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Selected News Items For Aug 8 – Aug 14

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This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, August 8th, 2009 at 12:00 am. You can leave a response.

110 Responses to “Selected News Items For Aug 8 – Aug 14”

  1. sheehanjihad
    August 8, 2009 at 12:03 am

    This is a letter that was sent to me by a person who says what we are all thinking, and in such an eloquent way that I thought I would share it with you. Feel free to forward it to your representatives if the shoe fits. This is just superb. It was authored by a contract administrator in Vancouver Washington…..a “mob” of one for sure. Follow his lead.

    A cautionary note for the Blue Dog Democrats

    Congratulations on your decision to delay the vote on Henry Waxman’s so-called “Healthcare Reform Bill.” In doing so, you have given yourselves an opportunity to save the people of the United States from a plunge into poverty and despair that might not ever be reversed. (You Blue Dogs who did not cave-in to Speaker Pelosi’s fervent pressure tactics can skip ahead several paragraphs because the next few words are solely for those four of you who wilted under the heat).

    While the vote may have been delayed a month or so, your demonstrated intent to support this bill in any shape or form has put you on the brink. We’re not talking about mundane legislation that nobody cares about who doesn’t spend their days watching C-SPAN. This bill represents a fundamental, and possibly irreversible, shift in this entire country’s way of life. It solves nothing, and creates a bureaucratic nightmare that will ultimately cost Americans a price we cannot pay.

    Please understand this important point: you are playing politics, using life and death as bargaining chips, and it has to stop, here and now.

    I’m not asking you to join me in a debate on the merits of this bill. If I thought you knew enough about the document to speak with authority, it might be a different matter. But I see no evidence of that here, and its parallel to past legislative debacles brings an odor that still stinks in my nostrils. We have seen the effect of Congressional negligence, most notably in the wretched Stimulus Package and Energy bills that were forced upon us because few of you were willing to actually read and become familiar with their contents before casting a cowardly ‘yes’ vote to the applause of Speaker Pelosi and Al Gore’s accountant.

    You and your colleagues who revel in the distinction of being vigilant watchdogs in a party of fiscal irresponsibility are called “Blue Dogs.” Your notoriety and current star status is predicated on the notion you’re courageous and resolute – that you’ll stand up against the tide of liberal Democrat absolutism in the name of common sense and service to the people. Unfortunately, four of you decided that weight was too great to bear, and you folded like a card table the moment your Commissar, Speaker Pelosi, put a hand on you. Any confidence we may have had was diluted in consequence, and trust for elected officials is not in great supply just now.

    I do not appeal to your sense of duty and decency because I know you are bereft of both. Asking you to do what you were sent to Washington to do (serve, protect and represent with honor the safety, security and wellbeing of the American people) is somehow beyond you. Instead, I will speak in those terms that I do know you will understand and appreciate.

    Nothing is more precious to you (aside from your families, one presumes) than winning and holding political power. The term ‘politician’ is now the prominent pejorative among our people, justly ranking you below thieves, murderers, television evangelists and lawyers. Not an easy thing to do, but you have arrived. This Congress is the most hated and reviled in living memory. That means two things: the trust of the people in your districts is fading by the minute, which further means your jobs are not worth a plug nickel.

    Since you are apparently incapable of standing up for this country by defeating Representative Waxman’s insane plan to transform America into a socialist pit of misery and failure, then perhaps you will be more interested in doing so for that most cherished of possessions: your career.

    Your tenure in the House is in serious jeopardy for what you’ve already done (we remember your role as a collective majority in the creation of our current financial condition via the practice of mandating toxic loans to people who could not accept the burden). Please be assured of this crucial point: If you vote in favor of this bill, you will be removed from office in 2010. I cannot threaten you with this future event, but I am more than happy to acquaint you with its certainty.

    Blue Dogs were supposed to look out for us. Blue Dogs were supposed to provide a voice of reason among the clatter of shameless, greasy politicians. You were supposed to be better than this. However, that doesn’t matter much anymore. Imagine instead what will become of your career in the aftermath of the town hall meetings you will face upon your return to your districts. You know what that means, but more to the point, WE know what to do if you betray our country again. It’s time to stand up to a tyrannical apparatus, bent on destroying this nation. If you cannot (or will not) stand up for us, your successor no doubt will.

    Robert Davies

  2. canary
    August 8, 2009 at 6:14 am

    Palin says Obama’s health care plan is ‘evil’
    By Mark Thiessen, Associated Press Writer Aug 7 2009

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called President Barack Obama’s health plan “downright evil” Friday in her first online comments since leaving office, saying in a Facebook posting that he would create a “death panel” that would deny care to the neediest Americans.

    “The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care,” the former Republican vice presidential candidate wrote.

    “Such a system is downright evil,” Palin wrote on her page, which has nearly 700,000 supporters. She encouraged her supporters to be engaged in the debate.

    The claim that the Democratic health care bills would encourage euthanasia has been circulating on the Internet for weeks and has been echoed by some Republican leaders. The nonpartisan group FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania says the claim is false.

    The allegation appears to be based on a provision of the House bill that would require Medicare to pay for end-of-life counseling sessions, on a voluntary basis, for beneficiaries who want the service. Medicare already covers hospice care. And legislation passed by Congress in 1990 requires that patients be asked if they have a living will.

    Republican criticism has also included claims that the reform plans will lead to rationing, or the government determining which medical procedures a patient can have.

    However, millions of Americans already face rationing, as insurance companies rule on procedures they will cover. Denying coverage for certain procedures might increase under proposals to have a government-appointed agency identify medicines and procedures best suited for various conditions.

    In the two weeks since she resigned, Palin has made only one public appearance, giving a Second Amendment rights speech last Saturday before a gun owners group in Anchorage.

    Palin also has been largely silent before Friday’s Facebook post. She was a voracious user of the social networking site Twitter, and promised to keep her supporters updated with a new private account after she left office. But that hasn’t happened, leaving some of her fans begging for updates in the past two weeks.

    AP writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in Washington contributed to this report.
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....ealth_care

    Don’t forget these FactCheck and other sites determining myths, claims Obama’s school in Indonesia was public and quran not taught, but Obama admits two years of studying the Quran and celebrating it’s holidays with his mother. And of course we heard Obama himself discuss a one pay plan. Obama would love China’s abortion laws. No one is forced to used Hospice. Yet.

    • Melly
      August 8, 2009 at 5:15 pm

      Glad to see her emerge on this issue. I miss her on Twitter.

    • Clarissimus
      August 9, 2009 at 12:38 am

      “However, millions of Americans already face rationing, as insurance companies rule on procedures they will cover. Denying coverage for certain procedures might increase under proposals to have a government-appointed agency identify medicines and procedures best suited for various conditions.”

      Mr. Thiessen fails to understand the difference between being denied payment for something and being denied access to it for any price. When a government rationing body says you can’t that hip replacement or that cancer treatment it’s not at all the same as an insurance company saying they won’t pay for it.

  3. proreason
    August 8, 2009 at 9:28 am

    Most of you have probably seen the “I don’t want them to do a lot of talking” video from Thursday, but I want to bring attention to it one more time.

    The clip is less than a minute. Watch the Moron’s face carefully as he vents his spleen on us. It’s inconceivable that the leader of the United States (or any country, for that matter) would show his contempt for his own people in such a manner. I’m no body language expert, but his lips curl, his eyes go to slits, he leans so low as to touch his face to the podium, he looks around to pull his thug supporters closer as he harangues us.

    Freeze frame second 42. Then freeze frame a few later at second 43. Take a look at seconds 27 and 53.

    Remember, this is the man with the legendary cool. He is always in control. He is so intelligent that he can reason through any problem for us.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....r_embedded

    And of course, the whole premise of the rant is that he has to clean up the mess caused by others.

    Yet many think he was one of the primary architects of the Acorn strategy that resulted in mortgages for deadbeats, which in turn caused the financial crisis that now has unemployment approaching 20%.

    Hypocrit in Chief. Liar in Chief. Demagogue in Chief. Thug in Chief. Angry Child in Chief. Punisher in Chief. Iron Fist in Chief. Violence Inciter in Chief. Hate Monger in Chief.

    Our own little Hitler emerging from his chrysalis phase.

  4. curvyred
    August 8, 2009 at 9:36 am

    Excellent photo-journalism taken at Queen Nancy’s Denver “appearance”:

    http://www.lookingattheleft.co.....ealthcare/

    Clearly shows who the real astroturfers are.

    Notice the bullies with bullhorns. Sounds like the organizers are really listening to their der leader, and truly are “getting in their faces”

    Three highlights from the photos:

    “This is Laura Avant. She has a degree in social working science, is a substitute teacher, and has been unemployed for seven years. She is taking names for a petition and when I asked her how she found out about the event she said “My organizer called me.” I said “You’re kidding.” She said, “No, look: he’s right there -pointing to the guy with the bullhorn – he’s from Organizing for America. At this point, a number of the astroturfers departed, including Laura. She told me that transportation was waiting to take them to Nancy Pelosi’s next event at Highlands Ranch.”
    http://www.lookingattheleft.co.....G_0259.jpg

    Chickens home to roost meet bullhorn bully organizer(notice the preprinted script):
    http://www.lookingattheleft.co.....G_0220.jpg

    A day laborers meeting place is located nearby, coincidence that these men do not speak english and also admit they do not understand what the signs they are holding say? “¿Quien sabe?”
    http://www.lookingattheleft.co.....G_0068.jpg

    • U NO HOO
      August 8, 2009 at 12:02 pm

      As was mentioned, the professionally organized have professional signs. Grass roots have home grown signs.

    • MinnesotaRush
      August 8, 2009 at 12:42 pm

      Tell the lie. Tell it often. And use a bullhorn!

      Like o-blah-blah said, “get in their faces” .. with a bullhorn.

  5. ptat
    August 8, 2009 at 1:43 pm

    As usual, the truth of the situation is plain to see for all who have “the eyes to see”! Hired day laborers who can’t speak english with professional signs versus a diverse collection of real ,knowledgeable people, passionate about right and wrong (with home made signs, no less!).

  6. jobeth
    August 8, 2009 at 2:09 pm

    912 March on Washington

    Is anyone going to the March on Washington from this blog?…I would like to go and would like to meet up with some of the bloggers here.

    • DGA
      August 9, 2009 at 11:46 am

      Myself and three others will be there Jobeth, carrying signs and yelling for all it’s worth. Hoping all who read and post here will attempt to go.

    • jobeth
      August 9, 2009 at 12:02 pm

      DGA…

      Perhaps we can exchange cell phone #’s so that we can get together while we are there. Maybe we can find a landmark to meet so we can at least meet and/or support each other while we gather. This should be a great event! Really looking forward to being a part of history! I will feel at least I had a small part in pulling up this little dictator.

    • Steve
      August 9, 2009 at 12:12 pm

      “Is anyone going to the March on Washington from this blog?…I would like to go and would like to meet up with some of the bloggers here.”

      Is this the Free Republic event?

      I was one of the organizers and the ‘line producer’ for Free Republic’s first DC rally, “The March For Justice.” I also helped to ‘produce’ some of their subsequent DC rallies.

      While I certainly support the sentiment, I cannot in good conscience support FR’s involvement in this or any such activity. They are a very untrustworthy bunch, sorry to say.

      And the things they decide to promote, such as the ‘Birther’ nonsense, all too often end up hurting the cause more than helping.

      But don’t just take my word for it. Ask anyone who has been involved with them on any ‘executive level.’

      For further reading:

      Déjà Vu — “Meltdown” At Free Republic | Sweetness & Light
      http://sweetness-light.com/arc.....e-republic

    • DGA
      August 9, 2009 at 1:00 pm

      It’s the Freedomworks sponsored event. But, as far as I’m concerned, I’m going as an independent, our only connection is signing up, and being there on the 12th, a ‘mob’ of four.

    • jobeth
      August 9, 2009 at 1:31 pm

      Thanks Steve for looking out for us…Appreciate your effforts in our behalf.

      Here is what I am attending

      09.12.09 March on Washington
      The Tea Party Movement Goes to Capitol Hill

      This is a 3 day event. I am only attending the March itself on Saturday the 12th. There are some well known speakers there (see confirmed list below) including Dick Armey..

      The rumor mill has Beck and judge Napolitano (sp?) and Hannity mentioned as well, but no confirmation at this time…so who knows.

      The Agenda Page is:
      http://912dc.org/agenda/

      CONFIRMED SPEAKERS FOR SATURDAY’S RALLY:(9/12)

      Dick Armey – FreedomWorks
      Matt Kibbe – FreedomWorks
      Mason Weaver, San Diego, CA
      John Tate, Campaign for Liberty
      Rep. Marsha Blackburn (TN)
      Apostle Claver T. Kamau-Imani, Houston, TX
      Jenny Beth Martin, Tea Party Patriots
      Darla Dawald, Resistnet.com
      Brendan Steinhauser, FreedomWorks
      Steve Elliot, Grassfire
      Kellen Giuda, New York City

    • canary
      August 9, 2009 at 7:40 pm

      I thought Glen Beck started the 912 project. Anyways, I found this site. To the right is top video reinforcing Obama said “one payer system, and video below shows Pelosi first called tea party “astro-turf” April 15.

      http://www.the912project.com/

      If you can’t make it Washington DC for the event starting on Thursday visiting Senators and Congressmen, , try googling key words with your “State” Tea Party 912 words & such. My state has been planning a major Tea Party at our capital on 9/12 for those that can’t attend D.C. Just remember to bring video cameras and be peaceful. If Obama’s asstro- turds get in your face. Just cover your head and scream “help!” If they take a swing at you, dodge and scream “help”. Don’t want anymore twisted propaganda out there. Only use self-defense tactics (groin, eyeballs, etc ) if Obama Astro-Turds mob you.

    • jobeth
      August 9, 2009 at 10:28 pm

      “Just remember to bring video cameras and be peaceful.”

      You’re so right Canary.

      That is what we are planning to do. I think the more people that have video cams the better. All the better to prove who is doing what.

      From my experiences with the Tea parties we have attended, the tea party people are always polite and non-violent.

      We are the ones who for years sat on our couches and grumbled. We aren’t violent by nature. We want to quietly live our lives without government interferences. We tend to only fight back if we find we are at the end of our ropes. Well its time. We want it to be a peaceful and vocal protest.

      Let’s all remember to say a prayer for safety and a peaceful march. God be with us for the cause of freedom. He has blessed us for many years…I am confident he will continue to bless us.

    • wardmama4
      August 12, 2009 at 12:59 pm

      Actually there are many groups promoting a 9-12 March on DC – I’ve been invited with at least 3 different groups (one grassroots, one religious, one political) I am part of. From what I’ve been reading there are many groups planning to be there – which is a good idea – as it will make the numbers much much larger for conservative, patriotic, concerned citizens.

  7. Melly
    August 8, 2009 at 5:17 pm

    AJC Writer: 45-65% of Townhall Protesters Not ‘Comfortable’ With Idea of Black President.

    “Oh, I’m just guessing. This is just off the cuff. I think 45 to 65% of the people who appear at these groups are people who will never be comfortable with the idea of a black president,” Cynthia Tucker of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....r_embedded

    • JohnMG
      August 8, 2009 at 6:05 pm

      Twenty percentage points is a pretty wide spread even for such a blanket statement. And Cynthia Tucker tries so hard to come across as open-minded. In truth, she is just as racist as the Moron or his newest SC justice.

      I’ll bet ol’ Cynthia is a terrible Blackjack player and really does poorly at the track when it comes to picking the ponies.

    • canary
      August 8, 2009 at 6:31 pm

      This is not a race issue. This is health care. This constant playing the race card is insane. It’s stupid mentality there is no cure for. Same scenerio I heard repeatedly after the election. When have we had an presidential election where everyone voted for one. Added Insult to injury.

      “but….only half the people voted for Obama, so half the country is still racist”

    • neocon mom
      August 13, 2009 at 11:46 pm

      I remember a particularly offensive piece by Cynthia Tucker (who appears regularly on NBC’s Chris Matthews Show on Sunday morning) a few years back about how unfair it was that Natalie Holloway got so much attention from the media and it was surely because she was pretty and white, and how nobody gave a damn about black people who were missing.
      The point is, Cynthia Tucker can find racism in just about any story, even a tragic story about an 18 year old girl who went missing.

  8. Melly
    August 8, 2009 at 7:43 pm

    Check out AOL poll re: Sarah

    Do you agree with Palin’s characterization of Obama’s health plan as “evil”?

    Yes 59%

    No 41%

    Total Votes: 173,327

    ________________________________________________

    In general, what’s your impression of Palin?

    Mostly positive 50%

    Mostly negative 42%

    Neutral 8%

    Total Votes: 166,142

    http://news.aol.com/article/pa.....vil/608570

  9. canary
    August 9, 2009 at 12:35 am

    The New York Times: Obama and Sister to Share a Town
    By RACHEL L. SWARNS July 31 2009
    WASHINGTON — The far-flung Obama clan is coming closer together. President Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, is moving her family here from Hawaii and will spend the next several months living in the nation’s capital, White House officials say.

    Ms. Soetoro-Ng, who has given up her job as a high school teacher in Hawaii, has a book contract and a new baby. Her husband, Konrad Ng, a professor at the University of Hawaii, will become the scholar-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution’s Asian Pacific American Program here next month.

    Museum officials say Mr. Ng will stay in Washington through December, when he will return with his family to Hawaii. There, he will complete his yearlong term as resident scholar. The family is not expected to move into the White House, though they are very close to the Obamas.

    “Maya made many trips to Chicago and elsewhere throughout the campaign, and she and her brother have a great relationship,” said Alan S. King, a lawyer in Chicago who is a friend of Mr. Obama.

    And Ms. Soetoro-Ng, who campaigned on Mr. Obama’s behalf before the presidential election, has often spoken warmly about her relationship with her older brother, which she says has remained strong even though they have often lived far apart.

    “He’s someone who really enlarged my perspective,” Ms. Soetoro-Ng told the Canadian television network CTV in November.

    “He took me to colleges around the country to help me make a good decision about where to go to school,” she said. “He took me with him to go work in the South Side of Chicago and to help communities and to do voter registration and showed me that it was important to be active and to be an activist.”

    Since the presidential election, Ms. Soetoro-Ng has spoken at several universities in California, emphasizing the role that educators can play in promoting diversity and conflict resolution.

    In April, she landed a contract from Candlewick Press of Cambridge, Mass., to write a children’s book, “Ladder to the Moon,” that is inspired by her mother and her 4-year-old daughter, Suhaila. She is also working on a book about peace education and conflict resolution in high schools.

    School officials at La Pietra Hawaii School for Girls, where Ms. Soetoro-Ng taught history, said she left her job when her contract ended at the end of the school year. And she has already spent some time here this summer.

    In June, she served on the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, which selects talented young people to spend a year working for senior White House staff members and other officials.

    entire article & photos
    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07.....ister.html

    Wonder what she got paid in June hiring senior White House staff & officials.

    • canary
      August 9, 2009 at 1:01 am

      ABC News: President’s Half-Brother George the Latest Obama to Sign Book Deal
      Jake Tapper ABC News Senior White House Correspondent June 15 2009

      Over the weekend David Rosenthal, the publisher and executive vice president of Simon & Schuster, told the Associated Press that George had signed a book deal of his own.

      “Even had George Obama not been our President’s half brother, his story is moving and inspirational,” Rosenthal said. “It is an object lesson in survival, selflessness and courage.”

      The AP says the book will describe George Obama’s “fall into crime and poverty as a teenager and his eventual embrace of community organizing.”

      The last time we heard about George was just after Inauguration Day when he was arrested in Kenya for possession of marijuana and resisting arrest.

      Five days before his inauguration, then-President-elect Obama inked a $500,000 licensing deal for an abridged middle-school version of his best-selling book “Dreams From My Father.”

      Shortly after Inauguration, the president’s brother-in-law – First Lady Michelle Obama’s brother Craig Robinson, the Oregon State University men’s basketball coach – announced he’d signed a book deal with Gotham Books, an imprint of Penguin Group. “A Game of Character” will be published next year.

      … Duke University Press announced last month that this November, it will posthumously publish the 1992 anthropology dissertation of the president’s late mother, Dr. S. Ann Dunham, “Surviving against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia.”

      http://blogs.abcnews.com/polit.....-deal.html

    • canary
      August 9, 2009 at 1:09 am

      Still waiting on Obama’s half-brother Samson Obama’s book, charged with sexual assault at UK airport pre-inaugeration, later caught with fake passport aka/Henry Aloo on way to U.S. Those alpha/Obamas’

      http://www.freerepublic.com/fo.....7288/posts

    • Steve
      August 9, 2009 at 12:34 pm

      “Still waiting on Obama’s half-brother Samson Obama’s book, charged with sexual assault at UK airport pre-inaugeration, later caught with fake passport aka/Henry Aloo on way to U.S. Those alpha/Obamas’”

      You don’t need to send people to Free Republic. (Which still won’t even allow articles from S&L to be posted.)

      As usual, we had it first:

      Obama’s Half-Brother Busted For Sex Assault | Sweetness & Light
      http://sweetness-light.com/arc.....al-assault

    • JohnMG
      August 9, 2009 at 1:40 pm

      …..”The family is not expected to move into the White House, though they are very close to the Obamas……”

      What a load of horse dump!

  10. canary
    August 9, 2009 at 1:50 am

    MiamiHerald: Obama to travel out West
    The Assoicated Press Aug 7 2009

    The White House is announcing that the first family will travel to national parks in the West next week.
    President Barack Obama and his family will visit Bozeman, Mont., Yellowstone National Park, Grand Junction, Colo., the Grand Canyon and Phoenix.

    Spokesman Robert Gibbs says the trip is meant to encourage people to visit the national park system, and it will occur during a “fee-free” weekend for national parks. And, he said Obama also will promote his policies during the trip.

    The president also is expected to hold town hall style meetings at some of the places as he pushes Congress to pass an overhaul of the health care system. While on his Western swing, Obama is to address the convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, being held in Phoenix. It’s a summertime tradition for presidents.

    http://www.miamiherald.com/new.....76234.html

    One can imagine what the Obama’s vacation will cost tax-payers providing security in order to keep visitors and campers safe.

    • canary
      August 9, 2009 at 4:14 am

      oh. A hitler style woodstock. If teleprompter fells, he can always do the old
      give me a F, give me a Y, give me an O, give me a B, give me an A, give me a M….

    • neocon mom
      August 13, 2009 at 11:37 pm

      I can’t imagine that he’ll keep that engagement to speak to the V.F.W. convention. Talk about your angry mob!!

  11. canary
    August 9, 2009 at 3:47 am

    Politico: As Dems fret, Obama sharpens war goals
    By: Mike Allen August 8, 2009

    President Barack Obama next month will send Congress a new plan for measuring progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in an effort to…give sharper direction to a costly and increasingly bloody war,..

    Along with an array of dozens of numerical indicators, a system of red, yellow and green indicators will help White House and congressional policymakers spot which objectives are in trouble,

    “We don’t have a long track record here in terms of measuring progress and then sharing that assessment with Congress,” a second official said.

    The matrix is referred to in the West Wing as “the SIP” — Strategic Implementation Plan. Officials says it’s ambitious enough that they joke it should have been named the GULP.

    an official said. “It also, however, specifies some actions that we expect to be taken by the first tier of American leaders in theater.”

    The document will include specific metrics under nine broad objectives — some of them classified, and divided roughly half for Afghanistan and half for Pakistan.

    One aide said part of the accountability built into the new plan is “walking into the office over there” — the Oval — and responding to the President when he says, ‘Where are we on my nine [objectives]?’”

    Another official added: “And, ‘What do you mean you only have progress on this objective? What about the other eight? And how are these nine coming together in an integrated way?’”

    A pair of upcoming events is about to push Afghanistan to the forefront of the news, after months in the background while Congress wrangled over the president’s domestic agenda:

    “The United States is impartial: we do not support or oppose any particular candidates,” an aide said. “Our priority is that the Afghan people choose their president from a level playing field and under conditions that create an election outcome accepted as legitimate by the Afghan people and by the world.”

    The 143 reported American military fatalities so far this year… mean 2009 … as the bloodiest year to date in a conflict that’s approaching its eighth full year.

    One aide said: … the President would say, ‘Well, wait a second. Do you mean we’re going to throw more troops at this problem?

    “So, if I were to take to the President of the United States a solution that said, ‘Look, let’s dial up the troops,’

    he’s going to say, ‘Wait a second. This is like one tenth of the problem here. What about the rest of the story?’”

    The nine objectives are subsets of the big goal that the president set in his big speech on March 27 outlining a new strategy referred to internally as “Af/Pak”: “to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future.”

    http://www.politico.com/news/s.....25939.html

    “The United States is impartial: we do not support or oppose any particular candidates,” an aide said. “Our priority is that the Afghan people choose their president…

    Dear God bless our troops. Please provide them Your Devine protection.

  12. curvyred
    August 9, 2009 at 10:34 am

    The MSM in action.

    Peter Schiff on MSNBC was rudely talked over and argued with by the “supposed interviewer” , not able to express one point and told by the interviewer that “he probably wanted bankruptcies because of medical bills to continue” and that Dodd would come back as one of the heroes of healthcare reforms – coincidentally Schiff is challenging Dodd for his seat. Notice the interviewer also goes on to say he has allowed Schiff to speak and that Schiff has not expressed any views and that he should come back when he “finds one positive thing about the health care reform bill”

    No objectivity in sight:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....r_embedded

    • JohnMG
      August 9, 2009 at 10:58 am

      Politicians are, indeed, a rare breed.

      If that pompous asshole of an “interviewer” had treated me in such a fashion, I would have crawled acros that table and been on him like white on rice. He’ll ambush Schiff because he knows it’s safe to do so. But he wouldn’t do that to me because he couldn’t predict how I’d react. What a rude, inconsiderate, cowardly son-of-a-bitch he shows himself to be. And he’s proud of it, too! A poster-boy for almost every avowed Democrat.

    • JohnMG
      August 9, 2009 at 11:01 am

      …..”he should come back when he “finds one positive thing about the health care reform bill”……

      PS. Making a statement like that is taking no risk. I can’t find a positive thing to say about the healthcare reform bill either.

      Jerk!

    • Liberals Demise
      August 9, 2009 at 2:54 pm

      TOUCHE’ !!

    • jobeth
      August 11, 2009 at 11:26 pm

      What was that Pelosi was saying about the conservative “mob”?

      That we shout down people and won’t allow people to talk?

      Ummm, now that is rich from the darling party of the loud mouth, arrogant, pushy, STUPID, MSNBC and the rest of the MSM.

      I’m proud that Schiff didn’t lose his cool and he couldn’t be dislodged from the points and comments. Classy guy…glad he is on our side.

  13. U NO HOO
    August 9, 2009 at 4:28 pm

    As I understand it a KENYAN had dreams and concocted the “latest” fake birth certificate. Hmmmm, KENYANS can lie.

    Dan Rather, who do you know who could come up with the “real” transcripts of Obama’s school days?

    Fake transcripts? I’d be shocked, shocked, at how Obama reacted.

    I’m just saying…

    It was Bush’s fault.

  14. Rusty Shackleford
    August 9, 2009 at 4:38 pm

    AP INVESTIGATION: SC gov’s plane use questioned

    By JIM DAVENPORT, Associated Press Writer, 9 August, 2009

    Records reviewed by the AP show that since he took office in 2003, the two-term Republican has taken trips on state aircraft to locations of his children’s sporting events, hair and dentist appointments, political party gatherings and a birthday party for a campaign donor.

    On March 10, 2006, a state plane was sent to pick up Sanford in Myrtle Beach and return him to Columbia, the state capital, at a cost of $1,265 — when his calendar showed his only appointment in Columbia was “personal time” at his favorite discount hair salon. He had flown to Myrtle Beach on a private plane and attended a county GOP event.

    Rest of story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....tate_plane

    –But, I ask you. Where is the AP investigation of Pelosi’s uses of “free government transportation” to and from Frisco to get her Botox injections, etc?

    And how about Mr and Mrs Blammo going on their play dates?

    Hmmmm? HMMMMMM?

    What Sanford did with the government transportation MAY have been in violation…but….hey Associated Press…..how about fair and equal time given to the real abusers (and hypocrites) in our government?

  15. Diane
    August 9, 2009 at 5:46 pm

    I just received this in my inbox. (Sorry – can’t post a link to it, for obvious reasons.)

    Diane –

    All throughout August, our members of Congress are back in town. Insurance companies and partisan attack groups are stirring up fear with false rumors about the President’s plan, and it’s extremely important that folks like you speak up now.

    So we’ve cooked up an easy, powerful way for you to make a big impression: Office Visits for Health Reform.

    All this week, OFA members like you will be stopping by local congressional offices to show our support for insurance reform. You can have a quick conversation with the local staff, tell your personal story, or even just drop off a customized flyer and say that reform matters to you.

    We’ll provide everything you need: the address, phone number, and open hours for the office, information about how the health care crisis affects your state for you to drop off (with the option of adding your personal story), and a step-by-step guide for your visit.

    That’s about the first quarter of it. The rest is equally tedious.

    What has me confused is that I thought organizing people to speak out about health care was a bad thing. What am I missing here?

  16. canary
    August 9, 2009 at 6:42 pm

    Mortgage Lender’s Collapse Leaves Borrowers Adrift
    Taylor Bean Whitaker stops writing loans after feds raid its offices

    ConsumerAffairs.com By Truman Lewis Aug 7 2009

    The nation’s mortgage lending industry got another big dose of consolidation as Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., the nation’s 12th-largest mortgage lender, closed its lending operations after being barred from making any more loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

    Freddie Mac had also reportedly suspended Taylor, Bean. The reasons for the suspensions are unclear but there have been reports that the agencies were concerned about “certain irregular transactions that raised concerns of fraud,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

    The Ocala, Fla., lender had been one of the largest originators of FHA loans, ranking third in the nation in June, according to industry sources. In an email to employees informing them that all but essential workers would be immediately terminated, Taylor Bean chairman Lee Farkas called it “the saddest day of my life.”
    ….
    Taylor Bean’s troubles became public last week when federal agents raided its Ocala offices and the FHA confirmed it had suspended the company from making federally-insured loans and opened a fraud investigation.

    The news shocked the roughly 1,000 workers in the firm’s Ocala offices, who had enjoyed some of the highest-paying jobs in the small Florida community. Local news reports said workers were terminated immediately as state employment counselors rushed to meet with the traumatized workers and help them apply for unemployment benefits.

    http://www.consumeraffairs.com.....z0NjCp4VNe

    http://www.consumeraffairs.com....._bean.html

  17. canary
    August 9, 2009 at 6:52 pm

    AP:Fate of captured Idaho soldier up in the air
    By Ishtiaq Mahsud
    Associated Press/ Salt Lake Tribune Aug 9 2009

    A militant commander who is holding a U.S. soldier abducted in Afghanistan said Sunday that Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s council is waiting for a response to its demands before deciding the American’s fate.

    It was the first news of Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, made public since a Taliban ideo was released July 18.

    “The American’s fate is in the hand of (leadership), which is waiting until a response from the Americans to its demands,” Sangin told The Associated Press.

    Sangin would not elaborate on the demands or say if any deadline had been given. A spokesman for Sangin had previously said the soldier would be killed unless the U.S. stops airstrikes in two areas of eastern Afghanistan.

    Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, was serving with an Alaska-based infantry regiment when he disappeared June 30, five months after arriving in Afghanistan.

    Last month, Afghans in contact with the Taliban told The Associated Press that the fighters had initially planned to smuggle the soldier across the border into Pakistan but ruled that out because of U.S. missile strikes and Pakistani bombing attacks against militant targets in the area. Instead, they decided to move him north into Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan’s Ghazni province.

    “We do not want to do anything that compromises his safety or efforts to recover him,” she said. “Recovery efforts remain one of the largest ongoing operations and we are doing everything we can to get him back safely.”

    http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13026713?source=rss

  18. Rusty Shackleford
    August 9, 2009 at 9:42 pm

    This is just an observation….

    I live in South Carolina and work in North Carolina. The Wal-Mart I go to has the usual DVD racks and there are several categories to choose from. In the aisle rack, right at the top are six or seven DVD’s of Obama’s “Yes We Can” DVD. I go to this Wal-Mart a lot. It is frequented by the heavily black population there as well. Yet these same six or seven DVD’s never sell.

    I do not know what the implication is but one could say that no one is interested in buying them. They aren’t in the $29.99 racks. They are $13….easily affordable. I would’ve thought they would sell out given the large number of blacks who go to this store. However, without trying to sound bigoted, I am intrigued as to why they just sit.

    Could it be that the black population is just as uninterested in this clown of a president as the rest of us? Is that just wishful thinking? They are sandwiched in between two other very popular DVD’s so I know people have to see them. I did stand and loiter when a black couple was walking around the display and when they got to that particular DVD, there was nothing. Neither of them picked it up to examine it…and there was no hint of interest or disinterest.

    Which I found interesting.

    So maybe 90% of blacks in America who voted did vote their race…but maybe….there’s hope that reason and disappointment have taken hold and they are as disgusted by Blammo as the rest of us.

    Time will tell, I guess.

    • canary
      August 10, 2009 at 3:03 am

      Well, Rusty. I do not think most people, black or white, that voted for him know anything about him.

    • Liberals Demise
      August 11, 2009 at 10:53 am

      Even the blacks know the DVD ain’t worth stealing! They are watching their hoodlum “THUG in CHIEF”go down in flames. Nothing like being a cheerleader for a car wreck!!
      I believe they know that their Obama Presidential Coin set isn’t worth the paper it was printed on and can only be washed accidentally, one time and one time only!! (Not worth the slug it was stuck to)
      Hope and No Change

  19. Al Morone
    August 10, 2009 at 1:21 am

    Coulter on Glenn Beck: ObamaCare will kill off old people:
    http://www.popmodal.com/video/3182/

  20. canary
    August 10, 2009 at 1:27 am

    U.S. no longer at war with ‘terrorism’
    from the The Washington Times by Jon Ward Aug 7 2009

    It’s official. The United States is no longer engaged in a “war on terrorism.” Neither is it fighting “jihadists” nor locked in a “global war.”

    President Obama’s top homeland security and counterterrorism official on Thursday declared as unacceptable the terms crafted by the George W. Bush administration.

    It is now solely a “war with al Qaeda” and its violent extremist allies, said John Brennan, head of the White House homeland security office

    … though Bush administration officials say the policies that are being put to use have not changed dramatically.

    To say the United States is fighting “jihadists” is wrongheaded, Mr. Brennan said, because it is using “a legitimate term, ‘jihad,’ meaning to purify oneself or to wage a holy struggle for a moral goal,” which “risks giving these murderers the religious legitimacy they desperately seek but in no way deserve.”

    “Worse, it risks reinforcing the idea that the United States is somehow at war with Islam itself,” Mr. Brennan said.

    As for the “war on terrorism,” Mr. Brennan said, the administration will not use the phrase “because terrorism is but a tactic – a means to an end, which in al Qaeda’s case is global domination by an Islamic caliphate.”

    He also dismissed “global war” as a term that feeds al Qaeda’s vision of itself as a “a highly organized, global entity capable of replacing sovereign nations with a global caliphate.”

    Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in March that the administration was not using the term “war on terror” but no specific directive had come from the White House itself. Mr. Obama used the term “war on terror” Jan. 23, his fourth day as president, but he has not used it since.

    Juan Zarate, a former deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism to Mr. Bush, was in the audience and dismissed Mr. Brennan’s speech as cosmetic.

    “It’s a straw man. The question is: How do you deal with the policy?” said Mr. Zarate, who disagreed with Mr. Brennan’s suggestion that the Obama administration is not continuing Bush-era policies.

    Critics on the left and the right have pointed out that the Obama administration has continued such Bush-era policies…

    In addition, the White House is still considering the indefinite detention of terrorist suspects.

    “A challenge for John and the administration is to preserve the perception of a new approach while still continuing with counterterrorism strategies that have proven effective,” Mr. Zarate said.

    Mr. Brennan’s speech was aimed at outlining ways in which the Obama administration intends to undermine the “upstream” factors that create an environment in which terrorists are created.

    The president’s adviser talked about increasing aid to foreign governments for building up their militaries and social and democratic institutions, but provided few details about how the White House will do that.

    James K. Glassman, who served as Mr. Bush’s ambassador to the Muslim world as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, said the focus on “upstream” factors was “a good strategy because it’s the same strategy that we had.”

    http://www.washingtontimes.com.....terrorism/

  21. canary
    August 10, 2009 at 2:05 am

    ConsumersAffairs: People To People Leaders Allegedly Drank Beer While Student Was Dying By Lisa Wade McCormick Aug 7, 2009

    Four delegation leaders on a People to People trip — in which a Minnesota teenager died — drank beer in their Tokyo hotel room instead of getting the 16-year-old the medical assistance he requested after he climbed Mt. Fuji.

    Ambassadors Group, Inc. — the company that markets the People to People trips and handles all the travel arrangements –, People to People Student Ambassador Programs, People to People International, a United Kingdom organization called docleaf Limited,..

    But the travel organization that touts its ties to President Dwight D. Eisenhower assured the Hills it had a solid safety record and a 24-hour response team that could handle any medical emergency.

    “Sheryl Hill was told by one of the leaders that on June 26, 2009, Tyler thought he had altitude sickness after climbing Mt. Fuji, and he wanted to go the doctor,” the Hills said in a statement. “The leader gave him water, and told him to go to his room and work through it.”

    At that point, the Hills learned, the four delegation leaders went to a hotel room and started drinking beer.

    “He was held back for the day’s activities; his heart stopped less than 10 hours later. Despite specific training to contact the parents or seek medical attention when a child shows ‘moderate’ signs of dehydration, no phone calls were made to the Hills until Tyler’s heart had stopped for than an hour.”

    • One of the delegation leaders was on a previous People to People Trip in which student died. “Stahr was a student ambassador leader on a trip to New Zealand where another student died,”

    The Ambassadors’ Group CEO Jeff Thomas has publicly apologized

    “I will have found peace when the Travelling Youth Standards of Safety law passes,” Sheryl Hill told us today.

    ConsumerAffairs.com also confirmed that three American students traveling abroad on recent People to People trips went missing or were unaccounted for an unknown period of time.

    http://www.consumeraffairs.com.....z0NktphHHn

  22. canary
    August 10, 2009 at 4:51 am

    The Washington Times Massive layoffs force teachers to re-evaluate careers
    Andrea Billups Aug 9 2009

    …thousands of the nation’s teachers caught in mass layoffs..

    The nation’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association, has estimated that about 34,000 teaching jobs will be lost this year.

    In South Florida, Broward County schools…and announced plans last month to lay off nearly 400 teachers…

    In Los Angeles, where the massive 694,000-student district has struggled with its finances for years, its teacher force was the hardest hit. About 6,000 educators — many working in high poverty schools — got the ax before federal stimulus money and intense outrage resulted in the rehiring of about 4,000.

    … the president of the 1.4-million-member American Federation of Teachers, called the teacher layoffs “terrible” …
    …” she said. “You can’t move forward on reform….That is why the stimulus funds were mostly devoted to stabilizing the current education structures.”

    The mass firings in Los Angeles sparked backlash… who joined union leaders to spearhead protests, school camp-outs and even hunger strikes…

    The president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles union, A.J. Duffy, was arrested in his protests to keep jobs in his district…

    “It’s a very severe problem, but we have made some progress,” he said, noting that some smaller districts have fared better than massive urban districts. He said charter and other school choice options have taken away money from public schools.

    “This crisis has given the forces of privatization the opportunity to paint teachers in the worst light possible and make proposals to privatize public education here, which would be a tragedy,” he said. “Instead of fixing public education, my school district seems willing and hellbent for leather to privatize education.”

    Ms. Van Winkle, who spearheaded protests at local schools, said she was planning to buy a house this summer, but that dream is now off the table…

    About 90 percent of the students at Liechty receive free and reduced price lunches

    “It’s crazy to me that something like this can happen…” she added. “I can’t believe that people who are interested in civil rights haven’t gotten more involved…most are in areas of low socioeconomic status with mostly black and Latino students”

    The economic downturn is really just a year old, and we just don’t know the impact,” said Richard Ingersoll, a professor…who studies the education work force.
    …” but added that teacher shortages remain in math and science.

    Some cries of shortages are “overhyped as a strategy of unions to raise teacher salaries because there aren’t enough teachers,” Mr. Petrilli says…”..We are getting close to this cliff with the baby boomers and we are not replenishing the troops…”

    Some of the current spate of layoffs, ..penalize good, young teachers … like Teach for America, rather than a traditional four-year college teacher training program..

    … Midcareer teachers, some switching careers as they look to give back after years of working in corporate jobs, also get hit when layoffs occur.
    “I think the long-term outlook is good,” he said. “There will always be a shortage of math, science, and special education students.”

    Ms. Weingarten …decried the human toll that has hurt the nation’s educators the most. …”This is where the rubber hits the road. …It’s not simply about their aspirations to be a teacher and wanting to make a difference in the world..

    She said for the most part these teachers have said they want to teach — not to get rich but to make a difference.

    “And now, they have gotten kicked on the chin for it,” she said.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com.....top10_read

    Entire article very long w/protest photos. The irony. Couldn’t they hear the disdain Obama had for teachers. His own poor teaching self-projection onto them.

    Video of LA teachers Union President and 46 other teachers play hookie, sit in iddle of street. 200 students also left school to protest.
    http://www.ktla.com/videobeta/.....title=KTLA: Teacher Union President, AJ Duffy, Arrested, Lynette Romero Reports

    • canary
      August 10, 2009 at 8:22 pm

      Obama promised
      “As president, I will recruit hundreds of thousands of new teachers and principals.”—5/5/07, Baton Rouge, La.

    • pdsand
      August 10, 2009 at 8:40 pm

      In much the same vein that a city will always cut funding to police and firefighters and garbage men first, rather than reduce the patronage jobs and bureaucracy…school districts always lay off special ed teachers at poor inner city schools first, rather than reduce some of the bureaucracy. I read in a book somewhere that the Los Angeles County Board of Education has a giant office building with thousands of bureaucrat employees who never set foot in a classroom. Any chance that place has had a single layoff?

  23. canary
    August 10, 2009 at 5:03 am

    The Washington Times: Myanmar’s N. Korean ties escape scrutiny
    Simon Roughneen Aug 9 2009

    BANGKOK | Governments and international bodies have been slow to act over the possibility that two of the world’s most repressive regimes – North Korea and Myanmar – are collaborating on nuclear technology.

    A report earlier this month by an Australian newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald, said that Myanmar, also known as Burma, is building a secret nuclear reactor and plutonium facility in caves tunneled into a mountain at Naung Laing in the northern part of the country.

    The facilities are close to a civilian reactor under construction by Russia that is inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the newspaper said.

    While the reports have not yet been verified, a Burmese internal military report leaked to Irrawaddy newsmagazine, a Burmese exile publication, said North Korea has been helping the Myanmar junta build a network of tunnels

    “It’s frightening to contemplate nuclear cooperation between two military dictatorships, especially when the intentions and capabilities of the recipient … in this case are so murky,” said Sharon Squassoni, senior associate in the nonproliferation program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

    Ms. Squassoni said that if Myanmar “truly has peaceful nuclear intentions, it should invite observers in for a full tour, join the Proliferation Security Initiative and sign an Additional Protocol with the IAEA, which would enhance inspections.”

    Given that China wields a veto on the council – and that China is a major investor in Myanmar – the chances for U.N. action appear slim.

    At a recent Asian security meeting in Thailand, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, “We worry about the transfer of nuclear technology from North Korea to Myanmar.”

    However, U.S. authorities have not confirmed or denied the reports

    Since 2000, Russia has been collaborating with Myanmar on a low-grade, civilian-use reactor, under IAEA auspices.

    Andrew Selth, an Australian specialist and author of “Burma and Nuclear Proliferation: Policies and Perceptions,” wrote recently on the Lowy Institute for International Policy blog that “there are many unanswered questions about Burma’s nuclear aspirations and its ties with North Korea.”

    “The most pressing question for many analysts, however, is why no government or international organization has made any official statement on this issue,” he wrote.

    Tim Huxley, executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies-Asia, speculated that the U.S. was loath to publicize the dispute until the release of two American reporters jailed in North Korea. The two were freed after former President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang last week.

    Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told The Washington Times that “the case against Myanmar must be proven, and the IAEA can assess this.”

    Aung Din, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, said: “The world should not wait until they see the solid proof of the relations between North Korea and the Burmese regime and their nuclear conspiracy.”

    Nicholas Kralev in Washington contributed to this report.
    http://www.washingtontimes.com.....top10_read

  24. Confucius
    August 10, 2009 at 11:27 am

    From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

    Dominion Virginia Power seeks approval for conservation program

    JOHN REID BLACKWELL
    July 29, 2009

    Dominion Virginia Power is seeking approval to roll out an energy conservation plan that the utility says would save customers about $1.2 billion over 15 years.

    The company filed requests with the State Corporation Commission yesterday to implement the plan, which would include offering customers incentives to participate in 11 conservation programs such as installing energy efficient lighting and upgrading to more efficient heating systems. …

    Virginia lawmakers have set a goal of reducing the state’s electricity use in 2022 by 10 percent form 2006 levels.

    The company also is seeking approval for a 12th initiative, which would be the key part of the conservation plan and would generate about 75 percent of the estimated savings. That effort calls for installation, by 2013, of about 2.4 million “smart meters” at each of the homes and businesses the utility serves.

    The installation cost is about $600 million, but Koonce said the technology will more than pay for itself by reducing fuel consumption.

    In June, Dominion Virginia Power started a pilot project using smart meters in Charlottesville and Albemarle County that will involve 46,500 devices.

    The cost of the programs will add 95 cents to the monthly bill of the typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. …

    The utility also said the Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that the conservation programs would reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by more than 15 million tons by 2024, the equivalent of removing about 165,000 cars from the road.

    http://www2.timesdispatch.com/.....04/282688/

    Apparently in Virginia, “conservation,” “saving” and “paying for itself” is Southern-speak for “everyone paying more.”

    And by everyone, I mean everyone. This article doesn’t say, but $200 million of the so-called 12th initiative is going to be paid with federal stimulus money. (http://www2.timesdispatch.com/.....001/284404)

    So, thanks everyone! I’ve always wanted my very own government-issue, taxpayer-subsidized leash.

    P.S. Virginia’s governor, Timothy Kaine (D), is helping orchestrate this madness. In case anyone doesn’t know, Princess Kaine was an Obama-VP-pageant queen runner-up. The Princess also heads up the DNC which created the recent ad calling healthcare protestors “a mob.”

    • pdsand
      August 10, 2009 at 8:44 pm

      I’m sure that “smart meter” will be smart enough to shut your power off if you use too much.

  25. Rusty Shackleford
    August 10, 2009 at 9:45 pm

    From the UK Telegraph:

    Muhammad Ali to visit ancestral home in Ireland

    The former world heavyweight champion has accepted an invitation to see the birthplace of his great-grandfather in Ennis, Co Clare, on September 1.

    He is due to visit Dublin for a charity event the previous day.

    Rest of article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....eland.html

    Oh, those nasty, racist Irish.

    Yet, not a word about this by our ever-so-truthful home-based media.

    In fact, I had no idea that Ali had Irish roots. I’ll bet Howard Cosell would’ve had a field-day with that. On second thought, probably not; He had too much class.

    But it’s very interesting. No words from Sharpton….or from Jackson….etc.

    I think it’s a very cool story of a piece of our nation’s history.

    • Liberals Demise
      August 11, 2009 at 11:07 am

      I’ve got the “Beer Eye” on this article.
      Irish ancestry? Me doubts that me bucko!
      Punch drunk Ali (a mooselimb) is alllllll of a sudden Celtic? I gots a round of ale thats says this is a crock of moor water!!
      Do the “Orangemen” know this?
      Whars me stick?

    • Rusty Shackleford
      August 11, 2009 at 10:42 pm

      Indeed, Oi tink it’s more uv da vapors….dat’s whut oi tink.

      Mebbe we’d better go’n ask fadder O’Malley aboutit.

  26. Rusty Shackleford
    August 10, 2009 at 10:15 pm

    Hillary Clinton loses her cool

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200....._secretary

    “Hillary Clinton: I’m secretary of state, not Bill”

    By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 17 mins ago

    KINSHASA, Congo – Hillary Clinton has a message for the world: It’s not all about Bill.

    The secretary of state bristled Monday when — as she heard it — a Congolese university student asked what her husband thought about an international financial matter.

    She hadn’t traveled to Africa to talk about her husband the ex-president. But even there, she couldn’t escape his outsized shadow.

    She abruptly reclaimed the stage for herself.

    “My husband is not secretary of state, I am,” she snapped. “I am not going to be channeling my husband.”

    There is a video worth watching to the left of the article

    • canary
      August 10, 2009 at 10:55 pm

      Rusty, woah. she is pretty mad, but it’s obvious the slight was intentional, and women are treated like meat. Better than Obama’s bending over to tyrants. Rice would have handled it with class.

    • Rusty Shackleford
      August 11, 2009 at 10:46 pm

      Moreover, I think she’s just pissed in general. Pissed that she’s been sent on a 107-nations-of-the-world tour where she’s effectively out of the limelight and cannot, in any way, influence government policy…then to find out her horn-dog hubby is casting a shadow over her once again…not that she’s any great prize herself.

      I’ve often heard about it but never really seen such a public marriage based entirely on hate for one another.

      The latest:

      US official gropes to explain Clinton’s outburst

      WASHINGTON – The State Department struggled Tuesday to explain Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s face-off with a Congolese student and suggested that the questioner’s nervousness sparked the outburst with the mention of her husband’s name.

      Clinton snapped at the university student in Kinshasa on Monday when he asked what her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and Congo native and former NBA star Dikembe Mutombo thought about an international financial matter. Mutombo was appearing with her at the university.

      Rest of article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200....._secretary

    • neocon mom
      August 13, 2009 at 11:28 pm

      Now THAT’S the Hillary we all know.
      What an unflappable lady, brimming with confidence and class.
      Just the sort you want to have as your Diplomat-in-Chief, grace under fire.

  27. canary
    August 11, 2009 at 9:09 am

    Canada makes ‘a good boogeyman’ in health care debate, Obama says
    THE CANADIAN PRESS 10 August 2009

    GUADALAJARA, Mexico _ U.S. President Barack Obama downplayed Canadian frustration over his country’s so-called Buy American provisions Monday,

    Obama also says he doesn’t find the Canadian health-care system to be the “bogeyman” that opponents of reform in the U.S. make it out to be.

    Obama said the Buy American provision – which limits foreign companies’ access to construction projects under the US$787 billion stimulus bill – was perfectly legal.
    He said he didn’t like the measure but, given the need….

    On a separate issue, Obama cracked a joke in Canada’s direction.
    He warned that Canada will continue to serve as a whipping boy in the highly charged U.S. debate over the future of health care, which has seen town hall meetings erupt into scuffles this summer.

    “I suspect that you Canadians will continue to get dragged in by those who oppose reform – even though I’ve said nothing about Canadian health-care reform,” Obama said.

    “I don’t find Canadians particularly scary, but I guess some of the opponents of reform think they make a good boogeyman.”

    But he quickly added that Canada’s model – the single-payer public system – bears little relationship to the system he wants to create.

    But his legion of conservative critics argue that Obama’s plan will ultimately kill the private insurance industry, increase government spending, and result in higher taxes. Just like Canada.

    Harper …asked about Canada’s decision last month to impose visas on Mexican travellers – a move that has proven highly controversial in Mexico.

    A screaming front-page headline in Monday’s Guadalajara Publico newspaper focused on the government’s refusal to back down on the policy: “Canada, Inflexible.”

    The Mexican president said he understood that the visas were not intended as a slight at his country, but were being imposed because Canada’s refugee system was being flooded by bogus claimants.

    http://www.metronews.ca/edmont.....obama-says

  28. canary
    August 11, 2009 at 9:27 am

    Clunker plan crushes Oklahoma’s used parts supplies
    Daily Oklahoman OKNEWS
    Buzz up!BY JOHN A. WILLIAMS Aug 19, 2009

    The government’s Cash for Clunkers program has left some auto salvage yard owners angry and confused.

    They said it could cut back the supply of used cars and used car parts.

    “I thought I was going to buy every car from every dealer around here, and somebody’s not giving me the information that I need,” said Marty Cope, owner of Stillwater’s 108 Auto and Truck Salvage.

    Cope said he buys about 300 cars a month, supplying him with motors, transmissions and body parts to sell. He said all he understands about the Cash for Clunkers program is that the old cars being traded have to be destroyed, making good used parts even harder to find.

    “I’ve got to crush those cars,” he said. Cope has more than 6,000 cars in the yard that need to be crushed.

    According to cars.gov, the government’s official Web site on the CARS Act, the program requires trade-in vehicles be crushed or shredded so they will not be resold for use in the U.S. or elsewhere. Those responsible for crushing or shredding vehicles can sell some parts, but those parts cannot include the engine or drive train.

    Tim Huskey, owner of Cars and Parts by Tim Inc. in Guthrie, is outraged over the federal program.

    “This doesn’t make smart recycling sense, adding more cars to be crushed,” he said. “This is taking away from a man who needs to buy an engine for an older car that he can now get for around $700 and installed for another $500.”

    http://newsok.com/clunker-plan.....le/3391664

    • neocon mom
      August 13, 2009 at 11:25 pm

      Unintended consequences, always a hefty by-product of liberal policy that often outweighs whatever “good” the policies are intended to produce.

  29. Rusty Shackleford
    August 11, 2009 at 12:05 pm

    From the UK Telegraph

    Adolf Hitler ‘did shake hands with Jesse Owens’

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/spo.....Owens.html

    At the time, it was reported that Hitler had stormed out of the stadium furious that Owens, who had just run his way to the first of four gold medals in the 100 metres, had beaten his Aryan sportsmen.

    However, Siegfried Mischner, 83, said that Owens carried around a photograph in his wallet of Hitler shaking his hand before he left the stadium.

    Owens, who felt the newspapers of the day reported “unfairly” on Hitler’s attitude towards him, tried to get Mischner and his journalist colleagues to change the accepted version of history in the 1960s, the Daily Mail reports.

    Mischner, who was a reporter at the time, claimed Owens showed him the photograph and told him: “That was one of my most beautiful moments.”

    —Um, I’m finding this bit of revisionism hard to swallow.

    So, everybody’s cool with Uncle Adolph now? He wasn’t such a bad sort after all? Let’s have a friggin party.

    • pdsand
      August 11, 2009 at 12:21 pm

      Well, it does seem to fit. It seems the MSM was trying to invent a philosophical connection between American racism and Hitler’s Nazis even back when back when he was around. It’s odd though, because at that time I thought Hitler was a darling of the liberal elite in this country.

    • proreason
      August 11, 2009 at 12:49 pm

      Except for roasting Jews, killing political enemies, military conquest, nationalism and competance…….Nazi Germany is eerily similar to The Moron’s administration.

      It was the National SOCIALIST party, after all:
      - They had Universal Health Care.
      - The government controlled industry.
      - The media was controlled by the government.
      - Pseudo-science was the basis for many of the programs.
      - The writings of kook zealots formed the basis of the ideology
      - Class warfare and racial hatred were exploited to control the population.
      - Nazis created their own symbolism and mythology to replace Germany traditions.
      - Traditional religion was displaced with a cult of personality
      - Democracy and the constitution were cast aside.
      - The party apparatus replaced existing government institutions
      - Unions and other brown shirt organizations were used as enforcers
      - Past national leaders were demonized or ignored
      - All of Germany’s problems were blamed on events before the Nazis siezed power
      - Free speech was not allowed
      - One race was held above all others
      - Alliances were made with other dictatorships
      - The prior government was repudiated as a source of evil
      - Long list of mental defectives and degenerates holding high offices
      - The dear leaders were both abused children with hidden pasts and megalomania formed by nutty zealots

      The Moron’s cult isn’t as extreme or deadly as the Nazi’s, but he has only been at it for 6 months, and we have to adjust for the fact that The Moron has never even run a lemonade stand in his life.

      Given that, the approaches are amazingly similar.

      But I’m not predicting that our own little nazis will attempt to conquer the world, or that they will be building gas chambers. They learned that lesson well from the original Nazis. Obamy seems to prefer to conquer the world through lies and conman tactics, and he plans to weed out the undesirables with his Universal Death Care plan, and by making white’s a powerless minority..

    • Rusty Shackleford
      August 11, 2009 at 10:29 pm

      Well, I certainly hope our nation doesn’t come to that. But it is complicated. Each person processes this whole administration and what’s happening a little differently. But, as one example…in New Orleans in 2005, the cry was “racism”. Oh how that fell on my empty ears.

      Now, it’s if you disagree with Obama, you’re a racist.

      And certain democrats have insinuated that by using the word “socialist” it’s a code word for the “n” word.

      Honestly. I need a vacation from all this. I’ve always said, if you look for trouble, you’re bound to find it and with that, if you look for something that isn’t there, you will STILL find it.

      I am reminded of the joke about the town gossip:

      Mildred, the church gossip and self-appointed monitor of the church’s morals, continually stuck her nose into other people’s business. Several members did not approve of her extra-curricular activities, but they feared her enough to maintain their silence.

      She made a mistake this time, however, when she accused George, a new member, of being an alcoholic after she saw his old pickup parked in front of the town’s only bar one afternoon. She emphatically told George and several others that everyone seeing it there would know what he was doing. George, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment and just turned and walked away. He didn’t explain, defend or deny. He said nothing.

      Later that evening, George quietly parked his pickup in front of Mildred’s house … walked home … and left it there all night.

      Don’t ya just love ole George?

      The odd thing is, I don’t go looking for trouble from liberals, they are quite capable of doing it to themselves.

    • neocon mom
      August 13, 2009 at 11:22 pm

      “So, everybody’s cool with Uncle Adolph now? He wasn’t such a bad sort after all? Let’s have a friggin party.”

      I think this has to do with the rise of some of the more fascist-leaning parties in England and throughout Europe in the last elections. There are echoes of Hitler in what they are advocating, they are unabashedly statist.

  30. pdsand
    August 11, 2009 at 12:25 pm

    Steve, is there any way to count how many times Ms. Pelosi has called us astroturf? Plus, is it just me, or is being a proud piece of republican astroturf destined to become the 2009 version of what being a proud member of the vast right-wing conspiracy was in the 90s?

    I think I need to get a t-shirt made.

    • Steve
      August 11, 2009 at 11:37 pm

      “Steve, is there any way to count how many times Ms. Pelosi has called us astroturf?”

      I don’t know.

      But the more she does the more it helps.

      T-shirts are a great idea!

    • Liberals Demise
      August 12, 2009 at 1:24 pm

      Capitalism……….I love this place!!

  31. BillK
    August 12, 2009 at 1:25 am

    An update from the Religion of Peace, via Fox News:

    Muslim Teen Who Converted to Christianity Says Family Threatened to Kill Her

    An Ohio teenager says she ran away from home to Florida because her family threatened to kill her for converting from Islam to Christianity, local media reported.

    Rifqa Bary, 17, testified Monday at a custody hearing in Orlando that she’d recently changed religions and is worried her relatives will do something drastic, according to WFTV in Orlando and Central Florida News 13.

    “They have to kill me because I’m a Christian. It’s an honor (issue),” the girl told WFTV.

    Such threats are common, even in the United States, her attorney, Rosa Gonzalez, told News 13.

    “She says her life is in danger and she could be killed in an honor killing,” Gonzalez said after the hearing — which was held because the teenager’s parents are trying to regain custody of her.

    Rifqa, a non-citizen whose parents are from Sri Lanka, has for several weeks been staying with an Orlando couple who are pastors of a new Christian church there. She met them on a Facebook prayer group.

    Her father denied his daughter’s allegations to NBC 4 in Orlando, saying he never threatened to kill his daughter because she rejected Islam. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,538960,00.html

    Nice.

    • Liberals Demise
      August 12, 2009 at 1:32 pm

      .45 rebuttal would be my honor (in Defense of her “honor” issue).
      That’s not violent is it? I mean compared to dads’ peaceful religion?

  32. BillK
    August 12, 2009 at 1:28 am

    Continuing on a theme, from Fox News:

    Taliban Chief Writes ‘Handbook’ to Win Hearts and Minds of Afghans

    By Jessica Weinstein

    WARDAK PROVINCE, Afghanistan — As elections draw near in Afghanistan, it appears the Taliban are launching a hearts-and-minds campaign of their own.

    In recent weeks, Mullah Mohammad Omar, commander of Taliban forces, has released a code-of-ethics handbook that, among other directives, warns his followers not to conscript children or target innocent people. It also says bombs should be used to kill only government officials and coalition soldiers.

    In the 62-bullet-point handbook, homicide bombers get specific instructions. They are to “be fully-educated in their mission”; they are to target “high ranking people”; and they are to “try your best to avoid killing local people.”

    Taliban followers are further prohibited from smoking cigarettes, using captured vehicles for their personal use, cutting noses, lips or ears off detainees, and drafting “youngsters that have no beard.” (As soon as a boy can grow a beard, he is considered an adult in Afghan culture.)

    The handbook — written in Pashto and obtained through U.S. military sources — is entitled “Afghanistan Islamic Emirate Rules and Regulations,” and it is addressed to the “Mujahideen Pashto,” or Taliban commanders. Written on May 9 in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, it characterizes the Taliban’s fight as a “jihad” that can be achieved only if “it is done according to the framework of the established rules and regulations.”

    Those regulations cover a broad and rambling range of issues — from rules on behavior to settling personnel issues to sanctioned methods of kidnapping and killing. The handbook prohibits taking money in order to forgive someone; it says that every mujahid “should be responsible for all the bad things they have done in the past”; and it directs Taliban commanders not to force donations from people. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,538949,00.html

    Well, as long as there are rules…

  33. BillK
    August 12, 2009 at 1:32 am

    Just try to read the headline without laughing.

    From Fox News:

    Obama to Critics: Health Reform Not About Government Takeover

    Doctors and patients will be in charge of health care, not government or insurance companies, President Obama told a mostly friendly town hall meeting on Tuesday, his first since lawmakers ventured out across the country to get feedback on a trillion-dollar, 10-year health care proposal.

    Obama rallied support in Portsmouth, N.H as lawmakers confronted hostile audiences at forums across the country. In fact, the president’s reception was among the friendliest elected officials have received since the debate began.

    “This is not about putting the government in charge of your health insurance,” Obama told the crowd at an area high school. “I don’t believe anyone should be in charge of your health insurance decisions except you and your doctor.

    “I don’t think government bureaucrats should be meddling but I don’t think insurance company bureaucrats should be meddling,” he added, drawing thunderous applause.

    “Your health insurance will be there for you when it counts, not just when you’re paying premiums,” Obama said. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....ama-hosts/

    Who will you believe? The President or the text of the bill?

    If that isn’t the biggest load of cr*p, this sentence is:

    None of the participants, or their questions, were screened, the White House said.

    Riiiight.

  34. BillK
    August 12, 2009 at 1:37 am

    From Fox News:

    Evidence Supporting Claims in ‘Rightwing Extremism’ Report Lacks Depth, Group Says

    By Shannon Bream

    Mb<While the Homeland Security Department's report on "right-wing extremist groups" sparked outrage and questions, it was not clear what was behind some of the details in the threat assessment, especially the infamous footnote focusing on "groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration."

    Shortly after the report’s release in April, the group Americans for Limited Government filed a Freedom of Information Act request with Homeland Security asking to see the supporting evidence for the assessment.

    The report found no specific information that domestic right-wing terrorists were planning acts of violence but warned that they may be gaining new recruits by playing on fears about the recession and the election of the first black president.

    The report also warned that disgruntled military personnel could be targeted to join with extremist groups looking to exploit their training and combat skills.

    “We expected to receive back some hard-core analysis, some data analysis, looking at crime statistics and current trends that would back up conclusions in the report,” said Nathan Mehrens, a news contributor to Americans for Limited Government and a former Labor Department official.

    “Instead what we got was a list of URLs to various Web sites, all kinds of news stories across the board,” Mehrens told FOX News.

    The group dismisses the Web links to numerous media reports as nothing more than an afternoon of surfing the Web.

    “What a good intelligent reporter would do is they would take that open-source intelligence information and they’d marry it to other things,” said James Carafano, a national security expert at the Heritage Foundation. “They might look at a wide variety of statistical data from alcohol tobacco and firearms, FBI. So you look at crime data, arrest data, look at classified material and investigations.

    But based on the Homeland Security response to the information request, so far, it doesn’t look like that deeper analysis ever happened. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....group-says

    But if it’s on the net, it must be true… right?

    • canary
      August 13, 2009 at 1:19 am

      Bilk, Thanks for posting this article. It just seems imortant things aren’t making main media. The SPLC has a joke report too. They went by protestors (except of course liberal protestors) tax protestors (tea partys). They also said they used nameless bloggers on websights as their scources.

  35. canary
    August 12, 2009 at 4:51 am

    The FAA has announced that it is reducing the emphasis on blame in the reporting of
    operational errors air traffic controllers.

    “We’re moving away from a culture of blame and punishment,” said FAA administrator Randy Babbitt, ..
    The names of controllers will no longer be included in operational error reports – recording when aircraft get too close —
    sent to FAA headquarters, but controller identities related to incidents will still be known within their own facilities, the FAA said…,
    but that removing names frrm the official report could help investigators emphasize what happened rather that who was at fault. Controllers will no longer be automatically removed following an operational error and reports may be filed by the close of the next business day rather than within four hours.

    The FAA said it is transitioning to a non-punitive reporting system and that a new air traffic safety action program allows employees to report safety problems without fear of punishment.

    2. Change is in the Air for Federal Protective Service
    ——————————————————
    A GAO report concluding that the Federal Protective Service lacks a comprehensive personnel management strategy and does not communicate well with the federal agencies it’s charged with protecting provides “evidence of the urgent need to reform critical areas of this poorly performing agency,” the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said.
    Collins and committee chair Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., recently announced a “security crisis” after learning that GAO investigators were able to sneak bomb-making materials into federal buildings guarded by FPS, including a DHS facility.
    According to GAO-09-749, FPS lacks a human capital plan to guide current and future workforce planning efforts, and it does not collect centralized and standardized data on employee capabilities.
    Lieberman balked at a request from the FPS director for more personnel given GAO’s conclusion that FPS lacks an effective hiring, training, and staff development process.

    “We will address these issues, and more, as we work on legislation to modernize the FPS,” he said. The committee has yet to receive an internal FPS review outlining immediate and long-term steps to step it up.

    Publisher, Don Mace
    Website: http://www.fedweek.com

  36. canary
    August 12, 2009 at 5:23 am

    Marines assault Taliban town in Afghanistan
    By Associated Press Writer Alfred De Montesquiou Aug 12 2009

    DAHANEH, Afghanistan – Helicopter-borne U.S. Marines backed by Harrier jets stormed into a strategic Taliban-held town in southern Afghanistan before dawn Wednesday, …

    Marines were met with small arms, mortar and rocket propelled grenade fire as they flew in helicopters over Taliban lines and dropped into the town. Fighting was still under way hours later,

    with U.S. Marine Harrier jets streaking overhead and dropping flares in a show of force.

    Other Marines met heavy resistance as they fought to seize control of the mountains surrounding Dahaneh in the southern province of Helmand. Another convoy of Marines rolled into the town despite roadside bomb attacks and gunfire.

    It was the first time NATO troops had entered Dahaneh, which has been under Taliban control for years. Casualty figures were unavailable due to security restrictions.

    Marines said they had captured several suspects in Wednesday’s push and seized about 66 pounds (30 kilograms) of opium, which the militants use to finance their insurgency.

    The new offensive, named “Eastern Resolve 2,” is designed to break the monthslong stalemate in this southern valley where the Taliban are solidly entrenched. By occupying Dahaneh, the Marines hope to isolate insurgents in woods and mountains, away from civilian centers.

    The goal is to cut off the Taliban from a major rear base, and reclaim the area’s main market district. It is hoped this would have a ripple effect through neighboring villages, making civilians more willing to cooperate with NATO forces. The Taliban levy taxes in Dahaneh and maintain checkpoints in the area, which serves as a main trading route through northern parts of Helmand, which produces 60 percent of the world’s opium.

    A combined force of some 500 U.S. and Afghan troops took part in the attack, which included helicopters, snipers,

    and women Marines brought in to deal with Afghan women during the compound-by-compound search conducted by Afghan forces that accompanied the Americans.

    Martin said the Marines had devised tactics to minimize civilian casualties in the densely populated area. He said troops would strictly limit the type of weapons they used and would stick to a “proportional response” when under fire.

    Casualties have mounted as U.S. and NATO troops ramp up military operations following President Barack Obama’s decision to send thousands more American forces to Afghanistan to cope with the rising Taliban insurgency.

    Three U.S. Marines and a Polish soldier died in the latest attacks, setting August on course to surpass the 75 U.S. and NATO deaths from all causes in July.

    Though roadside bombs target U.S., NATO and Afghan troops, the blasts have killed a record number of civilians this year as well.

    At least 14 NATO troops, including at least seven Americans, have died in bomb blasts this month.

    Associated Press Writer Jason Straziuso contributed to this report from Kabul.

    This is Obama’s new military stragedy. Breaking from the normal burning of the poppy fields, now our U.S. soldiers have to further risk their lives doing the DEA’s job. Our military now moonlight as policemen, women marines to try and convert the terrorist women who are killing our troops. 66 lbs. of opium. And of course the more shoulder to shoulder combat, and still the marines wait for bullet proof vests Obama sent back in January as too heavy or too light. And the article says they are going to build a water shed. So, military our troops are mulit-tasking, gathering drugs for Obama instead of destroying them, trying to rehabilitate terrorist women, rebuilding schools the taliban use to ambush. While Obama sit’s on his butt, only moving his mouth. When Obama said ten more years, he meant it. Shame shame on him. Shame shame for Obama’s tyranny over our troops and being a jackas commander in chief, who’s too busy being fasinated over the buzz from one beer.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....0bw–

    • Liberals Demise
      August 12, 2009 at 7:42 am

      One Marine answered a reporter when asked about not having a shower for 5 weeks he said, “Living the dream, sir!”
      That ………. is a MARINE!!

    • canary
      August 12, 2009 at 1:20 pm

      a whole 66lbs. size of a bag of oats, when they could destroy tons without jeopardizing one troop.

  37. canary
    August 12, 2009 at 1:58 pm

    Marines assault Taliban town in Afghanistan update
    By Associated Press Writer Alfred De Montesquiou Aug 12 2009
    DAHANEH, Afghanistan –

    The Taliban put up such fierce resistance that Marines said they suspected the militants knew the assault was coming.

    Marines cried out “Incoming!” as the whistles of Taliban rockets approached. A heavy rocket targeted a Marine outpost, but flew over the small base, while a mortar round landed just 20 yards (meters) from a Humvee on the town’s outskirts.

    “Just a few meters further and I’d be dead,” said Corp. Joshua Jackson, 23, from Copley, Ohio, after one round landed nearby.

    Fighting was made harder for the Marines by the fact insurgents were shooting from house rooftops and courtyards, potentially putting civilians in danger.

    Martin said the Marines would strictly limit the type of weapons they used and would stick to a “proportional response” when under fire to limit civilian casualties.

    Martin confirmed suspicions among the Marines that the fierce resistance indicated that the Taliban had been tipped off about the operation beforehand. “I’m pretty sure they knew of it in advance,” he said.

    Taliban lines begin barely a mile (a kilometer) from the Marines’ forward operating base, set amid minefields with hundreds of homemade explosives.

    A second group drove in from the Marines’ main base in Naw Zad. Their goal was to secure what Marines have been calling “The Devil’s Pass,” a narrow passage between two steep hills that controls the entrance to the Naw Zad district.

    The offensive follows “Eastern Resolve 1,” which was the Marines’ initial push out of Naw Zad in early spring. This first move was of limited effect, because U.S. troops were too thinly spread at the time to control areas they managed to claim from insurgents.

    Last month, U.S. and NATO deaths from roadside and suicide bomb blasts in Afghanistan soared six-fold compared with the same month last year, as militants detonated the highest number of bombs of the eight-year war, according to figures released Tuesday.

    Associated Press writer Anne Gearan contributed to this report from Washington.
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....stan/print

    Once again, someone has tipped off the Taliban. This stronghold has been controlled by Taliban for 9 years! Obama’s ties the soldiers hands to use polite offensive weapons. Civilians have had 9 years to reform, yet alone several monthes since the spring, when Obama’s first attempt failed, now built up with minefields of 100’s of explosives. Better to air bomb, then lose our finest who are making the world safer.

  38. canary
    August 13, 2009 at 1:08 am

    Politicol: Grassley on death panels: ‘You have every right to fear’
    August 12, 2009

    Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is warning that Americans should be worried about an “end of life” provision in the House health care bill.

    “In the House bill, there is counseling for end of life,” Grassley said Wednesday during a town hall in Winterset, Iowa. “You have every right to fear. You shouldn’t have counseling at the end of life, you should have done that 20 years before. Should not have a government run plan to decide when to pull the plug on grandma.”

    A rumor that the legislation will determine when older Americans end their lives is rampant at town hall meetings, propelled in part by former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin who warned the Democratic plan would create bureaucratic “death panels.”

    The House health care plan would require Medicare to fund voluntary end-of-life counseling sessions for older Americans.

    Grassley fueled — rather than corrected– the rumor at the packed town hall Wednesday morning

    “There are some people who think it is a terrible problem that grandma is laying in a bed with tubes in her, and that the government should intervene,” he said.

    By Lisa Lerer 04:10 PM
    http://www.politico.com/blogs/....._fear.html

    For some reason AP who did an article on Grassley today didn’t mention this that was on conservative news.

  39. BillK
    August 13, 2009 at 5:39 am

    God help the people of Denver, again.

    From KUSA Television:

    Democrat leaders to descend on Denver (again)

    By Adam Schrager

    DENVER – For the second time in a year, Denver will host some of the country’s leading Democrats and discuss how the party’s been successful winning elections in the so-called “New West.”

    Unlike the Democratic National Convention last year, the Project New West Summit to take place Thursday and Friday at the Colorado History Museum is not open to the public.

    Leading Democratic politicians like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), Gov. Bill Ritter (D-Colorado) as well as people like oil magnate turned natural gas and wind booster, T. Boone Pickens, and actor/conservationist Robert Redford will present to hundreds of state lawmakers, county officials, and grass-roots activists from around the region.

    The goal is to offer a “strategic roadmap” to understanding the progressive victories of the last few years throughout the West.

    “This is historic because this is not about us looking back on the West 20 years ago,” said Jill Hanauer, who runs Project New West, the private research group based in Denver that is sponsoring the event. “This is about really understanding why this realignment happening in the West in real time and learning from it and building on that. Never in the country has a region come together to have that conversation.”

    Colorado Republican leaders criticized the event as a “Democratic funfest” and said the party’s representatives at this event can no longer label themselves as “moderate” as their actions in Congress and in State Capitols around the region prove otherwise.

    “The Democrats are self-congratulating themselves,” said Colorado GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams. “I think they’ve entered into a period of that it’s inevitable they’re going to win forever and that’s a very dangerous attitude for people to have and political parties to have.” …

    http://www.9news.com/news/arti.....;catid=339

    Remember, those pesky members of the public are not allowed into a political event at which their elected leaders will speak.

    Once upon a time, this would have been too big a target for reporters not to sneak into with hidden recording devices.

    Today, not unless it was a Republican event, of course.

    • canary
      August 13, 2009 at 8:08 am

      Bilk, Gibbs said Obama has Colorado on a weekend stop for his vacation. Obama’s a groupie. Just handed out 16 bogus awards out yesterday to high profile individual’s and stars. Saw a clip and after saying for being the closest to American values, he stoped and apologized if that offended anyone, snickers heard. He wouldn’t let any of them make an acceptance speech as he rambled on. One of the the longest living chief, actor Sidney Poite’(sp?) The late Harvey Milk, (Obama just loves that pioneer) An anti-Jew (Robinson?) was one, and has the Jewish commuity angry. It all comes out with the wash. Said lots of hugs and cheek kissing. Obama really liked the feathered head dress the Chief wore.

    • neocon mom
      August 13, 2009 at 11:07 pm

      I think it’s a bit overreaching to say there’s a realignment in the west.
      I sense a backlash of sorts coming from the west, from Californians on their tax referendum to Nevadans hurting because of Obama’s demonization of Las Vegas and corporate getaways. As far as Colorado, he won there because of Indepedents who, I suspect, are the first most likely group to scrape the Obama stickers off of their bumpers.

  40. BillK
    August 13, 2009 at 6:07 am

    Normally I wouldn’t give Star magazine the time of day, trashy tabloid that it is, but since the left wing blogs are already abuzz with the “Ha-ha!” comments:

    World Exclusive: Sarah Palin’s Shattered Marriage

    Sarah Palin’s husband Todd smiled happily and stood lovingly by his wife’s side last year during her vice presidential campaign. But behind the scenes, their marriage was in turmoil — and now they’re on the brink of a shocking divorce!</b.

    In the Aug. 24 issue of Star, on sale today, we have world exclusive details about Alaska's former first couple and their disintegrating union: They're sleeping apart, arguing non-stop and losing control of their party-loving daughters!

    “Sarah and Todd are fighting all the time,” Mercede Johnston — sister of Levi Johnston, ex-boyfriend of Sarah’s eldest daughter, Bristol — tells Star in an exclusive interview. “When they do, Todd often ends up sleeping on the couch at their home in Wasilla. Bristol used to tell Levi that her parents would argue and bicker over the littlest things, like who was supposed to take out the trash or wash the dishes.”

    Levi, the father of Bristol’s 7-month-old son, Tripp, recently told RadarOnline.com that Sarah and Todd have had marital trouble “from day one,” and that he believed their escalating problems were the reason behind her mysterious decision to resign as governor of Alaska last month with more than a year left in her term.

    His sister Mercedes predicts: “If they ended their marriage within the next year, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. It really seems to me their marriage is just a sham for the cameras now!” …

    http://www.starmagazine.com/sa.....news/15939

    So the good-for-nothing father of Bristol’s child and his sister give “interviews” to the tabloids and it’s “news.”

    Look for this on one of the MSM networks soon…

    Another possibility, an Alaskan insider tells Star, is that with Sarah’s multi-million-dollar book deal in place, “she might even come to some financial agreement for him to stay with her and give the impression of a loving husband, at least through her book tour next year. In that respect, they’d be like the Jon and Kate Gosselin of politics!”

  41. BillK
    August 13, 2009 at 6:12 am

    Normally I wouldn’t give Star magazine the time of day, trashy tabloid that it is, but since the left wing blogs are already abuzz with the “Ha-ha!” comments:

    World Exclusive: Sarah Palin’s Shattered Marriage

    Sarah Palin’s husband Todd smiled happily and stood lovingly by his wife’s side last year during her vice presidential campaign. But behind the scenes, their marriage was in turmoil — and now they’re on the brink of a shocking divorce!.

    In the Aug. 24 issue of Star, on sale today, we have world exclusive details about Alaska’s former first couple and their disintegrating union: They’re sleeping apart, arguing non-stop and losing control of their party-loving daughters!

    “Sarah and Todd are fighting all the time,” Mercede Johnston — sister of Levi Johnston, ex-boyfriend of Sarah’s eldest daughter, Bristol — tells Star in an exclusive interview. “When they do, Todd often ends up sleeping on the couch at their home in Wasilla. Bristol used to tell Levi that her parents would argue and bicker over the littlest things, like who was supposed to take out the trash or wash the dishes.”

    Levi, the father of Bristol’s 7-month-old son, Tripp, recently told RadarOnline.com that Sarah and Todd have had marital trouble “from day one,” and that he believed their escalating problems were the reason behind her mysterious decision to resign as governor of Alaska last month with more than a year left in her term.

    His sister Mercedes predicts: “If they ended their marriage within the next year, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. It really seems to me their marriage is just a sham for the cameras now!”

    Another possibility, an Alaskan insider tells Star, is that with Sarah’s multi-million-dollar book deal in place, “she might even come to some financial agreement for him to stay with her and give the impression of a loving husband, at least through her book tour next year. In that respect, they’d be like the Jon and Kate Gosselin of politics!” …

    http://www.starmagazine.com/sa.....news/15939

    So the good-for-nothing father of Bristol’s child and his sister give “interviews” to the tabloids and it’s “news.”

    Look for this on one of the MSM networks soon…

    • curvyred
      August 13, 2009 at 8:32 am

      I really think the court should emphasize to this yahoo Levi and his family that this sort of character maligning is not good for his child’s well-being. This certainly does not foster a peaceful, amicable relationship between parties – something that is needed for the child to thrive – I realize he is young but he really should not be doing this and neither should his family.

    • BillK
      August 13, 2009 at 9:31 am

      curvyred, you’ve obviously mistaken these people for those who give a damn.

      I fully expect that Levi himself is shopping around a book about what it was like to briefly live under the thumb of Sarah Palin and what it was like to knock up her daughter, including what sexual positions and acts Bristol prefers.

      There are already rumors he’s in talks to stump for the Democrats should Palin run for anything ever again.

    • neocon mom
      August 13, 2009 at 10:59 pm

      The Palins have taken the high road when it comes to Levi. The level of distaste involved in soliciting dirt on the family by the media was nearly unprecedented. Levi is a misguided kid but also a rube for publicly defaming his child’s mother and grandparents.

      But any credibility he might or might not have ever had is unquestionably sapped after that Tyra Banks interview. His 15 minutes are up and he’s going to have to come up with more and more outlandish claims to keep himself in the news.

      Who knows, maybe Tina Brown will give him a column at the Daily Beast right next to Megan McCain’s!

  42. BillK
    August 13, 2009 at 9:48 am

    Wow, what a shock, David Broder writes to “warn Republicans” about the health care protests:

    Playing with fire in town hall protests

    By David Broder

    Watching the muscular tactics being used in congressional town meetings by some opponents of health care reform, I keep thinking somebody should remind the Republican leaders who are reveling in the scenes about Bruce Alger.

    Alger was the first Republican congressman elected from Texas in the modern era, winning a Dallas district in 1954. In 1960, just a few days before the presidential election, he was part of a crowd of several hundred people who surrounded Lyndon B. Johnson, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, and his wife, Lady Bird, when they arrived for a luncheon at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas.

    Many of the demonstrators carried signs labeling the Texas senator as a “Judas.” Alger’s placard read: “LBJ Sold Out to Yankee Socialists.”

    As I later wrote, the Johnsons “were engulfed by the crowd, and for more than half an hour, were reviled and jostled as they slowly made their way across the lobby. Johnson refused offers of police assistance, telling an aide that ‘if the time has come that I can’t walk with my lady across the lobby of the Adolphus Hotel, then I want to know it.’”

    The backlash was instant and powerful. As conservative columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak later wrote in their book about Johnson, the scene in the Adolphus “outraged thousands of Texans and Southerners.

    Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia, who had not campaigned for his party’s national ticket since 1944, telephoned Johnson that evening to offer his services.”

    The Johnson biographers concluded that while no one could prove the case, it is “a credible hypothesis” that the Adolphus incident swung Texas and perhaps other closely contested Southern states to the Democrats.

    In 1964, when Johnson headed the Democratic ticket, he got even: His coattails swept Alger out of office.

    I was reminded of this saga by what happened to Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, the venerable Democrat who was shouted down last week by protesters at a health care town meeting in Romulus, Mich. Dingell, 83, has represented the area for 53 years, surviving all the political tides and a Republican effort to redistrict him out of office.

    Nonetheless, he was called a “fraud” by a woman who said the plan he supported in committee would empty her wallet, and was booed and denounced by hundreds of others who filled the meeting hall.

    Dingell said he hadn’t faced as angry a crowd since he voted for the civil rights bill in 1964, but said, “I’m a tough old bastard” and won’t waver.

    Scenes like Romulus have filled cable news as Democrats across the country have been meeting their constituents during this August congressional recess. The cameras were watching as Sens. Arlen Specter and Claire McCaskill were harangued on Tuesday.

    What doesn’t make the news is what the reaction is among the larger population of voters whose views will ultimately influence the fate of health care legislation.

    I haven’t seen any polls taken since the demonstrations began, but an editorial in Tuesday’s Detroit Free Press said “the disrespect Dingell was shown in a state where he has made such a profound contribution was unforgivable.” …

    http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_13046157

    That’s about all I could take before vomiting.

    “Muscular tactics?” As opposed to having Union thugs beat up protesters?

    “John Dingell of Michigan, the venerable Democrat?” Wow, I thought the MSM saved that kind of messiah worship for The Chosen One.

    That’s right – don’t you dare disrespect those wise men in Washington.

    They know everything.

    But that’s OK, Broder is panicked that the people might actually be finding their voice and that perhaps, just perhaps, Republicans won’t take his advice and nominate another worthless candidate like McCain who will defer to Democrats at every turn and will refuse to go on the attack himself.

    I also liked:

    Dingell said he hadn’t faced as angry a crowd since he voted for the civil rights bill in 1964

    I wonder how man of those in that angry crowd in 1964 were Democrats, given it was the GOP that was responsible for getting that civil rights bill passed?

    Not that the MSM would ever dare report that.

  43. nuthingbettertodo
    August 13, 2009 at 10:49 am

    Cash for Clunkers a glimpse into Obamacare……

    Some car dealers are getting frustrated over the cash for clunkers program. Some say the federal government is slow at paying up.

    Richie Molinaro of Fairway Chevrolet and Subaru has cars traded in under the federal Cash for Clunkers program at a dealership near Hazleton. Dealers get up to $4,500 for every gas guzzler traded in and pass that savings on to new car buyers.

    But there is a problem, according to dealers. Although the government says the rebate should be sent within about 10 days, it’s taking longer, creating a dollar squeeze for the businesses.

    “We have began to receive money from the federal government. We’re up to three the funds have begun to come in,” Molinaro said, adding he is over more than $100,000.

    The clunkers are lined up at a dealership a few miles away. The owner said the federal goverment has not paid any of $100,000 he is owed.

    “We’re short $4,5000 on each deal and it’s really hurting us and I am sure we’ll get through it, and right now it’s taxing our finances,” said Earl Berger of Berger Family Dealerships.

    A govermnent spokesman insists the dealerships will get their money. It’s unclear when.

    “It hurts, it hurts big time. So we have to watch very carefully how we do business,” said Jim Kennedy of Berger Family Dealerships.

    Part of the Cash for Clunkers program calls for the engines to be destroyed before going to the scrap yard. Earl Berger said he won’t do that until he’s sure he gets the money that owed to him.
    Copyright © 2009, WNEP-TV

    http://www.wnep.com/wnep-luz-c.....?track=rss

  44. nuthingbettertodo
    August 13, 2009 at 10:50 am

    No cash for clunkers: Some area car dealers still waiting for government payments
    By JEFF WEINER

    Wednesday, August 12, 2009

    COLLIER COUNTY — Step one, the customer brings his or her tired, worn-down clunker to the dealership. Step two, the dealership makes a trade for a brand new car, giving the customer a hefty government-backed credit for said clunker.

    Step three, the government pays the dealership. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work.

    However, locally some dealers are still waiting nervously for that all-important third step. Stuck with dozens of clunkers on their lots, they are still waiting for their checks from the government program that has at times proven as convoluted and lethargic as it is popular.

    “We have not received approvals on anything yet, they’re all showing ‘in review,’” said Tim Zellers, of Tamiami Ford and Tamiami Hyundai. Zellers said that, despite the fact that he hasn’t received dollar one from Uncle Sam, his dealership is still delivering new vehicles on the program. Why?

    “I have faith in the U.S. government,” he said, chuckling. Zellers said that, despite the backlog, he is confident that the payouts will come soon. Another local dealer gave the same reasoning for keeping the program going despite meager government returns.

    “I’m putting my faith in the government and we’re doing them,” said Ulrich Stanley Marine Jr., general manager of Sutherlin Nissan who prefers to be called by his initials — U.S. Marine.

    “I’m just starting to get paid,” said Marine, who, unlike Zellers, has gotten at least a small reward for his “faith.” Of the around 45 deals his dealership has made on the program, Marine said he has received government payment for two.

    “It’s a little bit comforting,” he said, adding that, at the beginning of the program, he was expecting to get payouts within 10 days of a sale.

    “I feel like we’ve done everything right on our part,” said Zellers, who said he has received no timetable for when the payouts are coming; getting in touch with anyone within the program, he said, is nearly impossible.

    “There’s no talking to anybody,” he said.

    “There’s a lot of people in the system and it freezes up,” said Marine.

    Though he is confident that the money will come, Zellers, who estimates that he is owed around $300,000 by the program, said he won’t go on trading for clunkers indefinitely if the government cash doesn’t start flowing soon. He said he will definitely be accepting clunker trades for the next 48 hours, and is generally reassessing the situation on a “day-to-day” basis.

    Despite the backlog of clunkers — his dealerships have only sent a small few to the scrappers, the rest are still in storage on the lot — Zellers said he has plenty of room left to spare. That’s good news, as he said the clunkers business continues to be “brisk.”

    “It’s really good for our customers,” said Zellers. Of the government, he simply said, “It’s unfortunate that they’ve been so unorganized.”

    So, with all of the headaches, hold-ups and freezes, is the cash for clunkers program worth the trouble?

    “It’s definitely worth it,” said Zellers. Marine echoed that sentiment, with one stipulation.

    “It’s definitely worth it,” he said, “assuming we get paid for all of our deals.”
    http://www.naplesnews.com/news....._headlines

    • proreason
      August 13, 2009 at 11:09 am

      ““It’s unfortunate that they’ve been so unorganized.”

      It will be different for the takeover of Death Care, which will dwarf any human endeavor ever attempted, with the possible exception of the mobilizations for WWII.

      The government now has plenty of experience they can draw upon to smoothly assume the complex controls of Health Care:
      - the Post Office
      - Medicare
      - Medicaid
      - Social Security
      - Welfare
      - Cash for Clunkers
      - Drivers License Bureaus
      - the VA
      - Dept of Education
      - Congress itself

      These smooth running, efficient organizations will serve as shining models for Death Care. Fraud will rarely exceed 35-40% of expenditures. Waste will not add more than an additional 33%. Bureauracracies will not grow any more than 1000% of estimates. The workforce will reflect the elevated intelligence and education levels of the culture as hold, with a particular emphasis on Affirmative Action, the program that delivered President Obama to the country. Paperwork will not add more than 50% to the work load of private business. Pensions for the trustworthy Civil Service workforce will not increase stated individual compensation by more than 100%. Costs will not exceed estimates by more than 2000%.

      And there will be no competition to tack on unnecessary and un-Amerikan profits.

    • neocon mom
      August 13, 2009 at 10:23 pm

      This is indeed a bad sign. Obviously there isn’t enough manpower to administer the program. It could take years for dealers to get all of their money. Sooner or later advocates/ lawyers will step in and offer their help, possibly buying the debt owed by the government for pennies on the dollar in order to keep some of these dealers afloat.

  45. Rusty Shackleford
    August 13, 2009 at 9:51 pm

    Gates: ‘A few years’ of combat in Afghanistan

    By LARA JAKES and ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writers, 13 August 2009

    WASHINGTON – The Pentagon presented a grim portrait of the Afghanistan war Thursday, offering no assurances about how long Americans will be fighting there or how many U.S. combat troops it will take to win.

    Defeating the Taliban and al-Qaida will take “a few years,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, with success on a larger scale in the desperately poor country a much longer proposition. He acknowledged that the Taliban has a firm hold on parts of the country President Barack Obama has called vital to U.S. security.

    Congress wants answers to what lawmakers described as basic questions to soothe a war-weary American public.

    “In the intelligence business, we always used to categorize information in two ways, secrets and mysteries,” Gates, a former CIA director, told a Pentagon news conference.

    He added: “Mysteries were those where there were too many variables to predict. And I think that how long U.S. forces will be in Afghanistan is in that area.”

    With 62,000 U.S. troops already in the country, and another 6,000 headed there by the end of the year, Gates suggested there is little appetite in Washington to add many more.

    —–Some years ago, I remember getting into a rather heated argument against a liberal friend of mine who swore that the war in Afghanistan was “exactly like Vietnam”. I went chapter and verse as to why it wasn’t starting with the philosophical differences first, then some of the (immaterial) technological ones, and finishing up with the manpower issue, how the Bush administration seemed to be using only those forces necessary, no more, no less and when a surge was called for, it worked without question.

    Sadly, we are at the dawn of a new way of thinking. I see McNamara creeping in. No clear goals in sight, no clear tactics or strategy…after all “Victory is not the goal in Afghanistan”, so sayeth the rube.

    And, as I heard on the radio today, where are all the protesters of the war? Did they all just quit and go home or did they trade in their “Kill Bush” signs for “Health Care Now” posters? I think the latter.

    And….the casualty reports are not reported. I haven’t heard them on the MSM for some weeks now.

    Why is that?

    If the war is bad under Bush, it is somehow “not-bad” under Obama? And with troop counts rising to higher levels, is this exactly what Cindy Sheehan et al were all so lathered up about?

    I don’t mind taking up an issue…but if the person(s) taking up that issue somehow think that people suddenly stop dying because of the magic negro president, then they really do live in a vacuum.

    As early as 2004, I believe, Bush said that winning in Afghanistan is a cloudy issue but that he wanted to get to the very heart of the terrorist base by finding them and eliminating them. By contrast, Obama has apologized to every safe-house the terrorists have, even offered to give them money to help them out.

    I make no apology, this president is bad news. I cannot print the contempt I have for him here. It would most assuredly get me arrested. With a close personal friend about to go to Afghanistan for the second time and his brother for the fourth time, I am livid with rage. With all this money being thrown around, I say this administration should be forced to pay for a house and two cars and a year-long vacation to every single military member who has to go to that place.

    A place where he wouldn’t last 5 minutes without his “shirt-sleeve environment”.

    Why is it that those who have never served find it so easy to send our soldiers to places they wouldn’t dare go to?

    Obama, if there is a hell, I hope they have a very special seat reserved there for you.

  46. Rusty Shackleford
    August 13, 2009 at 10:08 pm

    HuffPo Actually does some investigative reporting (maybe)

    Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma

    A memo obtained by the Huffington Post confirms that the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby secretly agreed to precisely the sort of wide-ranging deal that both parties have been denying over the past week.

    The memo, which according to a knowledgeable health care lobbyist was prepared by a person directly involved in the negotiations, lists exactly what the White House gave up, and what it got in return.

    It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government’s leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada — and also agreed not to pursue Medicare rebates or shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Medicare Part D, which would cost Big Pharma billions in reduced reimbursements.

    In exchange, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) agreed to cut $80 billion in projected costs to taxpayers and senior citizens over ten years. Or, as the memo says: “Commitment of up to $80 billion, but not more than $80 billion.”

    Rest of article and copy of memo:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....58285.html

    • canary
      August 14, 2009 at 1:54 am

      Rusty, I’ve been posting war updates if you want to thumb through former selected-news weeks. U.S. (and British) have lost more troops in just the last two monthes in Afganistan, in the history of the war, which began in 2001. Vietnam? This has become worse, because Obama cares more about the terrorists than he does our soldiers. Obama’s people are looking at 10 more years. Obommies are to busy micro-managing,tweeking, squeezing petty issue like gas immissions and soda pop.
      This war is different because Obommies don’t have to spit on Vietnam soldiers, they just figure they deserve to die, since they volunteered and weren’t drafted. Cairo, Obama said we a muslim country. In never knew the muslim connection with Black Panthers and Malcome X, rev Wright & Fucllker, until Obama pointed out he lived to fullfill their dreams.

      Rusty, The most casualties have consistantly been in Afganistan. This is Obama’s war. He gave a speech when 9/11 happened he’d take up arms and hunt the terrorists down. When Hilary challenged Obama’s manhood as to being a tough commander in Cheif, and he called her Annie Oaklie, Obama started all his I will be the President that will capture Bin Laden, I’ll be the President to win this war. So, he get’s into office and does nothing for monthes while the Chief General is saying they are growing and building up reinforcements, and so Obama fired him (since he knew Obama failed) and Obama put in a snitchy suck up type General who does what ever Obama wants. Also, your liberal friend is wrong. And it’s your liberal’s fault for voting for Obama at the war taking a really bad turn for the worst. Anyways, I pray many times a day for our soldiers and praying for your buddies too. Tell them I am in awe at our soldiers. These soldiers are really amazing, because they do keep going back voluntarily, and they don’t complain.

  47. canary
    August 14, 2009 at 3:33 am

    Mandatory work will be enforced by Obommies.

    Obama believes every America from birth to complete 1 year mandatory servie, military, Ameri-Corps, etc. Michello pipes in, you people are going to work harder than you have ever had to work..

    http://www.breitbart.tv/audio-.....y-service/

    Raem Emaenal interivew mandatory training camp 18-25
    SAYS AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP IS NOT A RIGHT, must serve country
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....Y&NR=1

    another inteview on subject
    Rahm Emnael does interview. Mandatory civil service work of at least 3 monthes by every citizen. Suggests National Guard, boot camp, in case of chemcial attack. barracks he means busines.

    At end reinforces Obama giving yelling that we will have some type civil security military at home. least 3 month servie mandatory, such as National Guard, Civil military to help in chemical attack, barraks,. Towards end of interview Obama yelling that all will have to do some type of mandatory work.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhfUHgenqXU

  48. canary
    August 14, 2009 at 3:41 am

    Robert Reicht does not want construction jobs going to well skilled trained white skinned workers.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chSH-cu20Oc

    2001 Obama says Surpeme Court needs to restribute the wealth. Then says the Presidential Administration needs to, then says through laws made.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZOQOgqWcO4

  49. BillK
    August 14, 2009 at 4:14 am

    Democracy in action.

    From Fox News:

    Roadblocks Devised to Push Back Against Health Care Town Hall Protesters

    Americans who want to express their opinions on health care reform at town halls across the country are encountering a host of roadblocks, ranging from fake schedules to a demand that they show their driver’s licenses or photo identification.

    Supporters of President Obama’s plan say they are pushing back against opposition that is disruptive and designed to shut down debate. But opponents say the supporters’ tactics are underhanded and designed to undermine democracy in action.

    In Texas, Rep. Gene Green’s office is requiring town hall attendees to present a photo ID that proves they live in his district.

    On his Web site, Green says “due to a coordinated effort to disrupt our town hall meetings, we will be restricting further attendance to residents … and verifying residency by requiring photo identification.”

    Green’s spokeswoman, Brenda Arredondo, told FOXNews.com that the Democratic congressman enacted the policy after she and other staffers overheard attendees saying they were going to keep disrupting the town halls. After the policy went into effect at the fourth town hall Green hosted this month, she said eight out of 10 attendees were found not to be constituents.

    They were allowed to stay, she said, leading to the same outbursts seen at the other three. But they won’t be allowed to attend the fifth one, she said.

    “Those people are welcome to call their members of Congress and voice their opinions,” she said, adding that Green is trying to listen to his constituents.

    She said the policy is not intended to block opponents of health care reform. “If you want to come yell and scream and are constituents, we obviously more than welcome your voice,” she said. “It’s not to silence anyone’s voice from the district.”

    In Illinois, two Republican lawmakers sent a letter to Obama this week complaining that Democratic organizers scheduled meetings between them and their constituents without ever notifying them, misleading their constituents into going to town halls on the wrong day.

    Illinois Reps. Mark Kirk and Judy Biggert wrote that their constituents had apparently signed up for meetings to discuss health care reform with them after receiving an Aug. 9 e-mail from BarackObama.com urging them to do so.

    “However, the names of our constituents and the times they wished to visit were never communicated to us,” the letter said.

    As a result, the lawmakers claimed more than 20 constituents came to their district offices on Monday.

    “When they learned neither the White House, the Democratic National Committee nor Organizing for America had passed their request to our offices, they were understandably confused and upset with the BarackObama.com e-mail they had received,” they wrote.

    They urged the organizers not to keep them in the dark in the future.

    In response, Democratic National Committee Communications Director Brad Woodhouse issued a statement saying that the OFA members were not told to go to offices unannounced.

    “They are mischaracterizing this — which is not surprising if you look at the falsehoods Republicans are spreading on this issue,” he wrote. “OFA sent an e-mail to all its supporters asking them to sign up for drop bys with every House and Senate office — Democrat and Republican — to drop off a flyer in support of heath insurance reform.”

    Woodhouse said the e-mail advised supporters that “they should call ahead to make sure the office was open and that if they wanted to do more than drop by the office they should schedule a meeting on their own.”

    Health Care for America Now, a coalition group organizing support for Obama’s proposal, e-mailed a four-page memo to activists across the country on how to provide “cover” to lawmakers at the town halls. The group, whose members include ACORN, the Service Employees International Union and the National Council of La Raza, urged activists to contact lawmakers before the town halls to plan ways to preempt opposition.

    “Ask the member’s staff what would be most helpful and talk through a strategy for making sure the right messages don’t get drowned out by chaotic protesters,” field director Margarida Jorge wrote.

    “Address the [member of Congress] directly with a positive message: Remember, these members need cover and they are getting beaten up by right wing zealots in these meetings.”

    Jacki Schechner, a spokeswoman for HCAN, told FOXNews.com that the group sent the memo after many of its 120 field organizers in 44 states encountered screaming and shouting at the town halls.

    “Not that the opposition caught anyone off guard,” she said. “The level of screaming and shouting and lack of intelligent discourse caught people off guard.” …

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....rotesters/

    The level of vitriol and just pure lies being orchestrated by Obama’s minions at his behest is just growing completely out of control.

    Not that it’s a surprise except perhaps in its brazenness.

    Imagine for one millisecond what would have happened had Republicans taken the same approach towards Iraq war opponents.

    Instead, Dem activists gave Code Pink passes.

  50. canary
    August 14, 2009 at 4:31 am

    2001 Obama says constitution flawed and remains to this day

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related

  51. CaliforniaBear
    August 14, 2009 at 1:27 pm

    Gotta love the little nuggets they place at the end of articles:

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....ealth_care

    The whole article is about how Britons are outraged over the “lies” American Conservative make about their universal health care.

    About ten paragraphs into the article, and the last paragraph, we get this:

    “British officials acknowledge that their system has been struggling to cope and faces a 15 billion pound ($24 billion) deficit. Hospitals are often overcrowded, dirty and understaffed, which means some patients do not get the care they are promised.”

    Let’s see, people don’t get treated as promised and the government has a deep deficit. Hhhhmmm, yeah, sounds about right. We were right after all. But, of course the associated press doesn’t acknowledge that.

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