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Selected News For Jun 20 – Jun 26

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news items we might otherwise miss.

Please follow this format for every post –

From the [name of the media outlet ]:

< blockquote > < b > The Headline In Bold < /b >

The excerpt from the original article, using ellipses… To indicate cuts…

The URL of the source   < /blockquote >

Then post your own comments about the article.

In your posts you should not put any space after the < or before the > HTML tags.

  • Post ‘hard news’ from established media outlets. Avoid editorials, unless they are truly newsworthy.
  • Avoid ‘major news’ items that most people will likely have seen elsewhere.
  • Articles that fit under the topic of a recently posted thread should be put there.
  • Post less than a third of the original article.

Posts of articles that do not follow these guidelines are susceptible to being edited or deleted.

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This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, June 20th, 2009 at 12:00 am. You can leave a response.

81 Responses to “Selected News For Jun 20 – Jun 26”

  1. canary
    June 20, 2009 at 4:55 am

    Obama ignores a 90-6 Senate Vote for War Funding Bill to “exclude the funding of transferring and hearings for Gitmo prisoners.

    INHOFE STATEMENT ON SUPPLEMENTAL WAR FUNDING BILL June 18, 2009

    WASHINGTON, DC – As the U.S. Senate today voted to pass the $106 billion supplemental war funding bill, U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, made the following statement:

    “Despite my multiple concerns with the war supplemental funding bill, I am voting in favor of the bill in order to provide the needed funding for our service members in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Inhofe said. “Our troops deserve better than to have politics stand between them and needed resources. I will work hard to address the concerns with this bill through other legislative means.

    Inhofe continued, “One problem I have with this bill is the inclusion of a provision that allows the President to transfer terrorist detainees currently held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to the United States for trials.

    Although the Senate voted 90-6 on a bipartisan amendment that would prohibit funding for the transfer of those detainees to the United States,

    the conference report removed that language, allowing detainees to be sent here for criminal prosecution.

    “I am very troubled by the President’s insistence to bring terrorist prisoners to the United States. Gitmo is a state of the art facility that provides humane treatment for all detainees and is fully compliant with the Geneva Convention. President Obama is pushing for their transfer in face of Senate opposition and the will of the American people.

    “I have introduced S.370 to address this issue. …”

    entire statement
    http://inhofe.senate.gov/publi.....ee4414be09

  2. canary
    June 20, 2009 at 5:15 am

    Inhofe Leads Opposition to “Biggest Bureaucratic Power Grab in a Generation” June 18th, 2009

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, led the opposition to a bill…, S. 787, the Clean Water Restoration Act, passed out of the EPW Committee today on a party-line vote, ….,

    Senator Inhofe called the bill the “biggest bureaucratic power grab in a generation.” The little-talked about bill, seeks to “extend the scope and reach of federal water jurisdiction beyond anything that ever existed …..”

    “The superficial changes made to this bill don’t change its underlying intention and ultimate effect: to radically expand federal power over farms, ranches, and private property,” Senator Inhofe said.. ..

    … , I will work closely with Senator Crapo and others to defeat it and ensure that we protect private property owners, farmers, ranchers, and all those affected by the bill’s regulatory overreach.

    “This bill is further proof that Washington doesn’t ‘get rural America. The Democrats are moving a bill that amounts to the biggest bureaucratic power grab in a generation–

    In fact, this bill is a significant part of a hostile agenda-whether it’s new energy taxes from cap-and-trade or more unfunded mandates from Washington-aimed squarely at rural America.”

    full statement and youtube
    http://inhofe.senate.gov/publi.....;Issue_id=

  3. Petronius
    June 20, 2009 at 10:31 am

    PIMCO
    Staying Rich in the New Normal
    June 2009
    by Bill Gross

    . . . To zero in on the U.S. of A., its annual deficit of nearly $1.5 trillion is 10% of GDP alone, a number never approached since the 1930s Depression. While policymakers, including the President and Treasury Secretary Geithner, assure voters and financial markets alike that such a path is unsustainable and that a return to fiscal conservatism is just around the recovery’s corner, it is hard to comprehend exactly how that more balanced rabbit can be pulled out of Washington’s hat. … Five more years of those 10% of GDP deficits will quickly raise America’s debt to GDP level to over 100%, a level that the rating services––and more importantly the markets––recognize as a point of no return. At 100% debt to GDP, the interest on the debt might amount to 5% or 6% of annual output alone, and it quickly compounds as the interest upon interest becomes as heavy as those “sixteen tons” in Tennessee Ernie Ford’s famous song of a West Virginia coal miner. “You load sixteen tons and whattaya get? Another day older and deeper in debt.” Pretty soon you need 17, 18, 19 tons just to stay even and that describes the potential fate of the United States as the deficits string out into the Obama and other future Administrations. . . .

    Private think tanks … and … the Congressional Budget Office, promise that Federal spending for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will collectively increase by 6% of GDP over the next 20 years, leading to even larger deficits unless taxes are increased proportionately. Collectively these three programs represent an approximate $40 trillion liability that will have to be paid. If not, you can add that present value figure to the current $10 trillion deficit and reach a 300% of GDP figure––a number that resembles Latin American economies such as Argentina and Brazil over the past century.

    . . . The immediate question is who is going to buy all of this debt? Estimates suggest gross Treasury issuance of up to $3 trillion this calendar year and net offerings close to $2 trillion––almost four times last year’s supply. . . . it is obvious that the Chinese and other surplus nations cannot fund the deficit even if they were fully on board––which they are not. Someone else has got to write checks for up to $1.5 trillion additional Treasury notes and bonds. . . . The concern is that this can be accomplished in only two ways––both of which have serious consequences for U.S. and global financial markets. The first and most recent development is . . . the rise of intermediate and long-term bond yields [i.e. higher interest rates and a slump in bond prices]. While the Treasury can easily afford the higher interest expense in the short term, the pressure it puts on mortgage and corporate rates represents a serious threat to the fragile “greenshoots” recovery now underway. Secondly, the buyer of last resort in recent months has become the Federal Reserve. . . . But the Fed must tread carefully here. These purchases . . . ultimately could have inflationary implications. In turn, nervous holders of dollar obligations are beginning to look for diversification in other currencies, selling Treasury bonds in the process.

    . . . It is probable that trillion dollar deficits are here to stay because any recovery is likely to reflect “new normal” GDP growth rates of 1%-2% not 3%+ as we used to have. Staying rich in this future world will require strategies that reflect this altered vision of global economic growth. . . . Holders of dollars should diversify their own baskets before central banks and sovereign wealth funds ultimately do the same. All investors should expect considerably lower rates of return. . . . Staying rich in the “new normal” may . . . require investors to resemble . . . Will Rogers, who opined in the early 30s that he wasn’t as much concerned about the return on his money as the return of his money.

    http://www.pimco.com/LeftNav/F.....+Gross.htm

    Hard times are coming.

    Bill Gross, PIMCO’s bond guru, is no conservative. Therefore this warning should be considered straight talk, not right-wing spin. He is saying that America is on course for bankruptcy. And a monetary crisis.

    The Fed is going to take on $4 trillion in debt by year-end. This is the monetary equivalent of “shock and awe.” In years to come there are going to be higher taxes and high inflation. Taxes, mortgage rates and interest rates are going to climb, killing off any economic recovery.

    Nerobama and Geithner are counting on 3 to 4% economic growth to pull the US out of the current deficit. That’s not going to happen. We’re not going to see that kind of growth again for decades, according to Gross.

    Add $40 trillion liability for Social Security, etc. Gross doesn’t even count the additional $1.5 trillion (or whatever) for universal health care that is still in the drafting stage.

    Add that and: Pow. You blow the lid off the economy. We’re talking banana republic. But without any bananas.

    This is not just your children’s and grandchildren’s future. It’s your future, too. Wealth is going to be wiped out in the coming years.

    Gross is recommending that Americans diversify out of US dollars and US dollar investments (paper assets such as savings accounts, CDs, bonds, stocks). And he is recommending that American investors do it soon, before foreign central banks unload their dollars. The traditional safe havens are real assets and strong foreign currencies. But note that Nerobama and Geithner are taking steps to clamp down on foreign bank accounts, in an effort to block the flight of American capital.

    We are heading into a real world ‘Atlas Shrugged’ scenario. Republicans need to start preaching this stuff to America now––in simple language the average American fool can understand. The consequences of out-of-control deficit spending and high taxes are going to be harsh and lasting. If the Republicans don’t start hollering, the Destroyer-crats will blame the whole mess on Bush.

    Adjutorium nostrum, Domine.

  4. Confucius
    June 20, 2009 at 10:35 am

    From the AP:

    Obama tells men what kind of dads they should be

    By Calvin Woodward, Associated Press Writer

    WASHINGTON – Barack Obama got a basketball, his first name and ambition from his father. Little else. …

    As a candidate and now president, he’s been telling men what sort of father they should be. It’s become his Father’s Day ritual.

    He’s asking American men to be better fathers than his own.

    The president showcased fatherhood in a series of events and a magazine article in advance of Father’s Day this Sunday. He said he came to understand the importance of fatherhood from its absence in his childhood homes — just as an estimated 24 million Americans today are growing up without a dad. …

    A Kenyan goatherder-turned-intellectual who clawed his way to scholarships and Harvard, Barack Hussein Obama Sr. left a family behind to get his schooling in the United States. He started another family here, then left his second wife and 2-year-old Barack Jr. to return to Africa with another woman.

    His promise flamed out in Africa after stints working for an oil company and the government; he fell into drink and died in a car crash when his son was 21, a student at Columbia University.

    “I don’t want to be the kind of father I had,” the president is quoted as telling a friend in a new book about him. …

    “We need to step out of our own heads and tune in. We need to turn off the television and start talking with our kids, and listening to them, and understanding what’s going on in their lives.” …

    The new book “Renegade” by Richard Wolffe recounts strains in the marriage early this decade, arising from his absences and from what Michelle Obama apparently considered his selfish careerism at the time. …

    Obama was a schoolboy in Hawaii when his father came back to visit. He gave his dad a tie. His father gave him a basketball and African figurines and came to his class to speak about Kenya. He was an impressive, mysterious figure whom Obama found compelling, volatile and vaguely threatening. …

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

    Happy Father’s Day Barack, Sr.! Your son just threw you under the bus! On the bright side, you can now meet Junior’s grandmother. (Hint: she’s the white woman with the tire marks on her back.)

    So, I have to ask. From whom did Obama learn to be a good father? Especially one so good (and superior) that he can lecture everyone else?

    Is this more affirmative action inaction?

    • Eagle334th
      June 20, 2009 at 11:04 pm

      I was just about to post this…

      The title is a bit different, so I’m going to post it, too.. you never know when the MSM are going to change things..

      From the AP:

      Obama asks men to be better fathers than his own

      WASHINGTON (AP) — President Obama got a basketball, his first name and ambition from his father. Little else.

      The son gave back more than he received: a lifetime of ruminations about the man who abandoned the family, a memoir named “Dreams from My Father,” and endless reflections on his own successes and shortcomings as a parent of Sasha, 8, and Malia, 10.

      …

      The president showcased fatherhood in a series of events and a magazine article in advance of Father’s Day this Sunday. He said he came to understand the importance of fatherhood from its absence in his childhood homes — just as an estimated 24 million Americans today are growing up without a dad.

      Fathers run deep in the political culture as they do everywhere else, for better and worse. Michelle Obama has said many times how her late dad, Fraser, is her reference point and rock — she checks in with him, in her mind, routinely, and at important moments.

      Obama’s presidential rival, John McCain, called his own memoirs “Faith of My Fathers,” tracing generations of high-achieving scamps. The father-son presidencies of the George Bushes were bookends on Bill Clinton, whose father drowned in a ditch before the future president was born and whose stepfather was an abusive alcoholic nicknamed Dude.

      A Kenyan goatherder-turned-intellectual who clawed his way to scholarships and Harvard, Barack Hussein Obama Sr. left a family behind to get his schooling in the United States. He started another family here, then left his second wife and 2-year-old Barack Jr. to return to Africa with another woman.

      His promise flamed out in Africa after stints working for an oil company and the government; he fell into drink and died in a car crash when his son was 21, a student at Columbia University.

      “I don’t want to be the kind of father I had,” the president is quoted as telling a friend in a new book about him.

      …

      Obama now cajoles men to be better fathers — not the kind who must be unearthed in the soul.

      His finger-wagging is most pointed when addressing other black men, reflecting years of worry about the fabric of black families and single mothers, but it applies to everyone.

      Father’s Day 2007: “Let’s admit to ourselves that there are a lot of men out there that need to stop acting like boys; who need to realize that responsibility does not end at conception; who need to know that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise a child.”

      Father’s Day 2008: “Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.”

      Father’s Day 2009: “We need to step out of our own heads and tune in. We need to turn off the television and start talking with our kids, and listening to them, and understanding what’s going on in their lives.”

      He doesn’t hold himself out as the ideal dad. No driven politician can.

      …

      Obama was a schoolboy in Hawaii when his father came back to visit. He gave his dad a tie. His father gave him a basketball and African figurines and came to his class to speak about Kenya. He was an impressive, mysterious figure whom Obama found compelling, volatile and vaguely threatening.

      The visit took a sour turn when Obama went to watch “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and his father made him shut off the TV, saying he watched too much. Obama slammed the bedroom door; a loud argument ensued among grown-ups.

      Not the quality time Obama has in mind in asking dads to turn off the TV now.

      …

      http://www.usatoday.com/news/w.....htm?csp=34

      And on and on it goes…

    • curvyred
      June 21, 2009 at 7:19 am

      That is a very interesting fairy tale – more bamboozling.

    • canary
      June 21, 2009 at 7:18 pm

      Obama’s father visited him, after a car accident in which his sister (from his father’s first wife he left) said his father was drunk, and it killed someone in the other car. Pop made the visit to try and get them to come back to Africa. Later, his pop travelled the world but never visited Barrack, but by muslim law, kept telling Barrak that he was suppose to come live with him. (men get the children after divorce) Now his paternal grandpa was even more violent. He beat and run off alot of wifes. Then found one he really liked, but the guys at the bar teased him of his manhood, because she didn’t bare children. So, he went a bought a young girl, hunted her down and raped her (supposed custom (yeah right)). And she kept running away back to her father, and grandfather kept going back and paying more and more cows til the father gave his daughter back. She ran away, and had to leave her two children with the monster. Also, when his grandfather was very young, and the British white man came, and had those sticks that went pow, he took off with them for some years. Came back, dressed like the white man, and set up a tent in which he lived.
      Obama’s most favorable years was starting as a toddler with his adopted father in Hawaii, who had to go back to Indonesia and perge the communists. He and his mother followed. Best years of his life. After mom sent him back, he still visited the 90% muslim country where you had to be registered and citizen in his teens. Then when he had writers block he spent 4 monthes with Michelle in his beloved Indonesia inspite of the growing suicide bombing and mean muslims killing the moderate muslims. He hopes to return with Michelle and his children someday. Obama had his white grandfather who was there for him before birth. So, lot less fortunate children out there than poor Obama.

  5. Reality Bytes
    June 20, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    My Dad by Charles R. Swindoll
    1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

    I’ll never forget the night my dad died.

    He left like he had lived. Quietly. Graciously. With dignity. Without demands or harsh words or even a frown, he surrendered himself—a tired, frail, humble gentleman—into the waiting arms of his Savior. Death, selfish and cursed enemy of man, won another battle.

    As I stroked the hair from his forehead and kissed him goodbye, a hundred boyhood memories played around in my head.

    When I learned to ride a bike, he was there.
    When I wrestled with the multiplication table, his quick wit erased the hassle.
    When I discovered the adventure of driving a car, he was near, encouraging me.
    When I got my first job (delivering newspapers), he informed me how to increase my subscriptions and win the prize. It worked!
    When I mentioned a young woman I had fallen in love with, he pulled me aside and talked straight about being responsible for her welfare and happiness.
    When I did a hitch in the Marine Corps, the discipline I had learned from him made the transition easier.
    From him I learned to seine for shrimp. How to gig flounder and catch trout and red fish. How to open oyster shells and fix crab gumbo . . . and chili . . . and popcorn . . . and make rafts out of old inner tubes and gunny sacks. I was continually amazed at his ability to do things like tie fragile mantles on the old Coleman lantern, keep a fire going in the rain, play the harmonica with his hands behind his back, and keep three strong-willed kids from tearing the house down.

    That night I realized I had him to thank for my deep love for America. And for knowing how to tenderly care for my wife. And for laughing at impossibilities. And for some of the habits I have picked up, like approaching people with a positive spirit rather than a negative one, staying with a task until it is finished, taking good care of my personal belongings, keeping my shoes shined, speaking up rather than mumbling, respecting authority, and standing alone (if necessary) in support of my personal convictions rather than giving in to more popular opinions. For these things I am deeply indebted to the man who raised me.

    Certain smells and sounds now instantly remind me of my dad. Oyster stew. The ocean breeze. Smoke from an expensive cigar. The nostalgic whine of a harmonica. A camping lantern and white gas. Car polish. Fun songs from the 30s and 40s. Freshly mowed grass. A shrill whistle from a father to his kids around supper time. And Old Spice aftershave.

    Because a father impacts his family so permanently, I think I understand better than ever what the Scripture means when Paul wrote:

    Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us. . . just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. (1 Thessalonians 2:8, 11-12)

    Admittedly, much of my dad’s instruction was indirect—by model rather than by explicit statement. I do not recall his overt declarations of love as clearly as I do his demonstrations of it. His life revolved around my mother, the darling and delight of his life. Of that I am sure. When she left over nine years earlier, something of him died as well. And so—to her he has been joined and they are, together, with our Lord. In the closest possible companionship one can imagine.

    In this my sister, my brother, and I find our greatest comfort—they are now forever with the Lord—eternally freed from pain and aging and death. Secure in Jesus Christ our Lord. Absent from the body and at home with Him. And with each other.

    That night I said goodbye. You’d think it would have been easy, since his illness had persisted for more than three years. How well I remember the Sunday he suffered that first in a series of strokes as I was preaching. God granted him several more years to teach many of us to appreciate the things we tend to take for granted.

    He leaves in his legacy a well-marked Bible I treasure, a series of feelings that I need to deepen my roots, and a thousand memories that comfort me as I replace denial with acceptance and praise.

    I await heaven’s gate opening in the not-too-distant future. So do other Christians, who anxiously await Christ’s return. Most of them anticipate hearing the soft strum of a harp or the sharp, staccato blast of a trumpet.

    Not me. I will hear the nostalgic whine of a harmonica . . . held in the hands of the man who died that night . . . or did he? The memories are as fresh as this morning’s sunrise.

    Happy Father’s Day to Everyone @ Sweetness & Light – RB

    • Gila Monster
      June 20, 2009 at 11:31 pm

      Well done RB, ….very well done sir.

    • jobeth
      June 21, 2009 at 6:13 pm

      Please add my own best wishes for all you S&L Dads out there.

      Just reading your thoughts and words, all of you are bound to be wonderful examples to your own kids as an American loving, American respecting Dads. I know you are great Dads as well.

      My honor to “know” you all!

  6. canary
    June 20, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    Obama’s has Party for Celebrities Father’s Day

    AP: Tony Hawk skateboards at White House Fri Jun 19, 2009

    WASHINGTON – Hey kids, don’t try this at home.

    Professional skateboarder Tony Hawk on Friday took a brief ride at the White House as part of a Father’s Day celebration.

    Hawk, 41, skated in the grand foyer and the nearby Old Executive Office Building, with the permission of White House officials.

    The skateboarding icon, also known for his popular brand of skateboarding video games, posted photos to his Web site and Twitter page.

    “…and here is my exit,” he wrote in a message on Twitter, which linked to a picture of him skating. “Supposed to return at noon for the First Fathers event if they let me back in.”

    In another tweet, he says “back at White House, Tweeting live from the Diplomatic Room. Unbelievable.”

    Hawk joined other dads, athletes and celebrities at a Father’s Day forum hosted by President Barack Obama. Celebrity chef Bobby Flay helped man the barbecue grills for a White House picnic for the attendees, which included NBA players Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat and Etan Thomas of the Washington Wizards.

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

    http://www.tonyhawk.com/
    http://twitter.com/tonyhawk

  7. bronzeprofessor
    June 20, 2009 at 6:39 pm

    Joe Scarborough’s Book About How Bad Conservatives Are, Flops — What a surprise!

    This piece in the Radio Equalizer:
    http://radioequalizer.blogspot.....s-and.html

    To promote the release, the former GOP congressman turned radio and TV host appeared on left-leaning television shows such as The View and did interviews with the New York Times and Newsweek. Each time, he was quick to bash Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, and other key conservative figures.

    In recent years, Scarborough has found that turning against fellow Republicans could be good for the pocketbook, securing him the morning gig at MSNBC and a syndicated talk show airing on WABC / New York and elsewhere.

    But in new data released late this week, Scarborough has struck out in every category: TV, radio and publishing. His widely-touted The Last Best Hope: Restoring Conservatism and America’s Promise has bombed, selling just 6432 copies since its 9 June release, according to new Bookscan figures. At Amazon, it has already dropped out of the top 100, currently ranked 166.

  8. caligirl9
    June 20, 2009 at 11:17 pm

    You know, I honestly think the solution is pretty easy. Secure the border, then pick and choose who gets to stay. The law-abiding ones (law-abiding except for being here illegally—I mean people who aren’t driving without a license, who haven’t been arrested, who haven’t abused the “entitlement system.”), the solid citizens with morals and a sincere love for the United States who are here because of their parents’ decision to break a law, those in college and have solid plans to give back to what they regard as home, the cream of the crop stays. The gang-bangers, the criminals, the welfare moms—send ‘em back.

    From the Los Angeles Times

    P.S. Why not just call these people what they are—illegal aliens? This politically correct “undocumented workers” is such a pile of bull doo-doo.

    Immigration reform to get a quiet kickoff
    The White House has downplayed expectations for a meeting next week of lawmakers involved in the issue. Some Democrats say they might not be able to pass a citizenship plan until after the 2010 vote.

    Lawmakers will gather at the White House next week for a working session on immigration reform, a meeting that has been highly anticipated by Latino leaders eager for President Obama to honor his campaign promise to put millions of undocumented workers on a “pathway to citizenship.” But many Democrats are now concluding that they may well not have the muscle to pass such a controversial measure — at least not immediately, and possibly not until after the 2010 midterm election.

    And even though Obama used a Latino prayer breakfast Friday morning to reiterate his intention to pass some sort of new immigration plan during his presidency, next week’s gathering demonstrates how the White House and congressional leaders are trying to strike a careful balance. They are seeking to assuage Latino voters, who are a key constituency, while avoiding specific promises on timing and substance, and while trying not to antagonize independent voters who may have a skeptical view of legalization plans.

    Obama, for example, slightly rephrased his immigration goals during Friday’s remarks, saying that new legislation should “clarify the status of millions who are here illegally, many who have put down roots.”

    “For those who wish to become citizens, we should require them to pay a penalty and pay taxes, learn English, go to the back of the line behind those who played by the rules,” Obama said.

    … Moreover, the White House is careful to point out that Obama wants to merely begin the debate this year. He is not promising that a plan will be passed this year, although in his campaign he said he would make the issue “a top priority in my first year as president.”

    Since then, Obama has made it clear that he has two primary legislative goals for the year — a healthcare overhaul and a global warming bill. Both proposals are already putting many swing-district Democrats in a political bind.

    … In recent elections, some party leaders, including now-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, were advising Democratic candidates in swing districts to steer clear of immigration, or take a hard line by calling for stricter border enforcement and regulation of employers.

    Surveys in swing districts presented to Democratic candidates by pollster Stanley Greenberg portrayed support for legalization as a political risk…

    Greenberg produced new swing-district polling last summer to counter his earlier surveys — this time reporting that “a policy and message that focuses on requiring illegal immigrants to become legal expands the Democratic advantage on the immigration issue.” He said that pushing a “legal status requirement” is more popular than simply talking about border enforcement.

    Some strategists believe the most likely time to press the issue will be in 2011, when Obama, once again needing Latino votes to win states such as Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada and perhaps to compete in Texas and Arizona, will be most motivated to lobby nervous Democrats on behalf of a legalization plan.

    http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....9385.story

    Why why why are we so concerned about a block of people who cannot even vote? No doubt this is pandering to a potential block of “someday” citizens who will remember the teat of government is primarily Democrat—and that being responsible for oneself and his/her family (the Republican way) is sometimes much much harder to do.

    But I honestly think the first step, the most important step, is securing the southern border and working with Canada to ensure that nation’s immigration policies are rigorous and enforced well enough that both nations will know who is trying to gain entry—and who should and shouldn’t be on the North American continent.

    • neocon mom
      June 21, 2009 at 7:29 pm

      The border issue ties in with so many others. It really is the most important issue to ever go ignored for such a long time. It is an issue of the rule of law, sovereignty and a human rights issue for all of us, we have allowed the creation of a class of person that is unaccountable and not accounted for. We have no clue just who is coming into our country.
      Securing our border shouldn’t be something that we have to fight for and yet little to nothing is being done to handle the problem in a meaningful way. It is a triumph of self-interested beltway insiders that this issue isn’t taken nearly as seriously as it ought to be and if Obama doesn’t destroy the country first, then this issue would be our next undoing.

  9. bronzeprofessor
    June 20, 2009 at 11:36 pm

    Caligirl9, you are right — the answer is, build as much of a wall as you can, quintuple the size of the Border Patrol (don’t we have a 9% unemployment rate?) and then when the traffic stops at the border, THEN you start going through the backlog. Here illegally, and got a criminal record? Buh bye — drop their butts off at Tijuana with a care package from the Kiwanis Club charity committee. Here illegally, and don’t want to sign up for the armed forces? See ya later. Here illegally, and can’t read or write? Don’t serve any useful purpose? Got a bad attitude in court? Be gone. If they followed these basic dictates, they’d whittle down the bad apples and they’d have a couple million people who probably have years of law-abiding history in the US and could contribute to society, especially in the military. The dirty secret is that a large subgroup of Latinos who are here illegally love this country and would be willing to die for it. Personally I think the number one pathway to citizenship should be a willingness to sign up for the Army or Marines. That’s how many people in my family became citizens, it’s honorable.

    About this BS about not touching immigration until after the midterm elections of 2010, they’re just stalling for time and hoping Sonia Sotomayor will be enough to get Hispanics to overlook the fact that Obama has thrown them under the bus on the amnesty question. My sympathy is tempered by the fact that I told every Latino I knew in 2008 that McCain would solve the amnesty question faster — even if it pissed off REpublicans — than Obama ever would. They wouldn’t believe me. Most of them didn’t even know Obama voted to build the border fence and sabotaged the 2007 immigration bills with poisonous amendments so it wouldn’t pass. Obama promised all those unemployed machinists in the Great Lakes that he’d trash NAFTA and kick out the illegals to keep their wages high. So he talked himself onto a crucible, like always.

    I hate to harp on Leslie Sanchez, but if you read her book, she gives great statistics — most Hispanics support border enforcement, deportation of criminals, and amnesty only for exceedingly law-abiding people who pay a fine. The reason is obvious — Hispanics live in the neighborhoods that get ravaged by illegal immigration. All the Repubs have to do is frame their border security position in a way that isn’t mind-blowingly offensive; it’s really not that hard. I listen to Rush and he isn’t that bad. The only people who piss me off when they talk about illegal immigration are Laura Ingraham and Lou Dobbs, who isn’t even a conservative. Conservatives have it in them to advocate for immigration enforcement without pissing off Hispanics.

    But the Dems better not hold their breath waiting for Latinos in Cali or elsewhere to say “thank you for Sotomayor, now we’ll go vote for you in 2010.” They’re already starting to protest Obama’s negligence. The protests will get stronger.

    • caligirl9
      June 20, 2009 at 11:45 pm

      I’m going to see if I can find her book manana—I need a good thought-provoking read.

      You know, BP, it bugs me that people/politicians lump Latin@s in one big group and think it’s all good. I am sure that the “experience” of growing up a Puerto Rican American is so different when compared to the experience of my dear young someday nurse friend, who didn’t understand the implications of being a Mexican citizen (with no conscious memory of Mexico) in the U.S. with no documentation. Sotomayor didn’t worry about being able to attend college because she had no documentation; she didn’t worry about la migra popping up and taking her away.

      Frankly, the token-ism pisses me off and embarrasses me for the sake of my many very bright Latin@ friends, who may have a Hispanic surname but are more American than some people whose families claim to have been on U.S. soil for hundreds of years. Sotomayor does not represent “the Latin@ experience” nor do I feel she is a good “representative” of a noble people. She is an excellent representative of what happens to people of Latino heritage who buy into the entitlement and affirmative action mantras.

      I hope I have not offended you, BP. I have the utmost respect for you.

  10. bronzeprofessor
    June 20, 2009 at 11:51 pm

    Haha, you offended me by not being harsher on Sonia Sotomayor! I think she’s a fraud and her sob story about living in a Bronx housing project 40 years ago was completely fatuous.

    I am from the Bronx, my parents were both immigrants, and I have dated and fooled around with lots of overweight Puerto Rican divorcees who used to live in housing projects, in my day. Nothing about that particular profile screams “compelling life story” to me. To me she’s just a power-hungry Princeton snob who milks the same story about what happened when she was ten, to get ahead and feed her own ego. I want to know more about her failed marriage.

  11. caligirl9
    June 21, 2009 at 12:03 am

    Sotomayor is very much like the community college chancellor I worked for from 2006 to January of this year.

    Though this woman does talk lovingly of her parents, who each held multiple jobs to support their fairly large family. No welfare or sense of entitlement—but how their daughter ended up with her attitude and a $250K/year (plus $4K/month housing allowance) job running a pair of community colleges that has as its first mission instilling social justice into 18-year old kids (and of course that “social justice” is chock full of a sense of entitlement, the government owes me an education and a home and health care yadda yadda) is beyond me.

    Sotomayor’s story would be much more impressive to me if she had lived my young friend’s life. My young friend will make an exemplary American citizen someday soon, and she will make a positive difference in many lives as a registered nurse. Sotomayor—well, her contribution isn’t quite so positive …

    • bronzeprofessor
      June 21, 2009 at 12:24 am

      Wait, you can make $250K by running a community college? Where did I go wrong? I make in the 50s with a PhD actually teaching the students at a CSU. Where did I go wrong?

    • caligirl9
      June 21, 2009 at 12:31 am

      Yes. She doesn’t even have a completed Ph.D. Just coursework toward it, and she has no intention of finishing it ever. this is probably her last job … She earns that much and also has a housing allowance on top of that $250K. She runs a pair of community colleges that are attended by Latino, Asian (Vietnamese) and black students. White students are not comfortable on either campus and are a rarity.

      On the day of TOTUS’ coronation, on one of the campuses, the student center was open, big screen televisions brought in, posters and signs of support for TOTUS were all over, and the colleges turned the coronation into a party. Oh, and school was on winter break!

      You and I messed up, my friend. Being a paper pusher, racist activist is postsecondary education is where the money is at.

      (And if I typed her name you would know who she is, too.)

    • bronzeprofessor
      June 21, 2009 at 1:49 am

      Haha, on January 20 at my campus (Cal State Northridge) they also had huge TVs playing the inauguration everywhere you turned. Which was funny, because a lot of the faculty weren’t even on campus, having traveled to DC to see the inauguration in person. Some of my colleagues even opened champagne during their classes. Most professors I know canceled class that day (it was the first day of the semester) and told students to run out and watch the inauguration, even if their class was taking place hours after the inauguration was already complete and the students would merely be seeing reruns. I guess they did that everywhere in the country!

      Three days ago I went to my branch of the LA Public Library and they were selling lots of old magazines as a fundraiser — imagine, piles and piles of Time and Newsweek issues with B Obama or Michelle Obama on the covers. They were going for 3 for $1. When I said I didn’t want them because I’ve had enough of the Obamas, the old ladies gasped in horror!

    • pdsand
      June 22, 2009 at 2:05 pm

      So that’s who was actually buying all that nonsense, libraries. I can imagine little old black ladies who never thought they’d see a black president buying a copy for posterity. But I really can’t imagine anyone else aside from (cough) regular readers buying that crap. I was at Barnes and Noble a couple of months ago and they were having a clearance sale on old Obama iconography. I thought that was downright hilarious.

  12. bronzeprofessor
    June 21, 2009 at 1:58 am

    From the Los Angeles Times poll, which finds that Antonio Villaraigosa has a 55% approval rate, but isn’t encouraged by Angelenos to run for govenor:

    Strong voter support for the LAPD was among the most telling results of the Times poll, and included Police Chief William J. Bratton. The chief received high marks from 66% of those surveyed, topping Villaraigosa and falling only 6 points shy of President Obama’s 72% approval rating.

    For California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the numbers weren’t so good. Only 29% approved of the job he was doing; close to half of the respondents strongly disapproved. South Los Angeles’ Harrison was one of them.

    “I think I could make a better governor than what we have right now,” she said.

    Full article here: http://www.latimes.com/news/lo.....ory?page=1

    I don’t know how I feel about living in a city where 72% of people think Obama’s doing a good job — the same day that 1,000 Iranian Americans protested in West Los Angeles about the events in Teheran.

  13. gipper
    June 21, 2009 at 7:48 pm

    Some encouraging news from Rasmussen Reports:

    Daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday, June 21, 2009

    The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 32% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-four percent (34%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -2. That’s the President’s lowest rating to date and the first time the Presidential Approval Index has fallen below zero for Obama (see trends)…

    http://www.rasmussenreports.co.....cking_poll

    I cheered when I saw this poll. I’ve been following the polls most days, waiting for BHO’s halo to tarnish. This is good news, folks.

    • gipper
      June 21, 2009 at 7:59 pm

      More good news from Gallup: 57% approve of Barack Obama and 35% disapprove of him. That is his worst polling since he was inaugurated! Turn tide, turn!

      http://www.gallup.com/poll/113.....roval.aspx

    • MinnesotaRush
      June 22, 2009 at 11:13 am

      From AOL & Gallup:

      “PRINCETON, N.J. (June 21) – President Barack Obama’s job approval rating fell to 58% in Gallup Poll daily tracking from June 16-18 — a new low for Obama in Gallup tracking, although not dissimilar to the 59% he has received on four other occasions.”

      “Thirty-three percent of Americans now disapprove of the job Obama is doing as president, just one point shy of his record-high 34% disapproval score from early June.”

      HOWEVER .. they should read their own polls:

      Do you approve of the job Obama is doing in office?
      No 70%
      Yes 30%

      Total Votes: 106,097
      … and …
      Has your opinion of him changed in the past few months?
      Yes, it’s worsened 59%
      No 29%
      Yes, it’s improved 12%

      Total Votes: 101,446

  14. canary
    June 21, 2009 at 10:59 pm

    AP: Afghan firefight shows challenge for US troops
    By Associated Press Writer Chris Brummitt June 21, 2009

    NOW ZAD, Afghanistan – Missiles, machine guns and strafing runs from fighter jets destroyed much of a Taliban compound, but the insurgents had a final surprise for a pair of U.S. Marines .

    “This was the first time we pushed this far. I guess they don’t like us coming into their back door,” said Staff Sgt. Luke Medlin, who was sweeping the alley for booby
    “And now they know we will be back,”…

    British and Estonian troops, then garrisoned in Now Zad, were unable to defeat the insurgents. They were replaced last year by a small company of about 300 U.S. Marines

    The Taliban hold much of the northern outskirts and the orchards beyond, where they have entrenched defensive positions, tunnels and bunkers.

    The Marines outnumber the Taliban in the area by at least 3-to-1 and have vastly superior weapons but avoid offensive operations

    “We don’t have the people to backfill us. Why clear something that we cannot hold?” said Lt. Col. Patrick Cashman,…what he acknowledged is “a bad situation.”

    Saturday’s mission was aimed at gathering intelligence and drawing a response from enemy positions close to a street called “Pakistani alley”

    “We’re bait,” one Marine said as the convoy of five vehicles left the base at 8 a.m.

    It quickly came across a roadside bomb — the kind which killed a member of the company on June 6 and has wounded at least seven others in the four weeks

    vehicles were heading to inspect a suspected tunnel when the Taliban struck, firing mortars that landed close by.

    “We’re taking fire from both sides here!” Lance Cpl. James Yon yelled.

    “Hit ‘em Yon!” came the call from below…..Hours of exchanges followed

    “That was close,” Daly said. “If they were a better shot, we’d be canceling Christmas.”

    “Bombs are away,” a voice crackled over the radio as Dutch fighter jets dropped laser-guided bombs on a compound.

    The Marines left their vehicles twice. Each time, they came under attack as they entered maze-like, high-walled compounds

    U.S. forces fired two missiles from 55 miles away to hit a compound… setting fire to a wheat field outside it but sparing a poppy patch — an irony not lost on the troops.

    The Marines got their final close call as they assessed the compound for damage.
    After blowing a hole through the wall, Medlin and Daly were met by a hail of bullets

    “Gunner, are you good? You need to come back!” one Marine shouted into the gathering gloom. “I’ll cover you!” …The two man leapt to safety.

    “Payback time,” one Marine muttered in the dark of a truck; cheers erupted in another vehicle.

    “We kicked the snot out of these guys,” he told the Marines on their return to base, some 14 hours after they left.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....maQ–

  15. bronzeprofessor
    June 22, 2009 at 12:33 am

    From the White House blog:

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_.....t-on-Iran/

    Obama calls on the Iranians to desist, paraphrases himself

    As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

    In the next paragraph, he quotes Martin Luther King Jr. But notice he is starting to reveal his own self-referential properties.

    John Adams once told Ben Franklin, “we don’t have time to listen to you quoting yourself.” Adams was trying to jump-start a revolution. Luckily he was speaking to someone who got the message.

    • caligirl9
      June 22, 2009 at 1:09 am

      Next comes the NATO letter.
      Even though this “statement” is dated yesterday (Saturday) when was it posted?
      Yep, it’s sternly worded. The citizens of Iran feel much better now.

  16. caligirl9
    June 22, 2009 at 12:37 pm

    More of a regional thing again, but just in case you know any California voters, please remind then NOT to vote for this liberal illegal alien-protecting woman!

    From the LA Times. (Note: as of yet, no Bay Area paper has touched this story!)

    San Francisco D.A.’s program trained illegal immigrants for jobs they couldn’t legally hold

    As she runs for state attorney general, prosecutor Kamala Harris faces questions over a program that trained illegal immigrant drug felons for jobs, kept them out of jail and expunged their records.

    The assault on Amanda Kiefer at dusk in San Francisco’s posh Pacific Heights was extraordinary enough for its cruelty.

    A stranger, later identified as Alexander Izaguirre, snatched her purse and hopped into an SUV, police say. The driver sped forward to run Kiefer down. Terrified, she leaped onto the hood and saw Izaguirre and the driver laughing. The driver slammed on the brakes, propelling Kiefer to the pavement. Her skull fractured. Blood oozed from her ear.

    Only after the July 2008 attack did Kiefer learn of the crime’s political ramifications. Izaguirre, police told her, was an illegal immigrant who had pleaded guilty four months earlier to a drug felony for selling cocaine in the seedy Tenderloin area.

    He had avoided prison when he was picked for a jobs program run by San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris, now a candidate for California’s top law enforcement post. In effect, Harris’ office had been allowing Izaguirre and other illegal immigrants to stay out of prison by training them for jobs they cannot legally hold…

    The program, Back on Track, is a centerpiece of Harris’ campaign for state attorney general. Until questioned by The Times about the Izaguirre case, Harris, a Democrat, had never publicly acknowledged that the program included illegal immigrants. In interviews last week, she and her office offered inconsistent explanations.

    The city has a history of shielding some illegal immigrant criminals from deportation. The assault on Kiefer occurred just a month after a triple homicide in San Francisco that put Mayor Gavin Newsom on the spot over the city’s repeated release of Edwin Ramos, the illegal immigrant accused of the slayings…

    Harris’ liberal San Francisco pedigree will pose challenges in a statewide race, particularly her 2004 vow to “never charge the death penalty.” That pledge will be put to the test in the upcoming murder trial of Ramos, the illegal immigrant accused in the shooting deaths of a man and his two sons. Harris has not announced whether she will seek the death penalty…

    http://www.latimes.com/news/lo.....full.story

    The Bologna family killing happened last summer! What is so difficult about just putting the death penalty on the table and let the chips fall where they may. If the fine [cough] SF residents on the jury don’t want Ramos to fry, then vote that way.

    Please let your California friends and family know that they want to do whatever they can to prevent this woman from becoming attorney general. SF is a big enough mess, and California has plenty of problems without a true bleeding-heart lib in office, one like TOTUS who re-interprets the U.S. Constitution daily.

    • bronzeprofessor
      June 22, 2009 at 1:32 pm

      I don’t understand why anyone thought sanctuary cities and these job training programs were a good idea. What a tragedy. I received an email from another Latina scholar in my field a few months back, asking me to sign a petition protesting against the elimination of college scholarships for illegal aliens. I sent her a few basic questions and she got extremely angry.

      I think too many Latino political leaders have allowed themselves to be falsely merged with the issue of helping illegals. Lots of us know good people who are here illegally, folks who were down on their luck and couldn’t get through the red tape. But it’s insulting that so many Democrats can’t distinguish between those good people who might need one break, and criminals or total con artists.

    • caligirl9
      June 22, 2009 at 6:38 pm

      We’ve talked about the opportunity this country has to pick and choose the cream of the crop when dealing with illegals (hey, no one said life is fair, and there is no reason that people who are here illegally shouldn’t have to undergo a rigorous selection process either!), and send the gangstas, the criminals, the deadbeats trying to enjoy whatever “entitlement” programs a state of the federal government have to offer.

      I also do not agree with an overabundance of scholarships being made available to illegals. This is just as ridiculous as the SF “Back on Track” program being made available to illegals.

      Train ‘em all you want—they are not authorized to work in this country. I don’t care if that student was the best in his or her high school and then went on to college to become an attorney, social worker or research scientist or teacher or anything! No work authorization means no work in the U.S. Why make the investment?

      I have no problem with a very few very specialized scholarships, all with the caveat (and the student providing proof) that you are working on making your status legal so by the time the investment some private organization or individual has made in that student’s education, that person is able to contribute by working here legally.

      Every spring newspapers abound with sob stories about young people here illegally who have made it through college and surprise! They can’t get a job because they don’t have documentation! Then they expect the government to fast-track their application for residency and citizenship.

      I am for young people earning their citizenship through serving in the military or for those who are choosing professions that benefit the public good and who are in short supply, such as BSN-prepared nurses. We don’t need any more activist lawyers or social workers.

      I also don’t give a fig about this “keeping families together” bullshit. When my young friend was going through her green card hearings, I told her that I hoped it worked out for her mom and stepdad (mom had two anchor sons with stepdad, both parents worked although were obviously doing so illegally) but that if they were deported, too bad, but I would help her with our without her parents. She understood, because inside she was angry at her mother for letting her family’s papers lapse. What does a child know?

      And had she not been awarded her green card, her dream of becoming a nurse would have died, because she would not be able to pass a background check to do clinical work.

      Now I just have to stay on her and remind her that the principles she holds dear, the principles that make her want to be an American, not a Mexican, are best served by the Republican party. She expects to earn the privilege to call herself an American in several years.

    • bronzeprofessor
      June 22, 2009 at 10:22 pm

      You’re doing good things, Caligirl9, and your friend is truly blessed to have you. We just have to keep voicing our viewpoint so people start to see how screwed up the pro-amnesty position is.

    • caligirl9
      June 23, 2009 at 12:27 am

      The whole illegals and amnesty thing just sickens me. And of course here in uber-liberal San Jose, most of the Hispanic people I know who are working in education are for blanket amnesty, no questions asked.

      I am for selective amnesty for lack of a better word. Like I said to my friend (she’s going to be 22 next month, wow. I’ve known her since she was 18), the U.S. would have been nuts not to want to have her around. Every person who is here illegally needs to be looked at in a selfish, pro-U.S. way. How will letting this person stay here change the U.S. for the better?

      If a person has already misused the system, broken laws (other than just being here)—I mean driving without a license, holding a job using stolen or forged documents, welfare fraud, or joined a gang, that’s it. You blew your chance. Adios and back to where you came from. Get to the end of the line.

      I used to believe the solution was to send ‘em all back and make ‘em do it the right way. But if you have the opportunity to meet a young person who is American in everything but birth, here through the act of their parents, I promise a person will soften his or her heart a bit.

      I wish my political party would embrace something similar to my vision—keeping the cream of the crop will improve our nation. Sending the less than desirables back will simply force those peoples’ home nations to face the fact they need to do a better job for their people. Not that they will … it’s easier to blame America. And make it a bit tougher to immigrate here—something like Canada’s system might be nice—points for education, points for being able to work in certain professions.

      But the first step no matter what is decided—build the fence, moat, cliff, swamp, or whatever first. Then adequately staff and fund the Border Control.

  17. bronzeprofessor
    June 22, 2009 at 2:04 pm

    sorry double post

  18. bronzeprofessor
    June 22, 2009 at 2:05 pm

    From Newsmax, courtesy of NewsBusters:

    SE Cupp blasts feminists, says they don’t speak for women

    Margaret Cho called Palin “the worst thing to happen to America since 9/11.” Bill Maher said she was “hot and dumb.” Roseanne Barr called her “Bad Mother Palin,” and Randi Rhodes joked that she’s “friends with all the teenage boys. You have to say no when your kids say ‘can we sleep over at the Palins’?’ No! NO!” Sandra Bernhard warned she’d be gang raped in New York City, and in a stroke of absolute genius, Hollywood’s favorite little recluse, Lindsay Lohan, called her “media obsessed.”

    Yet, where was the outcry from Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and other perceived protectors of women’s rights? Where was the National Organization for Women when Perez Hilton called Palin a pig or Carrie Prejean a “c” word? Where was Gloria Steinem? All we heard were crickets.

    Full story at http://www.newsmax.com/s.e._cu.....27583.html

    SE Cupp hits it right on the head. Conservatives need to keep this up, non-stop: We need to peel away all the false liberal constituencies, one by one.

    First, let’s come for the women — liberals have failed them, as Cupp points out.

    Next, let’s come for the Latinos — liberals have failed them, as evidenced by how they torpedoed Miguel Estrada and Linda Chavez, then fill Latino neighborhoods with illegal alien criminals and crowd schools and hospitals with undocumented families that displace Latinos who are here legally and abide by the law.

    Next, come for the gays — regardless of the conservative stance on gay marriage, liberals are sitting on their hands for the two glitter issues involving gays (don’t ask don’t tell, and marriage) while the liberal policies will kill gay-run small businesses, enable gay-slaying Islamic despots abroad, and take away the power of gay neighborhoods to assert local control over themselves. Also, the 800,000 abortions liberals enable each year, take away life from tons of innocent babies that gay and lesbian couples would be more than willing to adopt.

  19. wardmama4
    June 22, 2009 at 5:01 pm

    Ah in this time of tumult, cheating son-in-laws who kick wife & two little boys out to move in the girlfriend and of course Our Fearless Reader (nod to The Rude News for that gem), I thought a bit of humor would be refreshing.

    If you are Politically Incorrect where Islam is concerned, then enjoy:

    http://www.therudenews.com/archives/178

    The CAIR Bears.

    Our Fearless Reader would not approve.

    • canary
      June 22, 2009 at 11:52 pm

      wardmama4, too cute. Concerning CAIR (a national org whose purpose is to make American believe muslims love America) was found by the FBI to be found in direct contact in aiding and funneling money to terrorists. Strange we haven’t heard much on that issue lately. Things are moving too fast. It’s a time for America to stay alert.

  20. canary
    June 22, 2009 at 6:44 pm

    OBAMA GM Has New Web Site and Slogan. GM Renivention.

    Not sure if anyone saw the new commercial that has you on the end of your seat thinking the world is ending, iron fist punching out at you, only to end up being a GM new Reinvention adverstisiment. Vidio 1 shows the new electric car. Other Vidio’s and links to explains the bankruptsy finances, etc. links to car. Check out America’s owned cars web site.

    http//www.gmreinvention.com/

  21. canary
    June 22, 2009 at 7:11 pm

    AP: Blago former fundraiser gets 3 years in prison
    By AP Legal Affairs Writer Mike Robinson June 22 2009

    CHICAGO – Ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s former chief fundraiser was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for hiding the use of his company’s money to pay thousands of dollars in gambling debts and other expenses.

    Christopher G. Kelly, 50, who was a key member of Blagojevich’s inner circle, also was fined $7,500 and ordered to pay more than $600,000 in restitution to the federal government.

    As head of the campaign fund, Kelly helped Blagojevich raise millions of dollars to bankroll his races for governor.

    Along with convicted influence-peddler Tony Rezko, Kelly emerged as one of Blagojevich’s top advisers.

    The tax case is separate from the one in which Kelly and Blagojevich are charged with federal racketeering conspiracy, but prosecutors hope Kelly will share his inside knowledge of the former governor’s administration.

    But there is no sign that Kelly has been anything but silent so far concerning the wave of corruption that has engulfed state government in recent years.

    Not only is the Democratic Blagojevich facing charges that could sent him to prison for years but his immediate predecessor, Republican George Ryan, is serving a 6 1/2-year sentence for his own corruption wave.

    Bucklo allowed Kelly to remain free on bond pending another trial, set for September, in which he is charged with paying an unnamed consultant $450,000 in kickbacks to get $8.5 million in inflated roofing contracts from two airlines at O’Hare International Airport.

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

    Oh, it mentions RezKo, Obama’s former real-estate partner and next door neighbor.

    And to think Obama appointed his Chicago crib – away from crib’s rooted muslim homes, to be the Nation’s Capital Hub for his new bullet train, instead of D.C. where all the leaders are…
    well, that an the electric cars. It will just be a press of a button to shut down national transportaton and communication. Obama’s is thanking Ahhmadman for the test run.

  22. BillK
    June 22, 2009 at 10:49 pm

    What a dilemma for Obama – do I kowtow to the UAW or to the trial lawyers?

    From Denver’s KUSA television:

    Auto deals leave victims without day in court

    Chrysler and General Motors, which are seeking federal aid to stay afloat, have not set aside money in their bankruptcy deals for drivers injured or killed by alleged defective automobile parts.

    That means some 14,566 current claims and any future claims against the auto manufacturers will be wiped out when the congressional deals are final.

    “These car companies have taken billions of dollars in federal bailout funds and then wacked the consumer with the back of their hand,” said Denver Attorney Jim Gilbert, who represents multiple clients against the manufacturers. “That’s not right.”

    Nationwide, there are 2,624 claims against Chrysler and 11,942 claims against General Motors. GM’s average market share was 25 percent during the years 2003 and 2008, yet it held 38 percent of all death and injury claims of all auto manufacturers, according to the Safety Research & Strategies in Massachusetts. …

    http://www.9news.com/money/art.....p;catid=75

    Here’s where it gets good:

    Attorneys want Congress to set up a victims’ fund to take care of claims against the auto manufacturers. Otherwise, lawyers say Medicare and Medicaid funds may have to pay for catastrophic injuries.

    “Someone is going to have to pay for it,” Gilbert said. “And it seems to me that the only fair thing would be that the people who caused the damage be required to pay for it.”

    Victim advocates are also concerned that potential consumers will never know about dangers or defects in automobiles if there are fewer claims and litigation.

    “These claims will go unreported. No one will ever know who was hurt and how in some of these vehicles,” said Gilbert.

    Thirty attorneys general have signed a petition in bankruptcy court against the pending deals mostly because they eviscerates states’ claims against the companies and leave victims no legal recourse.

    If you read between the lines this means attorneys want to use taxpayer dollars to pay off clients who sue the Government-owned auto companies – but it’s all OK as it will reduce Government-paid health care claims!

  23. BillK
    June 22, 2009 at 10:53 pm

    But how can this be happening after the stimulus bills?

    From the AP:

    Stocks tumble on bleak outlook for world economy

    NEW YORK (AP) – A surprisingly bleak forecast for the world economy pushed stocks to their biggest loss in two months.

    Major stock indexes tumbled by more than 2 percent Monday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average down 201 points, after the World Bank estimated the global economy will shrink 2.9 percent in 2009. It previously predicted a 1.7 percent contraction.

    The grim assessment was the latest unwelcome surprise for the market since last month and further eroded hopes that the economy was starting to emerge from recession. Investors began driving stocks sharply higher in early March, encouraged by modest improvements in housing, manufacturing and even unemployment.

    The dampened economic outlook from the World Bank, a global lender based in Washington, also weighed on the prices of oil, metals, and other commodities. Those price drops in turn sent energy and metal producers’ shares falling.

    Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer of Johnson Illington Advisors, said the downbeat economic prediction confirmed fears that have been building in the market for two weeks.

    “The forecast by the World Bank just dramatized that the market may have overstated what’s coming for the economy,” he said.

    The stock market is coming off its first weekly loss in more than a month after mixed economic readings last week.

    Investors have gone from enjoying a string of better-than-expected economic data to trying to manage a list of worries about the economy. Stocks have lost ground several times in the last month on fears that rising interest rates and inflation would upend an economic recovery.

    Many analysts also say the relief that erupted in early March about the economy then led to outsize expectations for how quickly a recovery could occur. Other economic news has hit stocks since May. A disappointing government report last month on retail sales suggested the economy remained fragile, and the Federal Reserve reined in its expectations for how the economy will fare this year. …

    http://www.9news.com/money/art.....p;catid=75

    Perhaps the Obama Administration just needs to more heavily regulate the World Bank and prevent them from making such rash and dangerous assessments.

  24. BillK
    June 22, 2009 at 10:59 pm

    The deficit is going to be ballooning enough already, why not kick it up a notch?

    From USA Today:

    Tax credit for home purchase could rise

    WASHINGTON – Lawmakers and businesses are calling for expansion of a tax credit for first-time home buyers that has helped spark home sales in an otherwise dismal real estate market.

    With the tax credit scheduled to expire in fall, some business groups say the amount of the credit, now capped at $8,000, should be raised to $15,000 and applied to anyone who buys a home.

    First-time buyers make up a hefty 40% of home purchases, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which is about 5 percentage points higher than the historical average.

    The credit, introduced in July 2008, was expanded in February as part of the economic stimulus package. The proposals may face headwinds amid growing public criticism of government spending to rescue the economy and the widening budget deficit.

    Some economists say a tax benefit is vital to spur home buying and help stabilize prices.

    “I’m fairly confident that (Congress) will extend the tax credit, because it is so important that housing come back,” says Bernard Baumohl, an economist at the Economic Outlook Group. “But raising the tax credit will be difficult because it reduces taxes even more.”

    The White House had no immediate comment Sunday.

    Current proposals:

    • A Senate bill to expand the tax credit to $15,000 for any home buyer regardless of income was introduced this month by Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga. It is co-sponsored by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn.

    “It would go a long way toward inducing trade-up buyers into the market,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the NAR.

    • A House bill to keep the $8,000 credit in place until June 2010 and expand it to all home buyers was introduced last month by Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Texas. It also would provide a $3,000 credit to homeowners who refinance.

    •Another bill in the House, introduced by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, would extend the credit to all home buyers through 2010.

    The Business Roundtable, a consortium of CEOs from large companies, urged Congress this month to expand the tax credit to $15,000 and make all home buyers eligible. …

    http://www.9news.com/money/art.....p;catid=75

    So, just to get this straight:

    The Government needed to create TARP because home loans to unqualified buyers were not being repaid, resulting in waves of foreclosures.

    TARP was required because without it there would be a lack of credit in the market.

    But somehow these “first time buyers” are finding mortgages to buy homes thanks to the tax credit.

    In fact, those buyers are driving the housing market.

    Does anyone else see the feedback loop forming?

    What will the Obama Administration do in a year or two when these buyers default on their mortgages because the Government’s reckless spending has destroyed the economy further?

    Let’s hope none of those first time buyers have jobs in health care…

  25. canary
    June 22, 2009 at 11:27 pm

    One of Christian Minister James David Manning of ATLAH World Ministries most powerful speechs calling for Americans to not be entranced by Obama nor consider him in a class as Dr.MLK or Kennedy, but to gives presentation of Obama compared to Hitler. Hope he has body guards. God bless this man for his bravery and questioning of America’s being entranced by Obama.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTp_atr2G9E

    The minister tells white people they must speak up. Stop being afraid you will be called racist

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

    There are quite a few speeches by this minister, and I think his vision of how white people are called racists just for not liking Obama. And that we are Americans, period. And there shouldn’t be all this division and minorties with chips on their shoulders. Course Obama is one of the most angry revengful anti-American politican in history.

    sermon on Obama’s hatred of America
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related

    sermon on Obama’s communism
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related

  26. BillK
    June 23, 2009 at 12:18 am

    But I thought these were jobs Americans wouldn’t do.

    From Denver’s KUSA television:

    Farming jobs being picked clean by U.S. residents

    By Anastasiya Bolton

    LAFAYETTE – It is hot, there is no shade from the unforgiving Colorado sun, other than the hats that protect their faces.

    Three people are helping Jason Condon and the Isabelle Farm grow organic radishes, lettuce, tomatoes and potatoes for sale mainly here, in Colorado.

    Anne-Marie Cory got this part-time job at the Lafayette farm last year. This is her job away from her other part-time office gig.

    “I have to have my hands in the dirt,” Cory said.

    Cory loves this job, a job that’s becoming increasingly competitive.

    Farmers can use what’s called the H-2A program to recruit foreign workers to do temporary or seasonal work here in the U.S.

    From July to September of 2008, there were 171 H2-A jobs posted. Thirty-nine Americans applied for those positions.

    The very next quarter, in the final three months of 2008, 887 Americans applied for the 981 H-2A available. And as unemployment jumped at the beginning of 2009, so did applications from Americans; 1,799 applied for 726 jobs. That means instead of the jobs being filled by foreign or migrant workers, they are mostly going to U.S. residents.

    “A lot of the American workers are now applying for farm jobs that maybe they may not have applied for in the past,” said Olga Ruiz, state monitor advocate with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. “People who started out in agriculture or even field labor who got out of that field maybe went into construction or other types of work, who maybe got laid off for whatever reason, decided they wanted to go back to farm work, because it’s a paycheck and they need it.”

    Condon posted two farm hand positions on Craigslist in April. He said he had to turn people away. Thirty-eight people applied.

    “We had people with doctorates, we had people with masters degrees we had people with all sorts of different career backgrounds,” he said. “Carpenters, people who’ve worked on farms in other countries, people who have managed museums, all sorts of things you would never suspect you would find on a farm labor application.” …

    http://www.9news.com/news/arti.....;catid=222

    Once again proving it was never that Americans wouldn’t do certain jobs, but rather that they merely preferred not to when there were jobs to be had at better wages elsewhere.

    You know, a market economy.

  27. canary
    June 23, 2009 at 1:03 am

    Obama’s love and need for high speed not deflected
    AP: DC transit train smashes into another, killing 6
    By Associated Press Writers Brett Zongker And Michael J. Sniffen June 22 2009

    WASHINGTON – One Metro transit train smashed into the rear of another at the height of the capital city’s Monday evening rush hour, killing at least six people and injuring scores

    President Barack Obama sent his condolences to the victims of the crash.

    The crash occurred in an area with a sizable distance between rail stations in which trains are allowed to travel at higher speeds,

    Monday’s crash was the third major subway or commuter rail crash in a big city in the past nine months. In the earlier accidents:

    • In September 2008, a commuter rail train and a freight train crashed in Los Angeles, killing 25 people. The crash was blamed on an engineer on the commuter rail sending text messages on a cell phone.

    • Last month about 50 people were injured in Boston when one trolley rear-ended another. The conductor admitted to sending a text message when the crash occurred.

    “I’m not sure if everyone in the safety system is paying the proper attention that needs to be paid,” said Barry Sweedler, a San Francisco-based safety consultant and former investigator and manager at the NTSB. “These things shouldn’t be happening.”

    However, Robert Lauby, a former NTSB rail investigator, said the increase in accidents could well be mere coincidence.

    “Just because you had them doesn’t mean there’s a specific issue that caused them,” Lauby said.

    Associated Press writers Brett J. Blackledge, Eileen Sullivan, Richard Lardner, Jim Kuhnhenn and Seth Borenstein in Washington and AP researcher Judith Ausuebel in New York contributed to this report.

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

  28. canary
    June 23, 2009 at 3:44 am

    Bilk, so the only defense left is Obama moving his mouth.
    Did Obama ever say prior election he was going get rid of satellite defense?

    AP: Official: N. Korea ship carries weapons to Myanmar
    By Associated Press Writer Hyung-jin Kim June 23 2009

    SEOUL, South Korea – A North Korean-flagged ship under close watch in Asian waters is believed to be heading toward Myanmar.

    The Kang Nam, accused of engaging in illicit trade in the past, is the first vessel monitored under the new U.N. sanctions designed to punish the North

    Myanmar’s military government, which faces an arms embargo from the U.S. and the European Union, reportedly has bought weapons from North Korea in the past.

    YTN reported Sunday…the vessel appeared to be carrying missiles and related parts. The report cited an unidentified intelligence source in South Korea.

    Kim Jin-moo, an analyst at Seoul’s state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said the North is believed to have sold guns, artillery and other small weapons to Myanmar but not missiles, which it has been accused of exporting to Iran and Syria.

    The U.N. sanctions,.. ban the country from exporting all weapons and weapons-related material, meaning any weapons shipment to Myanmar would violate the resolution.

    A senior U.S. military official told The Associated Press last week that a Navy ship, the USS John S. McCain, is relatively close to the North Korean vessel .

    President Barack Obama assured Americans in an interview broadcast Monday that the U.S. is prepared for any move North Korea might make amid media reports that Pyongyang is planning a long-range missile test in early July.

    Still, ever defiant, North Korea declared itself a “proud nuclear power” and warned Monday that it would strike if provoked.

    Associated Press writers Grant Peck in Bangkok, Jae-soon Chang in Seoul and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....as_nuclear

    So, China’s big pipeline is getting Burma’s oil, and buying weapons from N. Korea and the U.S. Go figure

  29. canary
    June 23, 2009 at 4:43 am

    AP: Judge orders Guantanamo detainee freed
    By Associated Press Writer Devlin Barrett, June 23, 2009

    WASHINGTON – The discovery of suicide martyr videos seemed certain proof that Abd al Rahim Abdul Rassak was part of al-Qaida.

    Federal prosecutors had argued that even though Rassak was tortured by al-Qaida as a suspected Western spy and imprisoned by the Taliban for a year and a half, he still maintained some kind of allegiance to his tormentors.

    The judge said the government and the U.S. media initially mistook Rassak as one of a number of suicide martyrs, based on a videotape captured at an al-Qaida safehouse.

    Rassak, a Syrian, had admitted to U.S. interrogators that in 2000, he stayed for several days at a guesthouse used by Taliban and al-Qaida fighters, where he helped clean weapons, and then briefly attended a terror training camp.

    Wax said his client “was conscripted by the Taliban and, when he wanted to leave, was imprisoned and then subjected to barbaric torture. He was imprisoned by the United States when he tried to provide information to us about his torturers.”

    Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said it was reviewing the judge’s ruling.

    Since his captivity at Guantanamo, Rassak has adopted a different last name, Janko.

    Associated Press writer Ben Fox in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed report.
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....VvcmRlcnNn

  30. canary
    June 23, 2009 at 7:28 pm

    Bomber of OKC Federal bombing comes out of Muslim closet.
    AP: Okla bomber seeks lawyer for suit over prison food June 23 2009

    DENVER (AP) — Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols is asking for a court-appointed lawyer to help him with a lawsuit complaining about the food he gets in prison.

    Nichols claims in his suit that the federal Supermax prison in Colorado is causing him to “sin against God” because he doesn’t get enough whole grains and fresh food.

    Nichols asked for the legal aid in a document addressed to a federal judge in Denver on Monday.

    Amy Padden of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment Tuesday about the suit Nichols filed in March.

    Nichols is serving life for conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the 1995 federal building bombing that killed 168 people. Timothy McVeigh was convicted of murder and executed.

    Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

    http://www.google.com/hostedne.....QD990GN680

    While the news concerning the bombing of OKC Federal Murray building April 1994 was covered up by the Clinton administration, the truth is slowly trickling out. McVeigh and Nichols who served Desert Storm and John Doe II now known as dirty bomber Jose Padilla who just recieved 17 years was financed by middle-east Leaders. Thank goodness Bush pursued the long battle against Jose Padilla a man of many names and masks. However Padilla has also filed his 2nd suit when Obama was elected. The first was that he got a stress condition in prison. His new suit is saying he was tortured. Something all these attornies really are pulling out of their hats since Obama has made it his leading waste of America’s time.

  31. bronzeprofessor
    June 23, 2009 at 10:10 pm

    Jake Tapper Risks Life Again, Prods Obama on Healthcare while others laugh nervously

    http://eyeblast.tv/public/video.aspx?v=ydaGytQuSU

    Check it out. It’s scary how the rest of the press corps uses laughter to try to force Jake Tapper to back off.

    • proreason
      June 23, 2009 at 10:25 pm

      Jake is going to get very sick very soon.

      Probably while visiting Chicago. Just a hunch.

  32. BillK
    June 23, 2009 at 10:33 pm

    Like the arrogance?

    From an excited AP:

    Obama fires back at insurers’ charges that govt plan would ‘take over’ health care

    By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Erica Werner

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Tuesday squared off with the insurance lobby over industry charges that a government health plan he backs would dismantle the employer coverage Americans have relied on for a half-century and overtake the system.

    The harsh exchange came after months of polite White House photo-ops at which the administration and insurers emphasized their search for common ground. It happened just when Congress seems to be floundering in its attempt to move sweeping legislation embodying Obama’s top domestic priority, although leading lawmakers say they remain confident.

    “If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care … then why is it that the government, which they say can’t run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business?” Obama said in response to a question at a White House news conference.

    “That’s not logical,” he scoffed, responding to an industry warning that government competition would destabilize the employer system that now covers more than 160 million people.

    Obama made his comments as officials disclosed that key Senate Democrats had whittled more than $400 billion off the cost of a health care plan that carried a $1.6 trillion price tag last week. The new cost is below $1.2 trillion, but still above the informal target lawmakers have set. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to disclose details of the closed-door talks.

    Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., told reporters the reductions were achieved by lowering subsidies designed to make insurance affordable for those who lack it, as well as other changes.

    Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told reporters he was very close to his $1 trillion target, and predicted, “we’ll make it.” Baucus has been struggling to engineer a bipartisan compromise on Obama’s health care priorities.

    Late Tuesday, Baucus emerged from a meeting with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and said the administration still wanted a deal that could get Republican support. Emanuel met in the Capitol with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other senators working on health care amid talk that Democrats may be getting ready to go it alone on health care.

    “Rahm said he still wants a bipartisan plan,” Baucus told reporters after the meeting.

    Obama’s comments earlier in the day went to the heart of one of the most controversial issues in health care, the demand by many Democrats for a government-sponsored health insurance that could compete with private plans.

    Individuals and small businesses would get to pick either the public plan or a private one through a new kind of insurance purchasing pool called an exchange. Eventually, the exchanges could be opened to large companies as well.

    “The public plan, I think, is an important tool to discipline insurance companies,” Obama said. …

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s.....E_OVERHAUL

    I cannot believe there is not a single person in the press corps or Republican party that hasn’t jumped on this yet.

    If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care … then why is it that the government, which they say can’t run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business?

    Oh, infinite resources, the ability to heavily tax private plans to pay for their own and in fact the ability to pay medical providers nothing for their services and tell them where to go if they don’t like it?

    Any of that ring a bell?

    This man doesn’t just not get capitalism, he’s willfully ignorant of it and Americans… just don’t give a damn.

    The insurers, however, know exactly what is going to happen to them:

    In a letter to senators released Tuesday, the two largest industry groups warned in stark terms that a government plan would take over the system.

    America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association also said they don’t believe it’s possible to design a government plan that can compete fairly with private companies in a revamped health care market. That particular statement seemed to be aimed at lawmakers of both parties who continue to seek a compromise on the contentious issue.

    “We do not believe that it is possible to create a government plan that could operate on a level playing field,” said the insurers’ letter, signed by AHIP head Karen Ignagni and Scott Serota, the Blue Cross CEO. ” Regardless of how it is initially structured, a government plan would use its built-in advantages to take over the health insurance market.”

    The industry suggested a government plan would run counter to Obama’s promise that Americans can keep the coverage they have.

    “A government-run plan no matter how it is initially structured would dismantle employer-based coverage, significantly increase costs for those who remain in private coverage, and add additional liabilities to the federal budget,” said the letter.

    Nonetheless, recent media polls have found strong public support for the idea. That has emboldened liberals, who are arguing that Democrats shouldn’t compromise on a government plan. But moderate Democrats in the Senate are trying to get Republican support for nonprofit co-ops as an alternative.

    The American public doesn’t care what happens, just gimme gimme gimme.

    The only problem is where will Americans then go to get the health care they have become used to?

    It won’t be available here…

    Besides, why shouldn’t polls show Americans what ObamaCare when the press has been continuously beating the drum for it non-stop?

    Not to mention polls like this:

    http://sweetness-light.com/arc.....-care-poll

    So Obama believes there’s no way the Government can run a healthy business out of business.

    That choking noise? The executives at Ford who read this over dinner.

  33. BillK
    June 23, 2009 at 10:57 pm

    Yet another activist judge overturns the will of the people.

    From a thrilled AP:

    Judge blocks Colorado campaign restrictions

    DENVER (AP) – A Colorado judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a new state constitutional amendment that bans some government contractors and all public unions from making political contributions.

    District Court Judge Catherine Lemon said she thought Amendment 54 – approved by 51 percent of voters in November – violated the free speech rights of unions. Her ruling however isn’t the final say on the measure.

    The state attorney general’s office could decide to appeal the ruling to the Colorado Supreme Court and a full trial on the merits of the law could follow any appeal. The group behind the measure – Clean Government Colorado – could also try to intervene if the state decides not to appeal.

    The amendment, promoted as a means to fight corruption, bars anyone tied to businesses that hold at least $100,000 in no-bid government contracts from making contributions to political candidates.

    It also bars all unions that negotiate collective bargaining for government workers from making campaign contributions.

    It was challenged in court by unions as well as nonprofit groups, including the University of Denver and The Children’s Hospital, and philanthropist Dan Ritchie, the head of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

    Ritchie and the non-profits said the amendment unfairly banned board members from making contributions even though the members didn’t negotiate no-bid contracts with the government for things like school nursing services or property leases.

    Attorney Jean Dubofsky, who was representing Ritchie and the non-profits, argued that the amendment was too broad, saying that other states with such “pay to play” laws had only limited contributions to candidates who would have the power to award such contracts.

    “This was legal duct tape for unions, businesses and non-profits,” Mark Grueskin, an attorney representing teacher and firefighter unions, said after the ruling. “This was all about telling special interests to be quiet about politics.” …

    http://www.9news.com/news/arti.....;catid=222

    So back to good ol’ unlimited union spending on elections, of course without needing to ask their members about such spending.

    All that would be required to circumvent the “no bid” rule would be to (gasp!) put contracts up for competitive bid.

    Nope, can’t have that.

  34. BillK
    June 24, 2009 at 8:01 pm

    As was noted the last time this was publicized, Republicans really need to start rerunning Obama’s campaign ads bashing McCain for even thinking of this.

    From a sycophantic AP:

    Obama leaves door open to tax on health benefits in struggled (sic) for overhaul legislation

    By David Espo

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama left the door open to a new tax on health care benefits Wednesday, and officials said top lawmakers and the White House were seeking $150 billion in concessions from the nation’s hospitals as they sought support for legislation struggling to emerge in Congress.

    “I don’t want to prejudge what they’re doing,” the president said, referring to proposals in the Senate to tax workers who get expensive insurance policies. Obama, who campaigned against the tax when he ran for president, drew a quick rebuff from one union president.

    The chief executive also met with governors and arranged a prime-time, town hall at the White House, the latest in a string of events designed to bend public opinion toward his top domestic initiative to reduce health care costs while making insurance available to the nearly 50 million Americans who lack it.

    The flurry of activity extended to the Capitol, where the administration and its allies hoped for a prominent display of progress in the Senate before Congress begins a weeklong vacation on Friday.

    Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., labored in a daylong series of meetings to produce at least an outline of legislation that could command bipartisan support. Of the five House and Senate committees working on health care, Finance is the only one that appears to have a chance at such an agreement.

    For their part, key Republicans pressed the White House for assurances that any concessions made now would not merely lead to additional demands at a later date. “We want to know the president is working in good faith along the way as we are,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, after meeting with Nancy-Ann DeParle, the top White House official on the issue.

    Baucus appeared especially eager to show progress before the exodus from the Capitol began.

    To that end, several officials said he was negotiating with representatives of the nation’s hospitals, hoping to conclude an agreement that would build on an $80 billion weekend deal with the pharmaceutical industry.

    Hospitals were being asked to accept a reduction of roughly $155 billion over the next decade in fees they are promised under government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, according to numerous officials.

    Officials at the American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals said they could not comment on any discussions.

    Baucus is seeking similar concessions from nursing homes, insurance companies, medical device makers and possibly others, noting that any legislation would create a huge new pool of customers for industry providers. …

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s.....E_OVERHAUL

    Note that one of the reason hospital costs are so high now is that they need to recoup losses from Medicare payments.

    Anyone that works in a hospital can tell you the pitiful fees Medicare (and the future Obama health plan) pays aren’t enough to keep the lights on, let alone pay staff and physicians. Thus as with all such programs, the costs get passed on to those with private insurance or those with no insurance at all.

    Note that this means the net result of “accepting lower payments” and the Obama health care plan in general will be a wave of hospital and doctor’s office closures.

    That means – you guessed it – next up on the list will be a “hospital and physician bailout.”

    Hospitals aren’t being greedy when they charge what they do, but when the Medicare payment for an MRI won’t even pay for the electricity to power the machine, the cost has to be made up somewhere.

  35. BillK
    June 24, 2009 at 8:08 pm

    Good to see unions aren’t having cash problems; not when they can send their members to D.C. to picket Colorado’s (Democratic) Governor.

    From Denver’s KUSA television:

    Ritter picketed while in D.C.

    By Adam Schrager

    WASHINGTON – Governor Bill Ritter’s problems with Colorado firefighters and grocery workers followed him to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday where he was holding two separate fundraisers for his 2010 re-election campaign.

    Roughly 40 union members, including some from Colorado, picketed outside two downtown buildings in the nation’s capital where the first-term Democrat was meeting with potential donors.

    The signs they carried said “Why does Ritter hate firefighters?” on one side and “Why does Ritter hate working families?” on the other.

    The governor did not have to cross the picket line to enter either event held in his honor.

    Ritter has been at odds with both groups over vetoes he issued at the end of the 2009 legislative session. Firefighters have accused him of reneging on a campaign pledge to support Senate Bill 180 which would have given certain firefighters the right to collectively bargain. Ritter said in some of those jurisdictions local voters have already refused the concept of collective bargaining for their firefighters.

    “It’s a matter of integrity and I believe he’s failed in that category,” said Steve Clapham, an Aurora firefighter for 25 years who said he attended a meeting where Ritter said he supported collective bargaining for firefighters. “If he had said he’d study the issue, we wouldn’t be here today, but he went for the crowd pleaser.

    “Your word has to stand for something. The man told us he would sign our bill and he didn’t, so we’re upset,” Clapham said.

    The public spat with the firefighter unions came after grocery store workers criticized him vocally at one of his bill signings for vetoing a measure that would have given locked-out employees access to unemployment benefits. The governor said it would have placed the state in the middle of on-going negotiations between Colorado’s grocery stores and its workers.

    “I voted for Bill Ritter and encouraged my family to vote for him too,” said Ashton Santos, a United Food and Commercial Worker Local 7 member and Safeway employee. “He said he would support Colorado’s middle class, and he failed to do so. That’s why I travelled all the way to Washington, D.C. to talk to him – but ended up standing outside a luxury hotel while he raised money with his Beltway lobbyist buddies.” …

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

    Remember, “supporting the middle class” is Demspeak for “cowtowing to Unions, no matter how much it costs the general public.”

    Note that his stance has caused several even further left Democrats to propose running against him when he’s up for reelection next year, and several unions have vowed to support those candidates.

  36. tranquil.night
    June 24, 2009 at 8:56 pm

    Chavez Continues to Get Chummy as U.S. to Restore Ties with Venezuela, Syria

    From ‘those defenders of the faith’ at Al Jazeera:

    Caracas ‘will restore envoy to US’

    Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s president, has said his country will restore its ambassador to the US, in a sign of warming ties between Caracas and Washington.

    Speaking on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas on Saturday, Chavez said that he had already decided on a candidate to assume the post.

    “I have spoken to Roy Chaderton [a former Venezuelan foreign minister] and I have designated him as the new ambassador to the United States,” Chavez said at the summit, held in Trinidad and Tobago.

    “Now we just have to wait for the United States to give Chaderton the approval to take up this important post to direct a new era in relations.”

    The Venezuelan president made the announcement hours after saying he had no doubt his country’s ties with Washington would improve now that Barack Obama, the US president, was in the White House.

    There was no immediate reaction from the US delegation.

    Diplomatic spat

    The move comes nearly seven months after Venezuela expelled Patrick Duddy, Washington’s top diplomat in Caracas.

    Chavez expelled Duddy in solidarity with Evo Morales, Bolivia’s president, who ordered out the top US diplomat in his country, accusing him of helping the opposition incite violence.

    The US administration, then headed by George Bush, US president at the time, reciprocated by kicking out both nations’ ambassadors.

    Relations between Venezuela and the US, its key oil customer, have been frayed since Chavez came to power and positioned himself as a standard-bearer for anti-US sentiment in South America.

    Glad to see the World Apology Tour continues to be a raging success for American diplomacy with tyrants. This same courtesy is also being extended to Hamas-supporting Syria, and one might speculate about Iran too had not these pesky protests arisen.

    For Chavez this comes in the wake of fresh fears from the opposition (free) press of a crackdown and Hugo’s congratulations of Obama on his FoxNews criticism.

    No official word from Mr. Chavez yet on what aid he’s provided to his embattled friend and ally Mahmoud Ahmadman.

  37. BillK
    June 25, 2009 at 1:26 am

    Some good news from StudioBriefing.net:

    CBS, ABC Newscasts Sink to Lowest Level Yet

    Not only were the ratings down for the networks’ entertainment programs, but so, too, were the numbers for their nightly newscasts, particularly for CBS and ABC. CBS Evening News drew just 4.89 million viewers, its lowest in modern-ratings history. Likewise, ABC’s World News attracted 6.42 million, also a low point for the newscast. The low numbers came despite widespread interest in the Iranian elections and subsequent violence, which boosted ratings of the cable news networks. Since the crisis began on June 13, Fox News’s audience has climbed 34 percent, while CNN’s has risen 6 percent. (Both CBS’s Katie Couric and ABC’s Charles Gibson were off last week, according to TVNewser.com.)

    http://us.imdb.com/news/ni0849371/

    Oh well, if Katie was off, that explains everything…

  38. canary
    June 25, 2009 at 2:27 am

    AP: Feds arrest head of anti-gang group in LA
    By Associated Press Writer Thomas Watkins June 24 2009

    LOS ANGELES – A man who said he left a ruthless street gang in Central America and later won praise for his anti-gang work in Los Angeles was arrested Wednesday

    Alex Sanchez, 37, who heads the local office of the nonprofit Homies Unidos anti-gang group, was taken into custody

    The indictment names 24 leaders, members and associates of MS-13, part of the Mara Salvatrucha gang affiliated with the Mexican Mafia prison gang.

    The alleged crimes by Sanchez occurred after he returned from El Salvador in 1996 and publicly decried gang life.

    The indictment said he went by the nickname Rebelde, .. a shot-caller for the Normandie contingent of MS-13…Mara Salvatrucha was formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s by immigrants fleeing the El Salvador civil war..now a major international criminal enterprise

    Known as an anti-gang worker, Sanchez has testified as an expert witness in criminal cases, lobbied for better intervention and prevention programs

    Luis Enrique Guzman, director of the Homies Unidos office in El Salvador, said the organization did not accept the allegations against Sanchez.

    Sanchez arrived in Los Angeles at age 7 from El Salvador and joined Mara Salvatrucha and deported to El Salvador in 1994.

    He returned illegally to Los Angeles in 1995. Authorities tried to deport him a second time, but he was granted political asylum

    Several people spoke in his defense, including Tom Hayden, a former student radical and state senator.

    It was the latest instance in which an anti-gang advocate has been arrested. In January, Marlo “Bow Wow” Jones was arrested in the robbing and beating of a rapper with the musical group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Jones was working as a gang intervention worker.

    Last year, Hector “Big Weasel” Marroquin, a former gang member in suburban Los Angeles who founded an anti-violence group, was sentenced to eight years

    Civil rights lawyer and gang expert Connie Rice said…”The thing that makes it really complicated is that Alex did really good work,” she said.

    Sanchez helped establish the Los Angeles office the following year.

    The office has helped remove tattoos from more than 240 gang members.

    Associated Press Writer Marcos Aleman in El Salvador contributed to this story.
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....FycmVzdGhl

  39. canary
    June 25, 2009 at 2:36 am

    Desert News: Chaffetz wants postal workers to help conduct census
    By Bob Bernick Jr. June 24 2009

    Chaffetz, R-Utah, wants to save taxpayer dollars in the 2010 Census by having U.S. postal workers do some of the data collecting legwork.

    But Chaffetz has two strikes against him. The Census Bureau has already started hiring data collectors in Utah and across the nation, and Chaffetz is a freshman Republican in a U.S. House controlled by Democrats.

    Chaffetz said he and other congressmen are concerned that the Commerce Department, which conducts the census, says it must hire 750,000 workers to count America’s population. Meanwhile, the post office already has 760,000 employees who could help out.

    Chaffetz said census bosses have already announced they will partner with many local groups, among those the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, or ACORN. The grass-roots community group that strongly supports liberal causes is being investigated in multiple states for voter fraud.

    “It is imperative the American people have the utmost confidence in the collection of census data,” Chaffetz said in a statement. “We should not rely upon ACORN to gather census data. I don’t trust ACORN and neither do the American people.”

    Chaffetz said postal workers are trusted employees, and it just is common sense to use them.

    Chaffetz and fellow Utah Republican Rep. Rob Bishop also introduced a bill Wednesday dealing with the census, which would require Americans living overseas to be counted. It is intended to address the problem of, among others, Mormon missionaries not being counted.

    For more information, visit 2010.census.gov.
    http://www.deseretnews.com/art.....88,00.html

    • canary
      June 25, 2009 at 2:47 am

      ACORN going to door to door for census is becoming more of a reality. In the past the USPS always delivered the census to every home, as in put it in the mail-box since they go to each home anyways. Knocking on doors to deliver the census should be done by no-one. But, to pay for more ACORN, and individuals without back-ground checks, criminals, to actually deliver them, and then follow up, on those that aren’t completed and mailed back or electronically done? And while the PO can put them in the mailbox while most people work during the day will ACORN work at night, or make repeated trips. This is insanity.

      And ya know. This could be dangerous for ACORN. They might come to a crack house and get shot. They might get bitten by a dog. At least dogs recognise the mailman. Or worse someone crazy might mistake them as a robber and shoot them, at night. It’s too dangerous for everyone. Since ACORN hires criminals a pedifile could grab a child.

  40. canary
    June 25, 2009 at 3:19 am

    Consumer Affairs: Obama Set to Sign ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Bill
    Dealers, automakers see measure as ‘cash on the hood’

    By Truman Lewis
    ConsumerAffairs.com June 24, 2009

    June 24, 2009

    No one can say carmakers have gotten short shrift from Congress and the Obama Administration. In the latest attempt to breathe life into the moribund U.S. auto industry, President Obama today is expected to sign the “cash-for-clunkers” bill, which sped through Congress like a Corvette through a speed trap.

    The measure offers cash vouchers worth as much as $4,500 to consumers who trade in their old cars for new, more fuel-efficient models. Its passage was assured when Democratic backers in the House attached it to a bill that provides funding for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate went along, on a 91-5 vote.

    The official site, Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) has the latest information on the program — but consumers should remember that, although Congress and the President have signed off on the plan, it will not be in effect until the final regulations are written.

    The bill would require that trade-ins get no better than 18 miles per gallon, be a 1984 or newer model, and have been registered and insured during the past year. The last provision is intended to keep quick-buck artists from flooding the program with junkers scavenged from used car lots.

    If consumers purchased a new vehicle that gets an extra four miles per gallon or more, they would receive a voucher for $3,500. If they purchased a new vehicle that gets 10 miles per gallon or more than their trade-in, the value of the voucher goes up to $4500.

    Besides the clunkers vouchers, the feds have invested billions of dollars of taxpayers money to buy time for bankrupt Chrysler and General Motors. Also, the economic stimulus bill provides a sales and excise tax deduction for new-car purchases.

    “This program will provide a much-needed boost to the struggling auto industry, including manufacturers, dealers, suppliers and other related industries,” Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

    Supporters include not just domestic automakers. The Association of International Automobile Manufacturers (AIAM) was also a cheerleader for the measure.

    Critics object
    Is it worth it? Not everyone thinks so.

    Republicans say the program would cost too much and accomplish too little.

    Perhaps surprisingly, some environmentalists are also critical. These critics, inclduing Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), say the measure is not strict enough in its mileage requirements and could, under some circumstances, subsidize the purchase of gas-guzzling SUVs.

    “It is amazing how quickly a good idea can go bad in Washington,” said Feinstein and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal, headlined: “Handouts for Hummers.”

    http://www.consumeraffairs.com.....C1Fh&D

    http://www.consumeraffairs.com.....cash5.html

  41. canary
    June 25, 2009 at 3:46 am

    AP: Mousavi Web site: 70 professors detained in Iran June 25 2009

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.

    Seventy university professors were detained in Iran in a widening government crackdown on protesters, according to a Web site affiliated with Iran’s key opposition figure, Mir Hossein Mousavi, who says he was robbed of victory in a rigged presidential election.

    The professors were detained on Wednesday, immediately after meeting with Mousavi, said the Kalemeh site, which is affiliated with the opposition leader. The report said it is not clear where the detainees were taken.

    Hundreds protesters and activists are believed to have been taken into custody since the June 12 vote,.

    The state-owned newspaper, Iran, reported Thursday that in addition to the 17, seven members of the pro-government Basij militia were killed in post-election clashes, and dozens more injured by weapons and knives. The report could not be independently verified.

    The professors detained Wednesday were believed to be among a group that has been pushing for a more liberal form of government. The detentions signal that the authorities are increasingly targeting members of Iran’s elite.

    In clashes Wednesday near Iran’s parliament, thousands of police crushed hundreds of Mousavi supporters, using tear gas and clubs.

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

  42. canary
    June 25, 2009 at 11:48 pm

    Real Clear Politics
    June 25, 2009
    Obama Wants “Best Care” For His Family

    Real Clear Politics Video
    http://www.realclearpolitics.c.....amily.html

    DR. DAVINSKI: If your wife or your daughter became seriously ill, and things were not going well, and the plan physicians told you they were doing everything that could be done, and you sought out opinions from some medical leaders in major centers and they said there’s another option you should pursue, but it was not covered in the plan, would you potentially sacrifice the health of your family for the greater good of insuring millions or would you do everything you possibly could as a father and husband to get the best health care and outcome for your family?

    PRESIDENT OBAMA: … does she get hip replacement surgery even though she was fragile enough that they weren’t sure how long she would last whether she could get through the surgery. I think families all across America are going through decisions like that all the time. and you’re absolutely right that if it’s my family member, my wife, if it’s my children, if it’s my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care. but here’s the problem that we have in our current health care system. Is that there is a whole bunch of care that’s being provided that every study, every bit of evidence that we have indicates may not be making us healthier.

    Obama just doesn’t answer the question. Doesn’t tell us if he had hip surgery for his grandmother, when she was diagnosed with 6-9 monthes either. Says how difficult it was for him when she was dying, yeah right we all saw that. He was too busy on the camera saying he couldln’t disown Rev Wright anymore than he could disown his typical white Grandmother.

    • texaspsue
      June 26, 2009 at 10:03 am

      Oh my, now Obama has thrown all grannies under the bus. Is nothing sacred anymore?

    • proreason
      June 26, 2009 at 10:55 am

      “but here’s the problem that we have in our current health care system. Is that there is a whole bunch of care that’s being provided that every study, every bit of evidence that we have indicates may not be making us healthier.”

      What a load of horseshit.

      Like every action that every human being takes in life has to march humanity towards some idiot’s ultimate utopian goal. Bullshit.

      “the problem that we have in our current health care system” is that demagogues like The Moron have declared there is a crisis when there isn’t one.

      a. The system is self-correcting and is in the process of doing so.
      b. If there are any adjustments that should be made, they should be to make people responsible for their OWN health, NOT to make government responsible for anything.
      c. And nobody should get “free” healt care unless they are really poor. Why on earth should health care be a right. What about food? What about shelter? You are going to last a lot longer without health care than you will without food and shelter, guaranteeed.

    • Rusty Shackleford
      June 26, 2009 at 11:16 am

      looking at just one “model”…the best and most accurate version of what the brown clown is aiming for–RUSSIA.

      In soviet Russia, number one problem among men? Alcoholism. Most men died by the age of 50 so the proletariat found it cheaper to subsidize vodka than to take care of pensioners. Worked for them.

      Lung cancer was also right up there. I have talked to people who say that going to Russia is like going to the US in the 1920’s. Tobacco smoke is everywhere. And people smoke like the now shut down factories they once worked in.

      I’m not buying the “unhealthy lifestyles” at the behest of getting good healthcare. But I do see the upcoming taxes that will ultimately result in the shutting down of Coca-Cola, Pepsico, General Foods, Frito-Lay, etc.

      I don’t snack much but I’ll be damned if I have to pay $25 for a bag of chips and some onion dip. Like Rush pointed out, it’s another way to become so invasive on our lives that it’s beyond the ridiculous.

      Picture it: The track your grocery purchases and if you don’t buy enough vegetables per month, they can deny you healthcare. It’s that simple. If you buy a pack of cigarettes, alcohol, or even that bag of chips and they deem you “living an unhealthy lifestyle”…then they deny you healthcare.

      Oh, the bailouts were just a warmup to see how much the American people would swallow. But there are so many idiot supporters of “universal” healthcare that it is very discouraging to the critical thinker.

      Yet, again, NO ONE in the republican side of the house is arguing very loudly. Are they HOPING for irreversible calamity? What’s the goal in remaining silent? What’s the skeleton in the closet that keeps them silent?

      What? That Reagan was gay? That Sarah Palin is really a man? What warped and twisted hold have they on the republicans?

      If this healthcare crap gets passed, say bye-bye to most, if not all of our freedoms. Like Pro said, it is about control and taking away your rights.

    • proreason
      June 26, 2009 at 11:27 am

      Rusty: “Yet, again, NO ONE in the republican side of the house is arguing very loudly. Are they HOPING for irreversible calamity? What’s the goal in remaining silent? What’s the skeleton in the closet that keeps them silent? ”

      The only thing I can figure is that a lot of them are angling to stay in power, calculating that The Moron is going to get his way and destroy the country.

      Which is the reason I hate Republican politicians about 99.9% as much as I hate Democrat politicians.

      As I’ve said many times, they are almost all crooks and/or power maniacs. If they aren’t when they get elected, they soon are corrupted by the money/power/drugs/sex/fame provided by the Washington power-brokers.

      The only ones I trust for even a second are state politicians, and then not much.

  43. canary
    June 26, 2009 at 5:17 am

    CNN Political Ticker Sotomayor and guns

    http://politicalticker.blogs.c.....-and-guns/

    video Sotomayor does not believe the 2nd amendment is an individual or fundamental right in America. Bold Democratic says she will be appointed.
    ….sign. The first thing is they take your guns away. Then they don’t just take your 1st amendment freedom of speech, they take communication away.

  44. canary
    June 26, 2009 at 6:07 am

    So, many great quotes that make it clear about the 2nd amendment. And I’ll be damned if someone who claims her race and country caused her to have a culture problem that made her less intelligent than other students, should tell America what to do.

    And if Obama might think, if Africans had guns, they could have fought against those that sold and bought them for slavery!. They could all be in African living their country’s culture they were robbed of . Still can if they don’t like it here.
    And by gosh look how much easier it would be to hunt and shoot for their food and shoot lions that attack them instead of using spears.

    http://www.wtv-zone.com/Mary/BEARARMS.HTML

    First of all, lets see what Jesus Christ, the original Founding Father of us all, had to say about the right to bear arms! Gun powder had not yet been invented. The weapon of the day was the sword. One of the last instructions he gave his disciples in the Garden was Luke 22: 36. The key admonishment “LET HIM WHO HAS NO SWORD, SELL HIS CLOAK AND BUY ONE.

    (my note. The original new testiment was in Greek and the translation says 2 swords) Jesus told the apostles to buy two swords to protect themselves, when he knew they were coming to arrest and cruxify him, though Christ went willingly.

    A call to arms and an appeal to the God of hosts is all that we have left.”
    Patrick Henry

    James Wilson, an original Justice on the Supreme Court, exhorted: “The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it.

    Sam Adams, Father of the American Revolution:
    “The Constitution should never be construed to prevent the people of the United States…from keeping their own arms.”

    And since Obombi like quoting Jefferson. Read his lips.

    Thomas Jefferson:
    “And what country can preserve it’s liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.”

    George Mason, Co Author of the Bill of Rights:
    “Divine Providence has given to every individual the means of self defense.”

    Less than 30 days later on April 19th, the first official shot of the American Revolution occurred at the Battle of Lexington and Concord. THE WAR STARTED OVER THE ISSUE OF GUN CONTROL. A church Pastor was leading his troops in close order drill, a British Regiment came by and ordered them to lay down their arms. They refused, shots were fired and the war was on.

    • canary
      June 26, 2009 at 9:08 pm

      New Living Translation Bible says
      Then Jesus asked them, When I sent you out to preach the good News and you did not have money, a traveler’s bag, or extra clothing, did you lack anything?”
      “No,” they replied.
      “But now,” said Jesus, “Take your money and traveler’s bag. And if you don’t have a sword, sell your clothes and buy one! For the time has come for his prosphecy about me to be fulfiilled: “He was counted among those wo were rebels,’ Yes, everything written about me by the prophets will come true.”
      “Lord,” they replied, “we have two swords among us.”
      “That’s enough,” he said.

      Course when the apostles asked Jesus if they should fight them, he said no. The swords were for their protection. Jesus knew what he was facing.

      So, First Sotomayor and the courts took the right to own a sword away. Now in Obama’s beloved Indonesia, though they dress like you and me, they have those long spears along with the sucide bombs they are using. Next they’ll ban butter knifes, and we’ll have to use plastic utensils. Or eat with chopsticks. or use our hands and fingers like they do in Indonesia to twist and break those chickens neck, before they chop chop. We won’t get the chop chop’s. Half-joking

  45. canary
    June 26, 2009 at 6:41 am

    NPR: What is this World? Clinton Aims To Build Up U.S.-Indonesia Partnership
    by Michele Kelemen

    Upon her arrival at Halim airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stands with students from the elementary school where President Barack Obama studied in his youth. AFP/Getty Images

    All Things Considered, February 18, 2009 · Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is trying to strengthen ties with Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

    Though scattered anti-American demonstrations took place in Indonesia on Wednesday, Clinton was warmly welcomed in Jakarta — and reminded often about Obama’s personal ties to the country. He spent part of his childhood here, and students from a school he once attended came out to greet Clinton.

    Later, she told Indonesians that she is carrying greetings from Obama, who she says often talks about his time here.

    And it is no accident that on my first trip as secretary of state, I come to this country,” she said.

    The secretary of state wants to highlight Indonesia as a success story.

    Clinton said the United States wants to build up that partnership. She said the Peace Corps hopes to return to do volunteer work in Indonesia. .

    She visited ASEAN’s headquarters, located in Jakarta, and met with its secretary general, Surin Pitsuwan.

    ASEAN has not been very effective in dealing with one problem in the region: human rights abuses in Myanmar, formerly Burma. Clinton said the military regime in Myanmar seems to be impervious to everyone, and she made clear the United States is reviewing its sanctions policy.

    “Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn’t influenced the Burmese junta, but … reaching out and trying to engage them hasn’t influenced them either. So this is a problem,” she said.

    Clinton did venture out of the official meetings to have dinner with civil society groups..
    But she joked that the question everyone keeps asking her is, “When will President Obama visit?”

    “Knowing he can go somewhere in the world where he is so loved as he is loved in Indonesia, he may just want to wait until he really needs that visit, and you can lavish on him all of the love that you are telling me you feel for him,” she said.

    http://www.npr.org/templates/s.....=100826226

    Okay this is bizarre because the radical muslims are killing the moderate muslims. Major bloodshed.

    And then look where N. Korea ship is headed with weapons and missles so they can slaughter more…Mayanmar (formerly Burma) in Obama’s beloved Jakarta. She had anti-American protestors which Obama confirms they hate us even after we gave them all that help. But, they love Obama? When I say he’s a muslim from Indonesia I mean it.

    • canary
      June 26, 2009 at 7:02 am

      Oh here is some suicide bombings in Obama’s beloved Bali near Jakarta.
      committed by Al-Qaida .Course he saw these ruins last time he was there with Michello and his sister in 2006. Presently, its the elections that have things worse than ever. The radical head choppers want a radical leader that will kill the moderate muslims. Something wrong with all of this. Starts and ends his foreign policy chapter in Abomination with Indonesia. Keep clicking the picture and the vidio will come up and play. The suicide bomber’s faces aren’t too gory, survived enough to tell who they were.

      http://images.google.com/imgre.....G%26um%3D1

  46. canary
    June 26, 2009 at 7:24 am

    Here’s Obama’s beloved Russia strengthening ties Indonesia and Mayanmar (berma) selling weapons there and all of southern asia.
    http://articles.latimes.com/20...../fg-putin7

    Big oil company and oil. Obama’s step-father worked for the white-man’s oil
    http://www.democracynow.org/20.....ged_to_cut

    well, it’s all a big mess. Obama will going there soon I’m sure. Russia N. Korea, Obama party.

    • canary
      June 26, 2009 at 9:24 pm

      more evidence was a mulsim in Indonesia is his adopted father’s LoLo (which means crazy in Hawaiin according to Obama) ‘ faith, following Obama’s discription of eating dogs, snakes, etc. Also, just a note, that it was Lolo’s strong impression on Obama that his mother began to worry about Obama’s values and rednecking, and that power was overtaking her son. He was reluctant to go to Hawaii. I can see where as there were anti-American protesters during
      Hillary’s first visit as State, kept mentioning Obama while she was there to keep her head on. Also, amazingly many of who she did visit with, held posters of Obama’s mug on them. Guess all those years of long visits, aside his relatives.

      ***pg 37 barrack obama dreams from my father

      “Like many Indonesians, Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths. ***

      (and don’t forget the Quran says they don’t have to act like a muslim, if they are around people that might be offended, or it might cause danger. So, I’m just no impressed at all with Obama’s lip service to appease Americans.

  47. texaspsue
    June 26, 2009 at 10:37 am

    From the WaPo:

    Arab Activists Watch Iran And Wonder: ‘Why Not Us?’

    CAIRO, June 25 — Mohamed Sharkawy bears the scars of his devotion to Egypt’s democracy movement. He has endured beatings in a Cairo police station, he said, and last year spent more than two weeks in an insect-ridden jail for organizing a protest.

    But watching tens of thousands of Iranians take to the streets of Tehran this month, the 27-year-old pro-democracy activist has grown disillusioned. In 10 days, he said, the Iranians have achieved far more than his movement has ever accomplished in Egypt.

    “We sacrificed a lot, but we have gotten nowhere,” Sharkawy said.

    Across the Arab world, Iran’s massive opposition protests have triggered a wave of soul-searching and conflicting emotions. Many question why their own reform movements are unable to rally people to rise up against unpopular authoritarian regimes. In Egypt, the cradle of what was once the Arab world’s most ambitious push for democracy, Iran’s protests have served as a reminder of how much the notion has unraveled under President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled the country for 30 years.

    “I am extremely jealous,” said Nayra El Sheikh, 28, a blogger and Sharkawy’s wife. “I can’t help but think: Why not us? What do they have that we don’t have? Do they have more guts?”

    The frustration comes against a backdrop of deep-rooted skepticism among pro-democracy activists that U.S. policies under President Obama will help transform the region, despite his vow to engage the Muslim world in a highly publicized speech here last month. Some view Obama’s response to Iran’s protests, muted until Tuesday, as a harbinger of U.S. attitudes toward their own efforts to reform their political systems. The Egyptian government, they note, is a key American ally, and U.S. pressure on Egypt for reforms began subsiding in the last years of the Bush administration.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....=rss_world

    When is the MSM going to admit that Iraq and Afganistan have triggered dreams of freedom in the hearts of many people in the Middle East? I say it’s about time to give credit where credit is due…. to G W Bush and our brave, beautiful Troops.

    “U.S. pressure on Egypt for reforms began subsiding in the last years of the Bush administration” Would that be around the time that Dems. took over Congress? …..I’m just wondering?

  48. canary
    June 26, 2009 at 8:22 pm

    HOH’s One-Minute Recess: Michael Jackson’s Washington
    By Emily Heil and Elizabeth Brotherton
    Roll Call Staff
    June 26, 2009, 12:08 p.m.

    As snippets of Michael Jackson’s greatest hits played on cable TV and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) even led a moment of silence in honor of the deceased pop icon, HOH figured a trip down memory lane was in order.

    “While Michael Jackson has dazzled the world with his unique style and unparalleled talent, he has also consistently devoted his energy to philanthropic pursuits,” Waxman said. “He has donated his efforts to many areas of need, with a special emphasis on organizations dedicated to the health, education, protection and welfare of children.”

    http://www.rollcall.com/

    If only Michael Jackson had Obama’s health care coverage. One can be 500,000,000 in debt, being renting a mansion, a full-time cardiac heart doctor, who the family is accusing (lawsuit?) of possibly injecting MJ with Demoral. We’ve known for years of the Demoral problem, which nearly led to his dropping his baby out a tall building. And instead of a free airlift by helicopter to autopsy.
    So, maybe MJ lost his slot to be frozen, or the house doctor did not call in time.
    God Bless his children. May they have a better life.

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