A little 8th grade exercise could be in order for many….not you of course but if you simply take the IMPORTANT words that exist and remove the descriptors, you will read, instead:

I helped it. I was maligning the Cambirdge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley.

See how easy that is?

Instead, he dives into the pool of descriptive narrative, and if you’ll note it is very UNLIKE the style of writing that is in his books. But with a simple quick editing you can find the true meaning of what he’s saying.

A typical high school or junior high school English teacher would have given him a “C” at best and if the objective was “getting the point across efficiently” he would have failed.

But failure and Obama are quickly becoming words of close association, aren’t they?

Nice catch, Gila. His novel use of the word “calibrated” is something you probably won’t find in many speech patterns. Most people prefer a simpler, more direct approach and would have said it more concisely.

Chosen, picked, preferred, indicated, used, stated, adopted, elected,or selected come to mind….but not “calibrated”.

And finally, if he’s so damned good at apologizing for the “sins” of this great nation and making it so sincere, why then is he so poor at making a real, personal apology on this level?

Ans: Because he doesn’t mean it.

Isn’t it ironic that after white America leads the world’s best nations in electing a black man as president that we are seeing that same president set our race relations back 50 years?

What I hear: Blabiddty blah blah blah…..blah blah blabbity, blabiddity….blah blah blah pphhhhhtttttttt

:-p

Here’s a video of the great Larry Elder explaining to a black Democrat strategist and the CNN audience why the unfortunate instance of profiling blacks occurs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZOKZEeb064

By Jessica Heslam and Hillary Chabot Friday, July 24, 2009

President Obama said he spoke today with the Cambridge cop at the center of the Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrest – admitting he should have chosen his words more carefully – and said they talked about the three possibly meeting over a beer at the White House.

The president said he also continues to believe that both Sgt. James Crowley and Gates overreacted.

“I continue to believe, based on what I have heard, that there was an overreaction in pulling Professor Gates out of his home to the station. I also continue to believe, based on what I heard, that Professor Gates probably overreacted as well,” Obama said.

“My sense is you’ve got two good people in a circumstance in which neither of them were able to resolve the incident in the way that it should have been resolved and the way they would have liked it to be resolved,” he said.

Obama’s comments came today after Cambridge police unions called on him to apologize for saying that they “acted stupidly.”

The president said he could have “calibrated those words differently” to help quell the furor.

“Because this has been ratcheting up, and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up, I want to make clear that in my choice of words I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley specifically, and I could have calibrated those words differently,” Obama said. “And I told this to Sergeant Crowley.”

In addition, the White House press office said Obama talked to Gates this afternoon and told him about his called with Sgt. Crowley. “They had a positive discussion during which the President told Gates about his call with Sgt. Crowley and statement to the media,” the statement said. “The President also invited Gates to join him with Sgt. Crowley at the White House in the near future.”

Obama said his five minute conversation with Sgt. Crowley confirmed his impression that the sergeant is a good man and “outstanding” police officer – and he told Crowley that.

At the end of their conversation, Obama said “there was a discussion about he and I and Professor Gates having a beer here in the White House.”

The president said the two also talked about their lawns.

“He also did say he wanted to find out if there was a way to get the press off his lawn,” Obama said. “I informed him that I can’t get the press off my lawn. He pointed out that my lawn is bigger than his lawn.”

The president said Crowley had a message for the media.

“If anybody has any connections to the Boston press, as well as national press, Sgt. Crowley would be happy for you to stop trampling his grass,” Obama said.

Sen. Anthony Galluccio (D-Cambridge), who first asked for a one-on-one between Gates and Crowley, said he was, “really pleased,” with Obama’s decision.

“This is exactly what the president should do. This is what I would have expected from him from the begining and it’s exactly what we need,” said Galluccio. “I hope that Jimmy and professor Gates take him up on his offer immediately.”

Galluccio took the invite a step further, suggesting Obama conduct the meeting in Cambridge, where the president spent time when he attended Harvard Law School – but added he’s just happy they will meet.

“To me the image of these two getting together is critical and where and how it happens is less important,” Galluccio said.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/ne.....id=1186901
http://www.bostonherald.com/ne.....position=0

So, I guess Obama has added beer to his daily margarita’s. Great example for our youth. An insincere apology, and another couple of million bucks and fumes for the taxpayers.

Jewish group sues Amazon over ‘Nazi’ books

According to AJC research, around 50 works including “Der Auschwitz-Mythos – Legende oder Wirklichkeit (”The Auschwitz Myth – Legend or Reality”) by Wilhelm Staglich were on sale on Amazon.de this month.

Some of these books, the AJC said, were classified by the German authorities as being unsuitable for under-18s.

Full story:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5902652/Jewish-group-sues-Amazon-over-Nazi-books.html

Yes, let’s ban books. Especially the ones we disagree with. Then, the ones that are considered politically incorrect. While we’re at it, get rid of all religious publications too. And how about books that portray history in a way I disagree with…..let’s keep it moving people.

Back in the glory days of the Nazis, didn’t they ban (and burn) books? Isn’t irony ironic?

Obama’s ‘rock star’ persona boosts U.S.

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s soaring popularity has significantly boosted attitudes toward the United States in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, surveys in 24 countries by the Pew Research Center finds. But animosity toward the U.S. in some predominantly Muslim nations remains deep and strong.

Across much of the world, the first five months of Obama’s presidency essentially erased the battering the USA’s image took during eight years of the Bush administration, according to the study by Pew’s Global Attitudes Project released Thursday.

“People were just really happy to see Bush gone,” former secretary of State Madeleine Albright, a Democrat who co-chairs the project, said at a breakfast for reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

Obama “is really a rock star as a politician,” said John Danforth, the project’s Republican co-chair who served as U.N. ambassador in Bush’s administration. “But I guess my response is: So what? … How do you get from that to doing something?” He questioned whether nations would be any more willing to follow the U.S. lead on issues such as the war in Afghanistan or genocide in Darfur.

Whatever the impact on policy, there has been a transformation in views of the American president abroad. Confidence that Obama will “do the right thing in world affairs” was double that for Bush in China, triple in Japan and Mexico, quadruple in Jordan and Egypt. The contrast was even wider across Western Europe and in Turkey and Argentina. In France, 13% viewed Bush positively last year; now 91% express confidence in Obama.

Bush fared better than Obama in just one country surveyed. In Israel, 57% expressed confidence in Bush in 2007; 56 express confidence in Obama now. Obama’s speech in Cairo last month aimed at the Muslim world increased the percentage of those in the Palestinian territories who said Obama “will consider our interests,” but it eroded the number of Israelis who felt that way.

Attitudes toward the United States continued to be dismal in some predominantly Muslim countries. Just 14% of those surveyed in Turkey and 16% in Pakistan had a favorable opinion of the U.S.

Attitudes in the Middle East aren’t likely to improve significantly until progress is made in resolving the conflict between Israel and Palestinians, Albright said. “People are going to be looking for solutions — there’s no question about that.”

For the first time in the Pew study, there was more confidence in the American president that in al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in such predominantly Muslim countries as Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Nigeria and Indonesia. Last year, most Muslim countries rated bin Laden as high or higher than Bush.

Andrew Kohut, who heads the project, said views of the United States were driven more by confidence in Obama than approval of his policies. The president’s promise to close the prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — opposed by most Americans — and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq drew broad international support.

However, most people in most countries, including Pakistan, oppose his decision to deploy more troops to Afghanistan.

The project surveyed about 27,000 people in 24 countries and the Palestinian territories from May 18 to June 16. The margins of error range from +/— 2 to 4 percentage points.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/w.....poll_N.htm

That’s just a trip. A study run by two people with similar viewpoints on things about Lord Barry’s viewpoint from other countries.

Also, the list of the countries with favorable approval ratings towards him shouldn’t really surprise anyone.

Confidence that Obama will “do the right thing in world affairs” was double that for Bush in China, triple in Japan and Mexico, quadruple in Jordan and Egypt.

One has to wonder then what it is that these countries view as “the right thing” in world affairs.

WASHINGTON – Saad bin Laden, a son of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, may have been killed in a U.S. airstrike, U.S. officials said Thursday. The son was likely killed in Pakistan in the last several months, approximately in late spring, said a counterterrorism official, one of three Obama administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.

Though many in the intelligence community believe he is dead, they can’t be 100 percent certain because no body or DNA evidence was recovered to prove it, one official said.

The U.S. has carried out more than 45 missile attacks with drones in Pakistan’s border region since last August, most targeting foreign al-Qaida militants and those accused of violence in neighboring Afghanistan. Saad was not considered a heavy hitter in his father’s organization and was not the target of the strike, but rather was killed during a strike intended for someone else, National Public Radio said, quoting unidentified officials.

Saad was born in 1982 and is one of 19 children Osama bin Laden is thought to have, officials have said.

The younger bin Laden was believed to have fled Afghanistan shortly after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001 that routed his father from safe haven there and overthrew the Taliban regime.

Officials have said he went to Iran and was held under a form of house arrest from 2003 to 2008, before turning up in Pakistan, where his father has reportedly been in hiding somewhere in the ungoverned border region near Afghanistan.

In January, the Treasury slapped financial sanctions on the younger bin Laden and three other al-Qaida figures. In announcing a freeze on their assets held under U.S. jurisdiction, Treasury also said that people from the United States would be barred from engaging in financial transactions with them.

Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence at the time, told a news conference that the move to Pakistan made Saad more vulnerable to being captured or killed by the U.S. or its allies.

“It is better in my world if they are in places that we have access,” McConnell said. Pakistan is a U.S. ally in the struggle against Islamic extremists, while the United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....JjZXNiaW4-
yawn

I think you can pull the plug on the “canned” press conferences and put one of the teleprompters’ on ice!

Barack Obama ratings fall as polls show honeymoon may be over

Amid rising unemployment and falling confidence in his economic plans, Mr Obama’s job approval rating has dropped by nine points since January to 55 per cent, a point below his predecessor in mid-2001.

[Seems the glow of his halo is starting to wane.]

Whit Ayres, a pollster, said: “His ratings have certainly come back down to Earth in a very short time period.”

[The words, "plummet", "crashed to Earth" and "nosedive" seem to come to mind]

Eager to avoid the mistake made by the Clintons in 1993, who handed a vast health care bill to congress with little consultation, Mr Obama has been accused of straying too far in the other direction.

['scuze me? Looks like he's following the same path...in fact deepening the ruts the Clintons made]

“This autumn will tell if his honeymoon is well and truly over. He has been more popular personally than many of his proposals were, but there is only so long you can continue that.”

[Yes, and let's hope 'open mike night' for Barry is over.]

N.J. officials, N.Y. rabbis caught in federal money laundering, corruption sweep

Several Democrats arrested, but the only prominent mention of a party affiliation is the lone R sting victim…

NEWARK — A New Jersey assemblyman and the mayors of Hoboken and Secaucus were among public officials arrested this morning by FBI agents in an international money laundering and corruption probe that includes rabbis in the Syrian Jewish communities of Deal and Brooklyn.

Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt (R-Ocean), Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell and Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega are among those already brought to the FBI building in Newark. Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini has also been arrested…

http://www.nj.com/news/index.s......html#post

Gallery’s invitation to deface the Bible brings obscene response
A publicly funded exhibition is encouraging people to deface the Bible in the name of art — and visitors have responded with abuse and obscenity.

The show includes a video of a woman ripping pages from the Bible and stuffing them into her bra, knickers and mouth.

The open Bible is a central part of Made in God’s Image, an exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art (Goma) in Glasgow. By the book is a container of pens and a notice saying: “If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it.”

The exhibit, Untitled 2009, was proposed by the Metropolitan Community Church, which said that the idea was to reclaim the Bible as a sacred text. But to the horror of many Christians, including the community church, visitors have daubed its pages with comments such as “This is all sexist pish, so disregard it all.” A contributor wrote on the first page of Genesis: “I am Bi, Female & Proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this.”

The Church of Scotland expressed concern, the Roman Catholic Church called the exhibit infantile, and a Christian lawyers’ group said that the exhibition was symptomatic of a broken and lawless society.

The exhibition has been created by the artists Anthony Schrag and David Malone, in association with organisations representing gay Christians and Muslims. Mr Schrag, the gallery’s artist in residence, said that he did not believe in God, but that his research for the £7,000 show had underlined his respect for people of faith.

The community church, which celebrates “racial, cultural, linguistic, sexual, gender and theological diversity”, had suggested the “interactive” Bible and pens and Mr Schrag, 34, said he had been intrigued.

“Any offensive things that have been written are not the point of the work,” he said. “It was an open gesture. Are those who say they are upset offended by the things that people write, or just by the very notion that someone should write on a Bible?”

The artist, a Canadian who took a master’s degree at Glasgow School of Art, said that human rights were at the centre of the show. “If we are to open up the Bible for discussion, surely we have to invite people to speak out,” he said. “Art allows us to discuss difficult things, and Goma allows difficult discussions to take place — that is why Glasgow is at the cutting edge of contemporary art.”

Jane Clarke, a minister of the community church, said she regretted the insults that had appeared. “The Bible should never be used like that. It was our intention to reclaim it as a sacred text,” she said. While the exhibition’s supporters insist that the exhibit promotes “inclusivity” and should break down barriers between orthodox religion and gay and transgendered people, most contributors have paid scant regard to matters of sexuality.

One writer has altered the first line of the Old Testament from “In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth” to “In the beginning, God (me) I created religion.” Another has written “The Gospel According to Luke Skywalker”. The main sentiment, however, is rage at Christianity. “F*** the Bible”, one message says.

Last night the producers of the exhibition indicated that the most offensive pages would be removed, but Christians expressed outrage and disbelief that the show had been staged at all. “This is symbolic of the state of our broken and lawless society,” said Andrea Minichiello Williams, director of the Christian Legal Centre. “We have got to a point where we call the desecration of the Bible modern art. The Bible stands for everything this art does not: for creation, beauty, hope and regeneration.”

The Church of Scotland said it condemned any sacrilegious act. “We would discourage anyone from defacing the Bible,” a Kirk spokesman said.

A spokesman for the Catholic Church said: “One wonders whether the organisers would have been quite as willing to have the Koran defaced.”

A video by Roxanne Claxton forms a second element in the exhibition. It shows a young woman ripping pages out of the Bible and stuffing them in her knickers and bra, and in her mouth. The film showed “the word as power”, Mr Schrag said. “Roxanne gave a performance where she ate a Bible and it became part of her.”

Made in God’s Image is part of a series of exhibitions focusing on human rights organised by Culture and Sport Glasgow, part of the city council. The division’s chief executive is Dr Bridget McConnell, wife of the former Labour First Minister Jack McConnell.

WASILLA, Alaska – The trustee for a legal defense fund set up to help Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said the former vice presidential candidate has never been involved with the trust or accepted money from it to pay her legal bills.

“The governor is not, was not and has not been involved in this trust,” Kristan Cole of Wasilla said Wednesday.

Cole, a local real estate agent and Palin friend, said she had never talked about the trust fund with Palin until Tuesday, when a report by an independent investigator was obtained by The Associated Press.

The account, called the Alaska Fund Trust, was created and vetted by a team of lawyers from around the country who are experts in state and federal law, Cole said. The only lawyer who has ever questioned the fund’s legality is Thomas Daniel, the investigator hired by the state personnel board, she said.

Daniel, an Anchorage lawyer, said in the July 14 report that he found probable cause Palin had violated ethics laws by trading on her position as she sought money for legal fees.

Cole lashed out at the news media for disclosing the contents of the confidential report, which she said was leaked illegally.

“We have witnessed time and again the blatant abuse of a process when it comes to people filing these complaints and illegally discussing them and leaking them to the press,” Cole said at a news conference at her real estate office in Palin’s hometown.

The latest leak “crosses the line,” Cole said, adding that the trust is reviewing its legal options for “reputational harm” caused by Kim Chatman, the Eagle River resident who filed the ethics complaint that led to Daniel’s finding.

Jon Givens, an Anchorage attorney who represents the trust, said it is based on similar accounts created for prominent politicians such as Hillary Clinton, Ted Stevens and John Kerry. “If those trusts don’t violate the ethics rules of society, why should this one” be considered improper? he said.

Those funds are all based on federal law. Palin is accused of violating state ethics law.

Palin’s friends and supporters created the trust fund, limiting donations to $150 per person. Cole declined to say how much the fund has raised, but said about 90 percent of the contributions so far are from out of state.

“How can there be intent to influence a governor in Alaska with a $5 voluntary donation from Kansas?” she asked.

At least 19 ethics complaints have been filed against Palin, most of them after she was named the running mate for GOP presidential candidate John McCain. Most of those have been dismissed, although one was resolved when Palin agreed to reimburse the state more than $8,000 for the costs associated with nine trips taken with her children.

Palin supporters say the legal fund is needed because of a quirk in Alaska law that prevents state officials from defending the governor against ethics allegations.

“Legitimate public expenses should be borne by the public, not by the governor personally,” Givens said.

Palin says she owes more than $500,000 in legal fees, and she cited the toll of the ethics probes as one of the reasons she is leaving office on Sunday.

Chatman said she was not sympathetic to the governor’s plight.

“I honestly believe her legal bills are the result of her actions,” she said.

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