — did I say American resources? That’s true, but only in the South American Sense. The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil’s Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan. The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a “preliminary commitment” letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount. Ex-Im Bank says it has not decided whether the money will come in the form of a direct loan or loan guarantees. Either way, this corporate foreign aid may strike some readers as odd, given that the U.S. Treasury seems desperate for cash and Petrobras is one of the largest corporations in the Americas. … But it still doesn’t allow the U.S. to explore in Alaska or along the East and West Coasts, which could be our equivalent of the Tupi oil fields, which are set to make Brazil a leading oil exporter. Americans are right to wonder why Mr. Obama is underwriting in Brazil what he won’t allow at home. [More] Another article on the SORBAMOS creature .
The important thing to get out of these tidbits is the fact that Obama was in the 'Giannoulias family' pocket for a sweetheart deal on financing by 'family' controlled 'Broadway Bank' for Obama's first town home. Obama paid his due by endorsing Alexi Giannoulias as State Treasurer. Rezko is apparently 'squealing' to Fitz. about Alexi and Broadway Bank.
Obama's Global Tax
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, July 29, 2008 4:20 PM PT Election '08: A plan by Barack Obama to redistribute American wealth on a global level is moving forward in the Senate. It follows Marxist theology — from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. IBD Series: The Audacity Of Socialism We are citizens of the world, Sen. Obama told thousands of nonvoting Germans during his recent tour of the Middle East and Europe. And if the Global Poverty Act (S. 2433) he has sponsored becomes law, which is almost certain if he wins in November, we're also going to be taxpayers of the world. Speaking in Berlin, Obama said: "While the 20th century taught us that we share a common destiny, the 21st has revealed a world more intertwined than at any time in human history." What the 20th century really showed was a series of totalitarian threats — from fascism to Nazism to communism — defeated by the U.S. military. Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Tojo's Japan and the Soviet Union offered destinies we did not share. Our destiny of peace and freedom through strength was not achieved by a transnationalist fantasy of buying the world a Coke and singing "Kumbaya."
Obama's Global Poverty Act offers us a global socialist destiny we do not want, one that challenges America's very sovereignty. The former "post-racial" candidate obviously intends to be a post-national president.
Posted agenda issues warning about new 'obligation' review The White House is promising new reviews of the "obligations" to the government by broadcasters who "occupy the nation's spectrum" just as the president has targeted conservative talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh for a public attack, raising concerns over the possible restoration of the "Fairness Doctrine," a policy that failed as unneeded and unconstitutional two decades ago. [MORE] (Note from editor: You need to look know farther than Venezuela to see where this is heading. Much of Obama's training under Ayer's et al is socialist, and part of that is public indoctrination and censorship. They will not be happy until they take over all media outlets, just as Chevez has done.)
Shikha Dalmia, 08.12.09, 12:01 AM EDT The sci-fi economics of clunker-crushing.  It seems almost petty to join in the loud kvetching that has erupted in the blogosphere--at least in its more economically literate portions--since Congress reauthorized the so-called Cash for Clunkers program last week. After all, the program's $3 billion total cost barely constitutes chump change in that august body's stimulus/bailout spending spree, which, by some reckoning, is touching $13 trillion. But the program's lunacy-to-spending quotient, especially when it comes to its alleged environmental benefits, is so high that it is hard to stay quiet. So here goes. [More ]
More... Obama's Town home tax records do not agree at all with Obama's account or the Warranty Deeds. It's contradictory and suspicious. A detailed account can be found at www.strata-sphere.com. Prosecutor Fitzgerald may indict Obama on RICO charges for voter fraud tied to his ACORN work.)
Jul 16, 8:27 PM (ET)
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats' health care bills won't meet President Barack Obama's goal of slowing the ruinous rise of medical costs, Congress' budget umpire warned on Thursday, giving weight to critics who say the legislation could break the bank. [More]
Jun 2 06:00 PM US/Eastern By ERICA WERNER Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is leaving the door open to taxing health care benefits, something he campaigned hard against while running for president. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., raised the issue with Obama during a private meeting Tuesday with the president and other Democratic senators and later reported the president's response: "It's on the table. It's an option." The federal government would reap about $250 billion a year if it treated health care benefits given to employees like wages and taxed them. [More] : [Counterpoint]
Men with stronger muscles from regular weight training are up to 40 per cent less likely to die from cancer than men who do not pump iron, according to new research. The findings, by an international team of researchers, suggest muscular strength is as important as staying slim and eating healthily when it comes to protecting the body against deadly tumours. The scientists who came up with the findings are recommending men weight train at least twice a week, exercising muscle groups in both the upper and lower body. In recent years, experts have recommended a healthy diet and lifestyle - including regular aerobic exercise such as jogging or cycling to reduce the risks of the disease. But the latest study, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, suggests it may be just as important to build up muscle strength. A team of experts, led by scientists from Sweden's Karolinska Institute, tracked the lifestyles of 8,677 men aged between 20 and 82 for more than two decades. Each volunteer had regular medical check ups that included tests of their muscular strength. Between 1980 and 2003, researchers monitored how many developed cancer and subsequently died from it. The results showed men who regularly worked out with weights and had the highest muscle strength were between 30 and 40 per cent less likely to lose their life to a deadly tumor. [More...]
By Quin Hillyer on 4.30.09 @ 6:09AM Yes, it is indeed similar to fascism. Since my April 2 column that compared Barack Obama's economic policies (and others) to those of Italy's Benito Mussolini, I have been denounced on the pages of the Economist, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Toronto Star, and the New York Times (less strongly denounced there than in the others, oddly enough), and by Chris Matthews (and guests Tony Blankley and Larry Sabato) on Hardball, and also had the idea made fun of by CNN morning hosts while they played a rather tame and sober interview they had done with me on the subject. Never mind that in the New York Times on April 7 , David Leonhardt went farther, comparing the policies to the economics of Hitler in the course of saying that was a good thing because Hitler's economics worked. Somehow, the rather fact-based piece I wrote was seen by the media elite as out of bounds, but Leonhardt's was acceptable analysis because it was meant to praise Obama rather than bury him. Yet Leonhardt's column is proof enough that it is not some right-wing conspiracy theory that sees fascistic leanings in the big government, corporatist approaches taken by The One in the Oval Office. Since then, the evidence has grown only stronger. As the Examiner noted yesterday, the Obama takeover of General Motors is astonishing in its scope and reach. The money quote from GM itself: "The U.S. Treasury will be able to elect all of our directors and to control the vote on substantially all matters brought for a stockholder vote." This is scary stuff. [More]
Posted: May 04, 2009 9:08 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily The leader of a pro-family organization says families across the nation need to contact their U.S. senators now to try to derail a legislative plan that already has passed the U.S. House and is being awaited by President Obama – after a Democrat confirmed that it would protect "all 547 forms of sexual deviancy or 'paraphilias' listed by the American Psychiatric Association." WND columnist Janet Porter, who also heads the Faith2Action.org Christian ministry, today cited S. 909, dubbed the "Pedophile Protection Act" as an extreme danger to America. As H.R. 1913, the House version of the so-called "hate crimes" bill was adopted on a 149-175 vote, but not before several amendments were proposed by Republicans trying to mitigate the impact of the draconian law. Democratic Sens. Edward Kennedy and Patrick Leahy immediately introduced a matching plan in the U.S. Senate, and activists say a vote in committee could come as early as tomorrow. The proposal, formally called the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act after a Wyoming homosexual who was killed in a horrific robbery and beating in 1998, creates a special class for homosexuals and others with alternative sexual lifestyles and provides them protections against so-called "hate." It specifically denies such protections to other targeted classes of citizens such as pastors, Christians, missionaries, veterans and the elderly. [More]
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