Part 8--October, 2009

* 10/1/09--A Republican in House leadership said yesterday that Rangel has until next week to resign from his position as the top tax-writer in Congress or he will introduce a resolution to force his removal. The threat comes after recent revelations that Rangel failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in income, assets and business dealings. Also, Rangel failed to pay taxes on property he owned in New Jersey and a villa in the Dominican Republic. "To allow Mr. Rangel to continue to serve as chairman is the same as allowing a confessed bank robber to serve as chairman of the Banking Committee during the trial," Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) charged yesterday. Rangel dismissed the resolution as a "partisan stunt." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remains uncomfortably wedged between her Congressional Black Caucus and her tattered promise to reign over "the most ethical Congress in history." Even if the caucus forces Pelosi to block a final vote on the resolution, there will still be a roll call on whether to block that vote. In other words, every member of Congress will either be on record supporting a vote on what to do about Rangel -- or they will be on record covering up for him. If Democrats facing tough re-elections flee party leadership and vote against Rangel, it will be embarrassing for Pelosi and could prove crippling for Rangel. But if they support him, the lawmakers will go home to increasingly distrustful voters asking why they insist on covering up for the nation's top tax-writer who skips on his own taxes.--Charles Hurt, NY Post

* 10/1/09--EVEN the Democrats in Minnesota now realize their new US Sen. Al Franken was elected with the help of ACORN chicanery. The disgraced, pimp-friendly community organizing group claims it registered 43,000 new Minnesota voters. If just 1 percent were fraudulent but survived the recount process, that's 430 votes, almost all cast for Franken, who won by just 312 votes. Asks Katherine Kersten in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "Did ACORN folks pull some fast ones to help get their favorite son Franken elected -- a win that handed Democrats the 60-vote, veto-proof majority that they needed to enact their liberal agenda?"--Page Six, NY Post

* 10/1/09--Closing Gitmo is proving harder than President Obama thought -- but that's no reason to simply set terrorists free.Yet the Obama folks seem set to do just that, based on their decision this week to release 75 of the 223 remaining detainees -- on top of the three freed last weekend. Sure, Obama's vows to shut the Guantanamo Bay camp are giving him agita. His left-wing base is restless; it turns out his friends abroad aren't so keen on hosting "Welcome Home!" parties for freed terrorists, after all -- and his defense secretary says the president's January deadline for relocating them can't be met. What's a stressed-out prez to do? Stage a jailbreak, it seems. But endangering Americans is hardly the solution. Remember, of the more than 500 detainees already released from Gitmo, many have gone back to terrorism -- including Said Ali al-Shihri, al Qaeda's second-in-command on the Arabian peninsula and the suspected mastermind of a brutal attack in Yemen this year. In fact, the Pentagon figures one in seven of those already freed (i.e., those thought the least risky) returned to the fight. At that rate, at least 11 of the people Obama is freeing now can be expected to pick up arms again against US troops. That's national security? The official line is that judges have already cleared these detainees for release. But the lower-court rulings were often based on incomplete evidence -- and the previous administration fought back, sometimes winning victories on appeal. With at least a dozen of the 75 detainees, Team Obama could have pursued the same legal strategy -- but instead did nothing, content to spring them loose. President Obama just doesn't seem to understand that his top job isn't placating left-wing voters or winning a global popularity contest, but keeping the American people safe. When it comes to Gitmo, he needs to make sure he does just that.--NY Post Editorial

* 10/2/09--GENEVA -- The United States and Iran tentatively stepped back from looming confrontation yesterday, reaching an agreement with other major powers that would greatly reduce Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium and reset the diplomatic clock for a solution to Iran's nuclear ambitions. The outcome, which President Obama in Washington called a "constructive beginning," came after 7½ hours of talks on the outskirts of Geneva that included the highest-level bilateral meeting between the two countries since relations were severed three decades ago after the Iranian revolution. But the difficulties that lie ahead were illustrated when the chief Iranian negotiator, Saeed Jalili, held a triumphant news conference at which he denounced "media terrorism." He insisted that Iran has always fully met its international commitments, and refused even to acknowledge a question from an Israeli reporter. --Washington Post

* 10/2/09--Iran, the United States and five other big-power nations met yesterday in Geneva for what were described as "constructive" talks. Terrific. But does anyone seriously think the world is any closer today to bursting Iran's dreams of nuclear weapons? Please. In fact, it's hard to see anything good coming from these talks. Yes, reports say the tone of discussions turned positive. Iran supposedly agreed to open its uranium-enrichment facility in Qom -- whose existence it tried to keep secret -- to international inspectors and to transfer its low-enriched uranium to a third nation. Yet even if (and it's a big "if") Tehran lives up to those agreements, the mad mullahs may have other ways to pursue nukes. Already, for example, there is deep suspicion that Qom is just one of several secret Iranian nuclear facilities. Truth is, any rational look at the nature of Iran's rulers -- recently, as well as over the past 30 years -- strongly suggests that yet another round of dialogue won't get Tehran to ditch its greatest ambition. This, after all, is a regime that:

* Just this summer, stole an election -- and brutalized dissenters.

* Has long sponsored terrorists, including those who killed Americans.

* Tried to hide key elements of its nuclear program, like the Qom facility.

* Vows to destroy Israel.

And, remember, the West has conducted talks with the mullahs, on and off, since the overthrow of the shah 30 years ago. Why would yet more discussions persuade them to shift course now? President Obama himself yesterday admitted that "talk is no substitute for action." He said the West's "patience is not unlimited" and that he would "move toward increased pressure" on Iran if it tried to drag out discussions. But why wait? Even now, it's a safe bet that something tougher than more talk will be needed to get Iran's attention.--NY Post Editorial

* 10/2/09--WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent in September, the highest since June 1983, as employers cut far more jobs than expected. The report is evidence that the worst recession since the 1930s is still inflicting widespread pain (or that Obama's stimulus failed?)...The Labor Department said Friday that the economy lost a net total of 263,000 jobs last month, from a downwardly revised 201,000 in August. That's worse than Wall Street economists' expectations of 180,000 job losses, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters...."The labor market is still going backwards," economist Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors, wrote in a note to clients....If laid-off workers who have settled for part-time work or have given up looking for new jobs are included, the unemployment rate rose to 17 percent, the highest on records dating from 1994. According to a separate report Friday, U.S. factory orders fell in August by the largest amount in five months....The Commerce Department said demand for manufactured goods dropped 0.8 percent, much worse than the 0.7 percent gain that economists had expected....The weak reports sent the stock market down in morning trading. The Dow Jones Industrial average fell 50 points, while broader indexes also declined. More than a half-million unemployed people gave up looking for work last month. Had they continued searching, the official jobless rate would have been higher. The number of people out of work for six months or longer jumped to a record 5.4 million, and they now make up almost 36 percent of the unemployed -- also a record. All told, 15.1 million Americans are now out of work, the department said. And more than 7.2 million jobs have been eliminated since the recession began in December 2007.

* 10/2/09--Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The number of U.S. lenders that can’t collect on at least 20 percent of their loans hit an 18-year high, signaling that more bank failures and losses could slow an economic recovery.

* 10/2/09--After complaints about American dominance of the internet and growing disquiet in some parts of the world, Washington has said it will relinquish some control over the way the network is run and allow foreign governments more of a say in the future of the system. Icann – the official body that ultimately controls the development of the internet thanks to its oversight of web addresses such as .com, .net and .org – said today that it was ending its agreement with the US government....Icann had previously been operating under the auspices of the American government, which had control of the net thanks to its initial role in developing the underlying technologies used for connecting computers together. But the fresh focus will give other countries a more prominent role in determining what takes place online, and even the way in which it happens – opening the door for a virtual United Nations, where many officials gather to discuss potential changes to the internet.--Guardian.co.uk

* 10/2/09--France is anxious about the Obama administration’s pursuit of a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme, warning that the US must not allow Tehran to expand its uranium enrichment without facing fresh sanctions.--FT.com

* 10/3/09--In a stunning blow to President Obama, Chicago's heavily favored bid to host the 2016 Olympics was quickly shot down yesterday in a vote that awarded the games to Rio de Janeiro. After the president made an unprecedented personal plea to the International Olympic Committee in Copenhagen, his adopted hometown was knocked out in the first round of balloting, before Rio finally won the gold. The vote left Chicago in a depressed state of shock and Obama's aides on the defensive. --AP

* 10/3/09--WASHINGTON -- So much for the magical power of the unclenched fist that President Obama promised us. After more than a year of wooing the world, Obama has been humiliated by one of his most enthusiastic bases -- anti-American internationalists around the world. --Charles Hurt, NY Post

* 10/3/09--There has been a growing narrative taking hold about Barack Obama’s presidency in recent weeks: that he is loved by many, but feared by none; that he is full of lofty vision, but is actually achieving nothing with his grandiloquence. Chicago’s dismal showing yesterday, after Mr Obama’s personal, impassioned last-minute pitch, is a stunning humiliation for this President. It cannot be emphasised enough how this will feed the perception that on the world stage he looks good — but carries no heft. --TimesOnline.co.uk.

* 10/4/09--The Obama administration just blew the whistle on . . . itself: The Treasury Department has reported that Team Obama’s claims about the “nominal” costs of its cap-and-trade bill aren’t really so nominal, after all. And Team Obama knew it all along. Nice. In one fell swoop, the Obama folks broke two separate campaign promises:

* No new taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year.

* Complete transparency in the legislative process.

How exactly did it break these vows? Look at the Treasury report. The report shows that the cap and-trade bill the White House is pushing in Congress — in which companies have to buy “allowances” for carbon emissions — is far more expensive for Americans than advertised. Sure, everyone knew the firms would pass these costs along to customers. But supporters of the bill claimed that consumers would face only “nominal” increases — barely $200 a year. Wrong. The Treasury analysis puts the actual nationwide cost of cap-and-trade at some $200 billion a year — or $1,761 per household. That figure is very close to the $1,870 amount estimated by the Heritage Foundation prior to the vote in the House. Families will be hit with a steep climate-change tax, after all. And that will certainly include working- and middle-class folks who make less than $250,000 a year. Second, the analysis was kept secret and only recently leaked. That directly violates President Obama’s vows of transparency. Even so, the bill barely passed in the House, 219-212, with 40 Democrats voting against it. It’s facing difficulty in the Senate, too: Ten Dems there urged that it be dumped in favor of a carbon tariff. (This is called compromise, Democratic-style: Instead of a job-killing cap-and-trade tax, they settle for a job-killing import tax.) This bill needs to die in the Senate. More troubling, though, is the wholesale breaking of Obama’s vows. After all, this is only his first year in office.--NY Post Editorial

* 10/4/09--IF you still doubt President Obama is trying to do too many things and is giving short shrift to the most important ones, consider this pathetic scene at the Copenhagen airport. It was Friday, and the president went to Denmark to make his pitch for the Chicago Olympics. Before Air Force One took off for home, Obama met with Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Our commander in Afghanistan was summoned from London and got 25 minutes of face time with the commander-in-chief. That's it -- 25 minutes on the plane for the man Obama picked to lead 68,000 troops and rescue a war he calls one of "necessity." Compare that to the 14 hours or so Obama wasted flying and speaking about the Olympics, and you get a snapshot of a president off course....His Hamlet-like second-guessing of the Afghanistan strategy he backed in March runs the risk of undermining the men and women in harm's way. In fact, the McChrystal meeting was hastily scheduled after the general conceded he had talked with the president only once in the last 70 days. It's one thing to take your time to get the strategy right. It's quite another not to spend sufficient time on the problem. Obama needs to align his priorities with the nation's. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nightmarish Iranian-nuke issue, the painful recession -- these are the core challenges facing America. It's time the president gives them the attention they deserve. --Michael Goodwin, NY Post

* 10/4/09--You'd think they'd at least read the thing. A Senate committee has finished a version of a sweeping health-care reform bill -- but at least one senator admits he has no intention of reading it. "I don't expect to actually read the legislative language because . . . the legislative language is among the more confusing things I've ever read in my life," Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.) told an online news service. And Carper says he doubts his fellow members of the Senate Finance Committee will read their handiwork either. The committee finished hashing out details of the health-care reform bill at around 2 a.m. Friday. But by yesterday, they still weren't sure exactly what's in it. Carper told CNSnews.com that the bill was "incomprehensible" and "hard stuff to understand." The committee is drafting a summary of the awkwardly worded bill, which is aimed at providing affordable health insurance to all Americans. The summary would put the legislation in plain language for the public. But at least one senator expressed suspicion that the summary would not tell the full story. "The conceptual language is not good enough," committee member Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told CNSnews.com. "We've seen that there are side deals that have been cut," Cornyn said. "So we need to know not only the conceptual language, we need to know the detailed legislative language, and we need to know what kind of secret deals have been cut on the side which would have an impact on how much this bill is going to cost and how it will affect health care in America." A proposal that would have required the committee to publicly post the full text of the bill online 72 hours before the vote was rejected last week. --Janon Fisher, NY Post

* 10/5/09--President Barack Obama has refused to meet the Dalai Lama in Washington this week in a move to curry favor with the Chinese....It means Mr. Obama will become the first president not to welcome the Nobel peace prize winner to the White House since the Dalai Lama began visiting Washington in 1991. --Telegraph.co.uk

* 10/5/09--Iran has the know-how to produce a nuclear bomb and may already have tested a detonation system small enough to fit into the warhead of a medium-range missile, according to confidential papers. The “secret annexe” to this year’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran summarises information submitted by intelligence agencies about the country’s work on warheads, detonators and nuclear fuel enrichment. It is based partly on evidence thought to have been smuggled out of Iran by the wife of a spy recruited by German intelligence. The papers conclude that Iran already “has sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device”, or atom bomb. The finding goes beyond America’s public stance and may complicate its efforts at talks in Geneva to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.--Timesonline.co.uk

* 10/5/09--According to sources close to the administration, Gen McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London last week. The next day he was summoned to an awkward 25-minute face-to-face meeting on board Air Force One on the tarmac in Copenhagen, where the president had arrived to tout Chicago's unsuccessful Olympic bid. In an apparent rebuke to the commander, Robert Gates, the Defence Secretary, said: "It is imperative that all of us taking part in these deliberations, civilians and military alike, provide our best advice to the president, candidly but privately." When asked on CNN about the commander's public lobbying for more troops, Gen Jim Jones, national security adviser, said: “Ideally, it's better for military advice to come up through the chain of command.” An adviser to the administration said: "People aren't sure whether McChrystal is being naïve or an upstart. To my mind he doesn't seem ready for this Washington hard-ball and is just speaking his mind too plainly." In London, Gen McChrystal, who heads the 68,000 US troops in Afghanistan as well as the 100,000 Nato forces, flatly rejected proposals to switch to a strategy more reliant on drone missile strikes and special forces operations against al-Qaeda. He told the Institute of International and Strategic Studies that the formula, which is favoured by Vice-President Joe Biden, would lead to "Chaos-istan". When asked whether he would support it, he said: "The short answer is: No." He went on to say: "Waiting does not prolong a favorable outcome. This effort will not remain winnable indefinitely, and nor will public support." The remarks have been seen by some in the Obama administration as a barbed reference to the slow pace of debate within the White House. Gen McChrystal delivered a report on Afghanistan requested by the president on Aug 31, but Mr Obama held only his second "principals meeting" on the issue last week....Some commentators regarded the general's London comments as verging on insubordination....Relations between the general and the White House began to sour when his report, which painted a grim picture of the allied mission in Afghanistan, was leaked. White House aides have since briefed against the general's recommendations. The general has responded with a series of candid interviews as well as the speech. He told Newsweek he was firmly against half measures in Afghanistan: "You can't hope to contain the fire by letting just half the building burn." As a divide opened up between the military and the White House, senior military figures began criticising the White House for failing to tackle the issue more quickly. They made no secret of their view that without the vast ground force recommended by Gen McChrystal, the Afghan mission could end in failure and a return to power of the Taliban.... Critics also pointed out that before their Copenhagen encounter Mr Obama had only met Gen McChrystal once since his appointment in June.--Telegraph.co.uk

* 10/6/09--President Obama will be the keynote speaker at the largest gay rights group’s annual fundraising gala, in a move he hopes will put him in better standing with homosexual activists. The Human Rights Campaign fundraising dinner gala will be held on Saturday night, preceding Sunday’s National Equality March which is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of activists to the National Mall in D.C. Obama hasn’t moved as quickly in pursuing homosexual rights as these advocates would like, including “don’t ask, don’t tell” and anti-discrimination laws.--Townhall.com

* 10/6/09--It was standing room only at a Staten Island (NY) town-hall meeting on health care last night, when close to 1,000 participants launched a raucous, ranting assault on President Obama's reform plan. Hundreds more were turned away from an auditorium that couldn't accommodate the crush that showed up for the meeting, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Mike McMahon. McMahon, a moderate who represents the city's most conservative district, fielded a barrage of questions on everything from tort reform to the so-called health-care public option. "We don't have any money to spend on anything, not health care," said Barbara Paolucci, 63, of Dongan Hills, to roars of approval. "You're spending money we don't have. China owns us. Dubai owns us." Although Obama has insisted his plan will cut costs in the long run, Staten Island critics were unconvinced. One of the biggest bursts of applause came when a participant thundered, "Anyone who believes their taxes aren't going to be raised believes in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny." The line to speak stretched to the door in the 918-capacity auditorium at the Michael J. Petrides school. Speakers were given two minutes; many went over. At one point, a speaker demanded to know if McMahon supported the public option. "Yes or no," the crowd chanted, but he refused to be pinned down. Several seniors said they were worried their Medicare would be slashed; Obama has vowed those benefits will remain intact. Laura Farina, whose 15-year-old son has autism, said she's fearful the country is "taking a socialist step backwards." Meanwhile, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens/Brooklyn) and former Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey clashed over health care during a sometimes nasty debate at NYU Medical Center in Manhattan. Weiner supported a public-insurance plan to cover those lacking medical coverage and cuts to Medicare to finance it. McCaughey called cuts to Medicare "a medical assault on seniors" akin to "snatching purses from little old ladies" --and claimed Weiner was supporting a government-run insurance plan "that would crush New York hospitals, workers and patients."--NY Post

* 10/6/09--WASHINGTON -- If President Obama is starting to sound like a broken record on health care, there may be a good reason for that. In his latest weekly radio address, Obama didn't just recycle many of the arguments he often makes about the need for reform -- he lifted whole sections nearly word-for-word from a radio address he delivered less than three months ago....The passage was lifted word-for-word -- with one minor grammatical change -- from the radio address he gave July 25, according to the transcripts. Obama similarly recycled at least five major passages from the earlier address. Even the title of Saturday's weekly address appears lifted from the July one. "President Obama Explains How Health Insurance Reform Will Strengthen America's Small Businesses," was this past week's title. "President Obama: Health Insurance Reform Will Strengthen Small Businesses," was the title of the July 25 radio address. --NY Post

* 10/6/09--Greg Craig, the top in-house lawyer for President Barack Obama, is getting the blame for botching the strategy to shut down Guantanamo Bay prison by January — so much so that he’s expected to leave the White House in short order. But sources familiar with the process believe Craig is being set-up as the fall guy and say the blame for missing the deadline extends well beyond him. Instead, it was a widespread breakdown on the political, legislative, policy and planning fronts that contributed to what is shaping up as one of Obama’s most high-profile setbacks, these people say. The White House misread the congressional mood – as it found out abruptly in May, when the Senate voted 90-6 against funds for closing the base after Republicans stoked fears about bringing prisoners to the U.S. The House also went on record last week opposing bringing Gitmo detainees here. The White House misread the public mood – as roughly half of Americans surveyed say they disagree with Obama’s approach. A strong element of NIMBY-ism permeates those results, as Americans say they don’t want the prisoners in their backyards. But most of all Obama’s aides mistook that political consensus from the campaign trail for a deep commitment in Washington to do whatever it takes to close the prison....When Obama signed a series of executive orders on Guantanamo during his second full day in office, what grabbed attention was not his promise to close the prison but his pledge to do it within one year....Some Bush administration officials contend that the one-year timeline was driven by a naïveté on the part of Obama’s aides. “To a certain extent, they had drunk a lot of the far-left Kool-aid: that everybody, or most people, at Guantanamo were innocent and shouldn’t be there, and the Bush administration was not working very hard to resolve these issues, and that the issues were fairly easy to resolve once adults who were really committed to doing something about it in charge,” said one Bush official who met with Obama’s aides during the transition on Gitmo. “It became clear to me they had not really done their homework on the details.” --Politico.com

* 10/6/09--WASHINGTON --President Obama yesterday rolled out the red carpet -- and handed out doctors' white coats as well, just so nobody missed his hard-sell health-care message. In a heavy-handed attempt at reviving support for health-care reform, the White House orchestrated a massive photo op to buttress its claim that front-line physicians support Obama. A sea of 150 white-coated doctors, all enthusiastically supportive of the president and representing all 50 states, looked as if they were at a costume party as they posed in the Rose Garden before hearing Obama's pitch for the Democratic overhaul bills moving through Congress. The physicians, all invited guests, were told to bring their white lab coats to make sure that TV cameras captured the image. But some docs apparently forgot, failing to meet the White House dress code by showing up in business suits or dresses. So the White House rustled up white coats for them and handed them to the suited physicians who had taken seats in the sun-splashed lawn area. All this to provide a visual counter to complaints from other doctors that pending legislation is bad news for the medical profession. --NY Post

* 10/7/09--A Republican doctor-congressman mocked President Obama yesterday -- by waving his white lab coat in the air on the House floor as he lambasted a staged White House photo op with friendly doctors. Georgia Rep. Phil Gingrey skewered the massive photo op on Monday -- highlighted in The Post yesterday -- in which White House staffers handed out white coats to physicians to visually show MD support for Obama's controversial health-care overhaul. Gingrey said a dozen GOP House doctors requested a meeting with Obama last month to discuss health care -- but got no response. --NY Post

* 10/7/09--ANOTHER day, another double standard from the Obama White House. This one involves the nasty effort to discredit and muzzle Gen. Stanley McChrystal, whose sin was to present his commander in chief with an inconvenient answer about Afghanistan. The president appointed McChrystal and ordered him to assess the war and develop a plan to rescue the mission. The result -- a call for an increase of 40,000 troops or face defeat -- apparently was not what Obama wanted to hear. Bingo. In a flash, McChrystal found himself on the business end of a political attack machine. The president's liberal allies struck first, and then White House officials, hiding behind anonymous quotes, heaped scorn on the commander's judgment in The Washington Post. The heavy hitters followed with their whacks at the piñata, with National Security Adviser Jim Jones and Defense Secretary Robert Gates both telling McChrystal to button his lip. They gave this advice on television, even as they demanded that he give his advice in private. --Michael Goodwin, NY Post

* 10/7/09--WASHINGTON -- President Obama delivered a speech yesterday on terrorism at the National Counterterrorism Center without ever once mentioning Afghanistan -- a place he and other Democrats once held should be the central focus of the war on terror. "We know that al Qaeda and its extremist allies threaten us from different corners of the globe -- from Pakistan, but also from East Africa and Southeast Asia, from Europe and the Gulf," he said. But never once did he utter the word "Afghanistan" during his 10-minute talk. The Afghan war commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has asked Obama for 40,000 additional troops to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda. In a speech last week in London, he flatly rejected the notion of a strategy favored by some in the administration, including Vice President Joe Biden, of fewer troops and greater reliance on drone missile strikes. --Charles Hurt, NY Post

* 10/7/09--"The Obama administration is curbing the powers of an Arizona sheriff who has led one of the most contentious fights against illegal immigrants," reports The Wall Street Journal. "Under an agreement involving local enforcement of federal immigration law, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's deputies will no longer have the authority to arrest suspected illegal immigrants in the streets in the course of their duty." Long a lightning rod in the immigration debate, Arpaio has arrested approximately 30,000 illegals since 2007 as part of a partnership with the federal government. But the sheriff was forced to sign a revised agreement restricting his ability to determine immigration status of those inmates booked into Maricopa County jails -- it can no longer be a reason for federal arrest by county officers. Lest readers think old Joe caved, however, he declared, "They took away my authority on the streets. That doesn't matter because I will still pursue illegals on the streets of Maricopa utilizing the authority I have as the elected official."--Patriot Post

* 10/7/09--WASHINGTON -- The top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee yesterday called for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate ACORN, saying President Obama's "close personal ties" to the group could impede a Justice Department probe. Texas Rep. Lamar Smith said he sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting a new investigation to prevent "the administration's political friends getting a free pass." "Only an independent investigation can ensure that justice is served in this case," Smith said. In the letter, Smith details several instances when Obama worked with ACORN or otherwise demonstrated ties to the group that could compromise an investigation, including the group's endorsement of Obama during his campaign. Department regulations require Holder to appoint a special counsel if an investigation is warranted and would create a conflict of interest for the department.--NY Post

* 10/8/09--WASHINGTON -- Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel yesterday beat back an attempt by Republicans to force him to step down as Ways and Means Committee chairman. The Democrat-controlled House voted 246-153, mostly along partisan lines, to banish the anti-Rangel resolution to the Ethics Committee, which has been investigating the Harlem lawmaker for more than a year. By sending the legislation to the panel rather than simply voting to kill it on the House floor, Democrats provided themselves some political cover from accusations that they helped protect the accused tax cheat. Two southern Democrats -- Mississippi Reps. Gene Taylor and Travis Childers -- supported the Republican effort. Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), who authored the ouster resolution, said voters should look carefully at how their representatives voted on the measure. "Today, the majority party in the House of Representatives approved a double standard for taxpayers -- one for powerful Washington politicians and another for regular working Americans," Carter said. Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, who represents parts of The Bronx and Westchester, defended Rangel afterward, saying the GOP effort was politically motivated. "These things are partisan attacks," he said.... The Ethics Committee's investigation has been expanded twice. Among other items, the panel is examining Rangel's failure to declare rental income on a beachfront villa he owns in the Dominican Republic, his possession of four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem and his use of congressional stationery to solicit donations for an academic center named for him at City College.--NY Post

* 10/8/09--The GOP resolution yesterday seeking to suspend Rep. Charlie Rangel's role as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee achieved its goal: not his suspension, but a public display of the Democrats' tolerance for sleaze. With Dems in charge -- and unwilling to acknowledge Rangel's repeated lapses over the years -- no one really expected the measure to pass. So it was no surprise that members voted 246-153, mostly along party lines, to refer the resolution to the Ethics Committee -- a move meant to bury the issue further. Again, the GOP bill was more about Democrats than Rangel. Shame on them. --NY Post Editorial

* 10/8/09--WASHINGTON (AP) - Confronted with big job losses and no sign the U.S. economy is ready to stand on its own, Democrats are working on a growing list of relief efforts, leaving for later how to pay for them, or whether even to bother. Proposals include extending and perhaps expanding a popular tax credit for first-time home buyers, and creating a new credit for companies that add jobs. Taken together, the proposals look a lot like another economic stimulus package, though congressional leaders don't want to call it that.

* 10/9/09--House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday proposed paying for health-care reform by socking insurance companies with a "windfall" profit tax. The stocks of major medical insurers plummeted after word of the potential tax hike. Pelosi (D-Calif.) reasoned that if universal care is enacted, insurers will add as many as 45 million customers, so they should "put more on the table." The speaker floated the windfall tax as an alternative to a Senate plan that would tax so-called Cadillac, or high-cost, insurance plans.--NY Post

* 10/9/09--AT a time of unprecedented budget crises, it is unthinkable that we should roll back welfare reform -- yet that's what's happening. In New York and other states, and on the federal level, lawmakers are broadening eligibility, eliminating work requirements and raising cash pay-outs. The drive is to substitute all sorts of social and educational services for work requirements -- despite overwhelming evidence that such assistance doesn't lead to employment. As a nation, we'll come to regret these decisions, because welfare reform has worked -- and worked well. It must be preserved.--NY Post editorial.

* 10/9/09--From Times Online--The award of this year’s Nobel peace prize to President Obama will be met with widespread incredulity, consternation in many capitals and probably deep embarrassment by the President himself. Rarely has an award had such an obvious political and partisan intent. It was clearly seen by the Norwegian Nobel committee as a way of expressing European gratitude for an end to the Bush Administration, approval for the election of America’s first black president and hope that Washington will honour its promise to re-engage with the world. Instead, the prize risks looking preposterous in its claims, patronising in its intentions and demeaning in its attempt to build up a man who has barely begun his period in office, let alone achieved any tangible outcome for peace. The pretext for the prize was Mr Obama’s decision to “strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples”. Many people will point out that, while the President has indeed promised to “reset” relations with Russia and offer a fresh start to relations with the Muslim world, there is little so far to show for his fine words. East-West relations are little better than they were six months ago, and any change is probably due largely to the global economic downturn; and America’s vaunted determination to re-engage with the Muslim world has failed to make any concrete progress towards ending the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. There is a further irony in offering a peace prize to a president whose principal preoccupation at the moment is when and how to expand the war in Afghanistan. The spectacle of Mr Obama mounting the podium in Oslo to accept a prize that once went to Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi and Mother Theresa would be all the more absurd if it follows a White House decision to send up to 40,000 more US troops to Afghanistan. However just such a war may be deemed in Western eyes, Muslims would not be the only group to complain that peace is hardly compatible with an escalation in hostilities.

* 10/9/09--Despite plaudits by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood as "the one stimulus program that seems to be working better than just about any other program," Cash for Clunkers has turned out to be one big flunker. As The Wall Street Journal reports, not only did this bureaucratic brainchild drive a 25 percent drop in new car sales for U.S. automakers in September as compared with last year, but the program's grand vision of advancing environmental salvation translated into a mere 0.2 percent reduction in annual oil consumption (less than one day's worth), and that's a best-case scenario. To top it off, according to the University of Delaware's Burton Abrams and George Parson, all factors considered, the program imposed a net cost of about $2,000 per vehicle. In short, government made the country $1.4 billion poorer and spent nearly $3 billion to do so. And that's Washington's definition of a "working" program.--Patriot Post

* 10/9/09--With the dollar's continued decline due to excessive debt racked up by the Obama administration, the oil-rich nations of the Middle East, along with a cabal of other countries including Russia and China, are discussing a switch to currencies other than the dollar for trading oil. This would mark the first currency change since the Bretton Woods Agreements (signed during WWII) collapsed in the early 1970s, eventually resulting in the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency. Such a switch away from the dollar obviously portends a loss of American influence on the world's currency system. This erosion of the dollar is a direct result of out-of-control government spending, debt and money printing. These policies have so destabilized the dollar that even the Communist Chinese government has asked the administration to change course before inflation further devalues the dollar and Chinese investments in the United States. Unfortunately, Obama's agenda doesn't include saving the dollar. When the dollar crashes under the pressures of unsound monetary policies and rising inflation, it will be too late to refocus.--Patriot Post

* 10/9/09--"Saturday Night Live" last week featured a skit involving "Barack Obama" evaluating a checklist of campaign promises, such as closing Guantanamo Bay, getting out of Iraq, "reforming" health care and more. He concludes, "So looking at this list, I'm seeing two big accomplishments: jack and squat." But wait, he adds, "I brought a white police officer and a black professor together for a beer. Who else could do that? ... You're right -- Oprah -- but no one else." The skit was mildly humorous, because, of course, Obama already has done much to America. But, as usual, the Left has no sense of humor when it comes to their own. Believe it or not, CNN actually took the time to "fact check" the skit, complete with an interview of Politifact "expert" Bill Adair. CNN's Kareen Wynter couldn't resist a swipe at Republicans, saying SNL's Obama skit "won't resonate with the audience as much as ... comic Tina Fey's dead-on impersonation of former GOP vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin." If CNN really wanted to fact check this comedy show, they might point out that, in the Eastern Time Zone, more than half of "Saturday Night Live" is not actually on Saturday night.--Patriot Post.

* 10/9/09--"A pattern has emerged. Liberal citizens and politicians during the Bush years were permitted to speak out against the Iraq war, root for an American defeat, and cheer with the news of each dead American, and they were labeled patriots. An American speaks out against Obama's socialist policies and he is labeled anti-American. A liberal is able to chant anti-Bush slogans and compare him to Hitler and he is exercising his right to free speech. An American questions Obama's judgment both domestically and on the international stage and he is called a racist. I have attempted to point out to liberal friends and family that if they simply took the vast majority of offensive statements, policies, or actions of Obama over the past nine months and imagined them emanating from Bush, they would see the hypocrisy in their stance -- to no avail. They are content to sit back and watch this administration gut the Constitution, usurp power wherever it can find it, ignore the intent of the founders of this country and the successes of the free market economy which helped lead us to the position of the only world's superpower. But they will wake up in a few years to find that their children are not safe from harm's way, their grandchildren will be working off the enormous debt incurred by this government and will never achieve the economic success of their grandparents, and when they need medical care, they will be waiting in line like the Europeans and Canadians who used to turn to the US in times of emergency. Yet they will have their civil rights, for as long as Bush is not the one authorizing the wiretapping of their cell phones, all is good. Another bottle of champagne anyone?" --columnist Lauri Regan

* 10/10/09--Thanks to his administration's bungling on Honduras, President Obama may wind up in the absurd position of opposing a free, fair and fully constitutional election in the name of defending democracy. The State Department is now engaged in a last-minute effort to find a compromise in Honduras. If it fails, Obama will be subject to endless updates on the Vietnam trope of "destroying the village in order to save it." Right now, the president -- who has silently accepted the results of fraud-ridden elections in Iran and Afghanistan -- is on course to join hands with UN bodies, the Organization of American States and Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez in refusing to recognize the results of Honduras's Nov. 29 presidential election.--Benny Avni, NY Post

* 10/10/09--Anyone who still doubts the global nature of the War on Terror should look at the Philippines, where Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Shaw, 37, of Markham, Ill., and Staff Sgt. Jack Martin, 26, of Bethany, Okla., were killed last week by al Qaeda-allied militants. They're the first US casualties there since 2002, when Washington dispatched military advisors to help fight jihadis. The conflict in the Philippines has never reached the intensity of Iraq or Afghanistan.... Which makes the Philippines a vital theater in the War on Terror -- and one more country that could heat up if America is seen to be retreating from its fight.--NY Post editorial

* 10/12/09--WASHINGTON -- Thousands of gays and lesbians marched from the White House to the Capitol yesterday, demanding that President Obama keep his promises to let gays serve openly in the military and allow same-sex marriages. Crowds filling Pennsylvania Avenue chanted, "Hey, Obama, let Mama marry Mama," and "We're out, we're proud, we won't back down." Some participants in the National Equality March woke up energized by Obama's pledge to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military during a speech Saturday night to the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay-rights group.--NY Post

* 10/13/09--More bad news about ObamaCare: A report released yesterday says it will make Americans dig deeper into their own pockets to pay for their health insurance. A lot deeper. Indeed, the Pricewaterhouse Coopers report says the Senate Finance Committee's bill -- which members may vote on as early as today -- could jack up the average insurance premium by as much as $4,000. And it will hit folks who buy their insurance directly -- as well as those who get coverage through their jobs. This is on top of the $829 billion, 10-year tab Democrats admit their health-care bill will add (itself a low-balled figure). --NY Post editorial

--The White House yesterday slammed an insurance-industry report for claiming that family medical-policy premiums could skyrocket by $4,000 if a massive Senate health-care bill becomes law. The study, by America's Health Insurance Plans, said high-cost New York would be particularly hard hit by an excise tax of 40 percent on "Cadillac" policies. But the White House dismissed the report as a scare campaign. "This is a distorted and flawed report from the insurance industry and cannot be taken seriously," said Obama spokesman Reid Cherlin. --NY Post

* 10/13/09--Calling Fox News "a wing of the Republican Party," the Obama administration on Sunday escalated its war of words against the channel, even as observers questioned the wisdom of a White House war on a news organization. "What I think is fair to say about Fox -- and certainly it's the way we view it -- is that it really is more a wing of the Republican Party," said Anita Dunn, White House communications director, on CNN. "They take their talking points, put them on the air; take their opposition research, put them on the air. And that's fine. But let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is." Fox News senior vice president Michael Clemente, who likens the channel to a newspaper with separate sections on straight news and commentary, suggested White House officials were intentionally conflating opinion show hosts like Glenn Beck with news reporters like Major Garrett. "It's astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion programming," Clemente said. "It seems self-serving on their part." In recent weeks, the White House has begun using its government blog to directly attack what it called "Fox lies." ....As for Dunn's complaint about Fox News' coverage of the Obama campaign, a study by the Pew Research Center showed that 40 percent of Fox News stories on Obama in the last six weeks of the campaign were negative. Similarly, 40 percent of Fox News' stories on Obama's Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, were negative. On CNN, by contrast, there was a 22-point disparity in the percentage of negative stories on Obama (39 percent) and McCain (61 percent). The disparity was even greater at MSNBC, according to Pew, where just 14 percent of Obama stories were negative, compared to a whopping 73 percent of McCain stories -- a spread of 59 points. Although Dunn accused Fox News of being a "wing of the Republican Party," she said the network does not champion conservatism....Still, Obama refused to appear on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace on Sept. 20, the day he appeared on five other Sunday shows. At the time, the White House characterized the snub as payback for the Fox Broadcast Network's decision not to air an Obama prime time appearance. But last weekend, Dunn blamed Fox News Channel's coverage of the administration for Obama's snub of Fox News Sunday. "Is this why he did not appear?" Dunn said. "The answer is yes." Wallace has called White House officials "the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington." Dunn was asked by CNN's Howard Kurtz whether Obama would grant an interview to Fox News by the end of the year. "Obviously, he'll go on Fox, because he engages with ideological opponents and he has done that before, he will do it again," Dunn replied. "I can't give you a date, because frankly I can't give you dates for anybody else right now." But last week, Fox News was informed by the White House that Obama would grant no interviews to the channel until at least 2010. The edict was relayed to Fox News by a White House official after Dunn discussed the channel at a meeting with presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs and other Obama advisers....Obama made clear that Fox News has gotten under his skin. "I've got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration," he told CNBC's John Harwood. "You'd be hard pressed if you watched the entire day to find a positive story about me on that front." --FoxNews

* 10/13/09--In an audio recording from a September 2007 speech to an audience at the UC Berkeley, former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Reich reveals what he believes an honest liberal presidential candidate would say about health care. The "truth" about health care as Reich sees it is quite shocking and as you can hear on the recording, he is definitely not kidding. Here is a transcript of the brutal truth about health care as Robert Reich sees it: I'll actually give you a speech made up entirely, almost on the spur of the moment, of what a candidate for president would say if that candidate did not care about becoming president. In other words, this is what the truth is and a candidate will never say, but what a candidate should say if we were in the kind of democracy where citizens were honored in terms of their practice of citizenship and they were educated in terms of what the issues were and they could separate myth from reality in terms of what candidates would tell them: "Thank you so much for coming this afternoon. I'm so glad to see you and I would like to be president. Let me tell you a few things on health care. Look, we have the only health care system in the world that is designed to avoid sick people. And that's true and what I'm going to do is that I am going try to reorganize it to be more amenable to treating sick people but that means you, particularly you young people, particularly you young healthy people...you're going to have to pay more.
"Thank you. And by the way, we're going to have to, if you're very old, we're not going to give you all that technology and all those drugs for the last couple of years of your life to keep you maybe going for another couple of months. It's too expensive...so we're going to let you die." Are you taking notes, Alan Grayson? Okay, now back to Robert Reich and his uncomfortably brutal honesty about health care. "Also I'm going to use the bargaining leverage of the federal government in terms of Medicare, Medicaid---we already have a lot of bargaining leverage---to force drug companies and insurance companies and medical suppliers to reduce their costs. What that means, less innovation and that means less new products and less new drugs on the market which means you are probably not going to live much longer than your parents. Thank you."
And thank you, Robert Reich, for revealing the brutal truth about what liberals ultimately have in store for the public with their health care plan. Remember, this is Reich presenting what an honest liberal presidential candidate would say aloud if he weren't worried about being elected. This recording has already gone viral in the blogosphere but so far the mainstream media is ignoring it. I guess the MSM is currently much more obsessed over what Rush Limbaugh did not say about slavery than they are over what an Obama economics adviser actually did say about health care.--Newsbusters.org

* 10/14/09--The long-simmering tension between insurers and congressional Democrats is erupting into open warfare, with lawmakers stepping up their push to revoke a key federal protection for the insurance industry. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday will call for an amendment to the health care reform bill that would remove the long-standing antitrust exemption for insurers, echoing a push by other Democrats to crack down on the industry....Top Democrats in the House also floated the idea during a meeting among party leaders Tuesday evening in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Capitol suite, someone present said afterward. This push comes on the heels of a controversial industry-sponsored report released over the weekend that makes the case that insurance premiums will go up by as much as $4,000 per family by 2019 if the Senate Finance Committee legislation is signed into law. The release of that report by the industry group America’s Health Insurance Plans sparked angry blowback from Democrats in both chambers. At first glance, this assault on the antitrust exemption is more political than practical. But repealing the antitrust exemption would give the federal government more authority to oversee the business side of health insurance companies — something states now have the sole authority to monitor. And the push by Reid and Schumer signals that Democrats are planning to intensify their efforts to paint insurance companies as the villains in the health reform fight, something that could prove useful as President Barack Obama and others try to rally a skeptical public around a sweeping health reform measure. Health insurance officials dismissed the effort as a “political ploy.” “Health insurance is one of the most regulated industries in America at both the federal and state level,” said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans. “McCarran-Ferguson has nothing to do with competition in the health insurance market. The focus on this issue is a political ploy designed to distract attention away from the real issue of rising health care costs.” The exemption, known as McCarran-Ferguson, cedes regulatory control of the industry, on the business side, to individual states. Since health insurers are already heavily regulated at the state level, its repeal would have a much broader impact on property and casualty insurers — a group that has also found itself in Congress’s cross-hairs recently. Schumer isn’t the first member of his party to push for this repeal. Chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary committees both introduced legislation already this year to eliminate the exemption or gut it substantially. But the push is likely to gather momentum as Democrats try to find a way to lash back at the insurance industry — whose report was viewed as a last-minute attempt to scuttle health care reform just days before Tuesday’s critical Senate Finance Committee vote. The legislation there was approved 14-9, with Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine voting yes and giving reform efforts a boost....In the House, where Democratic leaders are exploring the issue further, Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) has introduced legislation that would essentially end McCarran-Ferguson and give the federal government the right to regulate insurers at the national level.--Politico.com

* 10/14/09--ALBANY, Ore. - At the Oaks Apartments in Albany, the management can fly their own flag advertising one and two bedroom apartments - but residents have been told they can't fly any flags at all. Jim Clausen flies the American flag from the back of his motorcycle. He has a son in the military heading back to Iraq, and the flag - he said - is his way of showing support. But to Oaks Apartment management, Clausen said, the American flag symbolizes problems. He was told to remove the red, white and blue from both of his rides, or face eviction. "It floored me," he said. "I can't believe she was saying what she was saying." Even long-time residents like Sharron White, who has flown a flag on her car for eight years, has been told to take it down. White said management told her that "someone might get offended." "I just said to her 'They'll just have to get over it,'" White said. Residents we talked to who had been approached to take down their flags all told us the same thing: that management told them the flags could be offensive because they live in a diverse community. Attempts to find out for ourselves why management would ban flags were unsuccessful. KATU wanted to talk to management at Oaks Apartments, but no one has returned our calls. The woman we were told had made the decision said she was "not going to answer any questions."--KATU News

* 10/15/09--Washington -- President Obama yesterday asked Congress to fund a new mini-stimulus package -- billions more for seniors, veterans and the disabled. The boost will come in the form of $250 "economic recovery payment" checks sent directly to nearly 60 million people....The administration estimated that the proposal for stimulus No. 2 -- before Congress adds any additional spending of its own -- will cost US taxpayers $13 billion. The cash infusion comes even as about $450 billion of the first $729 billion stimulus has yet to be spent....Officials deflected questions about how this massive new spending will be paid for, and said Obama is asking Congress for another round of these checks because they were so successful the first time. Asked why the second round is needed if the first round was so successful, one of the officials declined to answer directly, except to say that the president is aware of the continued economic hardships. --NY Post

* 10/15/09--President Obama recently shifted authority for approving sales to China of missile and space technology from the White House to the Commerce Department -- a move critics say will loosen export controls and potentially benefit Chinese missile development. The president issued a little-noticed "presidential determination" Sept. 29 that delegated authority for determining whether missile and space exports should be approved for China to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke....The presidential notice alters a key provision of the 1999 Defense Authorization Act that required that the president notify Congress whether a transfer of missile and space technology to China would harm the U.S. space-launch industry or help China's missile programs. The law was passed after a late-1990s (Clinton Administration) scandal involving the U.S. companies Space Systems/Loral and Hughes Electronics Corp. Both companies improperly shared technology with China and were fined $20 million and $32 million, respectively, by the State Department after a U.S. government investigation concluded that their know-how was used to improve China's long-range nuclear missiles. Section 1512 of the 1999 law requires the president to certify to Congress in advance of any missile equipment or technology exports to China that the export will not harm the U.S. space-launch industry and that "missile equipment or technology, including any indirect technical benefit that could be derived from such export, will not measurably improve the missile or space launch capabilities of the People's Republic of China." --Bill Gertz, Washington Times

* 10/15/09--NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Despite concerted government-led and lender-supported efforts to prevent foreclosures, the number of filings hit a record high in the third quarter, according to a report issued Thursday. "They were the worst three months of all time," said Rick Sharga, spokesman for RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes....Most disturbing is that all foreclosures -- not just repossessions -- are rampant despite efforts to corral them. Not only has the Obama administration's Making Home Affordable foreclosure prevention program taken a bite out of REOs but lenders themselves have scaled back repossessions over the past few months to give the program time to work. And in some low-price markets, lenders simply aren't following through on foreclosures, according to Jim Rokakis, treasurer for Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which includes Cleveland....In ever more frequent cases, delinquent borrowers want out of the mortgage worse than the lenders. There are no firm statistics for it, but many industry watchers claim the percentage of REOs caused by borrowers voluntarily walking away from their homes is skyrocketing....The foreclosure crisis may not diminish anytime soon. "The fastest growing area is in the 180 days late-plus category, the most seriously delinquent borrowers," Sharga said. "It's going to be a lingering problem." Plus, the RealtyTrac statistics may understate the depth of the foreclosure mess because lender and government actions have delayed many filings. As a result, some delinquencies have not been counted on the foreclosure tallies. That means the crisis may not end quickly. And because there are so many delinquent borrowers, Sharga predicts the banks will be slow to take back their properties and put the repossessed homes back on the market. "It's hard to envision [the banks] putting millions on properties up for sale and cratering prices," he said. "Recovery will be slow and gradual. I don't see home prices getting much better until 2013."

* 10/16/09--On September 10th of this year the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) Posted a press release informing the world that “from October 19-25, more than 60 network TV shows [will] spotlight the power and personal benefits of service,” and that this “unprecedented block of TV programming is the first wave of a multi-year ‘I Participate’ campaign.” On its face this all sounds rather benign in that silly, liberal do-gooder kind of way. The networks have launched these kinds of campaigns before and other than some clunky exposition awkwardly inserted into your favorite show to meet the mandate — no harm, no foul. But this year there are a couple new strangers in town: “Volunteerism” and “Service.” You’ve heard of them. Their names have been bandied everywhere since President Obama took office, and this internal memo from the EIF to network showrunners obtained by Big Hollywood shows that the entertainment industry is well acquainted and eager to introduce both to as vast an audience as possible–Like the NEA story, once again we see the same buzzwords pop up; suggested topics pitched to an overwhelmingly left-of-center group: Education, health, environment, the economy and lastly — almost as an afterthought as some kind of “bi-partisan” cover – support for military families. We’ll have to wait until next week to see what effect this initiative will have on the 60 television (and news) programs in question, but thanks to the intrepid Patrick Courrielche and Stage Right, today we can answer the simple question of…“What’s wrong with this?” Doing the work the Kamikaze Media (many of whom are participating in this event rather than digging for the story) refuses, and with the help of Big Government’s Dana Loesch, Patrick and Stage Right have discovered that when it comes to this White House – whether it’s the NEA conference calls or EIF’s iParticipate programming — all roads funnel into one place: online volunteer portals, including Serve.gov, where if you plug in “health care” all kinds of Planned Parenthood openings pop up along with a video dispelling those ugly “myths” knocking ObamaCare. There’s scarier stuff, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise. *cough*Trutherism*cough* We’ll start with Stage Right. Next week, tens, if not hundreds of millions of Americans, will be urged through the (ab)use of public airwaves to log on to the EIF iParticipate site and volunteer. Stage Right will give you a preview of what the unsuspecting and well-intentioned, including your children, will find. If you’re thinking it’s all about “Meals on Wheels,” think again. From there, Patrick Courrielche will describe how this EIF initiative fits into a broader White House plan, including the push to politicize the NEA, to redefine “art” as “service” and engage an all too compliant news, entertainment, and artistic community to start a volunteer army through these online portals. First the NEA, now the EIF…--Breitbart.com

* 10/16/09--The Obama administration is clearly not content to have a majority of American news media in its back pocket. It wants total obedience and has now openly declared war on Fox News Channel, which White House Communications Director Anita Dunn recently accused of being "a wing of the Republican Party." She added that from here forward, "We're going to treat [Fox News] the way we would treat an opponent. ... We don't need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave." Consider the source, though. Dunn is also on the record saying that one of her "favorite political philosophers" was Mao Tse Tung, who was responsible for more than 70 million deaths in Communist China. Obamanauts are furious with Fox for being the only major broadcast news outlet that has not toed the party line. Apparently, the administration thinks the way "legitimate news organizations behave" is to out-and-out lie about the opposition, like CBS News with its "fake but accurate" hatchet job on President George W. Bush just prior to the 2004 election, and like the outrageously phony quotes attributed to Rush Limbaugh in recent days (more on that later). Fox, on the other hand, has recently exposed the corruption of ACORN and the extreme leftism of former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones, but this doesn't make it anti-Obama. Rather, it makes Fox pro-information, as the ACORN exposé and Van Jones's public insults about Republicans were real and noteworthy events, though most of the media chose not to report them. The White House attack on Fox News goes beyond the simple cowardice of the Obama administration. Not only are they afraid to field tough questions from an aggressive news organization but government appointees in high places like Mark Lloyd, the FCC's Associate General Counsel and Chief Diversity Officer, are calling for ways to address the "structural imbalance" of talk radio and, presumably, the manner in which FNC does business. For his part, Lloyd is on record as being enamored of Hugo Chavez's "democratic revolution" and his takeover of the Venezuelan media. All aboard for the "Fairness Doctrine."--Patriot Post

* 10/16/09--Conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has endured attacks from the Left for decades. But wild-eyed leftists took it a step further by derailing the Missouri native's bid to buy the St. Louis Rams' NFL franchise (as a minority partner, yet). On Wednesday, the group attempting the purchase dropped Limbaugh.The anti-Limbaugh charge was led by a lineup of CNN and MSNBC "journalists," race hustler Al Sharpton and other dimwitted leftists (but we repeat ourselves). MSNBC's tingly-legged Chris Matthews fantasized that, like James Bond villain Mr. Big, "at some point somebody's going to jam a CO2 pellet into [Limbaugh's] head and he's going to explode like a giant blimp." But that's not the end of it. These two networks, along with the sports channels and who knows how many locals, repeated a concocted quote attributed to Rush as evidence of his racism: "Slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back; I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark." The only problem is Limbaugh never said it. Retractions or corrections of the record have been relegated to such places as Twitter, where CNN's Rick Sanchez tweeted, "we didn't confirm quote. our bad." Classy. The minor detail of the quote being fake didn't stop David Zirin, sports editor of The Nation, a magazine described by its staff as the "flagship of the left," from calling Limbaugh an "unreconstructed racist" and a "swine" who views black players "with naked and open contempt because of the color of their skin." Nor did it stop Al Sharpton from crowing that the group's decision to drop the radio host "is a moral victory for all Americans -- especially the players that have been unfairly castigated by Rush Limbaugh." So to recap, Rush has been on the air 15 hours a week for 21 years and the best the media could come up with was a fake quote? And that's a "moral victory"? --Patriot Post

--"The CNN and MSNBC 'news' networks are guilty of promoting outright falsehoods and purposely using fabricated disinformation created by left-wing radicals to destroy a conservative leader. There is no grey area here. ... Perhaps if they spent less time fact-checking SNL comedy skits and more time fact-checking what they laughably call 'news,' they would have a chance to salvage their tattered reputations, sinking even faster with this intentional character assassination." --Media Research Center president Brent Bozell

* 10/17/09--Turkey this week broke significantly with Israel and the West -- a strong sign that President Obama's outreach to the Muslim world is achieving nothing. On Monday, NATO scrapped "Anatolian Eagle," a regularly scheduled military exercise with various allies along the Turkish border -- drills meant to assure coordination in case of war in the region. At the last minute, Turkey had announced its refusal to let the Israeli Defense Force participate. Standing by its ally, America dropped out as well -- killing the whole thing. A day later, Turkish and Syrian officials disclosed that their armies had just concluded their own joint military exercise. The same day, the two countries went even further, signing a strategic cooperation pact. --Benny Avni, NY Post

* 10/17/09--WASHINGTON -- The federal budget deficit has surged to an all-time high of $1.42 trillion as the recession caused tax revenues to plunge while the government was spending huge amounts to stabilize the financial system and jump-start the economy. The imbalance for the budget year ended Sept. 30 more than tripled last year's record. The Obama administration projects deficits will total $9.1 trillion over the next decade without corrective action. As a portion of the economy, the budget deficit stood at 10 percent, the highest since World War II, according to data released yesterday.-AP

* 10/18/09--TEL AVIV – President Obama's presidential campaign focused on "making" the news media cover certain issues while rarely communicating anything to the press unless it was "controlled," White House Communications Director Anita Dunn disclosed to the Dominican government at a videotaped conference. "Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn't absolutely control," said Dunn. "One of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters," said Dunn, referring to Plouffe, who was Obama's chief campaign manager. "We just put that out there and made them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it," Dunn said. Continued Dunn: "Whether it was a David Plouffe video or an Obama speech, a huge part of our press strategy was focused on making the media cover what Obama was actually saying as opposed to why the campaign was saying it, what the tactic was. … Making the press cover what we were saying." Dunn has been facing some criticism since she led a White House campaign last wekk against Fox News, slamming the top-rated network as an "arm of the Republican Party" and "opinion journalism masquerading as news." Fox hit back this past Friday, releasing a video of Dunn speaking to high school students last June in which she lists her two "favorite political philosophers," including Communist Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung, whose draconian policies are blamed for the deaths of tens of millions of people. --WorldNetDaily

* 10/18/09--The White House is calling on other news organizations to isolate and alienate Fox News as it sends out top advisers to rail against the cable channel as a Republican Party mouthpiece. Top political strategists question the decision by the Obama administration to escalate its offensive against Fox News. And as of Monday, the four other major television networks had not given any indication that they intend to sever their ties with Fox News. But several top White House officials have taken aim at Fox News since communications director Anita Dunn branded Fox "opinion journalism masquerading as news" in an interview last Sunday. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN on Sunday that President Obama does not want "the CNNs and the others in the world [to] basically be led in following Fox." Obama senior adviser David Axelrod went further by calling on media outlets to join the administration in declaring that Fox is "not a news organization." "Other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way," Axelrod counseled ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "We're not going to treat them that way."...But by urging other news outlets to side with the administration, Obama officials dramatically upped the ante in the war of words that began earlier this month with Dunn's comments. So far, none of the four other major networks has given any indication that they wish to disinvite Fox News from the White House pool -- the rotation through which the networks share the costs and duties of White House coverage and the most significant interaction among the news channels. The White House stopped providing guests to "Fox News Sunday" after host Chris Wallace fact-checked controversial assertions made by Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, in August...."She criticized 'Fox News Sunday' last week for fact-checking -- fact-checking -- an administration official," Wallace said Sunday. "They didn't say that our fact-checking was wrong. They just said that we had dared to fact-check."--FoxNews

* 10/18/09--WASHINGTON (CNN) – A leading fiscal mind on Capitol Hill and a one-time Obama Cabinet pick sounded the alarm Sunday over the projected long-term financial challenges the country faces. “This deficit is driven by us,” New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg candidly said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union when asked about the federal government’s projected $1.42 trillion operating deficit for the 2009 fiscal year. “You talk about systemic risk. The systemic risk today is the Congress of the United States,“ the Ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King, “that we’re creating these massive debts which we’re passing on to our children. We’re going to undermine fundamentally the quality of life for our children by doing this.” “Now you can’t blame that on [former President] George [W.] Bush,” Greg said, noting that using the Obama administration’s projections the budget deficit for the next ten years is $1 trillion per year. And Gregg said that during the same ten-year period, public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product would increase from 40 percent - which Gregg called “tolerable but still too high” - up to 80 percent. The figures, Gregg told King, “mean we’re basically on the path to a banana-republic-type of financial situation in this country. And you just can’t do that. You can’t keep running these [federal] programs out [into the future] and not paying for them. And you can’t keep throwing debt on top of debt.” “Standards of living will drop if we keep this up,” Gregg also said.

* 10/19/09--Launched in March by Las Vegan Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers bills itself as a nonpartisan group of current and retired law enforcement and military personnel who vow to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution. More specifically, the group's members, which number in the thousands, pledge to disobey orders they deem unlawful, including directives to disarm the American people and to blockade American cities. By refusing the latter order, the Oath Keepers hope to prevent cities from becoming "giant concentration camps," a scenario the 44-year-old Rhodes says he can envision happening in the coming years. It's a Cold War-era nightmare vision with a major twist: The occupying forces in this imagined future are American, not Soviet. "The whole point of Oath Keepers is to stop a dictatorship from ever happening here," Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper and Yale-trained lawyer, said in an interview with the Review-Journal. "My focus is on the guys with the guns, because they can't do it without them. "We say if the American people decide it's time for a revolution, we'll fight with you." That type of rhetoric has caught the attention of groups that track extremist activity in the United States. In a July report titled "Return of the Militias," the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center singled out Oath Keepers as "a particularly worrisome example of the Patriot revival." The Patriot movement, so named because its adherents believe the federal government has stepped on the constitutional ideals of the American Revolution....Oath Keepers is not preaching violence or government overthrow, Rhodes said. On the contrary, it is asking police and the military to lay down their arms in response to unlawful orders. The group's Web site, www.oathkeepers.org, features videos and testimonials in which supporters compare President Barack Obama's America to Adolf Hitler's Germany. They also liken Obama to England's King George III during the American Revolution. One member, in a videotaped speech at an event in Washington, D.C., calls Obama "the domestic enemy the Constitution is talking about." According to the law center, militia groups are re-emerging in this country partly as a result of racial animosity toward Obama. It's the "cross-pollinating" of extremist groups -- some racist, some not -- that is of concern, Potok said. As evidence that the danger is real, he points to several recent murders committed by men with anti-government or racist views. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security reached a similar conclusion in a report earlier this year about the rise of right-wing extremism. The report said the nation's economic downturn and Obama's race are "unique drivers for right-wing radicalization and recruitment." The homeland security report added that "disgruntled military veterans" might be vulnerable to recruitment by right-wing extremist groups. That warning was enough to make Rhodes feel paranoid. "They're accusing anybody who opposes Obama of being a racist or a potential terrorist," he said. "What they're saying is, 'We're coming after you.'" The motto of Oath Keepers: "Not on our watch!" The message Rhodes hears from the government: We're watching you.--OathKeepers.com

* 10/19/09--"'What happened to global warming?' read the headline -- on BBC News on Oct. 9, no less. Consider it a cataclysmic event: Mainstream news organizations have begun reporting on scientific research that suggests that global warming may not be caused by man and may not be as dire and eminent as alarmists suggest. Indeed, as the BBC's climate correspondent Paul Hudson reported, the warmest year recorded globally 'was not in 2008 or 2007, but 1998.' It's true, he continued, 'For the last 11 years, we have not observed any increase in global temperatures.' ... Western Washington University geologist Don J. Easterbrook presented research last year that suggests that the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) caused warmer temperatures in the 1980s and 1990s. With Pacific sea surface temperatures cooling, Easterbrook expects 30 years of global cooling. EPA analyst Alan Carlin -- an MIT-trained economist with a degree in physics -- referred to 'solar variability' and Easterbrook's work in a document that warned that politics had prompted the EPA and other countries to pay 'too little attention to the science of global warming' as partisans ignored the lack of global warming over the last 10 years. At first, the EPA buried the paper, then it permitted Carlin to post it on his personal Web site. ... Over the years, global warming alarmists have sought to stifle debate by arguing that there was no debate. They bullied dissenters and ex-communicated non-believers from their panels. ... For a long time, that approach worked. But after 11 years without record temperatures that had the seas spilling over the Statue of Liberty's toes, they are going to have to change tactics. They're going to have to rely on real data, not failed models, scare stories and the Big Lie that everyone who counts agrees with them." --columnist Debra Saunders

* 10/20/09--WASHINGTON – (AP)--Even with an economic revival, many U.S. jobs lost during the recession may be gone forever and a weak employment market could linger for years. That could add up to a "new normal" of higher joblessness and lower standards of living for many Americans, some economists are suggesting. The words "it's different this time" are always suspect. But economists and policy makers say the job-creating dynamics of previous recoveries can't be counted on now.

* 10/20/09--Ron Bloom, President Obama’s new manufacturing czar, speaking to the 6th Annual Distressed Investing Forum, in February 2008: “Generally speaking, we get the joke. We know that the free market is nonsense. We know that the whole point is to game the system, to beat the market, or at least find someone who will pay you a lot of money because they are convinced that there is a free lunch. We know that this is largely about power, that it’s an adults-only, no-limit game. We kind of agree with Mao, that political power comes largely from the barrel of a gun. And we get it, that if you want a friend, you should get a dog.” TownHall.com

* 10/20/09--WASHINGTON (CNN) – For the first time since he took over in the White House, Americans don't see eye to eye with President Barack Obama on the important issues, according to a new national poll....According to the poll, which was released Tuesday, 48 percent of people questioned say that they agree with Obama on the issues that matter most to them, with 51 percent saying no. That's a switch from April, when 57 percent said they agreed with the president on important issues, with 41 percent disagreeing. "Obama is facing crunch time on a number of controversial issues, from health care to financial regulation to cap and trade to Afghanistan," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "The fact that most Americans no longer agree with him on important issues makes his task harder."

* 10/21/09--The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -13. That’s just a point above the lowest level ever recorded for this President. It’s also the sixth straight day in negative double digits, matching the longest such streak). Just 31% of voters believe that Congress has a good understanding of the health care proposal.

* 10/21/09--A top Senate Republican will take to the floor Wednesday morning to suggest that the Obama White House is plotting a political strategy similar to that of ex-President Richard Nixon and may be on the verge of preparing its own “enemies list.” Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who served in the Nixon White House, plans to offer what he will say is a “friendly suggestion” to the White House not to repeat the errors he saw committed by the staff of the disgraced former president. “Based upon that experience and my forty years since then in and out of public life I want to make what I hope will be taken as a friendly suggestion to President Obama and his White House: don’t create an enemies list,” Alexander will say, according to a copy of his remarks obtained by Roll Call. Describing the actions of Vice President Spiro Agnew and Nixon operative Chuck Colson, Alexander will say that he sees “symptoms of this same kind of animus developing in the Obama Administration.” Alexander will read off a list of examples he says support his contention, including: a reported effort by the White House to marginalize the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a supposed effort by the Health and Human Services Department to put a “gag order” on the insurer Humana, the White House move to take on Fox News, Obama’s repeated criticisms of banks and investment houses, his alleged “taking names” of “bondholders who resisted the GM and Chrysler bailouts,” and the president’s move to make insurers the boogeyman of the health care debate. Alexander will claim that the incipient White House “enemies” campaign extends even to Congress. He will suggest that Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) was the victim of a sort of payback, saying that after Kyl suggested the stimulus plan wasn’t working, the White house subsequently wrote the governor of Arizona that, “If you don’t want the money, we won’t send it.” He will say that after he and Sen. Bob Bennett (R) of Utah questioned the power of White House “czars,” they both were “called out” on the White House blog. “This behavior is typical of street brawls and political campaign consultants,” Alexander will say. “If the President and his top aides treat people with different views as enemies instead of listening to what they have to say, they’re likely to end up with a narrow view and a feeling that the whole world is out to get them. And as those of us who served in the Nixon White House know, that can get you into a lot of trouble.”--RollCall.com

* 10/21/09-- WASHINGTON (AP) - Top Senate Democrats intend to try to strip the health insurance industry of its exemption from federal antitrust laws, according to congressional officials, the latest evidence of a deepening struggle over President Barack Obama's effort to overhaul the health care industry. If enacted, the switch would mean greater federal regulation for an industry that recently has stepped up its criticism of portions of a health care bill moving toward the Senate floor.

* 10/21/09--"Twenty years ago this fall, the Iron Curtain was coming down in Europe. Across the Warsaw Pact, the jailers of the Communist prison states lost their nerve, and the cell walls crumbled. Matt Welch, the editor of Reason magazine, wonders why the anniversary is going all but unobserved: Why aren't we making more of the biggest mass liberation in history? Well, because to celebrate it would involve recognizing it as a victory over Communism. And, after the left's long march through the institutions of the west, most are not willing to do that. There's the bad totalitarianism (Nazism) and the good totalitarianism (Communism), whose apologists and, indeed, fetishists can still be found everywhere, even unto the White House." --columnist Mark Steyn

* 10/22/09--(AP)--WASHINGTON — The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for jobless benefits rose more than expected last week, after falling in five of the past six weeks, as employers remain reluctant to hire even with the economy showing signs of recovery. The Labor Department said Thursday that new jobless claims rose to a seasonally adjusted 531,000 last week, from an upwardly revised 520,000 the previous week. Wall Street economists had expected only a slight increase, according to Thomson Reuters. Economists closely watch initial claims, which are considered a gauge of layoffs and an indication of companies' willingness to hire new workers.

* 10/22/09--(AP)--WASHINGTON -- The nation's health-care tab would increase even more under legislation in the House, according to a government report released yesterday. The analysis by the Health and Human Services Department looks at the impact of the health-care bill drafted by House Democratic leaders. It concludes that total national health-care spending would increase by 2.1 percent from 2010-2019, mostly because newly insured people would seek medical care. The report raises questions about the Obama administration's claim that health-care legislation would "bend the cost curve" and slow a spending rate that many economists say is already unsustainable.

* 10/22/09--The decline in Barack Obama's popularity since July has been the steepest of any president at the same stage of his first term for more than 50 years. Gallup recorded an average daily approval rating of 53 per cent for Mr Obama for the third quarter of the year, a sharp drop from the 62 per cent he recorded from April. His current approval rating – hovering just above the level that would make re-election an uphill struggle – is close to the bottom for newly-elected president. Mr Obama entered the White House with a soaring 78 per cent approval rating.--Telegraph.co.uk

* 10/22/09--Washington (AP) - The Treasury Department is expected in the next few days to order companies that received huge government bailouts last year to slash the base salaries of their top executives by an average of 90 percent and cut their total compensation in half, according to a person familiar with the matter. The cuts apply to the 25 highest paid executives at the seven companies that received the most assistance, the person said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been announced.

* 10/23/09--Sensing that victory in the race for Virginia governor is slipping away, Democrats at the national level are laying the groundwork to blame a loss in a key swing state on a weak candidate who ran a poor campaign that failed to fully embrace President Obama until days before the election.--Washington Post

* 10/23/09--PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, initially dubbed Sarko the American for his pro-U.S. stance, is finding it much tougher to deal with Washington than he had anticipated and is recalibrating his policies accordingly. Stung by perceived snubs from U.S. President Barack Obama and encouraged by the growing importance of the G20, Sarkozy is increasingly reaching out to non-aligned states in an effort to extend France's international influence. He has forged especially close ties with Brazil, is seeking alliances in central Asia and is intensifying his activities in the Middle East, using multi-billion dollar military and civilian nuclear trade deals as his calling card. These initiatives are being played out against a discordant tone in Franco-American relations. This lack of harmony does not constitute a crisis, but is nonetheless raising eyebrows. "Sarkozy has clearly been thrown off course in his relations with America," said Didier Billion, a senior researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS). "America remains of primordial importance to him, but things are more complicated than they were a few months ago," he said. Following his election in 2007, Sarkozy swiftly established a close friendship with the-then U.S. president, George W. Bush, and buried the U.S.-French row over the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

* 10/23/09--Non-partisan local elections are the rule in North Carolina, so when Kinston voters overwhelming approved non-partisan elections for the town, the result should have been non-controversial. However, the Obama Justice Department overruled the change on the ground that equal rights for black voters cannot be achieved without the Democrat Party prominently displayed on a ballot. Justice's rationale was that white voters in Kinston will vote for blacks only if they are Democrats and that, therefore, the city cannot drop party affiliations for local elections because that would violate black voters' right to elect their "candidates of choice." This in a city where blacks account for more than 60 percent of registered voters and where no one can recall a Republican winning office. A Justice Department spokesman denied that the decision was intended to help the Democrat Party. However, the decision was made by the same Justice official (Voting Czar?) who ordered the dismissal of a voting rights case against members of the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia. So much for "post-partisanship."--Patriot Post

* 10/24/09--"[O]n Thursday, the administration tried to make [the MSM] complicit in an actual boycott of Fox. The Treasury Department made available Ken Feinberg, the executive pay czar, for interviews with the White House 'pool' news organizations -- except Fox. The other networks admirably refused, saying they would not interview Feinberg unless Fox was permitted to as well. The administration backed down. This was an important defeat because there's a principle at stake here. While government can and should debate and criticize opposition voices, the current White House goes beyond that. It wants to delegitimize any significant dissent. The objective is no secret. White House aides openly told Politico that they're engaged in a deliberate campaign to marginalize and ostracize recalcitrants, from Fox to health insurers to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. There's nothing illegal about such search-and-destroy tactics. Nor unconstitutional. But our politics are defined not just by limits of legality or constitutionality. We have norms, Madisonian norms. [James] Madison argued that the safety of a great republic, its defense against tyranny, requires the contest between factions or interests. His insight was to understand 'the greater security afforded by a greater variety of parties.' They would help guarantee liberty by checking and balancing and restraining each other -- and an otherwise imperious government. Factions should compete, but they should also recognize the legitimacy of other factions and, indeed, their necessity for a vigorous self-regulating democracy. Seeking to deliberately undermine, delegitimize and destroy is not Madisonian. It is Nixonian." --columnist Charles Krauthammer

* 10/25/09--It is not simply the Obama team’s silence in the face of the Iranian regime’s thuggish behavior. That would be bad enough. No, the Obama administration is cutting off funds to multiple groups that seek to help the democracy protesters and those who might undermine the regime the Obama team is so fixated on negotiating with for a 21st-century version of “peace in our time.” They run through the list of groups to which the Obama team is denying funds: Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, Freedom House, the International Republican Institute (”which for several years received State Department support to train Iranian reformers and connect them to like-minded activists in Europe and elsewhere”), and the Iran Democracy Fund (whose funding was diverted to the Near East Regional Democracy Fund, which “can use the money however — and in whatever Near Eastern country — it pleases”). Where are the green-bannered bloggers? Why don’t we hear from the human-rights organizations that routinely accuse the U.S. of being too miserly in its philanthropy? Seems as though they have all gone mute. And the Obama team? They are courting the mullahs and aren’t about to have the “engagement” broken up by upstarts pointing out all the flaws in the Obama team’s new-found negotiating soul mates. Obama would like the protesters to just go away. Cutting off the funds to democracy advocates and human-rights watchdogs is one step. And bestowing fawning attention in ongoing negotiations on those who stole an election and brutalized their own people is another. It is the policy of no change and no hope for the Iranian people.--Jennifer Rubin, Commentary Magazine

* 10/25/09--President Barack Obama has only been in office for just over nine months, but he's already hit the links as much as President Bush did in over two years. CBS' Mark Knoller — an unofficial documentarian and statistician of all things White House-related — wrote on his Twitter feed that, "Today - Obama ties Pres. Bush in the number of rounds of golf played in office: 24. Took Bush 2 yrs & 10 months." --Politico.com

* 10/26/09--(AP)--BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Two powerful suicide car bombs blew up outside the Justice Ministry and city government offices in downtown Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 147 people in the deadliest attack in more than two years. Iraqi leaders said the attacks aimed to disrupt the political progress in the lead-up to January's elections....the bombings underscored the precarious gains in the center of what is supposed to be one of Baghdad's safest areas.

* 10/26/09--President Obama, who found time to go on a 24-hour jaunt to Copenhagen on Oct. 2 to seek the 2016 Olympic Games for Chicago, apparently can't find the time for a 24-hour trip to Berlin on Nov. 9 for a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Well, we all have our priorities, and the president can't be everywhere at once, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will surely represent America ably in Berlin. Still, it seemed an odd decision to me -- until I went back and got the speech that candidate Obama delivered on July 24, 2008, to a crowd of 200,000 in the Tiergarten in Berlin. As I reread the text, it struck me that there would be an embarrassing contrast between what Obama said in Berlin 15 months ago and many policies he has been pursuing as president. --Michael Barone, Washington Examiner

* 10/26/09--Gallup offers us this interesting survey information: Conservatives continue to outnumber moderates and liberals in the American populace in 2009, confirming a finding that Gallup first noted in June. Forty percent of Americans describe their political views as conservative, 36% as moderate, and 20% as liberal. This marks a shift from 2005 through 2008, when moderates were tied with conservatives as the most prevalent group. What is more, independent voters are tilting Right. (”The 35% of independents describing their views as conservative in 2009 is up from 29% in 2008.”) And on a host of issues, voters seems to be adopting a more conservative perspective. For example, the percentage who say there is too much government regulation of business and industry has gone up from 38 percent to 45 percent in the past year, and the percentages of those who want less power for labor unions and fewer restrictions on gun sales have also increased. This raises a few serious issues for the White House and the Congress. First, as the Democratic-controlled government is racing to the Left, the country is moving Right. The latter may well be a backlash against the very policies pushed by the Obama team, and against those policies’ consequences (e.g., more debt, bigger government). And the decline in the approval rating of both the president and the Congress may well reflect the public’s aversion to their liberal agenda. Second, lawmakers can read the polls too, and at some point those who have been buffaloed into voting for liberal measures (e.g., cap-and-trade) for the sake of party unity will resist further entreaties to cast votes at odds with the voters’ tilt. Third, the notion that the country’s political center was shifted and reset in 2008 apparently was just wishful thinking. Remember that Obama ran a campaign drenched in moderate rhetoric and that he rejected key positions that he has now embraced (e.g., taxes on those making less than $250,000). This suggests he was able to win precisely because voters didn’t know what was really in store for them.--Jennifer Rubin, Commentary Magazine

* 10/27/09--Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday delivered President Obama and liberals a major endorsement by pledging his support for a government-run health-insurance program. Reid (D-Nevada) said the public option will be included in the final health-care reform bill to be voted on by the Democratic-led Senate, reviving a proposal that appeared on life support a few months ago. Under the compromise bill, Reid said states would have the right to "opt out" of participating in a public health-insurance program. --NY Post

* 10/27/09--JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- President Obama pledged yesterday not to "rush the solemn decision" to send more troops to Afghanistan as he weighs military options on what to do next in the troubled war. "I won't risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary," Obama told service people at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. He promised a "clear mission" with defined goals and the equipment needed to get the job done. "I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way," he told the troops. --NY Post

* 10/27/09--(AP)--KABUL – Eight American troops were killed in two separate insurgent attacks Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, making October the deadliest month of the war for U.S. forces since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban. In one of the insurgent assaults, seven Americans were killed while patrolling in armored vehicles, U.S. forces spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Vician said. He said an Afghan civilian died in the same attack. The eighth American was killed in a separate attack elsewhere in the south, also while patrolling in a military vehicle, he said. The military issued a statement saying the deaths occurred during "multiple, complex" bomb strikes. It said several troops were wounded and evacuated to a nearby medical facility, but gave no other details.

* 10/27/09--President Obama decided to reduce the number of West Coast interceptors from 40 to 30, which would limit the capability to take out incoming ICBMs, because several interceptors would be fired at each missile to ensure a kill. That means there's a gap in our defenses against an Iranian ICBM strike until the land-based SM-3s are operational, which, by the way, will almost certainly face funding and engineering-development challenges. --Peter Brookes, NY Post Op/Ed

* 10/27/09--Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the President, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent? Did you think that another "czar" would be talking about restricting talk radio? That there would be plans afloat to subsidize newspapers-- that is, to create a situation where some newspapers' survival would depend on the government liking what they publish? Did you imagine that anyone would even be talking about having a panel of so-called "experts" deciding who could and could not get life-saving medical treatments? Scary as that is from a medical standpoint, it is also chilling from the standpoint of freedom. If you have a mother who needs a heart operation or a child with some dire medical condition, how free would you feel to speak out against an administration that has the power to make life and death decisions about your loved ones? Does any of this sound like America? How about a federal agency giving school children material to enlist them on the side of the president? Merely being assigned to sing his praises in class is apparently not enough. How much of America would be left if the federal government continued on this path? President Obama has already floated the idea of a national police force, something we have done without for more than two centuries. We already have local police forces all across the country and military forces for national defense, as well as the FBI for federal crimes and the National Guard for local emergencies. What would be the role of a national police force created by Barack Obama, with all its leaders appointed by him? It would seem more like the brown shirts of dictators than like anything American. How far the President will go depends of course on how much resistance he meets. But the direction in which he is trying to go tells us more than all his rhetoric or media spin. Barack Obama has not only said that he is out to "change the United States of America," the people he has been associated with for years have expressed in words and deeds their hostility to the values, the principles and the people of this country. Jeremiah Wright said it with words: "God damn America!" Bill Ayers said it with bombs that he planted. Community activist goons have said it with their contempt for the rights of other people. Among the people appointed as czars by President Obama have been people who have praised enemy dictators like Mao, who have seen the public schools as places to promote sexual practices contrary to the values of most Americans, to a captive audience of children. Those who say that the Obama administration should have investigated those people more thoroughly before appointing them are missing the point completely. Why should we assume that Barack Obama didn't know what such people were like, when he has been associating with precisely these kinds of people for decades before he reached the White House? Nothing is more consistent with his lifelong patterns than putting such people in government-- people who reject American values, resent Americans in general and successful Americans in particular, as well as resenting America's influence in the world. Any miscalculation on his part would be in not thinking that others would discover what these stealth appointees were like. Had it not been for the Fox News Channel, these stealth appointees might have remained unexposed for what they are. Fox News is now high on the administration's enemies list. Nothing so epitomizes President Obama's own contempt for American values and traditions like trying to ram two bills through Congress in his first year-- each bill more than a thousand pages long-- too fast for either of them to be read, much less discussed. That he succeeded only the first time says that some people are starting to wake up. Whether enough people will wake up in time to keep America from being dismantled, piece by piece, is another question-- and the biggest question for this generation. --Thomas Sowell, TownHall.com

* 10/27/09--"[Democrats] are trying on every front to increase the role of government." --Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

--This from a man whose fingerprints were all over the drive to force mortgage lenders to grant home loans to fiscally risky candidates in order to increase minority home ownership. The end result of that move was, of course, the subprime mortgage meltdown and the resulting economic mess we're mired in today. Frank, chairman of the House Banking Committee, is now one of the principal architects of sweeping regulatory changes to the financial services industry. These changes are meant to prevent the rampant speculation that caused the credit crisis; in reality they're more likely to strangle our free market system and send wealth-creating capital investment overseas. What Frank said is all too true: Democrats aim to expand government in every area, period.--Patriot Post

* 10/28/09--During his first nine months in office, President Obama has quietly rewarded scores of top Democratic donors with VIP access to the White House, private briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings. High-dollar fundraisers have been promised access to senior White House officials in exchange for pledges to donate $30,400 personally or to bundle $300,000 in contributions ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, according to internal Democratic National Committee documents obtained by The Washington Times. One top donor described in an interview with The Times being given a birthday visit to the Oval Office. Another was allowed use of a White House-complex bowling alley for his family. Bundlers closest to the president were invited to watch a movie in the red-walled theater in the basement of the presidential mansion. Mr. Obama invited his top New York bundler, UBS Americas CEO Robert Wolf, to golf with him during the president's Martha's Vineyard vacation in August. At least 39 donors and fundraisers also were treated to a lavish White House reception on St. Patrick's Day, where the fountains on the North and South Lawns were dyed green, photos and video reviewed by The Times and CBS News also show. --Washington Times

* 10/28/09--One of the 20 finalists in health care video contest run by Barack Obama’s campaign arm features a mural of an America flag splattered with health care graffiti until it’s covered completely by black paint. In the video--which is accompanied by the sound of a heart monitor pumping and then flat-lining – words such as “pre-existing conditions,” “homeless” and “death panel” ultimately obliterate the flag, which reappears on screen seconds later with the words “Health Will Bring Our Country Back to Life” on the blue field where the 50 stars usually are. According to the Organizing for American Web site, the 20 finalists in the “Health Reform Video Challenge” were chosen by a panel of “qualified” Democratic National Committee “employee judges.” A contestant whose video didn’t make the final-20 cut complains that a video “defacing the flag” won’t do much to help President Barack Obama or the Democrats sell health care reform. “They should never pick that,” said the contestant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It makes the Democrats look really, really bad.”--Politico.com

* 10/29/09--President Obama and members of Congress told federal agencies earlier this year to avoid awarding funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to contractors with troubled histories of work for the federal government. But that isn't happening at numerous agencies, a Washington Post analysis shows. So far, 33 federal departments and agencies have awarded more than $1.2 billion in stimulus contracts to at least 30 companies that are ranked by one watchdog group as among the most egregious offenders of state and federal laws. Government records show that as a group, these contractors have sold defective products, manufactured safety tests, submitted false travel claims and padded contracts with fraudulent fees. --Washington Post

* 10/30/09--FOR years, Hamid Karzai's political foes have castigated him as "the American puppet." Now, as Afghans prepare to vote in the second round of their presidential election next week, many see Karzai as the man that the Obama administration wants to bring down. Kabul is full of rumors that Washington is working hard to ensure a "convincing victory" for Karzai's rival, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah Zamariani, the former foreign minister. "The Obama administration always saw Karzai as a Bush leftover and was looking for an opportunity to jettison him," says a French diplomat in Kabul. "Vice President Joseph Biden is especially active in that direction." The new US administration has not tried to hide its coolness, not to say hostility. It refused to arrange a state visit for Karzai, allowing him to come to Washington only on a working visit in tandem with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zarardi. On visits to Kabul, administration officials, including Biden and special emissary Richard Holbrooke, made it clear that the "special relationship" forged under President George W. Bush has ended....Sensing the Obama administration's hostility, Karzai has tried to secure support from other foreign powers, notably Iran and India. The men he has chosen as vice-presidential running mates are known as favorites of Tehran and New Delhi. --Amir Taheri, NY Post

* 10/30/09--DESPITE all the Obama administration's chin- rubbing and hand- wringing about how to proceed in Afghanistan, the president hasn't been to the war-torn country since entering the White House. Actually, it's worse: He hasn't been to Afghanistan in almost 15 months -- since he made a quick two-day visit in July 2008, as a senator and presidential candidate. Think about it: If you were involved in a critical issue overseas -- such as a big business deal or the health of a loved one -- wouldn't you go and visit, so that you'd have the benefit of seeing things firsthand before making an important decision? --Peter Brookes, Heritage Foundation

* 10/30/09--WASHINGTON -- At long last, we have the Great Compromise. Nancy Pelosi and Democrats, hellbent on controlling your health care, say they have finally found the magic bill that will fix the system, save us all money, and solve all these political problems we have seen with Americans taking to the streets refusing to trust the federal government to run a massive new program. Democrats say the bill will cost about $900 billion and will be paid for at the end of the first 10 years. That's because the government will begin collecting all the new taxes, levies and fees right away, but the most expensive parts of the bill -- subsidies for buying health insurance and the expansion of Medicaid -- don't kick in until 2013. That's like getting cash back on a new car, telling everybody it was free and pretending you won't have to make payments once they come due. At nearly 2,000 pages, this latest bill uses the word "shall" 3,425 times. In other words, it's just another massive bill where the feds tell people what to do on every page. Pelosi says much of her dreamy legislation will be paid for with $500 billion in savings. Besides being some seriously faithful speculation, it tells you something about the feds' efforts thus far to bring sanity to the health-care industry. That's because two bloated and corrupted government-funded "public options" already dominate the medical industry -- Medicare and Medicaid. Today, Medicare sits on the ledge of bankruptcy, while Medicaid is pushing California and many other states to the brink of insolvency. --Charles Hurt, NY Post

----"Three things about Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi's health-care bill are already clear: It will raise the cost of Americans' health-insurance premiums; it will kill jobs with tax hikes and new mandates, and it will cut seniors' Medicare benefits. The fact that it weighs in at nearly 2,000 pages -- more than 620 pages longer than the government takeover of healthcare Hillary Clinton proposed in 1993 -- is as good an indication as any of just how costly and unsustainable Speaker Pelosi's proposal is."-- House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on the health- care bill released yesterday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)

* 10/30/09--WASHINGTON -- It's alive. The Medicare end-of-life planning provision that 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said was tantamount to "death panels" for seniors is staying in the latest Democratic health care bill unveiled Thursday. The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and painful decisions families face when a loved one is approaching death.--Fox News

* 10/30/09--(AP)--Stocks tumbled Friday as a drop in consumer spending fanned worries that the economic recovery won't be sustainable. Major stock indexes tumbled more than 2 percent, including the Dow Jones industrials, which gave back all of a 200-point gain Thursday. Banks as well as energy and materials companies posted the biggest losses.

* 10/30/09--The health care bill recently unveiled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi is over 1,900 pages for a reason. It is much easier to dispense goodies to favored interest groups if they are surrounded by a lot of legislative legalese. For example, check out this juicy morsel to the trial lawyers (page 1431-1433 of the bill): Section 2531, entitled “Medical Liability Alternatives,” establishes an incentive program for states to adopt and implement alternatives to medical liability litigation. [But]…… a state is not eligible for the incentive payments if that state puts a law on the books that limits attorneys’ fees or imposes caps on damages.--BigGovernment.com

* 10/31/09--WASHINGTON --- President Obama has been rolling out the red carpet at the White House during his first term -- playing host to a who's who of business-world bigs and A-list celebs including George Clooney and Oprah Winfrey, newly released records reveal....The administration posted the records on its Web site yesterday, two days after a report revealed that some of Obama's top financial backers had gotten White House tours and even use of a bowling alley in the White House compound....Captains of industry -- some of whom were aided by the financial bailout -- also got special access. Billionaire George Soros, who bankrolls a variety of liberal causes, and Microsoft honcho Bill Gates also made appearances....Lobbyists, barred by Obama from donating to his campaign or the Democratic National Committee, were also on the list, including Center for American Progress honcho John Podesta. --NY Post

* 10/31/09--WASHINGTON -- The White House claimed yesterday that the stimulus had saved or created 640,239 jobs, including 28,526 in New York City -- although critics scoffed at the numbers as fantasy. The Obama administration said the jobs resulted from the first $160 billion that went out the door by Sept. 30 as part of the $787 billion stimulus package. When counting "indirect" jobs, or those created when contractors buy equipment or spend money, the White House put the total at 1 million jobs. Republicans who opposed the package said the stats were "phony." "The president and his economic team promised the 'stimulus' would create jobs 'immediately' and unemployment would stay below 8 percent," House Minority Leader John Boehner said. "But America has lost more than 3 million jobs since then, and the unemployment rate is nearing double digits." --NY Post