Category: Obama

Shocka!: Evidence Shows That Cheney Swayed White House reaction and response to CIA Leak

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This is no big surprise; however it is news worthy:

A document filed in federal court this week by the Justice Department offers new evidence that former vice president Richard B. Cheney helped steer the Bush administration’s public response to the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson’s employment by the CIA and that he was at the center of many related administration deliberations.

The administration’s discussion of Wilson’s link to the CIA was meant to undermine criticism by her husband of administration allegations that Iraq attempted to acquire uranium, a matter that her husband had probed for the CIA, according to testimony presented in a 2007 trial.

A list of at least seven related conversations involving Cheney appears in a new court filing approved by Obama appointees at the Justice Department. In the filing, the officials argue that the substance of what Cheney told special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in 2004 must remain secret.

via Court Filing Shows Evidence Cheney Swayed White House Response to CIA Leak – washingtonpost.com.

I would suppose that there are those will be shocked to the learn this or excuse it saying that we were at war. This writer is not among them. I have long argued on this Blog and in my previous incarnation as a “Left of center” Blogger the following; that the Bush Administration knew that they were over their hands, that there were no weapons of mass destruction.

My political criticism is not limited by party lines nor by any sort of partisanship.  Just as much as I criticize President Barack Obama for his socialist polices and lefty liberal nonsense; I also criticized George W. Bush’s Wilsonian, Neo-Conservative and quite frankly, Christian Theocratic Foreign Policy.  Unlike other bloggers in the Conservative Blogsophere; my criticism is not limited by party loyalty or blinded by partisanship.  That is a different between a Independent Conservative, like myself and the Republican establishment Bloggers and those taking their talking points from Irving Kristol and John Podhoretz.

The real knee slapper is this here:

The Obama administration has since agreed that the material should not be disclosed. A Justice Department lawyer at one point last month argued that vice presidents and other White House officials will decline to be interviewed in the future if they know their remarks might “get on ‘The Daily Show’ ” or be used as fodder for political enemies.

Ha! Forget National Security, we cannot let John Stewart get ahold of the stuff; Them Liberals might laugh at us! 😆 Now that is funny. 😀

(Update: Corrected rather silly grammar error… “We might laugh at us?” Good Lord; Must learn to not blog until I’ve drank my lot of coffee.)

Don’t believe the hype on the Coup in Honduras

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That is what Octavio Sánchez is saying, and he should know; he’s there:

Tegucigalpa, Honduras – Sometimes, the whole world prefers a lie to the truth. The White House, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and much of the media have condemned the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya this past weekend as a coup d’état.

That is nonsense.

In fact, what happened here is nothing short of the triumph of the rule of law.

[….]

Under our Constitution, what happened in Honduras this past Sunday? Soldiers arrested and sent out of the country a Honduran citizen who, the day before, through his own actions had stripped himself of the presidency.

These are the facts: On June 26, President Zelaya issued a decree ordering all government employees to take part in the “Public Opinion Poll to convene a National Constitutional Assembly.” In doing so, Zelaya triggered a constitutional provision that automatically removed him from office.

Constitutional assemblies are convened to write new constitutions. When Zelaya published that decree to initiate an “opinion poll” about the possibility of convening a national assembly, he contravened the unchangeable articles of the Constitution that deal with the prohibition of reelecting a president and of extending his term. His actions showed intent.

Our Constitution takes such intent seriously. According to Article 239: “No citizen who has already served as head of the Executive Branch can be President or Vice-President. Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform [emphasis added], as well as those that support such violation directly or indirectly, will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years.”

Notice that the article speaks about intent and that it also says “immediately” – as in “instant,” as in “no trial required,” as in “no impeachment needed.”

Continuismo – the tendency of heads of state to extend their rule indefinitely – has been the lifeblood of Latin America’s authoritarian tradition. The Constitution’s provision of instant sanction might sound draconian, but every Latin American democrat knows how much of a threat to our fragile democracies continuismo presents. In Latin America, chiefs of state have often been above the law. The instant sanction of the supreme law has successfully prevented the possibility of a new Honduran continuismo.

The Supreme Court and the attorney general ordered Zelaya’s arrest for disobeying several court orders compelling him to obey the Constitution. He was detained and taken to Costa Rica. Why? Congress needed time to convene and remove him from office. With him inside the country that would have been impossible. This decision was taken by the 123 (of the 128) members of Congress present that day.

Don’t believe the coup myth. The Honduran military acted entirely within the bounds of the Constitution. The military gained nothing but the respect of the nation by its actions.

via A ‘coup’ in Honduras? Nonsense. | csmonitor.com.

But yet you have idiot douche bag Communist Liberals, like Hillary Clinton, Like President Obama and the U.N. trying to tell the people in Honduras; that this man was right for doing this. I guess Senator McCarthy was right after all. The Democratic Party has been taken over by the Socialists, who are basically Communist light.  So, to this writer; is no big surprise that President Obama and his right hand lady Hillary Clinton took sides with the Communists.

Honduras Arrests and tosses it’s President

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Fausta over at Fausta’s blog is doing a one heck of a bang up job of following this situation down there.

From what I have been able to extract from the various news reports is that the President of Honduras got this bright idea that He was going to start running that Country like Venezuela’s President runs his, and the Courts over there said, “Oh no you don’t!” and ordered him arrested and tossed out of the Country.

So…. It looks like that Country is going to be finding a new President. AllahPundit Predicts that there will be military action from Vanezuela’s President, thus making headaches for President Teleprompter. Eh, I say ol’ floppy ears wanted the damn job bad enough; enough to ruin peoples lives, and lie about his citizenship; So, let him deal with the headaches.

As always Memeorandum has the roundup.

Change?: President Obama ready to sign order to Executive Order to Allow Indefinite Detention of Terror Suspects

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This broke last night and the Liberal Blogosphere about went nuclear.

Via The Washington Post:

Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war. Obama advisers are concerned that an order, which would bypass Congress, could place the president on weaker footing before the courts and anger key supporters, the officials said.

After months of internal debate over how to close the military facility in Cuba, White House officials are increasingly worried that reaching quick agreement with Congress on a new detention system may be impossible. Several officials said there is concern in the White House that the administration may not be able to close the prison by the president’s January deadline.

White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said that there is no executive order and that the administration has not decided whether to issue one. But one administration official suggested that the White House is already trying to build support for an order.

“Civil liberties groups have encouraged the administration, that if a prolonged detention system were to be sought, to do it through executive order,” the official said. Such an order could be rescinded and would not block later efforts to write legislation, but civil liberties groups generally oppose long-term detention, arguing that detainees should be prosecuted or released.

The Justice Department has declined to comment on the prospects for a long-term detention system while internal reviews of Guantanamo detainees’ cases are underway. One task force, which is assessing detainee policy, is expected to complete its work by July 21.

In a May speech, President Obama broached the need for a system of long-term detention and suggested that it would include congressional and judicial oversight. “We must recognize that these detention policies cannot be unbounded. They can’t be based simply on what I or the executive branch decide alone,” he said.

Shall we start calling him President George W. Obama? It sure sounds like it. When the Conservatives AND Liberals are calling this plan a disaster; something is dreadfully wrong.

Should be interesting to follow.

As always Memeorandum has the round up.

Cap and Trade-Gate

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Quite honestly, I can fit the head on a pin, when I honestly know about this “Cap and Trade” bill that Congress is trying to ram through. So, instead of sitting and writing about crap I know zero about, I will quote people that do know about it.

Hey, At least I am honest.

Wall Street Journal writes:

Steve Fielding recently asked the Obama administration to reassure him on the science of man-made global warming. When the administration proved unhelpful, Mr. Fielding decided to vote against climate-change legislation.

If you haven’t heard of this politician, it’s because he’s a member of the Australian Senate. As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to pass a climate-change bill, the Australian Parliament is preparing to kill its own country’s carbon-emissions scheme. Why? A growing number of Australian politicians, scientists and citizens once again doubt the science of human-caused global warming.

Among the many reasons President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority are so intent on quickly jamming a cap-and-trade system through Congress is because the global warming tide is again shifting. It turns out Al Gore and the United Nations (with an assist from the media), did a little too vociferous a job smearing anyone who disagreed with them as “deniers.” The backlash has brought the scientific debate roaring back to life in Australia, Europe, Japan and even, if less reported, the U.S.

In April, the Polish Academy of Sciences published a document challenging man-made global warming. In the Czech Republic, where President Vaclav Klaus remains a leading skeptic, today only 11% of the population believes humans play a role. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to tap Claude Allegre to lead the country’s new ministry of industry and innovation. Twenty years ago Mr. Allegre was among the first to trill about man-made global warming, but the geochemist has since recanted. New Zealand last year elected a new government, which immediately suspended the country’s weeks-old cap-and-trade program.

The number of skeptics, far from shrinking, is swelling. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe now counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the U.N. — 13 times the number who authored the U.N.’s 2007 climate summary for policymakers. Joanne Simpson, the world’s first woman to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology, expressed relief upon her retirement last year that she was finally free to speak “frankly” of her nonbelief. Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist who contributed to a U.N. climate report, dubs man-made warming “the worst scientific scandal in history.” Norway’s Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner for physics, decries it as the “new religion.” A group of 54 noted physicists, led by Princeton’s Will Happer, is demanding the American Physical Society revise its position that the science is settled. (Both Nature and Science magazines have refused to run the physicists’ open letter.)

Ed Morrissey, Who’s a hell of bunch more informed on this sort stuff than I; Writes:

All of the increase will get passed to consumers.  Democrats hope to buffer that through targeted subsidies, but the AP neglects to mention that mechanism — because that money also comes from consumers.  Business costs always get passed to the purchaser in the form of higher prices, and anyone who argues that they don’t either have no understanding of business and pricing or has a desire to sell snake oil to the gullible.

Cap-and-trade is a tax, one imposed through an artificial scarcity model onto an industry that drives the economy.  The AP reports the CBO and EPA cost estimates without mentioning that those predictions only cover the actual mechanical costs of cap-and-trade.  They do not predict the economic impact on American families from the loss of economic power as energy becomes more scarce and expensive.  This bill will lose the US 2.5% of its GDP each and every year in the years after the first decade of implementation.

King Canute knew better than to believe his advisers when they told him that he was powerful enough to affect ocean levels.  Unfortunately, this administration and the Democratic Party don’t have the sense Canute did.

Greenpeace does not even like the Bill, but not for the reasons you might think:

Washington, D.C., United States — In advance of tomorrow’s vote on the American Clean Energy and Security Act in the House of Representatives, Greenpeace USA Deputy Campaigns Director Carroll Muffett issued the following statement:

“Since the Waxman-Markey bill left the Energy and Commerce committee, yet another fleet of industry lobbysists has weakened the bill even more, and further widened the gap between what Waxman-Markey does and what science demands. As a result, Greenpeace opposes this bill in its current form. We are calling upon Congress to vote against this bill unless substantial measures are taken to strengthen it. Despite President Obama’s assurance that he would enact strong, science-based legislation, we are now watching him put his full support behind a bill that chooses politics over science, elevates industry interests over national interest, and shows the significant limitations of what this Congress believes is possible.

“As it comes to the floor, the Waxman-Markey bill sets emission reduction targets far lower than science demands, then undermines even those targets with massive offsets. The giveaways and preferences in the bill will actually spur a new generation of nuclear and coal-fired power plants to the detriment of real energy solutions. To support such a bill is to abandon the real leadership that is called for at this pivotal moment in history. We simply no longer have the time for legislation this weak.

“With many others in the environmental, faith and consumer rights communities, Greenpeace has expressed tremendous concern about the role of offsets in this legislation. Unless strictly controlled, the abuse of offsets could prevent real emission reductions for more than a decade. The decision to move authority over offsets from EPA to the Department of Agriculture further reduces the likelihood that such controls will be maintained and increases the likelihood they will undermine real reductions.

This legislation sends a strong and unmistakable signal to the world that the United States is not yet ready to show the leadership necessary to reach a strong agreement at Copenhagen in December. Already, we are seeing the impact of this signal as one country after another retreats from the aggressive targets needed to avoid catastrophic climate change.

We call on the Congress to reject this bill and begin immediate and urgent work on legislation that treats seriously the dire threat of climate change. We call on President Obama to move beyond rhetoric and deliver on his commitments to “restore science to its proper place” and to lead the world in addressing climate change.

Yeah, I know what your thinking; (Fuck Greenpeace!) and I agree. I just thought I would add their take on it.

Investors Business Daily Editorials Writes:

Not since a misguided piece of legislation imposed tariffs that turned a recession into a depression has there been a piece of legislation as bad as Waxman-Markey.

The 1,000-plus-page American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) is being rushed to a vote by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before anyone can seriously object to this economic suicide pact.

It’s what Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security, might call a “man-caused disaster,” a phrase she coined to replace the politically incorrect “terrorist attack.” But no terrorist could ever dream of inflicting as much damage as this bill.

Its centerpiece is a “cap and trade” provision that has been rightfully derided as “cap and tax.” It is in fact a tax on energy everywhere it is consumed on everything it is used to make or provide.

It is the largest tax increase in American history — a tax on all Americans — even the 95% that President Obama pledged would never see a tax increase.

It’s a political bill that could come to a vote now that a deal was struck with farm-state legislators concerned about the taxation of even bovine flatulence.

As part of the agreement reached Tuesday night and announced by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Beverly Hills, agricultural oversight for cap-and-trade was transferred from the Environmental Protection Agency to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Farmers hope the USDA will be less intrusive. The EPA has been tasked by a Supreme Court ruling to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from your nostrils to your lawn mower. This even covers the emissions of barnyard animals, including the methane from cows.

The American Farm Bureau warns that cap and trade would cost the average farmer $175 on every dairy cow and $80 for beef cattle. So farm-state politics trumped climate change.

I guess you can see, by what is written here; that this bill is no good for anyone. Higher Taxes, Businesses being punished; Not good, not good at all.

There are quite a few bloggers covering this topic and are more informed about it than I. Here they are: QandO, Vox Popoli, Pundit & Pundette, Michelle Malkin, The Sundries Shack, The Foundry, AmSpecBlog, Gateway Pundit, A Blog For All, American Solutions, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Cold Fury and The Other McCain, Weekly Standard,  RedState,  Pajamas Media, Riehl World View, : The Jawa Report, The Strata-Sphere, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Pundit & Pundette, The Volokh Conspiracy, QandO, Classical Values, AmSpecBlog, Commentary,  The Other McCain and Michelle Malkin

The Obligatory Obama Healthcare Special/Infomercial Posting

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No, I did not watch it. But there is many who did.

Go here for the round up.

My opinion is simply this; The Government cannot even do intelligence properly, perfect example being Iraq. What makes anyone think that they could do Health care?

I do not have health care insurance, but I am not about to become a cheerleader for Government paid, controlled, and financed Health care insurance.  It is just another form of Governmental control. As if we do not have enough of that already.

What amazes me, is how ABC has drove in the tank for Obama, just like MSNBC. It is a sad thing.

Looks like the love affair between MSNBC and the left is over….

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Guess where this quote comes from:

While the world was watching the conflict in Iran, MSNBC was showing you cop video and convicts. When they did bother to take a stab at it, they offered the usual political hacks arguing and vomiting talking points.

OK, they bill themselves as “The Place for Politics.” They never said they were a source of news. But they disgraced themselves this weekend by ignoring the biggest story in the world.

And when I turned them on this morning, I compared the beet-faced Joe Scarborough and his meanness to the voice of a nineteen year-old Iranian woman live on CNN who had been beaten and was in the middle of a war.

All of a sudden MSNBC fell off the map. Even Fox was better. Even Fox.

Guess. Can you Guess? Try The Huffington Post.

When you lose someone from The Huffington Post; you’ve lost America.  This person and others that are beginning to feel this way, are feeling the same way I; and everyone else on the right are feeling. It’s the feeling that MSNBC is not interested in facts or journalism, but rather to spread Obama’s message. That MSNBC is in the tank for the Obama Administration.

Looks like Bill O’Reilly has been vindicated, he was right all along. MSNBC and General Electric have an agenda. They’re looking for contracts with the Government and they are using MSNBC is thier tool. In the end, it will cost them; very dearly. You cannot scowl at your viewers, call them racists and hillbillies and expect to keep a viewership long.  Further more, you cannot yowl talking points over and over and over, and lie to the American people; it does catch up, after a while.

Is America turning Japanese?

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This comes via Reason.tv:

Article mentioned in this video is Here

Cue the Music!

Speaking of Iran….

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If there’s any clue that we elected the wrong damn President; this is one of them.

AllahPundit says:

A gesture of solidarity per our two nations’ shared interest in life, liberty, and shooting women in the heart on the street, I guess.

Not even a disinvitation to the barbecue on America’s birthday as punishment for killing protesters, huh, Barry? Absolutely the lowest moment of his presidency thus far.

Meh.  What do you expect? I mean, the man threw his own damn mother under the bus, for Christ’s sake!

I would say something about him not giving a damn about Nada getting killed, because he is a damned closet Muslim and secretly sides with the Islamic Leaders in Iran. But that would be unprofessional of me. So, I won’t.

Just sayin’ Ya’ll….just…..fucking…..sayin’ 😡

Quote of the Day

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You cannot make up for oil and gas exports with carpets and pistachio nuts.

[….]

Obama offers the regime a way out.

They may exercise their right to peaceful nuclear power, have sanctions lifted and receive security guarantees, if they can prove they have no nuclear weapons program and will cease subverting through their Hezbollah-Hamas proxies the peace process Obama is pursuing between Israel and Palestine.

If Iran refuses Obama’s offer, she will start down a road at the end of which are severe sanctions, escalation and a war that Obama does not want and Iran cannot want — for the winner will not be Iran.

Is the Government profiling so-called “Extremists” again?

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As a rule I tend to shy away from conspiracy theory.

But I happened to stumble across an article and this reeks of more profiling by our Government.

The Story via Freedom Fighter Radio:

In March, the Virginia State Police and the Virginia Fusion Center produced a report entitled “2009 Virginia Terrorism Threat Assessment.” In response, Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine ordered an investigation of the fusion center. The report designates university-based students groups as terrorist groups.

Presented in slideshow format, the latest document lists gun rights, pro-life, constitutional issues, tax protesters, and “anti-government groups” as domestic terror threats. Anarchists, separatists, “single issue,” and religious cults are listed along with al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hizballah, al-Jihad, Aryan Nations, neo-Nazi, skinheads, black separatists, and the Klu Klux Klan.

The article goes on and let me warn you; it is filled with conspiracy theory of the Alex Jones sort. However, the document in question is legit and sits on a state of Virgina web server.

However, in case it disappears; you can get the document by clicking here.  It’s on my server, so, feel free to download all you like. What bothers me about this report is that they again target groups that disagree with paying taxes and several other legitimate groups; as well as hate groups. That bothers me a bit. I hope it bothers you too.

I’m sure this story will gain traction in the media.

Update: A Comment; that got lost on the spam filter from reader Steve, who is one of our Nation’s Finest in the Air Force writes:

Gain traction in the media? Most of the media agrees with the report’s characterizations.

If they bother covering it at all, it will be with approval that somebody is finally taking steps to address the  “real” terrorists.

Quite true steve; as we both know, as long as Liberal Control the media. We will have to contend with this sort of a thing. Until the big eared socialist gets out of office. Thanks for writing Steve and thank you for your service to this Country. 🙂

Update #2 : Thanks to those linking in: ColdFury, Whatbubbaknows, Yankee Mom and I’m sure they’ll be more, I will update this as links come in. Please, bloggers, keep talking about it and putting the file on your site! This is how we stop this Government, by fighting back!

The Southern Avenger on “Neocons for Ahmadinejad”

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WOW! 😮 Me and Jack must be on the same Wavelength or something…

—

Synopsis: Conservatives who still subscribe to neoconservative doctrine on Iran have learned nothing.

The Southern Avenger’s Blog

The Southern Avenger @ Taki’s Magazine

Update: Want to see a perfect example of Neo-Conservatives agreeing with liberals on Iran? Look no further than here. I would have thought that Ed Morrissey was a bit more smarter than that. I guess I was quite mistaken. Once a Neo-Conservative, always a Wilsonian Neo-Conservative.

ABC News plays pitchman for President Obama’s Healthcare program

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While I find some of the objections to the Healthcare plan by the right to be a bit silly. This one bugs me:

ABC TURNS PROGRAMMING OVER TO OBAMA; NEWS TO BE ANCHORED FROM INSIDE WHITE HOUSE

Tue Jun 16 2009 08:45:10 ET

On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care — a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!

Highlights on the agenda:

ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.

The network plans a primetime special — ‘Prescription for America’ — originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.

The Director of Communications at the White House Office of Health Reform is Linda Douglass, who worked as a reporter for ABC News from 1998-2006.

Late Monday night, Republican National Committee Chief of Staff Ken McKay fired off a complaint to the head of ABCNEWS:

via DRUDGE REPORT: ABC TURNS PROGRAMMING OVER TO OBAMA 2009®.

Of course and rightfully so, the RNC is not amused:

Dear Mr. Westin:

As the national debate on health care reform intensifies, I am deeply concerned and disappointed with ABC’s astonishing decision to exclude opposing voices on this critical issue on June 24, 2009. Next Wednesday, ABC News will air a primetime health care reform “town hall” at the White House with President Barack Obama. In addition, according to an ABC News report, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, WORLD NEWS, NIGHTLINE and ABC’s web news “will all feature special programming on the president’s health care agenda.” This does not include the promotion, over the next 9 days, the president’s health care agenda will receive on ABC News programming.

Today, the Republican National Committee requested an opportunity to add our Party’s views to those of the President’s to ensure that all sides of the health care reform debate are presented. Our request was rejected. I believe that the President should have the ability to speak directly to the America people. However, I find it outrageous that ABC would prohibit our Party’s opposing thoughts and ideas from this national debate, which affects millions of ABC viewers.

In the absence of opposition, I am concerned this event will become a glorified infomercial to promote the Democrat agenda. If that is the case, this primetime infomercial should be paid for out of the DNC coffers. President Obama does not hold a monopoly on health care reform ideas or on free airtime. The President has stated time and time again that he wants a bipartisan debate. Therefore, the Republican Party should be included in this primetime event, or the DNC should pay for your airtime.

Respectfully,
Ken McKay
Republican National Committee
Chief of Staff

Well, ABC was having none of that; they responded:

June 16, 2009

Mr. Ken McKay
Chief of Staff
Republican National Committee
310 First Street SE
Washington, D.C. 20003

Dear Mr. McKay:

I am in receipt of your letter of June 15, 2009 and wanted to respond to a number of false premises you raise regarding our ongoing and upcoming coverage of health care.

I hope we can all agree that a robust debate of health care issues and potential policies is in order.

To that end, ABC News announced plans to broadcast a primetime hour from the White House devoted to exploring and probing the President’s position and the giving voice to questions and criticisms of that position. We hope that any American concerned about health care will find our efforts to be informative, fair and civil.

Second, ABC News prides itself on covering all sides of important issues and asking direct questions of all newsmakers — of all political persuasions — even when others have taken a more partisan approach and even in the face of criticism from extremes on both ends of the political spectrum. ABC News is looking for the most thoughtful and diverse voices on this issue. ABC News alone will select those who will be in the audience asking questions of the president. Like any programs we broadcast, ABC News will have complete editorial control. To suggest otherwise is quite unfair to both our journalists and our audience.

Third, there already has been extensive coverage of the upcoming health care debates, on ABC and elsewhere, and there will be much, much more. Indeed, we’ve already had many critics of the President’s health care proposals on the air – and that’s before a real plan has even been put before the country.

In the end, no one watching, listening to, or reading ABC News will lack for an understanding of all sides of these important questions.

Thank you for your interest.

Kerry Smith
SVP, ABC News

We are getting closer and closer to European socialism and closer to State-run media by the day. What’s next? Death squads for the those who oppose?

Sure looks like it.

Others on the case: Weekly Standard, Riehl World View, TVNewser, Doug Ross, Michelle Malkin, , Brutally Honest, Hot Air, The Other McCain, The Sundries Shack, ,  Macsmind,  Blue Crab Boulevard, , Flopping Aces, Patterico’s Pontifications, Right Wing Nut House, Townhall.com, Right Wing News, and This ain’t Hell …

Video: Something to make you think

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This an excellent video: (Via True Conservatives on Facebook)

On Olbermann

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Bill Anderson over at Lew Rockwell’s Blog asks the following:

Not long ago, some libertarians were hailing Keith Olbermann because he attacked George W. Bush (correctly) and his wars.  Today, we do not see Olbermann complaining about these wars, now that his people are in the White House.  Unfortunately, we libertarians are learning a hard lesson once again; the Left is not anti-war.  Instead, the Left is against war when leftists believe that wars consume too many resources that could be used in the government’s war against peaceful, private exachange.  However, we see that today, Obama’s government is engaged in war both at home and abroad.  Olbermann is a big supporter (as is Michael Moore).

Bill, that’s because Olbermann is kind of green when it comes to politics. The dude is a sportscaster for Christ’s sake. What do you expect?

Has Olbermann uttered one word against Obama’s war?

Well, if you consider the heavy sighing and hand wringing that he’s now doing; as a word against the Obama Administration and the war that now belongs to them. Yes, He has. But seriously; Olbermann is quite the partisan. To her credit, Rachel Maddow is not. But Keith? Oh Yes, quite partisan. To his credit, Olbermann did his fair share of screaming about Bush Administration’s Wilsonian foreign policies. But now that the Obama Administration is in there. It’s a whole other ball game at MSNBC HQ. I mean, Tucker Carlson even left. What does that tell you?

I don’t thing so

Uh, you mean, I don’t think so? 😉 😛 😀

Did Obama insult Israel?

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Some think so…

CBS Reports:

Israeli TV newscasters Tuesday night interpreted a photo taken Monday in the Oval Office of President Obama talking on

Insult or no? You decide.

Insult or no? You decide.

the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an “insult” to Israel.

They saw the incident as somewhat akin to an incident last year, when the Iraqi reporter threw a shoe at President Bush in Baghdad.

It is considered an insult in the Arab world to show the sole of your shoe to someone. It is not a Jewish custom necessarily, but Israel feels enough a part of the Middle East after 60 years to be insulted too.

Was there a subliminal message intended from the White House to Netanyahu in Jerusalem, who is publicly resisting attempts by Mr. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to force Israel to stop any kind of settlement activity in occupied territories once and forever?

Whether or not it is true, it shows the mood in Israel. They feel cornered. The reactions out of Israel reflect that feeling.

and then there’s this:

Israel’s Channel One TV reported that Netanyahu was told Tuesday by an “American official” in Jerusalem that, “We are going to change the world. Please, don’t interfere.” The report said Netanyahu’s aides interpreted this as a “threat.”

While I am not a big fan of the large influence of the various Israeli Lobbies in Washington D.C.; I think that angering some of our stanchest allies in the world is nothing short of a bonehead move on the part of this President. It would cost him in the ratings.

Others: Don Surber, Jihad Watch, This ain’t Hell …, Mondoweiss and normblog

Surprise!: Democrats make promises that they cannot keep

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The problem is, the only people that are surprised are the in-the-tank media and possibly some of Obama’s loyal followers.

It’s looking more and more like Barack Obama’s pledge to usher in a new era of openness in government may well go unfulfilled.

Yesterday, administration lawyers cited national security concerns to argue that Bush-era documents detailing the videotaped interrogations of detainees should not be released. And in the wake of that news, open-government advocates are reluctantly acknowledging that, despite Obama’s campaign promises, his approach to secrecy on issues of national security will likely not depart significantly from that of George Bush.

“The Obama administration is not going to represent an abrupt departure from Bush-era policy,” Steven Aftergood, who runs the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy, told TPMmuckraker. “If we thought they were, we were mistaken.”

He added that it’s no longer realistic to think that Obama’s administration will take a strong stand in favor of openness on national security issues. “We have to recalibrate our expectations.”

via CIA Stance On Torture Tape Docs Suggests Obama’s New Open Government Era Won’t Materialize | TPMMuckraker.

The above is why I believe that Blogs, especially Independent bloggers; like myself, play important role in our Nation’s political process.  Because I blogged long ago, on this blog and on my previous blog; that whomever was elected President, would end up not fulfilling all of the campaign promises. As long as our Government is controlled by outside forces, I.E. The UN and others; promises like that ones that President Obama made during his campaign, will go unfulfilled. It is a plain and sobering fact. The President just does not control as much as people are lead to believe.

However, I will make this observation. I do not believe that Obama is totally to blame for some of the reversals. I believe that some of them were forced, because of National Security concerns. Again, more of that “big Government” that the Democrats and Neo-Conservatives just love and what true or Paleo-Conservatives and Libertarians loathe. We must protect our own misdeeds in the interest of National Security. It has been practice of our Government for years, to cover up. There are a great deal of examples of this.

So, while it might be convenient of the Liberal grass roots to go after Obama on this, I believe doing so masks the true issue at heart here, and that’s our already oversized and quite centralized Government.

Unemployment Soars higher than expected and the Dems solution is throw more money at it!

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But of course, is that not what Democrats always do? When a problem arises, they throw more money at a problem and exert more Governmental Control over it; thinking that will fix it?

Anyhow, here is the story; The Voice of America reports:

The White House says America’s employment picture is worse than the Obama administration had anticipated just a few months ago. The somber admission follows the latest jobless report showing the highest unemployment rate the United States has seen in more than 25 years.

U.S. unemployment jumped a half percent in May, to 9.4 percent prompting this comment by Austan Goolsbee, a member of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors:

“The economy clearly has gotten substantially worse from the initial predictions that were being made, not just by the White House, but by all of the private sector,” said Austan Goolsbee.

Economists point out that the current jobless rate is already higher than the hypothetical rate that was used to calculate the health of banks and other financial institutions in so-called “stress tests” earlier this year. And, the upward unemployment trajectory is expected to continue in coming months, even if the overall economy begins to recover.

But never fear your Government is on the case! They are going to do, what Government has always done; especially Liberal Governments. They going to throw money at the problem! Woo Hoo! 🙄

The Barack Obama Apologist, Politico reports:

President Barack Obama is announcing Monday that he is ramping up stimulus spending exponentially in the next three months, allowing the administration to “save or create” 600,00 jobs — four times as many as during the first 100 days since he signed the bill.

The spending plans include National Parks, summer youth jobs, veterans’ medical centers, police and teachers.

Obama will make the announcement during a late-morning Cabinet meeting, when Vice President Joe Biden will present a Roadmap to Recovery, which the White House calls “an Administration-wide effort to accelerate implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in its second 100 days.”

“As a result of this accelerated pace of activity, over 600,000 jobs are expected to be created or saved by the Recovery Act in the second 100 days,” compared with roughly 150,000 in the first 100 days, the White House said.

While the administration is sensitive to criticism that stimulus spending has been too slow, a new Gallup Poll shows danger in the other direction. For the first time, a majority of respondents disapprove of Obama on the issue of “controlling federal spending” (51 percent to 45 percent), compared to the 67 percent who view him favorably overall.

Here’s what the “Magic One” is going to do with all that money:

  • Enable 1,129 Health Centers in 50 States and 8 Territories to Provide Expanded Service to Approximately 300,000 Patients – Department of Health and Human Services
  • Begin Work on 107 National Parks – Department of the Interior
  • Begin Work on Rehabilitation and Improvement Projects at 98 Airports and Over 1,500 Highway Locations throughout the Country – Department of Transportation
  • Fund 135,000 Education Jobs Including Teachers, Principals and Support Staff – Department of Education
  • Begin Improvements at 90 Veterans Medical Centers across 38 States – Department of Veterans Affairs
  • Hire or Keep on the Job Approximately 5,000 Law Enforcement Officers – Department of Justice
  • Start 200 New Waste and Water Systems in Rural America – United States Department of Agriculture
  • Begin or Accelerate Cleanup Work at 20 Superfund Sites from the National Priority List – Environmental Protection Agency
  • Create 125,000 Summer Youth Jobs – Department of Labor
  • Initiate 2,300 Construction and Rehabilitation Projects at 359 Military Facilities across the Nation – Department of Defense

Here’s the problem; The President or more specifically our wonderful Government is going do all these wonderful things with money that we don’t even have; because we are barrowing it all from China. After all, did not the President say that we are broke? Yes, he did!

Quotable Quote:

In a sobering holiday interview with C-SPAN, President Obama boldly told Americans: “We are out of money.”

C-SPAN host Steve Scully broke from a meek Washington press corps with probing questions for the new president.

SCULLY: You know the numbers, $1.7 trillion debt, a national deficit of $11 trillion. At what point do we run out of money?

OBAMA: Well, we are out of money now. We are operating in deep deficits, not caused by any decisions we’ve made on health care so far. This is a consequence of the crisis that we’ve seen and in fact our failure to make some good decisions on health care over the last several decades.

So we’ve got a short-term problem, which is we had to spend a lot of money to salvage our financial system, we had to deal with the auto companies, a huge recession which drains tax revenue at the same time it’s putting more pressure on governments to provide unemployment insurance or make sure that food stamps are available for people who have been laid off.

So we have a short-term problem and we also have a long-term problem. The short-term problem is dwarfed by the long-term problem. And the long-term problem is Medicaid and Medicare. If we don’t reduce long-term health care inflation substantially, we can’t get control of the deficit.

So, one option is just to do nothing. We say, well, it’s too expensive for us to make some short-term investments in health care. We can’t afford it. We’ve got this big deficit. Let’s just keep the health care system that we’ve got now.

Along that trajectory, we will see health care cost as an overall share of our federal spending grow and grow and grow and grow until essentially it consumes everything…

But yet, we are going to throw more money at the jobless problem. But we’re broke? Does anyone else see the problem with this picture?

Ouch: So much for that simulus!

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Finally, something to draw me out of my funk.  Yeah, I know, I’ve been slipping. I’m just bored of the whole damn thing.

Seems ol’ Barry’s Stimulus horseshit, is just that…. Horseshit.

Via Innocent Bystanders:

stimulus-vs-unemployment-may2

So much for that stimulus eh? (click to make bigger)

Of interest….: (H/T The Strata-Sphere)

of the 2009 deficit by $481 billion, to $1.7 trillion (see Table 1-3). Much of that change stems from lower esti mated revenues and the increased costs attributable to the TARP. Over the 2010–2019 period, CBO has increased its estimate of the cumulative deficit by $1.3 trillion—mostly because of recently enacted legislation. Nearly half of that projected increase occurs in 2010 and 2011, largely as a result of the 2009 stimulus legislation (ARRA)

Lovely. Of course, that’s what the people voted for. All I can say is; Welcome to my world folks. It was bad back when I became unemployed, it is now worse.I guess I will be blogging for a while. That is if I can get back into the swing of it. It would help if people would donate and I could get readers. It gets old blogging to myself. I guess because I do not suck up to the idiot Neo-Cons and do not placate the Military-Hating so-called “libertarians”; nobody wants to read my site. I say screw ’em. I don’t need their readership anyhow.

So, yeah, it is going to be an interesting new few years around these damned parts.

Others Covering: Stop The ACLU, BizzyBlog, QandO, Fausta’s Blog, Politics and Critical Thinking, Gateway Pundit, Fox News, Hot Air, The Strata-Sphere, Cold Fury, Conservatives4Palin.com and protein wisdom

The Obligatory Obama’s Muslim Roots come out posting….

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I hate to say it, but there are some seriously stupid people on the so called “Right”.  Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock; you most likely already know about the newest internet Meme that’s blazing around the political Blogosphere right now. It’s basically the accusation that Obama is now exposing himself as a Muslim President.

You can view a sampling of all the craziness of the Blogosphere, by clicking here.  It all started when Jack Tapper wrote a rather poorly written piece about Obama’s Muslim roots. Which took a quote and parsed it and twisted it slightly to reflect something that was not said.

The quote, which originated over at the NYT:

In an interview with Laura Haim on Canal Plus, a French television station, Mr. Obama noted that the United States also could be considered as “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.”

Well, naterally, the Conservative Bloggers went to Defcon 1 status and you could almost hear the tortured screams of some of those who are of the “Obama is a Muslim” mindset.  Well the problem is, Obama did not say that; actually he said this:

“Now, the flip side is I think that the United States and the West generally, we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslims Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. And so there’s got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.”

Steve Brennon weighs in here:

Greg Sargent explained, “Hard-core rhetoricians will note that Obama was employing an obscure tense known as the ‘conditional,’ and an arcane rhetorical device known as a ‘hypothetical.’ He said that ifcould see America as ranking up there with other Muslim countries — in numerical, hypothetical terms.” you were to take the number of Muslims in America, then one

This really isn’t complicated. In fact, given the size of the U.S. population, and the rich diversity of our spiritual landscape, you can pick practically any faith tradition, plug it into the president’s sentence, and it’d be true, too. If you took the number of Christians in the U.S., we’d be one of the largest Christian countries in the world. If you took the number of Jews in the U.S., we’d be one of the largest Jewish countries in the world. If you took the number of Hindus in the U.S., we’d be one of the largest Hindu countries in the world. If you took the number of Buddhists in the U.S., we’d be one of the largest Buddhist countries in the world.

That doesn’t mean we’re a Hindu country, or a Jewish Country, or a Christian Country, or a Muslim country, or a Buddhist country.

Another thing as well, is that Obama assumption is basically wrong, because according to a 2008 Pew Research Center poll:

major_religious_traditions

More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion – or no religion at all. If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, 44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.

The survey finds that the number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.

The Landscape Survey confirms that the United States is on the verge of becoming a minority Protestant country; the number of Americans who report that they are members of Protestant denominations now stands at barely 51%. Moreover, the Protestant population is characterized by significant internal diversity and fragmentation, encompassing hundreds of different denominations loosely grouped around three fairly distinct religious traditions – evangelical Protestant churches (26.3% of the overall adult population), mainline Protestant churches (18.1%) and historically black Protestant churches (6.9%).

While those Americans who are unaffiliated with any particular religion have seen the greatest growth in numbers as a result of changes in affiliation, Catholicism has experienced the greatest net losses as a result of affiliation changes. While nearly one-in-three Americans (31%) were raised in the Catholic faith, today fewer than one-in-four (24%) describe themselves as Catholic. These losses would have been even more pronounced were it not for the offsetting impact of immigration. The Landscape Survey finds that among the foreign-born adult population, Catholics outnumber Protestants by nearly a two-to-one margin (46% Catholic vs. 24% Protestant); among native-born Americans, on the other hand, the statistics show that Protestants outnumber Catholics by an even larger margin (55% Protestant vs. 21% Catholic). Immigrants are also disproportionately represented among several world religions in the U.S., including Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Although there are about half as many Catholics in the U.S. as Protestants, the number of Catholics nearly rivals the number of members of evangelical Protestant churches and far exceeds the number of members of both mainline Protestant churches and historically black Protestant churches. The U.S. also includes a significant number of members of the third major branch of global Christianity – Orthodoxy – whose adherents now account for 0.6% of the U.S. adult population. American Christianity also includes sizeable numbers of Mormons (1.7% of the adult population), Jehovah’s Witnesses (0.7%) and other Christian groups (0.3%).

Like the other major groups, people who are unaffiliated with any particular religion (16.1%) also exhibit remarkable internal diversity. Although one-quarter of this group consists of those who describe themselves as either atheist or agnostic (1.6% and 2.4% of the adult population overall, respectively), the majority of the unaffiliated population (12.1% of the adult population overall) is made up of people who simply describe their religion as “nothing in particular.” This group, in turn, is fairly evenly divided between the “secular unaffiliated,” that is, those who say that religion is not important in their lives (6.3% of the adult population), and the “religious unaffiliated,” that is, those who say that religion is either somewhat important or very important in their lives (5.8% of the overall adult population).

Even smaller religions in the U.S. reflect considerable internal diversity. For instance, most Jews (1.7% of the overall adult population) identify with one of three major groups: Reform, Conservative or Orthodox Judaism. Similarly, more than half of Buddhists (0.7% of the overall adult population) belong to one of three major groups within Buddhism: Zen, Theravada or Tibetan Buddhism. Muslims (0.6% of the overall adult population) divide primarily into two major groups: Sunni and Shia.

So, while I can understand the anger that some Conservatives are feeling about this statement; I believe it is much ado over nothing. Not only is the President wrong, he simply made another one of his many verbal gaffes. What really troubles me is the extremist rhetoric being uttered by people such as Ann Coulter-Wanna-be and noted Jewish Race Baiter and Jewish Identity Politics shill; Debbie Schlussel and long discredited Conservative blogger Pamela Geller. Together these two continue to bring a bad name to, and cause those in the main stream to disregard the Republican Party.  There are some who Believe Michelle Malkin is the worst. I disgree, read Debbie and Pamela’s Blog for a week, and then go read Michelle’s. Michelle has nothing on these two at all. In fact, Michelle, I can stand to read; Pamela and Debbie, not so much.

The point I am trying to make here is this; if The Republican Party is going to win this battle of ideas, against the Liberals. We need to do it with factual information and legitimate criticisms. Not with false information and rheortic that is borderline racist, and with retoric that makes the Republican Party look like a bunch of Alex Jones crazies.