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Selected News For Jun 6 – Jun 12

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

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This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, June 6th, 2009 at 12:00 am. You can leave a response.

82 Responses to “Selected News For Jun 6 – Jun 12”

  1. beautyofreason
    June 6, 2009 at 9:26 am

    More on RINOs!

    Article by Bloomberg.com

    Republican Lugar Says Obama’s Cairo Speech ‘Signal Achievement’

    Senator Richard Lugar praised President Barack Obama’s Cairo address to the Muslim world as a “signal achievement” and dismissed Republican criticism that the speech was too apologetic.

    The speech was important and necessary, said Lugar, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, noting a “lack of sympathy for our country” in many Muslim nations.

    “We probably as Americans need to give a lot of speeches in the Arab world,” the Indiana senator said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. Obama’s language on Iran was tough enough and was meant to reassure Arab countries, which also are concerned about Iran’s quest to acquire nuclear weapons, Lugar said.

    Still, Lugar said he doubted that Obama’s speech would have much influence on the Middle East peace process or hasten the creation of a Palestinian state.

    “It doesn’t really change materially things on the ground,” Lugar said. Neither the Israeli nor Palestinian governments are really “in the mood” to make a compromise, he said.

    On a domestic issue, Lugar said federal appellate judge Sonia Sotomayor has “excellent qualifications” to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. He recalled his own support for her when she was elevated from a district court to an appellate court by then-President Bill Clinton in 1998. (…)

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomb.....r10rbcgdeq

    I don’t mind speeches in the Arab world, but these constant apologies for the United States and using the office of the President “to stop negative stereotypes about Islam” while Islamic governments persecute non-Muslims is a little much. Too bad the RINOs don’t seem concerned…

    • Petronius
      June 6, 2009 at 9:55 pm

      “We probably as Americans need to give a lot of speeches in the Arab world,” the Indiana senator said….

      The Arab world? Hmmmm. Maybe Senator Lugar should start with a few speeches in Gary and Fort Wayne. Then he could swing up to Michigan, and over to Minneapolis, down to Houston, then––well, shucks, don’t stop there, Richard!––do the entire Boston-Washington corridor and southern California, too.

      These Republicans are so masochistic they can’t wait to bow before their barbarian conquerors; they can’t wait for all Americans to hop onto the grill. And we are so very, very fortunate to have men like Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, who are perfectly willing––anxious, actually––to prepare the feast, to cater it so to speak, and act as waiters . . . . “Here’s a tender piece, sir.” All in Arabic or Urdu or Farsi or whatever, the college language background and travel abroad paying off at last.

    • canary
      June 7, 2009 at 12:10 am

      Well, Lugar and Obama were pretty buddy buddy during their Russian trip together looking at all those Russian facilities with tons and tons Weapons of Mass Destruction that Russia’s keeps selling to the Middle-East region. Then Saudi-Arabia sells them to us. Sucking up for a discount?

  2. Gila Monster
    June 6, 2009 at 10:32 am

    Remember the old adage about “the company we keep”? How apropos for Murtha, from the AP via My Way News;

    2 former drug dealers tied to Murtha-backed firm

    By PETE YOST
    WASHINGTON (AP) – Rep. John Murtha steered millions of dollars in defense work to a campaign donor and the Pentagon went along with it, even though two convicted drug dealers had been deeply involved with the company.

    Records filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh starting in 2005 raise questions about whether the government ever checked into the background of William Kuchera of Windber, Pa., a constituent who has been doing government work for over 20 years.

    The records point to the political peril of Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, and other members of Congress directing federal funds to particular contractors, an oft-criticized process known as earmarking that has directed hundreds of billions of dollars in the federal budget to favored contractors and programs over the past two decades.

    The companies owned by William Kuchera and his brother Ronald – Kuchera Defense Systems and Kuchera Industries Inc. - have received $53 million in federal contracts in this decade alone.

    According to the court records, William Kuchera was convicted of marijuana distribution in 1982 in Wisconsin.

    In addition, a man who describes himself as an early partner in Kuchera’s business in the 1980s is a convicted cocaine dealer who has served two terms in prison, according to the records.

    The man, Peter Whorley, sued the Kuchera companies and William Kuchera for a share of the money the companies have collected in federal contracts. Whorley lost the case when it went to arbitration.

    On Friday, Kuchera’s lawyer said that his client had served nine months in prison and since that time “has built two highly successful and reputable companies with enviable records of quality, first-rate work.”

    In April, the Navy suspended Kuchera Defense Systems, William Kuchera and his brother for “alleged fraud,” including “multiple incidents” of incorrect charges, along with allegations of defective pricing and ethical violations. Kuchera is appealing the suspension.

    In 2007 and 2008, Murtha sponsored $14.7 million in defense earmarks for Kuchera Defense Systems. Before 2007, Congress did not disclose the identities of earmark sponsors, so it is impossible to say how much in earmarked funds Murtha directed to the Kuchera family business.

    In one early link to Murtha, Kuchera made a $1,000 campaign contribution to the congressman in March 1992.

    Kuchera and his uncle started doing business in the mid-1980s and Murtha became chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee in 1989.

    According to the court records, in 1985 William Kuchera approached his uncle, Michael, who was just starting up Kuchera Industries.

    William Kuchera “confided to me that he had just spent time in prison and he was looking for a fresh start,” Michael Kuchera said in an affidavit filed in federal court in 2005.

    “After I agreed to go into business with my nephew, he introduced Peter Whorley to me,” Michael Kuchera’s affidavit states. “One day shortly after I had met Mr. Whorley, Bill told me that Peter had agreed to invest in the business.”

    Under questioning in the lawsuit, Whorley said that he had invested $50,000 in the Kucheras’ new business. Before that, Whorley said, he had been in prison for drug trafficking. Answering questions in the lawsuit, William Kuchera said that the $50,000 from Whorley was a personal loan that “helped for my living expenses, it helped with marketing expenses, it helped with sales expenses.”

    Whorley said that he and William Kuchera were best friends and that they had been involved in “drug dealings.”

    http://tinyurl.com/rxjxgu

    I’m shocked, absolutely shocked I tell you!! Shocked that the AP is throwing their boy Murtha under the bus in this manner.

    Alas, nothing will come of this. According to the new abridged liberal Dhimmi playbook, it’s nearly mandatory that you associate with known criminals, terrorists, lay-abouts, America haters et al.

    • badcrow
      June 10, 2009 at 12:50 pm

      Now we learn the true purpose of Murtha’s airport–to fly the drugs into the country!

    • canary
      June 12, 2009 at 3:26 am

      you can’t work for the federal government with a felony. Reminds me of that politican that hired a muslim to be their state homeland security chiefm making over a 100 grand a year. When the muslim filed sexual harrassment charges on the politican, (because he broke it off) they found out the muslim wasn’t even a U.S. citizen, and working in Homeland Security. That was several years ago.

  3. Gila Monster
    June 6, 2009 at 11:42 am

    Saturday is a slow news day so why not put out a story revealing the gross incompetency of TCO’s administration, the unwashed masses will never notice. From the AP via My Way News;

    US plan to fight drug cartels lacks agency leaders

    By DEVLIN BARRETT
    WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration’s new strategy to help fight Mexican drug cartels is getting under way without presidential picks to run the U.S. agencies in charge of battling drugs, border smuggling and illegal guns.

    The White House hasn’t nominate[sic] anyone to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection, or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

    For now, career officials are acting in a temporary capacity as agency heads even as the White House pledges an all-out attack on the drug cartels that threaten to destabilize Mexico and expand operations in the United States.

    In any new administration, most government agencies go for a few weeks or months without a presidentially selected leader. But the continued vacancies, particularly as the drug cartel campaign begins, worries past agency chiefs.

    Asa Hutchinson, who at different points led the DEA and border security efforts under the previous Republican administration, said the DEA must be the centerpiece of any push against the cartels.

    “Just as you would not want to go without a high-level Defense Department official during a time of war, you would not want to go without the lead DEA official being confirmed for the fight we have with the cartels,” said Hutchinson.

    White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said the administration has confidence “in the professional staff who will implement the plan … but we are also moving quickly to put leadership in place to ensure that it will succeed.”

    More than 10,800 people have been killed in Mexico by drug violence since December 2006. Mexico has deployed more than 45,000 soldiers to fight the heavily armed cartels.

    The administration on Friday laid out a long-term strategy for fighting the drug trade, centered around new, undeveloped technology and bolstered border inspections.

    The strategy document drafted for Congress calls for building visual shields near border-crossing to stymie spotters, improving nonlethal technology to stop suspects and using more intelligence analysts.

    Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the plan also puts renewed emphasis on reducing the demand for drugs in the U.S.

    Asked about the present lack of permanent leadership in three key federal agencies, she said it won’t hinder the anti-cartel effort. The agencies’ acting leaders are career professionals “highly expert” in their fields, she said.

    http://tinyurl.com/rds7b6

    There you go, the Messiah’s minions stated everything is A-OK, …..now don’t you feel safer?

    • canary
      June 12, 2009 at 3:49 am

      Obama’s take on rehabilitating drug dealers. Barack Obama’s Audacity of Hope pg,258
      “Government could kick-start a transformation of circumstances for these men bn working with private-sector contractors to hire and train-ex felons on projects that can benefit the comunity as a whole, insulating homes and offices to make them energy-efficient, prehaps, or laying the braodband lines needed to thrust entire communities into the Interent age. Such programs would cost money, of course – although, given the annual cost of incarcerating an inmate, any drop in recidivism would help the program pay for itself. ……

      …Still, we can assume that with lawful work available for young men now in the drug trade, crime in many communities would drop.”

  4. BigOil
    June 6, 2009 at 12:35 pm

    From Rasmussen Reports:

    Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

    The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 34% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-three percent (33%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +1 (see trends). Fifty-one percent (51%) give the President good or excellent marks for leadership.

    For most of his five months in office, the President’s approval ratings have remained quite stable. However, that has not been the case over the past couple of weeks. Obama enjoyed a positive bounce in the polls following the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. His Approval Index numbers reached their highest level in two months.

    Then, as the Sotomayor bounce faded, the President’s ratings slipped following the General Motors bankruptcy filing.

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

    For the first time a reputable poll shows that there are as many of us as there are Obama Kool-Aid drinkers.

    It remains to be seen if this trend holds up – but it is possible a once great American company under the thumb of a dictator could lead to an awakening.

    • tranquil.night
      June 6, 2009 at 1:48 pm

      I think you’re right and doubters be damned, I think the cohesive conservative – if not republican – opposition has thrown this administration for a loop since day 1. I think Rahm vastly underestimated how effective the truth is despite the Lie Machine they have. The only problem, I wonder, is that they put it all on Him. This whole thing can turn as desperate as Gordon Brown at the turn of a hat if this admin finally slips up on the poop rope they’ve been climbing – and then what? Desperation is a stinky cologne, and alot of people are finally starting to see how much this reeks.

      I think this can and will go global too. Drudge linked a WSJ article today about the left faltering in Europe too, and Pravda had probably one of the most biting pieces on Obama’s policy yet. The journalist probably wrongly attributes this to the European right adopting more traditionally moderate leftist attitudes but if America is any sign that’s not true. Funny thing is, if freedom truly is universal, then Obama may have given us a rare opportunity to reach the Muslim world in new form with our message too.

  5. tranquil.night
    June 6, 2009 at 1:30 pm

    From an understanding Associated Press

    Disillusioned Chief of Staff to Michelle Resigns

    The staff shakeup in the East Wing – with Jackie Norris out as chief of staff to Michelle Obama – came because Norris wasn’t enjoying the bureaucratic part of the job and wanted a change, a senior administration official said.

    Norris has been appointed senior adviser to the Corporation for National and Community Service. She’ll be replaced by Susan Sher, a longtime friend and mentor to Michelle Obama.

    Norris, who bonded with Obama in Iowa as an organizational force in Barack Obama’s caucus victory, didn’t like the management and scheduling duties, and the intense social component of the job, the source said.

    And the East Wing operation turned out to be bigger and more complex than anyone realized when they set up the office, the official said. Michelle Obama has become something of a media phenomenon, whose every move, and outfit, is chronicled – and who has done a variety of events that raised her public profile, such as planting a White House vegetable garden and speaking regularly at local schools and events.

    Norris’ move, which was in the works for a few weeks, was a mutual one.

    “The first lady and Jackie remain very close. Jackie got the job because Michelle loves her and wanted somebody that she could trust, and liked a great deal, in the job,” the source said.

    “It’s no coincidence that she’s going to a government agency that Michelle Obama really cares a great deal about, and that is in an area where Michelle is extraordinarily active — national service and those issues,” the senior official said. “Jackie is going to be much happier.”

    continue..

    Sure seems likes she’s extraordinarily active in giving divisive commencement addresses and yuckin’ it up with the hubby in New York actually. In fact, if Michelle’O were so active in national service and those issues, why would her chief of staff be leaving to involve herself more in those very same issues unless she didn’t believe in her bosses commitment, ego, or message? All I can say is it’s bad when ‘bureaucracy’ is listed as a reason for leaving the services of the first lady.

    • proreason
      June 6, 2009 at 2:19 pm

      Working for the First B*tch may not be all it was cracked up to be.

      I wonder if sweetums might have got a wee bit angry once in a while.

    • Rusty Shackleford
      June 6, 2009 at 6:53 pm

      “…and that is in an area where Michelle is extraordinarily active — national service and those issues,”

      Oh, so now I know where to send my letter to. The National Service And Those Issues Department.

      Honestly, this past week has made me as sick as a person can get. My head is in agony over my brain telling me to make it stop, PLEASE. But the noise continues, keeps pounding away and ever louder.

      Blammo’s a god, Michele’s c.o.s. quits over “bureaucracy”, Barney saves GM partsmakers in his district, and on and on.

      What was that line from the 80’s “Gag me with a spoon”.

      Someday, I hope the pendulum swings back over to the conservative side, and the history books identify this presidency as the most dysfunctional, least productive ever.

      It’s beyond belief. Beyond reason, beyond the beyonds. My friends and I get into ever higher octaves when we scream about the current situation and what’s even ABOUT to happen.

      If ever I hoped for a giant meteor to crash into the Earth…it would be now and centered on Washington DC. Yet, somehow…that would be spun into being Bush’s fault.

    • canary
      June 8, 2009 at 3:20 am

      Can someone tell Michelle’O we fought a war to end slavery.

    • JohnMG
      June 8, 2009 at 7:23 am

      …..”If ever I hoped for a giant meteor to crash into the Earth…it would be now and centered on Washington DC…..”

      I’ve long maintained that if you wanted to give the world an enema, you’d put the syringe in Washington D C. This proves it.

    • canary
      June 8, 2009 at 5:17 pm

      Some heavy trodding at the new White House Plantation, no doubt Jackie new volunteer work will be recruiting more farm hands and maids. Her replacement

      Susan Sher, a longtime friend and mentor to Michelle Obama.
      Already the West Wing also has lost one senior official, communications director Ellen Moran, who resigned last month.

      Norris’ replacement, Sher, has been described as “Michelle’s Valerie” – a reference to Valerie Jarrett, the senior adviser who is a close confidant of Barack Obama.

      Sher was Obama’s boss at the University of Chicago and had been providing legal advice for the East and West wings and working on health care policy as well and had been looking for more responsibility.

      She is in the Obamas’ Chicago inner circle and lives in the same D.C. building as Jarrett, who is also a close friend.

    • proreason
      June 8, 2009 at 6:16 pm

      “Norris’ replacement, Sher, has been described as “Michelle’s Valerie” – a reference to Valerie Jarrett, the senior adviser who is a close confidant of Barack Obama.”

      Tyrants and their wives need their court jesters.

      It’s 100% compliance 100% of the time, or bye bye.

  6. BigOil
    June 6, 2009 at 6:14 pm

    From the Allah Associated Press:

    Militant Hamas gets into matchmaking business

    by Diaa Hadid

    GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – At 29, Tahani is considered a spinster by the standards of deeply conservative Gaza. So in her search for a husband, she turned for help to the best in the marriage business: the Islamic militant group Hamas.

    “I gaze at all the men on the street and think, ‘Oh God, isn’t there just one for me?’” said the young woman with dark skin and honey-colored eyes, set off by a maroon headscarf.

    Her application is among 287 from single women in the files of the Tayseer Association for Marriage and Development in Gaza. Photographs stapled to the files show Muslim women in headscarves, some wearing makeup, some smiling, others looking startled. They all want a husband, and the Hamas loyalists running the association are intent on finding a man for each.

    Despite its fearsome reputation elsewhere, Hamas is known here for its cradle-to-grave welfare programs for the poor.

    …The ideal of beauty in Gaza means tall and fair-skinned with blue or green eyes and light-colored hair — and that’s what men usually ask for. But most Gaza women have dark hair and bronze skin.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_gaza_hamas_hookups

    Interesting the extraordinary lengths the AP takes to humanize the Islamist terrorists.

    I recommend reading the whole article – it’s worth a good laugh.

    • catie
      June 6, 2009 at 10:39 pm

      I read this thing too and had to laugh. I think EHarmony or Match.com should put a little “terrorist” section in their websites too. I’m sure they’ll get a lot of happy marriages out of that.

    • canary
      June 7, 2009 at 12:21 am

      When the Hamas militants can’t find the light skinned women, they meanwhile go ahead a take the women available for human shields and suicide bombers.
      Bad boys, bad boys, what cha gonna do when they come for you.

  7. canary
    June 8, 2009 at 1:21 am

    Grassley Scolds Obama for Health Care Comments

    FOX.News Associated Press Sunday June 07, 2009
    AP-powered by BaynoteWASHINGTON — A Republican Senate chairman… is responding angrily to President Barack Obama’s latest comments on the issue.

    Obama, …, inserted himself firmly into the debate in recent days, including using his weekly radio address Saturday to declare “it’s time to deliver” on health reform.

    That didn’t sit well with the Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, which has been laboring to come up with a health care bill that Democrats and Republicans can support.

    Grassley is a frequent user of Twitter — the Internet-based social connection service allows users to send mass text messages called “tweets” — and he directed two angry “tweets” Sunday morning at Obama. The president was wrapping up an overseas trip with some time in Paris with his family.

    *Grassley’s first tweet: “Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us ‘time to deliver’ on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND.”

    *A short time later: “Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said ‘time to delivr on healthcare’ When you are a ‘hammer’ u think evrything is NAIL I’m no NAIL.”

    A Grassley spokeswoman verified that Grassley was the author of the messages. A White House spokesman had no immediate response Sunday to Grassley’s twitter commentary.

    But Obama’s increased involvement appears to be diminishing chances for bipartisanship, not improving them.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....-comments/

  8. badcrow
    June 8, 2009 at 4:07 pm

    I first posted this comment under the “600,000 Jobs” story. I’m re-posting here to get as much input on this subject as possible because I believe it goes to the very heart of this culture of corruption.

    I’m looking for more comments and ideas related to this scenario. I want to hear all kinds of stories and addendums from the great posters here at S&L. Thanks.

    Well, here’s how it will work…
    Most of the so-called 600,000 jobs will be low wage, “little work” positions. Picking up trash on the streets, neighborhood beautification, inner city neighborhood watch, etc.,etc. These will be part time, no benefit, temporary jobs which will require the State governments to fund them when the Federal dollars run out.
    Some of the 600,000 jobs will be positions with ACORN and other “Community” organizations. Where they will be used to promote the policies and agendas of the Obammy administration. These will also be low wage, temporary jobs.
    ALL of these jobs will be preferentially given to various minority groups.
    The majority of the funds used in this boondogle will go to Obammy supporters who will be hired as managers and administrators of these programs and payed exorbitant salaries under the guise of “non-profit” status. These admins and managers will in turn funnel most of the funding to other non-profits run by their friends where the funds will be skimmed and kickbacks re-routed through other “non-profits” and distributed among the party faithful. More of our tax money will disappear in “consulting fees” and “contracts” for individuals and businesses friendly to the Party. Numerous studies and surveys and white papers will be generously funded for projects that will mysteriously “run out” of “funding” after the “studies are done. These projects and programs will then quietly die out, never to begin as they are merely “shell-games” used as an excuse to gobble up funds.
    This is how it will go.
    Don’t believe me? Just go to your local community government and ask them about job programs and stimulous money…You’ll get the King Hell runaround from those crooks. You’ll be swimming in lies! Try it, you’ll see.

  9. canary
    June 8, 2009 at 5:11 pm

    American Mosques recruiting hundreds in America to al-Qaeda

    Jun 7, 2009 11:23 pm US/Central Family: Mosque Connected To Somali Teen’s Death Reporting
    Reg Chapman MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ― The family of Burhan Hassan learned on June 5, 2009 that the teen died in Somalia. Hassan disappeared from the Twin Cities last November.

    Hassan disappeared from the Twin Cities last November. He’s just one of dozens who have vanished, feared recruited by radical elements in Somali.

    According to Hassan’s uncle, Abdirizak Bihi, the family does not know exactly how he died but they think the terrorist group Al Shabab had something to do with it.

    The family of Hassan also believe leaders of the Abubakar As-Sadique Islamic Center in Minneapolis may know more about the disappearance of several other Somali youth from the Twin Cities than they are saying.

    “They curse us. Call us infidels, because simply we spoke up for our son,” said Bihi. “Now we can say yes, that they do have something to do with it because they’re always acting out in a sinister way.”

    Leaders of the mosque firmly deny the accusations made by Hassan’s family.

    “There’s no question that the message of this mosque is a very peaceful message, in line with the real Islamic teachings of peace and tranquility, ” said Omar Hurre, the executive director of the mosque.

    http://wcco.com/local/somali.t.....35157.html

    For awhile now news reports have been telling of simualar stories of mosques across the country recruiting and training dozens of young men join to become terrorists. It’s believed the mosques are paying for the transporting them out, and back in the U.S.

  10. canary
    June 8, 2009 at 5:34 pm

    Michelleo’s new wardrobe and tea party assistant replacement after former has melt-down has a new site up already. A new version of the Obama global flag, and new message and pointy finger from Uncle Sam. Click on Uncle Sam’s Picture. It’s Atom man.

    http://www.politicalbase.com/p.....59/photos/

    • proreason
      June 8, 2009 at 6:04 pm

      How have children captured the greatest country of all time?

      It never ceases to amaze me.

  11. canary
    June 8, 2009 at 10:11 pm

    Time.com. Barack Obama, Stop Ruining My Marriage
    By SEAN GREGORY

    On Sunday, the New York Times did just that, with a story headlined “If They Can Find Time for a Date Night …” The gist: If the Obamas – with Mom committed to her various causes and Dad trying to save the free world – can still find time for each other, hey, lame husband sitting on the couch watching sports, time to step it up.

    Did you catch that NBC special on the White House? The Obamas happen to have some of the world’s smartest people working tirelessly on the dirty details of governance. Think those staffers working till midnight and grinding away the weekends spend a ton of blissful time with their spouses? Chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is killing himself while his wife and kids are stuck back in Chicago.

    Forget the 8,000 cooks, maids and other White House personnel who prepare the food, do the dishes and fold the clothes. It’s easier to cuddle on the couch and grab dinner and a show like the Obamas recently did in New York City when all that stuff is taken care of. At least I’m guessing. No, the advantages I’m thinking of are his 15-second commute to the office. And the fact that if the Obamas want to head out for the night, Michelle’s mother Marian can watch the kids. (Before people start swooning over Obama’s welcome embrace of his mother-in-law, remember: the dude lives in a 132-room house.) The advantage that matters most, of course, is the plane. Air Force One makes romantic evenings in Paris a lot more possible.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/2.....9190330600

  12. tranquil.night
    June 9, 2009 at 12:57 am

    New Conservative Bill Moves to Terminate TARP, Call Out Obama Policies

    from foxnews:

    A key House Republican introduced a bill Monday that will set a Dec. 31 deadline for the Treasury Department to lend money to troubled financial institutions.

    The government launched the $700 billion TARP — or the Troubled Asset Relief Program — last fall to bail out banks and other financial institutions whose collapse posed a systemic risk to the US economy. Treasury has since allocated more than $600 billion to dozens of banks, the American Insurance Group (AIG), and failed automakers GM and Chrysler, among other companies.

    “It’s time to terminate the TARP program,” Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, told reporters on Monday. “TARP is increasingly not being a vehicle for economic stability and taxpayer protection but is evolving into 700 billion dollar revolving slush fund that the administration can use to advance economic, social and political agenda items far and apart from what Tarp was ever designed to do.”

    [...]

    The bill would also kill a provision in last year’s Emergency Economic Stabilization Act that would enable Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to renew the TARP program for two more years.

    “The economy is in serious condition but we have gone past the emergency point. I fear that TARP is no longer what Congress thought it was when it passed it and I certainly do not believe it’s what the American taxpayer thought it was,” said Hensarling, who sits on the House Financial Services committee.

    It also requires the Treasury to accept TARP repayments from “safe and sound” institutions without additional mandates and adjusts treatment of warrant preferred shares to entice TARP repayment.

    The Texas Republican is especially concerned that the White House is making it unreasonably difficult for financial institutions to repay TARP funds by “changing the rules.”

    “Treasury has put hurdles that should not be there,” Hensarling said, noting Geithner’s recent comments that even if institutions are considered “safe and sound” by regulators, they may still face additional requirements before they are allowed to pay back the government.

    “You can argue that the administration or Congress has changed the deal,” he said, noting his bill will smooth the path for TARP recipients to return the money to Uncle Sam.

    Hensarling is seeking allies from both sides of the aisle including California Democrat, Rep. Brad Sherman, an outspoken critic of the TARP program.

    Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., is also set to introduce similar legislation on the Senate side but details are not yet available.

    I’m sure a lot of us would be happy to see him throw the stimulus and porkulus funds in this bill too.

    It may be futile however I see the strategy here and I’m glad to see this coming more and more from congressional republicans. TARP established a precedent which – even if it did originally flop in the house and then only pass by and large without Republican support – with Bush’s signature on the bill opened the door to government intervention and Obama’s eventual control of business. Remove that link and Bam’s bills really are at the helm of it all, leaving nothing but his wishy-washy rhetoric and lies as defense for any resulting doom. This is a tactic Rush has encouraged now for a while, and it’s another positive sign of momentum.

    There’s enough ill-will towards TARP out there that this may not be dead in the water. Lil’ Timmy won’t be happy about some of these provisions though.

    • tranquil.night
      June 9, 2009 at 11:31 am

      Update: Timmy Caves on Repayment to Hold onto Salary Cap Prospect

      from a somber Associated Press:

      WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department has approved 10 of the nation’s largest banks to repay $68 billion in government bailout money.

      The department on Tuesday said the banks, which were not named, will be allowed to repay the money they received from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program created by Congress last October at the height of the financial crisis.

      The banks have been eager to get out of the program to escape government restrictions such as caps on executive compensation.

      Among the banks that passed government “stress tests” last month and likely were approved to repay the bailout funds are: Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and American Express Co.

      Experts say allowing 10 banks to return $68 billion in bailout money illustrates some stability has returned to the system but caution that the crisis isn’t over. Some worry the repayments could widen the gap between healthy and weak banks.

      More than 600 banks nationwide have received nearly $200 billion in TARP money and 22 smaller banks already have repaid it.

      “These repayments are an encouraging sign of financial repair, but we still have work to do,” Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in a statement.

      The firms now have the right to purchase the warrants Treasury holds in their firm “at fair market value.” Besides Treasury’s potential income from the sale of the warrants, the 10 banks already have paid dividends on the preferred stock totaling about $1.8 billion over the last seven months. Dividend payments received for all participants are about $4.5 billion to date, according to Treasury.

      Northern Trust Corp. was not among the 19 banks subjected to stress tests, but that company also was in line to receive repayment permission, according to two industry sources with knowledge of the matter who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it.

      The push to repay the funds comes a month after “stress tests” of the nation’s 19 largest financial firms found that 10 needed to raise $75 billion more to protect against future losses. All of those banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., had submitted plans by late Monday to bolster their capital cushions that were enough to help them survive a deeper recession, the Federal Reserve said.

      The other nine institutions had to prove they could raise enough private capital without federal guarantees before they could return the money.

      So far, 16 of the 19 banks have raised $75.2 billion, mostly by selling common stock.

      Regulators want to avoid letting a bank repay its TARP money only to have it return months later in worse shape, seeking another handout.

      More bruises in the armor.

      Look like even a small legislative challenge (or perhaps a huge SCOTUS challenge) was enough to intimidate the intimidating.

    • pdsand
      June 9, 2009 at 7:03 pm

      That’s right, it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that these banks weren’t in trouble in the first place and were strong armed into taking the money. It must be that the crisis is now supposed to be “turning around” that these banks want to pay the money back.

      Also, has anyone been to the mall in the past month or two? Those places are in constant sale mode, trying to drum up positive economic news. It makes me sick, there weren’t any christmas sales, and what do you know, the holiday shopping season flatlined. Blame Bush. Now all of a sudden Obama needs positive consumer confidence and an uptick in sales, and all of a sudden our good friends at the malls are having a fire sale.

  13. canary
    June 9, 2009 at 1:50 am

    Time.com Will Iran’s ‘Marriage Crisis’ Bring Down Ahmadinejad?
    By AZADEH MOAVENI

    … They are both engineers with a shared passion for hiking and movies and have been smitten with each other for six years – but Farhad and Mahnaz can’t afford to get married because even a one-bedroom apartment is beyond their reach, despite their both having decent middle-class jobs. This reality has preyed on their relationship, compelling them to consider leaving Iran.

    With young people pursuing more liberal lifestyles and shunning the traditional mores of their parents’ generation, the marrying age is steadily climbing. This terrifies Iran’s religious government, which still peddles the virtue of chastity and views young people’s shifting attitudes toward sexuality as a direct threat to the Islamic Revolution’s core values. “The sexual bomb we face is more dangerous than the bombs and missiles of the enemy,” said Mohammad Javad Hajj Ali Akbari, head of Iran’s National Youth Organization, late last year.

    Amir Hekmati is a determined 31-year-old civil servant from Tehran’s Narmak neighborhood. Two women he admired turned down his marriage proposals on the grounds that he did not already have his own place. “If women would just agree to be girlfriends and date, we wouldn’t be forced to pursue marriage in the first place,” he complained.

    Economists have blamed the spike on Ahmadinejad’s disastrous economic policies. The President flooded the economy with capital through a loan scheme, cut interest rates 2% and embarked on huge state construction projects that drove up the price of building materials. Those changes prompted many investors to move out of the stock market and the banking system and into real estate, which was considered a safer bet. Apartment prices in the capital more than doubled between 2006 and 2008.

    Ahmadinejad’s government response to the crisis included a plan, unveiled in November 2008 by the National Youth Organization, called “semi-independent marriage.” It proposed that young people who cannot afford to marry and move into their own place legally marry but continue living apart in their parents’ homes. The announcement prompted swift outrage. The government hastily dropped the plan.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/2.....9190342000

    • tranquil.night
      June 9, 2009 at 2:25 am

      With a formerly repressed and now liberated society next door, you can’t halt the spread of others’ temptation for freedom, even if it yields the occasional premature whoopie. No, there’s no parallel to make there with this issue and abortion.

      “The President flooded the economy with capital through a loan scheme, cut interest rates 2% and embarked on huge [peaceful endeavors for nuclear energy] that drove up the price of building materials.”
      So Ahmadinejad’s logic is he needs to destroy Iran’s economy so that he can provide the country with an alternative form of energy (erhm) and infrastructure – even when they have the third largest oil reserve in the world? That’s straight out of the Obambi playbook.

  14. canary
    June 9, 2009 at 3:05 am

    Associated Press: Obama repackages stimulus plans with old promises
    By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writers

    WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama assured the nation his recovery plan was on track Monday

    Obama admitted his own dissatisfaction with the progress but said his administration would ramp up stimulus spending in the coming months.

    “Now we’re in a position to really accelerate,” Obama said.

    He also repeated an earlier promise to create or save 600,000 jobs by the end of the summer.

    The forecasts used to drum up support for the plan projected today’s unemployment would be about 8 percent. Instead, it sits at 9.4 percent, the highest in more than 25 years.

    Obama spoke Monday about “modest progress” in the economy, citing fewer jobs lost last month than expected.

    “We’ve done more than ever, faster than ever, more responsibly than ever, to get the gears of the economy moving again,” he said.

    But he acknowledged, “I’m not satisfied. We’ve got more work to do.”

    Obama answered his critics Monday by announcing a list of stimulus projects, including many already previously outlined, saying the work will have a huge affect on the economy this summer.

    “Now, I know that there’s some who, despite all evidence to the contrary, still don’t believe in the necessity and promise of this recovery act.”

    “And I would suggest to them that they talk to the companies who, because of this plan, scrapped the idea of laying off employees and, in fact, decided to hire employees. Tell that to the Americans who received that unexpected call saying, ‘Come back to work.’”

    AP Philip Elliott, Ben Feller and Jeannine Aversa contributed to this story.
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....JlcGFja2E-

  15. canary
    June 9, 2009 at 3:23 am

    Associated Press: EPA sued over claims of air pollution in West
    By Associated Press Writer Susan Montoya Bryan, June 5, 2009

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was sued Friday by an environmental group that claims the agency has failed to safeguard public health in the West by not limiting the transmission of air pollution across state lines.

    “EPA is two years late in fulfilling its mandatory duty to prepare federal good neighbor plans protecting the public from interstate soot and smog,” according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco.

    EPA regional spokeswoman Wendy Chavez said the agency has not had a chance to review the lawsuit and she would not be able to comment further on the pending litigation.

    Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ climate and energy program director, said the lawsuit is aimed at prodding the EPA to enact regional air pollution controls that will ensure residents are not affected by smog or soot from neighboring states.

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

    • canary
      June 9, 2009 at 3:28 am

      Petty compared to bigger problems the EPA needs to be handling. The EPA is the most worthless, ghost run organization and should be eliminated.

    • JohnMG
      June 9, 2009 at 7:22 am

      I assume we’re talking about pollution from the coal-fired power generating plants. The solution seems pretty simple to me. If you won’t accept the minimal smog that comes from the generation of electrical power, then you don’t get any electrical power.

      Supply and demand. Simple.

  16. Flession
    June 9, 2009 at 4:22 am

    From Politico:

    Congressional Democrats try to push an ambitious agenda before recess

    President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress are pushing hard to reform the nation’s health care system, pass sweeping climate change legislation and confirm a Supreme Court justice — all in the seven workweeks before lawmakers break for their August recess.

    The ambitious agenda has some Democrats nervous — and Republicans ready to pounce.

    Democrats say the public is thirsting for major reform, pointing to polling they say shows voters backing health care reform and legislative action on global warming. As one Democratic aide put it, Obama didn’t win by advocating for “the audacity of baby steps.”

    But at least a few Democratic members are unhappy with the pace Nancy Pelosi is setting in the House.

    The speaker said earlier this week that she wants all committee work on the climate change bill done by June 19. Asked whether he’d picked that deadline, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said, “Hell no.”

    “Having a date does restrict how much time you can spend on any given issue,” Rangel said.

    On climate change in particular, the rush has even some rank-and-file members concerned.

    Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.), who has his doubts about the cap-and-trade plan in the bill, said, “There are a lot of members that are still trying to understand it.”

    Asked whether Pelosi’s bill gives members enough time to educate themselves, Snyder said: “It doesn’t seem like it does,”

    Energy and climate “will be a tough vote for people,” he said. “People need to understand it well enough to actually debate it.”

    Pelosi has dispatched the bill’s sponsors, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Ed Markey, to brief members. This week, they met with House freshmen and Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, who has raised concerns about the bill.

    They plan to meet with Rangel as early as next week.

    Some Democratic aides warn that tight deadlines and difficult politics will make it harder for congressional leadership to craft the series of compromises necessary for more moderate members to vote for energy and climate or health care bills.

    “It’s going to take a herculean effort to get it done,” said a senior Democratic staffer.

    While tight deadlines can force quicker action from an often slow-moving Congress, missing them can make an administration seem ineffectual. A defeat could be particularly damaging as the political world readies for the 2010 midterm elections.

    In closed door meetings, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen has urged Pelosi to have the Senate take up climate change legislation first to protect vulnerable members from taking a difficult vote on a bill that could end up stalled for months in the other chamber.

    But the White House believes that expanded congressional majorities and Obama’s high approval ratings will provide the necessary cover for Democrats to pass such far-reaching, complex legislation, even as the party also deals with ethics scandals and the still-simmering distraction of Pelosi’s fight with the CIA.

    The White House also knows that there’s a narrow window of legislative opportunity. After the August recess, Congress typically turns its focus to annual spending measures and renewing various tax proposals and then getting out of town for the end of the year. By the time lawmakers return in 2010, midterm elections will be looming, making members less eager to take difficult votes.

    “There comes a point when the individual member looks at the legislation and says, ‘I am not going to get stuck on this pick,,” said former House Republican leader Dick Armey. “[Obama] is going to be surprised by how large that contingency is in the House and the Senate.”

    The climate and energy bill is particularly sensitive for Midwestern and Southern Democrats.

    Republicans have labeled the bill an “energy tax,” arguing that it would raise energy costs for consumers and businesses — particularly energy-intensive manufacturers such as steel, paper and aluminum.

    “If we pass a bill in this chamber, the National Republican [Congressional] Committee can just rip them to shreds,” said a House Republican leadership staffer. “They’ve set themselves up for some level of failure in one way, shape or form.”

    The staffer’s point: The Republicans will paint the Democrats as overreaching if they pass a bill and as ineffectual if they don’t.

    Another risk of the move-fast approach: One failure can spiral into many.

    “To just keep pushing and pushing without reason is stupid as far as I’m concerned,” said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). “I think it’s a risk for them.”

    President George W. Bush poured political capital into passing Social Security reform legislation. After that failed, he found his power severely diminished on Capitol Hill — a weakened state that made him unable to move his immigration bill.

    “Timetables are a double-edged sword,” said William Galston, a Brookings Institution analyst who was President Bill Clinton’s chief domestic adviser. “If you try and fail, you’re worse off than if you hadn’t tried at all.”

    http://www.politico.com/news/s.....23377.html

    Once again, the great Pelosi is trying to press something on lawmakers as quickly as possible without giving them any chance to really read it. As you may recall, they did this earlier with stimulas bill earlier, being promising time to read the (quick) modifications and then voting on it the next day.

    Because actually giving people time to read what they’re signing is so overrated.

    What shocks me even more is Mr. Rangal’s response to this act of strong-arming. To come out that definatly (for a hardcore Democrat) against this shows some cojones. Granted, it’s probably to help him gain votes in the next election, but I’ll take what I can get.

    Also, :

    But the White House believes that expanded congressional majorities and Obama’s high approval ratings will provide the necessary cover for Democrats to pass such far-reaching, complex legislation, even as the party also deals with ethics scandals and the still-simmering distraction of Pelosi’s fight with the CIA.

    Yes, because catching Pelosi on a boldface lie about something that pivital is just a distraction.

  17. jobeth
    June 9, 2009 at 12:38 pm

    From Washington Times Commentary byFrank J. Gaffney, Jr.

    GAFFNEY: America’s first Muslim president?

    Obama aligns with the policies of Shariah-adherents

    Obama aligns with the policies of Shariah-adherents
    By Frank J. Gaffney Jr. | Tuesday, June 9, 2009

    This is a really interesting take on the cracking facade’ of Obama’s “possible” Islamic beliefs. I’ve believed this for a long time, but it’s really interesting to know I’m not the only one. Even the commentators are openly noting the possibility….make that PROBABILITY.

    During his White House years, William Jefferson Clinton — someone Judge Sonia Sotomayor might call a “white male” — was dubbed “America’s first black president” by a black admirer. Applying the standard of identity politics and pandering to a special interest that earned Mr. Clinton that distinction, Barack Hussein Obama would have to be considered America’s first Muslim president.

    This is not to say, necessarily, that Mr. Obama actually is a Muslim any more than Mr. Clinton actually is black. After his five months in office, and most especially after his just-concluded visit to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, however, a stunning conclusion seems increasingly plausible: The man now happy to have his Islamic-rooted middle name featured prominently has engaged in the most consequential bait-and-switch since Adolf Hitler duped Neville Chamberlain over Czechoslovakia at Munich.

    What little we know about Mr. Obama’s youth certainly suggests that he not only had a Kenyan father who was Muslim, but spent his early, formative years as one in Indonesia. As the president likes to say, “much has been made” — in this case by him and his campaign handlers — of the fact that he became a Christian as an adult in Chicago, under the now-notorious Pastor Jeremiah A. Wright.

    With Mr. Obama’s unbelievably ballyhooed address in Cairo Thursday to what he calls “the Muslim world” (hereafter known as “the Speech”), there is mounting evidence that the president not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself. Consider the following indicators: …

    Read the points he makes here on the link below… He nails it.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com.....ed_stories

    • proreason
      June 9, 2009 at 12:57 pm

      Interesting article, jobeth.

      My own view is that it’s nearly impossible to escape what you learned before you were 8. So I think The Moron’s world-view is heavity slanted toward Islam.

      But I also beleive he is an athiest. As I’ve said before, if he isn’t an athiest, he would be the first uber-lib, Harvard-trained lawyer to ever escape that school with a a trace of religion in his bones.

      So, I think the obvious play to Islam that Frank Gaffney discusses is more probably part of the world tyranny strategy of his puppet-masters. Their strategy is to play all groups against each other, except those currently being relied upon for support. Since obvious pro-Muslim views by the POTUS wouldn’t play well in the US, he saves those views for the rest of the world, when he knows Americans won’t be paying any attention. But those views are one way to ingratiate the Moron with a billion-strong “voting-bloc” who are plenty nutty enough, and already indoctrinated to tyranny to be very appealing to people who want to control the world forever.

    • jobeth
      June 9, 2009 at 1:38 pm

      “But I also believe he is an atheist. As I’ve said before, if he isn’t an atheist, he would be the first uber-lib, Harvard-trained lawyer to ever escape that school with a a trace of religion in his bones.”

      This is an excellent point as is your other point of his pretending to be all things to all people.

      But in addition to some of the things mentioned in the story, there is something that makes me believe that he is very possibly a muslim (lower case used by design) abeit, a weak one. I wish I could find the quote to show you, but he once said prior to his election that he would make sure the muslims are taken care of or words similar to that. . I’ll keep watching for that quote though.

      Whether he is a devout muslim or not, his leanings are there and they are not to Christianity. But allowing for what you just mentioned, I also agree if it were in his political interest to claim to be a yellow dotted Sasquatch he would do that too.

      At any rate, as we watch, the facts or the pandering continues. And I don’t for one minute believe if he needed to, for his political career, he wouldn’t, as they have in England, institute a form of sharia law…to make the muslims happy.
      How long do you think they will be happy with a watered down version? Not long I’m afraid.

      And he will back it…I have no doubt.

    • canary
      June 9, 2009 at 2:08 pm

      No Christian would ever categorize Jesus with Muhammed, or Moses. Christians only catorgize Christ with God, some also with God’s Holy Spirit.. Who would want a practicing muslim who would do havoc with our laws in the U.S. Obama was registered as one in Indonesia, but I think the only God Obama has is himself. What Obama is first and foremost is a dishonest, slippery, slivering decieving con-artist, no matter what religion he is.

      And that is bizarre to even bring up that Shariah can tith. They are a dangerous radical sect of muslim and don’t know why they choose to live here, but Obama has given alot of them jobs in D.C. and gearing them to work in the courts, so that muslims have what? Their own peers as judge and jury?
      “Since you chopped his head off for allah” we find you innocent”. oh.. ya know it’s their culture and freedom of religion.

      Will the Shariah that Obama hired, be running the court for the Gitmo terrorist that just arrived in the U.S. ?

    • canary
      June 12, 2009 at 3:57 am

      Obama was registered muslim in Indonesia. He went there after there was running of communisms out, and everyone had to be registered. He went to a muslim school, and studied Quran. He wrote it in his book. His step-father was muslim. His mother also registered in Indonesia as muslim, and wore the veil thing because muslim extremists are now taking over Indonesia.

    • canary
      June 12, 2009 at 4:03 am

      JoBeth, everything in both books points out he is an athiest to me. He never came out and said he was a Christan. Think he was pinned down during compaign, and said it to, throw all the people, questioning his Indonesia registration citizen-ship. Reverand Wright was radical and lot’s gangbangers and thats the type he wanted to protest and pressure. They’d go around if a store was giving a black person a problem, and pressure the store. Rev. Wrights ministered with criminals. Obama’s best friend was a former gangbangor, turned muslim. Some of his more peaceful community organizers weren’t too happy, about his new companions.

    • jobeth
      June 12, 2009 at 9:32 am

      Hey there Canary. Thanks for the input. I understand what you…and Pro… are saying and I don’t completely disagree with you.

      But at the same time I fully believe he is at the very least a muslim sympathizer. Note how often he will do things that favor the muslims over Christians or Jews..

      Accepting the premise that he probably is atheist…And .I have to agree his behavior supports that probability…I think he hates Christians and Jews and anyone…ie muslims, who will put us/them in our/their place is to be favored in his mind. Thus all this “lets be nice to the muslims routine.

      As I said before..He will be whatever it is that he thinks will get him is way…That’s why his “Hope and Change” worked so well. He never said what that meant to the people. Everyone just filled in the blanks to suit themselves.

      In the end none of the “whys” are really as important as the “whats” of what he is doing. And I know we all have no problem ID-ing this guy as pure evil bent on dismantling this country.

  18. BannedbytheTaliban
    June 9, 2009 at 12:40 pm

    Not really a news story, but I thought people here may like to read this. It was a letter supposedly written by Lou Pritchett, from VP of P&G, and was mentioned today on the Neal Boortz show. I couldn’t find a reputable site that carried it, but here it is from FreeRepublic.com:

    AN OPEN LETTER TO OBAMA (not “my” president)

    Dear President Obama:

    You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

    You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

    You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support..

    You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

    You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

    You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don’t understand it at its core.

    You scare me because you lack humility and ‘class’, always blaming others.

    …….http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2253296/posts

    Supposedly, according to Neal, it was submitted to the NY Times, who disavow knowledge of it at all. But I think most of his points resonate with people on this site.

    • proreason
      June 9, 2009 at 1:49 pm

      good post, Banned. This is how the letter ends:

      “Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years. ”

      I predict he will disavow this in short order.

      His family will be intimidated by Obama’s knee-breakers.

  19. BillK
    June 9, 2009 at 6:40 pm

    Ah, the dichotomy.

    From the McClatchy News Service:

    High court says judges must avoid appearance of bias

    Washington – The Supreme Court on Monday made it easier to force elected judges off cases if they have accepted big campaign contributions.

    In a closely watched case from West Virginia, the court ruled that “significant” campaign contributions or other electoral assistance pose a risk of “actual bias.” The ruling could trigger more demands for judges in 39 states with elected judges – including Wisconsin, California, Texas and Washington – to recuse themselves from cases in which their campaign contributions could create conflicts.

    “There is a serious risk of actual bias . . .  when a person with a personal stake in a particular case had a significant and disproportionate influence in placing the judge on the case by raising funds or directing the judge’s election campaign when the case was pending or imminent,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote. …

    http://www.jsonline.com/news/u.....39597.html

    But actual bias – say one that says that a Latina would make better judgements than a white would – are in no way a disincentive against a seat on the Supreme court.

    Silly me.

  20. BillK
    June 9, 2009 at 6:45 pm

    From Denver’s KUSA Television:

    Veteran imposter to be released from jail

    By Jace Larson

    COLORADO SPRINGS – The man now known as the fake veteran for duping politicians, veterans and advocate groups into believing he’s a wounded Iraq veteran will be released from jail Tuesday after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor traffic citations.

    Judge Jonathan L. Walker sentenced Rick Strandlof to 20 days in jail with credit for time served and one year of unsupervised probation. Strandlof must also pay a $150 in court fines.

    Strandlof was being held on a $1,000 misdemeanor traffic warrant since his arrest May 12.

    Strandlof spoke with 9Wants to Know for a second time Monday, and said the traffic charges result from a broken gas pipe at a Colorado Springs park last year.

    “I ran into a gas pipe snapping it off,” he said. “It was out from the building five or six feet.”

    When police responded, he says they ticketed him for careless driving and driving without a license.

    Strandlof says he had an expired license out of California.

    In a previous interview with 9Wants to Know, Strandlof admitted he did not always tell the truth when he fought for veterans’ rights and claimed to have served three tours of duty in Iraq.

    “I admit that not everything I said was as factual as I wish it had been,” Strandlof said in his first and only television interview. “Some assertions made in public were not true.”

    Strandlof, who founded Colorado Veterans Alliance in 2007, also goes by the name Rick Duncan.

    “I just want to say that I’m sorry I hurt you. I know some people will say that’s not enough,” Strandlof said.

    Strandlof claimed he cannot remember many events over the past three years due to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. 9NEWS could not independently confirm the diagnosis but found court documents indicating a 2005 “unlawful taking of a motor vehicle” charge from Nevada was referred to mental health court. The court file is sealed.

    Strandlof claims he did not receive treatment for mental illness until he was arrested last month.

    Strandlof also would not say whether he served time in the military, though FBI agents investigating reports of criminal wrongdoing confirm he was never a soldier or Marine.

    “I don’t want to comment on that. I think it would back [my legal team] into a corner if [court] proceedings happen,” Strandlof said.

    Strandlof, as head of Colorado Veterans Alliance, actively pursued the limelight on many veterans’ issues. He campaigned for homeless veterans in Colorado Springs. He made appearances at anti-war rallies. He campaigned in television ads against Bob Schaffer who lost a bid for the U.S. Senate in 2008.

    “I think that came about as being caught up in the moment,” he said. “I believed that perhaps if I believe, then other people can too.” …

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

    After all, he didn’t do anything wrong, he just helped elect Democrats by perpetuating lies about our military.

    Hey, if it worked to create a career for Kerry…

  21. Nimblicity
    June 9, 2009 at 11:08 pm

    From the Dallas Morning News:

    Sheehan brings Bush protest to North Dallas
    12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, June 9, 2009
    By SCOTT FARWELL and MATTHEW WALLER / The Dallas Morning News

    Former President George W. Bush’s new neighbors said anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and about 50 protesters had the constitutional guarantee of free speech on their side Monday.

    What the protesters didn’t use during a demonstration near the Bushes’ home in Preston Hollow, they said, was common sense and courtesy.

    Yeah, common sense would be protesting someone who could make a difference in the area of their (ostensible) grievances. And courtesy would be having their protest in the middle of Lake Joe Pool…underwater…

    Check out the kid schooling Cindy in the captioned pic. I almost feel sorry for one of them.

    http://www.dallasnews.com/shar.....de8ff.html

    • wardmama4
      June 10, 2009 at 3:33 pm

      This story just goes to prove that Cindy Sheehan can not accept that the way she raised her son (boy scouts, catholic church, & family) are what lead to his being the man that he was – not to mention after reading American Mourning – he probably saw the military as a way out of crazy land – and she is projecting all that anger upon former President G.W. Bush.

      But what galls me to hell and back is that she is spitting upon the decision that her son (as an adult) made not once but twice – as he had re-enlisted before his deployment – so he wasn’t some raw recruit just out basic after just leaving mommies house. He was exactly what he died as – an adult man who made the decision to enlist in service to his country and then also made the decision to volunteer for a mission to rescue trapped soldiers (read The Long Road Home).

      I know that SPC Casey Sheehan is in heaven – as he has appeared from all I have read to have done the right thing all of his life and to have been committed to God – but I am sure that he is ashamed of how his mother has turned her grief into a public spectacle that spits on the very path he chose in life.

    • canary
      June 12, 2009 at 4:06 am

      wardmama/I think alot of it is an act, and that the book is blood money over her son’s death. Matter of fact, she may have gotten his soldier life insurance, when he was killed. She should donate the money to disabled vets, and that would make her son proud.

  22. badcrow
    June 10, 2009 at 12:18 am

    Looks like another huge “bailout” will be forthcoming….

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/.....pUfRPFjS7Q

  23. canary
    June 10, 2009 at 1:01 am

    Muslim Murderer claims his Attorney is Lying.! Terrorist said he was Never Tortured in Yemen prison. Claims murder & shootings tip of ice-berg.

    Associated Press: Suspect: Recruiting center shootings justified
    By KELLY P. KISSEL

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A Muslim convert charged with fatally shooting an American soldier at a military recruiting center said…

    “I do feel I’m not guilty,” Abdulhakim Muhammad told The Associated Press in a collect call from the Pulaski County jail.

    Pvt. William Andrew Long, 23,… shot dead June 1…, Pvt. Quinton I. Ezeagwula, 18, ..had wounds in his back, head and buttocks from the shooting.

    “Yes, I did tell the police upon my arrest that this was an act of retaliation, and not a reaction on the soldiers personally,” Muhammad said. He called it “a act, for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the world..

    In the interview, Muhammad also disputed his lawyer’s claim that he had been “radicalized” in a Yemeni prison and said fellow prisoners that some call terrorists were actually “very good Muslim brothers.”

    “U.S. soldiers are killing innocent Muslim men and women. We believe that we have to strike back. We believe in eye for an eye. We don’t believe in turning the other cheek,” he said…

    And I feel that other attacks, not by me or people I know, but definitely Muslims in this country and others elsewhere, are going to attack for doing those things they did,” especially desecrating the Quran.

    An FBI-Homeland Security intelligence assessment document obtained by The Associated Press last week suggested the gunman may have considered targeting other locations, including Jewish and Christian sites in several eastern U.S. cities.

    Muhammad had moved to Arkansas in the spring to work at his father’s bus tour company and had never attended the Islamic Center of Little Rock,.. said Iftikhar Pathan, the center’s president.

    Last week, Hensley said his client, born Carlos Bledsoe, had been tortured and “radicalized” in a Yemeni prison after entering the country to teach English. He was held there for immigration violations, and Yemeni officials have denied mistreatment.

    “Those claims … are all lies,” Muhammad said Tuesday. “That never happened in Yemen. The officials dealt with me in a gentle way.”

    Muhammad’s lawyer Jim Hensley sent an e-mail to the AP…

    Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell contributed to this report from Jacksonville, Ark.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....VjdHJlY3J1

    • wardmama4
      June 10, 2009 at 3:53 pm

      We believe in eye for an eye

      All that leaves is a bunch of violent blindness for centuries.

      [btw - just for grins - an eye for an eye is Deuteronomy 19:21 - Thus you shall not show pity; life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. ]

      I did not know that Islam used the Bible –

      So he goes to Yemen to teach English and somehow (after going to prison) comes back to target American soldiers, Christians and Jews – but he wasn’t radicalized in prison?!?

      I know how to solve that one in the US – have a special muslim only prison. Oh wait we already do in Gitmo. Send him down there – at least he won’t convert infect anyone else here in America.

  24. Gil
    June 10, 2009 at 10:42 am

    High court won’t block Chrysler sale
    Jun 9 06:27 PM US/Eastern

    http://www.breitbart.com/artic....._article=1

  25. proreason
    June 10, 2009 at 11:18 am

    Dick Morris has somehow become one of the prime news outlets in the country. Here he report on the success of The Moron’s idiotic mortgage relief program:

    Housing News Is Bad News for Obama

    The data for April and May prove that Obama’s plan to rescue those facing mortgage foreclosure is a dismal failure. Since this issue was the cornerstone of his economic program during the campaign, its abject failure is a significant setback for the administration’s economic plan…

    When Obama launched his mortgage rescue plan, he promised that it would help 5 million households. So far, he is about 4,969,000 short of his goal.

    When will the subprime foreclosures stop? In about a year, when all of these unfortunate people have lost their homes. …

    All these facts underscore how cynical was Obama’s campaign in predicating so much of its economic message on an appeal to help those facing foreclosure. You don’t hear Obama talk about foreclosures anymore, do you? That’s because he knows he has no solution and that he won’t offer any.

    http://townhall.com/columnists....._for_obama

    But their is a silver lining in 5,000,000 people losing their homes:
    - First, the stupid mortgage relief program isn’t costing much because it its hardly doing anything.
    - Second, those 5M homes are going to eventually be bought by people who can afford them, and at much lower prices than they originally sold for. This will be a great boon to responsible young family’s in this country.
    - Third, it’s another example of the cynical failures of liberalism. With enough examples, perhaps some hypnotized citizens will wake up.

  26. tranquil.night
    June 10, 2009 at 2:45 pm

    Government Assault on Religious Freedom Continues in the Name of Equality
    original title: Religious right group likens S.F. supes to Nazis

    your standard hitpiece from the San Francisco Chronicle, liberal utopia of the United States:

    SAN FRANCISCO — Lawyers for a Catholic advocacy group that sued San Francisco for condemning the Vatican’s policy on same-sex adoptions are comparing the city’s supervisors to Nazis laying the groundwork for the slaughter of Jews.

    In a statement responding to last week’s ruling by a federal appeals court in the city’s favor, Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, used a German term for the Nazi policy of forced conformity to party doctrine and the elimination of opposition groups in the 1930s:

    “It is not a stretch to compare the San Francisco board’s actions to that of the Nazi Germany policy of Gleichschaltung, vilifying Jews as an auxiliary to and laying the groundwork for more repressive policies, including the final solution of extermination.”

    He was referring to the supervisors’ March 2006 resolution denouncing a Vatican order to Catholic Charities not to place adoptive children with same-sex couples. In the decree, Cardinal William Levada, the former San Francisco archbishop who now heads the church’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said allowing gay or lesbian couples to adopt children “would actually mean doing violence to these children.”

    The nonbinding board resolution, sponsored by then-Supervisor Tom Ammiano, said the Vatican order contained “hateful and discriminatory rhetoric” and urged local Catholic officials, including Levada’s successor as archbishop, George Niederauer, to disregard it. In response, Catholic Charities of San Francisco stopped placing children for adoption with any families.

    In the lawsuit, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights accused the city of acting with hostility toward Catholicism in violation of the constitutional requirement of government neutrality. But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the supervisors had acted for a legal, secular purpose, to protect same-sex couples from discrimination, and not to express disapproval of Catholicism.

    continue…

    Gleichschaltung means “making the same” and “bringing into line” – it’s specific goal is to eliminate individualism by uniting everyone in a feeling of universal victimization. That opens the way for a figure (which was Hitler) to lead the enraged victims against the bewildered oppressors. Anyone who doesn’t fall in line is coerced or goes into hiding out of fear. It’s a slope; it doesn’t have to always end up with violence and that wasn’t the point of Thompson’s statement despite the Chronicle’s hyperbole here. It’s manipulative and wrong to begin with.

    This isn’t just a great parallel to this case; this is the entire Liberal doctrine.

    But we’re the damaged ones for thinking a child deserves the love and perspective of both a mother and father.

  27. canary
    June 10, 2009 at 7:04 pm

    AFP: US jihadist wannabe found guilty of conspiracy: official Wed Jun 10, 2009

    WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US federal judge handed down a guilty verdict in Atlanta, Georgia Wednesday against an aspiring US jihadist for conspiring to provide material support for terrorism.

    Syed Haris Ahmed, 24, a naturalized American born in Pakistan, faces up to 15 years in prison but the judge postponed sentencing until after the trial of an alleged co-conspirator, which is scheduled to begin in August.

    Ahmed was accused of taking videos of the US Capitol and other symbolic sites in Washington in April 2005 and sending them via the Internet to an alleged Al-Qaeda recruiter to establish his credentials as a jihadist.

    He also was alleged to have traveled to Pakistan in July 2005 in an unsuccessful attempt to enter a paramilitary training camp.

    Born in Pakistan, Ahmed was a naturalized US citizen attending Georgia Tech university in Atlanta in late 2004 when he began communicating with other alleged supporters of violent jihad via the Internet.

    He traveled to Toronto in March 2005 to meet with his Internet contacts to discuss plans to travel to Pakistan and potential targets for attacks in the United States.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20.....cksjustice

  28. canary
    June 10, 2009 at 9:06 pm

    Neb. doc plans to offer 3rd-term abortions in Kan.
    Associated Press: By MARGERY GIBBS, Associated Press Writer

    OMAHA, Neb. – A Nebraska doctor said Wednesday that he will perform third-term abortions in Kansas after the slaying of abortion provider George Tiller, but would not say whether he will open a new facility or offer the procedure at an existing practice.

    Dr. LeRoy Carhart declined to discuss his plans in detail during a telephone interview with The Associated Press, but insisted “there will be a place in Kansas for the later second- and the medically indicated third-trimester patients very soon.”

    Tiller’s clinic was one of the only facilities in the country that performed third-trimester abortions. Carhart has run his own clinic in Bellevue, Neb., since 1985, but had performed late-term abortions at Tiller’s clinic because of Nebraska’s more restrictive abortion laws.

    Kansas law allows abortions on viable fetuses after the 21st week if carrying the pregnancy to term would endanger the mother’s life or cause a “substantial and irreversible impairment” of a major bodily function. Courts have interpreted a “major bodily function” to include mental health.

    “If I have to train the staff and if I have to do them, then that’s certainly an option” for a fetus that would not survive outside the womb, he said. Carhart said some of the staff from Tiller’s clinic may join him in Nebraska to help with training.

    Carhart said he has already seen more patients at his Bellevue clinic since Tiller’s was closed after he was shot May 31 while serving as an usher at his church.

    Associated Press writers John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., and Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kan., contributed to this report.

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

    What a hardship for Carhart and his clients to have traveled so far. Maybe he did his best to line them up for the same day, so they could split his travel, hotel, expensives, lost wages from his own clinic, 24 hour days.

    • proreason
      June 10, 2009 at 9:18 pm

      Nice windfall for Carhart. He gets to pick up a million dollar business with hardly any investment.

      Of course, he’s just doing it to fight for women’s rights.

    • JohnMG
      June 10, 2009 at 9:21 pm

      What did Carhart know, and when did he know it?

    • canary
      June 10, 2009 at 10:28 pm

      JohnMG, The criminal case against Tilman, was that he was using Carhart for required another independent medical opinion, but as they worked together as (ghost) associates, there was an ethical and medical conflict of interest with possible charges, such as murder. So, Carhart might benefit in more ways than one. I read Tilman’s staff said the murderer was well known at the clinic as a regular protestor, and during the litigation, it was common for protests at his church.

  29. canary
    June 10, 2009 at 9:42 pm

    The Washington Times: Doctor likens Tiller’s killing to MLK’s
    Julia Duin (Contact) Tuesday, June 9, 2009

    Dr. LeRoy Carhart, one of the nation’s few providers of late-term abortions, called on the federal government to treat as hate crimes all activities by “anti-choice domestic terrorists,” compared the slain Dr. George Tiller to Martin Luther King and said planting crosses was equivalent to actions by the Ku Klux Klan.

    “This is the equivalent of Martin Luther King being assassinated,” Dr. Carhart said of the May 31 slaying of one of America’s best-known late-term abortion providers. “This is the equivalent of Pearl Harbor, the sinking of the Lusitania and any other major historic event where we’ve tolerated the intolerable for too long.”

    “…,” said Dr. Carhart, who assisted Dr. Tiller in providing late-term abortions at his Wichita, Kan., practice every three weeks.

    Dr. Carhart’s abortion clinic, based near Omaha, Neb., performs almost 2,000 abortions a year, though he cannot perform them after 24 weeks’ gestation because Nebraska law forbids post-viability abortions. Dr. Carhart, who was the plaintiff in both the Supreme Court decisions on partial-birth abortion… was in Washington for a memorial service Monday evening at National City Christian Church in honor of Dr. Tiller.

    In a quivering voice and apologizing for losing his composure, Dr. Carhart spoke of Dr. Tiller’s early life as a pots-and-pans salesman. He said Dr. Tiller’s motto was that “when the going gets tough, the tough get Dairy Queen.”

    “God gave that fetus a ‘guardian ad litem’ when he chose the mother that fetus is born with,” he said. “That mother, I feel, has been charged by God to make the right choices for that child during its unborn and early born years.”

    Dr. Carhart said he considered becoming a Methodist minister at one point,..

    • Ben Conery and Kristi Jourdan contributed to this report.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com.....ed-to-mlk/

    http://mttu.com/Articles/The%2.....Speaks.htm

    • canary
      June 10, 2009 at 10:00 pm

      “That mother, I feel, has been charged by God to make the right choices for that “child” during its unborn and “early born years”.”

      So, what is the “early born years?” age for a “child” cut off age. Is he like a parent that denies a dying child medical treatment do to religion? He’s not even referring to life threatening reasons. Carhart is Hitler reincarnated.

    • proreason
      June 10, 2009 at 10:02 pm

      “This is the equivalent of Pearl Harbor, the sinking of the Lusitania and any other major historic event where we’ve tolerated the intolerable for too long”

      He’s right. The slaughter of innocent babies has been tolerated far too long.

      No civilized society would allow it.

    • canary
      June 10, 2009 at 10:55 pm

      The Washington Times News: MLK Kin Decries Comparison to Tiller
      Julia Duin (Contact) Wednesday, June 10, 2009

      The Wichita, Kan., clinic of slain abortion provider Dr. George Tiller will be “permanently closed,” his family said Tuesday, as the niece of Martin Luther King Jr. denounced a comparison of Dr. Tiller and King made by another provider of late-term abortions.

      But Dr. Carhart’s comments at a Monday news conference, calling the Tiller death “the equivalent of Martin Luther King being assassinated,” and comparisons of pro-life displays to the Ku Klux Klan brought an outraged response from Alveda King, niece of the slain civil rights leader.

      “For LeRoy Carhart to mention the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who worked through peaceful and nonviolent means, in the same breath with that of George Tiller, whose work ended peace and brought violence to babies in the womb, is offensive beyond belief,” she told The Washington Times on Tuesday. “The analogy is just wrong.”

      Ms. King, a notable pro-life advocate, has called abortion a “racist, genocidal act.” About 36 percent of the abortions in the United States are performed on blacks, who comprise just 17 percent of the live births.

      “Dr. Carhart also speaks of hate crimes,” Ms. King added, alluding to his denouncing pro-life protesters as hate criminals and comparing cross displays to the Ku Klux Klan. “I would simply ask him: Is it not hateful to regard an entire class of people as nonhuman because they’re unwanted?”

      The fortresslike Wichita facility attracted thousands of protesters because it specialized in late-term abortions.

      “This facility was on the verge of being closed by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts so it was especially tragic that George Tiller was murdered,” Kathy Ostrowski said.

      Several doctors who worked in the Tiller clinic – including Drs. Carhart, Kristin Neuhas, Shelly Sella and Susan Robinson – are still licensed to perform abortions in Kansas, she said.

      In March, Dr. Tiller was acquitted of 19 misdemeanor violations of state abortion statutes only to have the state’s medical board say it would bring up new charges concerning him and Dr. Neuhaus.

      http://washingtontimes.com/new.....on-clinic/

  30. BillK
    June 11, 2009 at 10:09 am

    From an absolutely thrilled CNN:

    Miss California USA Prejean dethroned

    By Alan Duke

    LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Carrie Prejean has been dethroned as Miss California USA for “contract violations,” including missing scheduled pageant events, according to a state pageant official.

    Prejean, 22, retained her title last month despite a controversy over topless photos, missed appearances and her statements against same-sex marriage.

    Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump decided to fire Prejean a month after he gave her a second chance.

    “Carrie is a beautiful young woman, and I wish her well as she pursues her other interests,” Trump said.

    Runner-up Tami Farrell, who was Miss Malibu, will immediately assume the Miss California USA title, state pageant Executive Director Keith Lewis said.

    “This was a decision based solely on contract violations, including Ms. Prejean’s unwillingness to make appearances on behalf of the Miss California USA organization,” he said.

    Lewis told CNN’s Larry King on Wednesday that it wasn’t one thing Prejean did, but “many, many, many things.”

    “She came to us and said I’m not interested in your input; I’ll make my own decision what I’m going to do,” Lewis said. “You know, when you have a contract, when you’re working for someone you have a responsibility to follow through on what that requirement is.”

    Lewis told King it was clear “she was not interesting in upholding the title or the responsibilities.” …

    http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBI.....index.html

    Great grammar there.

    I don’t think there’s any doubt that Trump eventually succumbed to the pressure from gay rights groups.

    “I told Carrie she needed to get back to work and honor her contract with the Miss California USA organization, and I gave her the opportunity to do so,” Trump said. “Unfortunately, it just doesn’t look like it is going to happen, and I offered Keith my full support in making this decision.”

    Charles Limandri, Prejean’s lawyer, said she learned about the decision Wednesday morning in a phone call from Trump’s office.

    “This is all kind of a big shock,” Limandri said. “We’ve been working with Mr. Trump’s office. She’s been doing all the speaking engagements she’s been asked to do. It is not true that she has not been cooperating.”

    No one from the pageant organization ever warned Prejean she was not doing what they wanted, he said.

    “Something is going on,” he said. “Truth is not being told. I don’t understand where this is coming from, or why.”

    “For people to say that she breached her contract, that she is not doing speaking engagements is false,” he said. “She did one last Sunday in Las Vegas and it went really well.”

    Of course:

    During a radio interview Wednesday with Billy Bush, who also was host of the pageant, Prejean said it was that controversy that led to her losing her title, not contract issues.

    “It’s just because of my answer, I think,” Prejean told Bush. “None of this would be happening right now if I just said yeah, gays should get married, you’re right Perez Hilton.”

    and:

    Hilton, the judge who asked the same-sex question during the pageant, cheered Prejean’s firing.

    “Better late than never,” Hilton said.

    Shanna Moakler, a former Miss USA who resigned as co-executive director of the California pageant when Trump did not dismiss Prejean last month, welcomed Wednesday’s decision.

    “First and foremost, my faith has been restored in the Miss Universe organization and with Donald Trump,” Moakler said. “I believed eventually what I intimately knew would come to fruition.”

    This has of course been a foregone conclusion since the controversy erupted, it just gave Trump a chance to appear reasonable on the issue. I obviously recant my previous thumbs up to the Donald.

    The one good thing is that this strengthens Prejean’s already strong image in showing how free speech and religious freedom are just liberal platitudes that have no meaning when it comes to anyone other than themselves.

    I’d say I’d like to see the contract terms Prejean violated, but as we’ve seen in recent months contract law no longer means anything in the United States anyway.

    • tranquil.night
      June 11, 2009 at 11:47 am

      I have a different take kinda on this. I don’t agree with the decision on the basis that the original controversy was irrelevant and stupid. However, I did take up and notice that Ms. Prejean made no bones about hitting the talk-show circuit. This is fine of course to explain and defend yourself. However, I have a feeling the entire controversy got a bit out of hand for Trump, who hasn’t a problem looking at an issue with only his business glasses on. That is, he was probably only willing to stick up for Carrie so long as she was willing to back off the issue – which she clearly wasn’t (nor was the media). I understand both points of view yet it did seem she craved the camera a bit too much, and despite speaking out like she did, people get even more weary when the “righteous” start looking like any other publicity fiend. Right Newt?

    • proreason
      June 11, 2009 at 12:14 pm

      I have a third take.

      I agree with what both BillK and tranquil say.

      But I see this more as a simple case of a campaign by zealots to take down Ms. Prejean.

      Gee, if she is a prima donna, what a shock to learn she is the only one to ever participate in a beauty pageant. Somehow, I don’t see the Donald finding that to be shocking or unmanageable either.

      He was pressured by the nuts and the msm and finally chose to protect his franchise rather than the young woman.

      I don’t blame him, and I don’t blame her. I blame the queer zealots and their enablers.

  31. canary
    June 11, 2009 at 11:17 pm

    The Hill: Pelosi loses up to $1 million on AIG investment
    By Reid Wilson
    Posted: 06/11/09 10:22 AM [ET]
    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is not immune to market fluctuations, according to her personal financial disclosure report, filed last month.

    The disclosures, which were accidentally made public this week before the scheduled Friday release, show Pelosi still boasts a healthy net worth, but she and her husband, Paul, took serious hits as the stock market plummeted in 2008.

    The Pelosis lost between $100,001 and $1,000,000 on a major investment in American International Group, the insurance giant that plummeted in value after a liquidity crisis in September 2008. The Federal Reserve loaned the company $85 billion to stay afloat after government officials described the company as too big to fail.

    AIG stock closed on the last trading day of 2007 at $58.30. Throughout 2008, the stock fell more than 97 percent, ending 2008 trading at just $1.57. That day, Paul Pelosi sold part of the couple’s stock in the company, incurring a massive capital gains loss.

    The pair own two commercial properties in San Francisco, another in Marin County, north of the city, and a home near Lake Tahoe, all valued at more than $1 million.

    They also own a vineyard in Napa Valley, valued at between $5 million and $25 million. That property earned them between $100,001 and $1 million last year in grape sales alone.

    The couple still owes between $8.75 million and $41.5 million in mortgages on a total of six properties, according to the reports. Investment accounts and two lines of credit with banks bring the Pelosis’ liabilities up to between $12.75 million and $58.5 million.

    Paul Pelosi absorbed some other big financial hits last year. He lost between $100,001 and $1 million in a Massachusetts limousine company; a real estate investment company in San Francisco; and a natural gas and oil investment firm based in Oklahoma City. The Pelosis also lost up to $50,000 on an investment in General Electric, which they sold in November 2008 after the stock dropped more than 60 percent during the year.

    Lawmakers are required to detail their assets in given ranges instead of specific dollar amounts. The Pelosis have between $25.3 million and $109.4 million in assets, including stock in major American businesses like Apple, AT&T, eBay, Microsoft, J. Crew, Visa and Yahoo.

    http://thehill.com/leading-the.....06-11.html

    • Rusty Shackleford
      June 11, 2009 at 11:32 pm

      Canary, thanks for posting this rich, tasty piece.

      I am laughing as I see the obvious two-faced laden with botox. Out of one side of her face she supports going green while at the same time, has fingers in decidedly UN-green investments.

      Nothing like buttering your bread on both sides.

  32. canary
    June 11, 2009 at 11:34 pm

    AFP: Two Guantanamo detainees sent to Iraq, Chad – Thu Jun 11, 7:01 pm ET

    WASHINGTON (AFP) – Two Guantanamo detainees, a young man with dual Chadian and Saudi nationalities and an Iraqi, were transferred to Chad and to Iraq respectively, the US Justice Department said Thursday.

    Jawad Jabber Sadhkan arrived in Iraq overnight Wednesday to Thursday, while Mohammed al-Gharani arrived in Chad on Thursday, the department said in a statement.

    These were the seventh and eighth releases from the controversial US Navy-run detention camp in southeastern Cuba since President Barack Obama entered the White House in January.

    Arrested at the age of 14 years, al-Gharani was one of the youngest Guantanamo detainees. He was exonerated of all charges by a federal judge on January 14 after spending seven years at the camp.

    Many of the inmates have already been cleared for release, but US officials are having difficulty finding countries that will take them in, and meeting resistance at home to housing them on US soil.

    The tiny Pacific nation Palau agreed Wednesday to take in up to 17 Uighur Guantanamo detainees. The United States Thursday sent four Uighur men who had been held at the prison camp in Cuba to Bermuda.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20.....0611230155

  33. tranquil.night
    June 12, 2009 at 2:21 am

    Wright “Clarifies” Comments, Advocates Conspiracy Theories Favored by Holocaust Memorial Shooter

    tucked away neatly in an ABC News Blog and found by the bees at Fox Nation:

    “In an interview on a liberal satellite radio show, Rev. Jeremiah Wright attempted to clarify his comments to the Newport News, Virginia. Daily-Press about “them Jews” preventing him from speaking to President Obama.

    “Let me say like Hillary, I misspoke,” Wright said. “Let me just say: Zionists.”

    Wright said “I’m not talking about all Jews, all people of the Jewish faith, I’m talking about Zionists.”

    The president’s former mentor and pastor made the comments on the SIRIUS LEFT show “Make it Plain” with Mark Thompson.

    Wright then criticized Israel, saying, “I quote Jews when I say this,” and referencing books by Jewish authors such as Judaism Does Not Equal Israel: The Rebirth of the Jewish Prophetic by Marc Ellis and The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe.”

    “I’m talking about facts, historical facts,” Wright said. “I’m not talking about emotionally charged words or the fact that like Jimmy Carter’s book, that because he used the word that Jews use, ‘apartheid,’ he gets labeled anti-Semitic.”

    “They can jump on that one phrase if they want to,” Wright said, “but they can’t, they can’t undo history. They can’t undo the facts of Jewish historians and Jewish theologians who write about what’s going on, who write about the enormous influence that AIPAC has on our government and on United States policy and the United Nations.”

    (Wright did not identify who “they” was.)

    continue..

    Clearly AIPAC, the Zionist Illuminati – in its infinite control and power – has been super effective in ‘coercing’ aid for Israel so far in the Obama years. Ellis and Pappe have basically written the pocketbook on our current Middle East policy, which is the unspoken acknowledgment that Israel was never intended to exist in the first place and created unfairly on the backs of the Palestinians.

    Anyway, thanks for clarifying. Us crakahs must remember from now on that it isn’t them secular Jews that’re keeping son from reuniting with father, it’s them dang neo-con jews.

    It’s an odd day in America when a black and a white supremacist find common ground in antisemitism.

  34. BillK
    June 12, 2009 at 2:43 am

    The racist computers must be stopped!

    From a horrified Los Angeles Times:

    Computer ‘raid’ in Vernon leaves factory workers devastated

    By Patrick J. McDonnell

    No immigration agents descended on Overhill Farms, a major food-processing plant in Vernon. No one was arrested or deported. There were no frantic scenes of desperate workers fleeing la migra through the gritty streets of the industrial suburb southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

    For more than 200 Overhill workers, however, the effect was devastating: All lost steady jobs last month and now find themselves in a precarious employment market, without severance pay or medical insurance. It wasn’t a hot tip or an undercover informant that helped seal their fates, but a computer check of Social Security numbers.

    “A desktop raid” is how the workers’ representative, John M. Grant, vice president of Local 770 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, described the scenario.

    Overhill, a $200-million-a-year company that provides frozen meals for clients such as American Airlines, Panda Express, Safeway and Jenny Craig, says it had no choice: An Internal Revenue Service audit found that 260 workers had provided “invalid or fraudulent” Social Security numbers. The government took no action against the workers. But Overhill did: All of the employees were fired May 31.

    The dispute underscores some of the complex issues facing President Obama as he tries to make good on his pledge to overhaul the nation’s “broken” immigration system. Like agriculture, the food-processing and preparation sectors rely heavily on immigrant labor, much of it illegal.

    The White House has already scaled back the Bush administration’s controversial practice of work-site raids. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has vowed to shift the emphasis to employers who hire illegal workers. Audits of employers’ records are an essential tool in such cases.

    But the Overhill case illustrates how desktop raids can ravage immigrant families, even without arrests and deportation. Employers facing stiff fines and potential prison terms for hiring illegal immigrants may decide to fire employees who have suspect paperwork.

    “We killed ourselves on the assembly lines for years, many of us have injuries from repetitive motion,” said Bohemia Agustiano, 38, a mother of four from Huntington Park. “Now we’re worth nothing. We’re out on the streets. This is unjust, no one should be treated this way.”

    Overhill says it gave the workers 30 days to correct the problem with the IRS and provide the company with verification, but none did so. …

    http://www.latimes.com/news/lo.....3064.story

    Don’t your hearts just go out to these criminals?

    “We broke federal laws and we’re treated like nothing.”

    But better yet is the Obama administrations lie that they want to put the burden on employers not to hire illegals, but yet when they cross-check SSNs they somehow are being evil?

    It’s so completely typical of them.

    Logic has just completely gone out the window:

    But the union says Overhill responded rashly. “I think the company acted hastily and unnecessarily,” said Peter Schey, a Los Angeles lawyer who represented the union. “Legally, there was nothing that compelled these terminations.”

    Immigrant advocates who applaud the Obama administration’s determination to shift the work-site enforcement focus to employers acknowledge that such an approach still leaves workers vulnerable to losing their jobs.

    “At the end of the day, it’s the employees or the undocumented workers who are still walking around with a bull’s-eye on their backs,” said Angela Kelley, vice president for immigration policy at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank.

    “They either get directly caught up in a raid, or they get caught in a ricochet attack by an employer acting preemptively to let them go.”

    That’s sort of the point – “undocumented” workers should have a bulls-eye on their backs, because they are criminals.

    Yet the attempt to provoke tears continues:

    “We’re talking here about hundreds of families that have been denied a gainful wage, denied medical care,” said Grant, the union official. “This basically tears apart an entire community.“

    Yeah – breaking federal laws generally does that. I know unions are used to breaking laws themselves, but still.

    What I expect to see next in the LA Times: Drug dealers complain about the effect of drug arrests on their families.

  35. BillK
    June 12, 2009 at 2:53 am

    Hugo Chavez continues to be a nutcase.

    From the Los Angeles Times:

    Venezuela bans Coke Zero

    Here’s a reversal: A business opportunity has opened up for smugglers interested in getting Coke into a South American country.

    But we’re not talking cocaine –- it’s Coke Zero that has been banned in Venezuela.

    Perhaps chunky Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was jealous of trim folks who favored the no-calorie drink, rolled out in 2005 by Coca-Cola Co., and introduced in Venezuela in April. But the official reason, according to the Venezuelan government’s news agency, is that health minister Jesus Mantilla contends the beverage, known officially as Coca-Cola Zero, contains a harmful ingredient.

    “The product should be withdrawn from circulation to preserve the health of Venezuelans,” Mantilla said Wednesday. In ordering all Coke Zero out of the country, Mantilla didn’t specify which ingredient was objectionable. …

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.co.....o-ban.html

    So watch out for the dangerous soda.

    It doesn’t even contain sugar – now that’s dangerous, at least according to the Obama administration.

  36. BillK
    June 12, 2009 at 3:01 am

    From an incredibly irony-challenged AP:

    AP source: NKorea may be prepping new nuclear test

    By Pamela Hess

    WASHINGTON – North Korea may be preparing for its third nuclear test, a show of defiance as the United Nations considers new sanctions on the dictatorship for conducting an underground nuclear explosion in May, according to a U.S. government official.

    North Korea conducted an underground explosion on May 25, its first since a 2006 atomic test. The official, who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the unreleased information, would not provide details regarding the assessment.

    A draft U.N. resolution proposed Wednesday would impose tough sanctions on North Korea’s weapons exports and financial dealings and allow inspections of suspect cargo in ports and on the high seas. North Korea has threatened to retaliate if new sanctions are adopted.

    North Korea already is a pariah to many countries and has been under tough economic sanctions for years. Last month’s reported test defied a Security Council resolution adopted after the North’s first underground atomic blast in October 2006.

    The White House National Security Council would not comment on the assessment of a possible third nuclear test in the works.

    “We have come to expect North Korea to act recklessly and dangerously,” NSC spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement. “But while the world unites to pass a strong new Security Council resolution, it is clear that North Korea’s behavior is succeeding only in further isolating itself.” …

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

    Once again, just to remind anyone who hasn’t been paying attention:

    China could stop all this with one phone call.

    North Korea is entirely dependent upon China for food and fuel oil.

    So say what you want about North Korea being isolated, but it’s China that’s holding all the strings.

    You know, the same China that’s about the only buyer in the world for US debt…

    • tranquil.night
      June 12, 2009 at 2:31 pm

      I have an open question to anyone willing to take it up: If you’re Kim Jung-Il and it’s clear you have no remote interest in doing anything innately that can be construed as good for your people or the world, and you’re sitting at the end of your life with a nuclear arsenal at your command, what would you do?

      He anointed his son today his successor apparently. What world is he giving his son: the current one where North Korea is a backwards isolated regime? Or one of the post-apocalypse? Is this about some ridiculous legacy or is the legacy what’s about to come? I think that’s the question on millions of minds right now.

      What would you do if you were to try for a moment to see the world through his oversized grandpa glasses?

    • proreason
      June 12, 2009 at 2:48 pm

      “If you’re Kim Jung-Il”

      He probably thinks he can figure out a way to live till he’s 110.

      And China has every reason to control the wee nutter, since Obamy has scheduled the peaceful transfer of world domination to China in his second term.

      If I was the commissar in China, I would keep my powder and nutter dry so as to keep the US treasure trove intact for a few years, after which I could plunder it at will.

    • tranquil.night
      June 12, 2009 at 3:00 pm

      Right, 2012, which increasingly my instinct tells me won’t be a second term for him, but it won’t matter because it’s exactly as you say there. In fact it sets the conservative follow-up to take the fall when the ChiComs start playing hardball and we have a crippled economy and no money. They already want us to print our debt in Yuan. Good luck Sarah.

      Still, if that’s the case, then that would make this whole thing part of the grand plan – all of which I think is in very serious danger of being opposed before it hits fruition. If Babbles doesn’t get Health Care that might be more disappointing for the ChiComs than him even, since it leaves us a glimmer of climbing this mountain.

      So is Kim China’s bull-dog for if capitalist America gets its act together then?

    • proreason
      June 12, 2009 at 3:20 pm

      “is Kim China’s bull-dog for if capitalist America gets its act together then?”

      In all seriousness, I think he is the their pet barracuda.

  37. texaspsue
    June 12, 2009 at 2:48 pm

    From the Houston Chronicle:

    Exxon Mobil joins TransCanada on Alaska gas line

    Exxon Mobil Corp. and TransCanada said today they will join forces to build a massive pipeline to move natural gas from the North Slope of Alaska to U.S. markets.

    The state of Alaska granted TransCanada a license to build the project in January 2008, but the Calgary-based firm faced a challenge from another project planned by ConocoPhillips and BP. Exxon’s siding with TransCanada could threaten the Conoco-BP project, called Denali.

    “Exxon Mobil and TransCanada have the experience, expertise and financial capability to undertake this project,” said Rich Kruger, president of Exxon Mobil Production Co. “We have on-the-ground knowledge of Alaska and Canada, experience working in the Arctic, a strong history of technology and innovation, and the proven ability to build and operate projects of enormous scale in the most challenging environments.”

    Irving-based Exxon will not be a passive customer of the pipeline, which could cost as much as $30 billion and run 1,700 miles, but will likely be involved in the design and construction.

    Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin met with Exxon officials in Dallas on Wednesday to make sure the agreement preserved the states’ relationship with TransCanada, said Kurtis Gibson, director of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Oil and Gas Division.

    “We’re encouraged and we’re excited, but we’re not surprise because (the state pipeline license) was designed for just this kind of alignment between private sector companies,” Gibson said.

    http://www.chron.com/disp/stor.....9570.html#

    more at twitter: http://twitter.com/akgovsarahpalin

    So instead of Governor Palin speaking to the media about this historic event, she has to get involved in the Letterman insult circus. How convenient for the MSM. Sigh.

  38. BannedbytheTaliban
    June 10, 2009 at 9:09 am

    The worse part:

    That’s the last word, barring an extraordinary development. “It’s a vote of affirmation for what we’ve done,” White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel told USA TODAY.

    http://www.usatoday.com/money/.....oved_N.htm

    This will just embolden the Obama administration. Today American capitalism died.

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